There are many classic films everyone thinks of, classics such as It’s a Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street, and Die Hard. Throughout the years however, new Christmas classics to watch with the whole family continue to show up under the tree.

The first film to go over is The Muppets Christmas Carol (1992), an adaptation of the Charles Dickens story of the same name. And is the directorial debut by Brian Henson, son of the late Jim Henson (creator of The Muppets).

The film is about a mean old money lender named Ebeneezer Scrooge (played by Michael Caine) being visited by three ghosts on Christmas Eve to try to show him the error of his ways and turn his life around before it’s too late. 

It’s the usual story, aside from the fact that, with the exception of Michael Caine, every other role  is being played by a muppet.

What’s funny and respectable about the film is despite most of the cast being played by puppets with funny voices, they play it straight. 

Especially Michael Caine. Even though all his co-stars are muppets who get into wacky shenanigans, he still brings in a powerful performance as Scrooge. As intended, he portrays the anger, the self pity, the regret, the sorrow, and his jubilation without missing a beat and never once winking to the audience.

Of course, that’s not to say there’s no comedy whatsoever. Throughout the film, Charles Dickens (who’s being played by Gonzo the Magnificent) and Rizzo Rat are trying to keep up with Scrooge to narrate the story, with slapstick ensuing. 

The film is also a musical, with the music ranging from forgettable to earworm inducing. There are no truly bad tracks in the film, just ones you’ll forget as soon as you’re done listening to them. 

The movie isn’t perfect, however. There was an entire song where Scrooge’s ex-fiance, Belle (Meredith Braun), sings about how, while she loves him she knows that his true love will always be money, so she has to leave him. 

It’s a good song, with strong singing and acting. The problem is they cut it out of the original release. So after Belle just tells Ebeneezer that she’s leaving, all of a sudden everyone is crying for some reason, including Rizzo. It’s just such a jarring cut that wasn’t well executed. (You can see the number in the Blue-Ray version.) 

Despite its flaws, the film is still a worthy adaptation of the Dickens original and is worth the watch. Come for the comedy provided by The Muppets, stay for the powerful performances.

The next film, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989), or Christmas Vacation for short, is directed by Jeremiah S. Chechik.

The Griswold family, the patriarch Clark (played by Chevy Chase), his wife Ellen (Beverly D’Angelo), their daughter Audrey ( Juliette Lewis) and younger son Rusty (Johnny Galecki) have to prepare for their extended family to visit for Christmas. 

Unsurprisingly, everything starts going wrong almost immediately, and hijinks ensue.

The entire film makes the audience ask, how can this possibly get worse? throughout the entire running time. With the film then answering, very soon.

The film, despite being a comedy, a very funny one at that, is in its own strange little way, relatable. Because everyones had a Christmas where seemingly everything goes wrong.

Now, I can’t recall the last time I caused a reindeer and a Santa to explode or put on so many Christmas lights that power goes out throughout several homes but it still gets the point across.

Like all great comedies the film is also filled with a large amount of heart. The story really gets the audience into Clark’s point of view. All he wants is to have a nice Christmas with his family, and make magical moments like he had when he was young. But everything just always seems to go wrong.

What’s great about the comedy of the film is that it ranges from subtle to overt, but both are very funny in this film. Whether it’s noticing everyone having a hard time eating their turkey due to how overcooked it is or the aforementioned exploding reindeer and Santa, both get big laughs.

Christmas Vacation is remembered as a Christmas classic for a very good reason. It has everything that people think of when they think of Christmas, the laughs, the joy, the presents, and the annoying in-laws.

The final film in this trinity of Christmas classics is Gremlins (1984), directed by Joe Dante.

An inventor of weird and useless devices, named Randall Peltzer (Hoyt Axton) buys a small fluffy creature called a Mogwai named Gizmo (voiced by Howie Mandel) from a strange old man in ChinaTown. After buying it he is informed of three rules he must follow. 1. Keep it away from bright light, 2. Never get it wet, and 3. Don’t feed it after midnight. 

After handing it to his son, a mild-mannered bank teller named Billy (Zach Galligan), all three rules are promptly broken and chaos begins to break out in town.

The film is a clear throw back to B-movie sci-fi films. With all the B-movies playing in the background, the goofy premise ripped out of a ‘50s horror movie, and weird characters, it’s clear that the creators have a love of the genre.

The biggest strength the film has is the very well done animatronic and puppet work on the creatures. They act and look real because they were actually there. Even if you can sometimes see the strings.

The plot is nothing special, but with all zany antics and bizarre characters, it’s clear that the film is just trying to be fun.

That’s not to say the plot is perfect. The three rules stated before are broken several other times throughout the film but nothing happens. 

There’s also a moment where Billy’s love interest, Kate (Phoebe Cates), goes on this several minute tangent on why she doesn’t like Christmas that comes straight out of nowhere, which turns what should be a sad scene into a comedic one, as she talks about her dark past without any prompting.

Christmas is a wonderful time of the year (depending on who you ask), but it can always be made better with Christmas classics, both old and new.