Family members prepare the popcorn, set out the candy, make hot cocoa and snuggle up in their fuzzy blankets and comfy sweaters. The lights turn off, the room goes quiet and the movie begins. It is movie time and the start of the Christmas movie season.  

Christmas is fast approaching and every year there are movies played every year to get people in the Christmas spirit. 

There are some movies that are old family traditions, and the holiday season simply would not be right without them. 

“‘Elf’ is my favorite Christmas movie,” senior GianReo Mire said. “Every year on Christmas day we have the movie on repeat all day because it’s the best Christmas movie in existence.”

Although some do not have Christmas movie marathons, they still watch some in the name of family. 

“I don’t really watch a lot of Christmas movies, but if I had to pick a favorite I guess I would have to pick ‘Let it Snow’,” freshman Lilly Blue said. “I guess I would have to choose that one because like I said, I don’t really watch Christmas movies and when I do, I do it with my younger siblings, so they’re all cartoony, and that is more of a teenage Christmas movie.”

Not everyone loves the iconic, traditional films that represent the holiday season, so to celebrate some make their own traditions unique to them. 

“We don’t watch Christmas movies, we watch ‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone’,” junior Kendall Cobb said. “It is just something we’ve always done because we don’t really like Christmas movies and this Harry Potter movie has Christmas in it, so we get to celebrate it with those characters from a movie we like.”

For some, memories and feelings go hand in hand with certain movies aired around Christmas. These movies can transport them back in time to their early childhoods. 

“My favorite Christmas movie is ‘The Polar Express’,” senior Olivia Bell said. “I don’t know why I love it so much, but I do. Every year I will watch it by myself or force someone to watch it. It brings me good feelings and just makes me feel like a kid again. It is more a tradition with myself. I make myself hot chocolate and have a fuzzy blanket or two, but no matter what I am in pjs.” 

These movies can remind people not only of feelings as a small child, but the experiences they had in their younger years and simpler times. 

“‘The Polar Express’ because when I was little we took a family trip to ride the Polar Express train and we got the full experience of the movie,” junior Rachel Smith said. “I still have my golden ticket and my hot chocolate mug from that ride.”