Movies To Help You Survive Visitors Over The Holidays

Every year families travel to stay in spare rooms and on fold out couches in order to enjoy the holidays together.  No matter how much you love each other, there is a point where you start to feel a little crazy.  I should note that my husband likes this for one reason.  Crazy makes me clean.  He would have me in a mental hospital if it meant I scrubbed the shower more often.

As a host or a visitor there is that moment where the house starts to shrink.  When we have visitors, it is usually my husband's lack of underwear time in conjunction with "helpful" family members loading the dishwasher wrong. 

At some point during the visit, I usually see this around day three, we decide to relax and watch a movie.  Luckily our visitors at this stage are old enough to watch anything so we have a wider choice, but some of you don't have that luxury. 

If there is a mixed age group you need to find something that is entertaining for the kids but not mind numbing for the adults. 

First, you need snacks.  This will prevent the group from feeling the need to talk.

• Popcorn-Classic movie food.
• Party mix-My husband makes some killer party mix with lots of nuts and great flavor.
• Christmas cookies-The frosted kind, always a sweet treat and the potential to put little ones into a sugar coma.
• Cocoa-With marshmallows.
• Hot Cider-With cinnamon.  The thought makes me toasty warm.

So set up the guests on the couch, pass out some blankets and snuggle up in the dark so no one has to talk.

Next you need a movie.



You can't go wrong with Pixar.  They do a great job of sneaking in enough adult humor and nostalgia to keep the adults happy and the kids smiling.  I will be writing about all these movies some time.  They are all great and I will stop on them if they are on cable.



Dreamworks does a good job too.  And they get some big voices for their movies.  That is a blessing and a curse.  It can drive me crazy trying to figure out whose voice it is.  But they are funny.  They tend to lean toward the fart humor a little, but I have an immature 12 year old boy living deep in my heart and I laugh when farts happen.

Now I know what you are thinking. 

"But oh so nice and pretty blogger, what if we don't want to watch cartoons?"



You can go classic Christmas movies. All of these are pretty family friendly and funny. Now if my husband is one of the visitors, beware, he HATES the movie "A Christmas Story". More about that next week when I write about that movie.

Now at some point the children are going to settle down for a long winter's night and the teenagers will flee the room in order to play video games or watch some movie that isn't lame. Here are some Christmas movies you can watch then.




"Bad Santa" has language and adult with a capitol A situations.  "Die Hard" is a Christmas movie guys can get behind.  "Love Actually" is adorable but not for kids.  I will write more on the last two in the coming week as well.

So sit back, eat some snacks and watch a good movie.  I must suggest that you don't drink.  When family and wine get together, stuff comes out and could make for a tense New Year.

A special shout out to Cindy for suggesting this blog post.  Also, if you click on any of these movies, it links you to the movies I suggested and I get a kick back, like 2 cents.  So click away.  And have a great weekend.