In the spirit of the season, I do hereby present my personal all-time ten favorite Christmas movies.  Try to catch them all this December to relive the memories!

10. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation – It isn’t the funniest Vacation movie, to be sure, but it’s got enough chuckles to carry you through.

9. The Nightmare Before Christmas – Christmas and Halloween, together at last!  The stop-motion animation is really fun to watch, and this is definitely not your typical holiday fare.

8. Bad Santa – Also not your typical Christmas movie, this is NOT one to watch with the kiddies.  And don’t bother watching it on cable where all of the good stuff will be edited out – you need to see this film in it’s unedited, raunchy glory to really appreciate just how dark and twisted this movie gets.

7. Elf – Will Ferrel as an over-enthused anything is going to be funny, and seeing him play a six-foot plus tall elf trying to get everyone into the spirit of Christmas just works.

6. Home Alone – I think every kid in my generation saw this movie in the theater at least 3 or 4 times.  It had a perfect “kids rule!” message, and watching Macaulay Culkin beat the snot out of Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern was more than any kid could ask for.

5. A Christmas Story – Everyone knows it by heart, and it does get annoying when they play it for a month straight, but it is pretty damn memorable.  Best line(s): “Daddy’s gonna kill Ralphie!”  “Daddy is not going to KILL Ralphie!” “He is so!”

4. Love Actually – Best chick flick/rom-com ever.  It’s funny, sweet, and just a little bit sad.  And they play “G-d Only Knows” over the credits.   And Elisha Cuthbert is in it!

3. Gremlins – Sorry Sam, but you’re the only person on Earth who is (still) afraid of these guys.  They’re funny, and who wouldn’t want to get an adorable little Mogwai on Christmas morning?

2. Scrooged – Bill Murray is a comedic legend, and his role as a curmudgeonly television exec who hates Christmas is a really enjoyable take on the Christmas Carol story.

1. Die Hard – Of course it counts as a Christmas movie!  John McClane is going to his wife’s office Christmas party, which, as it happens, is under attack by terrorists.  But that’s OK, because McClane kicks ass, blows stuff up, and (SPOILER ALERT) drops the main bad guy off of the building and reunites with his wife for the holiday.  If that isn’t the true spirit of Christmas, then I just don’t know what is.