Family Christmas Movie Favorites, Part 2 (w/ Dawn Price and Hannah Carlton)

Eli (00:01.07)
Hello and welcome to the establishing shot of podcasts where we do deep dives into directors and their filmographies. I am your host Eli Price here on episode 74 of the podcast. And like I said last week, we were doing a short little fun Christmas series with my family, hearing about their favorite Christmas movies. My wife's side of the family was on last week. My side is going to be on this week.

So I hope you enjoy hearing from my parents and sister and brother-in-law about their favorite Christmas movies. Enjoy.

Eli (00:01.822)
I am here with my mom, Dawn Price, and I am ready to ask you what your favorite Christmas movie is. So what is it and why is it the best one?

Dawn (00:15.702)
Well, I'm a Hallmark girl, so this is my favorite time of year to get to watch all the Hallmark movies. But I'm not going to pick one of those because there's just way too many. I'm going to go with The Christmas Story. Yes, A Christmas Story.

Eli (00:16.978)
Yeah.

Eli (00:34.092)
Christmas story? Yeah.

And why is it the best?

Dawn (00:38.696)
and well I have a special memory attached to it I think is why it's the best.

Eli (00:44.688)
Okay. Well, that was my next question. go. Yeah. Launch into that.

Dawn (00:46.951)
Okay good. So well because when you guys were little and we put y'all to bed on Christmas Eve and it was time for Santa to come, a local channel here in Atlanta, TBS, played it for 24 hours and so that's what I watched half the night, me and your dad while we put your Christmas out. So

Eli (01:04.721)
Mm-hmm.

Eli (01:10.759)
Yeah.

Dawn (01:12.063)
It's just kind of stuck with me all these years. I love the movie. I mean there's other ones I like too, but that one just kind of sticks out. I also have a funny story about it as well.

Eli (01:13.778)
Thank you.

Eli (01:20.297)
Yeah, yeah.

go do what's the funny story.

Dawn (01:26.743)
So the funny story is, I don't know if most people know this, but on TBS it doesn't say the cuss words. But the movie, if you buy it on DVD, it does say them. And so our children's director at church, we were having a little lock-in Christmas thing where the kids got to shop in the Santa shop and do all that. And so she said, I got the Christmas story for...

Eli (01:36.156)
Mm-hmm

Eli (01:50.584)
Mm-hmm.

Dawn (01:54.755)
Christmas story for the kids to watch and so she had put it in and started it and We were in the hallway and I said I think that has cuss words in it and she was like no Are you serious? I said, I'm pretty sure so we walked quickly to The where the kids were watching it and sure enough She popped that thing out of there so fast We laughed and laughed about it. I said, I guess we need to find it on TV

Eli (01:57.126)
Mm-hmm

Eli (02:09.81)
to where the kids will watch them in, enough.

Eli (02:20.402)
That's funny. Which ones were they?

Dawn (02:25.547)
I'm not saying any curse words.

Eli (02:29.106)
Well, it doesn't say the big one. It just says fudge, you know?

Dawn (02:33.692)
Not on the DVD it doesn't.

Eli (02:35.546)
Yes it does. He says, fudge. That's what he says in the movie.

Dawn (02:37.707)
well, I've seen an episode of it where it said that.

Eli (02:44.472)
No, he doesn't. That's the whole thing. I'm positive. Yeah.

Dawn (02:46.696)
Are you sure? Okay, well I always thought it said the other word.

Eli (02:51.6)
Well, that's what he actually says, but in the audio it says fudge. Yeah. But yeah, does have, I guess it does have other ones. Probably I would imagine, you know, it's like eighties PG, like the goonies and all that. So the good old days, right? yeah. And I, I even had.

Dawn (02:56.436)
Gotcha.

Dawn (03:03.421)
It does.

Dawn (03:11.762)
Yeah, but that was a funny story.

Eli (03:18.694)
I guess one year, I don't remember how old I was, but dad got me a Red Ryder BB gun. And he still uses it.

Dawn (03:24.854)
yeah.

Dawn (03:28.327)
I'm pretty sure you might have had like a red rider wagon as well.

Eli (03:35.13)
Maybe. Yeah.

Dawn (03:36.681)
I think you were younger.

Eli (03:38.15)
Yeah. Yeah. I don't remember that, but I do remember getting a red rider BB gun. Yeah. so do you still watch it every year? Yeah. Yeah. I feel like your favorite, you have to watch every year. That's like a request. If you don't watch it every year, then it's not your favorite really. I think.

Dawn (03:40.327)
Yeah, he does use it all the time. He still uses the baby gun all the time.

Dawn (03:51.25)
yeah, every year.

Mm-hmm.

Dawn (04:00.633)
Exactly. It still comes on one of the channels. It still runs all night. I don't think it's TBS anymore, but it might be like Turner Classic Movies or something. I'm pretty sure it runs all night Christmas Eve, yeah.

Eli (04:09.297)
Mm-hmm.

Eli (04:15.196)
Yeah, something like that. Yeah, there's probably still some channels running at 24 hours out there. It's right here on my shelf behind me if you're watching. Yeah, right there. There's Ralphie peeking out from behind my head. What's your favorite like scene or line or anything like that? Or maybe like a couple of favorite parts.

Dawn (04:23.037)
Yeah.

Dawn (04:27.49)
yeah, Miss Ralphie. Mm-hmm.

Dawn (04:41.65)
Well of course you know the famous Mama's Little Piggy. I love that part. Even though it's kind of gross. I think when he gets the leg lamp it's probably my favorite. He's just so excited about it and mom is not at all. I even have the little people.

Eli (04:44.418)
Mm-hmm.

Eli (04:53.063)
Yeah.

Eli (04:57.25)
Yeah.

Eli (05:03.344)
Yeah. yeah. Yeah. And my, my kids like to play that when we come and visit. He's holding, holding the lamp. The major award.

Dawn (05:08.18)
huh, he's... yes they do. He's holding the leg lamp. Yeah, that's probably my favorite part in it.

Eli (05:16.658)
Yeah, you used up all the glue on purpose. All right. I guess the last big question is what just thinking overall, what is it that makes a good Christmas movie?

Dawn (05:22.982)
Hehehehehe

Dawn (05:37.039)
A happy ending.

Eli (05:38.466)
happy ending. Yeah, I can see that. That makes sense.

Dawn (05:43.299)
I think, yeah, I think all of them should have happy endings.

Eli (05:48.09)
Yeah, yeah, I don't know. I don't know if I can think of any Christmas movies that have a not happy ending. Maybe some not happy things happen in the middle, but yeah, yeah, I can't think of any off the top of my head. Snow, you know, lights, family, all the things. Yeah.

Dawn (05:57.584)
That's true. Yeah.

Dawn (06:03.878)
Snow's good to have in a Christmas movie as well.

Yeah, family's always good. Fun fact about Hallmark movies, all of the Christmas movies have snow in them.

Eli (06:19.154)
Okay, all of the Hallmark movies.

Dawn (06:22.133)
all of them. If it's a Christmas Hallmark movie it has snow in it.

Eli (06:23.482)
Okay. Hey.

What are, okay. Three Hallmark Christmas movies recommendations. You get three.

Dawn (06:33.719)
Okay, I'm going to go with the 12 dates, the 12th date of Christmas. The 12 dates of Christmas. I'm terrible with remembering the names of them. 12 dates of Christmas. That's one that came out a couple years ago. Christmas at the Plaza. That one came out a few years ago as well. A new one this year that I really liked is called Holiday Crashers.

Eli (06:39.654)
Okay.

Eli (06:43.25)
12 dates of Christmas, okay?

Eli (06:51.108)
Okay, Christmas at the plaza.

Eli (06:57.426)
you

Eli (07:02.78)
Okay. Holiday crashers, Christmas at the Plaza and 12 dates of Christmas. take it from me.

Dawn (07:04.6)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm. There's a lot more, but those are some really good ones.

Eli (07:12.538)
Yeah. Take it from me. My mom is a Hallmark Christmas movie junkie. So you can, you can take her recommendations and run with them. all right. My, so dad is not coming on. He's a, he's a little camera shy. but, but before we got on, he, told us what Christmas movies he, he named two that were his favorites. what

Dawn (07:19.35)
Yes I am.

You

Dawn (07:31.403)
Yeah.

Eli (07:41.316)
You want to give those out for him.

Dawn (07:43.502)
So he said Christmas with the cranks and then die hard. Which is not a Christmas movie, it's not. It doesn't have snow.

Eli (07:45.682)
Yeah. It is. It is, but it's okay. It is. It's, doesn't it? Does it not have snow? It's been a while since I've seen it. It might, it might have snow. It might not, but it's at a Christmas party and there's a Santa and there's a happy ending. So, you know,

Dawn (08:00.018)
I was about to say it's probably been 25 years since I watched it.

Eli (08:15.154)
There's Christmas music in the soundtrack. It's got it all. Family.

Dawn (08:15.478)
Yeah, but there's too much junk in the middle.

Dawn (08:24.76)
You

Eli (08:27.314)
It's got you know, I'd say it's a Christmas movie, but that's a good one

Dawn (08:31.202)
I watched The Holiday today. I almost picked that one. I love it.

Eli (08:35.11)
The holiday is not my favorite, but it's okay. I think that's all I've got.

Dawn (08:43.287)
Okay.

Eli (08:44.506)
You have any other things you want to say to the listeners as, as my mother.

Dawn (08:51.745)
Isn't my boy cute? No.

Eli (08:55.386)
I don't know, I might have to edit that out, but I'll leave it in. I'll leave it in. Well, thanks mom for coming on.

Dawn (09:04.214)
All right, bud, I love you. You're doing a great job.

Eli (09:05.722)
Love you too. Thank you. Merry Christmas everybody.

Dawn (09:10.155)
Merry Christmas!

Eli (00:01.608)
I am here now with my sister, Hannah. I have known her for all her life, but she hasn't known me for all of my life. That's kind of how that works when you have a younger sibling. But Hannah, I'm here to ask you your favorite Christmas movie and also your husband Murphy, my brother-in-law's, who unfortunately got

That's not McBugging, so he couldn't be on camera tonight, but that's okay, because he gave you his answers. Do you want to do his first? Okay. All right. Let's do his first. What is Murphy's favorite Christmas movie?

Hannah Carlton (00:36.929)
Yes, that'll be good.

Hannah Carlton (00:41.751)
Christmas Vacation

Eli (00:43.394)
Yes. And does he have a reason why? Or is it just, okay.

Hannah Carlton (00:46.452)
Yes, he picked it over a couple of other options because of its humor. Every time he watches the movie he laughs just as hard as he did the last time, which is very true.

Eli (00:55.768)
Yeah. Yeah. Any special memories tied to that?

Hannah Carlton (01:01.324)
it says, remember as a kid when we had the VHS tape I would always set it in one of the drawers with the rest of the movies. I remember asking my mom a few years in a row if we could watch it just to be told that it wasn't for kids or maybe when you're older.

Eli (01:16.144)
Yeah, have a I think yep here it is if people are watching There it is right here behind me and I even wore my that there's an RV shirt for him But he had to get a stomach bug and and not be on I know So does he do you does he watch it every year now? Okay. Yeah, that's that's like

Hannah Carlton (01:29.643)
Ruin everything.

Hannah Carlton (01:37.065)
Yes, I saw him watching it today as he lived there sick.

Eli (01:42.07)
Nice. I feel like that's like the hard sign of a favorite Christmas movie. If you don't watch it every year, then it's not really your favorite, I think. Yeah. What's his favorite scene or line from Christmas Vacation?

Hannah Carlton (01:50.847)
Definitely.

Hannah Carlton (01:57.845)
says, there are so many good ones, but I would have to say the scene where Clark discovers he didn't get the Christmas bonus he was expecting and goes on a massive rant about his feelings towards his boss.

Eli (02:08.728)
Yeah. Did he, did he write any specific explicatives that, that he says that her's favorite line? That's probably for the best. yeah, that's, mean, it's a great, it's a great movie. It's probably in my top five for sure. I think, I'm not positive on that, but I'm pretty sure. what does Murphy think makes for a good Christmas movie? What does a good Christmas movie have to have?

Hannah Carlton (02:14.302)
No. Because I would have gotten mad at him.

Hannah Carlton (02:39.102)
says a captivating story or plot is the one thing I always look for not just in Christmas movies but all movies if you can get my attention early on odds are I'll be hooked.

Eli (02:49.168)
So he doesn't even care if it's about Christmas. That's funny. All right. Well, that's Murphy's. It's a great pick. I totally it's a totally valid pick. It gets the stamp of approval from me. What is now your favorite movie?

Hannah Carlton (02:52.402)
I guess not.

Hannah Carlton (03:08.497)
I disagree, but that is okay.

Hannah Carlton (03:16.263)
Alright, I'm gonna have to say the Santa Claus franchise. Just, I really have to. Okay, okay, perfect.

Eli (03:21.196)
Santa you're just the franchise you can pick the franchise that's fine it's allowed it's allowed yeah yeah I feel like that's that's okay because if someone were to say like both home alone's I'd be like okay you know that's fine I can't even think of any others that are like a Christmas franchise like that though yeah the Santa Claus and home alone there's probably others that have like

Hannah Carlton (03:39.272)
Perfect.

Hannah Carlton (03:44.817)
Me either.

Eli (03:51.096)
more than one, but I can't think of them. Why is the Santa Claus franchise the best Christmas movies for you?

Hannah Carlton (04:00.036)
Well, I would always say that the Santa Claus 2 was my favorite growing up, but my reasoning for that, I feel like I've discovered as I got older, is because they came on two different channels and the Santa Claus 2 was always on the channel that I was watching and so I saw it tons of times every year and the Santa Claus wasn't one I saw that much growing up, but now that I've seen the Santa Claus a bunch

Eli (04:04.995)
Mm-hmm.

Eli (04:11.568)
is because they came off the different scales and the things on the scale.

Eli (04:22.116)
Mm-hmm.

Eli (04:26.416)
Hmm.

Hannah Carlton (04:29.285)
I typically lean towards that one more now, but because I've liked the second one for so long, I still love it and can't really say that it's not my favorite anymore.

Eli (04:29.936)
Please.

Yeah.

Eli (04:40.432)
Yeah, that's fair. What is the second one? Which one is the one where there's like the, is it like a toy? It's the fake Santa. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I haven't watched that one in a long, long time. So I can't really speak to that one, but the first one's a good, it's not my favorite, but it's really, it's, you know, solid Christmas movie. What I guess you kind of shared special memories tied to that. Just like watching it. Do you have any other specific special memories?

Hannah Carlton (04:47.706)
The fake salmon, yeah, that's the second one.

Hannah Carlton (05:01.307)
Mm-hmm.

Hannah Carlton (05:10.178)
No, just watching it hundreds of times in one little season.

Eli (05:12.268)
every year and I assume you still watch do you watch all of them every year or just the first two?

Hannah Carlton (05:16.454)
Yes, I'm Definitely the first two I typically throw the third one in there. It's not my favorite but Yes, it's a little weird but it's like every time after I Started and I'm like, I don't really care to watch this but then after I finish it I'm like, okay, it's pretty good. I they could have done without it, but they didn't do terrible

Eli (05:25.097)
The third one is like Jack Frost. Yeah, I have I think I might have only seen that once

Eli (05:38.319)
Ha

Yeah. So what are your favorite, I guess from the first two, what are your favorite like scenes from each of those?

Hannah Carlton (05:49.861)
first movie I'd probably say the ending when the mom and dad are realizing that he really is Santa Claus it's just like a sweet moment

Eli (06:03.343)
Mm-hmm.

Eli (06:08.142)
Yeah. Yeah. I think the, like the, the first one is again, it's been a long time since the, I've seen the second one, but the first one really hits those like sentimental emotions pretty hard. What about in the second one?

Hannah Carlton (06:20.197)
100%.

Eli (06:27.438)
or even like a favorite line.

Hannah Carlton (06:31.396)
See I just watched the first one and I should have watched the second one too.

Eli (06:36.464)
should have.

Hannah Carlton (06:39.812)
Probably honestly the Christmas party at the very beginning of the movie. I love that part where he's with the principal and he hands out all the gifts and just seeing like all those like teachers and stuff just like light up over their old games that they liked when they were kids.

Eli (06:50.096)
yeah.

Yeah, yeah, that's a cool part. Okay, final question. What are, what things make for a good Christmas movie? Like what things do you say are essential?

Hannah Carlton (07:09.827)
Okay, I would say heartwarming is important. Like it's winter, it's Christmas, I want to feel all warm and cozy with my blanket and on the inside. And just happy moments too.

Eli (07:13.31)
Mm-hmm.

Eli (07:28.654)
Yeah. My mom said there has to be snow. Do you agree or disagree? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I feel like it doesn't. I mean, there's a Christmas movie. I feel like there are Christmas movies that don't have snow because I mean, if it's set somewhere where it doesn't like if it was set where I live, it just doesn't snow here.

Hannah Carlton (07:32.919)
I mean, I guess that's valid. There's snow in both these movies, so I guess I'd have to agree.

Hannah Carlton (07:46.477)
Do you know any withouts now?

Hannah Carlton (07:57.283)
That's true.

Eli (07:58.488)
So, and I feel like there's probably somewhere like people are on vacation in tropical areas during Christmas. I can't think of any off the top of my head, but so, but I mean, I guess if that's like your thing, like, but I mean, I guess if it's like your thing, like it has to have snow for me to, for it to be one of my favorites, that's valid. Cause I mean, it's Christmas, but heartwarming is definitely heartwarming.

Hannah Carlton (08:10.187)
There probably are. But that's a pretty solid point.

Eli (08:28.312)
A good Christmas movie should always like have something heartwarming in it. Yeah. Yeah. You want to have that Christmas magic in there. Yeah. Yeah. well, that's all I have. Do you have any closing closing Christmas thoughts or Christmas wishes for everyone out there?

Hannah Carlton (08:32.851)
me her strings a little bit.

Hannah Carlton (08:39.295)
Yes, that's a great way to put it.

Eli (00:02.437)
And you do have a cute little boy, Noah, my nephew, your son. He is, what, eight months now? Eight months. So does he have a favorite Christmas movie? I thought I had to ask.

Hannah Carlton (00:06.338)
Yeah.

Hannah Carlton (00:14.51)
I'd have to say it would be Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas. All Mickey and it's the only thing I've put on for him so far.

Eli (00:20.659)
and why is that? It's like when you tell like you're like if I were to tell him like he's my favorite nephew ever it's like well he's my only nephew yeah yeah so Mickey's once Mickey's once upon Christmas is a good choice for a kid anyway so yeah

Hannah Carlton (00:33.64)
Uh-huh. Exactly. He doesn't really have a choice.

Hannah Carlton (08:51.872)
Merry Christmas.

Eli (08:52.688)
Well, thanks a lot Hannah and thanks Murphy for in his sickness writing his answers so that you could read them for him. Yeah, but yeah, that's all. Thank you so much, Han.

Hannah Carlton (08:59.142)
I mean...

no.

Hannah Carlton (09:07.637)
Alright, thank you so much. Bye.

Eli (00:41.614)
I hope you had a good time hearing about those favorite Christmas movies. We will be doing this next week with me and my family and you can probably hear them in the background, but until then I've been Eli Price and you've been listening to the Establishing Shot podcast. We will see you next time and Merry Christmas.