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'TIS THE SEASON 40 WHAT'S UP! DECEMBER 24-30, 2017 "CHRISTMAS VACATION" It is hard to choose my favorite Christmas movie. There are so many great ones, including various versions of "A Christmas Carol," classics like "It's a Wonderful Life," to a host of animated movies. For me, my favorite Christmas movie, the movie I look forward to watching every year, is "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" starring Beverly De'Angelo and Chevy Chase. I still laugh, hard, at all the goofy jokes and crazy situations the characters get involved in. They do have a nice Christmas message at the end of the movie. As a matter of fact, I haven't watched it yet this season. It might be time. Merry Christmas! — Tony Reyes, Online editor "MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS" Though it may not traditionally be considered a "holiday movie," the 1944 classic "Meet Me in St. Louis" has always been one of my Christmas favorites. Directed by Vincente Minelli and starring Judy Garland, the film follows the trials and tribulations of the Smiths, a loving family living in St. Louis in the year before the 1904 World's Fair. The climax of the movie occurs on Christmas Eve and culminates in a tender performance of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" as Garland sings to comfort her younger sister, played by the adorable Margaret O'Brien, when she cries about the prospect of the family leaving St. Louis. The melancholy of this eventual Christmas classic (which debuted in the film) gets me every time; when Garland sings "Someday soon, we all will be together/If the fates allow/Until then, we'll have to muddle through somehow," her large brown eyes brimming with tears, it perfectly captures the contradictions that the holiday season brings: the joy of family being together, but, also, the sadness and loss that that joy brings to the forefront. Yet, spoiler alert, the movie has a happy ending! — Lara Hightower, NWA Profiles reporter "SERENDIPITY" My favorite Christmastime movie is the 2001 "Serendipity." I've always been a big John Cusack fan, and it was the first time I saw and fell in love with Kate Beckinsale. The movie is a very witty and funny romantic comedy with the theme that if two people are meant to be together, it will happen. The movie touches me on a personal level more now than when I first saw it. Meeting my wife was somewhat serendipitous. While touring a business for my work I saw past our tour guide down a long hallway where a beautiful woman was leaving an office and walking away from us. I remembered I could not take my eyes off of her and thought to myself, 'I will meet her one day.' A few months later, by chance, I met her in a completely separate setting. While dating I would later realize it was her and over the years we have found that before meeting we attended a lot of the same events and know some of the same people but just had never met. — Spencer Tirey, Photo editor Movies Continued From Page 39 Courtesy Photo Jace McLean as Joel and Jen Celene Little as his wife, Julia, take daughters Carol Lee and Babby to see Santa in "Mr. Christmas," shot in Eureka Springs in 2004. File Photo Tim Allen made his motion picture debut in the charming, imaginative Christmas fable "The Santa Clause."