TJ's Top 5 Xmas Movies

In reverse order of preference, I give you my top five Christmas movies, and wish you all a very happy holiday:

5. A Christmas Story (1983): Inspired storytelling by any measure, and probably the only Christmas script to ever contain the term "electric sex."

4. The Matador (2005): Often overlooked as a holiday movie, the second half of this tale does indeed occur during the holiday season. Pierce Brosnan, Greg Kinnear and Hope Davis. (Kinnear delivers a line that writers have no doubt wanted to say to their friends at least a thousand times: "Please tell me you know you mixed two sports in a metaphor.")

3. The Ice Harvest (2005): Guns, tinsel, strippers, John Cusak and Oliver Platt. Nuff said.

2. Elf (2003): This movie could have stopped after the first few minutes and still have made this list. Will Ferrell sitting on Bob Newhart's lap! Funniest ... sight ... ever.

1. Bad Santa (2003): This movie is for those who've seen It's a Wonderful Life a few too many times, at least enough to root for George Bailey to hurry up and jump before Clarence the angel shows up to ruin the show. Seriously, if hearing Jingle Dogs gives you a nervous tick, or if just the thought of Bob Dylan's Christmas In the Heart prompts you to ponder violence against yourself or others, just put the kids to bed, then go wrest that fifth of Old Grand Dad from the cushions of the foldaway couch downstairs, and pop this bit of adult holiday bliss into the DVD player. Billy Bob Thorton, Tony Cox and Lauren Graham are truly hilarious, but the best bits are those with John Ritter and Bernie Mac. Sad to say that Ritter died not long after Bad Santa was made, and Mac passed away in 2008.

HONORABLE MENTIONS: Go (1999) and Die Hard (1988), both of which are set in Los Angeles during the holiday season. Die Hard II (1990) is also set during the holiday season.

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-- TJ Sullivan is the author of the novel Boon.