The keyword that should describe the mood during the festive season is CHEER. What better way to fill your home with it than with a few feel good movies? We’ll share a few movies that will fill your homes with joy this Christmas and New Year.
Why Turn to Movies During the Festive Season?
Experts share that social isolation is a primary precursor of depression. People who feel socially disconnected avoid social interactions, especially during the holiday season. They feel a sense of deprivation and isolation.
Christmas movies allow people to experience the social connection that circumstances may prevent otherwise. A family comedy provides the laughs that they sorely need during the festive season.
Furthermore, feel good movies radiate the positive vibes that should fill the holidays. Everyone delights in the happy endings of these films.
Feel Good Movies Which Are Perfect For Watching During The Festive Season
Do you know someone whose spirit needs a little lifting this holiday? Introduce this person to our list of movies that are sure to make them feel good and coax them out of the dumps.
1. Christmas with the Kranks
The first movie on this list is Christmas with the Kranks, starring Home Improvement funnyman Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis as a couple who decide against celebrating Christmas because of their daughter being away.
Luther (Allen) and Nora (Curtis) Krank, who had spent over $6000 during the previous year’s holiday season, decide to forgo celebrating the present year’s when their daughter leaves for a Peace Corps assignment in Peru. They choose to spend the money on a Carribean Cruise.
The neighbors ostracize the Kranks for their decision. Luther’s employee’s think of him as a Scrooge because of his Christmas boycott. The scouts also become angry when the Kranks refuse to help with their fundraising effort.
Most displeased with the Kranks are Vic Frohmryer (Dan Akroyd) and Walt Scheel (M. Emmett Walsh), who start a campaign to force the Kranks to decorate their home so that their street won’t lose the award for best decorations.
Comic chaos breaks out when their daughter, Blair, announces her return with her Peruvian fiance in tow. The couple tries vainly to get Christmas festivities in motion and end up borrowing a tree from a neighbor. The police, who mistakenly believe that Luther is trying to steal his neighbor’s tree, arrest him for theft.
What follows will warm the heart and restore any cynic’s love for Christmas.
2. Miracle on 34th Street
Miracle on 34th Street is so heartwarming that it has become a perennial Christmas favorite. The Academy film archive preserved it in 2009.
The plot surrounds maverick Santa Kris Kringle, who exemplifies his role. Dissatisfied with the Santa at Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade being intoxicated, Kris auditions for the position and does so well in it that he becomes the Santa of Macy’s flagship store on 34th street.
What follows is a series of events that result in Santa bringing the spirit to people who need it. He directs customers to stores that sell products at cheaper rates than Macy’s. He even helps in the reconciliation between Macy’s and its bitter rival, Grimbel.
However, there are concerns when he tells a little girl that he is Santa Claus. He refuses to back down from his claim, resulting in attempts to have him committed to a psychiatric hospital. He has to prove, in court, that he is indeed Santa Claus.
You’ll have to watch the rest of the film to find out what happens to Kris, but here’s a hint. This story proves that good does happen if you believe it will.
https://youtu.be/yiypbCFV7Ao
3. Eight Crazy Nights
Eight Crazy Nights is a Feel Good special to watch when you have to deal with negativity and dysfunction. It focuses on the Jewish celebration of Hannukah.
Comedian Adam Sandler plays the role of alcoholic troublemaker Davey Stone, whom the community ostracizes because of his extensive criminal record. He gets arrested for not the bill at a restaurant, auto-theft, and vandalism.
Davey’s mentor from his former basketball league, Whitey Duvall, intervenes at his trial. Upon his suggestion, the judge sentences Davey to volunteer as a referee-in-training at Whitey’s Youth Basketball League. Per the terms of the sentence, Dave has to serve ten years in prison if he commits a crime during the community service period.
Davey meets with mishaps during this time, resulting in the relationship between himself and Whitey becoming strained. He returns to his bad habits and even breaks into the town mall. As he does, he imagines the logos of various stores coming to life and reminding him of the source of his negative behaviors. Things move forward.
Watch to find out if Davey manages to overcome his problems and make amends.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwBxcIrEL4E
4. Elf
Will Ferrell stars as a human raised by Christmas elves. He later reunites with his cynical and grouchy father, James Caan.
Ferrell is Buddy, whom Santa unwittingly transported to the North Pole after he crawled into the former’s sleigh as a baby. The elves adopt him and name him Buddy because he wore a Buddy diaper. Buddy grows up in the North Pole and due to his extra-large human size, cannot keep up with the other elves. He gets demoted to the inconsequential post of ‘toy tester,’ and feels out of place as an elf.
He learns that he is a human born to Walter and Susan Wells. Susan died, leaving Walter widowed, cynical, and selfish. Buddy learns to his horror that Walter, his natural father, is on the naughty list. Santa gives him the chance to redeem his father. Buddy travels to New York to do just that.
Ferrell warms the heart with his charming persistence and attempts to prove that a person can change for the better.
5. Home Alone
Everyone connects with a little kid who can take care of himself. Macaulay Culkin demonstrates that he can do more than that in Home Alone, a movie that tickles the funnybone and warms the heart.
Culkin won a Golden Globe nomination for his role as Kevin Macallister, an eight-year-old who’s accidentally left behind by his parents when they go on vacation. Being the youngest in the family and perpetually misunderstood, he looks forward to having some time by himself. However, he soon has to battle two burglars played by Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern. Mischievous yet resourceful, Kevin rigs his home with boobytraps to catch them.
This movie took box offices by storm, and you probably have watched it more than once. Do so again for the giggles and heartening moments.
6. Lady and the Tramp
The festive season is for rekindling romances, and yes, warming up to your furry friends. The next movie on this list is the Lady and the Tramp, for children, Disney fans, die-hard romantics, and pet lovers.
A Midwestern man, Jim Dear, gives a Cocker Spaniel puppy to his wife, Darling. The female puppy, which they name Lady, grows up and befriends other dogs in the neighborhood. Tramp is mongrel who lives on the seedy side of town with his friends Peg and Bull.
Lady and Tramp get to know each other when Lady’s owners start to distance themselves from her. Tramp consoles an upset Lady and tells her that the coldness is because they are having a baby. Lady falls in love with Tramp but becomes protective of the child. She chooses to protect it instead of staying by his side.
Things start to go wrong when the couple goes for a vacation and leave the baby with their Aunt Sarah. Find out if Lady and Tramp can rekindle their love in spite of Aunt Sarah, two Siamese Cats, and other challenges.
7. Last Holiday
If you are going through a rough patch this festive season, watch Last Holiday.
Queen Latifah inspires as Georgia Byrd, a shy woman who has a simple aspiration of being a professional chef and living a better life for herself. She discovers that she has brain tumors after an accident.
Because she doesn’t have enough health insurance to cover her hospital bills, Georgia becomes resigned to having only a few weeks to live. Determined to live life to the fullest, she purchases designer wardrobes, goes to spas, and tries snowboarding. The hotel’s employees admire her zest for life and kindness. Sean (LL Cool J), one of her co-workers, falls for her as well.
After learning of her diagnosis, Miss Gunther, the Hotel Services manager, persuades her to spend her last days with her loved ones. Sean too decides to confess his feelings for her. Tune in to discover the movie’s heartwarming ending.
In all, these movies will help you find a lost spirit during the festive season and feel really good. These films will restore your faith in Providence and humanity.
