Recommended Reads

Ready to laugh, cry, sing, frolic, cavort and enjoy yourself beyond belief. Well, you're in luck, because this Great Gonzo₂s ₁From Chickens to Dickens' 20th Anniversary Edition of The Muppet Christmas Carol is guaranteed to put you in a holiday spirit that will stay with you forever, or at least until your Aunt Edna starts complaining that nobody is eating the fruitcake she brought, again!

A group of mercenaries attack the estate of a wealthy family on Christmas Eve, and Santa must save Christmas.

Jack Skellington is the King of Halloween. He becomes bored with the same routine every year. He decides to take a walk in the woods. There, he discovered a door leading to Christmastown and decides to spread Christmas joy to the world. When he is back in Halloweentown he shows his friends what Christmas is like, and he suggests doing Christmas this year instead. But things do not go as planned when Oogie Boogie, an evil gambling boogey man, plots to play a game with Santa Claus' life and creates a nightmare for all the good little boys and girls everywhere. Although Sally attempts to stop him, Jack embarks into the sky on a coffin-like sled pulled by skeletal reindeer.

A human baby accidentally ends up at the North Pole and grows up among the elf community. Buddy, as he comes to be known, knows that he's "special". When he's 30, Buddy learns from Santa that he's really a human. He decides to go in search of his father, to find out where he belongs. He walks to Manhattan, and is immediately run over by a cab. His father at first rejects him and Buddy ends up in a department store where other elves are working. But all the while, things are looking bad for Santa Claus. When Santa crashes his sleigh in Central Park, it's Buddy's moment to shine.

George Bailey has so many problems he is thinking about ending it all and it's Christmas! As the angels discuss George, his life is shown in flashback. As George is about to jump from a bridge, he ends up rescuing his guardian angel, Clarence. Clarence then shows George what his town would have looked like if it hadn't been for all of his good deeds over the years. Will Clarence be able to convince George to return to his family and forget suicide?

This darkly festive tale of a yuletide ghoul reveals an irreverently twisted side to the holiday. The horror-comedy tells the story of young Max, who turns his back on Christmas as his dysfunctional family comes together and comically clashes over the holidays. When they accidentally unleash the wrath of Krampus, an ancient entity from European folklore, all hell breaks loose and beloved holiday icons take on a monstrous life of their own.

Two song-and-dance men team up in show business after the war. Joining forces with a sister act, they trek to Vermont for a white Christmas. The real adventure starts when Crosby and Kaye discover that the inn is run by their old army general who's now in financial trouble.

When a small-town, extremely disgruntled guy, Davey Stone, faces another holiday season in his New England hometown, he does what he always has - he messes up big time and lands in jail. But after a few surprises - including the mysterious reason for Davey's bad attitude and the reappearance of his childhood sweetheart - Davey might just decide he has a reason or two to change his ways.

Discover the true meaning of the holiday season with the live action adaption of the beloved classic. Why is the Grinch such a grouch? No one seems to know, until little Cindy Lou Who takes matters into her own hands and turns both Whoville and the Grinch's world upside down, inside out-- and funny side up.

Rusty the reindeer heads for the big city in order to find his role in Christmas, but Santa's Naughty 'n Nice O-matic is on the blink and Rusty cannot tell the good kids from the naughty ones. Alone in the big city, Rusty discovers a support group for holiday icons who team up with Rusty to save a kid from the fate of the Christmas Naughty List. Go on an exciting ride through all the hype of the holiday season as a merry band of holiday icons searches for the meaning of it all.

The film centers on Christmas enthusiast party planners Ella and her sister, Marianne, who clash with their client, Edward, who is a not-so-jolly toy company CEO.

All of London is in love -- or longing to be -- in Four Weddings and a Funeral writer Richard Curtis' first directorial effort. Billed as "the ultimate romantic comedy," Love Actually involves more than a dozen main characters, each weaving his or her way into another's heart over the course of one particularly eventful Christmas. The seemingly perfect wedding of Juliet (Keira Knightley) and Peter (Chiwetel Ejiofor) brings many of the principals together, including heartsick best man Mark (Andrew Lincoln), who harbors a very unrequited crush on Juliet. There's also recent widower Daniel (Liam Neeson), trying to help his lonely stepson Sam (Thomas Sangster) express his true feelings to a classmate. Across town, devoted working mother Karen (Emma Thompson) tries to rekindle the passion of her husband, Harry (Alan Rickman), who secretly pines for a young colleague of his. In the same office, the lonely Sarah (Laura Linney) not-so-secretly pines for a man just a few desks away (Rodrigo Santoro), who returns her affections but may not be able to dissuade her neuroses. Providing the unofficial soundtrack for all of the couples is an aging rocker (Bill Nighy) who just wants to cash in and get laid -- but even he might find a meaningful relationship in the most unlikely of places. A working print of Love Actually premiered at the 2003 Toronto International Film Festival.

Take a trip to the North Pole and discover exactly how Santa Claus makes Christmas magic happen every year in this imaginative comedy for the entire family. Produced by Aardman Features in association with Sony Pictures Animation, this fun-filled holiday film introduces viewers to Santa's mischievous son Arthur, who races to complete an important mission in time to ensure that this year's Christmas celebrations will go off without a hitch.

Directed by Robert Zemeckis and based on children's author Chris Van Allsburg's modern holiday classic of the same name, The Polar Express revolves around Billy (Hayden McFarland), who longs to believe in Santa Claus but finds it quite difficult to do so, what with his family's dogged insistence that all of it, from the North Pole, to the elves, to the man himself, is all just a myth. This all changes, however, on Christmas Eve, when a mysterious train visits Billy in the middle of the night, promising to take him and a group of other lucky children to the North Pole for a visit with Santa. The train's conductor (Tom Hanks) along with the other passengers help turn Billy's crisis in faith into a journey of self-discovery. A long-time fan of Van Allsburg's book, Hanks also helped produce the film. ~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi

Follows a group of old friends who, in true British fashion and while the rest of the world faces impending doom, reunite to celebrate Christmas in the comfort of an idyllic country home. Burdened withthe inconvenience of mankind's imminent destruction, they adopt a stiff upper lip, crack open another bottle of prosecco and continue with their festivities. But no amount of stoicism can replace the courage needed for their last night on Earth.