TOP 10 FAVORITE XMAS MOVIES

Well, it's that time of year again...it's cold, the stores are crowded, and traffic is terrible! So why go out into the holiday madness, why not curl up on the couch and watch some of my favorite Christmas movies. Now for most peoples Xmas movies are silly, sappy stories involving our favorite pseudo-religious icon: you know who I'm talking about...the big guy (No, not Buddha!) Santa Claus! He's on every channel, on every Coke bottle and on Christmas Eve he'll be coming down your chimney and breaking and entering into your house to stuff your stockings! Most of my favorite Xmas movies are not your usual yuletide viewing (but some do have the word Christmas in the title! lol) So grab some hot cocoa, maybe a few gingerbread cookies or spike that eggnog with a little more "holiday cheer" as I present my Top 10 Favorite Xmas Movies:

#10 Tales from the Crypt (1972), "And All Through the House" - While the whole movie is not Xmas themed, one of the first vignettes adapted from the wonderful EC Comic Books from the 1950's (and also as an episode of the popular TV version of "Tales from the Crypt" in 1989) stars Joan Collins as a murderous housewife who kills her husband with an axe on Christmas Eve however, coincidentaly there is also a murderous lunatic on the prowl dressed as Santa Claus!

#9 Die Hard (1988) - Even though this is one of the best action movies of the 80's the whole thing takes place during Christmas. Also, with all the Xmas jokes and references and even various Xmas music and even the song "Let It Snow" plays during the end credits, how much Xmas can you get?

#8 Edward Scissorhands (1990) - Tim Burton is the best at making Christmas delightfully creepy and Edward Scissorhands is one of the best! Johnny Depp plays the shy progentor of the Goth craze, a man-made boy with scissors for hands who has a phenominal talent at cutting topiaries, women's hair, and ice! Although Winona Ryder still looks hot as a blonde she soon falls in love with Edward but it ends tragically with Edward killing her boyfriend on Christmas! But that's ok because she fakes his death and he gives them snow. Lol!

#7 Batman Returns (1992) - When I think of Christmas, I think of Batman! (Don't you?) with the sequal to 1989's Batman directed by Tim Burton, Batman Returns featured Danny DeVito as The Penguin and Michelle Pfeiffer as the sexiest Catwoman ever and even though this was a Summer blockbuster, the whole movie takes place during Christmas! Penguin is abandoned in the sewer by his parents on Christmas Eve and later his henchmen jump out of a giant Christmas present during a tree lighting ceremony! Now that's what I call Christmas!

#6 Gremlins (1983) - What's Christmas without a bunch of hellraising little green monsters? When Billy Peltzer's dad gives him Gizmo, a Mogwai, for Christmas, he inadvertantly breaks every rule in the book on the care of this distgustingly cute little furball! Plus Kate's incredibly depressing monologue on her childhood Christmas tragedy is probably one of THE most traumatic things I've ever heard!

#5 Home Alone (1990) - This was always one of my favorite Xmas movies when I was a kid, also because Macaulay Culkin is only a year younger than me! He was so adorably annoying and mischevious that I could watch Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern get mercilessly beaten to a pulp by all of Kevin's ingenious (and possibly deadly!) traps over and over! Brilliant!

#4 A Christmas Story (1983) - This has come to be one of the best Christmas movie classics ever! With Ralphie's bizarre, overactive imagination and his neverending pursuit of an air-rifle for Christmas he has become a Christmas icon! Oh and the leg lamp too! "You'll shoot your eye out!", "Oh Fuuuuuuudge!"

#3 Scrooged (1988) - In this modern (but very '80's) adaptation of Chrales Dicken's "A Christmas Carol", Bill Murray is Frank Cross, a ruthless and amoral TV station president who gets a dose of the 3 ghosts routine and eventually changes his ways. (Predictable?)

#2 National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989) - This is one of my favorite Christmas movies and probably one of the best of all the Lampoons/Griswold Vacation Movies (including Christmas Vacation 2: Cousin Eddie's Island Adventure, and NO I am not making that up!) "We're gonna have the hap, hap, happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap-danced with Danny ****ing Kaye!" Awesome!

#1 The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) - Again, Tim Burton+Xmas=Amazing! When Jack Skellington, The Pumpkin King, gets bored with Halloween Town, he finds Christmas Town and decides to kidnap Santa Claus and make Christmas his way! (Sounds reasonable?) This has become one of THE best loved Christmas movies of all time and it definitely deserves the #1 spot on my list! My favorite scene has to be when the little boy gets a shrunken head for Christmas: "And what did Santa bring you honey?" Excellent!