The streets are filled with desperate shoppers, mince pies are back on the menu and that house on the end of the street has started to look like a low-budget Blackpool Illuminations. Yep, Christmas is just around the corner.
To get you into the spirit of things – here are some of our favourite festive four-eyed film stars.
Chuck a log on the fire, pour yourself a hearty glass of eggnog and give this a read…
Clark Griswold – National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
At the top, we’ve got hapless family man Clark Griswold, as he attempts to deliver “The most fun-filled old-fashioned family Christmas ever.”
Whilst things don’t exactly go to plan (with everything from dusty ol’ roast turkeys to citywide power-shortages plaguing the day) – Clark somehow always manages to look pretty sharp – helped in part by those chunky glasses he wears that look uncannily like these Garrett Leight Justice frames.
Very nice indeed.
Tony Vreski - Die Hard
By now the age-old pub debate of whether Die Hard is or isn’t a Christmas film is pretty boring. Even if this masterpiece doesn’t quite tick all the boxes of a bonafide ‘Christmas film’, what does that matter? It’s ace, and it’s set on Christmas Eve.
At first glance, Hans Gruber’s faithful goon Tony Vreski is hardly a vision of festive cheer and goodwill (especially when he’s toting that automatic rifle), but if the sight of this guy lying in an elevator with a Santa hat poised on his head and the words, “Now I have a machine gun, ho-ho-ho,” scrawled on his chest doesn’t warm your cockles, we don’t know what will.
For that time-honoured unlucky henchman look, we’d go with the Quanah frames from Jacques Marie Mage.
Dr Bunsen Honeydew – The Muppet Christmas Carol
And now for something that is most definitely, undeniably a Christmas Film… The Muppet Christmas Carol.
On the face of it, a musical adaption of Charles Dickens’s classic 1843 novella featuring a gang of fuzzy-felt hand-puppets and Michael Caine might sound a little strange, but this 1992 film has become a fixture of festive television programming and a true classic of the genre.
The songs are catchy, the jokes come thick and fast and there’s a great turn from unsung style icon Dr Bunsen Honeydew as a humble charity collector with a cracking pair of round framed glasses.
Dressing like ‘a muppet’ isn’t usually something someone strives for, but in this case it’s more than welcome – and we’d opt for the Garrett Leight Wilson frames.
Ralphie Parker – A Christmas Story
1983’s A Christmas Story is a heart-warming tale of childhood and… er… dodgy air-rifles, as a man named Ralphie Parker looks back on one Christmas back in his youth in the town of Hohman, Indiana.
Whilst there are all sorts of stories here, the main one concerns young Ralphie knocking his glasses off with his Red Ryder Carbine Action 200-shot Range Model air rifle and then accidentally trampling on them. Not ideal, especially seeing how classy those round frames looked.
For something similar, go for the Dita Torus. Just try not to shoot them off, okay?
Leon the Snowman - Elf
To round this off, here’s Leon the Snowman from Elf. As well as being a decent Christmas film in its own right, there are a fair few nods to the classics in here.
Not only did the actor who played little Ralphie Parker make a cameo as one Santa’s elves, but the use of stop-motion characters was a tribute to the longest-running Christmas special of all time… 1964’s Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the character of Sam the Snowman.
In the same way that Sam was a caricature of the actor who lent him his voice, Burl Ives, Leon is a plasticine version of voice actor and legendary jazz cat Leon Redbone, complete with his trademark Panama hat, tie and sunglasses.
For that ice-cool snowman style, we’d pick the Garrett Leight Brooks.
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So there you have it – five great films, and five classy pairs of glasses. Thanks for reading, and Merry Christmas from everyone at Seen.
