By Ariadne Night
The providing season is upon us once again. Days are getting shorter, lights are beginning to twinkle, and the excellent cheer is so plentiful it’s practically enough to blunt the wounds in our depleting pockets. Yes, it’s the time of year when even the most fantastical of concepts appear possible, if only we’re good enough to wish for them. As we deck our halls and embellish our trees, however, there is maybe no better way to embrace the vacation spirit than by enjoying the amuse-bouche of the Christmas season: A Harry Potter film marathon.
Before we begin, a couple of criteria. To qualify as a good Christmas movie, the movie in question must be clear in its tropes; that the remainder of the year sucks and life is complicated, but on Christmas– so long as the powers of love, generosity, and a bit of snow are on your side– anything is possible. In essence, an ideal Christmas motion picture should consist of (whether literally or metaphorically) at least 2 of the three elements specified in the critical classic I’ll be home for Christmas: snow, mistletoe, and provides under the tree. Therefore, to end a popular argument, Pass away Difficult isn’t a Christmas Film. And, to possibly begin another argument: Not all of the Harry Potter motion pictures are.
Regardless of what the stans (a group to which, I’ll admit, I am a card-carrying member) would try and persuade you, every return to Hogwarts does not generate the exact same vacation goodwill. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Askaban actually melts through the winter season without any reference of Santa or presents, and a fairy gets stabbed to death and dies in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows– Part 1. If one is to genuinely commit to a Harry Potter Christmas film marathon, there need to be no question about that movie firmly belonging in the Christmas canon, and by our established requirements, fans of the boy wizard and his school days may be stunned to find that only three of 8 Harry Potter movies make the cut. They are as follows:
1. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
This one almost goes without stating.
Overlooked young wizard Harry Potter thinks the most haunting parts of his youth are over when he’s accepted into the most special wizarding school in the United Kingdom. He takes his brand-new life in stride, even as the ashy wicked wizard who killed his moms and dads, a troll attack on Halloween, and his unpredictable man-child potions teacher all make his very first term a little a doozy. In the first few months of wizardry, Harry is wealthy in new experiences: riding his first broom, casting his very first spell, and– most notably– celebrating his first Christmas.
With no family loving sufficient to treat him well on Christmas, the adults left in Harry’s life go above and beyond to make his first real Holiday a hell of a time. Who can forget the light on a young Harry’s face as he rounds the corner of his dormitory and discovers a huge present-laden tree waiting on him? How stunned he is when Ron assures him that most of those gifts had his name on them. “I’ve got presents?” That’s snow and provides under the tree right there. Include the fact that a person of the presents, an emotional piece of his late dad becomes a needed tool for success against Lord Voldemort at the end of the movie and you have a bonafide Christmas romp.
2. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Years after his jubilant first Christmas (and a host of other traumas and plot points), we satisfy a far angstier Harry in a minute of grief. The return of He Who Need to Not be Moisturized at the end of Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire is disappointment enough without the entire government costs tax galleons on a smear campaign so salacious it might’ve been used as promotion for a diss track. Fortunate, however, that the love of his good friends and a healthy dosage of hope are all he requires to bring pleasure back to the world, specifically if the popular Space of Requirement has anything to provide.
Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix is the epitome of a coming-of-age Christmas motion picture. It marks off all three boxes of our rubric– literal shots of snow, mistletoe, and presents under the tree– but it’s the essence of Christmas that actually shines through. For Santa’s sake, Harry has his very first kiss under an amazingly appearing sprig of mistletoe! If that’s not prime Christmas magic right there, I do not understand what is. Lest we not forget, either, that it was around Christmastime that Harry had his premonition of Mr. Weasley being attacked by Nagini the snake, and it was on Christmas day itself that the red-headed father of six returned home from the health center in time for presents and pudding. In the middle of the grief and issues that have occurred in the motion picture up to this point, Harry Potter and the Order of The Phoenix is a personification of the hope and wonder required to make a routine Christmas film a classic.
3. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Our last entry to the list finds Harry in a little a different location than we’ve ever seen him previously. After the appealing potential of a date is disrupted by Dumbledore hanging him like a carrot to hire the self-important Horace Slughorn back to Hogwarts, Harry discovers himself in the middle of an espionage objective for the missing out on pieces to Voldy’s history. A mission that will cost him whatever.
I’ll confess this movie nearly didn’t make the cut. The weird green overlay is better to a Slytherin dungeon than Santa’s workshop in regards to atmosphere and Dumbledore dying (is that a spoiler after all these years?) is not actually all that holly joly. However, prior to Snape goes all Grinch on Dumbledore, the majority of the movie occurs in the winter. There’s adequate snow. Horace Slughorn’s Christmas celebration bears the ideal backdrop for a host of angsty teens to actually dance around their complicated feelings for each other. Invitations are restricted, the weather is shocking, and the butterbeer never stops streaming. Love and excellent cheer are plentiful. For Christmas itself, Harry returns to the Weasley household house, where he and Ginny find themselves with the excellent opportunity to share a couple of sweets and a few more sordid appearances. When the forces of darkness undoubtedly assault the Weasley home (do they have no Christmas spirit?) the household unite with the magic of love and handles to kick them out for the vacations. Sure, they set the house on fire in the process, however what’s a fire but the ultimate twinkly light (stay safe this holiday).
Sad though it might be, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has everything: A little snow, some love, and a Christmas Party awkward enough to put every office vacation party to embarassment. It makes it, if only simply.
Ultimately, whether you’re an avid Harry Potter fan, a holiday-watcher, or have never ever seen them, we can all agree that a true Christmas film is clear in its understanding of what this season brings: a chance to cultivate the love that has been sustained all the year. And, as Dumbledore would say “if there is something Voldemort can not comprehend, it is love.”
All the Harry Potter motion pictures are currently streaming on Peacock.