Home Alone and 8 Other Kids Christmas DVDs You Should Have in Your Movie Collection

My favorite time of the year is Christmas and I love getting into the season by watching holiday movies and listening to Christmas songs, playing in the snow etc it's just a part of the festivities.  While I occasionally watch kid's movies and own a few, I generally tend to watch  more serious dramas or TV on DVD.  I'm not a big fan of comedies.  But the one exception is kid's Christmas movies.  They let me be a kid again for a little bit and remember Christmas from a kid's perspective and they always help put me back into the right perspective.

I don't think a movie collection or a holiday dvd collection is complete without a few kid's Christmas DVD's added into the mix.  Here are 8 I think everyone should have.

This is the 1st movie that comes to mind when I think of Christmas DVDs for Kids. I also talked about it in my other post, Remember the Spirit of Christmas By Watching A Christmas DVD. This story is a classic that the whole family loves. Kevin gets left home when the family flies away for Christmas. At first Kevin loves the thought of being the man of the house but when he realizes a couple of burglars are breaking into houses in his neighborhood he comes up with some hilarious ideas to protect the house. There are some great slapstick comedy moments in this movie and kids just love it. My nephews like to watch it all the time whether it is Christmas or not.

This is the latest version of Charles Dicken’s A Christmas Carol.  Jim Carrey stars as scrooge plays all of the ghosts as well and there is a whole list of other top Hollywood actors. While this is a great family film some of the scenes can be a little scary for younger kids.  Even kids that are a little older can get frightened in this movie. 
If you want a movie that is even better for little kids, check out the Mickey’s A Christmas Carol.  It is filled with all of the Mickey gang that they are sure to be familiar with, its shorter for those with shorter attention spans and its not quite as scary.

The 3 Santa clause movies are a great to anyone’s home.  Tim Allen does a great job of taking over Santa’s job when Santa tumbles off his roof!  Of course, no one can know what he is doing.  In the sequel of this movie Santa now has to find a wife and if he doesn’t he can no longer be Santa!  In the 3rd installment Jack Frost becomes jealous of everybody who has their own holidays and tries to wreak havoc on the toy factory while invoking the “Escape Clause” to ruin Christmas for everybody. These 3 are all wonderful movies that the whole family can enjoy together. If you can’t get enough of these check out Fred Clause as well.

I also talked about this in my other post.  The Grinch has become a character that has withstood the test of time.  I personally like the cartoon a lot more than the Jim Carrey version just because that is what I grew up watching.  Every Christmas my mom would pull this out for us and I now have it as part of my DVD collection.  The animation might be a little slower paced for kids used to animation in today’s Disney movies and if that’s the case you can get them the newer version so that you can continue to share this classic story with them.

This classic half hour movie is anticipated by households every year.  It was made for TV and they continue to air it around the holidays.  You don’t have to wait for the networks to broadcast it though, you can own it yourself and watch Charlie Brown as he tries to get the school Christmas Pageant together.  Just as Charlie starts to love his faith in Christmas because no one else seems to take it seriously, Linus saves the day by explaining to everyone the meaning of Christmas.

I have to say this is one my favorites and I don’t own it yet, but it’s the next on my list of holiday DVDs I want to buy. Michael Keaton stars as Jack Frost, who was an aspiring musician that missed out quite a bit on his son, Charlie’s, life.  He dies unexpectedly in a car crash and comes back as a snow man.  He gets the opportunity to make up for the time he missed out on when he was an absent father.  I just like the relationship between him and his son in this movie. While obviously not very believable it’s a fun and heartwarming story.

This is a compilation of those original TV Christmas movies that they made in the 60’s and 70’s and that they would show every year on TV.  We also grew up with these but I love to compare the animation of say Rudolph to the Toy Story’s or the newer A Christmas Carol.  Wow, Hollywood has sure made some strides when it comes to their special affects and animation.  These movies are much less life like than today’s animated movies but it doesn’t mean you can’t still enjoy these classics with your kids and grandkids.  It’s a great addition to any classic holiday movie lover’s DVD collection.

I am pretty biased towards this story simply because my mom had this book that came with the bells and the audio cassette of the book being read by Liam Neeson.  It was a Christmas tradition for us every year so I was pretty excited when the movie came out.  I will start by saying I don’t think this could even live up to such a great book and story.  While Tom Hanks does an excellent job, and I recommend it to everyone, I will always prefer the book.  Today I own both the Polar Express DVD and the book.  I like to get both out when Christmas approaches.