#1 Top Christmas Movie – Home Alone
(115 points, 17 of 20 lists, highest rated #1 by Scotsman and NippleAppleCrap)

Wow.

Just…..wow.

When all lists were in, and all votes were tallied – I couldn’t quite believe it.  I checked, I rechecked, I triple-checked, and it was correct.

Home Alone was the #1 Best Christmas Movie, as voted by NPP.

Since that fact came to light on November 30th, I’ve spent the last month debating how exactly to write this article.  I could write it like all the others, with an unbiased but positive tone to all of them – although that’s hard to do considering it’s my all-time favourite movie.

I could write about the movie, and all the great, heartwarming moments.  Old Man Marley stepping in to save Kevin, or Kate McCallisters speech at the airport(”This is Christmas.  The season of perpetual hope.  And I don’t care if I have to get out on your runway and hitchike.  If it costs me everything I own, if I have to sell my soul to the deveil himself, I am going to get home to my son.”)

Or I could just focus on the comedy of which there is a lot.  Kevin grocery shopping, Kevin going through Buzz’s stuff(“Buzz, your girlfriend, WOOF!”) or of course Marv and Harry breaking in to the house, and the hinjinx that occur.

I could even bore you with trivia.  Like the fact that Robert De Niro was originally intended to be Harry.  Or that Joe Pesci had to have many scenes re-done because he kept saying the word “fuck”.  I could even tell you where all the cast and characters are now, as it’s one of those strange things I try and keep up on.  Sidenote: There is a very funny interview with Buzz on the Family Fun Edition DVD where he talks about where he is now that is must-watch material.  Even after all these years, the man has not lost his sense of humour.

I could even just write about what this movie means to me, why I’ve saw it over 500 times, or the time I was high on coke, and spent hours performing the movie word for word for a group of friends, because sadly, I know all the words to this movie.  I can’t remember what I had for breakfast this morning, but I can quote this movie word for word.

Rather than do all that though, I’m just going to thank you.  I want to thank every one of you that voted for this movie.  Vern, Hamass, Ormie, AnarchyUTD, Robelgordo, Tucho, Nibbles, Dirty Hun, Coolhandluke, n00b, Taff(especially Taff!), buckdiddy, NAC, hockeyrama, manbooba, and Kendergardener. 

Thank you, for acknowledging Home Alone as the #1 Christmas Movie.

It’s the best Christmas Present I could’ve ever got.

(94 points, 10 out of 20 lists, highest rating at #1 by buckdiddy, hockeyrama, manbooba)

“He looks like a deranged Easter Bunny.”
“He does not!”
“He does too, he looks like a pink nightmare! “

Could there be any simpler plot than the plot to A Christmas Story, a tale about a young boy who wants only one gift for Christmas, more than anything else in the world.  In this case, it’s 9 year old Ralphie Parker wanting a BB gun, or to be more specific, “A Red Ryder BB gun with a compass in the stock, and this thing which tells time.”

Yet A Christmas Story is anything but simple – it’s more a series of short vignettes centered around this one main storyline.  Vignettes involve Ralphies brother going to school in a snow suit that looks like he’s going “deep sea diving”, or a triple dog dare involving placing ones tongue on a frozen flag pole.  Then there’s the dad, who wins an absolutely horrific looking lamp in a contest, which he proudly displays in his front window.  Then more serious items on the agenda, like Ralphies dealing with school bullies, as well as more traditionally Christmas shorts, like buying a christmas tree, and of course the age-old gift of socks for Christmas.

This is a highly entertaining movie, covering all the serious, humorous and heartwarming aspects of it very well.  All Ralphie wants is that BB gun for Christmas, although it seems so unlikely he’ll get it, as he is told – “you’ll shoot your eye out”.  Par for the course with this movie, Ralphie gets that BB gun, goes out to play with it, and you guessed it – almost shoots his eye out.

This is a very well-done movie, and takes such a simple plot that everyone can relate to, puts a whole new spin on it,and turns it into a unique and highly entertaining movie, which is easily considered a Christmas Classic.

 (89 points, 15 of 20 lists, highest rating by Shaft at #2)

“Nine million terrorists in the world and I gotta kill one with feet smaller than my sister. ” 

Although not directly taken from “A Christmas Carol”, Die Hard still has many similarities to the legendary tale by Charles Dickens.  All the office people in the Nakatomi Plaza want to do is have a fun Christmas party, yet it is ruined by the “Scrooge” of the movie in Hans Gruber, who takes all the party participants hostage with his gang of gun-wielding terrorists, as he attempts to steal hundreds of millions of dollars from the vault in the building.
 
 In the original tale, Scrooge was visited by ghosts to make him see the error of his ways.  In Die Hard, Scrooge is visited not by ghosts, but by the baddest motherfucker of the past, present and future in NYPD Cop John McClane, whose estranged wife is among the hostages.  Like the ghosts however he wants to teach Scrooge a lesson – by killing him, and anyone associated with him, by any means possible.
 
 YIPPEE-KI-YAY, MOTHERFUCKER.
 
 Die Hard is THE fucking action movie, and just like McClane takes out the terrorists against all odds, Die Hard makes up of its poor showing on NPPs Top 50 Movies List(#38) by becoming the #3 Best Christmas Movie as voted by NPP, despite not one person voting it for number one.  And really, who can blame it?  Die Hard is the perfect movie for all seasons, and for all events.  Came home from a New Years party at 3am and still got that coke buzz going?  Time for Die Hard!  Hot girl wants to come over and watch a movie?  DIE HARD.  At a time where all action movies were made up of big, muscled Rambo clones, Die Hard and John McClane broke the mold, in doing so creating the best action movie franchise in history.  It’s arguable if any other movie impacted a genre such as Die Hard, and finally on NPP it gets the recognition it deserves.

(82 points, 16 of 20 lists, highest rating by robelgordo @ #1)

As evidenced by the above statistics, Scrooged starring Bill Murray is hardly anyones top Christmas favourite, however despite only being #1 on one persons list, it featured on 16 peoples(would have been 17 if I had watched it before my list) top lists, an incredible 85% of all lists.  This was the joint most popular movie on the list, along with the #1 movie.

Scrooged is yet another adaption of the Charles Dicken novel, A Christmas Carl.  It stars Bill Murray as Frank Cross, the youngest network executive in television history and a complete asshole to boot.  His focus on his career, and his whole “being a complete cunt” thing, has cost him both the love of his life and his family.  He’s focused on just one thing: work, work and more work. 

“If you can’t work late, I can’t work late.  If I can’t work late, I CAN’T WORK LATE.”

Cross is in charge of a live broadcast of A Christmas Carol, however just like the TV special that he is in charge of, he gets visited by three ghosts who attempt to change his evil ways, by showing him Christmas past, present and future.  Unlike most other conversions of this tale however, Scrooged is played mostly for comedy.  It’s also a more modern-type adaption of this old story, and is written very well, with some great humour in it.

“It’s a bone, you lucky dog.”

Bill Murray takes up most of the screentime and is absolutely fantastic in his role – he plays the cocky asshole character to perfection.  There is also some other great performances by the likes of Bobcat Goldwaithe and Carol Kane, but Bill Murray is the real star of the show, with his talent in making his character so natural.  Scrooged is without a doubt, the best pure comedy Christmas movie.

“The bitch hit me with a toaster!”

(66 points, 11 out of 20 lists, highest rating #1 by Coolhandluke, Dirty Hun, n00b)

“Where do you think you’re going? Nobody’s leaving. Nobody’s walking out on this fun, old-fashioned family Christmas. No, no. We’re all in this together. This is a full-blown, four-alarm holiday emergency here. We’re gonna press on, and we’re gonna have the hap, hap, happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap-danced with Danny fucking Kaye. And when Santa squeezes his fat white ass down that chimney tonight, he’s gonna find the jolliest bunch of assholes this side of the nuthouse”

Ah yes, back in the days where “National Lampoons” being attached to a movie was enough to know that it was going to be a great comedy.  This is the third film in the “Vacation” series, focusing on the Griswold family, with Chevy Chase spearheading the family tree.  Another Christmas classic written by John Hughes, it follows their attempts to have an old-fashioned Christmas.

“Is your house on fire, Clark?”
“No, Aunt Bethany, those are the Christmas lights.”

All Clark Griswold wants is that nice, traditional family christmas.  Grandmas, grandpas, in-laws, nieces, nephews, aunts and uncles are all on their way to celebrate Christmas at the Griswolds home.  Clark goes all out to make this a great christmas, including attempting to cover every square inch of his house with Christmas lights, driving out to the country to get a humongous tree.  Yet it’s not all christmas related gags – one of the funniest parts is when Clark ends up locked in his attic for a few hours, and decides to wear womens clothing to stay warm, then of course falls through the trap door.  Or his conversation with the department store saleswoman, “It is a bit nipply out.  I mean nippy.  What am I saying, nipple?”

This is a very well done comedy, with both great slapstick and written material.  However every comedy needs that extra “something” to make it special – and National Lampoons Christmas Vacation has that, in cousin Eddie, played by Randy Quaid, who pretty much shows up and steals the whole movie.  And what better way to end a nice, traditional Christmas movie than a raid by a S.W.A.T. team on the home?

“Merry Christmas. Shitter was full. “