The Best Christmas Movies You’ve Probably Never Seen

We all know the typical Christmas shows that we grew up as children watching on network television. “Charlie Brown Christmas,” “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas” and “Frosty the Snowman,” to name a few, air every year.
Some of us can tell you that the ABC Family channel airs a 25 Days of Christmas theme beginning each year on December 1st that consists of solid holiday programming for nearly an entire month.
Still more of us can tell you that the Hallmark Channel begins its holiday programming as early as the first week of November. With all these Christmas programs out there, is it possible there is a Christmas movie you’ve never seen?
In case you’re bored of the 24-hour “The Christmas Story” marathon that airs on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, here are some movies you may never have seen that deserve a watch.
We start with the comedy genre.
Ask someone to name a Christmas movie comedy and you’re likely to hear “Home Alone,” “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” or “Elf.” I would challenge you to expand your list to include the 2008 movie, “Four Christmases.”
Starring Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon as the lead characters, the unmarried duo have to visit four homes in one day so they can squeeze in each person’s divorced mother and father.
Robert Duvall steals this movie from the usually hilarious Vaughn, as his crotchety, set-in-his ways Dad. The scenes with Vaughn’s character’s brothers, portrayed by Tim McGraw and Jon Favreau, are equally entertaining and more than make up for the awkward addition of Sissy Spacek as a cougar mom.
Moving on to Christmas romantic comedies, if you’ve never seen the 2001 movie “Serendipity,” you should definitely try to catch it this year.
It stars John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale as a pair who meet while Christmas shopping. They both feel there might be a spark, but rather than see where it goes right then, Beckinsale’s character insists they leave it up to fate to see if they will meet again without ever having exchanged names or phone numbers.
Honorable mention should go to Jeremy Piven who plays Cusack’s best friend, three years before he became a star on Entourage. He’s charming and endearing and some of the best lines of the movie are his.
Lastly, if there is only one new movie you vow to watch this holiday season, the honor should go to the 2005 title, “The Family Stone.” This often-ignored beauty has something for everyone.
It features big names like Diane Keaton as Stone matriarch, Sybil, and Rachel McAdams as youngest sibling, Amy. The rest of the Stone family is rounded out with Craig T. Nelson; Durmot Mulroney; Luke Wilson; Ty Giordano as deaf and gay brother, Thad; and Elizabeth Reaser before her Twilight years.
The plot hinges on Mulroney’s character bringing his snobbish, up-tight, future fiancé, played by Sarah Jessica Parker, to the family home for Christmas where he intends to propose.
Keaton does fantastic playing the role of the mom who can’t accept the woman her son has chosen, while McAdams is deliciously devious as the little sister bent on making life hell for the new girl.
Wilson plays Mulroney’s stoner brother Ben, whose facial expressions will elicit laughs all by themselves.
Funny and heartwarming, this movie is a director’s triumph.
On the surface, it looks as if “The Family Stone” is any other comedy turned tearjerker. In reality, Thomas Bezucha, who also directed “Big Eden” in 2000 and “Monte Carlo” in 2011, is a genius with the closing frame of the movie, and if you aren’t paying close attention, you will miss the creative masterpiece.
Buy it, borrow it or rent it. You won’t be sorry.