Top Ten Tuesday: Pop-Culture Christmas

No prompt this week for Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by the That Artsy Reader Girl). With Christmas coming up, I thought I’d share my top ten pop-culture celebrations of this special time of year.

1. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation — The older I get, the more I understand what motivated Clark Griswold. He wants to give his family the “perfect” Christmas, only to see it all go completely sideways. The line “You have expectations no holiday could live up to” sums it all up perfectly. That’s why it hits me in the funny bone and the sentimental side.
2. Happy Days, “Guess Who’s Coming to Christmas — Produced at the time the show was transitioning from a focus on the dynamic of Richie with his family and friends to Fonzie, this Christmas episode always makes my small heart grow three sizes. Fonzie has nowhere to go for Christmas, but is too proud to tell anyone. When Richie susses it all out, he’s invited to the Cunningham’s Christmas Eve celebration (though Howard isn’t as enthusiastic as everyone else). In the end, Fonzie even leads the family blessing by saying, “Hey God, thanks.” Gets me every single time.
3. A Christmas Carol Book with the Disney Players LP. My dad gave me this when we started learning about tenses in elementary school. I still have it. Produced before the animated, it hits most of the same beats but it’s got better songs. You can hear it here if you’re interested. The lyric, “We don’t have everything we want, but we have all we need” really hits home.
4. Doctor Who, A Christmas Carol. If Russell T. Davies established the Christmas special for my favorite show, Steven Moffatt took it to the next level with his first one. The Doctor plays the Ghost of Christmas past, present, and future via time travel in an episode that combines time travel with the Christmas spirit.
5. Christmas lights timed to music. I know where multiple homes exist in my area and drive by them each year. I can lose hours on YouTube seeing them all across the world. Not ready for this at my house yet, but soon…
6. How The Grinch Stole Christmas — Both the original animated special and book, please. The movie versions extend the story too much for this guy. But that half-hour special is just the right length.
7. A Christmas Story — Christmas told through the eyes of a kid, with all the wonder it brings. The Mom is the real hero of this movie.
8. Seinfeld, “The Strike.” A festivus for the rest of us! I may or may not quote this one liberally all December. May be Frank Costanza’s finest episode.
9. Old Time Radio comedy Christmas episodes. Thank goodness these are all public domain and easily searchable these days. I love so many of the routines used ala Jack Benny or Burns and Allen. I find the comedies hit home a bit more than the dramatic shows.
10. It’s A Wonderful Life — When George runs down the street, shouting hello to everything and everyone, I get a lump in my throat every darn time. A great movie.

Of course, I’m always looking for something new to add to my list. Any suggestions? Or do you have a cool YouTube video of Christmas lights to music? Let me know!