Christmas Movies to Watch With Your Children


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Written by Paul D. Race for Family Christmas Online^TM

This page will contain links to Christmas-themed movies that are child-friendly but so well-written that adults enjoy them as well. In fact, we picked the movies on this page on purpose as family viewing movies. That is, you should consider using the movies on this page, not as electronic babysitters, nor as replacements for a family activities, but as true family activities, in which you all set aside time to watch, pop popcorn, and stay in the room to answer questions and laugh at the same jokes your kids do.

Personal note from Paul: I grew up at a time when they showed MGM's The Wizard of Oz at the same time each year on television (remember, we didn't have cable, DVDs, or even VCRs in those days, so this was a big event). Many folks my age (and some much younger), when asked to think of a time when their family was at its best, still think of that one day in the year as the time when the shared experience of rooting for Dorothy and her companions brought them together better than any other day in the year. Your family may be struggling with many issues, and the Christmas season may be especially stressful (it is for many people so don't feel bad). But making a point of spending ONE half hour with your kids every Christmas to watch ONE well-made Christmas special together will build memories. We even put the "half-hour" specials first to help you plan.

We will eventually have another page for movies that children will enjoy, that should be okay for them to watch, but won't necessarily keep the whole family's attention.

Right now we only have a few movies listed, but check back later in the year - we hope to have more soon.

Short Features (under 30 minutes)

A Charlie Brown Christmas
How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Small One
Nestor, the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey
Mickey's Chrismas Carol
The Snowman

Full-Length Features

Elf, with Wil Farrell
Muppet Christmas Carol, with Michael Caine and Kermit
The Polar Express

A Charlie Brown Christmas

The first and best animated Peanuts special avoided the cliches and cutesiness that had long plagued animated made-for-TV Christmas specials. The scriptwriters had several years worth of Peanuts strips to mine for humorous bits, but the overall story arc was entirely new - Charlie Brown reluctantly accepts leadership of a Christmas pageant that seems doomed for failure, as everyone involved seems to have their own selfish and shallow agenda.

Today it's hard to remember that this special "broke all the rules" and set a new standard that still seems fresh almost two generations later. Even the music is atypical for Christmas specials - it's bittersweet, with jazz chords and minor keys. At the climax of the movie, "a little child leads them," literally, as Linus steps in to remind Charley Brown what the season is all about. This is a "keeper."

Note: The special is only twenty-five minutes long, but most DVDs include other material (such as another Peanuts special) to make up the time difference. On the other hand, your family will generally get more out of this twenty-five minute special than they will out of many two-hour movies.

Note: If you are out of time to order a dvd, this movie is also available as a download. For more information about Downloadable Family Christmas Movies, click here.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas/Horton Hears a Who

This is the original Grinch movie, the cartoon made in the 1970s with none other than Boris Karlof as the narrator and famous animator Chuck Jones as director. In case you haven't seen it, it is based on the original Dr. Seuss book which a self-imposed outcast in a fantasy world decides to destroy the happiness of the local townspeople by dressing up as Santa and stealing all of their gifts and decorations on Christmas Eve. This was such a remarkable and influential movie that most folks have trouble remembering that it was made to fill a half-hour television slot and is only 26 minutes long.

To give you your money's worth, the current DVD version adds an animated version of Horton Hears a Who and two unnamed "bonus features." Amazon says this brings the total running time to 79 minutes.

Note: If you are out of time to order a dvd, this movie is also available as a download. For more information about Downloadable Family Christmas Movies, click here.

The Small One

This twenty-five minute Disney special is remarkably charming and well-made. Master animator Don Bluth (Secret of NIMH, American Tale) joins forces with longtime Disney composer Robert Brunner to develop a rich and musical story about a small boy in ancient Judea (Israel) who is trying to sell his aged donkey to someone who will take care of him.

Product Alert - In early 2009, I learned that the DVD versions of this movie do NOT include the charming song "Small One for Sale" and have other changes that Small One fans find distressing. At the moment, a few VHS copies are still available, so if you're a purist, you might consider getting one of those. That's why the link above takes you to VHS, not DVD.

A shortened version of this movie is also available as part of a Disney compilation.

Whichever version you buy, this is one Christms special one that's worth spending the time to watch with your family.

Nestor, the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey

This twenty-five minute Rankin/Bass special featured narration and song by Roger "King of the Road" Miller, the same fellow who narrated Disney's animated Robin Hood. The donkeys are warm-and-fuzzy-looking, and the script tells the Nativity story from the point of view of a donkey Mary rides to Bethlehem. My kids went into mourning when our VHS tape of this went out (two of them were in their twenties, if this tells you anything).

This movie is currently available as part of a compilation. The other movies in the collection are fine for kids (especially if you get the version that includes Grinch. But consider taking time to watch Nestor with your kids; you won't be disappointed.

Mickey's Christmas Carol

This is the other Disney special (besides Small One, above, that is worth sitting down and watching with your kids. It was a hallmark of a different kind, the first time in over 50 years that most of Mikey's friends had been animated by hand-drawn animation. There is a story that each of the lead Disney animators were vying for the chance to animate Mickey or some other great character, so someone wrote the character's names on slips of paper, then threw them all in the air at the same time, and the animators scrambled for the slips of paper. Imagine what a privilege - and responsibility - it would be to be the first person to animate Mickey (or even Goofy) in half a century.

This is also a reasonably close and very respectful adaptation of Dickens' original Christmas Carol. Scrooge McDuck, a longtime Disney character (seen mostly in Disney comic books) is, quite naturally, the geezer. Goofy is Marley, Mickey is Bob Cratchit, and so on, but, with the exception of certain liberties (such as Goofy/Marley's clumsiness), the Disney characters do justice to their Dickens counterparts.

This movie is currently available as part of a Disney compilation that also includes Small One. But don't be fooled into handing the dvd to the kids and telling them to watch all three shows on the disk back to back without you in the room. Like Small One, this is a show that's worth spending the time to watch with your family.

The Snowman, by Raymond Briggs

Raymond Briggs' charming wordless book about a young boy who goes on a fantastic Christmas journey with a magic snowman is set to motion with animation that pays tribute to the book's original art.

Like several of the other movies on this page, some folks consider the VHS Version better, because it lacks the entirely unnecessary narration that has been added to the DVD. Other folks prefer the higher resolution of the DVD, and don't mind the narration. Nearly everyone loves the story and the beautiful art, which can be seen in both. The running time of this movie is about 26 minutes.

Elf

Wil Farrell is funniest when he is playing a clueless innocent, and no one is more innocent or clueless than "Buddy," a human raised by elves at the North Pole. A tremendous supporting cast, including Bob Newhart, James Caan, Mary Steenburgen, and Ed Asner, bring vitality and a sort of quirky plausibility to a movie that seems to start out in "Rudolf-land" and ends up with a cop-on-horseback-versus-reindeer chase scene in Central Park. Peter Dinklage (Prince Caspian's 's Trumpkin) has a bit as a children's author with an attitude that is almost worth the price of admission.

With the exception of Buddy's father choosing one of the few bad judgments that virtually never takes place in that industry (distributing a children's book with the last plot page missing), everything else that happens in the movie seems to flow right out of the characters and from the conflict between Buddy's inherent good nature and naivete and the "real-world's" jaded cynicism. This is a remarkable movie, and will no doubt tie with Stranger Than Fiction as Farrell's most enduring work.

Muppet Christmas Carol

Michael Caine plays a believable Scrooge surrounded by a supporting cast of fuzzy characters. The plot is surprisingly close to the book, making this a good introduction to the story, and the sound track has some very nice songs that work outside of the film as well as in.

One feature that makes this especially useful for families with small children is the fact that that Gonzo and Rizzo "exit" the film just before it gets "scary." So if you are afraid the Ghost of Christmas Future will creep out the very small ones (it probably won't, but you be the judge), you just tell them to close their eyes, then you zap ahead until you see Gonzo again.

Polar Express

Chris Van Allsburg's charmingly illustrated book The Polar Express tells a simple story of a boy who boards a magical train that takes him to the North Pole in time to see Santa departing with his sleigh and reindeer on Christmas eve. The movie stays true to the art and spirit of the book. However it introduces many other characters, including other children, and a frenetic conductor voiced and "played" by Tom Hanks. The CGI animation is clever and often impressive, and the "story line" stays true to the basic themes of the book. Alan Silvestri's sound track has some very memorable tunes, including the grand theme "It's the Spirit of the Season."

I'm a rail fan, and I do have to confess that the Polar Express train does some things that real trains can't do, but it's fun to watch.

Creepy Scene Alert - Also, regarding small children, there is one creepy scene, in which the boy is left behind in a car filled with broken puppets that see to be grabbing at him. You might want to zap through that scene as you watch - it doesn't add anything to the plot.

Also you might be interested to know that one of the best Lionel sets released in the last ten years is a very nice model of the Polar Express train shown in the movie. Click here to see the Lionel Polar Express premium train set and several other Lionel Christmas trains.

Note: If you are out of time to order a dvd, this movie is also available as a download. For more information about Downloadable Family Christmas Movies, click here.

Conclusion

As always, please contact us with any questions, suggestions, or corrections.

Paul and Shelia Race

www.familychristmasonline.com

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