Countdown to Christmas – More Movies for Your List

Are you sick of holiday movies yet? I’m not but I know a lot of people who are. Our holiday movie game is still going strong. I’ve been keeping track of the list and I’ll have to post it once the game is over. So far we haven’t broken the chain but we have gotten fairly creative.

We’ve found a couple more movies that aren’t “Christmas movies” but that have Christmas scenes that we’ve added to our list of holiday movies.

The Help: I wanted to read this book but I never got around to reading it before the movie came out. I did really enjoy the movie though. I went to see it at the theatre with my mom and then watched it again the other day. This one is most definitely not a Christmas movie but it has a pretty major scene that takes place at a Christmas gala and auction, complete with Christmas music so it is doubly qualified (unlike Three Kingswhich my brother is still bitter that we vetoed… while one of the main characters does, in fact, sing to the tune of “We Three Kings,” he changes the words to “We three kings be steeling the gold… My friends all drive Porsches I must make amends,” clearly de-Christmas-izing the song).

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: I got into an argument with my son over this one because he insisted that there were Christmas scenes and I said that there were not. Never argue about movies with a small child who goes to see the new Muppet movie and can identify both Jason Segel and Neil Patrick Harris by name. He has also watched Diary of a Wimpy Kid more times than I can count (I thought I had too, but apparently I’m not as good at multi-tasking as I was giving myself credit for). Needless to say, he was right. While it doesn’t show actual Christmas scenes it shows two main characters discussing what they got for Christmas in front of a house that is clearly bedecked with Christmas decorations. After careful deliberation, David and I gave that one to him.

When I’m baking I often have the television on in the background and I’ve been keeping it on Christmas movies. There are some really bad Christmas movies out there. Too many to count, actually. Two recent movies that I’ve watched have been made for TV movies and both were pretty decent.

November Christmas: This Hallmark Hall of Fame movie has been playing all month and it is a real tear-jerker. I’ll just say this: it involves a little girl with cancer and the small town that rallies behind her (since having kids, this kind of movie resonates even more than before). If my cake was a little extra salty that day, it was because I was bawling throughout the entire movie. It has an all-star cast including Sam Elliott, John Corbett, Sarah Paulson and Karen Allen. Was it predictable? Hello, it’s Hallmark! Hallmark movies are almost always predictable and they usually make you cry at least once, if not more. The movie was really sweet (and even if it wasn’t, I would still watch it just for John Corbett).

12 Dates of Christmas: This one was like a sillier version of Groundhog Day with a Christmas bend. If this was a book the cover would be pink…HOT PINK. It is an ABC Family production starring Amy Smart and Zack Morris (aka Mark-Paul Gosselaar) about a young woman who is forced to re-live the same blind-date over and over again (on Christmas Eve, no less, which begs the question: who in their right mind would ever agree to a blind date on Christmas Eve?). It’s cute, it’s fun, it’s Christmas-y. It won’t win any Oscars and it’s no Groundhog Day, but it is pretty decent for a made-for-TV flick.