Some families watch TV shows
together like “Stranger Things” or “The Crown.” Others may play board games like “Cards Against Humanity.” My family, however, is a movie family. Especially around the holidays, this is one of my favorite things about being home. I love sitting around the fire at my cabin in the middle-of-nowhere Wisconsin curled up in flannel pajamas and warm fuzzy blankets with my family and animals.
My family seems to have a rotation of favorite Christmas movies including “Deck the Halls,” “Santa Clause Two,” and “Santa Clause Three” — my mom hates the first one for an unknown reason — “Jingle All the Way,” “A Christmas Story,” “Christmas With the Kranks,” and “Home Alone.” But which one of these movies is my favorite? The short answer is “Home Alone.” It makes me laugh, and I’ve always dreamed of seeing the candy closet from “Home Alone Two.” The long answer is my favorite Christmas movie isn’t a movie at all but the memories made. “Deck The Halls” always seemed to be one of my mom’s favorite movies. Ask her what movie she wants to watch anytime between November and December and she’ll tell you either “Mamma Mia” or “Deck the Halls.”
I remember watching “Santa Clause” with my mom ever since I was young. She always loved the third one with Jack Frost. It is one of my childhood favorite Christmas movies.
“Jingle All The Way” has always been a fan favorite in my household. I mean come on, who doesn’t want a “Turbo Man action figure with the arms and legs that move and the boomerang shooter and his rock’n’roller jetpack and the realistic voice activator that says five different phrases including, ‘It’s Turbo time! Accessories sold separately; batteries not included.’”
I also love watching “A Christmas Story” every year with my family. The leg lamp is a longtime joke between my parents, and the pink bunny suit always makes us laugh. Every year someone in our neighborhood would place a leg lamp in their front window, and every year my mom tells my dad how she’s gonna get one of those for him.
“Christmas With The Kranks” is another movie within our household that’s recurrent in our Christmas loop. I’ve always thought it was a funny movie but it tends to fall into “Brooke’s picking the movie tonight.”
I have come to realize that my favorite part of Christmas is my mom. Every year she makes everything so special giving us a Christmas beyond comparison. The house is always an “explosion of Christmas vomit,” as my aunt puts it. Every important part of Christmas involves her. Even when it comes to my favorite Christmas movie, my fondest memories are of watching movies with her in our pajamas after she has popped a big bowl of homemade popcorn with extra butter and salt. I love hearing her laugh and miss being so close to home.
