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Jolly Jake’s top 10 festive flicks for all the filthy animals

Jolly+Jake+ushers+in+the+holiday+season+with+classic+films.+Photo+provided+by+Chris+Terry+%2F+Antelope+Staff
Jolly Jake ushers in the holiday season with classic films. Photo provided by Chris Terry / Antelope Staff

putnamj@lopers.unk.edu

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! 

This statement may dismay high school grocery baggers who have memorized every word of “All I Want For Christmas Is You.” but a personal hell of unrelenting Christmas torment is unleashed playing the song every hour for the next two months. 

I, however, will embrace the spirit with a compiled list of my top five Christmas movies. Please don’t be offended that I failed to include “Die Hard.” I’m not ranking these according to any merit besides my own personal taste. With that said, here are Jake’s Jolly Festive Flicks.

10. Better Watch Out: I am not much of a horror movie fan. But I can say with certainty, it is my favorite horror movie. A psychological thriller with an unexpected twist here and there, it embraces the Christmas season and will leave you thinking.

9.  A Christmas Story: This classic 80s film contains quotable dialogue that enters our vocabulary every December. Its shining attribute is its highly memorable scenes — from the leg lamp to sticking a tongue on a frozen pole.

8. Scrooge: It’s a classic tale from Charles Dickens that we grew up reading in middle school. The story of Scrooge is now an integral part of every American Christmas.

7. Frosty The Snowman: Try not to sing it. We all grew up on this simple movie of a snowman coming to life. It is an easy watch and endearing to the inner child in all of us.

6. A Charlie Brown Christmas: While this one hasn’t reached the meme status of the Halloween special, it remains one of the best Christmas cartoons of our time.

5. Polar Express: This might be the most nostalgic movie of all, as it was the movie of choice for elementary school Christmas parties. It remains a prominent memory for all of us that we associate with pizza parties.

4. Claymation Christmas Specials: I lumped them all together because they were good stories that taught us how to interact with others. We were rewarded with songs like “Put One Foot in Front of the Other,” “Heat Miser,” and “Snow Miser.”

3. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation: As adults, we can all appreciate the comedy of this film. It is more tailored to the mature audience. Someday, I wish to be like Uncle Eddie — one of the funniest characters in cinema and a role model for us all.

2. Home Alone: This film is thrilling and funny from start to finish. I never knew how much I needed to see Joe Pesci transform from a violent and foul-mouthed Martin Scorsese gangster to a goofy bandit getting beat up by a kid. The set visually invokes the spirit with most scenes wrapped in the warm red and green colors of Christmas.

1. How The Grinch Stole Christmas: The live action Jim Carrey adaptation is my favorite movie of all time. The word “Christmassy” perfectly describes Whoville. 

Although the caroling might be annoying, it’s guaranteed to get people into the Christmas spirit once and for all. 

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