Today brings us a guest post from my good friend Nick Long who hails from the great state of Texas.

#10 Gremlins (1984)

This was most likely my first and most traumatizing movie theater experience. My unsuspecting parents were fooled by the PG rating and images of a cute, cuddly ‘mogwai’ – they weren’t alone. As a five year-old, my wife endured weeks of sleepless nights following her first encounter with the malevolent gremlin. It’s almost common knowledge that Howie Mandel provided the voice of Mogwai, but you may be surprised to know that Steven Spielberg funded the project. It’s interesting that Spielberg would direct Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom later that same year. Faced with the dreaded R rating, he lobbied the MPAA for a rating somewhere in between and the rest is, as they say, history…a middle-of-the-road rating, PG-13.

#9 Die Hard (1988)

It is easy to forget that this movie takes place during the Christmas season. Die Hard is considered by many to be the blueprint for the modern day action movie and is credited for establishing the ‘action star’ archetype (fallible, witty one-liners, all round tough guy). The Nakatomi building is actually 20th Century Fox’s headquarters. Believe it or not they charged themselves rent in addition to damages done to the sidewalk guardrail by the LAPD armored personnel carrier. Die Hard was renamed Big Building Fight in Tailand and A Hard Nut to Crack in Russia…doesn’t have the same ring to it does it?

#8 The Santa Clause (1994)

Aside from being my daughters favorite Christmas movie, I remain fascinated with the story’s concept for obviously different reasons. I had never contemplated the possibility of Santa being killed let alone the replacement process that would be required. If assuming the role involves nothing more than ‘wearing the suit’ shouldn’t we take another look at the recruitment process? Released in 1994, the Santa Clause grossed $144 million in the United States alone. Did you know that Chevy Chase was originally cast as Scott Calvin, but had to turn it down due to scheduling conflicts? Looks like the conflict was Cops and Robbersons…ugh, enough said.

#7 Home Alone (1990)

On a personal note I saw this movie with my family when it first opened in 1990. The very next morning we saw my mom off to the Persian Gulf for Operation Desert Storm. The concept for this movie originated the year before during a scene in Uncle Buck where Macaulay Culkin interrogates a would-be babysitter through a letterbox. Writer/director John Hughes wrote the story with Culkin as the lead, but tested over a hundred other young actors just to confirm his first choice. Robert De Niro turned down the role of Harry who would be immortalized by the great Joe Pesci.

#6 Miracle on 34th Street (1947)

This classic has a total of four remakes and is probably why it’s easy to forget that the original was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture in 1947 (lost to Gentleman’s Agreement). Studio head Darryl F. Zanuck insisted the movie be released in May to capitalize on greater ticket sales in the spring and summer. Consequently, the studio took great pains to promote the movie while keeping the fact it was about Christmas a secret. Talk about a sign of the times! How successful would that strategy be in 2007?

#5 Little House on the Prairie ‘Christmas at Plum Creek’ (1974)

This epitomizes the true heart and spirit of Christmas. Each member of the Ingalls family must make real sacrifices in order to make their first Christmas in Walnut Grove the best they have ever had. How prone I am to blurring and often times redefining the true meaning of Christmas by not being familiar with true sacrifice. The last ten minutes of this episode are particularly moving, especially for a parent. I am amazed by the unconditional love of a child for their mother/father. What a greater reminder of Christ’s unconditional love and sacrifice for His Father!

#4 National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)

(Cue collective groaning). No, this did not make my Top 3, but it was extremely close. I am hard pressed to come up with a more quotable movie and Chevy Chase is at his finest. Assistant director Frank Capra III is the grandson of Frank Capra, the acclaimed director of It’s a Wonderful Life. Remember the scene where Clark saws of the newel post? This is a direct reference to the newel post that was loose in It’s a Wonderful Life. Todd and Margo’s house (Griswold’s persnickety neighbors) was Murtaugh’s house in the Lethal Weapon movies.

#3 A Christmas Carol (1984)

There have been so many adaptations to the Dickens classic that I should probably use George C. Scott as Ebenezer Scrooge to clarify. I tend to cringe when I see Scrooge in nothing but a nightgown, slippers, and cap as such attire has a tendency to punctuate vulnerability, almost infant-like. Scott brings an edge of meanness to his interpretation of Scrooge that is accentuated by his dress-slacks, dress-shirt, vest, and smoking jacket. I like to juxtapose the plight of Ebenezer Scrooge to that of George Bailey. Here we have a man who thinks he’s gained everything just to realize he has nothing. George Bailey on the other hand, loses everything just to realize he had everything all along.

#2 A Christmas Story (1983)

I borrow from British critic, Derek Malcom here by defining a great movie as one I could not bear the thought of never seeing again. Imagine if you will, a Christmas season without Ralphie and his official Red Ryder, carbine action, two-hundred shot range model air rifle, with a compass in the stock and a ‘thing’ that tells time. My father purchased a Red Ryder air rifle for my brother and I in much the same tradition that is captured here. I can still hear my mother screaming from the top of the stairs one Saturday morning, voice so shrill a bucket of water would have gone unnoticed by comparison. I remember being yanked out of the house and thrust to the back yard in pajamas and bed-head with my stoic neighbor, Art standing by. You see it was great sport for us to crouch behind the deck with rifle in hand and snipe unsuspecting birds and squirrels, parents none the wiser. Our untrained eye caused more than a few stray bee bees to riddle the back of Art’s camper – we blamed it on someone else of course.

#1 It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)

What can I say other than I am a complete sap each and every time I watch this. One of the main reasons I think this movie is timeless is that George Bailey epitomized every man. Who hasn’t at one time thought to himself, ‘I’m shakin’ the dust of this crummy little town off my feet and I’m gonna see the world.’ We all have an intense desire to make a mark in this life, albeit that desire is often times misguided. ‘What is it you want, Mary? What do you want? You want the moon? Just say the word and I’ll throw a lasso around it and pull it down.’ Such a valuable lesson to learn that God’s plan for our lives is perfect, beyond even our greatest imaginations.