A Still Unnamed Tree Joins the Christmas Fun

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, Kristen and I, along with her parents and two of her brothers and a friend of ours from California, got our Christmas tree. It's standing in the corner of our house now, staring at me all green and pokey and sap smelling. But he (he?) is a good tree. I like our tree. And I'm confident that we're all going to get along just fine for the next month or so, and that this tree--this tree/family member that I'm still trying to come up with a name for--will add loads of joy and laughter and yule to every single holiday event our family tackles over the course of the next month.

Of course, one of these important events will be the Christmas Movie Extravaganza-ganza-ganza: our month-long movie marathon of all the winter favorites. We're all set to begin the "ganza" this week. As we watch, there will be tree (What kind of name sums up our tree perfectly? Hmmm. I still need time to mull) trimming, cookie making, Mariah Carey-"All I Want for Christmas is You" listening/singing, and egg nog drinking (Kristen and Ditka refrain from this portion), to name a few. Yes, I'm excited. Yes, I'm ready. So here, right here, is the initial list of films the Riebock family will be screening. Naturally, the list is subject to change/revision/or the addition of any 80s movie, winter-themed or otherwise. 

1. Christmas Vacation 
2. It's a Wonderful Life (Love)
3. A Christmas Story 
4. Home Alone (And Home Alone 2? Come on, Marv and Harry demonstrate maturity in becoming the sticky bandits, versus their earlier incarnation as the wet bandits) 
5. How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Both the cartoon and Jim Carrey versions)
6. Christmas Vacation (Yes, I probably will watch it twice)
7. The Nightmare before Christmas
8. The Polar Express (I know, I know, the kids look really creepy, but still, I dig the movie. Plus, that Josh Groban song on the soundtrack is awesome)
9. Scrooged
10. Ghostbusters (I must have Bill Murray on the brain)
11. Caddyshack (Again, thinking about Bill Murray--What About Bob? Groundhog Day. ZombieLand. Etc.)
12. A Christmas Carol (Both the Mickey Mouse version and the Jim Carrey versions)
13. Elf 
14. The new Sherlock Holmes movie (Really looking forward to this one)
15. The Bears vs Packers game 
16. Jingle All the Way (Hahaha, Arnold and Sinbad. Greatest on-screen duo ever?)
17. Four Christmases
18. Awkward home videos of my sisters and I in turtle necks, singing Christmas songs, lots of cats in the background, meowing
19. A Charlie Brown Christmas
20. Goonies 
21. Maybe I'll name our tree Mr. Needles. Yes. Mr. Needles.