My 24 Days of Christmas

My sister knows movies. She knows stars of movies, she knows lines from movies, she knows music from movies. Besides making it really hard to stump her when playing Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, her love of movies makes her a great resource when deciding whether or not to see a movie. It helps that she knows my tastes and we both have similar opinions, but she's my Ebert.

So yesterday, when she asked me to provide her with a Countdown to Christmas movie list, I was very honored. She knows that Spike and I like to watch a lot of holiday movies and TV specials leading up to December 25th, so she thought we would be able to help out. Here's the countdown:

Dec. 1 - Four Christmases - get the worst out of the way first. Even though it's on my list, it isn't so much a Christmas movie as a way for Vince Vaughn to pretend he's funny and show how short Reese Witherspoon is.
Dec. 2 - Holiday Inn - ignore the blackface. The fact that it's about all of the holidays keeps it from being too much Christmas in early December.
Dec. 3 - Sleepless in Seattle - another one that's not really Christmasy, but it does start at Christmas..... horses, horses, horses.
Dec. 4 - Christmas in Connecticut - why not keep with the location theme?
Dec. 5 - Polar Express - a Tom Hanks sandwich for Christmas in Connecticut. Just ignore how creepy his animated face looks.
Dec. 6 - Die Hard - get that sugary sweet taste out of your mouth with some John McClane and Hans Gruber.
Dec. 7 - Bridget Jones Diary - another "Christmas" movie that I'm counting because it starts at Christmas. I would use any excuse to watch this movie.
Dec. 8 - Emmett Otter's Jug-Band Christmas - watch the bloopers on YouTube after!
Dec. 9 - Scrooged - Spike's pick... it's the same old story, but Bill Murray just cracks me up.
Dec. 10 - How the Grinch Stole Christmas - Damn you, Cindy Lou Who! For some reason I find the Whos annoying too. I'm not rooting for the Grinch or anything, but his dog sure is cute.
Dec. 11 - National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation - Another of Spike's picks... I learned "Merry Christmas" in Hawaiian thanks to this movie.
Dec. 12 - The Berenstain Bears Christmas Tree - do you have your tree yet? Let the Bears show you how it's done!
Dec. 13 - Fred Clause - what is it with Vince Vaughn and Christmas movies?
Dec. 14 - The Holiday - oh Cameron Diaz, why can't you be more like Kate? Or even more like Mr. NapkinHead.
Dec. 15 - Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer - that abominable snow man still scares the bejeezus out of me, but it's not Christmas without "I'm cute, I'm cute... she said I'm cuuute!"
Dec. 16 - Home Alone - The final scene with the snow falling and Macaulay looking out the window at Old Man Marley reuniting with his son gets me every time.
Dec. 17 - Shrek the Halls - the graphics look so good on our TV. I want to be an ogre!
Dec. 18 - White Christmas - you can fast forward through all the crazy dance numbers.... I won't tell.
Dec. 19 - Elf - smiling is my favorite.
Dec. 20 - Prep and Landing - I think a new one is coming out this year, so we might have to add that to the list.
Dec. 21 - A Christmas Story - even though the marathon will be on in a few days, you can watch it now with no commercials.
Dec. 22 - Love Actually - did Alan Rickman cheat or not??? Maybe I'll find out this year or forget that I care once I'm singing along with Mariah.
Dec. 23 - A Charlie Brown Christmas - the best of the best.... reverts me to childhood and makes me unreasonably happy.
Dec. 24 - The Muppet Christmas Carol - so much love!

I doubt we'll actually watch all of these, and I'm still not sure about the order, but some of them are must-watches every year. I purposely left off "It's A Wonderful Life" and "Miracle on 34th Street" because I don't like them. So there. What do you think of the list?

Happy December and Happy Watching!