I was going to call this "Christmas movies I hate" but changed it because 1) we use "hate" too often 2) it shouldn't just be Christmas, there are other holidays and 3) why make it all about me?
But two movies come immediately to my mind: 1) A CHRISTMAS STORY (1983) and 2) THE POLAR EXPRESS (2004).
It seems like everyone else in my family (siblings, nephews, in-laws) all love A CHRISTMAS STORY. For some it's a holiday tradition to watch it every year. After hearing them constantly harp on how great it is, I finally sat down to watch it--and after twenty minutes, I had to turn it off, because it was sheer torture.
I actually watched THE POLAR EXPRESS in the the theatre when it came out. It's not just the uncanny valley that makes this movie a horror story. It's completely against the image of Santa, the North Pole and Santa's Workshop that I've held in my heart since I was a little boy. It strikes me as a movie made by adults who think they have something to teach children about Santa Claus.
Lately, on youtube, I get these ads for something at the Vancouver Aquarium, in Stanley Park, called THE POLAR EXPRESS EXPERIENCE. This might just be a dressed up version of the Christmas train in Stanley Park that has existed before I was even born. But it's just another example of adults trying to make THE POLAR EXPRESS happen--to push kids into accepting this hellish vision of Christmas. Because that's what adults like to do. They think they know better than kids what's good for them and constantly push their crap onto kids instead of letting them decide for themselves what they want.
There are a lot of holiday movies like this, that seem to have been made by people who were never children. They deconstruct Christmas and other holidays and manufacture their own mythologies. Contrary to that, a movie that I think gets everything right is ELF. The first time I saw that movie, I was glowing--it's like they knew exactly what I imagined Santa, the North Pole and Santa's Workshop should be. But those kind of movies are rare.
Another movie that I don't admire--but I have nothing against it--is MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET (1947 and 1994). It's an inoffensive Santa Claus story, but having seen it a few times over the years, I never need to see it again. It doesn't excite my interest. Give me BACHELOR MOTHER (1939)--now that's a department store holiday movie I can watch over and over and never get tired--you can't go wrong with Ginger Rogers and David Niven.