Christmas movies are pretty much all inherently positive (except It’s A Wonderful Life, that thing is like a Christmas Twilight Zone episode), so it’s no surprise that I have a lot of favorite Christmas characters. Here are five of them! Merry Christmas, ya wonderful old readers!!!
5. Kevin McCallister Played by Macaulay Culkin
Kevin from Home Alone is number five because, if you think about it, he’s actually kind of a little asshole. Everybody knows the tale of Kevin and his house of horrors. Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern never saw it coming, those poor criminals. They just wanted to make a name for themselves as the wet bandits, instead they get blowtorches to the head and nails to the feet.
4. Jack Skellington Voiced by Chris Sarandon and Danny Elfman
The greatest singing skeleton ever? Probably. Jack from The Nightmare Before Christmas is the Pumpkin King of Halloweentown and he’s really good at his job. But like all creatives, he gets a little bored from time to time. That is, until he finds the door to Christmastown, kidnaps Santa Claus and commandeers Christmas. Jack realizes too late that he’s been a dumb shit about the whole thing but makes everything right and saves Christmas. No harm, no foul.
3. Clark Griswold Played by Chevy Chase
Clark Griswold from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation is just trying to have a good, old-fashioned family Christmas, but he has to put up with shitty (literally) in-laws, old relatives, squirrels, and annoying neighbors. I like Clark because he really just wants to have a great Christmas with his family. One of my favorite moments from the film is when he gets trapped in the attic and passes the time by watching old home movies. He gets choked up and it’s a perfect, bittersweet moment.
2. Frank Cross Played by Bill Murray
Frank is the titular curmudgeon from Scrooged who has to put up with all manner of Christmas ghosts after his grinch-itude becomes unbearable. He fires Bobcat Goldthwait for pete’s sake! I really love Frank because he has that great movie change of heart and embraces life and the Christmas spirit by the film’s end. And he’s played by Bill Murray!
1. Buddy the Elf Played by Will Ferrell
Buddy likes smiling, holding hands and Pop-Tart spaghetti! Those are my three favorite things too! The man elf (MELF?) from Elf is full of positivity. In fact, with Buddy’s attitude and the film’s almost nonstop cheeriness, Elf may be my favorite Christmas movie. It’s not only a great movie about the holiday season but a great New York City movie as well. And Buddy’s Christmas gift is Zooey Deschanel. Not bad!
