Movies! You watch ‘em, you love ‘em. Here’s a list of scenes that make great holiday viewing from Christmas through New Year’s Day. Mostly nontraditional; the only commonality -- snow: lilting, crusty, flurried. The essence of winter.

Each scene lives in your neighborhood video store. They’re right around the corner.

Fargo (1996)
“We’re not a bank, Jerry.”
Jerry brings an investment to his father-in-law and leaves with nothing. He trudges back to his car that sits alone in the snow-covered parking lot. The audience, the camera angle, look down on Jerry surrounded by snow. There’s nowhere for him to hide.

Groundhog Day (1993)
“This is pitiful. A thousand people, freezing...waiting to worship a rat.”
Reliving the same day over and over makes a strong case for hell on earth, even with snow. Bill Murray is at his funniest as he tries to get the girl through cynical trial and error to find the perfect things to say, “I like to say a prayer and drink to world peace,” or to create the perfect situation -- making a snowman and paying a few local kids to have a snowball fight.

The Thing (1987)
“You’ve got to be…kidding me”
The Antarctic is scary enough without the threat of a frozen alien. When a heart attack turns into a stomach with teeth and a head that sprouts legs, you’ve got to think it’s pretty much over for humanity. The scene is horrifying and it only gets worse -- setting a benchmark for future horror directors on how it should be done.

Kill Bill (2003)
“That really was a Hattori Hanzo sword”
The culmination of Chapter 5 takes place in a serene Japanese garden. Snowflakes float from the night sky. It’s still. It’s quiet, even in the face of impending battle -- the final fight. Missing the first two hours of the movie doesn’t take away from the beauty of the garden -- its symmetry and sounds and soft snow match perfectly with the artistry of the samurai battle.

It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
“Merry Christmas, Movie House!”
The holiday season is not over, until you watch It’s a Wonderful Life. The celebration of George Bailey’s quest starts with his romp through snowy downtown Bedford Falls. The holiday is in full bloom and there’s George being the great guy everyone, except himself, knows him to be…until now.

Christmas Vacation (1989)
“We have to check every bulb. Whoop - Got a little knot here. You work on that.”
The doorbell of doom that marks the family’s arrival, struggling to find the perfect tree, and cousins who empty their RV’s toilet into your sewer line -- the chaos that is the holidays. But the scene that typifies the holiday experience is when Rusty is handed a knot of Christmas lights the size of a medicine ball and politely asked by his father to work it out. And finally, the colorful gleam and shimmer on the snow banks -- the trials of exterior illumination have never been so perfectly illustrated.