With Thanksgiving Day in the rearview mirror, cable channels have already been flooded with an endless supply of Christmas movies that will be played on repeat from now until the end of the year. From the classics to the sequels, you’d be hard-pressed to go channel surfing at this time of year and not find at least a dozen Christmas movies on at once.
While Christmas movies undoubtedly help everybody get into the holiday spirit, there is such a thing as overkill when it comes to how much we can take in such a short period of time. But despite how many holiday films do get played this time of year, some come on a little too often and some don’t get played nearly enough.
Overplayed: The Santa Clause sequels
As we said, there are dozens upon hundreds of Christmas movies that get played during December with brand new ones coming out every year as well, so naturally, some can get lost in the fray of it all. The Santa Clause sequels suffer such a fate since the original was already so good and it’s successors simply limbo underneath the raised bar.
If these two movies weren’t on television repeatedly every single year then it wouldn’t be far fetched to forget nearly every detail of them. Seriously, off the top of your head, can anybody remember the premise of either of these movies besides that they’re Christmas themed?
Not Enough: The Santa Clause
The sequels assuredly have a fan-base that still enjoy seeing them come on every year, but you’d have a hard time finding somebody who doesn’t love the original Santa Clause movie. The premise was so cleverly unique while giving an account of possible events that might actually happen in case Santa Claus was ever injured on the job.
The movie wasn’t the greatest of all Christmas films, but because the plot played into a scenario that Joe Everyman could relate to, it quickly became a Christmas classic that we wouldn’t mind seeing a few more times.
Overplayed: How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Not the half-hour Dr. Seuss special (honestly, that one could have made the ’not enough’ list) but the 2000 rendition starring Jim Carrey. Don’t get us wrong, we’re not saying that any of the ‘overplayed’ movies are bad, they’re just on way too much.
When Jim Carrey stepped into the world of the Who’s and put on one of the best non-CGI costumes Hollywood has ever created, he became an instant hit - a little too much so. Scroll through the cable channels during the holiday season and we’d bet this movie is on at least once a day somewhere.
Not Enough: Christmas with the Kranks
There’s a lot of Tim Allen on this list, but then again he’s made a lot of Christmas movies, and this is one that doesn’t get anywhere near the credit it’s due. While it has picked up a bit of a cult following in recent years, there are still very few channels that play the 2005 holiday hit starring Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis as a family trying to “skip Christmas” in a town that takes Christmas pretty seriously.
The movie emphasizes the importance of how family isn’t just those we’re related too and how Christmas has a magical way of bringing said family members together, no matter what.
Overplayed: Santa Claus is Comin to Town (or any claymation movie)
One of the most popular styles to film in when it comes to Christmas movies is ‘claymation’ and nearly all of them are classics with Santa Claus is Comin to Town being no exception.
However, just like How the Grinch Stole Christmas, these particular movies are so popular that channels tend to overload their schedules with them, resulting in a mass output of walking, talking clay figurines that get just a little too much attention for the one year of the month that they come out to play. Again, we’re not knocking these classics, just add something new to the buffet every once in a while.
Not Enough: The Polar Express
OK, OK this one might already get played quite a bit on just about every channel on television during the holiday season, but for the same reason that it’s on our list, can you blame them? This movie was an unprecedented feat in terms of holiday movies that starred Tom Hanks in a multitude of roles along with a child named ‘Hero-Boy’ and successfully captured the magic of ‘believing’ in the spirit of Christmas.
The plot was perfect, the songs were amazing, and Tom Hanks was his usual brilliant self. We wouldn’t mind if this movie played 24/7 until Christmas Day.
Overplayed: A Christmas Story
Hey, TBS and TNT - take a break, why don’t you? Seriously, has the expression, “don’t beat a dead horse,” never been uttered in either of these television studios? How about, “too much of a good thing,” or several other countless sayings letting people know that if you do something over and over and over again, no matter what it is, people get sick of it.
Guess what? People are sick of Ralphie and his Red-Rider BB gun simply because these two channels continue to play this movie, and only this movie, for 24 hours straight on Christmas Day. Every. Single. Year. Enough is enough.
Not Enough: It’s A Wonderful Life
Believe it or not, every time a person watches It’s A Wonderful Life an angel gets its wings (you hear bells during the movie, don’t you?). It’s one of the greatest Christmas classics to ever don the big-screen and yet, for some reason, it’s not played nearly enough during the holiday season.
It could be the black and white aspect or the fact that the movie came out nearly a century ago, but for some reason the tale of George Bailey and his Christmas quest of realization that he has a wonderful life (ohhh so that’s where the title comes from) just doesn’t seem to get the airtime it deserves.
Overplayed: Elf
We get it - Will Ferrell is an incredibly hilarious and talented actor and it’s hard to find one of his movies that isn’t riddled with profanity and obscenity. But please, can we give this one a break? Elf is by-and-far a Christmas movie, to that, there’s no question - the real question is why do we sometimes find this movie playing in the middle of March? Or in July? Or seemingly any day during the year because it’s one of the only Will Ferrell comedies that isn’t vulgar?
Buddy was and remains an iconic Christmas character and we still love this movie as much as the four sugary food groups, but please, let’s take a five-minute break on this one.
Not Enough: Miracle on 34th Street
If you thought of the remake when reading this title, you should be ashamed of yourself (and age is no excuse). The sequel wasn’t awful, but considering there was arguably nothing wrong with the original, it was just pointless to make one. A film that has no generation gap due to the same simple premise as The Polar Express that Christmas is all about ‘believing’ in its meaning, Miracle on 34th Street is seldom found on television networks during the holiday season nowadays and can sometimes seemingly only be on during Christmas Day itself.
That’s a true shame for the scores of people who have yet to discover this Christmas miracle. Santa Claus is real and he works at Macy’s - anyone who says different gets coal in their stocking.
