Curl up with a great date movie for the holidays!
The Holiday (2006) - Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jack Black, and Jude Law
Two career women in different countries, Amanda (Diaz) and Iris (Winslet), need a break from their lives and swap homes for the holidays through a home exchange website. Hoping the change of scenery will help them forget the men who have disappointed them, they unexpectedly find that a little Christmas magic fills their holiday escape with new romance.
The Family Man (2000) - Nicholas Cage, Tea Leoni
This Scrooge-like romantic holiday comedy toys with the question, “what if”. Cage plays Jack, a successful businessman who left his college girlfriend (Leoni) thirteen years earlier to pursue a business careeer in London, and is happy with his single life. After a chance meeting on Christmas eve with a stranger, Jack wakes up Christmas morning to find that he is somehow married to the girlfriend he left behind, is the father of two, and is working as a tire salesman. Jack wants his old life back…but then...
A Holiday for Love (1996) - Tim Matheson, Melissa Gilbert
Jake (Matheson) is a Senior Executive for the Bean Tractor Co., which may have to reduce staff or close their plant in Nebraska due to financial problems. He travels to the plant unannounced to assess the situation and runs into Emma (Gilbert) who has skidded off the road, and right into his heart!
Holiday in Handcuffs (2007) Melissa Joan Hart, Mario Lopez
Even though this movie is a bit predictable, it isn't typical. It is a romantic, lighthearted Christmas comedy that contains a kidnapping (by Hart), a captor who agrees to play the fake boyfriend for the holidays (Lopez), and a family that spends Christmas in the slammer together; all in the name of love!
Sleepless in Seattle (1993) - Meg Ryan, Tom Hanks
After Sam Baldwin's (Hanks) wife dies, he and his son relocate to Seattle. A year and a half later on Christmas Eve, Sam is battling insomnia and calls into a radio station to share how much he misses his beloved wife. Annie Reed (Ryan), a writer for a newspaper in Baltimore, hears his story and becomes obsessed with meeting him, which she eventually does. Sleepless is a magical and emotional movie filled with humor and romance.
Borrowed Hearts (1997) - Roma Downing, Eric McCormack
A heart-warming tale in which Kathleen (Downing) accepts the role of wife to Sam (McCormack), a businessman who needs to present the façade of being a family man during a holiday party in order to close a business deal. Kathleen and her daughter, Zoe, become Sam’s pretend “family” for the holidays but Zoe ends up selling something more than mistletoe.
While You Were Sleeping (1995) - Sandra Bullock, Bill Pullman
In this romantic comedy, Lucy (Bullock) has a boring life as a fare collector with a crush on a man she sees daily on the Chicago railway. On Christmas day she saves him after a mugging that lands him in the path of an oncoming train. Lucy ends up at the hospital and is mistaken for his fiancé. Things snowball and she gets to know his family, including his brother Jack (Pullman), who doesn’t believe she is his brother’s fiancé. This funny move is full of twists and turns, and romance.
Moonstruck (1987) - Cher, Nicholas Cage
In this Oscar Award-winning romantic comedy, Loretta (Cher) is saved from playing it safe and marrying the wrong man when she meets his younger brother, Ronny (Cage). The movie transports its audience to Christmas in New York, where the complex lives of an Italian family unfold into a magically-woven, classic tale that involves intense passion and romance.
Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001) - Renee Zellweger, Colin Firth, Hugh Grant
An eventful Christmas Party sends thirty-something Bridget into a tizzy about changing her life. She begins a diary in which she shares what she wants in a man and her life. In the middle of her life-changing resolution to find the right guy, she instead becomes involved with Daniel, her boss (Grant) who is a womanizer. Now caught up in her obsession for the wrong guy, she doesn’t recognize the potential for a real relationship with Mark (Firth), a man who “likes her the way she is."
Edward Scissorhands(1990) - Johnny Depp, Winona Ryder
While somewhat of a quirky pick, the magical blend of whimsy, humor and darkness makes this film an entertaining, romantic holiday choice. Edward (Depp) is a creation who sports scissors for hands, after his inventor dies before he was completed. He lives for years alone in his creator's mansion on a hill at the end of a suburban block. One day, an Avon saleswomen discovers his bleak existence and brings him back to her family, the Boggs. After Edward falls in love with a girl in town (Ryder), fate intervenes that changes everything again. This must-see-at- least-once fantasy beautifully captures bittersweet romance between two unlikely characters.
The magic of love is what makes these ten Christmas romantic movies worth watching every Christmas. Add a little wine, and a cozy afghan and this holiday season will be complete!
References:
- The Internet Movie Database (IMDb.com)
Jan Peterson - I'm a retired banker, published songwriter, cyber journalist, and member of the advisory board for the Arizona Music & Entertainment Hall ...
Join the Conversation