Holiday Movie Reviews: My Two Favorite Christmas Movies!

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)

This movie, written by John Hughes, who based it on his short story “Christmas ’59”, is the third in the National Lampoon’s Vacation series starring Chevy Chase as the beleaguered patriarch of the Griswold clan. It follows his well meaning, but sometimes misguided attempts to have the “fun old-fashioned family Christmas”. 

To start with, I can’t even begin to tell you how many quotable moments became regular routines for my brothers and me over the years. The “look kids, a deer!” moment in particular stuck with us and became a regular  joke. I get such an immeasurable kick from this movie. For one thing, it’s endless nostalgia at this point. The fact that I’ve seen this movie probably a million times and the jokes haven’t grown old are a testament to the writing quality. And that’s the other thing about this movie, the jokes are actually legit hilarious. I laughed out loud at several of the sequences while watching it last night (later dudes!). There were actually quite a few scenes where the minute the scene started, Amber and I started giggling in anticipation of what was to come. 

But I think the reason this has become my quintessential Christmas movie, is the fact that while these gags are situations that are blown out of proportion for the sake of laughs in the movie, it’s all based on real life. When Clark can’t sleep at night and stays up worried about whether his bonus will come or not, that’s real and I can relate. The bickering between family and the difficulty of having everyone under the same roof is something that any of us that get together for the holidays, or any other time, can definitely relate too. Most of all I think we all relate to the lengths that Clark goes to trying to make it the best Christmas possible for his family, because we’ve all done that. We all just want that one perfect special Christmas, until we realize that the imperfections are what makes it memorable, along with the people we share it with. And that’s a message I can get behind. So you can keep your “It’s a Wonderful Life” and cheesy Hallmark Christmas movies, for me it gets no more perfect than “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation”. In the words of Clark’s own father, “It’s a beaut Clark!”.

Amber’s Take:

Christmas vacation:  this movie makes me laugh from start to finish. Another classic we watch every year,  and it never feels like Christmas until we do. I can never choose a favorite part…though I am really fond of “and why is the carpet all wet Todd?” “I don’t know Margo”. I mean the whole movie is amazing-the tree, the lights, the shopping, Cousin Eddie….you get the point…anyway I don’t know if there is a more perfect Christmas movie. For me, there isn’t. “Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas, kiss my ass, kiss his ass, happy Hanukkah.”

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

I saw this when it was first released in theaters and loved it. At the time I had a ton of Goth loving friends and they absolutely worshipped this movie. Of course, I’ve heard debate about whether it’s a Halloween movie or a Christmas movie and in my opinion, I would say it’s both. Although technically the movie starts the day after Halloween so to me the absolute perfect day to watch it would be November first. Anyway, for anyone who has never seen it (shame on you!), the movie chronicles the adventures of Jack the Pumpkin King, leader of Halloween Town and the king of Halloween. It seems the Pumpkin King has grown tired of the repetitive nature of his existence and wants to do something new. After a long walk in the woods, he finds Christmas Town and is perplexed by this strange new place (What’s this? What’s this?). He studies it closely but still can’t understand the essence of Christmas. However he is completely obsessed with it so he decides he can do it just as good, so they kidnap Santa Claus, or “Sandy Claws” as they call him, and the Halloween Town crew set about doing Christmas themselves, with disastrous results. Santa ends up in the clutches of Oogie Boogie and it’s up to Jack to fix the mess he created and save Santa Claus, and Christmas. 

This movie is such a blast, especially for anyone who loves the creepiness of Halloween while still loving Christmas. In this movie, you can have it all at the same time. The animation is incredible and the musical numbers are my favorites. Also Mr. Oogie Boogie is one of my favorite villains. They mention him only in whispers as apparently there is something that lives beneath that scares even the ghouls and ghosts of Halloween Town. The color schemes and visuals for his scenes are so vivid and awesome, it makes me wish I had seen the 3D version that ran for a few years. Maybe they will bring it back if we can ever safely go to theaters again…

At the heart of it all though, I do feel for Jack. As a creative type myself, I face real burn out a lot. You get bored with the routine, even if you are good at what you do, and you look for something different, to reignite your spark. In the end, Jack’s misadventure with Christmas reminds him of who he is and just like that, the king of Halloween is back and ready to save the day. Sometimes you need to do something different, and even get knocked down, to remember who you are and why you love doing what you do.  I feel you Jack, we all do. 

Amber’s Take:

Nightmare Before Christmas: One of my favorite films of all time. It brings together my two favorite holidays in one spooky treat. If you know me then you know this is a perfect movie as l love creepy Halloween spookiness and Merry Christmas joy. I could never say enough about how incredible this movie is so I will sum it up: A Tim Burton masterpiece. 🎃🎄