Top Ten Christmas Comedies

Christmas will be here before we know it and it is important to claim the remote and shuffle the dvds to find your favorites. Here are the best ten Christmas comedies for 2009

1. A Christmas Story (1983) Jean Shepherd's holiday classic about a boy and his overwhelming desire for a Red Ryder bee bee gun. This film is perennially on the top of everyone's viewing list. Ralphie and Randy are good boys who actually get what they want for Christmas. The Old Man is great to watch especially any time the next door neighbors dogs are around. Great movie for the whole family.

2. Scrooged (1988) Bill Murray as a television executive modeled on Dickens' Scrooge. His unusual assortment of Christmas Ghosts include Carol Kane as Christmas Present. She enjoys bonking him on the head quite a bit. Great cameos from all the Murray brothers and why yes, that is the original Saturday Night Live Band playing on the sidewalk. Very very funny especially if you are a Murray fan.

3. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989). I have seen this movie so many times I can recite the dialogue in some scenes, but it still makes me laugh, Chevy Chase at his best as Clark Griswold having a vacation at home this time, in an attempt to have the perfect holiday. Poor Clark, why do all his best laid plans go awry? Great scenes are Chevy trapped in the attic watching old family movies and any scene with Randy Quaid as Cousin Eddie. It is hard to believe that this film is 20 years old this year.

4. Home Alone (1990). The late John Hughes genius is more than evident in this blockbuster about a kid who is left home alone for the holidays. Macauley Culkin became a star after this film was made, but the supporting cast is as good as it gets with Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern as the bumbling bandits and Catherine O'Hara and John Heard as the frazzled parents. The next two in this series were not anywhere nearly as good as the original.

5. Trapped in Paradise (1994) This film is surely a sleeper and bound for greater recognition in years to come. The three Firpo brothers find themselves trapped in Paradise, PA after they rob the local bank. Nic Cage, Jon Lovitz and Dana Carvey are the bungling bank robbers who are treated so kindly by the towns folk that they return the stolen money, In one hilarious scene, Jon Lovitz is holding the town captive and forcing all to sing. The scene is side splitting it is so funny. I am not a big Lovitz fan but even I laugh at this one.

6. Love Actually (2003) A romantic comedy but too funny to leave off this list as well. Love stories of eight couples are interwined in the British film of many many stars. The incredibly funny Bill Nighy as a fading rock star is not to be missed. Christmas in London is so much fun even without the entanglements, but be sure to catch this film this year. The score to the film is also pretty fabulous.

7. The Family Stone (2005) Another ensemble of stars in this Christmas tale about a young man who brings his fiance home for Christmas to meet his dysfunctional family. They don't exactly like her very much and it is hard to say why they don't. They do like her sister who comes a long to provide moral support. All in all none of these people are very likeable on their own but as a group they are ridiculously funny. Some great slapstick in the midst of the mayhem makes for a great release from all the tension.

8. Mixed Nuts (1994). I am the only person I know who has actually seen this Nora Ephron movie with a stellar cast including Steve Martin, Rita Wilson, Juliette Lewis, and Madleine Kahn, among many others. The story revolves around the goings on at a Crisis Hotline Center on Christmas Eve, while a serial killer is on the loose. Liev Schreiber is hilarious as a cross dresser and Anthony LaPaglia is equally compelling as a father to be wearing a Santa suit. If anything can go wrong, it will, in this madcap comedy. The vet scenes are my favorite but every scene has a chuckle or two.

9. While You Were Sleeping (1995). Technically a romantic comedy set during Christmas, the story revolves around an orphaned token clerk, Lucy (Sandra Bullock), who falls in love with Peter (Peter Gallagher) from afar. When Peter is shoved onto train tracks and lapses into a coma, Lucy meets the rest of Peter's family and falls in love with all of them as well, but especially brother Jack (Bill Pullman). The cast is stellar, the laughs are many and it is charming with out being sugary sweet. Great family scenes including one at the dinner table where each family member is engaged in a different conversation bring this piece home and keep it real!

10. The Holiday (2006). Two professional women from different sides of the Atlantic trade homes for the Christmas holiday and experience life changing events. Kate Winslet, with Cameron Diaz, Jude Law and Jack Black star in this new holiday romance classic. Well done and perfectly cast. You will definitely get a kick out of Cameron Diaz fantasies in movie trailer form.

May peace, joy and laughter be yours this holiday season.