Griswolds vs. Gremlins: The Semis Begin

We’re down to the final four after Home Alone edged out George Bailey and It’s A Wonderful Life by the narrowest of margins.  The race was neck and neck through a 24 hour voting cycle until little Kevin McCallister grabbed one extra vote to upset what I would definitely consider a strong contender for the greatest Christmas movie of all time.

The semifinals are set.  Anything can happen judging by the results of last week.  By the end of this week we’ll know what readers of this site consider to be the greatest movie in the 12 Days of Christmas Movies contest.

Today’s faceoff features National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation vs. Gremlins.

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This whole thing began last Monday when Christmas Vacation knocked off Elf in the only real runaway of the first round.  I’m sure the Chevy Chase classic is gonna be tougher than Cousin Eddie’s turkey the rest of the way.

Gremlins took out Jim Carrey’s Grinch to get to this point.  I laid out the strengths of Gizmo’s movie last week where you can also find out who Frank Welker is.

So today’s matchup is about zany comedy vs. dark comedy, two Christmas nightmares for entirely different reasons.  One forever altered the way I looked at holiday lights and the other completely changed the way I view microwaves and blenders. 

Make your pick now for which of these two classics slides into Thursday’s final.