Credit: National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
Halloween hasn’t quite come around yet, meaning that neither has Thanksgiving, but it’s still fun to start talking about Christmas since it’s just around the corner, so to speak. Throughout the history of cinema, this holiday has allowed many filmmakers and actors to come up with some of the best characters to ever star in a Christmas movie, and while some of them can’t really be called traditional, there are plenty that can be called classic simply because they made the movie they star in a little better. Some of these individuals are memorable because they were the main character in their stories, while others were simply impressive since they ended up being a part of the story that might have been overlooked more than once, and they were therefore allowed to slip into obscurity as the years passed.
With that in mind, here are five of the best characters from various Christmas movies.
5. John McClane (Die Hard)
Credit: Die Hard
Yes, Die Hard is still classified as a Christmas movie, even if there aren’t any fun images of people sitting by the fire and enjoying a drink or even opening presents. The fact that this movie takes place during Christmas is one of the biggest reasons why it’s been given its designation. There have been other action movies that have been questioned about their ties to this holiday, such as Lethal Weapon, but people are still willing to argue whether or not these movies are worthy of the spot they’ve been given in cinema. It’s not too hard to say that this is a Christmas movie, and it’s easy to state that John McClane is without a doubt one of the best characters to ever star in such a movie.
4. Cindy Lou Who (How the Grinch Stole Christmas)
Credit: How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Somehow it does feel that this character was overlooked quite a bit when it came to this movie since there are a few very big names in the cast and despite her importance in this movie it’s fair to say that Jim Carrey’s Grinch was able to outshine pretty much everyone. The fun part about Cindy Lou though is that she’s a brave little girl that stands by her convictions and doesn’t simply look at Christmas as a commercial holiday or a chance to outshine someone else like so many others. While it sounds a little silly, she’s the bravest person in this movie since she follows her heart and doesn’t deviate even when it would be easy and practical to do so.
3. Frank Cross (Scrooged)
Credit: Scrooged
Frank starts out as a seriously flawed and miserable character since despite being a man of great influence and power, he’s still extremely unsatisfied with life no matter how much he might think otherwise. As the movie goes along it shows the many mistakes he made in life and how he regrets each one, not to mention the fact that he isn’t as stable as he appears to be. Frank’s trip through his past and the guilt he feels over the decisions he made to become such an important figure in the TV industry eventually convince him to change, but not without a few hilarious moments along the way that pays homage to the story this movie emulates in a few exciting ways.
2. Scott Calvin/Santa Claus (The Santa Clause)
Credit: The Santa Clause
How many different Santa Clauses have there been over the years? It’s tough to count since this is such a popular figure and there have been many who have played him in a variety of ways, but Tim Allen took the role and made it work in his own way as he took on the mantle of the jolly old man in red. It’s fair to say that his sense of comedy didn’t satisfy everyone, but as a family movie, this trilogy ended up being a lot of fun as Scott had to adjust to one situation after another as in the first movie he became Santa, in the second he had to find his Mrs. Claus, and in the third, he had to make another adjustment as the pressures of his life started crashing down on him.
1. Clark Griswold (National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation)
Credit: National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
What can we say about Clark that hasn’t been said a dozen times in the last couple of decades? The guy has always been the example of what ‘overkill’ means when it comes to Christmas decorations since if one recalls, he shut down the entire grid within his city for this movie. Not only that, but his own home looked like it could have been visible from space. But despite his many faults, Clark was a guy that had good motives and was fully ready to do whatever it took to give his family the best Christmas possible.
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