Christmastime is a magical time. Colorful lights are strung across rooftops and regal facades; grand green trees stand proud above the whirl and the wrath of humanity at Rockefeller Center; and maybe, just maybe, if we wish hard enough, we will be visiting our favorite Yuletide kith and kin in the movies!That might sound absurd to you, but we’d contend no less so than some timey-wimey spirits with a penchant for throwing misers pity parties and guilt trips showing up on the stroke of the hour. So operating under the pretense that we could play Last Action Hero and visit any holiday movie’s clan this 25th of December, here are some of our editorial staff’s biggest wintry daydreams. Happy Holidays.cnx.cmd.push(function() {cnx({playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530",}).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796");});The Peltzers in GremlinsThe Peltzer family in Gremlins seem delightful. They’re supportive, upbeat, and Mama Peltzer is excellent with a blender. Though Randall Peltzer obviously made a classic error by shopping for pets rather than adopting, I feel like I’m personally prepared to deal with his crummy inventions this holiday season.Like many people of a certain age, I’m dealing with an elderly parent who is highly vulnerable to online scams. My mum will click on any link she’s sent but also becomes completely enamoured with any cheap, quirky “time-saving” product she sees on Instagram. This year, I’ve already been gifted a red canvas bag specifically designed for storing wrapping paper (the handle fell off immediately) and a pair of “electronic scissors” that were supposed to make gift wrapping a breeze (they ate through paper like a hungry Langolier, somehow obliterating most of the roll). On the plus side, I feel like I could definitely fake being entirely supportive of products like Randall’s Bathroom Buddy. I’m also willing to muck in by cleaning up chicken bones, cocoon slime, and microwaved gremlin carcasses, as long as I get to curl up by the fire with Gizmo at the end of the day. – Kirsten HowardThe McCallisters in Home AloneChristmas is the ultimate familial holiday. Every year, dads, moms, sons, daughters, aunts, uncles, cousins, and beyond gather together under one roof to celebrate Yuletide cheer and extend goodwill to all mankind. But what if you don’t want to celebrate Yuletide cheer nor extend goodwill to all mankind? What if you want to… oh, I don’t know, make your family disappear? Boy, do I have the feature film for you!The McCallisters of Home Alone are the ideal Christmas movie family because they leave me… I mean their son, alone. Home alone, in fact. Though it’s less an intentional decision and more an act of criminal negligence, Kevin McCallister’s immediate and extended family have the good sense to give a young man some space to enjoy the holidays his way. And Kevin spends that time wisely: watching movies, eating ice cream, and violently assaulting petty criminals—basically all the things I’d want to spend my Christmas doing, anyway.Now, should the powers that be (David Crow) decide that choosing a family precisely because they’re absent is a violation of the spirit of this assignment, I’ll sheepishly welcome the McCallisters to my dinner table. After all, they are known to order $122.50 worth of pizza (which would be $296.75 in 2025) for a modest pre-Christmas family meal. – Alec BojaladThe Parkers in A Christmas Story A Christmas Story is a movie about many things: nostalgia, traditional childhood rites of passage, and the straight-up avarice involved when there’s one particular gift you’re desperate to make sure ends up under your holiday tree. But, mostly, it’s a story about family. This might come as a surprise to young Ralphie, who famously spends the bulk of the film longing for a Red Ryder BB gun and trying to avoid the menacing neighborhood bully, Scut Farkus. But it’s the warm, delightfully tumultuous Parker clan that really makes this movie sing. Everything about A Christmas Story is chaos personified, and the family at its center is no different. Ralphie’s father (known only as the Old Man) with his love of profanity and endless war with the unseen but constantly broken furnace in the basement, is brusque and occasionally frightening (or at least may seem so to a child), but he is also a warm and loving husband who clearly adores his kids. (Ralphie does get that BB gun after all, despite his mother’s objections.)And while Mrs. Parker fulfills every frazzled mom trope there is—and never even gets a name of her own—she’s also endlessly patient with her family, whether that means allowing her kids to turn their dinner into slop or her husband to put a sexy leg lamp on display in the front window. (For a while, at least.) Even little brother Randy, with his constant complaints and whining, is charming. This isn’t a group out of Hollywood central casting; the Parkers feel relatable and real, and exactly the kind of people we’d all love to spend our holidays with.The movie’s ending, in which the gang is forced to go out for Chinese after the neighbor’s dogs demolish their turkey-based Christmas feast, is a perfect example of the best kind of holiday cheer, one that reminds us all that this time of year, it’s ultimately not the presents or the decorations that matter. It’s the people. – Lacy BaugherThe March Family in Little Women (1994)It is said that Charles Dickens invented the modern Christmas via A Christmas Carol. There is a certain degree of hyperbole to this claim, but he definitely played his part in the UK. Over on the other side of the pond though, Louisa May Alcott was no slouch either in introducing generations of readers and, subsequently, moviegoers to the wonders of an idyllic 19th century December.The movie version that gets closest to her cheer and domestic bliss in the face of want is Gillian Armstrong’s 1994 iteration of Little Women, starring Winona Ryder, Kirsten Dunst, and a string of other then-upcoming talent (look at Christian Bale smiling as Laurie!). Despite the two Christmases we witness in the March sisters’ household occurring during the Civil War, where as Jo concedes “a temporary poverty had settled on our family some years before, [and] the war had made fuel and lamp oil scarce,” scarcity proves to indeed be the mother of invention. It is also the impetus to make those cold nights glow all the brighter as Susan Sarandon’s sagacious Marmie leads her girls in joyous Christmas caroling before giving their rare breakfast feast away to neighbors in need.Call us sentimental, but being in that old, welcoming Orchard House where music can reign whenever Beth tickles a piano—and Jo and Laurie harmonize before leading us all in a round of wild theatricals—sounds like a perfect Christmas. And to really make the season magical, we’d happily give these selfless New England free-thinkers the greatest gift of all: antibiotics for Beth! – David CrowThe Work Family at The Shop Around the CornerWhen people talk about 1940’s The Shop Around the Corner, they usually describe it as a lovely romance film starring Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullavan as co-workers in a leather-goods shop in Budapest. Even as the two become rivals at work, they engage in an anonymous relationship via mail, eventually falling in love. All of that’s true, but there’s a lot of stress going on in Shop Around the Corner, including the Christmas rush, competitive sales, and, most notably, the troubled demeanor of shop owner Matuschek (Frank Morgan), who tries to take his own life after finding out about his wife’s affair with an employee.So why, one might ask, would I want to spend my holiday with Stewart’s Kralik, Sullavan’s Novak, and the other members of the Matuschek and Company family? Because of the Lubitsch Touch, of course—the famous whimsy and sweetness that director Ernst Lubitsch brought to his films. For all that’s going wrong in the world of the movie (and in our world), Lubitsch keeps The Shop Around the Corner feeling warm, hopeful, and inviting. What more could you want at Christmas? – Joe GeorgeThe Baileys in It’s a Wonderful LifeThe Baileys are all about togetherness over perfection. Their house certainly has its issues. George spends long hours at the Building and Loan. Mary also has a lot to juggle with the kids and all, so the time they all get to relax together is probably short. But being surrounded by people who show up for one another, even when life is hard and money’s tight, is always a gift worth getting.Christmas with the Baileys would remind us of the important things in life—the commercial side of the holiday isn’t essential to their family. I would happily be their houseguest, but I’d also love to be part of the Bedford Falls community, one that believes people matter more than profit. That’s why I’d rather be with the Baileys than the Potters this year and every year. – KHBruce and Alfred in Batman ReturnsI know what you’re probably thinking right now: Bruce Wayne has a family to spend time with? To which I say, don’t be disrespecting Alfred like that! Despite what Alicia Silverstone’s Barbara Pennyworth asserts in Batman & Robin—a movie that, by the by, I do not consider canon with Tim Burton’s Gothic freak shows—Alfred is totes family to Bruce, and of the extremely needed variety at the end of Batman Returns.With his surrogate son lonely and blue on Christmas Eve, it is up to the gent Brit in the bowler hat to cheer Master Wayne up by acknowledging the need for good will on earth to men and women. That obviously seems like a bit of a downer brood of two to spend Christmas Day with, but I’m firstly not convinced we can’t turn those frowns upside down. Furthermore, viewers have only ever seen what their Christmas Eve is like. Can you imagine what Christmas Day could be in the world of Tim Burton? A Yuletide visit by Robin Williams’ Riddler? A spooky seance that summons a totally misunderstood and sweet-natured Etrigan? Maybe in a renewed visit by Michelle Pfeiffer’s Selina Kyle holding champagne and a whip?Christmas with the Batman could be a time to bring a good, suffering guy out his shell. But in Burton’s world, it’s also undoubtedly going to get weird in a fun way. – DCChristmas EvilAlthough it came out a few years before the infamous Silent Night, Deadly Night, Christmas Evil, aka You Better Watch Out, doesn’t really have much in common with that aforementioned, nasty Santa slasher. Yes, Christmas Evil does have scenes in which the troubled Harry Standling (Brandon Maggart) dresses like St. Nicholas and kills some people. But that’s just a small part of the movie that producers insisted writer/director Lewis Jackson include to give the film some lurid appeal. Instead most of Christmas Evil portrays Harry as a sweetheart whose love of Christmas is too pure for this nasty world.Which is exactly why I’d like to spend Christmastime with Harry, and maybe even his brother Phillip (played by Jeffrey DeMunn, one of several TV “that guys” in the cast, alongside Succession’s Peter Friedman, Home Improvement’s Patricia Richardson, Justified’s Raymond J. Barry, and Breaking Bad’s Mark Margolis). The brothers may disagree about Christmas, but they do fundamentally care for one another. And frankly, I want there to be more Christmas-loving people in the world like Harry… minus the occasional eye-gouging, of course. – JGThe post The Christmas Movie Family We Most Want to Spend the Holiday With appeared first on Den of Geek.