Holiday Favorites: The Movies We Watch

By Isabella Clement

After a long and tiring semester, the fall semester begins to end with the start of a holiday cheer. Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and more begin to quickly approach as the month of December takes off. Just before you know it, it’ll be that time of year again where you see family and friends coming home for the holidays, everything being covered in snow, and warm sweaters with ugly designs on them. Everyone has their own traditions– but the most typical one seems to be watching holiday movies with their families.

I asked a few students about their opinions of what the “best” or their favorite holiday movie to watch this time of year was. The answers varied, but most of them had the same reason as why it was their favorite.

The first student I asked was David Blocher, a sophomore at SUNY Niagara. When asked his favorite holiday movie, he stated that it was the Polar Express. The Polar express is a classic animation film that tells the story of a boy who wakes up in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve to a train in front of his house. The destination of that train was the North Pole, to watch Santa take off for his flight. David believes this movie is the top Christmas movie out there.

The next person I asked was Matthew Arch, another Sophomore at SUNY Niagara, and he stated that his favorite movie during this season was National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. A considered cult-classic Christmas movie with hilarious jokes, scenes, and a storyline that is unforgettable. It shows the reality of some families during this hectic and sometimes stressful time of the year.

The last person I asked was Nathan Houck, a former student of SUNY Niagara in hopes of returning back to continue his studies, and he stated his favorite holiday movie was the original Bing Crosby’s White Christmas. A timeless classic of a movie, starring Bing Crosby of course, with wonderful imagery, music, and production for the time it was produced.

The thing that had these three in common was their reasoning: the nostalgia of the holiday season from when they grew up and spent time with their families. The pipeline of when they were young and saw families and had dinners together, the one thing that truly brought their families together was sitting down in a living room or TV room to watch a movie all together. Which is one of the reasons why the holidays are important – to recognize and to take advantage of spending time together.