Now that Thanksgiving is officially over and we’re all enjoying our turkey sandwiches, I feel like I can come out in the open with my holiday cheer. I am, to put it mildly, a Christmas fanatic. I love the lights, the shopping, the music and every tacky, tinsel covered tree. Every year I have a bucket list of festivities that I force my friends and family to endure with me, and I am unashamed to admit that I’ve been listening to the Rat Pack croon carols since before the Halloween candy was even gone. If you are not one to embrace the spirit of the season, no judgement, but this blog just might not be the place for you until after the new year.

One of my favorite parts of the Christmas season is the movies. Nothing beats snuggling up under a blanket with some peppermint tea and a holiday classic. Here is a list of a few of my favorites, in no particular order.

Nightmare Before Christmas
You have to appreciate a movie that can effectively, and efficiently, appeal to two holidays simultaneously, while also delivering an infectiously catchy soundtrack.

A Christmas Story
The 50’s nostalgia, the leg lamp, the horrible, pink nightmare bunny suit, and one infamous line on repeat: “You’ll shoot your eye out.”

It’s A Wonderful Life
This is Jimmy Stewart at his most endearing and a movie that still manages to make me ugly cry after well over a hundred viewings.

White Christmas
Maybe it’s the Vermonter in me, but there will always be a special place in my heart for this Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye classic. Every year since I moved to Chicago, I get a big group of friends together to see it at the Music Box Theater and this tradition has became a staple of the holiday season.

Scrooged
A shining example of how Bill Murray ruled the 80’s, and arguably one of the best interpretations of Dickens’ classic story.

Love Actually
I saw this movie for the first time with my best friend in high school, and it turned our already syrupy, adolescent hearts to mush.

Elf
Buddy just gets my holiday enthusiasm like no other.

Home Alone
I think I love this movie so much because it came out when I was little and, as the youngest of for, day dreamed about being left to my own devices. This was more a life manual for every youngest child that gradually blossomed into holiday classic.

A Muppet Christmas Carol
Because Muppet movies are the best, and one at Christmas is all you need.

National Lampoons Christmas Vacation
For my family, this is THE holiday movie; one we watch on repeat from Thanksgiving day all the way through to the new year (with occasional viewings sprinkled into the warmer months). Somehow, after over twenty years and probably a hundred viewings, the jokes still manage to make us laugh and my brother and I could easily, and proudly, recite the entire script from memory.

What’s your favorite holiday flick?