Ah, it’s that time of year again…the season of holiday specials. Everyone has their favorites, from the classics like How the Grinch stole Christmas and Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, to newer offerings, spin offs, and even holiday horror.
Holiday specials are family traditions, and as with most traditions, we sometimes lose track of WHY we watch them. We watch them not because they’re great movies (although some are) but because we just always have. We enjoy them not for themselves(or not solely for themselves) but because watching them is what we do at the holidays, and the very act of watching them makes us feel festive, or homey, or comforted. Even if we actually kinda hate the specials themselves.
Here are a few must-watch holiday movies that we don’t hate. Some we watch because we always have and some we watch because they ROCK, but it’s not the holidays in this house without at least one screening of the following:
Can’t beat the classics.
This is a lovely interpretation of Dylan Thomas’s prose, and given my grandfather was a coal miner in The Valleys, it speaks to my family on a personal note too.
Who doesn’t love How to Train your Dragon? This Dragons holiday special is sweet and funny.
Now Little Person is getting older, we can let her partake of some of the creepier holiday fare
If you haven’t watched this one, DO IT, DO IT NOW! An anthology of four short horror films tied together by an increasingly drunk radio host played by none other than William Shatner. How could you go wrong?
The newest addition to our holiday line-up, and an instant classic!
And last but definitely not least…the VERY BEST EVER version of the Christmas Carol. Not kidding…the extended version of this movie will make you ugly-cry in the 2nd act AND hide under a blanket in fear when the 3rd spirit shows up. Our Christmas-Eve go-to.
Whatever your traditions, I hope you have a great holiday season and a happy New Year!
I’m a Canadian author with a particular penchant for horror, urban fantasy, and apocalyptic fiction…or, given my druthers, some weird and wonderful combination of all three.
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