What's on Netflix: Holiday Edition

The Christmas Spirit is in full swing at the Hunter house, and my favorite way of taking in some Christmas cheer is to put on a holiday movie. After some backbreaking research involving lots of popcorn and hot chocolate, I've come up with the following selections for your Holiday viewing pleasure:

1) Lady GaGa and the Muppets' Holiday Spectacular

Kudos to ABC for putting this on Netflix. It's your old fashion tv Christmas special delivered the only way Lady Gaga and the Muppets can: with quirky, goofy skits and eclectic costumes. If you're not a big Gaga fan or if you're a bigger Muppet fan, you may find yourself wishing for more muppets. Then again who doesn't want more muppets!

2)The Radio City Christmas Spectacular

This performance was televised to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the show. I have to admit I was sobbing hormonal mommy sobs while watching this as I'm eagerly anticipating the day I can take my kids to see this show live. But in the meantime, I'm glad it's available to watch since it's really an incredible show. There are a few pitfalls that come with filming a performance that's designed for the stage. Some of the set pieces are reliant on the point of view from the audience so the perspective is a little off, especially during the numbers where a background screen is utilized. But all in all it's great family viewing and great for those who can't make it out to New York to see the show live. 

3) Nutcracker: the Motion Picture

This 1986 production of the nutcracker features sets and costumes designed by Maurice Sendak. A whimsical and surreal interpretation of the classical ballet. Warning: your kids might be obsessed with ballet for a while after watching it. I was!

4) All I Want for Christmas

This is a great New York Christmas movie and stands as exhibit B that the real Santa can be found at Macy's Herald Square (see exhibit A: Miracle on 34th Street). It follows a brother and sister as they try to get their divorced parents to reconcile by Christmas. Featuring Lauren Bacall as their grandmother and Leslie Neilson as Santa!

5) White Christmas

The classic musical will make you long for those Radio Days. I did always find the May-December match of Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney a little creepy, but it's easy to overlook as you get swept up by the singing and dancing. 

6) Love Actually

This movie will go down as my generation's contribution to Christmas classics. It spawned many ensemble holiday movie knock offs (see Valentine's Day, New Years, etc) but none have captured the warmth of this film and the complexity of the characters' relationships. I probably like Laura Linney's character's story the best.

7) Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mickey Mouse

House of Mouse was Disney's Saturday morning cartoon that featured classic shorts book ended by stories of the goings on between various Disney characters at Mickey's club. This edition features a couple of newer shorts, but concludes with Mickeys Christmas Carol. This used to be a special that aired every year on CBS. It features Mickey as Bob Cratchit, Goofy as Jacob Marley, and the giant from Fun and Fancy Free as the ghost of Christmas Present, and of course Scrooge McDuck as Ebeneezer Scrooge. It's fun to try and find all the other Disney characters that appear throughout the film. A great retelling of the classic Dickens tale.  I'm glad it's available for streaming for this generation of kiddies.

8) Veggie Tales: Saint Nicholas: A Story of Joyful Giving

If you're looking for a movie for the kids that keeps Christ in Christmas, this movie is for you. It follows the Veggies as they tell the story of Saint Nicholas's life and learn about the true meaning of Christmas. This movie does a great job of meshing the story of St Nicholas with the myth of Santa Claus

9) A Very Barry Christmas

This quirky stop motion film finds Santa trading places with an Australian safari owner and his misfit animals including a clumsy kangaroo and a thespian platypus. Nothing says Christmas like stop motion Santas.

10) The nightmare before Christmas

This is my all time favorite holiday movie because it combines my two favorite holidays! You can watch it guilt free from October to January. From the Danny Elfman score to the comically macabre characters, this movie has Tim Burton written all over it. Jack Skellington is so charasmatic that his merchandise is still selling today. This is one of those movies you can watch over and over again and still find something new in each frame.  

So grab some hot cocoa and popcorn and fire up your steaming device for some Christmas movie fun!