Five Fandom Friday: My Must-See List of Christmas Movies

This 5 Fandom Friday is inspiring a lot of classics in other posts, but to be honest I'm not much of a Christmas classics fan. Some of my choices will be a little....odd.

1. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

But really, is Christmas complete without this Rankin-Bass gem? No. No, it isn't. Burl Ives' singing is enough to make me feel better no matter how stressed or freaked-out I'm feeling.

2. The Charlie Brown Christmas Special

I think this one and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer were the only specials we watched regularly. The soundtrack also got heavy play during Christmas, which is fine by me.

3. The MST3K Santa Claus/Santa Claus Conquers the Martians double-header

True, Thanksgiving and its Turkey Day Marathon is like the High Holy Day for MSTies, but there's no shortage of (if by "no shortage of" you mean "two") Christmas episodes to enjoy once you've woken up from your Thanksgiving food coma.

4. The RiffTrax Christmas marathon

Mike, Kevin, and Bill (you don't know how hard it was NOT to type "Mike, Tom, and Crow," or maybe you do) have really outdone themselves on digging up really creepy old holiday shorts. JV and I are particularly fond of Nestor the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey, Santa's Village of Madness, Christmas Rhapsody, Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny, and A Christmas Dream. All of those, I can assure you, are as bizarre as they sound. Bonus points go to Nestor for being the bleakest, grimmest Christmas special I can imagine...and it's by Rankin and Bass! 

5. The Big Lebowski

Okay, so I skipped from Christmas to New Year's. Yes, for me, The Big Lebowski is a New Year's staple. I don't know why, except that it's a movie that bears up under rewatching and also goes well with booze.

What movies do you have to watch during the holidays?