I Don't Really Like "Elf" And Don't Really Think It Has A Christmas Movie Feel

Every blog I write I firmly believe in my opinion and believe it was made of sound mind, but on this one I acknowledge what I just wrote in the headline box was crazy. Not the first part, the second. The “doesn’t have a Christmas feel” part sounds nuts and I mumbled, “What the fuck is wrong with you, John” as I mashed the keys to share that belief with the world. It’s nuts to say that a movie about an elf who grew up in the North Pole doesn’t have a Christmas feel. I get that. So, I’m giving everyone a free pass: you can skip the blog and go tell me how dumb I am in the comment section, I’ll get to reading them later and will respond to every one.

If you’ve been brave enough to make it this far then at least you don’t think I’m crazy crazy, or maybe you’re just crazy crazy too. But, with Christmas movies there has to be a certain feeling and Elf just doesn’t have it if you ask me. It’s fine as a film, it’s ok, I don’t run out of the room with my eyes closed and my ears plugged if I see it on, but it’s also not a movie that I must watch every December to get into the Christmas spirit. My mom and sisters are, every Thanksgiving they watch it at around 10 o’clock, this year I watched Mile 22 in the other room instead.

I’m more about the sentimentality when it comes to movies that get me in the mood. It can’t be a funny movie that also has familial sentimentality, it has to be a sentimental movie that has some humor in it. To be a Christmas movie for me your main goal can’t be to make me laugh, it has to be to get me in my emotions. All the gifs and famous scenes in Elf are undoubtedly based in comedy. It’s the same reason I don’t really care for Bad Santa.

Again, I get that it’s probably a VERY hated thought but I don’t even mean it to be a “take,” I’m just trying to explain my line of thinking. Christmas movies are like porn, you know it when you see it and I just don’t see it in Elf. I see a funny movie with some holiday moments rather than the other way around.

But, me and my dad’s Christmas tradition is watching The Patriot because I got it on DVD for a present when I was young, so I understand if my gauge is a little off.

PS – If you were wondering my real Christmas movies are: Jingle All the Way, Home Alone, The Family Stone, Miracle on 34th, The Holiday and A Christmas Story.