As Christmas draws closer, my mind turns to some very serious questions. Key among them is which movies I will watch while digesting my Christmas goose (or turkey, or ham, or Lasagna, or whatever). I can just about guarantee that whichever I watch, it will be one of those found here on this blog post! Here are my Top 10 All-Time favorites movies to watch at Christmas … in no particular order.

#1: The Battle of the Bulge

Will the war be over in time for Christmas? Will Lt. Col. Dan Kiley get to enjoy the General’s planned Christmas dinner? Inquiring minds want to know!

While not historically accurate and pretty much devoid of a plot, Battle of the Bulge still delivers as an entertaining war movie that will stir any true American’s patriotic porridge!

Click here to see the 1965 Battle of the Bulge Official Trailer HD.

#2: Scrooge (George C. Scott)

The classic “A Christmas Carol” with George C Scott has been a family Christmas tradition since I was a kid. None of the other versions can hold a candle to it.

First as a kid, with eggnog and Christmas cookies, now perhaps as an adult, with cheese and crackers and a good bourbon on the rocks.

It doesn’t matter that I’ve seen this movie probably once a year for as long as I can remember. It is simply part of my family Christmas tradition and I faithfully continue to follow it. Check out the trailer here if you haven’t seen it!

#3: Die Hard

Ho-ho-ho, he’s got a machine gun! Probably the most exciting office Christmas party in the history of offices.

Bruce Willis’s plays NYPD detective John McClane, a lone hero fighting overwhelming odds and battling terrorists on Christmas eve! Of course, it’s his wife’s boss’s office Christmas party at their nearly completed new skyscraper!

Just a great movie to kick back and relax to while eating copious amounts of buttered popcorn! Click here to view the Die Hard (1988) Theatrical Trailer #1.

#4: National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

Since its release in 1989, this movie joined Scrooge (with George C Scott) as a must see at Christmas time movie!

This movie is absolutely hilarious, and to beat all, my family Christmas memories are included in so many great scenes in this movie. We just didn’t take them to quite the extreme that Chevy Chase does. The relatives, cutting the perfect Christmas tree, the Christmas lights, etc. They are all there, just exaggerated a bit in the film.

Click here to view the trailer, and if you have not seen this movie, do yourself a favor and do!

#5: Big Jake

One of my all time favorite John Wayne movies. A great classic western story about a crusty old rancher who’s grandson is kidnapped for ransom by a gang of cutthroat outlaws.

Called home by his estranged wife, Jacob McCandles teams up with the now grown two sons he hasn’t seen in a decade to rescue his young grandson who is named Jacob; after his grandfather.

There are lots of memorable lines I find myself using to this day. For instance, if you don’t click here to view the trailer, “that would cause me great annoyance and displeasure.”

#6: The Lord of the Rings (Trilogy)

Each movie in this great trilogy was released at Christmas. So, for three successive years, my family went down to the old Ritz Theater in Clinton, Tennessee on Christmas Day and watched Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King. It was a three-year family tradition!

Though all three films are great, my favorite of the three movies is The Return of the King. Click here to view the #1 (2003) HD trailer for Return of the King.

#7: Polar Express

First, I enjoyed watching this movie with my kids when they were young. Overtime, it became a Christmas season must watch movie as well.

Hot Chocolate would make a pretty good quickstep for anyone interested in Ballroom Dancing and you even get to rock out with Aerosmith at the end of the movie.

For me it is just a feel-good Christmas story … kind of a more modern version of the classic, Twas the Night Before Christmas …

Click here to view the official Polar Express trailer!

#8: Kill Bill, Vol. 1

Not a big fan of Quentin Tarantino as a person, but I do like a lot of his movies. How is this a Christmas favorite? I think it must be the samurai duel in the snow between Uma Thurman and Lucy Liu. It is such a cool scene!

In this film, The Bride (Uma Thurman), a former assassin, awakens from a four-year coma and wreaks bloody vengeance on the team of assassins who betrayed her.

Lots of blood and gore, sword fights, knife fights, and rip-roaring vengeance wreaking! Probably not for everyone, and definitely not for kids, but I sure like it! Click here to view the trailer.

#9 Braveheart

This is a movie that should stir the “warrior soul” that has been an integral part of being a man since the dawn of time.

It is like an annual reminder for me that there is much in this world that is good … life, freedom, love of God, love of family, and love of country. And … those things are worth fighting for!

Christmas is a remembrance of the most important event in the history of man, the birth of Jesus Christ. It is also a great time for men to remind themselves what it should mean to be a man. Click here to check out the official 1995 Braveheart trailer.

#10: A Charlie Brown Christmas

A Charlie Brown Christmas is a classic. In this 1965 animated television special, Charlie Brown finds himself depressed despite the onset of the cheerful holiday season. Lucy suggests he direct a neighborhood Christmas play, but his best efforts are ignored and mocked by his peers.

After Linus tells Charlie Brown about the true meaning of Christmas, Charlie Brown cheers up, and the Peanuts gang unites to celebrate the Christmas season. Does it get any better than that? Click here to watch on YouTube.