christmas movies.

I love Christmas movies. They're a perennial part of my Christmas experience each year (just as much as the First Presidency Christmas devotional, Mom's rolls, and the Carpenter's Christmas album). But like many, I hide my Christmas movie collection all year long, only to be able to pleasantly be able to bring them out to the public the day after Thanksgiving and try to watch them all before Christmas Eve. I haven't been so successful this year with a busy semester and a crazy final's week! But there are always a few that I always try to sneak in. These are my favorites:

8. The Preacher's Wife

I love this movie about a couple who unknowingly let an angel stay at their house during the Christmas season, in which he ends up helping and saving the couples marriage and lives. It also has Whitney Houston belting "I Believe In You and Me" pre-cocaine.

7. While You Were SleepingOk, so not really a Christmas movie ABOUT Christmas...but it takes place during the holidays. I still remember my mom taking me to see it when I was ten years old and laughing just as much as the grown-ups were. Continues still today to be one of the funniest movies I've ever seen as well as feel-good.

6. It's A Wonderful LifeI remember my grandma Neece introducing me to this movie and the two of us watching it every year during Christmas time. I can hear the little girl now: "Every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings." Classic.

5. Home Alone
Every kids dream come true/worst nightmare all in one movie! Oh the memories: The creepy but misunderstood neighbor, the hands to cheeks yell after putting on his dad's after shave, the neurotic families outbursts (i.e. "Look what ya did ya little jerk"), the music, the iconic "KEVIN!!!!!" scene, and oh yes, the burglars and the booby traps. Oh, and the happy message of familes being together during Christmas time. That too.

4. The Family Stone
A rather tragic Christmas movie about a mom with cancer who's entire family is coming home for Christmas, including the eldest son's highly insanely annoyingly intense fiance. Hilarity and tragedy ensue as the family tries to accept the new girl as well as make Christmas normal. Classic Christmas tear-jerker of the importance of family and traditions.

3 Elf"I'M IN LOVE I'M IN LOVE AND I DON'T CARE WHO KNOWS IT!"...need more be said?

2. Miracle On 34th StreetSo I've never seen the original but I've loved this version ever since it came out. But to this day it still boggles my mind why St. Nick is in New York to begin with...but never-the-less...still heart-warming and fun.

1. The Family Man
I love this movie. A classic "What If..." tale about a single "business-is-everything" man who wakes up on Christmas morning to find himself married to the girl he dumped in college with two kids living in the suburbs with a mini-van and a mortgage. Over time he starts to accept the new lifestyle and ultimately has to choose between his current life course or changing it to what he could have been: a family man.