One of our family’s favorite things about the holiday season is snuggling up on the couch and watching Christmas movies; for the kids, it’s the opportunity to laugh and maybe learn a valuable life lesson (a mother can hope can’t she) and for my husband and I, it’s the opportunity to spend quality time with our children who are all growing up way faster than we care to admit. This past weekend was cold here in Southern Ohio so it was perfect weather for popping some popcorn and snuggling with our little ones on the couch watching a few family-friendly holiday movies.
Last weekend was what our kids like to call “Family Fun Time”, it’s basically where we spend as much time as possible doing things as a family and last weekend it was all about the holidays. From getting out the Christmas decorations and putting up the tree as a family one night to snuggling on the couch watching movies the next—it was the perfect ending to a hectic week. I received three family-friendly holiday movies early last week to review (Elf Man, The Dog Who Saved the Holidays and Chilly Christmas) so they were the perfect choices to continue our Family Fun weekend.
($19.98) Available nationwide December 4th! The non-stop action begins on Christmas Eve at the Harper house, where Ryan and Kasey Harper’s dad, Eric (Mackenzie Astin) is hard at work on his newest invention. The Harpers are all set to have a merry Christmas – until Eric is kidnapped by a gang of thieves, who seek to steal his newest creation. When Santa arrives that night to find the Harpers in trouble, he fulfills the wish that Kasey makes on a magical elf doll by leaving behind one of his elves (“Wee Man”) to help save her dad. As the robbers scheme to break into the house, the Harpers help their new friend discover his true powers as superhero “Elf-Man”! With time running out and the Harpers counting on him, Elf-Man takes on the kidnappers in a heroic attempt to save the family’s Christmas.
The Dog Who Saved the Holidays
($19.98) Available on DVD December 4th! The fur-flying fun begins when the Bannister family, George (Gary Valentine, “King of Queens”), Belinda (Elisa Donovan, Clueless, “Sabrina, the Teenage Witch”) and their kids, Kara (Caitlin Carmichael, “iCarly,” “Dexter”) and Ben (Wyatt Griswold), jet off with their dog Zeus (voiced by Joey Lawrence, ABC Family’s “Melissa & Joey”) to celebrate the holidays at Aunt Barbara’s (Shelley Long, “Cheers”) stunning Malibu mansion. Aunt Barbara surprises them with a new puppy named Eve (voiced by Peyton List, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Something Borrowed) and the whole family is smitten except Zeus, who quickly learns the new pooch is not as innocent as she seems. Zeus decides to run away, but when he spots two familiar thieves, Ted (Dean Cain, “Lois & Clark” and The Dog Who Saved Christmas) and Stewey (Joey “CoCo” Diaz, The Longest Yard), breaking into the house, he knows it’s up to him and Eve to beat the bumbling burglars and save Christmas once and for all!
($19.98) Available on DVD NOW! Chilly Christmas follows 11-year-old Bobby Cole, his detective dad (C. Thomas Howell, E.T., The Extra Terrestrial, The Outsiders), and their lovable-but-destructive pooch, Chilly, who live together in Sunshine Beach, California. When Bobby’s father is offered a job promotion in New York City, Bobby is thrilled for him – but his excitement quickly turns to heartbreak when he realizes he may have to say goodbye to Chilly, who is too rambunctious to live in a tiny city apartment! Desperate not to leave Chilly behind, Bobby and his friends try to acclimate him to city living (including using the toilet and a treadmill!). But, while the Coles prepare Chilly for the Big Apple, trouble begins brewing in their own backyard when a dog-napper (Tom Arnold, True Lies, “Roseanne,” A Christmas Wedding Tail) and his crew suddenly show up in Sunshine Beach, hot on Chilly’s tail! It’s up to Detective Cole, Bobby and Chilly to stop the thieves in their tracks and keep their family together for the holiday season – and for good!
When you have 6 kids ranging in age from 14 all the way down to 4 it’s nearly impossible to find any activity that they will all do together without someone being bored or not feeling it, but trying to find a movie that all 6 of those children will agree on and watch together without some kind of conflict is nearly impossible. I was worried going in (as I always am when I try to get all of them to do the same thing at the same time) that the big kids would be bored or that the movies wouldn’t hold the littlest kids attention, but I was amazed that all 6 children sat perfectly still on the couches and the floor and on our laps and watched them without so much as an objection—it was something like a miracle for sure. While the kids liked all three movies, Elf Man was the hands down favorite, as a matter of fact, they’ve watched it a couple of times since this past weekend…I think that’s as close to a home run as you can get!
You can pick up Chilly Christmas at retailers nationwide NOW and Elf Man (you MUST own this movie—your children will love it and you will too) and The Dog Who Saved the Holidays will both be available at retailers nationwide on December 4th! You can also check out all 3 movies and tons more gift ideas in Misadventures in Baby Raising’s 2012 Holiday Gift Guide!
Disclosure: I received all of the products listed above in order to facilitate my review…all opinions are 100% my own!
Make the most of the weekend! Get hold of some Christmas movies (in sync with the approaching festivity) and hop on to that couch with your family for some simple pleasures of life. Take a cue from this account. http://bit.ly/YmtokA
ReplyDeleteNice! We are an animal-loving family, and the kids really like Christmas movies, so we'll have to check these out! We've been getting most of our holiday entertainment through DISH and our new Hopper, and having recently moved, this is a major plus. I can set my PrimeTime anytime feature to automatically record all the primetime shows from all four major networks, which is very cool, since most of the holiday movies are on these channels. I also like that I can record the movies, and with the Hopper's 2,000 hours of storage space, I can store them until next year. I work long hours at DISH, and we are still unpacking the house, so I'm glad I can snag these movies from TV and don't have to dig through any more boxes to find where we stored all the Holiday DVDs!
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