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Posts tagged Holidays in Movies

Holidays in the Movies: Valentines

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Keeping track of the year by celebrating holidays and the passing of time with curated movies, music, and seasonal food is taking deep root in the Schmidt house. We may have never celebrated Valentines in the traditional ways – and are more inclined to hide inside then venture out to a restaurant withe the rest of the world – but we are building a tradition that makes the holiday a two to three day event.

Valentines

  • My Bloody Valentine (1981): nothing says valentines quite like a coal mine.
  • Be My Valentine Charlie Brown (1975): I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Charlie Brown brings every holiday.
  • There’s No Time for love Charlie Brown (1973): if you didn’t get enough Charlie Brown – this special isn’t specifically about the Valentines holiday, but it is set three months till the end of the school year – around the same time.
  • Hospital Massacre aka X-Ray (1982): old Valentine’s sins will ruin your holiday
  • Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975): Australia, mystery, disappearance, possible historically inaccurate corset lacing. Yes, this is Valentines.
  • Lover’s Lane (2000): a man with a hook terrorizing teenagers at the local make-out point, just like that urban legend.
  • Valentine (2001): a killer in a cupid mask is stalking and killing a group of girls that have been friends since school.
  • Heart Eyes (2025): if you were missing romcom in your slashers then this movie is for you!

Check out the other Holidays in the Movies posts.

Holidays in the Movies: New Year

Holidays in the Movies: New Year published on No Comments on Holidays in the Movies: New Year
Terror Train movie poster

We may be reeling from our Christmas watching and happy to finally be free to watch anything we want, but there are movies and specials that make the New Year at our house. Just like Thanksgiving, the pickings may be slimmer for this holiday, but it is more than enough to put us in the mood.

New Year

  • Terror Train (1980): I was never part of the fraternity and sorority scene in college so the idea of renting a train for a New Year’s party is both plausible and completely unbelievable to me. Hi David Copperfield!
  • New Year’s Evil (1980): A punk rock Pinky Tuscadero (wiki) terrorized during her TV special by a killer-stalker. The New Year’s countdown happens three times in this movie! What can be more celebratory?
  • Bloody New Year (1987): This is all kinds of holiday – kids running from thugs get caught in a time travel loop where a whole New Year’s eve party vanished decades ago? Still dressed up for Christmas because it is British.
  • Get Crazy (1983): Planning for a new year’s party by way of a massive concert overshadows the threat that a much loved theater will be bought out by sleep, punk developers. Hilarious hi-jinks included.
  • The Fifth Cord (1971): One of the finest examples of the giallo genre with an excellent cast, a great director, and a super cool soundtrack by the great Ennio Morricone. The entire opening sequence and a pivotal part of the plot both take place at a New Year’s Eve Party.
  • Martha’s New Year’s Celebration (2005): from the Martha’s Holidays collection again. We usually just curl up on the sofa and watch movies for New Year, but we can dream of throwing a fancy party.

Holidays in Movies: Thanksgiving

Holidays in Movies: Thanksgiving published on 1 Comment on Holidays in Movies: Thanksgiving

Celebrating holidays in my house means media saturation. That is, leading up to Halloween we watch all the Halloween movies, and leading up to Christmas, we watch all the Christmas movies, specials, and television shows. But Halloween and Christmas aren’t the only holidays around which you can structure your movie viewing.

Garfield’s Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving

  • Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982): immensely enjoyable take on the legend of the Chicken Ranch. If Dolly Parton and Burt Reynolds aren’t enough to sell it to you, then the in depth study in eighties lingerie should do it.
  • Madman (1982): horror film taking place in a strange alternate reality where kids are sent off to a woodland camp for Thanksgiving break.
  • Turkey Hollow (2015): broken family forcing themselves on a grudgingly hospitable distant relative? check. Sibling discord healed by adventure and danger? check. Monsters in the woods? check. Turkeys? check check check check check.
  • Adams Family Values (1993): “Eat Me! Hey! It’s Thanksgiving day!”
  • Blood Rage (1987): “That’s not cranberry sauce.” And, bonus, this horror movie is located in good old Florida.
  • A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (1973): Charlie Brown is the holidays; any holiday.
  • Charlie Brown Mayflower Voyagers (1988): part of the ‘This is America, Charlie Brown” series, but tacked on to the ‘Peanuts Holiday Collection’ without any other episodes.
  • Garfield’s Thanksgiving (1989): I grew up on Garfield; I had merch; this is home for me.
  • Martha Stewart’s Classic Thanksgiving (2005): from the Martha’s Holidays collection, because it is necessary to have a couple of hours worth of instruction on making that turkey.
  • Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987): is an amazing movie featuring two amazing comedians that is sometimes too poignant to watch every year.
  • The Boneyard (1991): An emotionally tortured psychic agrees to work on another missing child case only to be trapped in a mortuary with the detective she is helping. Yes, there is Thanksgiving. There is also Phyllis Diller.
  • Smothers Brother’s Thanksgiving Special (1988): TV variety show specials were a staple ingredient of my childhood. This one comes complete with Gallagher and Kenny Rodgers.
  • WKRP in Cincinnati “Turkeys Away” (1978): WKRP was an amazing show. This Thanksgiving episode was based on a real stunt by a radio station in Atlanta.
  • Deadly Friend (1986): Genius teenage robotics and neurology student introduces his robotic creation, Bebe, to new friends. There is pumpkin carving and trick or treating, but there is also a full Thanksgiving dinner.
  • The Mutilator (1984): A group of friends accompany Ed while he closes up his dad’s beach condo over ‘fall break.’

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