In 2019, when my grandson was nine years old, I thought Die Hard would be a great Christmas movie to watch for his annual pre-Christmas condo sleepover. The Funny Grandson loved–and still does–to come down to Austin and camp out on the living room floor for a few days. We walk to the Magnolia Cafe for breakfast, go grocery shopping for party treats and gumbo-making, slurp root beer floats and watch football and movies and play chess and go for walks.
You get the idea. It’s a happening.
His parents like the free time to get ready for Christmas. Win, win.
So five years ago I had the bright idea to buy “Die Hard” dvd and party one night with Bruce. BUT I had to buy the special anniversary edition with all three Die Hards together in one package.

Of course I told the Funny Grandson that I had a special animated reindeer movie for him and he did his best to hide his lack of enthusiasm.
And then Uncle Will put DIE HARD in the dvd player…
EPIC.
The evening was such a success that the next night the FG had the bright idea to watch DIE HARD 2. And that’s where the whole “Bad Grandma” thing kicked in, because the language was HORRENDOUS.
Grandpa, Uncle Will and I looked at each other with equally horrified expressions. We let it go on for a short while longer in hopes that somehow Bruce Willis and the Bad Guys would find religion and change their ways.
Nope.
There had been a few “swears” in the original movie, but the four of us agreed that we would never, ever say those words. But this one? Oh, my God. I apologized over and over again to his parents.
I am now trying to find a Christmas movie for this year’s overnight, sleeping bag, root beer float, popcorn, movie extravaganza.
Do you have any suggestions?
PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES come to mind, but I don’t know if he’s seen it. There’s a serious-but-true film called JOYEUX NOEL about Christmas Eve during WWI.
We’ve watched ELF and THE CHRISTMAS STORY many, many times.
Is THE SANTA CLAUSE any good?
Help me.





I don’t know of any Christmas ones that are “new” or funny. There’s always Christmas Vacation. You could watch something non-Christmas like Secondhand Lions. It’s funny.
Well. I don’t know any Christmas movies but the “How to train your dragon” trilogy is so wonderful. Please check it out. Deals with overcoming reluctance, physical adversity ( the dragon himself) and amazing messages of hope. Kinda Thanksgivingish! I love these movies and have watched them with kids who loved them. Have tissues handy!
Gotta love the Grinch!