With Winter break just around the corner, the holiday spirit is starting to come in full effect for BHS students. With this comes many traditions. Singing carols, sitting around the fire and giving gifts all help to put students at ease from finals before they prepare for the upcoming semester. Among these traditions, one stands out by far as the most popular: watching Christmas movies.

Movies hold a special place in the hearts of many students as they do a great job of putting the viewer in that holly jolly mood. But with only two weeks of break to binge, what Holiday movies are must-watches, and which should be avoided at all costs?

Movies in the F tier are the must-avoid movies. These are films that, without nostalgia, would be utterly painful to experience. I do not recommend these films to anyone who doesn’t have a past with them. This tier is relegated to the worst sequels as they are the films that killed franchises and tarnished their reputations (cough* cough* Home Alone 4).

D tier holds movies that could be alright movies, but they were taken in poor directions and ended up as confusing messes for movies rather than nice, completed films.

C tier movies are all just meh, that’s the only way to describe it. These are the first on the list I would categorize as watchable, but they are movies that just don’t do much for audience. They simply exist and nothing else. Frosty is notable in this tier. Although he is a classic, it is overplayed and just doesn’t hold up as well as it once did.

B tier movies start the truly great films on this list. These are some of the more iconic Christmas films, but ones that just don’t do as great of a job at putting the viewer in that Christmas feel. Yes, I would categorize Die Hard and Gremlins as Christmas movies, but they don’t hammer that merry feeling into my subconscious like others higher on the list do. While I know many might be upset about A Christmas Story being this low, I personally think that the film is overplayed and tired for what it is.

A tier movies are the best of the best. These are films that should be on the watch list of any winter movie goer. Every movie in this tier is great in its own right and holds its place as an icon of the Christmas season. Movies such as The Grinch, Home Alone, and Nightmare Before Christmas all have phenomenal parts and put the viewer in the Christmas mood, but each one just has something about them holding them back from being in S tier.

S tier is the top of the list. It cannot get better than these films. What differentiates most of A and S tier are not things like poor acting or animation, but how much of an impact they have on the Christmas Spirit. While A tier movies are great, and I recommend them to any person wanting to watch Christmas films, S tier holds movies that shape what Christmas means to me. They are movies that make the holiday season feel complete, and for that, in my opinion, they are all must watch.

At the end of the day, there is no right answer. When it comes to Christmas movies, there is no definitive watch or don’t watch. It’s just up to the viewer. You must decide what puts you in the Christmas mood and stick with that merry feeling (Unless it’s Home Alone 4).