Christmas Movie Magic: A Nostalgic Trip Down Holiday Film Classics

Ever wonder why we're so drawn to the timeless magic of Christmas movies? Join us as we embark on a festive exploration of our all-time favorite Christmas classics. We'll relive the nostalgic charm of "A Christmas Story," sharing our favorite scenes like the unforgettable visit to Santa and the hilariously infamous leg lamp "major award." We'll also reveal some intriguing trivia about the film that might surprise you!

We're not stopping there, though! Buckle up as we steer into the comedic chaos of "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" and discuss our most loved moments. From modern favorites like "Elf" to the heated debate around "Die Hard" as a Christmas film, we cover it all. We also delve into the concept of comfort movies and how they infuse the holiday season with an extra layer of warmth and cheer. So, if you’re craving a hefty dose of holiday nostalgia, tag along as we journey down this yule-tide memory lane.

Transcript

Speaker 2 0:08

the best of a podcast about the best of everything, from the mundane to the ridiculous. Just three buddies sitting around the car table talking about things that absolutely matter to no one so you can see why it was such a unique and funny story. I'm just so glad we finally got to tell the Lime story where everybody gets to hear it.

Speaker 3 0:28

They're quit asking about it, so that's the story and I hope everybody enjoyed it.

Speaker 2 0:32

That's awesome. Yeah, you know, I laugh every time.

Speaker 1 0:35

Yeah, I know, and it's yeah, it's a good one. So, but transitioning over to what we're going to talk about today is a discussion of the best of Christmas movies, and this may end up being a two-part episode because, man, we got some good ones to talk about. I'm Mark, I'm Chris.

Speaker 3 0:55

I'm Greg.

Speaker 2 0:57

What kind of earth? Do we begin not? Not at the Hallmark Channel?

Speaker 1 1:01

Why not? What's wrong with that?

Speaker 2 1:03

It's the same people all the time. There's a lot of movies with the same thing.

Speaker 3 1:08

There's a lot of different connotations to that thing.

Speaker 2 1:12

No, they always end up happy.

Speaker 1 1:15

What's wrong with that?

Speaker 3 1:17

It's the happiest time of the year. I've seen the same woman get married to eight different guys on eight different movies. It's not good Well are you saying to awkward yeah anyhow.

Speaker 1 1:27

Anyway, who wants to begin?

Speaker 2 1:30

with your favorite Hands down Christmas story. Okay, shoot your eye out, kid.

Speaker 1 1:36

Let's talk about Christmas story. It's my wife's favorite.

Speaker 2 1:40

I love it 24 hours of Christmas.

Speaker 3 1:44

Oh, absolutely what's your favorite part?

Speaker 2 1:47

in it. I think when he goes to see goes to see Santa Ho, ho ho. Come on, kid. Oh, you want a nice football.

Speaker 3 2:00

Is it when he climbs back at the slag?

Speaker 2 2:01

Yeah, I want to read romantic, you'll shoot your eye out. Kid, get him off of me, get him off of me, get him off of me.

Speaker 1 2:07

I love that. Of course, everybody loves the famous.

Speaker 2 2:14

It's a major award. Yeah, oh yeah, the legs pretty nice.

Speaker 1 2:18

Fraggi leg Must be Italian.

Speaker 3 2:22

What's your favorite part in?

Speaker 1 2:23

it. I really think the pride in which the dad you know when he, when he goes outside to look at it from the street, just that's one of the best scenes in any movie I've ever seen. Well, you should see it from out here.

Speaker 2 2:38

But you know, here's what I like in it Ryan Ralph, of course. He's supposedly narrating, and my favorite line from that is only one thing in the world could have dragged me away from the soft glow of electric sex gleaming in that window.

Speaker 1 2:51

Yeah, a friend of mine at work actually bought me the leg lamp nightlight.

Speaker 3 2:57

It's a that's awesome.

Speaker 1 2:59

He actually went to the actual the location of the filming, where the house was in Cleveland, ohio, even though I think it was based somewhere outside of Chicago in Illinois, it was actually filmed in Cleveland that. I guess that is a fun fact. And you know, I'm going to have to come in with another bit of a fun fact. So the, the mom in the movie was played by an actress who was also in, in my opinion, the greatest sports movie of all time.

Speaker 3 3:31

Slap shot.

Speaker 1 3:32

Absolutely.

Speaker 3 3:33

Still haven't seen.

Speaker 1 3:34

She was in slap shot, so yeah, so Christmas story.

Speaker 3 3:39

My favorite part, yep, the ending when they go to the restaurant for Chinese Chinese turkey.

Speaker 1 3:48

And it had a head on it. So I read a he's looking at. I read a fun fact about that actually just the other day that her reaction, the actress who played the mom, her reaction when they cut the head off they didn't tell her that they were going to do that. So it was an honest reaction.

Speaker 2 4:09

Wow.

Speaker 1 4:09

I cut the head off of the of the duck. Yeah, so great movie.

Speaker 3 4:14

Absolutely, I don't. It's my wife's favorite. What, what?

Speaker 2 4:17

What about?

Speaker 3 4:17

what about the kid in the, in the, in the onesie in the snow?

Speaker 1 4:21

Oh yeah, when he's got his arms down.

Speaker 3 4:23

So, good.

Speaker 2 4:26

What is it that Ralphie says that he wants? Do you remember the?

Speaker 1 4:29

we know it's a it's a red right Red rider, but I don't. I don't know how to say it.

Speaker 2 4:34

He wants an official red rider. Carbine action 200 shot range model air rifle.

Speaker 3 4:38

You'll shoot your eye out, kid, do you remember he got the decoder ring? Yeah, always.

Speaker 2 4:43

Don't be sure, orphan any drink, your oval team oval team.

Speaker 1 4:49

Yep, that's great Oval teams. Where's that Fantastic? All right, greg. What's yours?

Speaker 3 4:57

Mine has to be national lampoon's Christmas vacation.

Speaker 1 5:01

I don't think anyone could argue that.

Speaker 3 5:03

It is so good. Chevy Chase oh, who is the the? The fun fact for break? Yeah, one of the very few. Who is the female? That's the neighbor of Chevy Chase's family.

Speaker 1 5:19

Oh yeah.

Speaker 3 5:19

And what did she play in Elaine on?

Speaker 1 5:22

Absolutely Julia Louis Dreyfus. That's right. That's right. And why is the carpet all wet, Todd?

Speaker 3 5:31

There are so many good scenes.

Speaker 2 5:33

I don't know, margot, I mean it's so good.

Speaker 3 5:35

What's your favorite scene in oh good morning yeah?

Speaker 1 5:40

I think for me it's when, right after Eddie has shown up, cousin Eddie shows up and they go inside and they're they're drinking the eggnog and Clark goes. You know, could I fill up your egg now for you? Whatever, take you out to the middle of nowhere, leave you for dead.

Speaker 2 5:57

That's what he's walking around his white v-neck sweater with a green turtleneck dickie underneath of it.

Speaker 1 6:05

Oh and and and he's talking about his kid and preparing for her career. And Chevy Jase, you know, clark goes college carnival.

Speaker 3 6:17

What's your favorite scene in Chris?

Speaker 2 6:20

The blessing.

Speaker 3 6:21

They want you to say the blessing.

Speaker 2 6:24

She rocks out the National Anthem. Bethany just can't get it right, her, when she goes block. Why are you in the living room? Grab my stokies, yeah.

Speaker 1 6:33

That we watched that one on on Thanksgiving night every year as a family my wife, my daughter and I. That's that's our segue into the Christmas season. Is we have to watch Christmas vacation? And Eva can quote it better than I can choose. Yeah, it's so good.

Speaker 3 6:53

Who's your favorite character in it? Oh, eddie, cousin Eddie cousin Eddie. I don't think he's one of the best and he's my favorite scene when it is when the RV Now that red dirt is an orv. And he wanted Clark to be himself up something real ass.

Speaker 1 7:13

That, that scene, when they're in the grocery store.

Speaker 2 7:17

Oh. Great it is. It is so good. We're gonna press on and we're gonna have the half half. Happiest Christmas, it's Bing Crosby. Tap dance with Danny.

Speaker 1 7:33

Blanking K.

Speaker 3 7:35

It's, it's so good Wow and it's all, first, swimming pool. Yeah, I mean you know you're half a looten when you've got a swimming pool.

Speaker 1 7:42

Though apparently Right.

Speaker 3 7:46

That's what I've been told.

Speaker 1 7:48

Merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah kiss, my kisses, yeah, yeah, so anyway.

Speaker 3 7:59

It's a really good. It's up there on the top list.

Speaker 1 8:04

Yeah, excluding genres, I mean it's you know what makes that movie so great is obviously it's incredibly Hilarious and funny, but it's also really heartwarming at times too. Chris, you mentioned it during the song. Yeah yeah, you know one of the. You actually mentioned, I think, a couple of the songs that show up in that movie.

Speaker 2 8:24

Yeah, when he said up in the attic and he's reminiscing about his family, yeah, yeah and we've not even talked about the gazillion Christmas lights he put on the house.

Speaker 1 8:38

I was a 250,000 or 25,000, I can't remember something I'm not just Do you remember how he plugged it all into one outland.

Speaker 3 8:47

It was it's so good, so mark what's your.

Speaker 1 8:55

So there are so many and it's really hard to choose one, which this is why this is probably gonna be a two-part episode, but I'm gonna go a little off the grid for a more traditional Christmas movie, and that is white Christmas. Bane Crosby tap dances with Danny blanking, rosemary Clooney, danny Kaye, bane Crosby.

Speaker 2 9:17

Rosemary Clooney.

Speaker 1 9:18

Vera Allen, I think, is the other person's name to the best dancer you'll ever see. I mean, she's unbelievable. That's a great movie. I was, you know I'm a big bang Crosby fan and Him and Danny Kaye have such good chemistry in that movie. It's a musical, you know. It's just. You know we watch it every year. I've seen it a million times. I can quote it, you know, faithfully, and it's, it's got humor, it's got warmth and it's just a great traditional Christmas movie. But it could have gone a lot of different ways on what my favorite one is, but I'll go white Christmas.

Speaker 2 10:01

I've never seen it. I started to watch it last year. I got into it for some reason, I probably fell asleep. I have a tendency to do that, yeah, when I watch movies. I've never seen it. That's gonna be on my priority list to see this holiday season.

Speaker 1 10:13

Yeah, yeah, it starts off in there in World War two and they're in, you know, right outside of a place it's getting shelled and it's Christmas Eve and Bing Crosby sings white Christmas to all the troops and everyone's really sad. And then the general Waverly shows up and the shells get closer and Danny K saves Bing Crosby's life Okay, and Danny K injures his arm and as a result of this, you know, bing Crosby's character was, you know, like a famous performer before he entered the war, and so then Danny K uses his injury to get in with Bing and they become partners and then their act takes off. And then they meet these, these two ladies, and it's, it's a love story, it's a Christmas story, it's great. So what's that? What? What are our honorable mentions?

Speaker 3 11:12

Die Hard.

Speaker 2 11:14

Die Hard is not a Christmas movie.

Speaker 3 11:16

It just takes place during the.

Speaker 2 11:17

Christmas season during a Christmas party. But that has does not mean it's a Christmas movie. I think, you've got a thing. You got to put elf out there. You got to say elf with that.

Speaker 1 11:26

I'm going to give a shout out to my dear friends in Ohio, patrick and Megan. Oh, and Megan and I actually had this discussion yesterday. Megan's favorite movie of all time is die hard and I told her I was like I've never seen die hard and she about came over the table to beat.

Speaker 3 11:44

I've never seen die hard.

Speaker 1 11:45

She was like it is a Christmas movie. It's the. It's the most Christmas movie there could be, and, and and. She loves the movie. She it's like one of her comfort movies, which, by the way, is going to be a great episode of the best stuff for us down the road.

Speaker 3 11:58

Comfort movies. Comfort movies, oh yeah that's a good one.

Speaker 1 12:00

That'd be a good one. What is the movie that you can just watch and watch over and?

Speaker 2 12:03

over again. Oh, you know, one of those brainless, thoughtless movies.

Speaker 1 12:05

Well, just when you're in a mood that you need to kind of get cheered up and watch one of your favorite. You know those are comfort movies, so die hard. Just one of hers. So she would argue that it is a Christmas movie.

Speaker 2 12:16

It's a great movie, I like it. I could tell me, taylor, I like it. So, elf you were talking about.

Speaker 1 12:20

I like elf, I love elf.

Speaker 2 12:21

Elf is good. It's, of course I like James Conn about anything anyway but, elf's great, it's fun, it's, it's cheery. You know, bob Newhart, I mean, come on.

Speaker 1 12:30

Yeah, yeah Again, incredibly quotable.

Speaker 2 12:37

He's an angry elf.

Speaker 1 12:40

I was just thinking about that, peter Dinklage. Oh my gosh.

Speaker 2 12:44

Oh, he's so funny. Yeah, I got a good one Right here.

Speaker 1 12:51

Right here. Yeah, that's classic, Greg. What, what do you got for an honorable mention?

Speaker 2 13:00

We were talking earlier. You said you liked the movie Four Christmases with Vince Vaughan and Reese Witherspoon.

Speaker 3 13:04

Absolutely.

Speaker 2 13:05

That movie? Have you guys seen that? I know, Greg. You brought it up, Mark have you seen it?

Speaker 3 13:08

Yeah, I'm just yeah, that movie is so good, yeah, of course I love it.

Speaker 2 13:13

Of course you know his name is. I can't remember what he goes about, but he's like oh yeah, he's Orlando and I'm Memphis and they were all named where they were conceived so good, you know Well, what about?

Speaker 1 13:23

what about the Grinch? Either the original cartoon Love them both, yeah or the Jim Carrey.

Speaker 2 13:29

Jim Carrey is so dynamic in that thing. Yeah, of course they talked about how they had to have a a therapist on site because putting all that makeup on took so long every day and was so miserable. But man, that movie's great. Yeah, jim Carrey is so good, but I love the original. You know the original is just. It's a classic, you know. You got to watch it, my daughter loves the Jim Carrey version.

Speaker 1 13:51

She can, she's. That's one of her comfort movies.

Speaker 2 13:54

I can't find a thing to wear, yeah, fine, I'm not going.

Speaker 1 13:58

And the cartoons I mean the cartoon, the Christmas cartoons could be a whole episode in and of themselves. With Frosty the snowman, I root off the red nose reindeer. Santa Claus is coming to town. The Grinch, charlie Brown Christmas, bingo, though I tend to. You know, when I was a kid I really, really liked the Charlie Brown Christmas. But now, as an adult, I look at it and like Charlie, you know pull it together, man.

Speaker 2 14:25

Yeah, I relate to Pit Pin more. And what about the only other movies? What about Fred Claus?

Speaker 1 14:31

Oh, Vince Vaughn is. Yeah, I've seen that.

Speaker 3 14:33

So good to what about Bad Santa?

Speaker 1 14:36

No, that's funny.

Speaker 2 14:40

Oh listen, Billy Bob Thornton, he's good. Pickle.

Speaker 3 14:44

Billy Bob's good.

Speaker 1 14:46

Yeah, he's. He's great in everything.

Speaker 2 14:49

But Bernie Mac eating the oranges is one of the things that cracks me up. I forgot about that.

Speaker 1 14:55

That is great. Yeah, Bernie Mac is hilarious in that. Yeah, that's what about home?

Speaker 3 15:01

alone.

Speaker 2 15:03

That's good. Yeah, the first one's great. How dumb can the family be to do it two more times?

Speaker 3 15:08

It happens. I mean I wouldn't want to be around that kid either.

Speaker 2 15:12

But it's just me. Yeah, I like it.

Speaker 3 15:15

Who's the? Who's the bald headed bad guy?

Speaker 1 15:18

Joe Pesci, he's great, yeah, yeah, he both the bad guys are great.

Speaker 2 15:24

Yeah, I can't remember the other guys, but oh, the fun fact.

Speaker 1 15:27

Yes, fun fact.

Speaker 3 15:28

What president is in that movie.

Speaker 2 15:31

Oh, Donald Trump.

Speaker 3 15:33

Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 1 15:34

Yeah, I was going to say Ronald Reagan, but that's more in my time of movies.

Speaker 2 15:40

Back in the 40s. That is the truth.

Speaker 3 15:43

Did they have color tubes back then?

Speaker 1 15:45

No no such things, no such thing. What?

Speaker 2 15:49

about the traditional Christmas Carol.

Speaker 1 15:52

Yep, so there's a George C Scott.

Speaker 2 15:54

George C Scott's my favorite, one of the ones. Yeah, that was from like 81 82. I love that movie.

Speaker 1 15:59

That's a that's a really good one. What about Scrooge?

Speaker 2 16:03

That's my brother's favorite, yes with Bill Murray.

Speaker 1 16:05

That's interesting. Just a take on the Christmas Carol Fun fact.

Speaker 2 16:12

Who plays Clark's boss in Christmas vacation? Brian Doyle Murray, bill Murray's brother, correct? So back to Scrooge. Bill Murray is funny. The best part in Scrooge, I think, is Buster Poindexter. Who's the cab?

Speaker 1 16:23

driver? What about the? And this one goes way back and there was a remake of it, miracle, on 34th Street.

Speaker 2 16:31

Never seen it, Virginia.

Speaker 1 16:32

Yeah, the original is is fantastic. Now, none of us have brought up. It's a wonderful life. Nope and no and I'll be honest.

Speaker 2 16:42

I've never seen it, did I. I've never seen it, never seen it All three of us have never seen it.

Speaker 1 16:46

It's one of the most watched Nope. Never seen it.

Speaker 2 16:49

Now, what do you mean? I do you want me to give you the moon? I'll give you the moon.

Speaker 3 16:52

Now back when my kids were younger.

Speaker 2 16:54

Mary, Mary, that's it.

Speaker 3 16:55

You want to know what one of their favorites was back when their kids were younger. What's that polar express? And so creepy elves.

Speaker 1 17:04

You know, even never liked that one. She was creepy. They're creepy.

Speaker 2 17:08

Yeah, I love it, though that's a heartwarming movie to me, with a little boy who can't find his ticket and the other boy is trying so hard to get him the ticket, and girls, but yeah, then the elves are creepy, of course. Then it's very in one looks just like Steven Tyler because they're you know, aerosmith is singing, and yeah, it's a great movie. Very well done.

Speaker 1 17:24

Very well done, and Tom Hanks plays most of the voices in that, by the way, it's not just the conductor.

Speaker 3 17:30

I didn't know that. I didn't know that either.

Speaker 1 17:33

And the Santa Claus movies.

Speaker 2 17:35

Tim Allen is great in those things. Yeah, really good.

Speaker 1 17:39

And all those are good too.

Speaker 2 17:40

You know all of them are good. They didn't really fall off like we used to.

Speaker 1 17:43

So we also haven't mentioned Ernest saves Christmas.

Speaker 3 17:46

I mean Ernest was the main Come on.

Speaker 1 17:49

How can? We live in Kentucky and not give Jim Varney some love, Absolutely.

Speaker 3 17:53

I make you rest in peace because he's dead now. Now was he from Lima.

Speaker 1 17:58

No, he actually was from Kentucky and and.

Speaker 2 18:02

OH I owe and the actual Lafayette high school Kentucky is his south of Ohio. By the way, I am so glad we finally told the last story, because now everybody will quit asking. Yeah, it's, everybody's a part of it now. That's good.

Speaker 1 18:16

You know, and the thing is, if we want to, you know, if they want to hear that again, we're going to. You know, obviously be playing it right. Oh, wait, wait a second.

Speaker 2 18:25

Oh, never mind, we're ending and thanks for listening to this week's podcast, the best of presented by the beer brothers.

Speaker 1 18:32

The best of is available on all formats. Wherever you listen to podcasts, be sure to catch our next episode. You never know what or who will be the best of next. Have a great day, everyone.