The 7 Best Big Screen Holiday Food Moments
The two best things about the winter holidays are as follows: binge-watching great movies, and feasting on even greater food, during said binges.
“Number of current boyfriends: zero.” —Bridget Jones’s Diary Photo: @booksbowsandbuttons / Instagram
The two best things about the winter holidays are as follows: binge-watching great movies, and feasting on even greater food, during said binges.
As a holiday bonus, many of these films feature some pretty drool-worthy, and straight up iconic, food scenes that will keep us watching over and over for years to come.
So, take a walk down gluttony lane and reflect on seven of the most memorable big screen holiday food moments.
1. Home Alone - Mac N’ Cheese
“Bless this highly nutritious microwavable macaroni and cheese dinner and the people who sold it on sale. Amen.” Photo: Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.
Honestly, wasn’t this every kid’s preferred dinner choice? Though it does suck to be forgotten by your family and left at home during the big annual family vacation, devouring a hot plate of microwaved mac n’ cheese with a tall cold glass of milk, like Kevin’s lonely Christmas dinner, surely eased the pain.
2. A Christmas Story - Peking Duck
“That Christmas would live in our memories as the year we were introduced to Chinese turkey.” Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).
Turkey? Ham? Goose? Birds of the past as made evident in the classic, A Christmas Story. An unfortunate cooking mishap finds Ralphie and his dysfunctional family in a Chinese restaurant for their holiday dinner.
Just a head’s up—things don’t end very well for a particular duck.
3. Elf – Spaghetti
“We elves try to stick to the four main food groups: candy, candy canes, candy corns, and syrup.” Photo: Warner Home Video
It’s like Kevin from Home Alone grew up but didn’t grow up. Will Ferrell is iconic in his role as one of Santa’s trusted workshop helpers/adopted son who’s attempting to form a relationship with his biological father in New York City.
Growing up in the North Pole, a place in which the main food groups consists of candy, candy, and more candy, it’s only natural he’d create a dish of spaghetti dressed in maple and chocolate syrup along with other various sweets.
4. Mean Girls – Candy Canes
“Oh Cady, here you go, one for you… And none for Gretchen Wieners, bye.” Photo: Paramount Pictures
Candy canes don’t seem like such a big deal until they aren’t delivered to you by a fake Santa in front of all your classmates.
Gretchen Wieners knows this feeling exactly—after watching new girl Cady receive a candy cane gram from their squad’s ruthless ringleader Regina, she launches into an epic tirade that would make even Julius Caesar proud. You go Gretchen Wieners. So fetch.
5. How the Grinch Stole Christmas – The Feast
“He brought everything back, all the food for the feast. And he, he himself, the Grinch, carved the roast beef.” Photo: Warner Home Video
It’s the Grinch’s intense jealousy of the Whos down in Whoville that inspires him to pocket their entire holiday feast, including the Who pudding, roast beast, and the last can of Who-hash (unforgivable).
But after a change of heart “…he brought everything back, all the food for the feast. And he, himself, the Grinch – carved the roast beast.”
6. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation – Turkey
“Save the neck for me, Clark.” Photo: Getty Images
Beginning with a “Pledge of Allegiance” blessing, ending with a dog yakking on turkey bones, with the awkward crunching of brittle turkey in between, the dinner scene from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation might just be more cringe-worthy than all of your family get-togethers combined.
7. Love Actually - A Proposal
“Yes is being my answer. Easy question.” Photo: Universal Studios
OK, while the food wasn’t necessarily involved, this did take place at a restaurant, so we’re counting it.
Lots of loving happens in this newly minted holiday classic, but one of the most heart-warming stories is that between writer Jamie and his housekeeper-turned-lover, Aurelia. The grammatically incorrect subtitles just put it over the top.
For more stories like this, check out 6 Puddings You Hear A Lot About During The Holidays, as well as 12 Gifts For The Food Lovers In Your Life.