358 - My Top 10 Christmas Movies

Happy holidays to all and for those of you who are abroad across the pond , happy Christmas . I would love to make that statement , I'd love to bring that to the U S happy Christmas , I like that .

So not going to worry about doing a business episode this week and I didn't want to completely bail on you , and especially for those of you who are traveling and are like man , I would love a recent podcast episode to listen to for the drive .

So what we're going to do in this one is talk Christmas , and I figured I'd break the norm here and just get personal with you here and talk shop about Christmas . So not talking web design , we're talking what's under the tree , more like what's on your TV Christmas movies .

So I'm going to share my top 10 favorite Christmas movies and before we dive into this list for I share why these are the best top 10 , not opinion , they are fact I do want to let you know I do have a gift for you this week . I got a little gift for you during this Christmas week here that can be found at joshhallco slash Xmas .

So go to joshhallco slash Xmas . It is a limited time gift , but a little something special for you that you can find there at joshhallco slash Xmas . All right , my top 10 favorite Christmas movies , starting with number one , which is far and away from all of the others .

This one stands alone as a cinematic masterpiece of both comedy and heart and feel and tone and pace and cheer and jolly and quotable . I could go on and on about Christmas Vacation .

Christmas Vacation to me is special on a personal level because , as I think about growing up , it was just always on and it remains to this day perhaps the most quotable movie , at least in my life . In my family we quote Christmas Vacation all the time , all the time , all year round .

There's a popular reel that goes around about this time of year that says , uh , if you don't know somebody who quotes Christmas vacation at least 10 times , kick them out , or something like that .

I'm like 10 times more , like 10 times a day , like we quote it all the time mainly because so many great characters and of course , the one who stands atop all his cousin , mainly because so many great characters . And of course , the one who stands atop all his cousin , eddie , from Christmas vacation .

If you have not yet watched that movie , uh , just go , just good . No , I'm just kidding , just go and watch it for your , for your own sake , although sometimes when somebody tells you you have to watch this movie , suddenly that movie doesn't become cool . So I hope Christmas vacation comes to you when you need it most .

Cousin Eddie is obviously absolute classic . I mean I just remember growing up saying every one of his lines still to this day , every one of cousin Eddie's lines I say again almost on a daily basis , even my daughter last year we were eating food and she says it is good , I could not have been more proud .

What's interesting about Christmas vacation , too , that I love , is as a as a family man .

Now I see myself in Clark more and more , but I also see myself as the snooty nader neighbor Sometimes I have that in me as well , where I'm just like , oh , let's go , where I'm just like , oh , let's go , and then I also can be cousin Eddie occasionally um more so more often than not recently .

So I see myself in Clark , cousin Eddie and the snooty neighbor Todd um at any given point in my life . If I'm at a fancy restaurant , I am cousin Eddie .

If I am doing something for my family , I am Clark , and if I'm out in public and somebody shows up in their you know , like pajamas , when it's just like come on , at least put some sweat , like athletic sweatpants on or something , I'm , I'm straight Todd . So for all those reasons and more I Christmas vacation is my absolute top favorite .

I can watch that on repeat almost every day during the Christmas season , which we often do . So Christmas Vacation number one , number two again Christmas Vacation is far above the others , but Home Alone is my second favorite and that is pretty close .

Now the rest of them are kind of all in a grouping together , but my top two far and away is Christmas Vac , and then close behind that is home alone . Uh , again , nostalgic . I mean , first of all let's just hats off to John Williams for an incredible soundtrack to home alone .

If you put different music to home alone , I wonder how detrimental that would have been to that movie . I think a lot . I mean there may have been another composer that could have done it justice . But John Williams score and home alone is worth listening to just on its own . Um , but there's also so many great things about home alone .

As I've watched it over the years , I mean obviously it's partly ridiculous , but it's actually pretty dang clever .

I have to give it to everyone behind that movie for making it like pretty dang realistic , even from when , uh , kevin pushes buzz over and the milk goes everywhere or the you know the stuff goes everywhere , and then , uh , his ticket is the one that's thrown away , to all the little details that lead up to that .

Home alone was done to where I feel like when that came out , somebody is like , how are you going to leave your kid home alone ? And then burglars , I don't know , but they did a really good job at actually making that like oh , that's actually kind of believable all considered . So absolutely love Home Alone .

I could watch the ending scene where Kevin takes them out one by one on repeat . And actually this year was really special because Bria , my oldest , loves slapstick humor .

I mean if she's in a bad mood or she's fussy and I want to cheer her up , I just step on a toy or I'll like roll over on the couch or something , or , uh , knock myself into a wall and she just loves it .

So when we've been watching home alone recently here uh , actually the first time we watched it this season , her and then Drexton , my little guy , who's now two they were just absolutely rolling at the physical harm that these two burglars went through .

So Harry and Marv were just comedy gold for my kiddos and all my kiddos , even Annie in my middle , she loves it too . Everyone , we love it . So Home Alone close Number two again , christmas vacation far and away . But home alone could watch that on repeat for all the reasons I just mentioned and beyond .

And it's got a lot of heart and um , yeah , it's just , it's all . There's heart , there's humor , there's fun . And if you notice , here's here's a little side note about home alone Shoot , what was the ? There was a documentary there is on Netflix about oh , it's called how , how we made our um movies .

That made us , and there's a bunch of different movies on their . Home alone is one of them , about how they made home alone . And one thing I did not notice until now and this is pretty true for every Christmas movie , but it's amped up on Home Alone in particular . Watch this next time you watch Home Alone , nearly every scene has green and red Every scene .

Now you would think , well , it's a Christmas movie , but it's pretty wild to think about literally every scene . There's multiple hits of green and red in the background in the props , like Kevin's parents' bed I don't know if you noticed that it was red and their phone is green .

In the background there's green and red paper when he goes into the store to get a toothbrush , there are red and green absolutely everywhere .

So again , it's a common thing for Christmas , but as I heard about that and how they intentionally make everything red and green , even down to the rugs and the wallpaper and stuff in the house , it's like wow , yeah , that's impressive . So hats off to that . And of course , marv's scream when he gets a tarantula on the face is just absolutely .

It just destroys me every time . So Home Alone number two Some of these are going to bust through here a little quicker . Home Alone 2 , I'm going to give the third spot . Now . The rest of these are not like a harsh three , four , five , six , et cetera .

I mean number one for me is vacation , number two is home alone , but the rest of these could be all pretty intermingled while we're talking about home alone , I'm going to put home alone to up here in the top three . Here's why I was really young at the time . Well , let's see . Well , I think I came out 92 . So I was six .

Obviously , I didn't know anything about Home Alone 2 coming out . But if I was of age and I heard that they were immediately going to do a Home Alone 2 , I would have said first of all , this is going to be complete crap . How , how , how could they do this ? Well , how could they leave Kevin home again After just doing that ?

I would feel like it would have been just a quick cash grab and it would have been not great . I believe it came out the year or the second year after that , cause Kevin doesn't look too much different .

Um , so my thought if I was of age then would be like this is a total cash grab , it's going to be shit , it's not going to be worth it and how could it possibly be good ? Well , home Alone 2 , all of those reasons factored in , actually turned out pretty dang awesome . And there's so much I think there's so much to love about Home Alone 2 .

Obviously , it's still one of the most popular Christmas movies out there For one . It's New York . Who doesn't love Christmas in New York , if you're into that ? Um , the music again . John Williams even came through again with other themes and stuff in that one .

The secondary actors in that one are completely priceless the all the staff at the uh , the hotel and everything . And again , just like the first one , home alone too , was actually very , very smartly laid out .

Every little thing that happens , just like in the first one , with the power going out and the phones going out and everything , very , very similar to the second one , to where , like , every little thing stacks up to where it's like oh you know , quite believable , all considered stacks up to where it's like oh you know , quite believable , all considered .

So for that I say touche to everyone who did home alone too . And again , I would have been like this movie is going to be terrible , but it's actually pretty dang good . It still holds up . It's got some classic scenes and again , the violence at the end my kids love , which we support here . Number four jingle all the Way .

Oh my gosh , is this an underrated Christmas movie ? I know I'm not alone in absolutely loving Jingle All the Way from start to finish . Yes , it's goofy . Yes , it shouldn't be taken seriously . Yes , arnold is not a great actor in it , but it's a lovable movie . With all those things considered , in fact , I dare say those make the movie even more lovable .

Another secondary actor who makes that movie is Phil Hartman RIP man , I wish he was still around . Is there anybody better that could play a kind of a snobbish , just get under your skin neighbor than Phil Hartman ? I , for those who haven't seen it , you when you , when you do see it , he is just the best irritating neighbor .

And he is another one who has quotes . Just about every line in that movie is quotable . Me and my family quote it all the time . Um , so , yeah , jingle all the way for so many reasons . Gosh , I love the as far as , uh , you know , phil Hartman being the neighbor classic sin bad in that movie is absolutely classic .

He was on his a game , then she slept with everybody at the post office Except me . Oh , I could just watch it multiple times a week , which we do right now . So jingle all the way . Absolutely love the rewatch ability on that and , uh , the fun in that . And then the kids love it too . It's like Christmas vacation .

We've had to be a little careful with the kiddos and even even home alone . Like my daughter has been repeating some of the stuff in there and I'm like , oh , maybe we shouldn't repeat that one on Christmas vacation .

You know , it has some PG 13 style language and stuff to where we're like , ah , we're going to have to be a little careful as the kids are repeating stuff . But jingle all the way is , uh , is pretty safe in that regard If you care about what your kids are repeating to their grandparents . So absolutely love jingle all the way .

That's going to be my , my strong vote for number four . Number five is one that I also . I just think about this every Christmas Eve . You probably know what's coming because it's on every Christmas Eve on TBS , right , christmas story .

Christmas story it's one that we don't watch as much as far as repeat Like we'll have Christmas vacation home alone jingle all the way on , often like just on repeat in this season . Christmas story Isn't one of those as far as repeat watches , but at least a couple of watches a year . Christmas story I mean it is the Christmas story , it's so classic .

It also has maybe the best Christmas Day story . I don't know if you're a gift person . I've grown out of gifts being my love language . But as a youngster I look back and remember getting my Green Bay Packers starter jacket . That was out of stock everywhere in Ohio . But I grew up before I became an NHL fan .

I liked the NFL and like the Packers and my dad had to call . He told me that day he had called Lambeau field and they sent them to a JC Penny in green Bay that sent out the last green Bay starters a green Bay Packers starters jacket that they had . Those of you who grew up in the nineties you know what I'm talking about the starter jacket .

You were a King If you showed up at school with your starter jacket and it was like , just because it was , you know the slushy material , uh , but man , my green Bay Packers starter it was . You know the slushy material ?

Uh , but man , my green Bay Packers starter jacket was was the second best gift I ever had a Christmas morning , apart from getting my drum set , which I believe I screamed for for a long time . I was so excited because I didn't think I was getting a whole drum set .

All that to say , it was the same magic that Ralphie experiences on Christmas story that morning when he gets his BB gun . So for many reasons , I absolutely love Christmas story , another one where the vibe is classic , the acting is so good , the supporting actors are so good , it's , yeah , absolutely classic .

So that's gotta be in the top five for me , for sure , for , for sure . Those are all strong top fives for me . Number six elf . There's a lot of reasons I love elf . I actually grew to love it more and more and have more respect for it after watching it on that series movies that made us , which I'd highly recommend on Netflix .

They're not sponsoring this podcast or anything , but definitely recommend it . That was fascinating because of a lot of the techniques that they use , because they didn't actually do barely any CGI in that , with the different size of the elves and stuff . If you didn't know this , if you don't know the movie , you can re , you know , come back to this .

But if you do , you know that the elves are different sizes of a buddy , will , pharaoh and everything . And they actually did that with space illusion and point of view illusions , which was really , really interesting versus having CGI or different graphics .

Anytime somebody puts that amount of effort into something and it turns out well , it's like a double win for me and I appreciate that , rather than somebody just saying , eh , we'll just fix it and post Uh , cause , yeah , it still holds up and it's very , very cool . It's very , very different . Will Ferrell was also just killer and elf Like who else ?

Honestly , who else could have done that ? And it had that type of vibe . I don't know . I don't know who could have pulled that off . I also didn't think about this or think about it this time , but watching that documentary , will Ferrell was just kind of coming onto the movie scene at that point and a lot of people didn't know him .

So he was literally walking around New York city in that outfit and a lot of the people in the movie are not like extras , they are like real life people that he ends up going up to and messing with . So I'm sure they had to sign a waiver or something . But , yeah , absolutely still love elf Kiddos , love it too .

So many classic scenes , so quotable , um , oh man . And then the manager what's the actor's name ? The manager of , uh , uh , whatever , you know , the , the , the toy shop uh with where he meets uh , jovi and everybody , um , gosh , the manage .

There is absolutely classic to love all the characters of elf and , yeah , good on Will Ferrell for making that come to life . I'm impressed .

Another character that made , or another actor that made a character come to life , number seven I've got to go with the original Grinch by Jim Carrey because another one where , for those who don't know , if you look into that he I believe I'm correct in saying my wife , you know , will back me up often with that statement and saying that he had to undergo Navy

trail , navy seal training excuse , seal training in order to put up with getting the makeup on for that outfit , which is incredible and still stands the test of time today , jim Carrey's Grinch outfit and makeup and everything .

I think it's something to the tune of four hours every morning before they even started filming , and there was a whole other crew on that as well . So it's funny .

As a business owner , I don't know if you think about this , but movies and entertainment start to change from like oh , that was good , or I didn't like it , or that was cool or not cool , to like man , the amount of resources and people that this takes and the fact that he probably had to go in at like 4am and then they didn't even start till probably

eight or nine . They're probably working full on shifts . How does he eat lunch in between all that ? There's like the practical things about movies that at this point I'm just , you know , hats off to any , any director for making any movie , but certain something that comes out pretty dang great , hats off to them . So Grinch is up there .

For me too , my downfall with Grinch it is it is definitely not a kid's movie , as my wife and I have realized more recently , cause there's some stuff in there . It's like older kids humor , basically , um , which we love because our maturity levels have not kicked in , but uh , there's definitely stuff in there .

It's like , yeah , I don't know the kids are ready for this . The my biggest um downfall or my biggest gripe against the Grinch if I'm going to be Grinchy is the color , the color contrast and the way they did the color on that movie . It's very desaturated and it just looks kind of dark and maybe that I'm sure that was intentional .

But I think that movie would have new life with new light , quite honestly , if they would just lit it differently , or if they even in lit it differently , or they even in post-production just boosted the colors a little more . I would prefer that all things considered . So , yeah , like it's just a darker movie . Next time you watch it , notice the color contrast .

It's quite desaturated compared to other movies that have , you know , better color , including . And speaking of better color , I've got to give the new Grinch a top 10 ranking because I thought they did a really good job , but that the animated one , which has incredible color contrast . My kids absolutely love the new Grinch . That's one reason I love that .

One too is it's one that's really easy to put on . The music's great . Uh , the animation is incredible . The voices are really good . The one with the Benedict Cumberbatch as the Grinch , um , got love . Little max playing his drums and stuff . Of course , as a drummer in a previous life , I love that . So some classic funny stuff in there , great for the kiddos .

And it's just one that's easy to turn on . It checks all the boxes as far as being uh , jovial and cute and also heartfelt and all the things in the animation is great in that one . So the new Grinch is up there for sure . Again , I I love that for the fact that , like the kids , there's just a lot of good kiddo things in there .

And uh , in the beginning when the mom's like struggling and then she works her butt off to make the kids oatmeal and then one of the little twin babies just kicks it over and he's like , we're like . We often reference that scene because for those who have little babies or toddlers , you know how common that is .

You'll make a nice meal , they toss it over , but they'll find a chicken nugget on the ground from three days ago and they're like Ooh , this is , this is the cat , this is delicious , this is five-star restaurant worthy . So , yeah , going to give , going to give the Grinch in there . I'm actually going to give you a bonus .

Here too , we're doing top 10 , but I'll throw a bonus in here as we wrap this up . Number nine is a nostalgic one for me and that is the classic claymation Rudolph . I grew . I mean , when I think back to my childhood at Christmas time , that's probably it . It was probably Rudolph .

As I , what you know , it was between Rudolph and in Christmas vacation a drastic difference there . But man , it's just classic . Also , you didn't realize what a dick Santa was until you rewatched that as an adult and you're like my gosh , these parents and these horrible people . I'm sure that was .

It was kind of overblown , but like the dad and Rudolph , oh yeah , I didn't really think about that as a kid . And then he's like you should be ashamed of yourself . And then I was what I'll say . I'm sure they were just picking fun at the previous generation that was , you know , a decade or two before them , with the the whole .

You're talking like this , see , the whole . You're talking like this , see . But , um , yeah , it's just again . You watch things as an adult or as an aspiring adult and , uh , it gives you a , it gives you a new life and a new appreciation for it . But I do , I've got to give it classic , of course . Yukon Cornelius , classic classic Cornelius . There we go .

And then I'm going to give you two last ones , but I'm going to give you my 10th , which I wanted to make sure I give a proper 10 . And that is a very underrated Christmas movie and it's a heartfelt one , especially if you are a family man . Yes , the family man with Nicholas cage , uh , it's usually like an annual watch for me and my wife .

It's not one that's going to be on repeat , but my gosh , uh , that one as a family man , for sure . When you , yeah , that one just hit different the past couple of years .

For me personally , um , there was a speckle of dust last year that happened to be flying through our living room and just caught me in the eye when that was going on purely coincidental , mind you . But yeah , the family man . If it doesn't bring a tear to your eye , I don't know , you got some work to do on yourself .

But it is a really , it truly is a really good movie . It is it very underrated . The problem with family man is because I actually think nicholas cage is quite good in that role . Of course you know nicholas cage is easy to make fun of and , no , he is not the creator of elegant themes and Divvy Um .

Nick Roach looks a lot like Nicholas Cage with his Jesus hairstyle hairstyle right now , but it is not the same man , trust me . I've met Nick Roach . He is not Nicholas Cage but , um , easy to make fun of . But Nick , uh , nicholas Cage was actually dang good at that movie and uh , yeah , it's .

It's a heartfelt one , it's not one that's going to be on a repeat all the time , but it is . It's almost good to like get that reminder sometimes , especially as a dad I'll say this , as a family man when sometimes you're just constantly going , going , going . Right now we've got three kids under six . It's just , it's constant .

Sometimes that is a good reflection and reminder time to just love where you're at and where they are as your kiddos . So same goes for Family Woman 2 . I would encourage everyone to watch that if you haven't checked it out . The big problem with Family man , though I meant to mention is the cover .

It was not marketed well and I forget what year it came out , but the cover looks atrocious . It looks like a horrible Hallmark Christmas movie . Sorry , sorry , sorry , sorry . I know a lot of you are Hallmark Christmas movies . My wife's probably watching it right now and she even says she's like I know they're terrible , but I just love them .

It's like guys with John Wick Like we know he's not realistically gonna kill 350 men . You know , we know he's not realistically going to kill 350 men while sprinting through a hallway , but we love it because it's John Wick . Similarly , yeah , hallmark Christmas movies , which are not any of them going to make my top 10 .

But yeah , the Family man is really good and very heartfelt . I feel like it is a good , just a good reflection movie every year and it's a little heartbreaking at the end . So we haven't watched . At the time of recording this .

I'm actually ahead on episodes , so recording this before the you know the day this comes out , but going to make maybe , maybe that'll be on the list for this week .

So , family man and I want to give a special shout out as a business owner to the original miracle on 34th street , the black and white , the classic number one , because there may be no better Santa ever than that actor , whoever he is , he w , I mean he was like the best Santa he really was .

From his beard , from his mannerisms , from his acting , I felt like that was the real Santa . It may have been , it may have been the real Santa , the original Miracle on 34th street . Now , it is a good movie , it's watchable even today . But there's one thing that hit me a few years ago that I've actually applied to my business , and this is common .

I've seen this in other business circles and entrepreneur circles who have mentioned this as well . But there's actually one part in that movie where he's working for Macy's as Santa and somebody asks , a customer asks about a certain product , and he said they didn't have or didn't know if they had it and he sent them to , I don't know , jc , penney's or whatever .

It was like a competitor JC Penney's or whatever . It was like a competitor and that customer came back and said they were so appreciative that they didn't try to like nickel and dime them and make them spend there , but they actually just told you you could go to another place and get it .

That she was basically he made like a lifetime customer and I don't know if that was revolutionary at the time , but it is certainly still revolutionary today . How many business owners do you know are willingly recommending their competition ? It goes so far with trust , with loyalty and , as you know , one of my favorite terms ever is coopetition .

I don't have a scarcity mindset when it comes to recommending other competitors and folks who are in my , you know , same niche and I would recommend that you do the same . And that movie was like the cinematic moment that showed rightfully so that they were building their trust and likability and loyalty with customers by recommending every like their competitors .

Now a lot of the upper management freaked out about that , tried to get him fired , but if you watch the movie you know it goes up to Mr Macy and he's like from now on , when we don't have a product , we'll talk about our competition and we'll recommend that .

Um , pretty much with that accent , so I'll give a little bonus in there for that one , so , and there's others , of course . Plenty of other Christmas movies for that one , so , and there's others , of course , plenty of other Christmas movies .

Hey , if you want to share your Christmas movie list , maybe your top few , your top five , or if you want to share your top 10 , I will approve your comment at joshhallco slash three , five , eight , which is where the show notes for this one's going to be . Not much in the way of links and show notes , but I will have this list out there again .

Quick recap , and before I tell you the recap , my gift to you is found at joshhallco slash Xmas . Joshhallco slash Xmas . If you would like a little free gift for me , uh , this week during Christmas time . So Christmas vacation . Number one , big time . Number two home alone Number three .

Because they did such a good job All things considered , I'm going to give home alone to a third rating . Third spot , number four jingle . All the way . I feel like going down to watch that right now . Five Christmas story . Six elf . Seven and eight Grinch and Grinch , the one with Jim carried in the new one .

Nine Rudolph 10 , the heartfelt movie of the season , the family man . And uh , throw a 34th in there , uh , to watch that scene . Just a good print , business principle , good business principle , competition . They didn't say it back then because they probably didn't have that lingo , but that's what I'm going to call it . So I hope you enjoyed this one . Friends .

Merry Christmas , happy holidays to all . I hope you have an awesome week this week . I hope you're able to take some time off and have some time of reflection .

To speaking of reflection , next week , right before the new year hits , I'm going to be publishing an actual lesson from my business course about goal setting and planning course about goal setting and planning . So obviously good time to do this If you haven't done it yet . I always I know a lot of people like to set goals and plan well before the new year .

I still like doing it the last week of December or the first week of the new year . It's still my favorite time when I get my new little action day planner and the calendar year switches over and I get a new star Wars calendar for my office . I love starting the new year thinking about the new year .

Maybe that'll change one day , but for now that's what I'll be doing ? Uh , the the few , few hours I worked this week and then in the next week . So I'm going to share some tips on goal setting and planning to help you next week . So for right now , I hope you enjoyed this again . Leave me a comment . We want to say Merry Christmas ?

Or , if you want to share your favorite movies , I would love to hear them , I'd love to see them at joshhallco slash 358 , which is where this episode will be , and I will see you guys next week .

And then next week I'll be able to say the classic dad pun of I'll see you next year , but I will save that for next week because that episode is coming out shortly before the new year . All right , friends , if you have not watched any of these or all these , get on it .

Definitely start with the my number one Christmas vacation , which I'll probably be watching tonight . Cheers , friends , merry Christmas , happy holidays to all and see on the next episode .