You are sitting in your home on a cozy winter night. There is a big snowstorm outside, but you have a fire going in the fireplace to keep you warm while you bundle up on the couch with a blanket. The last thing missing is a nice Christmas movie on the TV to help get you in the mood for the festive season. But then that begs the question; which Christmas movie should you watch?
A common question asked among many of the population as the season approaches, finding the perfect Christmas movie to watch is a surprisingly difficult question for most. Now of course, there are the people who binge Christmas movies all month, but there are some who just do not have the time during the season, and may only have enough time for just one. They will likely want to watch the best one they can, but which one IS the best? That is what I am going to try to determine today, along with my personal opinion on my favorite Christmas movie.
For the purpose of this article, I have narrowed it down to five movies, with the conditions of them being ranked very high on several lists I looked at, (Rottentomatoes.com, Variety.com, and Ew.com) as well as the conditions I have actually seen the movies, so I can fairly rank them. With that being said, the first movie to be looked at is “Nightmare Before Christmas,” which ranks 95% on Rotten Tomatoes and thirteen on Variety’s Hundred Best Christmas Movies list. The plot follows the king of Halloween becoming bored of Halloween, and trying to take over Christmas. It was released in 1993 produced by Disney and directed by Tim Burton. Originally, the film only made around $50 million dollars on a $24 million budget according to Rottentomatoes.com, which is nothing to scoff at, but it was nowhere near as impressive as the other movies Disney was putting out at the time, but the film quickly became a cult classic and would grow to make an impressive $102 million dollars on re-releases of the film. Having grown up with this film since my mom is a big fan of the film, I am a little biased, but I believe this film is very good and deserves the praise it has gotten over the years. For the first movie we go over, I would say this is already a strong contender for the best movie.
The next movie is “A Christmas Story” released in 1983 with an 89% on Rotten Tomatoes and grossed $19 million dollars on a $4 million dollar budget. Directed by Bob Clark, the film follows a child wishing for a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas. That is the entire plot. It is just the kid going around asking various people for the gun, and he is given the same answer each time; “You’ll shoot your eye out!” This movie is atrocious, there is no way around it. I do not understand how people consider this movie a classic. It is boring, and the main character is one of the most obnoxious characters I have observed in film yet. It is crazy. Spoilers for the ending, but the kid ends up getting the gun for Christmas, and you know what happens? He shoots his eye out! Dude! If you had just listened to literally everybody, you would be fine! Why did his parents even get him the gun in the first place?! He was a spoiled brat the whole movie and was rewarded with the thing he wanted for acting like that! Good parenting, mom! Bottom of the list, this movie stinks.
Next up is the classic “Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer” released in 1963 with a 95% on Rotten Tomatoes. The film follows the titular rednosed reindeer being outcast from all of the reindeer games but eventually finds his purpose among the reindeer when he is the only one capable of lighting up the night for Santa to deliver his presents. The film is as straightforward as it gets for young children, and that is not a bad thing. Christmas is mainly for the kids, so giving them an easy film to watch for the holidays is definitely a huge plus with this film’s ranking. The film can be a little boring for older people, but overall the film is a nice way to get kids in the spirit.
Next is another classic, “ A Charlie Brown Christmas” released in 1965 with an 86% on Rotten Tomatoes. The film follows Charlie Brown as he finds himself down in the dumps during the festive season, and from the advice of his friend, decides it would help if he directed the Christmas play that year. This is another simple straightforward movie, but it helps a lot. The film is full of so much charm. Peanuts as a brand has always been beloved and accessible to everyone of all ages, so having this timeless classic as a yearly rewatch for everyone is a wonderful thing.
The final movie we are looking at is a spin on a classic tale. Everyone knows the tale of “A Christmas Carol,” but what if Muppets were there? Thus that gives us “A Muppets Christmas Carol” released in 1992 with an 82% on Rotten Tomatoes. The film follows the same plot as “A Christmas Carol,” with the majority of the characters replaced with Muppets and many songs added into the mix. The film grossed $27.2 million dollars and is beloved by many fans to this day. The Muppets themselves being an iconic brand in themselves, adding them to an already classic story makes this an instant fan favorite.
And with that, our five films have been looked through. Again, this is purely based on the highest-rated ones I have seen. There were a good few higher-ups that I have never seen, or have not seen in a long time, so keep that in mind. With all of that said though, which one of these movies IS the best? I suppose the best way we can decide this is to look at which film had the most cultural impact. Charlie Brown and Muppets are both sadly disqualified, as they come from already established and popular franchises, and while these may be their most popular films, we can not say for certain these caused success. Next is “A Christmas Story,” which, while popular, no one really talks about other than the BB gun featured in the film. Lastly, we have “Nightmare Before Christmas” and “Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer.” These are the two films that likely have had the biggest triumph since they were both original movies not based on something beforehand that is still widely talked about and have several pieces of merchandise made each year. Between these two I would have to say that “Nightmare Before Christmas” takes the win. Like I stated earlier, Rudolph can be a bit boring for older generations, but Nightmare still has a massively popular fanbase, including many adults, using my mom as an example, or the fact merchandise of this film is very common. So, in conclusion, it seems that we have our winner. “Nightmare Before Christmas” is the best Christmas movie (that I have seen.)
