Blogmas 12 – My Top 10 Christmas Movies

Welcome back to Blogmas. Have you read my 10 Things I Love About Christmas yet? This post is about my favourite Christmas films. Of course, there are more than ten favourites but I would be here forever if I started listing them all. So I’ve whittled it down to just ten – and that was very hard to do!

This is a film we watch every year as a family. It’s has all the ingredients you need for a good Christmas film – there’s magic, comedy and romance. Will Ferrell has always been a favourite. Step Brothers is one of the funniest films ever and both of the Daddy’s Home films are pretty good too.

Elf has a sweet message – spreading Christmas cheer in a city (New York) full of non-believers. It’s one of those warm and fuzzy films you can watch with all generations of a family, so it’s definitely made my list.This is one of my favourite stories of all time. I read it every year since the age of seven all the way up to fifteen or so. The BBC did a TV series back in 1988, and I loved it. I would wait for each episode and record it on VHS. The tape got lost over time and when I met Sukh, I told him how much I loved the show.

And so one Christmas, he bought it for me on DVD. It’s one of my most treasured Christmas gifts ever. When the 2005 film released, there was no doubt I would be watching it at the cinema. And I have watched it every year since, during the holidays.

It’s such a magical adventure – with wardrobes and witches, talking animals and snow and a battle between good versus evil.How could this not have made my list? It’s a Christmas classic now and makes it on to our screen every year. We watch both number one and the sequel ‘Lost In New York’. It’s fun, family-friendly and festive. What’s not to like?

Macaulay Culkin’s character is cheeky, clever and courageous all at the same time. He kind of reminds me of Shivam! My parents have always loved Home Alone too and look forward to watching Kevin defend his home from the comical bandits every year.This is the first animation in my Top 10. It’s a lovely film about Arthur, the clumsy son of Santa who has to save the day when he discovers one little girl didn’t get her present. It’s humorous and heart-warming, and not a Christmas has gone by since 2011 where we haven’t watched this as a family.

There are some familiar voices playing the characters, which makes it more endearing. James McEvoy lends his voice to Arthur, Jim Broadbent plays Santa and Sanjeev Bhaskar is the voice of one of the lead elves. This is a must-watch if you have young kids.This is one of my childhood favourites. When I was growing up, there were only four TV channels and we didn’t have the luxury of being able to choose from hundreds of films on demand.

So we would have to wait until a film was on TV and record it if we wanted to watch it again and again. My sisters and I would buy a TV guide every year and circle all the films and programmes we wanted to watch.

Mary Poppins is magical (literally!). It’s a film you can watch over and over again. How can you resist singing along to ‘A Spoonful of Sugar’ or ‘Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! ’? The tea party on the ceiling is my favourite scene in the film.

I admit as a child I used to get a little bored when Jane and Michael visit the bank with their father. I wanted more of Mary, Bert, the magic and adventure. But as I got older, I began to understand George’s character and his turmoil. I understood that Mary’s aim had been to bring the Banks family together.

I’m so excited about the sequel out this week. The trailers send a chill down my spine and I can’t wait to relive the magic of Mary Poppins. I’m hoping to write a Blogmas post about the film when we’ve seen it.This is another classic that I loved during my childhood. We went to watch a production of it two weeks ago, which I also wrote about during Blogmas. I’ve explained in that post some of the reasons why I love this film.

It has all the ingredients needed for a film to watch at Christmas; a team of heroes embarking on an adventure, amazing songs that will live with you forever, a villain you love to hate and a happy ending. It’s magical and definitely one of all my all time favourites.

My sisters and I used to recreate scenes from the movie. Asian outfits come with scarves (dupattas) and we would pull out anything with yellow in it and lay it down around the house to form our own yellow brick road!We all know the phenomenon this animation became and it’s still going strong five years after its release. I love the characters. I love that it’s a film about the bond between two sisters. I love the songs that will live with me forever.

It’s a beautiful film that makes me feel like a kid again. We’ve watched it as a family every Christmas. A couple of years ago, we went to watch it at a drive-thru and the kids have met the characters at Disney – both in California and Florida. Roll on 2019 for the sequel!Yes, I know this isn’t technically regarded as a Christmas movie but the events of the first and second film happen around Christmas time so for me, being on this list is justified despite what Bruce Willis said on his Comedy Central roast!

It’s cheesy and even you find yourself asking the question: ‘how could the same thing happen to the same guy twice?’. The plot is simple and has been done many times before – plane gets hijacked, the terrorists demand the release of one of their own and the hero saves the day.

But I can not help but love it – it’s full of action and cliched lines that even I can’t help saying aloud.This film, starring Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz, Jack Black and Jude Law is a must for me at Christmas. It’s sweet, it’s romantic and leaves a warm and fuzzy feeling in my stomach.

It’s based around the holidays too and I love the concept of the two women just randomly doing a house swap because they need to get away from their problems. It’s one of those films you can just watch at any time but all the more special at Christmas.This epic trilogy ends my list. OK, so it’s not one film but I can’t decide between the three and it’s all part of one long journey anyway. These three films have everything I love in a film. There’s fantasy, drama, fear, adventure, lots of battles and then one big war against one big enemy.

I never read the books and I also watched the films quite late. In fact, Sukh and I only watched the Fellowship Of The Ring and The Two Towers on DVD a couple of days before The Return Of The King was released.

Who can not help loving Aragorn or Legolas or willing Frodo on his perilous journey? Personally for me, Sam is the hero over Frodo but all of the characters are loveable.

You’re on the edge of your seat so many times during the trilogy. Every couple of Christmases, we do a LOTR marathon and watch the extended versions. It means some very late nights and days when we don’t leave the house but I love every minute of it. The kids also love these films as much as Sukh and I do.

I hope you enjoyed my Top 10 list and that you spot some of your own favourites too. I’m off to get lost in the movies!Read my Christmas Poem here.