Christmas is my favorite time of the year; I love everything about it. Decorating the tree, spending time with family, watching snow fall, presents, and all the traditions each family has. Christmas has inspired countless filmmakers to create movies about the holiday season, and some of my favorite films are Christmas movies. To celebrate the season, I've compiled a list of my favorite 12 Christmas movies or specials, and there will be a review of one of them every day, a countdown from 12 to 1. Check back every day until Christmas for a new Christmas review!

The 12 Films of Christmas

12: Elf(2003)
11. A Christmas Story(1983)

10. A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)

A Charlie Brown Christmas is as old a TV special as any of the ones on this list, and it has left its mark, not only on television, but on popular culture as much as any of them. It's a simple story; Charlie Brown is disillusioned with the commercialization of the holidays, and through a series of events which includes directing a pageant, he learns the true meaning of Christmas. While the short does have an aged quality to it when watching it today, its timeless messages have kept it an annual classic.

Like the comic strip that inspired it, Charlie Brown Christmas doesn't go for laugh-out-loud gags, but subtler humor that has an underlying commentary and can best be described as satire. There's plenty to laugh at (the funniest scene being Lucy's 'psychiatric' help), but of all the Charlie Brown TV specials, Christmas is the most serious one and has a lot of good things to say about the season. Charlie Brown's struggle to find the true meaning of the holidays is one that everyone goes through at some point, and the journey is a fairly uplifting story.

There are an incredible amount of iconic moments or scenes packed into the 25 minute run time, the three major scenes being Charlie's search for the perfect tree, Linus' recitation of scripture, and the finale where Charlie's friends accept the true meaning of the holidays along with him.

The tree is probably my favorite part of the special, and one of my favorite moments of any Christmas story. Charlie, in his confusion about commercialism, doesn't go with the shiny, aluminum tree (do they make anything like that anymore?) and instead goes with a small, dying tree that is nevertheless realism. The symbolism is obvious but nevertheless poignant and is the focal point of the entire short: the rejection of something commercialized for something real and meaningful. The other kids don't understand it, and I specifically remember not understanding this part of the short when I was younger. The symbolism of the tree is something that grows more meaningful as one gets older, and adds a timeless quality to the special.

Linus' recitation of the real Christmas story is as good a reading of the scripture as you'll ever hear. Director Bill Melendez chose to have real children voice the roles, and that choice paid off incredibly well. Hearing a child read this verse adds an innocent quality to it that you could never get from an adult. In a story sense, Charlie's struggle to find meaning is solved in the simplest way possible; the recitation of the story that started Christmas, a story that is often overlooked, especially in film and television.

Everything comes together in the finale, when Charlie, having learned the meaning of Christmas, takes his tree home to prove that it can be as good as any other tree; the full symbolism of the tree comes into play here. When the tree simply falls apart, Charlie feels alone, until, that is, the kids come to help him. Up until this scene, the kids are all extremely cruel to Charlie, to the point where you wonder why he hasn't ever run away from home. This adds extra weight to the finale, where the kids help Charlie and proceed to sing "Hark the Herald Angels Sing." It's a great ending to a classic special.

The animation is great, preserving the style of comic artist Charles M. Schulz while building on to what is seen in the comic strip. I've already mentioned the voice acting, but I'd like to reiterate that the use of child actors really gives this or any other Charlie Brown special its own unique flavor. The music, while simplistic, is fun and iconic and you can probably list on one hand the number of people on Earth who can't hum the 'dance' tune.

Ultimately, A Charlie Brown Christmas is simply a darn good story about Christmas and the struggle to find what really matters. It's a classic for many reasons, including the birth of a series of terrific TV specials, and it will always be a staple of Christmas programming.

In the mood for some non-traditional holiday favorites? Take a look at this article published a few years ago about Holiday film traditions that are anything but traditional: http://denver.yourhub.com/WheatRidge/Blogs/Life/Blog~160194.aspx