What’s one of the best things you can do leading up to Christmas morning? Up the anticipation by watching Christmas movies, of course! Christmas, that extra uber time of nostalgia from when you were a kid. Grab some cocoa and let’s hunker down with some of our favorite Christmas movies — it’ll be a veritable flashback bonanza of good time feels!
Today, we’re going back to Christmas circa the 1980s. Ah yes, the ‘80s, a time when Christmas movies were allowed to be a little bit edgy and not quite so family-friendly, aka super cheesy and dumb. Behold, our very subjective ranking, as that inner child speaks to us all a little differently…
It’s honestly something of a shame that this Santa Claus movie even has to be included on this list, because quite frankly, it’s so slow as to be unfinishable, at least for us. We only made it about 30 minutes into the film before we had to give up, and it hadn’t even gotten to the main crux of the story yet, which has to do with a disgruntled elf going to New York City. But the first part of the movie just focuses on how Santa became Santa, and honestly who cares? Unless you have fond memories of this movie from your childhood, we’d say just skip it.
What’s this, Ernest Saves Christmas doesn’t get the dunce cap with a last place placement on this list? While the Ernest movies are ostensibly dumb, they are pretty much meant to be, and are almost parody films in that respect. And, we made it through much more of this movie before giving up compared to the Santa Claus movie. What more can you say besides if you like Ernest in his various incarnations, from commercials, to TV series, to movies, then you’ll probably like this addition as well.
When you think of Gremlins, you probably don’t think of Christmas. It was released in June, after all, but the movie is definitely a Christmas movie. Proof? Exhibit A: the lead girl tells a dramatic story about her dad dying on Christmas day while pretending to be Santa (he gets stuck in a chimney! oy!). Exhibit B: Gizmo (the mogwai) is given to the lead boy as a Christmas present. Exhibit C: The film’s orchestral arrangements blend in Christmas melodies at times. Exhibit D: The majority of the film takes place on Christmas Eve! If you rewatch this movie now, you’ll definitely recognize it’s mostly geared toward the younger set, despite some of the scarier elements that would surely freak out a young child. It’s all mischief and chaos and these gremlins being bad just to be bad. Is there much of a story? Not really. Will you enjoy it anyway? If you leave your mind at the door and sit back and watch the mostly dialogue-free mayhem of the film’s second half, sure.
Here we have another one of the films on the list where you may question whether it actually counts as a Christmas movie. The connection is slim, as hardly any mention is made to Trading Places taking place during the holidays, but Dan Aykroyd does don a dirty Santa suit at one point, and it does take place during the holiday period. Though this comedy is considered a classic by many, if you watch it today, it does feel a bit plodding, and the structure is a bit wonky, with a very slow beginning and then a much too quick ending resolution. That said, it does feature Eddie Murphy in his prime, and Dan Aykroyd and Jamie Lee Curtis in top form as well.
Have you heard of Prancer? We hadn’t, and it’s kind of a shame, because it’s actually a decent entry into the Christmas movie canon. It’s certainly a more sombre holiday film, focusing on a family struggling to make ends meet in a small town in Michigan following the death of the matriarch. Sam Elliott co-stars as the father of the main character, Jessica, in his best burly, prickly form. It’s about love and believing in something, and wanting the best for your family, while adding a fantastical element with a reindeer who may or may not be Santa’s actual Prancer.
We’re talking some real synergy here. Scrooge McDuck was created in 1947, and is actually based on Ebenezer Scrooge from the 1843 Dickens classic. So it really seems like it was only a matter of time before he actually portrayed the original Scrooge. Though you may think Mickey’s Christmas Carol is a full-length movie, it’s actually only 26 minutes and is considered a featurette. It debuted in front of a Christmas re-issue of The Rescuers in theatres in the US, but you probably more likely remember seeing it on TV every year. It was actually the first Mickey Mouse theatrical cartoon to be produced in over 30 years, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film (though it did lose). You may debate whether it should be included since it’s technically a short film, but we’d argue that because it’s so memorable to us (hey, give us this one!)… it counts.
Look, you can debate it all you want whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie, but for our purposes, we’re looking at films that take place during the holiday period, so it 100% counts. And would you really want to go through a holiday season without taking a moment to watch Die Hard? Doubtful. It’s considered one of the best action films for a reason, and features Bruce Willis in his first mega film-star role, really putting on the charm he developed in his previous TV stints.
Though A Christmas Story wasn’t a huge hit at the time it came out in late 1983, it slowly grew into a Christmas classic over the years. If you didn’t watch this in elementary school on the last week before break, did your teachers really love you? Since 1997, it has aired annually on either TNT or TBS (or both) for 24 hours straight, starting on Christmas Eve through to Christmas Day. That’s some lasting power.
Look, Scrooged is weird, there’s no way around it. But that’s what makes it so great. It’s a different, subversive take on a Christmas movie, a modern (well, modern for the late ‘80s) take on the Dickens A Christmas Carol classic. You might even call the movie all over the place, and you wouldn’t necessarily be wrong, but it’s got the wacky humor and Bill Murray in one of his more memorable roles. You may even call it ahead of its time with the dark humor, and that’s why it ranks so highly here.
Clark Griswold is one of Chevy Chase’s most memorable roles, and the Christmas Vacation movie is responsible for a lot of that. Would the rest of the Vacation series be remembered as fondly without this holiday installment? Debatable. It’s goofy, and may not have as structured of a story as you may typically want, but the comedy more than makes up for it. There are so many different moments that stick out, from Cousin Eddie, to the lights on the house, to the Turkey dinner scene, need we go on? Wait, you want us to go on? Too bad, go pop in the VHS, relive this Christmas classic yourself, and thank us later!
What was your favorite Christmas movie of the 1980s? Let us know in the comments!
- The National Lampoon’s Vacation film series was initially based on John Hughes’ short story “Vacation ’58” that was originally published by National Lampoon magazine, and now consists of five main films, but only three of those actually have the “National Lampoon” sponsorship.
- Bill Murray had taken a break from acting following the success of Ghostbusters, and it was Scrooged that got him back into it. His three brothers also make appearances in the film, John Murray as his on-screen brother James, Brian Doyle-Murray as his father, and Joel Murray cameos as a party guest.
- A Christmas Story is based on a collection of short stories by Jean Shepherd called In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash. Shepherd also performed monologues of some of the stories on the radio, and provided the voice of the adult Ralphie in the movie, and also has a cameo as the man who directs Ralphie and Randy to the back of the Santa line.
- Die Hard is based on the novel sequel to the 1968 film The Detective, which starred Frank Sinatra – as such, they were obligated to offer the role of John McClane to him first, but being 70 at the time, he declined. The role was also offered to many other top names of the era, including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Richard Gere, Clint Eastwood, and Harrison Ford, all of whom also declined.
- Gremlins, along with Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, both rated PG, were two films released in 1984 to incite the MPAA to create the PG-13 rating (Steven Spielberg also used his influence to suggest they create the new rating). Red Dawn was the first film released in theaters that was given the new rating in August 1984.
- The National Lampoon’s Vacation film series was initially based on John Hughes’ short story “Vacation ’58” that was originally published by National Lampoon magazine, and now consists of five main films, but only three of those actually have the “National Lampoon” sponsorship.
- Bill Murray had taken a break from acting following the success of Ghostbusters, and it was Scrooged that got him back into it. His three brothers also make appearances in the film, John Murray as his on-screen brother James, Brian Doyle-Murray as his father, and Joel Murray cameos as a party guest.
- A Christmas Story is based on a collection of short stories by Jean Shepherd called In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash. Shepherd also performed monologues of some of the stories on the radio, and provided the voice of the adult Ralphie in the movie, and also has a cameo as the man who directs Ralphie and Randy to the back of the Santa line.
- Die Hard is based on the novel sequel to the 1968 film The Detective, which starred Frank Sinatra – as such, they were obligated to offer the role of John McClane to him first, but being 70 at the time, he declined. The role was also offered to many other top names of the era, including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Richard Gere, Clint Eastwood, and Harrison Ford, all of whom also declined.
- Gremlins, along with Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, both rated PG, were two films released in 1984 to incite the MPAA to create the PG-13 rating (Steven Spielberg also used his influence to suggest they create the new rating). Red Dawn was the first film released in theaters that was given the new rating in August 1984.
