But there ARE still some other Christmas movies available. Lets take a look at a few, shall we? And in true Christmas spirit . . . I get to give away a six month subscription to Netflix to one lucky reader, yay!
If you are logged in to Netflix, clicking on the title will start it right up for you.
1. A Christmas Carol, 1938
A classic version of the classic story. It's in black and white, and the effects are old fashioned, but neither of those things is a problem for me. My kids haven't seen this version yet, but we've been doing A Christmas Carol as a family read aloud, and I figure we'll watch this once we've finished.
Veggie Tales! It's no substitute for the real It's a Wonderful Life, which we watch as a family each year. But it's good as something to put on for the kids some afternoon.
There are three Disney compilations of Christmas movies on Netflix. THIS one, I like. The backstory part is is annoying, but the cartoons themselves are mostly great. Especially Pluto's Christmas Tree, and Mickey's Christmas Carol. There's a super weird Nutcracker one in there, maybe skip that one, or use those four minutes to go sneak some cookies.
The other two are Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas and the sequel, Twice Upon a Christmas. I really don't much like either. The first one has a Goofy cartoon with a "bullies telling you Santa's not real" story line, plus The Gift of the Magi, which always just makes me writhe in discomfort. Please. No one EVER do anything permanent to buy me a present.
But I digress.
Twice has bad CGI and most of the cartoons are about how even the most terrible of people still get to have Christmas. I'm pretty sure my kids have watched them all in previous years. But I don't have plans to put them in this year's rotation.
This collection is uh-mazing, and occasionally it's seasonally appropriate. But many, nay, most of the shorts are really intense and might be too much for young kids to handle.
John Henry dies heroically and The Little Matchgirl dies tragically, but both are beautiful stories. Lorenzo features a cat who gets his tail cursed and then tries to kill himself a bunch of ways before the same witch cat who cursed him gives Lorenzo a knife so he can chop off his cursed tail. It will freak your kid out. But the animation and music are beautiful. That's the thing with these shorts, they are really intended as art, so they challenge as much as they entertain.
Except for the two princess ones, those are not scary OR challenging, or that entertaining. Elsa's ice powers that also make dresses and . . . create LIFE are on full display. But I won't start. I'm moving on.
Tick Tock Tale features a main character who sacrifices himself dramatically to save the shopmates who tease him. Get a Horse has an old-timey damsel in distress/bad guy plot that is certainly not the kind of thing we're used to seeing in children's entertainment these days.
Paperman is adorable and sweet and romantic and Feast is adorable and sweet and romantic and has a super cute ending.
But the only reason the collection on this list is because of Prep & Landing: Operation Secret Santa. It's Christmasy, and cute enough, but it does feature Mrs. Santa, which is always a little weird if you're trying to focus on the St. Nicholas being a bishop thing. We just laugh and say, "That's silly, Santa isn't married." But it's your call if you even want to open that can of worms in your house.
And, that's kinda it. I really did want to find some undiscovered treasure for you guys this year. I even watched a badly dubbed Norwegian movie called Journey to the Christmas Star for you. But it was . . . not good.
I didn't hate the Bill Murray Christmas special, it's not scandalous or anything, it's just not that . . . special.
And that's my honest opinion. But this is a sponsored post.
And NOW . . . I get to give away a six month subscription! If you'd like to get to see all this for yourself, just leave a comment telling me your favorite Christmas movie. I'll announce the winner on Friday. You can use the subscription yourself or give it to a friend, and it works in Europe too!