My Top 5 80's Christmas Movies

Whenever the holiday season approaches, I find myself waxing nostalgic over a handful of Christmas movies I enjoyed as a teen, in the mid 1980's. Styles and tastes were a little different then than what modern teens would appreciate; however, those great times offered up a wealth of classic holiday movies. From classic, heartwarming family films to zany holiday hijinx, to a few that barely qualify as holiday oriented, these are my nominees for the Top 5 Greatest 80's Christmas Movies.

A Christmas Story (1983, MGM): A slice of Post WWII Americana. Set in the 1940's, A Christmas Story follows young Ralphie and his family through the typical ups and downs of the Christmas season, such as licking the frozen flagpole, braving the department store Santa and the legendary Red Rider BB gun and Mom screaming "You'll shoot your eye out!" A truly heartwarming romp through the holidays as seen through the eyes of a child, during a simpler time.

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989, Warner Bros.): The inimitable Chevy Chase appears again as Clark Griswold in National Lampoon's holiday laugh riot. Clark has planned a decadent Christmas, counting on his generous Christmas bonus. What he hasn't planned on is a whirlwind of mishaps beginning when his redneck cousin (impeccably played by Randy Quaid) parks his family's home, an aging RV, in Clark's driveway. Christmas tree fires, cat electrocutions and exploding sewer gases lead the way into a downward spiral of Yuletide chaos that will have you chuckling to yourself hours after the film is over.

Better Off Dead (1985, Warner Bros.): John Cusack plays Lane Meyer, a young man despondent over the loss of his girlfriend Beth to a ski team rival, and doomed to spend the Christmas season alone. He languishes in pain and self-doubt, wavering between suicidal and determined to regain her love by a suicidal ski run. If he hopes to survive until New Years, Lane also has to contend with his brilliant but hopelessly perverted younger brother, a gorgeous French foreign exchange student across the street and a psychotic paperboy intent on payback. Curtis Armstrong plays Charles, Lane's best friend and would-be druggie, who is trying to keep Lane's spirits up. Perhaps my favorite movie quote of all time is while Lane is staring down off a snowy precipice with Charles (Armstrong) nearby snorting real snow, "Aw, c'mon dude, it's Christmas Eve. I could be home right now drinking this MONSTER eggnog my brother makes with lighter fluid. And you've been staring down that cliff for hours when people have DIED down there! And dying when you're not really sick is really sick! Y'know? Really!"

Scrooged (1988, Paramount): Bill Murray plays a workaholic broadcasting exec that has lost touch with the meaning of Christmas and it shows in his plans for this year's network holiday extravaganza, complete with Vegas showgirls! In keeping with Charles Dickens' original tale, Murray is visited by three Christmas ghosts, as prophesied by his dead boss (still wearing his moldy golf clothes). Wacky holiday misadventure ensues in rapid fire as only the amazing Bill Murray can produce, as the three ghosts show him the Christmases he's forgotten as well as the ones he'll miss.

Gremlins (1984, Warner Bros.): While barely qualifying for the list, this 1984 blockbuster centered around an exotic pet that was purchased as a Christmas gift. When Randall Peltzer (Hoyt Axton) brings home a rare "mogwai" from a Chinese family that needed the money, his son discovers first-hand why he isn't supposed to get them wet or feed them after midnight. This film fluctuates from thrills and mayhem to hilarious tongue-in-cheek comedy including Phoebe Cates' immortal "The Christmas My Daddy Died" monologue while wading thru the chaos and destruction wrought on their small, Midwest town by the marauding gremlins. According to Wikipedia, some of the movie's more violent scenes were considered inappropriate for younger moviegoers and overstepped the bounds of the film's PG rating. This film, among others at that time heralded the implementation of the PG-13 movie rating.

Honorable Mention: A couple films were good in their own right, and were set during the holidays, but failed to make enough of a festive impression to meet my standards for Greatest 80's Christmas Movies. To determine if these movies truly fit the Christmas movie criteria, I tried to rename them with a holiday based language.

Die Hard (1988, 20th Century Fox): Okay, first let me state that Christmas movies in sunny Southern California never quite feel like Christmas movies. My alternative title - "Please Daddy Stop Shooting Up the Nakatomi Building and Come Home for Christmas."

Lethal Weapon (1987, Warner Bros.): Again, in sunny Southern California at Christmas time, two mismatched cops take on mercenaries and drug runners in a movie I've re-titled "Riggs and Murtaugh Save Christmas While Destroying Half of LA."

Sources:

Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gremlins
Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Lampoon%27s_Christmas_Vacation
Release dates and Distributors, Wikipedia.