Christmas is a time for family and friends. It’s a time to back up, give some gifts and share some love. But let’s face it, it’s a time for movie watching. We watch so many movies during the holidays, (when do they always release Harry Potter?) but why is it certain movies become Christmas Movies?

All sorts of charming movies take place during Christmas, like the list from the Washington Post Kristin wrote about in Movies that say “holiday” without screaming “cliche.” When we were selecting DVDs for the Spout Essentials set called the Christmas Survival Pack, we were thinking of various family situations that arise during the holidays where you’d like to be armed with a great flick. (Do the kids want to pop in Pokemon’s Christmas Nuisance Extravaganza? Try Jean Cocteau’s oh-so enchanting 1946 version of Beauty and the Beast. The scenes in the palace are 100 times more eye-popping than the Disney version, and you can read the subtitles the way you would a storybook–a much better introduction to foreign films than Pokemon.) But none of these movies where Christmas plays a prominent role are generally accepted as Christmas Movies.

If I spend Christmas with my mom and sisters, it automatically means all the “kids” (my wife, two sisters, my brother-in-law, and myself) have to sleep in one room and watch a twenty-year-old VHS recording of Santa Claus is Coming to Town. We laugh at all the awkward bits and pieces and talk about how scared we were of the Winter Warlock when we were kids. It’s a ritual more than a movie. It seems every other family participating in Christmas has some ritual Christmas movie they have to watch as well. Why?

I think it’s because a real Christmas Movie does two things. First, it connects us to our nostalgia, the same way Christmas music does. That much is obvious. But it also connects us to each other. Like a good campfire, it helps us take a deep breath and enter into why we’ve spent so much money on each other and gathered at Mom’s place. I think Christmas Movies get labeled “clich