{"id":16608,"date":"2020-11-23T12:52:55","date_gmt":"2020-11-23T20:52:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/?p=16608"},"modified":"2020-11-25T19:05:08","modified_gmt":"2020-11-26T03:05:08","slug":"atom-tickets-staff-holiday-christmas-movie-traditions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/atom-tickets-staff-holiday-christmas-movie-traditions\/","title":{"rendered":"The Atom Tickets Staff Shares Our Favorite Holiday Movie Traditions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The holidays are upon us, and while celebrations this year will look quite different than years past, that doesn’t mean we have to give up all our traditions. One of our most beloved traditions is putting on some Christmas lights, curling up under a blanket, and watching our favorite holiday movies. From all the way back in 1898 when the short silent film Santa Claus<\/em> was made to Netflix releasing half a dozen original holiday movies this year, Christmas movies have been as much a part of our traditions marking the year’s end as decorating a tree, lighting a menorah or kinara, and exchanging gifts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here at Atom, we’re all about movies, so we thought we’d share some of our favorite holiday traditions with our readers. Enjoy! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alisha Grauso – Editorial Lead<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In my family, we have a number of Christmas traditions \u2013\u00a0and you better stick to them, lest my middle sister, the traditionalist, yell at you. Rule number one: You can’t listen to Christmas music until the day after Thanksgiving. Rule number two: The first Christmas album you have to listen to is N’Sync’s Home for Christmas<\/em> (look, I don’t make the rules). Rule number three: You have to watch National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation<\/em> and A Christmas Story<\/em> at least once before Christmas. While my sisters and I have a great love for the first movie and quote it constantly, the second is a little closer to our collective heart. When we were teenagers, we, along with my cousins, always tried to stay up the full 24 hours to watch the yearly Christmas Story<\/em> marathon on TBS \u2013\u00a0one year, my cousin, Kevin, actually succeeded and then was so hopped up on sugar and exhaustion that he was sick the entire time we opened presents at our grandparents’ house. Good times! Now that we’re older and my sisters have kids of their own, A Christmas Story<\/em> has become like an old, soft blanket for us. It doesn’t really feel like the Christmas season until we watch it \u2013\u00a0only now, I have to send pics of my TV screen to my sisters as I live on the other side of the country. And while my kindergarten and toddler nephews are all a little too young to appreciate it just yet, it’s now become part of the Christmas tradition for my 11-year-old niece. It’s pretty cool to see the small little ways our family traditions are passed down from generation to generation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jessica Cohen – Senior Director of Marketing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

My family and I tend to go see movies on or around Christmas Day.\u00a0 They typically cater to my dad since he likes more of a war or action movie \u2013 and my mom and I like those too.\u00a0 But about two years ago, we went to see J.LO’s classic Second Act<\/em> because nothing would have made me happier that Christmas.\u00a0 To my surprise, I LOVED it and so did my parents.\u00a0 They were shocked they enjoyed it.\u00a0 Thanks, J.LO.\u00a0 Always making my Christmas season brighter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Julian Bahmani – Senior Manager, Marketing & Product Design<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

My sister and I have a tradition of watching the Jim Carrey Grinch movie every year on Christmas Eve without fail since its release. Sometimes we’ll watch it before then as well but always on Christmas Eve at a minimum. At this stage, our parents leave the room when the titles roll because they’re so tired of it but it’s our favorite part of the holidays. It’s a testament to the brilliance of that film that 20 years later, I’m still finding little jokes or references planted throughout for the adults in the audience that went way over my head as a kid. It quite literally never gets old and my sister and I have entire monologues memorized at this stage and could very likely re-enact the entire script with near-perfect line readings. His monologue about how his evening is too full of existential dread to interact with people feels particularly apropos of 2020. It’s maybe not an overwhelmingly exciting tradition but it’s our favorite one, nonetheless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tara Hodges – Senior Manager, Marketing & Promotions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

My family has always celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve so that’s when we hang out all day, open gifts, see family, and watch cheesy Hallmark holiday movies. Christmas is more of a relaxing day as we have already cleaned up the mess from the night prior and then celebrate with fondue for dinner (my Grandma’s recipe) and end the night with hot chocolate by the fire watching\u00a0Christmas with the Kranks<\/em>– it’s not planned but seems to always be on!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Derek Koehler – Senior Manager, Brand & Digital Marketing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Every Christmas Eve, my family and I watch Jingle All The Way<\/em>, the holiday comedy starring none other than Arnold Schwarzenegger as a procrastinating father determined to secure his son the hottest toy on the market the day before Christmas. While I enjoy the tradition of it (and take pride in being able to quote nearly the entire movie line by line), the film gives my mom flashbacks to holiday toy shopping in the ’90s. In a time before online shopping, she would call every store with a toy aisle in the area, camp out before the doors opened, and race other shoppers to secure whatever new Power Ranger was most coveted that year for my brother and me. “You kids have no idea what I had to do to get you the White Ranger,” my mom repeats every year, as we rewatch a film that triggers flashbacks from a different time. Yet, both the great lengths we see Arnold Schwarzenegger go through in the film and the stories of what my mom would do for us are nothing but acts of love. And isn’t that what the holidays are all about?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lisa Konen – Director of Brand & Content<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u00a0serious, Clark?\u201d\u00a0Our\u00a0family\u00a0holiday\u00a0movie tradition is\u00a0National Lampoon\u2019s Christmas Vacation<\/em>. We\u00a0watch it every year\u00a0and, even though we know every line by heart, it still manages to crack us up.\u00a0We\u00a0originally\u00a0had it on VHS, then\u00a0switched\u00a0to DVD, then kept losing the DVD so there were like three years in a row where we bought a new DVD\u00a0each Christmas, then\u00a0we\u00a0upgraded\u00a0to\u00a0Blu-Ray, and now we stream it.\u00a0Whether it\u2019s Aunt Bethany saying grace (\u201cThe\u00a0blessinnnggggg\u201d),\u00a0Margo asking, \u201cAnd why is the carpet all wet, Todd<\/em>?\u201d\u00a0or\u00a0cousin\u00a0Eddie\u00a0emptying sewage\u00a0onto the street on\u00a0Christmas morning,\u00a0it\u2019s just one of those movies that\u2019s packed with great scenes.\u00a0Reciting the best quotes is one of our favorite pastimes\u00a0during our\u00a0\u201cgood\u00a0old-fashioned family Christmas.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stan Sultanov – QA Engineer<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It might be a little-known fact outside of ex-USSR countries, but for the majority of Russian-speaking people you might ever meet, the main Christmas (or rather, New Year) movie is a comedy called\u00a0The Irony of Fate<\/em>. We got so used to watching it on TV every single New Year\u2019s Eve while growing up that it kinda engraved itself onto our brains as one of the main New Year traditions \u2212 together with kids getting mandarin oranges as treats. And it doesn\u2019t actually matter whether you like the movie or not \u2212\u00a0it\u2019s part of the culture code, like certain holiday movies\u00a0in the U.S. So quite a few Russian-speaking people living in America still actually watch that movie on New Year\u2019s Eve. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a dad with my own family, though, we somehow dodged that movie tradition. Instead, we came up with a new one, and it\u2019s\u00a0The Lord of the Rings<\/em>\u00a0\u2212\u00a0any part of the trilogy or all, depending on how much time we have. We are Tolkien fans (but no wooden swords and elven ears), so once those movies started releasing each year around Christmas, it naturally became our new family tradition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kaitlyn Nickol – Operations Specialist & Atom Insider Contributor<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There are a few holiday movies that are absolute musts for me every year –\u00a0Home Alone<\/em>,\u00a0Elf<\/em>,\u00a0The Nightmare Before Christmas<\/em>,\u00a0Serendipity<\/em>\u00a0(As my absolute favorite, yes, I will argue that this is a holiday movie, and I will win that argument. The amount of frozen hot chocolate I make to go with it\u2026astronomical). But, there\u2019s one yearly Christmas movie that has a particularly special place in my heart, and always will:\u00a0The Polar Express<\/em>. I know you read that and immediately either thought of the\u2026rather interesting animation choices\u2026or of Tom Hanks shouting, \u201cHot chocolate!\u201d through the cabin of a train as waiters tap dance on tables. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was seven years old when\u00a0The Polar Express\u00a0was first released, and the idea of traveling up to the North Pole on a magical train that picked you up right outside your house on Christmas Eve was absolutely mesmerizing. I wanted to reach into the pocket of my pajama pants and pull out a golden ticket to whisk me away to a wintery wonderland and get back with just enough time to still sneak down to see if there was anything left under the tree. Well, Christmas Eve came that year, and there was no train to take me on a magical journey. Instead, I set out my milk and cookies and tossed some food for Santa\u2019s reindeer (a bag of oats) onto our driveway, like always, and tip-toed off to bed. If you remember the movie, you\u2019ll remember that the boy ends up receiving the first gift of Christmas from Santa. His choice? A bell from Santa\u2019s sleigh. A bell that jingles only for those who believe in the magic of Christmas. He ends up losing the bell on his way back home, but it\u2019s returned to him by Santa himself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Christmas morning that year, at seven years old, I ran outside as I always do to see if the reindeer ate the food that I had left them – they did. But I also had been left with my favorite Christmas gift I\u2019ve ever received. On my driveway, dusted in snow (it had indeed been a white Christmas that year), were two silver bells. Bells from Santa\u2019s sleigh! It was the most magical Christmas morning I could ever imagine. Today, I still have the bells in my jewelry box. And I can still hear them ring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ian Moriarty – Venue Support Specialist & Atom Insider Contributor<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

My family’s holiday movie tradition is to watch Planes, Trains and Automobiles<\/em> right before Christmas. I know it’s technically a Thanksgiving movie, but the journey home can be daunting no matter which holiday it is, right? As a family, we have very different tastes in movies but somehow, Planes, Trains and Automobiles<\/em> fits perfectly in the intersection of our Venn diagram. We’ll do callbacks to the movie for the rest of the holiday season and my dad loves to playfully re-enact some of Steve Martin’s famous tirades. It’s a great movie for my family because it’s easy to reference and feels like there’s an inside joke we all get to share every holiday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vicky Grahan – VP of Marketing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Our holiday movie tradition is always watching Home Alone<\/em> on Christmas Eve.\u00a0 Growing up, we\u2019d all watch together while we ate the Christmas cookies (read: ready-bake Nestle chocolate chip cookies) we prepared for Santa.\u00a0 Now that we\u2019re all grown with our own families, we can\u2019t always be together on Christmas Eve.\u00a0 So instead, we hop on a family text thread and send snapshots of the TV and some of our favorite quotes from the movie to each other. \u00a0My husband thinks we\u2019re nuts, but we do it every year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Claudia Herrera – Retention Manager<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Christmas Eve was the big day at my house. Mom would be preparing a huge meal and my siblings and I would sit with dad and watch a marathon of Christmas movies. Classics like Home Alone<\/em>, A Christmas Story<\/em>, The Santa Clause<\/em>, they were on repeat every year. We also opened presents on Christmas Eve so we needed something to keep us up until midnight.
I\u2019ve continued that tradition on Christmas Day with my boyfriend and his family in Chicago. To my surprise, Die Hard<\/em> is on their list. Thanks to that number of times I\u2019ve seen Die Hard<\/em> in my adult life by now is too many.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Happy holidays, everyone! What’s your favorite holiday movie tradition?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The holidays are upon us, and while celebrations this year will look quite different than years past, that doesn’t mean we have to give up all our traditions. One of our most beloved traditions is putting on some Christmas lights, curling up under a blanket, and watching our favorite holiday movies. From all the way […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":16721,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[80],"tags":[40,37],"class_list":["post-16608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-roundup","tag-featuredpage","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16608"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16608\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16748,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16608\/revisions\/16748"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}