I am going to be completely honest with everyone: when I first looked up ABC Family’s list of movies for 25 Days of Christmas, I expected to see a list of twenty-five movies. However, it seems ABC Family has outdone itself; the channel does not only show one movie a night, they show around seven to nine. Who knew that there were that many Christmas movies? Granted some movies are repeated, like the classic holiday movie Elf starring Will Ferrell, but a good portion are only shown once. This is why I am here, to tell you the movies worth watching so you do not have to tune in every night.

Grumpy green monsters may be usually associated with Halloween, but nothing says Christmas quite like the Grinch. The animated classic Dr. Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas, is a quick but timeless movie. Besides his amazing rhyming skills, Theodor Seuss Geisel aka Dr. Seuss creates a world where the Grinch must stop Christmas from robbing his neighbors, the Whos in Whoville. A word to the wise, avoid the live action adaptation starring Jim Carrey.    

Animated classics do not just stop with 2D-animation. A Year Without a Santa Claus is a  Rankin/Bass stop motion animated TV special that also easily falls into the timeless classic genre. Produced by the same company who did Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town, the TV special tells us about the year that Santa Claus decided that he was not going to come for Christmas this year. Naturally, this leads to fall out among the children, and a boy named Ignatius Thistlewhite teams up with a couple of elves to find Christmas Spirit© in order to motivate Santa. Hyjinx involving Mother Nature ensue, and overall makes this a very memorable story. Like Dr. Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas, I highly recommend avoiding its spinoff.

The next movie is a personal favorite of mine. If anyone has had history teacher Charles Obetts for freshman history, then they would also know of this gem. Though technically a Groundhog Day movie (who knew that those even existed), Jack Frost is about how Jack Frost became human and saved the town of January Junction from the Cossack King. Even though it’s terribly cheesy, Rankin/Bass does make interesting TV specials and Jack Frost is no exception. Watching this movie may even help you in history class.

Then there is the holy grail of Christmas films. The epitome of Yuletide cheer. The holiday movie that all holiday movies wish they could be. Directed by Robert Zemeckis, starring Tom Hanks, The Polar Express is about a the train and its journey to the North Pole. As the first all-digital capture film, the story follows a group of kids promised a trip to the North Pole to meet Santa Claus. As sketchy as that sounds, the magic is real and the kids fall from mountains and climb train cars to get there. See this movie to believe in the magic and you will not regret it.

All of these movies, despite some cases of overacting and various plot inconsistencies, really show the true spirit of the holiday season and are definitely worth your time.