The 10 best Classic Christmas Movies you have to know.
THE 8 BEST CHRISTMAS MOVIES you will want to watch with your Dog over and over again
The Christmas Tree is twinkling, Starbucks cup changed their outfit to red and we’re in the middle of our month long Christmas Shopping Marathon, all these are international signs for: Time for Christmas movies all day, every day. Perfect time for some Holiday Movie Assessment. Let me introduce you to the 10 most fabulous Christmas movies of all time, in my family, at least.
Of course, this is a Dog blog, you are wondering, where are the dog Christmas movies. I strongly believe that explicit dog movies are emotionally manipulative curses with the only aim to torture your mind and soul. Dog movies touch me in the most vulnerable place of empathy and love, and I will not have it. Enough tears have been shed, I wept enough like a baby throughout the years of dog movies draining the core of my soul. I am not exaggerating!
So here are my top Christmas movies, hoping to inspire you to watch them with your dog, a cup of tea in one hand and the other petting your doggy lovingly. However, of course, I will also rate the Dog-Factor for each movie, we’re a dog blog after all, aren’t we.
A Muppets Family Christmas
This is my personal favorite. While this 80’s classic served as my portal to the American world during my childhood in Europe (on home recorded VHS then), I still watch the Muppet’s Family Classic on YouTube on repeat from Black Friday (this year even earlier) to Christmas Day every year.
Don’t mistake this masterpiece with the Muppets Christmas Carol with Michael Cain, from 1992, though!
In this 1987 TV movie, the whole Muppets gang, Kermit and his nephew included, are led by Fozzy Bear to make a surprise visit to his mother’s farmhouse to spend Christmas with her. Mrs. Bear, however, rented out her place to a human with his dog and was planning to go to Malibu for the holidays. Disaster awaits. Not only is the entire Muppets crew there with disaster master Animal screaming into the Telephone: “Peace on earth, gimme presents”, but also, the whole Sesame Street Family is en route to the tiny farmhouse. The Swedish chef tries to lure Big Bird into the oven and Statler and Waldorf turn up as old buddies of Mrs. Bear. Chaos in the making. All this while, Miss Piggy is trying to make her way from a fancy photo shoot through a terrible blizzard to meet with her beloved “mon amour” Kermit under the mistle toe.
In my eyes, no other movie is able to grasp the holiday sentiment nor the heartwarming feeling as much as this timeless classic. Children will love the 45 minutes filled with fabulous songs to sing along to, while the grown-ups can enjoy the clever jokes with all their favorite characters from Kermit and his Muppet Gang, the Sesame Street crew – even the Fraggle Rock guys are on Board! Jim Henson at his best.
Unfortunately, license issues deriving from splitting the Jim Henson Empire after his death lead to this movie not being shown on TV, streaming or anywhere else anymore. Luckily, I still have a VHS I found at Goodwill once should one day even the YouTube videos vanish...Watch the movie on youtube (link below)
Dog Factor:
Fuzzy Bear’s Mom loves “Canine Humor” and good ol’ Max is happy to play on the out-of-tune piano giving us a little smile. Also, Doc’s Dog Sprocket from Fraggle Rock will make you laugh more than once.
A Muppets Family Christmas
1987, USA/Canada
52 Minutes
Directed by: Peter Harris
Starring: Gerry Parkes, Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Jerry Nelson
2. National Lampoons Christmas Vacation
You know nothing if you haven’t seen this cinematic masterpiece from 1989. Chevy Chase taught us the essential rules you need to know for any real holiday season:
Having your Egg Nogg out of Moose glasses is a must.
Bigger, brighter, awesome lights.
Only the biggest tree is the right tree
Family is everything
If the Shitter’s full, It’s full! (kinda my 2020 motto)
Dog Factor Learnings:
Keep the dog away from the trash
Cousin Eddy’s dog Snots will remind us very much of how our little fluffers will hunt after a squirrel in that situation. It will make us hope we never bring a squirrel in on a tree.
Be aware that a poor little fluffy kitty does die in this film.
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
1989, USA
97 Minutes
Directed by: Jeremiah S. Chechik
Starring: Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo, Randy Quaid, Juliette Lewis, Johnny Galecki
3. How the Grinch stole Christmas
He’s a mean one, Mister Grinch… Though there have been countless new versions, the classic 1966 cartoon of Dr. Seuss’ children’s rhyme will always be in my heart (two sizes too small or not). The original – the legend- the real thing.
Missy channeling her inner Max..
Dog Factor: Someone with a dog as cute as Max, apparently fed and well taken care of can’t be a bad person…Max was the dead giveaway for a happy ending right from the get-go.
Also, Max is proof that your dog will ALWAYS love you! His googly eyes being excited about everything the Grinch does, is so pure.
Special movie Challenge: Recreate Max’ Reindeer costume for extra fun while watching.
How The Grinch Stole Christmas
1966, USA
25 Minutes
Directed by: Chuck Jones
Narrated by: Boris Karloff
4. Scrooged
Charles Dicken’s would be proud to see how Bill Murray as Francis Xavier Cross is a brilliant Christmas miser, trying to staple antlers to the heads of mice for the big live TV production he is putting together. Murray portraits probably the best Scrooge in film history, no exaggeration! Yet another Christmas Classic that makes me think: The 80’s might have been the best Christmas decade.
Dog Factor: Bill Murray’s character Frank stars in a children’s show dressed in a dog costume…
Also, we could say the first reference to anything resembling Dog TV in popular culture was made in the scene where the big network boss discusses the future of TV and asks Frank (Murray) to work on a concept for entertaining dogs and cats on a TV program aligning with Japanese research and catering to the growing market of billions of spent on pets.
Scrooged
1988, USA
97 Minutes
Directed by: Richard Donner
Starring: Bill Murray, Karen Allen, John Forsythe, Bobcar Goldthwait, Carol Kane
5. Die Hard I-III
Legendary bad-ass John McClane in Nakatomi Tower against the ultimate German bad-guy Hans Gruber. The most epic show down in movie history…well Ok, at least in 80’s movie history.
John McClane is such a magnificent holiday genius that even when the movie plots are set in summer in a heat-wave-struck New York City, we still regard him as our Christmas angel. No-one can bring more Christmas spirit to you than a roughed-up Bruce Willis in a dirty, sweaty and bloody white tank top, pierced with shot wounds and glass stuck in his feet or with nickels in his hands trying to find out who the 21st president was. Ho-Ho-Ho, McClane!
Dog Factor: No need for dogs, John McClane is awesome even without a pupper. Not many men can say that of themselves!
Die Hard
1988, USA
132 Minutes
Directed by:John McTiernan
Starring: Bruce Willis, Allan Rickman, Bonnie Bedelia
Die Hard 2
1990, USA
124 Minutes
Directed by: Renny Harlin
Starring: Bruce Willis, Bonnie Bedelia, William Atherton
Die Hard with a Vengeance
1995, USA
128 Minutes
Directed by: John McTiernan
Starring: Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, Jeremy Irons,
6. The Long Kiss Goodnight
Geena Davis as Samantha suffers from amnesia and comes to realize that she is actually a tough cookie – a real killing machine. At the same time old gangster buddies find out she is in deed not dead and are on the hunt to finish the job. This is pre-Kill Bill (Tarantino) and when this movie first came out in 1996, Davis was top! Though the story line might not be the most convincing and we have certainly watched better movies, this film is a personal must-see in my family (my mom likes the thrills of blood and justice served violently), and so Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without this “The Bourne Identity” meets “Kill Bill” killing spree.
The Long Kiss Goodnight
1996, USA
129 Minutes
Directed by: Renny Harlin
Starring: Geena Davis, Samuel L. Jackson
7. Elf
Unfortunately, I was introduced to this movie only later on in life. My childhood could have been so much happier already a lot sooner.
Buddy (Will Ferrell) accidently ends up in Santa’s sack when he is a baby and grows up in the North Pole as one of the elves. When his gigantic-like size, compared to the other elves, make it increasingly more difficult to keep up with his elf tasks, he finds out that his real human father is on the naughty list due to his selfishness. He decides to help his father regain the Christmas spirit and travels to the human world, where life isn’t easy for an elf. This Scrooge story pimped with more laughter and a fun Will Ferrell will make this season a holly-jolly Christmas.
Elf
2003, USA
97 Minutes
Directed by: Jon Favreau
Starring: Will Ferrell, James Caan, Zooey Deschanel, Mary Steenburgen
8. Home Alone
Who else felt inspired when they first watched Home Alone? I was so empowered, I believed I could take on any intruder if I had to, my confidence was at its peak!
This movie is a must-see. The Christmas music, the tacky 80’s decorations (this film came out in 1990) and the heart-warming Christmas spirit is what makes this blockbuster an evergreen of the holiday genre.
Dog factor: While Buzz’ Girlfriend might be the only '“Woof” in Home Alone, there are big discussions online: Was there a dog when there was a dog door? (famous BB gun scene!). Yes, in fact, the McCallister’s have a dog but they put him in the kennel (boarding) before the movie starts. Ultimate OG Bad Mom Kate McCallister mentions this on the phone at the very start of the movie.
Too bad, Kevin and a dog fighting the wet bandits together would have been pretty cool too…
Home Alone
1990, USA
103 Minutes
Directed by: Chris Columbus
Starring: Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern
9. Mickey’s Christmas Carol
This is one of those movies that makes my feel all warm and fuzzy inside. The Christmas Carol reenacted by Mickey and the gang. Beautiful! The original broadcast, and the one I grew up with (like No. 1 Muppet’s Family Christmas, this was on the same home recorded VHS), featured the 25 minute short film after the cartoons Donald's Snow Fight (1942), Pluto's Christmas Tree (1952), each a part of my classic Christmas traditions.
Stream now on Disney Plus!
Dog Factor: Well, for one we have OG dog Pluto and anthropomorphic Goofy as Marley’s ghost. What more is there to say?
Mickey’s Christmas Carol
1983, USA
26 Minutes
Directed by: Burny Mattinson
Starring: Mickey Mouse, Uncle Scrooge, Goofy, etc :-) Alan Young, Wayne Allwine
10. Other mention worthy movies:
Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer (1964)
Frosty the Snowman (1969)
A Charlie Brown Christmas, (1965) of course and
Miracle on 34th Street, the ‘47 original.
Little Lord Fauntleroy (1980)
While these are my all-time favorites, every family has their own holiday gems to watch for Christmas. Did I miss anything that should not be forgotten? I’m happy about any inspiration for movies from the last two decades, which I realize are not covered at all on my list. Drop me a comment so I can review and catch up on some Christmas movies this season!