The 12 Days of Christmas Movies Challenge

The Premise is simple watch twelve Christmas movies in the run up to the main event, to help you out and illustrate the plan more fully; I’ve compiled a list of potential candidates, breaking them down to the twelve days.

13^th/Day 1 – Home Alone (1990)  Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) is left behind when his family go away for the holidays, he’s forced to not only take care of himself but two burglars plaguing his street.

14^th/Day 2 – Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) This time round Kevin ends up lost in New York, but finds himself coming face to face with Harry & Marv (Joe Pesci & Daniel Stern), the two crooks helped put away.

15^th/Day 3 – Disney’s Christmas Carol (2009) The latest Motion Capture film from Robert Zemeckis (Polar Express, Beowulf) where Jim Carrey plays Scrooge, as well  as the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to come, and Gary Oldman plays the ghost of Jacob Marley, Bob Cratchit and his son Tiny Tim.

16^th/Day 4 – Fred Claus (2007) Vince Vaughn plays Fred the elder brother of Nicolas (Paul Giamatti) a.k.a. Santa Claus. Growing with his saintly brother, Fred becomes a grouch, but when his brother is in trouble, Fred’s goes to help out.

17^th/Day 5 – The Christmas Story (2007) or Joulutarina as it is known in its native Finland, tells the story of the orphan boy Nickolas and how he became the legendary St, Nick. Don’t panic those who can’t handle subtitles, its also available in an English dub.

18^th/Day 6 – Santa Claus: The Movie (1985) – When Patch (Dudley Moore) is past up for promotion at Santa’s workshop he breaks out on his own, winding up for wicked toy maker B.Z. a man only interested in profit, rather than spreading the joy of Christmas.

19^th/Day 7 – Christmas with the Kranks (2004) based on the John Grisham novel Skipping Christmas, the film follows Luther (Tim Allen) & Nora Krank (Jamie Lee Curtis) who after realising their daughter won’t be home for the holidays decide to boycott in favour of a cruise, much to the annoyance of their neighbours.

20^th/Day 8 – The Grinch (2000) Another adaptation, this time Dr Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas, in which The Grinch (Jim Carrey) adepts to do just that, until he learns the error of his ways. The Grinch is also the second highest grossing Christmas of all time, after Home Alone.

21^st/Day 9 – It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) The Frank Capra classic stars James Stewart as George Bailey, a man whose imminent suicide on Christmas Eve brings about the intervention of his guardian angel Clarence, who shows George all the lives he has touched and the contributions he has made to his community.

22^nd/Day 10 – Deck the Halls (2006) Matthew Broderick and Danny DeVito battle it out for the most lavish Christmas display.

23^rd/Day 11 – Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) I think this is probably my favourite Christmas movie. The Muppets take on the Dickens’ classic novel, with the brilliant Michael Caine as Scrooge and Kermit the Frog as Bob Cratchit

24^th/Day 12 – Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) a Stop Motion animation from Henry Selick (Coraline) based on the story by filmmaker Tim Burton. Jack Skellington fed up with the scares of Halloween discovers the holiday of Christmas, and decides this year he going to take Santa’s place.

Still not decided which pieces of festive filmic fancy you wish to indulge in here’s a few more to consider. :

The Santa Claus 1-3, The Dog Who Saved Christmas, Santa’s Slay, I’ll be Home for Christmas, Jingle All the Way, Yogi’s First Christmas, Bad Santa, A Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie, Miracle on 34^th Street, White Christmas, Elf, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Scrooge, Black Christmas, Polar Express, Scrooged…. And the list goes on

Give it a go; it would be interesting to see what makes it on to other people’s list, as well as how everybody does, so please keep me up dated via the comments box beneath this post.

Happy Viewing and Merry Christmas.