shadokitty

^ Thank you.

It is really beginning to feel like the holiday season now. Not only is the Challenge beginning tonight, but the radio station I listen to, started their non stop Christmas music when the morning show came on, right after the local news.

shadokitty

I kicked off the Challenge last night before I went to bed with my first Wild Card. I watched the Nature episode, 'My Life As A Turkey'. It's a very moving episode about a man who raises a clutch of wild turkeys from the egg to adulthood. I had planned to watch it on the PBS Channel on Roku, but apparently you need a subscription now, but I found it on YouTube.

LJG765

Did you watch this last year, too? I vaguely recall someone talking about it...probably totally wrong!

Watched my first holiday disc last night/early morning. I have the SNL: Christmas disc which has several sketches on it. One of my favorites is the one with Alec Baldwin on the radio show promoting his Schwedy balls.

shadokitty

Yeah, I watch this every year. It's my only annual wild card.

LJG765

Ha! I remembered something correctly! I take that for a win! I have a few holiday films I watch multiple times, but the only one I make sure to watch at least once is How the Grinch Stole Christmas (the good one, not the Jim Carrey farce). But I do try to fit in Love Actually and Frosty the Snowman in as well.

shadokitty

I have quite a few holiday specials I watch on an annual basis. This is just used as an annual wild card, because even though it is about turkeys, it really has nothing to do with Thanksgiving.

shadokitty

I got an early start to the Challenge today, starting not long after I woke up by finishing the first episode of Christmas Through The Decades, about Christmas in the 60s, on the History Channel On Roku. I started it yesterday morning, but things came up and I wasn't able to finish it till now. It was enjoyable trip back in time to a simpler time.

The Monkees

Aww, they're both good

bacigalup

Here's a schedule of GETtv's Christmas programming that starts next Sunday, Nov. 27th:

http://www.get.tv/sites/us.get/files...s_schedule.pdf


also adding MEtv's Christmas programming schedule:

https://s3.amazonaws.com/metvnetwork...ng%20Guide.pdf

The Monkees

Went to watch a Thanksgiving episode of Diff'rent Strokes I had never seen and cracked the disc taking it out of the case... Oh, well, I'll just have to rebuy it. Fortunately it's the Mill Creek release and super cheap.

Bluelitespecial

I am getting started today. just got my netflix subscription for the month. I was pleasantly surprised to see they have Son in Law on there, I haven't been able to watch it for the challenge since my dvd stopped working.

The Monkees

I could be wrong but I think that they just added that a week or two ago.

Bluelitespecial

For anyone who watches Ion Televsion here is their holiday movie schedule. I like this network as its a great alternative for those of us that don't have cable.
http://www.iontelevision.com/holiday-movies

LJG765

No, no they are not! The live action is definitely inferior to the animated one! I also love watching the special with Phil Hartman right after.

Have to admit, I haven't really gotten started yet on the challenge. I'll definitely pick up post Turkey Day, though.

The Monkees

C'mon, what was so bad about the Jim Carrey version? I thought it was very funny, a great Christmas movie and just overall fun. It was the #1 movie of that year, that says something. To each his own, but the live action version is good just like the animated version is good too. Nostalgia is an ugly mistress sometimes.

LJG765

The fact that the Grinch is Jim Carrey? He is not my favorite actor...by a long shot. I've tried and tried but I just don't like him. There's maybe one or two of his movies I can watch but that's about it. It's been a very long time since I watched it so other than him, I can't say any specifics, but I just remember being annoyed by it. I MAY rewatch it this challenge because I am willing to give it a second chance, but I'll have to be in a pretty good mood to do so...so we'll see.

What are some "classics" that other people hate that generally are pretty beloved? I have to admit "It's a Wonderful Life" is not a favorite of mine either, though it's higher on the list than The Grinch for me.

Indy24LA

I kicked off the challenge the way I usually do with Planes, Trains and Automobiles. It's funny how many holiday classics came out between 1983-1994.

The Monkees

I'm not a big fan of "A Christmas Story", it's very overhyped, not necessarily a bad movie, but not one of my favorites.

LJG765

I would agree with that. I am not a huge fan myself. I usually end up watching it but I really could leave it. It does have a few good one liners, though!

I still have some holiday movies on my DVR from last year, so I put one in that doubles for this one and the comedy challenges. 12 Dates of Christmas is not that bad. It's a bit predictable, but fairly cute and I've laughed a few times. It's a take on Groundhog Day except, well, it takes place on Christmas Eve. If anyone catches it this year, give it a shot. Won't change your life, but it's an enjoyable hour and a half.

BobO'Link

That's a lot of my overall dislike - Jim Carrey. There's not a single film in which he's been top billed I like and he detracts from most of the non-starring films in which he appears. The only performance of his I somewhat like is his turn as The Riddler in Batman Forever. It also doesn't help that it's a Ron Howard film. While he's done some very good, and highly respected, films, there are only 4 or 5 I've liked enough to watch a second time.
Elf - I can't stand Will Ferrell and the "Buddy" character drives me to distraction because of Ferrell.

The Nightmare Before Christmas - i went in expecting to like it (I like most of Burton's work) but all the music/song and dance bits totally took me out of the story. But I'm not particularly fond of most musicals.

While I don't exactly "hate" them I'm not particularly fond of the Rankin-Bass animated Christmas films, although my grandkids like them so I tend to get stuck watching them anyway.

Die Hard - I don't consider it a "Christmas movie" just because it takes place during Christmas (I get annoyed at people calling films "Christmas movies" for no other reason than part, or all, of it takes place during the Christmas season even if there's nothing else about the film that says "Christmas") and I'm not too fond of the action/hostage/disaster flicks formula. I saw it once and don't care to repeat the experience.

Trevor

I'm glad I have a short memory. Users I love and think I share almost everything in common with, hating films which are perfect and the very definition of joy and holiday happiness. It's insanity!

LJG765

I'm with you on Elf for the same reasons I don't like The Grinch with Jim Carrey. I really dislike Will Farrell. I haven't found a single film of his I've liked. He's just too over the top.

However, you don't like Nightmare Before Christmas?!!! That is my favorite Halloween/Christmas movie! I love the singing and dancing!!! But I'll let you have it as I do remember you don't like musicals which is so sad!

It took many watches of the Rankin/Bass classics for me to really enjoy them. Rudolph still bugs me since they are so mean to him and Herbie the Elf. (think that's the elf's name.) But I do like the Santa focused ones a lot more.
I know, right?!

shadokitty

I don't particularly care for It's A Wonderful Life. I know. I know. Don't shoot me, but I just find the movie too damned depressing.

However, I love The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Another one I didn't like was Scrooged. I've only seen it once, soon after it came out, and this is speaking as a big Bill Murray fan, but I couldn't stand the character he played in that movie.

BobO'Link

I have mixed feelings about It's A Wonderful Life. While considered a Christmas film I don't feel it truly is. Only the payoff comes at Christmas while the rest is more biographical in nature and it has the "Angel shows a character how things would have been without him" aspect which adds a religious aspect but *not* Christmas. I've always felt its connection to Christmas is somewhat tenuous at best. I, too, have always felt it was overall a rather depressing affair.

The first time I saw Scrooged I didn't care for it, and I'm a huge Bill Murray fan. It was yet another version of "A Christmas Story" and I get tired of all the versions attempting a different spin on the story. Normally I'll tune out as soon as it's apparent *that's* the basis for the film/TV show. For some reason I gave this one more chances and have grown to greatly enjoy it and try to give it a annual viewing. It's one of about a dozen films I make special effort to watch each Christmas season.

So... here, in no particular order, are my top favorite Christmas films/TV episodes/specials that I *always* try to watch:
Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
Christmas in Connecticut (1945)
Holiday Inn (1942)
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989)
Scrooged (1988)
A Christmas Story (1983)
Home Alone (1990)
Mixed Nuts (1994) (I wish this one had a OAR release)
Remember the Night (1940)
A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)
How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966)
A Christmas Carol (1938)
Blackadder's Christmas Carol (1988)

There are several others I try to watch if time allows:
Joyeux Noël (2005)
The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
The Santa Clause (1994)
We're No Angels (1955)
The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942)
It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1947)
Ernest Saves Christmas (1988)

Several of the "Must see" films I usually wait to watch the week of Christmas, shooting for Christmas Eve.

What are yours?

Gobear

I enjoy every Christmas classic film, except for The Polar Express. The Uncanny Valley quality of the animation creeps me out.

I like and own most of BobO'Link's selections (apart from anything with Ernest in the title), but there are other shows I like to watch every year.

Scrooge (1951)--For me, Alistair Sim is the only Ebenezer Scrooge.
Toys (1992). The beginning and end of the film are set at Christmas, so this counts for me. Robin Williams is charming in this fable.
Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol (1962): The songs are terrific.
Holiday Affair: Robert Mitchum is a toy salesman whofalss in love with single mom Janet Leigh. It's romantic, but unsentimental.
Bad Santa (2003): You know this is a twisted film when the feel-good moment of the film is one kid kicking another in the balls.
Olive the Other Reindeer (1999): A sweet cartoon that doesn't get too schmaltzy
Die Hard I and II (1988): Do you even have to ask?
The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996): Another great action film set during the holidays

TV episodes would include The Brady Bunch episode where the mom loses her voice and Cindy asks Santa to help her, Twilight Zone, "Night of the Meek", and South Park's "Woodland Critter Christmas."