Well, it's that time of year again, and, since I am yet to see "The Road" or "Up in the Air," and I refuse to make my top of the year film list until I see them, I thought I'd make a list of my five favorite holiday movies, which I like to revisit around this time every year...

("The Nightmare Before Christmas" isn't on this list, because it can be considered both a Halloween movie and a xmas movie. If I was considering it for this list, it would be up there at number 2)

5- "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation"

I know, I know, Chevy Chase stopped being funny way before this entry in the "Vacation" series (I think he is good in "Community"), but I have a soft spot for the Clark W. Griswold character (I even kind of like "Vegas Vacation," believe it or not... Hey, we're all allowed our guilty pleasures). Sure it's a dumb script, with predictable, and recycled gags, but I can't help but laugh at Clark fumblingly flirting with the counter girl at the mall ("Can't see the line, can you Russ?"), or the ridiculously blinding xmas lights... I can see why people wouldn't like it, and I can't say much more to convince you than this:

"The shitter was full!"

4 - "A Christmas Story"

Ah, who can forget the Red Ryder BB Gun, the leg lamp ("fra-gi-le, it must be Italian!"), the triple dog dare, Santa kicking Ralphie down the chute... they're too many to list. Definitively the xmas movie with the most iconic scenes. It's about as sweet and innocent as any movie has the right to be, but I'll be damned if I still fall for it hook, line and sinker... every single time. It feels more like a bunch of little sketches, but they all tie the movie together so perfectly, and feel so very true: from that terrifying Santa visit, to the ups and downs you felt as a kid opening presents on xmas morning. All the beats are perfect, leading up to the great ending: a xmas dinner of Peking Duck at a Chinese food restaurant!

"You'll shoot your eye out!"

3 - "Elf"

Honestly, this movie shouldn't have worked. A movie about a grown man who lives in the North Pole, and thinks he is an elf, it should have been as bad as all the other stupid, gimmicky, xmas movies the studios dump on us, year after year... It should have been as bad as "Jingle All the Way" or the dreadful "Fred Claus." But, take Will Ferrell (in what I think is up there with "Anchorman" and "Stranger than Fiction," as one of his best roles) playing Buddy the man-elf without a hint of sarcasm, which I believe would have destroyed the movie's earnest tone, and Jon Favreau deftly directing Ferrell, letting him go crazy and holding him back, at just the right moments, and creating my favorite North Pole so far, and you've got yourself a truly funny, and touching, movie. Add great supporting roles by James Caan and Zooey Deschanel (who in my mind is a close second only to Natalie Portman in my "Most Beautiful Woman in the World" list), and you've got yourself a xmas classic.

"You sit on a throne of lies!"

2 - "Bad Santa"

From the opening shots of Billy Bob Thonrton as Santa throwing up in an alley, and then pissing himself, with a kid on his lap, I knew this movie was going to be a blast. I'm not a big fan of Billy Bob, but I do admit, that with a good director guiding his performance, this guy can act the shit out of any role (take "The Man Who Wasn't There," "A Simple Plan," and he's actually not bad as coach Buttermaker in Linklater's "Bad News Bears" remake). In a movie produced by the Coen brothers and directed by Terry Zwigoff, Billy Bob Thornton gives his best performance EVER, as a depressed, alcoholic, suicidal, misogynistic, ass freak, mall Santa. If reading that last sentence didn't want to make you watch that movie right now, then, my friend, move along, you don't belong here. Now, sure, watching Santa call little kids shitheads, tell obese women they wouldn't be able to shit right for weeks after an ass fucking, pissing himself, and drinking himself to death, would have made for an awesome 90 minutes, but we're lucky to get a whole movie happening around Thornton's Santa, with fleshed out characters, that drive the movie to a great, dare I say it, traditional xmas ending. I love the odd little scenes between the late Bernie Mac, and the late John Ritter (also in his best performance ever), which Zwigoff holds for a couple of seconds longer than they should, making the scenes that much funnier. And the weird, fat little Thurman Merman, who makes Santa a wooden pickle as a xmas gift, along with Marcus the elf, his Asian-Latina wife, and Lauren Graham's Santa fetish bartender, all adding to the movies wit and hilarity. What I like the most is that the characters stay true to themselves, never resorting to cheap Hollywood tricks to bring us to a happy ending. Case in point: towards the end of the movie, when Thornton's Santa is "redeeming" himself by getting Thurman Merman (that's such an awesome name!) his xmas present, instead of getting what the kid wanted, true to his character, he fucks up, and he gets him the wrong fucking pink elephant!! But still, this is an xmas movie, and you do get the obligatory happy ending, with Turman Merman kicking a kid square in the nuts, and riding off in his brand new bike!!

"I loved a woman who wasn't clean."

1 - "Scrooged"

Well, what can I say about what I consider to be the best adaptation of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" ever committed to film. My complaint with other versions of "A Christmas Carol" is that they always go out of their way to give Ebenezer Scrooge some sort of likable trait at the beginning, so that we at least identify with him, somewhat, from the get-go. In my mind, Scrooge has to be the most despicable individual in the planet, so as to make his conversion in the end that much more inspiring, and Bill Murray gets this... Boy does he ever get this. From the very opening of the movie, he sells Frank Cross as a fucking despicable human being, without a single redeeming value (sound familiar?). And this was not an easy feat, because, c'mon, it's Bill fucking Murray, this is Peter Venkman, Carl Spackler, Tripper, et al. Even when he plays asshole characters, he still comes across as really likable, Phil Connors, Ernie McKraken, Steve Zissou. But not Frank Cross... Cross is a mean spirited, heartless, soulless bastard, who doesn't come across the least bit likable, and Bill Murray doesn't let an ounce of his natural charm seep in at any moment before he goes back with the ghost of xmas past. He even changes his voice, making it a little coarse, as if to isolate everyone that loves the Bill Murray persona. And he HAS to be truly evil, in order for us to accept all the horrible shit that this guy goes through... and horrible it is! All the ghost torture this sadistic fuck, because he deserves it, and they know that he is such an evil prick that he cannot be redeemed merely by showing him some sad shit from his life. And Richard Donner (My third favorite Donner movie, after "Superman," and "The Goonies." The Omen is a close fourth) makes sure the shit we see is really horrifying: from Lew Hayward's repulsive, rotting, ghost; a waiter setting himself on fire; an eyeball in Cross' drink, Herman's frozen death; and to the ghost of Christmas future's terrifying insides. Murray and Donner make us watch as Frank Cross the evil prick's protective shell slowly crumbles away, but always true to his character. Sure I could go on, and on, about how funny the movie is (and it is really funny), how good the dialogue is, and how great the effects are, but, what keeps the movie alive, what makes it ultimately work, and makes it my favorite xmas movie ever, is Bill Murray's performance as Frank Cross. He totally committed to this role, and made himself a completely fucking evil bastard, in a xmas movie, in order to make the payoff at the happy ending seem completely earned, and, in my opinion, it truly was...

"You've got a program featuring America's favorite old fart. Reading a book in front of a fireplace. Now, I have to kill all of you. "

Runner-ups: "Die Hard," "The Office Christmas Special," "Extras Christmas Special," all of the "Futurama" xmas episodes, "A Very Sunny Chirstmas," "A Charlie Brown Christmas" (sure it has a full on jesus freak message, but it still manages to be awesome), and "The Ref."