One of the most prevalent and recurring things about the Christmas season that’s stayed the same for as long as I can remember are Christmas movies. The season tends to change a bit as you grow older, but these classic movies don’t.

During the month of December around my household, it feels like there’s always a Christmas movie on TV playing in the background, usually National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation or Elf, and of course A Christmas Story, which plays on loop for 24 hours starting each Christmas Eve. Other favorites that I don’t catch as much on TV include Home Alone, Jim Carrey’s rendition of How the Grinch Stole Christmas! and many others.

I have many fond memories of watching these movies around the Christmas season, as I’m sure many others do as well. But while many Christmas pasts have come and gone, the movies haven’t, with many aspects of them, such as jokes and messages, only getting better as you grow older.

There’s also The Polar Express, which I feel that most teenagers my age were sort of accustomed to like as we were growing up, now remembering the film fondly, relating it with hot chocolate and pajama party days in school each year from Kindergarten to 3rd grade.

But it seems as though every year, not very many new movies get added to the rotation, and any that do don’t usually stick around for next year. Why is that?

It isn’t like there aren’t any Christmas or holiday movies being released these days, but they’re usually destined for streaming services, usually to be viewed once by a small number of people one year and not the next, and it’s a similar story with those that get a theatrical release.

Most Christmas movies that do get attention nowadays aren’t usually for any good reason, especially when it comes to sequels or reboots to the old ones, with the main complaint by most viewers seemingly being that they can’t recapture ‘the magic’ that the classics had.

This question runs through my head sometimes: What Christmas movies will people be watching in forty-or-so years from now? Will Home Alone and Elf still be as popular as they are now, or will they be watching a classic that was released today?

After all, A Christmas Story flew under the radar of most movie-goers whenever it was released to theaters back in 1983, before it was picked up for TV airings by Turner Broadcasting many years later, where it would gain its popularity.

So, will we be watching different films than what we view now in the future? Are we going to look back and appreciate classics that we don’t even know are released yet? But if all of that happens, will the classics we love today still be watched every year, or will they be forgotten?

But even if in a far-off future these favorites are not being seen by millions of people on loop every year, they will always still be there to enjoy, whether via streaming, DVD, or otherwise, as a time capsule of the times that produced them, and of personal memories of the holiday season.

So, the next time you see Buddy the Elf wandering around New York City, or Clark Griswold hanging up Christmas lights, take the time to appreciate these special films, and appreciate those around you that you get to share them with.