Holiday movies are a very popular subgenre. I can’t think of another time that gets more coverage in film. The movies on this list are compiled by West students, like yourself, to show what Lincoln-Way West thinks of the winter holiday genre. Other movies that made the list included A Christmas Story (1983), How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000), and The Santa Clause (1994).

#4 The Polar Express:

The Polar Express (2004) is a beautifully animated film based on a children’s book by Chris Van Allsburg, which showcases a kid on his journey to the North Pole. He gets a golden ticket, but instead of sending him to his death at a chocolate factory, he finds a train outside his house that takes him to the North Pole.  On the train are a bunch of other kids who got similar tickets, along with a mysterious train conductor voiced by Tom Hanks. The movie has a lot of memorable shots of the train along with a chilling soundtrack to accompany it and is a must watch for the holiday season.

#3 National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

Believe it or not, before doing this list, I had never watched the whole movie before. I’ve caught National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989) on tv plenty of times and watched segments of it before, but I had never sat down start to finish and watched the whole thing. The movie features Clark Griswold trying his best to set up for the holidays, keep his in laws from hating him, and get his Christmas bonus in one fell swoop, and he is not doing the best at any of it. The movie features the same kind of Chevy Chase comedy you would expect from the National Lampoon’s movies along with a holiday spark that livens the whole thing.

#2: Elf

I’m not surprised that Elf (2003) made it as high as it did on the list as it is often considered the funniest holiday movie by most, including myself. The movie shows Will Ferrell, as a human adopted and raised by elves, going to New York and trying to meet his dad. The movie is full of laughs and features some guerilla filming, which you always love to see in scenes where Will Ferrell just bothers random people in New York. It also contains some phrases that are common and often repeated today such as, “I just like to smile. Smiling’s my favorite.”

#1: Home Alone

When I was planning this list, I assumed it would be either Home Alone (1990) or Elf that would take the number one spot, so I wasn’t surprised when this movie far surpassed all the others by a wide margin. The plot of the movie is familiar to most people.  Kevin is left home alone by his parents by mistake and must man up in order to protect his house from burglars. The movie is mainly well known for the scene at the end where Kevin traps his house and hilariously outsmarts the bad guys by going a bit overboard in the process. Seriously, though, I’m sure not one person who watched that movie found it easy to watch one burglar step on the nail.