December is here. In Iowa this means that soon snow will be covering everything in sight and piling up in snow banks the size of a small dump truck. This abundance of mushy white stuff makes it hard to go outside if one is not properly prepared with the required snow boots and 40 layers of clothing. Fortunately, staying inside is made somewhat easier with a variety of holiday movies students can watch. But with such a variety of holiday movies out there and bunches of new ones coming out each year, it can be hard to determine which movies are holiday gold and which are the fruitcake of the video world good for using only as a doorstop and re-gifting a year later. Here students must find ways to determine what movies are classics and which are better left to sit on a shelf somewhere gathering dust. “To make a movie a classic it has to have a classic storyline with a happy ending” junior Agatha Gorjackovski-Azdajic said. Besides the determination of whether or not a certain movie is a classic or not, personal preferences also play in to which movies students prefer. “The Nightmare Before Chiristmas [is my favorite] because it’s different like me,” senior Rachel Christman said, “it’s unique and has no cliches.” The sheer amount of holiday themed movies, though confusing to some, is fast becoming the norm to many and any shoppers out and about in the holiday season. Gorjackovski-Azdajic has a simple reason for this. “Christmas is the best time of the year, it’s the only time of year you just get a warm fuzzy feeling.” Gorjackovski-Azdajic said. Or maybe the reason there are so many holiday movies is a simpler more straightforward one. “[The stores] are trying to reach a very large audience so there are a lot of movies” Christman said. But, in a day and age where Christmas decorations and advertisements go up the day after Halloween, there is a question of what’s the best time and place for watching Christmas classics. “I like listening to Christmas music before Christmas but I like watching Christmas movies around Christmas day,” Gorjackovski-Azdajic said.” When it comes to where the best place to watch holiday videos is however, it seems to be a no brain-er. “[I watch Christmas movies] at home, on a rug, in front of a roaring fire with my family drinking cider” Christman said. So if the mounting piles of snow outside don’t excite a need to go out and frolic in the blissful mess of winter, holiday movies make the choice of staying inside more inviting, and a whole lot more merrier.