The sacred, sometimes scary, feeling of seeing yourself in the movies feels slightly different during the holidays, amplified even. Everyone’s got their go-to’s during the season. In a poll conducted by Little Village, some of you mentioned your favorites were classics, like the claymation Frosty and Rudolph films or Christmas Vacation. Some of you mentioned less conventional but nonetheless festive titles like Eyes Wide Shut and Gremlins. These silver-screen seasonal moments can offer us the joy, wonder and communion we hope to emulate or the melancholy and sorrow of another year gone by that feels all too familiar. Maybe you don’t even really consider yourself a “movie person,” but if there is ever a time to find yourself falling in love with the movies, it’s December.
My family and I have several cinematic traditions around Christmas: Jingle All The Way, It’s a Wonderful Life and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. We have watched these three films every year for as long as I can remember. Over this past Thanksgiving break, my father revealed the earth-shattering news that he actually does not like Jingle All The Way very much. I couldn’t believe it! It was a possibility that had never occurred to me. When I asked why he never said anything, he responded, “Because you all like it so much.”
It’s interesting the artistic sacrifices we make for the ones we love around this time of year. Back before streaming, I remember my mom finding the commercial breaks between cable showings of It’s a Wonderful Life unbearable. A 2-hour 10-minute movie felt like a lifetime, and she couldn’t stand it. These last few years, she’s come around to sitting through the DVD.
When I asked other friends in Iowa about their Christmas movie moments, one said that they watch A Christmas Story on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning: “As I got older, I would ask ‘Why do we have to watch it both nights? I think once is enough.’ My mom would jokingly say, ‘How dare you even say that?!’ For her, it was about the nostalgia, and for her three kids, it was us wanting to watch a Christmas movie that came from our own generation. As we get older, there really are few times out of the year when we can all be together and ideally enjoy each other’s company; movies are great for that reason.”
For some, the power of the movies during December doesn’t only bring family together but strangers. Another friend said their favorite movie memory was “Seeing Carol on 35 mm at the Music Box last Christmas with a theater of fellow queer women!” There’s just something about sitting in a hallowed auditorium and coming back out into the holiday air, so much so that even watching movies that aren’t about Christmas feels like an event. A film professor shared, “After festivities, my cousin & I would sneak out to catch a new Christmas Eve film together.” (How many reading will sneak out to watch the Christmas Day showings of Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu at FilmScene, The Last Picture House or Varsity Cinema?) This time of year gets everyone thinking about intimacy, and when presents are unwrapped and dinner-time conversations are done, the chance to make memories through the media we watch together is a gift in and of itself.
After my dad shared his [incorrect] truth about Jingle All The Way, he added that he really loves The Family Man, where Nicolas Cage plays a wealthy man who one day wakes up in the parallel timeline in which he never left his old sweetheart. While we’ve seen it together before, it isn’t one of our holiday staples. When I asked why he liked the film, he said, “I think that every man reaches a point when they want a ‘do-over.’ ” I told him we should definitely add it to the roster this year. Sometimes the best holiday movies make us feel a little bit wistful.
It’s also special to consider what films you share across different relationships. Holiday films that have become special with my partner include The Holdovers, The Little Shop Around the Corner, and most recently, The Muppet Christmas Carol. After putting the star up on our first tree together, we watched the film while sipping on hot chocolates with espresso. I don’t know if it’s just the time of year–I am particularly sentimental and love this ceremonious end–or the morning haze, but seeing the Muppets, prized for their love and kindness, filled me with so much love and gratitude for where I am in life. Having only just moved to Iowa in August, this is my first time living somewhere that snows. I am enjoying my first White Christmas, something I’d only seen in the movies and dreamed of experiencing. Now it’s my reality and I am so grateful for that.
Another friend back home and I share The Family Stone. Every year we find new things to love about it. It’s a special story about the complicated feelings surrounding coming home for the holidays. While dysfunction can be an easy plot device for a movie about family stress during Christmas, it’s ultimately about a family that loves each other so much. Being home for the holidays doesn’t always go smoothly, but life isn’t scripted, and we shouldn’t expect ourselves to have it all figured out after 90 minutes.
Finally, a movie I love so much that it’s a favorite year-round. The film I can quote the most and have loved the longest: When Harry Met Sally. New Year’s Eve enchantment is just as important as Christmas in my opinion, and this is one film I like to watch alone. Mostly so I don’t bother others by saying the dialogue out loud, but also because cinematic traditions that bring us closer to ourselves are just as important as ones that bring us closer to others.
I hope to those who are reading this that your end of the year is filled with lots of movies, whether they be watched out of love or familial duty. Whether enjoyed on the comfort of your couch, or at the lovely screenings theaters like Fleur Cinema, Varsity, FilmScene, or The Last Picture House, take the time to treat the movies like faithful friends who are dear to us and let them gather near to us once more.
