Christmas Specials/Films?

[Lexo Ross]

Quite similar to the other topics we have here at the moment, based on the Christmas Playlists and Dwarf episodes we watch at this time of year, are there any films or TV episodes you traditionally watch at Christmas?

My ones are:
Elf
The Muppet Christmas Carol
All the South Park Christmas episodes (Mr Hankey’s Christmas Classics, Red Sleigh Down and Woodland Critter Christmas being my favourites)
Family Guy: Road To The North Pole
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Bad Santa

Yours?

Topic

[genericnerdyusername]

Scrooged, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, George C. Scott’s A Christmas Carol…I’ll add more as they occur to me.

[genericnerdyusername]

Oh yes and A Christmas Story! “You’ll shoot your eye out!” Classic film.

[Pecospete666]

The tongue on the frozen pole gets me every time I see it! and I can feel the skin ripping

[Reece]

Bottom: Holy

… that’s it really. That plus the usual Christmas garbage.

[Jo]

Xmas Eve viewing in the Sharples/Symes household:
The Snowman
Father Christmas
It’s A Wonderful Life
League of Gentlemen Christmas Special.

I also try to watch Scrooged, Home Alone, Die Hard, Santa Claus: The Movie and The Santa Clause at some point over Xmas :D

[Sam Johnson]

Bad Santa
Die Hard
It’s a Wonderful Life

I think it’s a wonderful life genuinely qualifies for a high spot in my favourite films of all time list. Although to be honest, it isn’t really a Christmas film until the last ten minutes.

[Jo]

>Although to be honest, it isn’t really a Christmas film until the last ten minutes.

Oh, let’s not start with that bollocks.

[genericnerdyusername]

Oh yeah and Doctor Who.

[HelloMabel]

The Christmas episode of Vicar of Dibley!

[Ian Symes]

Xmas Eve viewing in the Sharples/Symes household:
The Snowman
Father Christmas
It’s A Wonderful Life
League of Gentlemen Christmas Special.

With additional listening, in the Symes portion of the household at least, of I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Christmas Carol. Also try to fit in Knowing Me Knowing Yule and A Christmassy Ted in the few days leading up.

[Pete Part Three]

Most of my absolute faves have been said so, to avoid block-quoting the fuck out of everyone, I’ll just do a list. And if I mention something you’ve said, kudos to you.

Scrooged (Second half is a bit ropey but Murray owns all.)
South Park: Woodland Critters’ Christmas (Sublime. A Very Crappy Christmas is also awesome.)
A Muppet Christmas Carol (always watch this on Christmas Eve, just don’t get me started on the missing song).
Home Alone
Die Hard 1 + 2
It’s a Wonderful Life
Bottom: Holy (I think this might be my favourite Bottom episode. I love Richie’s relentless desperation in it)
BlackAdder’s Christmas Carol (Genius)
The Box of Delights
In Bruges (it’s a Christmas movie, dammit)
George C. Scott’s A Christmas Carol (for a “straight” adaptation, I think this bests Sim)

[Seb Patrick]

Home Alone
Trading Places
Knowing Me Knowing Yule
The Office US: Christmas Party
A Christmassy Ted
Blackadder’s Christmas Carol
Peep Show: Seasonal Beatings
The Christmas Invasion

[Sam Johnson]

“In Bruges (it’s a Christmas movie, dammit)”

Dear god! I’d never even considered this as being a Christmas film! I might have to add this to my list as well.

[anniescribe]

Die Hard is definitely holiday fare. “YIPEE KI AY, KRINGLE!”

Christmas Vacation is a perennial favorite, too. Who can resist baby Leonard? ;-)

[Connell]

Blackadder’s Christmas Carol is a bit of a must for me, I also don’t mind watching The Muppets Christmas Carol as it holds great childhood memories. That’s about it, although I will watch the obligatory stuff they show on tv each year, be it re-runs (e.g Elf) or new material like Doctor Who)

[Carlito]

Christmas isn’t Christmas without some Only Fools and Horses. I do love Dates and The Jolly Boy’s Outing (and the 1996 ‘final’ trilogy) most of all. Also, it seems that One Foot in the Grave is slowly becoming a forgotten classic as time passes, I have no idea why it doesn’t seem to be more fondly remembered/touted as a Christmas tradition (or, indeed, just in general). Maybe because most of the OFITG Christmas specials weren’t actually set at Christmas time, but a couple were. In fact, a fair number of the OFAH specials weren’t actually set at Christmas, from To Hull and Back onwards. The Father Ted special is overplayed, I do genuinely believe it has been aired every single year since it debuted (1996?) and is probably a little too long, but it’s certainly a classic.

Scrooged is probably my personal favourite Christmas movie. Christmas Vacation is good, as is Bad Santa. Trading Places of course. And films set at Christmas time but not really Christmas themed, you have Gremlins, Go, Die Hard – classics, all.

The Royle Family episode where Denise goes into labour captures the lazy Christmas afterglow/anti-climax pretty perfectly, and was an inspiration behind my Christmas Day set episode of Red Dwarf Animated (PLUG!). The more recent Royle episodes have been hit-and-miss for me though.

The Jonathan Creek Christmas special starring Rik Mayall was a great one. Even though it wasn’t Christmas themed, it was set during snowfall which makes it feel Christmassy.

Some or all of the above get a play in the Carlito household this time of year.

On the other end of the spectrum, Love Actually is one of the worst films I ever saw at the cinema. One or two amusing threads/cameos but mainly sentimental tripe. Not even in a good, cheesy, Christmassy way.

[Carlito]

Also, Batman Returns is a great Christmas film.

I kinda hoped for years that Ghostbusters 3 would be set during the holiday season too, I think it would make an interesting twist.

[MANI506]

Blackadder’s Christmas Carol is either my favourite episode or very near to it.
Bottom Holy – of course.
A Christmassy Ted.
Here’s an odd one though…

BBC2 showed an animated version of Gary Larson’s The Far Side one Christmas. I remember it being amazing and watched it all over Christmas 95. After that it… fell off. I’ll hunt for that later.

[Pete Part Three]

I think the problem with the OFITG specials is that because they were about an hour rather than the usual 30 minutes, all the disparate elements often make it harder to gel together as a satisfactory story. I love the darkness of that show though and would agree that it seems to be fading from public consciousness far too quickly.

>In fact, a fair number of the OFAH specials weren’t actually set at Christmas

The first three series specials are all pretty good and set around Xmas. The only other real candidate is Fatal Extraction and that’s a very clunky episode. I watched it the other day and was amazed at how long and badly paced it was. Bugger all happens and the ending… I really don’t know what they’re saying.

>The Jonathan Creek Christmas special starring Rik Mayall was a great one. Even though it wasn’t Christmas themed, it was set during snowfall which makes it feel Christmassy.

Black Canary. Best episode methinks.

> The more recent Royle episodes have been hit-and-miss for me though.

I didn’t mind the 2010 one but the show has become a bit of a parody of itself.

And yes, Love Actually is fucking awful. And I actually kinda like Four Weddings so I don’t automatically hate Richard Curtis’s cinematic output.

Oh. The Men Behaving Badly special from 97 is great too.

[Pecospete666]

How the Grinch stole Xmas

[anniescribe]

How the Grinch stole Xmas

Now you’re just baiting us.

[takerdemon]

Blackadder’s Christmas Carol
Bottom: Holy
A Very Christmassy Ted
Home Alone 1 & 2
The Muppet Christmas Carol
The 1996 Only Fools & Horses Trilogy

And… Jingle All The Way!

Any film with Arnie lamping a reindeer in the face is inherently funny in my books.

[Seb Patrick]

>> The more recent Royle episodes have been hit-and-miss for me though.
>I didn’t mind the 2010 one but the show has become a bit of a parody of itself.

Was 2010 the caravan holiday? That one was pretty decent, but the one at Dave’s parents was one of the worst things that’s ever been on British television.

EDIT: Ah, no, the caravan was 2009. The awful one was 2008. 2010 I don’t really remember much about, I seem to recall it was fairly passable, but the show really doesn’t do anything new or interesting now. Give us an Early Doors Christmas Special, I say!

[Connell]

Almost forgot to mention the institution which is Wallace and Gromit. A must on any Christmas day!

[genericnerdyusername]

>BBC2 showed an animated version of Gary Larson’s The Far Side one Christmas. I remember it being amazing and watched it all over Christmas 95. After that it… fell off. I’ll hunt for that later.

I have that on video! It’s brilliant.

[MANI506]

Oh, here it is…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gagjC_sZQ80

First minute is great anyway. Onto the rest :)

[clem]

Challenge are showing Crystal Maze Christmas Specials this week. I like how the kids get the big prize no matter how well they do just because, fuck it, it’s Christmas!

[Ben Paddon]

Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas.

[Alex]

These are all things I try to catch over the course of December.

TV:
Knowing Me Knowing Yule
Bottom – Holy
Father Ted – A Christmassy Ted
Blackadder’s Christmas Carol
League of Gentlemen Christmas Special
Men Behaving Badly – Jingle Balls
A Child’s Christmases In Wales
The Peter Serafinowicz Christmas Special
Doctor Who – A Christmas Carol

Film:
Trading Places
Father Christmas
It’s A Wonderful Life
Scrooge

And as Ian brought it up, I also try to listen to I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Christmas Carol as well. I went to the recording of this year’s Christmas special with Steven Fry which was great, so that’s sure to be added to the list in years to come.

[clem]

[Pecospete666]

This is pretty good! And I approve of the tax dollars spent on it!

Pecospete (@pecospete_666)
12/24/12, 1:00 PM
“@NoradSanta: Coalition troops in Afghanistan waved to #Santa. He wishes them happy holidays! #NORAD video ow.ly/gl2QH I can not make link to this tweet!

[Reece]

Oh, I almost forgot about ‘The League of Gentlemen Are Behind You’.

[Stephen R. Fletcher]

Any Muppet Christmas special (except Letters to Santa) and The Muppet Christmas Carol
Home Alone 2
Any South Park Christmas episode

That’s all I can think of really. I used to watch A Christmassy Ted every Christmas when I was a kid. This’ll probably sound a bit silly but it’s kinda hard to watch after listening to Graham Linehan’s commentary – it’s not that my opinion’s changed because of it, but it was kind of a downer.

I’ve never seen Scrooged before but I bought the DVD a couple days ago. Looking forward to watching it when I can. I suddenly kept hearing a lot about it this year.

[si]

Watched The league Of Gentlemen Are Behind You this afternoon. The second act is much better than the first, but it’s good fun. Been a few years since I last watched it, so had a good laugh today. :)

[Danny Stephenson]

I still haven’t watched that yet, it’s the one LOG thing i’ve not seen. I fucking hate pantomime and fucking love League so it cleaves me in twain.

[Author]

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