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The worst Christmas movies

by Jennifer Jordan (Subscribe to Jennifer Jordan's posts)
Dec 7th 2007 11:12AM

7Comments

Filed under: Activities: Babies, Development/Milestones: Babies, That's Entertainment

I'm not sure if it's an annual tradition yet, but Maxim magazine recently released their list of the fourteen worst Christmas movies. I thought it was pretty hilarious, and, sadly, pretty accurate.

Why does this matter to us (many of whom don't read Maxim)? I think it appealed to me because many parents I know get sucked in to seeing poorly conceived and made movies designed for children who can't see them without being accompanied by an adult.

Whether it's a cartoon or something more, uhm, mature, parents end up taking their kids to see kids movies quite often, and more often than not, the movies are plain terrible.

Then there are the movies that aren't designed for children that still stink. Those may be even worse. They try to tell us how awful spending the holidays with your family--who are crazy or drunk or mean or whatever--can be. Thanks--I think we all know that, and without being told in some trite generic way.

So what's on this list?

Some may surprise you, and some may not. It starts off with the Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle Jingle All the Way, a movie which I thankfully did not see in the theaters or on television. the new version of The Grinch is on this list too. Many parents and children would disagree with this live-actor remake, claiming it's much better than the old-school cartoon version.

The newish Christmas with the Kranks is on there as is The Polar Express, which the magazine finds creepy in its animation. I guess I'd agree with the creepiness factor, but I thought the movie was more lackluster on plot than anything.

Scrooged, starring Bill Murray playing Bill Murray is on there. So it the Benji Christmas movie and a number of others I've either never seen or heard of. Now, however, I'm intrigued enough to see them and decide for myself. Agree or not with these top ten lists (or top fourteen, as the case is here), at least they make for good conversation at holiday parties.

What's your least favorite Christmas movie? For me I'd have to go with the original Grinch. He scared me to death when I was a little kid, and I still don't buy how he magically changes from being such a meanie to so nice and caring. Life, sadly, is not like that. The abominable snowman from Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer is more believable than that!!!

But maybe I'm just jaded--that or I've seen too many bad Christmas movies. More fodder for conversation: this list puts It's a Wonderful Life in the number one spot, which to some is THE ultimate holiday movie.

Tags: abominable snowman, AbominableSnowman, animation, Arnold Schwarzenegger, ArnoldSchwarzenegger, Bill Murray, BillMurray, cartoon, children, Christmas, Christmas movie, Christmas with the Kranks, ChristmasMovie, ChristmasWithTheKranks, holidash, holiday, holidays, kids, kids movies, KidsMovies, Maxim, Maxim magazine, MaximMagazine, parents, rudolph the rednosed reindeer, RudolphTheRednosedReindeer, Scrooged, television, the Grinch, the Polar Express, theaters, TheGrinch, ThePolarExpress

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