Today marks the first day of my Christmas Movie Marathon! Yes, December is here, and it is probably my favorite month of them all! So, this year, I'm celebrating that fact by gorging myself on Christmas movies, and writing about them all here. Besides being really fun for me, I want to try to get something out of it… Some over-arching theme of the season that's not too sentimental (but it's ME we're talking about) or cliché.
I've always felt like there was some sort of magic in the last few months of the year, particularly December: Christmas lights go up, the music is happy and old-fashioned (and literally never stops playing), all of my old high school friends come back into town and I always have my birthday/Christmas party at my parent house, and people just feel better because the opportunity to start over at New Year's is so close. A lot of these small happinesses have little to do with "Christmas spirit" or Santa Claus, but they are procured with conscious effort. As I grew up and moved out, Santa became less real and money became the new symbol of the holiday season. I stressed over it, my parents started sharing their stress over it, and my family was kind of split for the holidays for the first time ever when my sister was married. That was a weird transition, but I think all that helped me figure out what I need for Christmas to be Christmas.I don't really know what exactly I'll have to report after watching each movie, but I guess we can figure it out together. With this project I just want to get a sense of what Christmas can mean to people, what movies tell us that it should mean, and maybe how these things can overall just help us be better.
I chose some of my favorite Christmas movies for this challenge, and also some of my favorite movies in general that take place in the winter months.
Movie Line-Up—
1. Elf
2. The Nightmare Before Christmas*
3. The Family Stone
4. Meet Me In St. Louis
5. I'll Be Home For Christmas*
6. Miracle on 34th Street (1955)*
7. The Polar Express*
8. To Grandmother's House We Go
9. The Ultimate Christmas Present
10. White Christmas* [bonus post]
11. Home Alone
12. Little Women
13. Scrooged
14. Diehard
15. The Shop Around The Corner
16. You've Got Mail
17. Jingle All The Way*
18. Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
19. The Grinch
20. While You Were Sleeping
21. Love Actually*
22. The Year Without a Santa Claus
23. Christmas Vacation*
24. The Santa Clause
25. A Christmas Story
26. It's a Wonderful Life
27. When Harry Met Sally
28. Four Christmases/Gremlins
29. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
30. The Holiday
31. New Year's Eve
(*These movies are on Netflix)
Thanks for being with me on this, and Happy December!
Love, Stephanie
No comments:
Post a Comment