10 on Tuesday: Holiday Movies

I find it rather funny that most of the 10 on Tuesday topics are difficult for me to do. I'm a list maker and love lists. It's how I cope with each day. I make a list:

1. Breakfast and tea
2. Shower and tea
3. Write 2,000 words and tea
4. Go teach a class (don't forget tea - students will appreciate you for it)
5. Do grocery shopping (stop at Starbucks for a cup of Joy tea)
6. Do dishes (do not drink tea or you will end up washing your cup and will lose said tea)
7. Make dinner and tea
8. Knit (um, yeah, there's tea here too)
9. Crawl into bed with a book and a cup of Chamomile tea
10. Get back out of bed and brush teeth and resist the urge to go make another cup of tea

I get these lists each Monday on making a list of 10 things for Tuesday. It shouldn't be hard, but for the life of me I can never make a real list.

So this week's list is 10 favorite holiday movies. UGH! There aren't that many that I truly enjoy, so rather than making a list of my 10 favorite holiday movies, I will make a list of 10 movies and at least one of them will actually be one that I enjoy.

10. Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer. Yes; the classic puppet-mation. This is a horrid story of a reindeer couple who are so embarrassed by their son's difference that they hide the fact that he is unique. He is taunted and teased by the other reindeer children. He is cast off as a misfit by the Jolly Old Elf. He is completely ignored and considered useless until they realize that they are doomed and his odd glowing nose is the only hope for Christmas because Christmas will be just ruined if the children don't get their boxes and stockings full of useless crap made in China not by happy singing elves in the North Pole. This would not be one of my favorite holiday movies.

9. Elf. This Will Ferrell telling is actually pretty fun and while I enjoy watching it once a year, I don't need to see it for 25 days 3 times in a row each day. It's a cute movie, but it isn't all that.

8. A Christmas Story. This is the one that involves a BB gun, a leg lamp and a group of Chinese restaurant employees singing Fa-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra. I can't begin to tell you what all is wrong with this movie. I have friends who think it is the most wonderful movie ever and I just don't get it. Although, I will admit that every year on Christmas we go out to watch a movie and then stop at our favorite Chinese restaurant for dim sum. I'm not sure if Chinese restaurants have always been open on Christmas or if they decided that A Christmas Story was a great promotional tool and started opening on Christmas because they knew people would watch this movie and want lo mein on the 25th of December.

7. The Santa Clause. This is funny and cute and entertaining. I love the premise of Santa being around for so long because of a "clause." I'll watch it if there is nothing else on. The sequel wasn't too bad either, but the third one was a hack and very lame.

6. The Holiday. I think I love this movie because I love the cottage that Kate Winslet owns and have this secret fantasy of living in such a cottage. It is also a good story and waking up with Jude Law beside me would not be bad either.

5. Home Alone. The original and only the first one. It was cute and charming, although how someone could not notice that they had left a child is beyond me. The sequel and the third and the fourth and the remake, well, no thanks. And maybe that was what happened with Makaulay Culkin. Perhaps if he hadn't been forced to be the cute, witty and adorable little kid for so long he wouldn't have turned out into the drug abusing surly man he is today.

4. Miracle of 34th Street. It's a classic. What can I say?

3. It's a Wonderful Life. Ditto. It's good movie making with a good story and a happy ending and ring-a-ding-ding an angel gets its wings.

2. How the Grinch Stole Christmas. It has to be the animated one that has the actual reading of Dr. Seuss's book and not the Jim Carrey version that just sucked all the childhood memories I had away and turned them into great gobs of gelatinous goo.

1. Love Actually. Of course there had to be an Alan Rickman movie on the list and this ranks as number one, not because it has Alan Rickman (he's actually not his most lovable in this movie) but because it just makes me so gosh darn happy. I love what Hugh Grant says at the beginning that people's last thoughts are not of hate, but of love and that love is all around you. I love stories told in vignettes and then finding out that all these little stories are inter-related in the end. Love is all around us.