Around Christmas time, whether anyone likes it or not, we get assaulted with a barrage of Christmas-related entertainment. Here are a few films, short and long, I would argue are absolute necessities. A bit taken for granted by this time, perhaps, but here is a guide to some holiday classics,  from which 21st century Christmas specials could take a lesson or two.
“A Christmas Story” has a multitude of hallmarks that are regonized. Visually, unexpected images define the film: the golden, glowing leg lamp and a kid with his tongue frozen to a pole. The film is equally defined by its turns of phrase, “You’ll shoot your eye out!” TBS has run a marathon of the film for 24 hours straight, beginning on Christmas Eve for 15 years now; it’s a collection of anecdotes, often hilarious, that come together to define a very specific type of holiday in a very specific place and time period during a midwestern Great Depression Christmas. And a confession: I own three leg lamps of different sizes.
“National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” is another Christmas comedy with absolutely wild characters and situations that create one big hyperbolic reel.  The Grizwald family has enough strangeness, but when a multitude of ridiculous relatives journey to their home for Christmas, the holiday is cracked wide open. Literal chaos ensues – squirrels terrorize, cats get electrocuted and the turkey is cooked so long it pops like a paper bag when cut. The film may not be impeccably crafted, but when a little exaggeration is needed, this is the way to go; it may even serve to make time with one’s own family a little more appealing.
“Home Alone” and “Home Alone 2” are the stories we all wished we lived as kids (especially the sequel. Hello, New York!) and are still nearly as hilarious even as college students. Macaulay Culkin’s impossible obstacle courses put those two lame robbers through treacherous pitfalls, both comical and a little terrifying. I couldn’t watch the guy step on the nail in the first one for years as a kid, but the hotel hallway scene in the second one made up for it.
And, the pièce de résistance of Christmas television is “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” This is not only my favorite piece of Christmas television, but it’s one of my favorite short films in existence. I could talk about this all season long. It’s a quiet thing. Everyone should view it at least once, and if one has already seen it, it deserves another look from every soul with life. Quiet does by no means equate to boring. This makes the case for animation as an art form. The hand-drawn work is deceptively simple, with its gorgeous washes of ink illustrating the world of a 1960s Christmas. The show encapsulates anyone’s questions of where the holiday has headed in the past 75 years or so, as Charlie Brown ponders the commercialism he sees around him. With the same question still being posed today, its relevance has not been lost, but perhaps become more relevant. The special is just like Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree, not flashy or gaudy, but rife with heart and meaning. It’s simple with deep questions that bring out uncomplicated answers. When the spotlight hits Linus and he begins to speak about the real meaning of Christmas, I get goosebumps every time.
There’s a type of Christmas film for just about everyone. It’s really about finding what Christmas means for each individual. That idea is out there in a Christmas special somewhere. Christmas movies and specials can also pull off something extraordinary at least in my family: bringing us all together, even with our disparate taste in movies, to spend the holiday enjoying time with each other. For that couple of hours or so, anyway.