This year, for my Christmas Eve post, I'm gifting you guys with my 12 Days of Christmas: Movie Edition. Every day during the 12 days leading up to Christmas Eve, I'll update this post with a new movie until we get to my #1 favorite Christmas movie of all time!
Along with the movies, you'll get a little bit of commentary on why these movies are my faves and an Honorable Mention that didn't make the top 12 but is still highly loved.
12: December 13th: Friday After Next
Okay, hear me out! Because a lot of y'all gone say this isn't actually a Christmas movie, but it really is! You got Black Santa going around stealing everybody's presents. You've got a Christmas house party. You've got a six-foot-tall ex-con trying to jingle the local pimp attire store owner's bells. It's definitely a Christmas movie!
Honorable Mention: It's A Wonderful Life
Listen, it's a requirement at this point. You can't have Christmas without It's A Wonderful Life. The movie's in black and white, and it's old as Methuselah, but you gotta admit, it's a good movie. Not the best, which is why it's an honorable mention, but I can vibe with it while I'm breaking down cornbread for the dressing.
11: December 14th: ALL the Rankin Bass Christmas Claymation movies
Listen, you gotta have 'em. Christmas just ain't Christmas without 'em. Here's the list of my favorites:
~The Year Without A Santa Claus (Listen, you GOTTA have Heat Miser and Snow Miser! It's a requirement!)
~Santa Claus is Coming to Town
~Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (Who doesn't love an origin story? Plus, you get the Island of Misfit Toys! It's a two-for-one!)
~Rudolph & Frosty's Christmas in July
~Rudolph's Shiny New Year
Honorable Mention: A Charlie Brown Christmas
I know y'all gone have my head for this one, but at least it got an honorable mention. It's definitely a Christmas staple, and don't get me wrong because I love the Peanuts gang, but it's just not in my top 12.
10: December 15th: Baggage Claim
Say what you want, but yes, it is a Christmas movie. Plus, I'm a sucker for Paula Patton and forever one of Trey's Angels, so here we are. It's there. It's on the list. It's my list. There's nothing you can do to get it removed.
Honorable Mention: Miracle on 34th Street
This is another old one, and it's a staple, too, so I had to add it. Plus, it's a good movie. I do prefer the 1994 version over the 1947 one, though.
9: December 16th: Last Holiday
Who doesn't love Queen Latifah? And Queen Latifah believing she's dying due to a "faulty dog scan machine" and rolling around in the snow, hanging with the senators and big businessmen and eating everything she wants to eat on the menu? And LL Cool J flying across the world and trekking through the snow because she made him fall in love with her? You can't go wrong!
Honorable Mention: The Santa Clause
I struggled a bit with not putting this one on the actual list, but I couldn't rank it higher than the ones that actually did make the list, so here it sits as an honorable mention. I do love this movie, though, and all it's sequels. They're definitely holiday must-watches.
8: December 17th: The Best Man Holiday
The Best Man has to be one of the staples of 90s Black Cinema, and The Best Man Holiday was exactly the sequel we needed. A whole friend group, half of whom don't get along and can't stand each other, under one roof for the holidays. Secrets and lies revealed. Ulterior motives uncovered. And with hot chocolate, tree decorating, and caroling sprinkled throughout. Then add some football in there, and we've got the ultimate holiday movie!
Honorable Mention: The Perfect Holiday
Morris Chestnut. Gabrielle Union. Faizon Love. The late great Charlie Murphy. Katt Williams. It's an all-star cast! I had to include this one at least as an honorable mention because Charlie Murphy playing a deadbeat celebrity daddy is wilddd!
7: December 18th: Almost Christmas
This has to be one of the funniest Christmas movies ever! I watch it multiple times every single holiday season. It's legit one of my go-to Christmas comfort movies. Monique. Danny Glover. Kimberly Elise. Gabrielle Union. Omar Epps. Nicole Ari Parker. DC Young Fly. JB Smooth. Keri Hilson. Monica. John Michael Higgins. And even Auntie Gladys! You just can't go wrong with this one!
Honorable Mention: Bad Santa
Listen! This movie definitely gives Almost Christmas a run for its money in the funny department. Bernie Mac never disappoints, and with Billy Bob Thornton and Tony Cox in tow, it just doesn't get much funnier for a holiday flick!
6: December 19th: This Christmas
This movie will always be on of my go-to Christmas comfort movies. The soundtrack is amazing, and the storyline is so relatable. It's one of those Christmas cinema soft spots for me.
Honorable Mention: The Nightmare Before Christmas
This is another one I struggled not to put on the actual list, but it definitely had to go in the Honorable Mentions. Tim Burton is a genre of movies all on his own, and this movie is definitely a classic. A lot of people argue that it's a Halloween movie, and I understand why, but the bulk of the plot centers around Christmas, which makes this a Christmas movie in my book. I don't know anyone who doesn't love this movie!
5: December 20th: ALL of the Muppet Christmas movies
I've always loved the Muppets, and Christmas is really their time to shine in my movie world. Here are some of my absolute favorites:
-
A Muppet Family Christmas
- Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas
- Muppet Christmas Carol
- A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa
- It's A Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie
- The Great Santa Claus Switch
And let's not forget the Sesame Street gang belongs to the Muppet Universe too!
- Christmas Eve on Sesame Street
- Elmo Saves Christmas
- Once Upon A Sesame Street Christmas
Honorable Mentions: Frosty the Snowman and Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer
Frosty is definitely a classic, so I had to make sure I added him to the list.
Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer, though, isn't as popular or as widely known as Frosty, but it's still a great movie. Whoever thought to turn this classic Elmo & Patsy song into a cartoon special was a genius because it's hilarious and definitely well worth the watch!
4: December 21st: The Preacher's Wife
This is one of my favorite Christmas movies of all time. I watch it every single year and sometimes in the middle of the year too. I have it recorded on the DVR just in case I can't catch it while it's showing. Whitney Houston is one of my absolute favorite singers, and Denzel Washington is, of course, one of my favorite actors, so this movie is the perfect match-up for the two of them. It also doesn't hurt that "I Believe in You and Me" is my absolute favorite song of all time, and it comes from the soundtrack for this movie.
Honorable Mention: Disney's A Christmas Carol
When I say Disney's A Christmas Carol, I'm talking about the 2009 version, not Mickey's Christmas Carol form 1983. There's absolutely nothing wrong with Mickey's Christmas Carol, and it's actually a classic, but we're talking about Jim Carrey here. He's funny without even trying, and he's the king of voices. This one is another one that may not have made the list but is still a holiday must-have.
3: December 22nd: Elf
Coming in at number three is Elf. I don't care what part of the country you're from, what race you are, or even if you don't even celebrate Christmas. Elf is one of those movies that's universally relatable and, as Uncle Frank says in one of tomorrow's movies (*hint hint*), "it's pretty gol-darn hilarious." You can't get much funnier than an elf-raised human going down to New York City from the North Pole to find his real father and getting drunk and dancing on the mailroom tables at work because he mistook whiskey for maple syrup and poured a whole bottle in his coffee.
Honorable Mention: Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) and Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966)
Today's honorable mention is another Jim Carrey winner, along with its original version. Don't get me wrong. Dr. Seuss' The Grinch (2018) isn't a bad movie. It's actually a great movie in all its animated rights. But I just personally feel like two versions was enough. My fave of the three is Jim Carrey's version (of course), but you can't praise the remake without paying homage to the original, which was and still is an incredible cartoon. Plus, you've got your cutest little movie girl ever, Cindy Lou Who, and who can forget the Grinch's poor little sidekick, Max the dog-turned-reindeer?
2: December 23rd: Home Alone 1 & 2
I don't think there's a greater Christmas series than the Home Alone series, but especially the original installments with Macaulay Culkin. Give me the original Kevin with his quirky, memorable one-liners and all his taking-down-the-bad-guys mischief, and I'm perfectly happy for the season.
Honorable Mention: Meet Me Next Christmas
This one is a newer movie (it just came out last year), but with Christina Milian, Kofi Siriboe, and Devale Ellis, how on earth can you go wrong? Who's going to argue with this one? You? You? I didn't think so.
1: December 24th: National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
I don't know what it is about Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo. Maybe it's Randy Quaid as the hilarious Cousin Eddie. Maybe it's the revolving door of actors playing the Griswold kids, Russ and Audrey, but give me a National Lampoon's movie, and I'm in for the night! Christmas Vacation is no exception. From the hilarious dialogue with their neighbors to the hiss of a somehow perfectly baked on the outside but dried-out on the inside turkey, from Aunt Bethany's rotisseried cat to Uncle Lewis sending the Christmas tree up in flames, from Clark's enrollment into a Jelly of the Month club instead of receiving his Christmas bonus to Eddie kidnapping Clark's boss to make him answer for it... when Clark and Ellen's families gets together for the holidays, chaos ensues and the laughs never stop.
Honorable Mention: Fred Claus
Y'all, if nothing else tickles me about this movie, the fact that Ludacris plays the resident DJ elf at the North Pole and he plays "Here Comes Santa Claus" by Doris Day nonstop on repeat, takes requests from the workers who only request the same song, and announces the next song like it's not the same song he's been playing on a loop gets me every single time. John Michael Higgins plays in this one as well as Willie the elf, alongside Vince Vaughn as the title character and Paul Giamatti as his brother, the big guy himself, Santa Claus. You gotta have an antagonist (because what's the point of any movie without someone coming in and interrupting the status quo?), and Kevin Spacey plays that guy, Clyde Northcutt, an efficiency expert who wants nothing more than to shut down Santa's entire operation over a Superman cape he didn't receive as a child since he had been on the naughty list since--get this--1968! Talk about a long-running grudge! This movie is utterly hilarious, and it's high on my list of holiday movie recommendations.
And that's it, folks! Merry Christmas Eve to every single member of The Kweendom out there, and no matter what entity you believe in, Happy Holidays!