We are swiftly approaching that awkward stretch of holiday time, that period between Christmas Eve Eve and New Year’s when it’s permissible to do nothing productive. As someone who always feels like there’s never enough time in a day and, as a result, places emphasis on consuming intelligent and/or culturally significant media, holiday time frees me from these imaginary pressures. Suddenly, I’m compelled to watch the entire Star Wars franchise (which I did in 2018) or Blades of Glory (more on that below). I initially wanted to compile a list of so-bad-it’s-good holiday movies, but this has morphed into an all-around recommendations list from friends of the Terry-verse. Enjoy!
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Barbie in the Nutcracker (2001) — Michelle Santiago Cortés of My Writing, who watched 200 films in 2024 (!!)
This year I learned that I love the Nutcracker. Tchaikovsky LAID IT DOWN in 1892: “Waltz of the Flowers” is pure magic. “Dance of the Reed Flutes” is as sweet as marzipan. And don’t get me started on the “Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy.” Or that swelling pas de deux that followed. I’ve been so Nutcracker-pilled I somehow swung my friends into a conversation about Balanchine’s versus Petipa’s versions of the ballet, and we wondered if the former was a Cold-War rejection of the latter. I queued up full-length recordings of various performances of the Nutcracker ballet on my YouTube “Watch Later” list so I could play them in the background while I wrap gifts and bake cookies: First on the list, a 2011 recording of the New York City Ballet’s performance of Balanchine’s Nutcracker. Followed by the Royal Ballet (London), then the Mariinksy (St. Petersburg) and the Bolshoi (Moscow), in what I suspect is in ascending order of performance quality. But none of them compare to what I remembered it to be. None had the joy, the verve, the zest, the whimsy. And I realized that, even in that earlier conversation with my friends, we had been confusing the contents of the ballets with 2001’s “Barbie in the Nutcracker.” A movie with an animation quality so crunchy it's embarrassing to watch. Tim Curry voices the Mouse King and the Nutcracker is hotter than Prince Eric. And I can’t deny that this is the version of the Nutcracker that reigns supreme.
Blades of Glory (2007) — Terry Nguyễn
In my sick and twisted mind, any movie about figure skating is a holiday movie. Forget Elf, I’d rather see Will Ferrell as Chazz Michael Michaels, a red-blooded skating star who stomps around with a Lord Farquaad-like hairdo, an alcohol problem, and a comically oversized ego. Post-Napoleon Dynamite Jon Heder as Jimmy MacElroy is the perfect diva counterpart to Ferrell, and their enemies-to-skating-partners arc is far more fulfilling than the hetero-typical Hallmark pairings of recent ice skating movies. There is one scene that’s convinced me of Blades of Glory’s Christmassy undertones: On their first date, Jimmy takes Katie (Jenna Fischer) to a snow-covered park, where they get Snow Cones and share an awkward kiss. Don’t be fooled, though. The movie’s holiday spirit is not kindled by romance, but in the drama of athletic triumph that fuels Chazz and Jimmy’s undeniable chemistry.
Frasier: “High Holidays” (2003) — Mark Stenberg of Adweek and Medialyte
My favorite terrible Christmas movie is not a movie but an episode of television—the eleventh episode of the eleventh season of “Frasier,” titled “High Holidays.” Devoted Frasierites will note that the eleventh season is the last of the series, and the show effectively treats it as a victory lap, an opportunity to indulge in the eccentricities of its characters with little need to advance a plot. In the episode, Frasier deals with his son’s new identity as a goth, while his policeman father accidentally eats a pot brownie that Frasier’s straight-laced brother Niles had intended to use as his springboard into a much-delayed night of teenage rebellion. Naturally, hijinks ensue. The series is at its best when it leans into its Shakespearian tendencies, with characters, all operating under false assumptions, frantically entering, miscommunicating, and exiting the stage. This episode is the genre at its best. My favorite line comes from Niles, who thinks he is stoned and is preparing a gourmet meal to sate his eventual cravings. “I’m particularly looking forward to the ‘munchies’ stage,” he explains. “It’s where one enjoys bizarre food pairings. I’m thinking of pairing a Chilean sea bass with an aggressive Zinfandel.”
Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) — Akosua T. Adasi of Consumption Report
My roster for holiday watching has been pretty much set for the last few years. Around this time of year, I always make sure to watch Bridget Jones’s Diary, Love Actually, Pride and Prejudice (2005), Little Women (2019) and, depending on how drippy I feel, Call Me By Your Name, whose wintery last five minutes put a lot of feature holiday movies to shame. This year, I’ve introduced a new contender into the lineup. Earlier this month, I rewatched Kramer vs Kramer, the 1979 film starring Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep, and not only found it to be more moving than I remembered but surprisingly holiday-centric. In the movie, Dustin Hoffman plays Ted, whose wife abruptly leaves him and their six year old son one evening. One of the key moments in the movie happens just around the holidays when Ted is fired from his creative director job and has to rush to find a new one before his custody hearing in the new year. He bustles in and out of offices, interrupting an office holiday party to hustle a job below his pay grade. There’s a lot to love about this movie, from the delightful production design to Dustin Hoffman’s incredibly tight tees. But it’s the quiet charm of Hoffman’s character as he becomes a better father and trains his ambition on providing for his son rather than climbing the career ladder that really gets me. Kramer vs Kramer might be premised on divorce but it’s really about learning that love is *in the words of bell hooks* an action and that family is something you have to choose. Isn’t that what the holidays are about?
In Bruges (2008) — Evan Grillon of Hodge Shan’t Be Shot
My pitch to you is that In Bruges is not only a Christmas movie, it’s a Christmas movie that features not one but two hitmen with hearts of gold. Colin Farrell is Ray, boyish and tortured, Brendan Gleason is Ken, fatherly, hypocritical, and confused, and Ralph Fiennes is their boss, Harry, a raging, murderous maniac with a very rigid code of honor. The movie is obsessed with the hypocritical fuzziness of moral doctrines, justification, and guilt. You could make a naughty list out of the various actions these characters condemn: you can’t kill yourself or attack someone with a bottle, and you absolutely cannot be an “inanimate fucking object” or a lollipop man that knows karate. On the other hand, it’s totally kosher to “heet the Canadian,” smoke in the smoking section, use dum-dum bullets, and shoot priests. For all the allusions to purgatory, Bosch, dreams, and fairytales, it’s also the only Martin McDonagh film that has really moved me. Trying to help each other toward what is a tragically impossible redemption is, in my own twisted head, pretty much what Christmas is all about!
Meet Me Next Christmas (2024) — Alexa Lee
Set in an alternate universe where a cappella group Pentatonix is a blockbuster pop sensation, Meet Me Next Christmas follows Layla (gorgeous!) as she races around New York City to find tickets to the quintet’s (sold-out!) holiday concert so she can reunite with a handsome man she had chemistry with a year ago at an airport (reasonable!). The quest takes her on a citywide adventure with a personal concierge who she also has chemistry with. What will happen next?
Intercut throughout Layla’s quest are super organic, narratively seamless scenes of Pentatonix preparing for their big show and tuning into Layla’s adventures with Teddy the concierge — who, yes, does have a heart of gold and a secret, alternative career passion. The whole movie reads like propaganda for Pentatonix and the gig economy but honestly, I enjoyed it. Layla and her romantic prospects breathe life into tired romcom tropes, and I thought the twists and turns of the ticket chase were actually quite creative. I plan to rewatch Meet Me Next Christmas this holiday season with my parents, my favorite Pentatonix fans.
The Holiday (2006) — Aziza Kasumov
The pitch for The Holiday as the unironically best Christmas movie is really only four words: Jude Law At Peak. Yes, there’s also plot (two broken hearts, a last-minute home swap, love etc), a stacked cast (Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Lindsay Lohan as herself) and randomly the only romcom score Hans Zimmer ever wrote (?) but Jude Law At Peak is really all you need to know. And if that’s somehow not convincing enough, let me elaborate: Jude Law as Sexy Widower/Perfect Daddy of two adorable little girls who also happens to be Smart Book Editor at Major London Publisher. The only marker of imperfection on this brilliant holiday picture? The fact that Kate Winslet ends up with Jack Black. Justice for Kate Winslet!!!
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