Holiday Five: the Big Picture Media staff shares their favorite holiday films

If you’ve been reading Substream for a while, you may have seen our weekly Take Five column, where we highlight our five favorite songs from the previous week. For the month of December, we wanted to highlight of our love and appreciation of the holidays by doing something special for our readers. So for this month, we present you with a special variation of Take Five with the Holiday Five.

We’ve gotten together with some amazing artists and music industry people to chat about their five favorite holiday movies. This will be more than a weekly column, so be sure to check in every day to see who joined us to talk about their favorite holiday movies.

Our next piece this month comes from the incredible staff at Big Picture Media. If you’re unfamiliar with the company, we profiled company founder and all-around-great person Dayna Ghiraldi-Travers earlier this year. They’re often working behind the scenes of your favorite bands, such as Neck Deep, State Champs, The Used, and many more.

We could ramble on forever about these incredibly talented ladies, but perhaps we’ll save that for another day. For now, you can head below to see each of their favorite holiday films!

Natalie Schaffer // @nat_schaffer 

The Santa Clause – Tim Allen at his best. I think he even does the ‘grunt’ from Home Improvement a couple of times. CLASSIC. I also fell in love with Bernard the elf. (Still kinda have a crush on that guy, what’s up…)

Bad Santa – I watched this over Thanksgiving break and was embarrassed to watch it with my parents. Very naughty.

Home Alone – I secretly wanted this to happen to me. For my parents to forget me, leave me with the house and so that I could also cause chaos in my own way.

The Holiday – To be honest, I think I only got the cable version of this so I may have missed the real good stuff but tickled my insides.

Four Christmases – I like Vince Vaughn in any situation but him in a holiday themed flick only made me love him more.

Becky Kovach // @beckystrz 

The Nightmare Before Christmas – It’s no secret that I love Tim Burton. The debate over whether it’s a Halloween or Christmas movie may never be settled but it’s fine because that just means I can watch this one all fall and winter long.

Elf – Buddy the Elf, what’s your favorite color? (Mine’s purple, btw.) Elf is probably Will Ferrell’s finest role and let us not forget Zoey Deschanel as Jovie.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas – Jim Carrey trying to decide on a party outfit is me staring at my closet every day.

Home Alone – Yes, Home Alone is a Christmas movie. No, I don’t care if you disagree. Also have you seen Macaulay Culkin’s Google Home commercial?

The Santa Clause – A true Christmas classic. This movie is probably the only instance in which it was a GOOD thing for a kid to find out their dad was Santa.

Annie Skertic

A Christmas Story – Fun fact, this is set right near where I grew up! Putting Indiana on the Holiday map

Elf – A staple in every class every year of high school the day before holiday break…I’ve seen it enough times that at this point it is a numbers game & must be in my top 5

Planes Trains and Automobiles – I’m 25 and the rental car scene still makes me laugh as hard as it did when I was 9 (if you don’t know…YouTube)

Love Actually — A corny but necessary inclusion 🙂

The Santa Clause — I was weirdly obsessed with this movie as a kid! I think the concept has probably not aged well but for my younger self it makes the cut!

Kirsten Horner // @kir_carmel 

The Polar Express – Don’t watch it with me if you’re not interested in seeing me cry. 

The Santa Clause + The Santa Clause 2 – Forever crushing on Charlie.

Elf – who doesn’t love Elf? If you don’t like Elf, I’m convinced you’re not a good person. Yeah, not a Will Ferrell fan either, but still love Elf. 

Not a movie but any of holiday-related GILMORE GIRLS episodes (for your convenience: S1E10, S4E11, S5E11, S7E11, and of course “Winter” in “A Year in the Life” season). I still get butterflies every time Lorelei “smells snow.”