Festive Flicks: Three Couples Pick Their Favourite Christmas Movies
The holiday season is a time for all things red, green, merry, and bright — and Christmas movies, of course!
By Scarlett Tan
There’s nothing like a good holiday movie to put you in the festive mood. We asked three couples to share their favourite Christmas movies and what makes these movies so special to them.
Ian Wong and April Zara Chua
Our fave Christmas movie: Serendipity (2001)
The plot
Jonathan Trager (John Cusack) and Sara Thomas (Kate Beckinsale) meet while Christmas shopping in New York City. It’s love at first sight but reality sinks in as both of them are in a relationship. Sara, who believes in destiny, decides to leave it to fate and they part ways. A few years later, they must decide if their love story is yet to be written, and they both start a frantic search for the other.
What makes this movie special to us
The way we met was quite serendipitous. We were just two strangers chatting online and decided to meet up one day. Five years later, we’re married with a kid. So when we first watched this movie together as a couple, it really struck a chord at how one simple event can lead to great things. Although our love story wasn’t as dramatic as the movie, “Serendipity” sparked a lot of conversations between us and really helped us bond and get closer. We still enjoy rewatching it from time to time, especially at Christmas!
Favourite scenes from the movie 
Ian: That scene where they get into separate lifts to see if they pick the same floor. It was like some cruel joke because they did pick the same floor, it’s just that Jonathan was sharing the lift with a naughty kid who pressed all the other buttons.
April: So many favourite moments but I think the best for me would be the first few minutes of the movie where they first meet. It was like they were meant to be in that same place to meet each other.
What this movie taught us
To give love a chance. When the characters first meet, they decide to hang out and see what happens. Their love story took several years to come to fruition but if they had declined the offer for desserts after that fateful first meeting, nothing would have happened at all. In a way, it really resonated with us because we took a leap of faith to meet up even though we though we became acquaintances online.
Karl Bustamante and Kaye Chua-Bustamante
Our fave Christmas movie: Home Alone (1990)
The plot
Eight-year-old Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) wakes up all alone at home when his family accidentally leaves without him to go on their Christmas vacation. Despite his initial excitement of having no family to pick on him, the situation becomes serious when he’s forced to defend his home from two con men planning to rob their house.
What makes this movie special to us
It was a very famous movie when we were growing up, back when Hollywood was releasing cheesy year end Christmas movies. This was one of the first actual Christmas movies we watched as a newly-wedded couple.
Favourite scenes from the movie
Karl: A very memorable one for me was when Kevin was using scenes from an old gangster movie to fool the two villains who are trying to break into his house. I thought it was a very clever and funny way for Kevin to outsmart the adults. Fun fact: did you know that the gangster movie he was watching isn’t actually real?!
Kaye: My favourite part was the church scene when Kevin was inside the church talking to a neighbour he feared – a scary old man. There, he connected with him, with the neighbour revealing that he’s human too, not just this frightening character that Kevin had made up in his head. They talked about family and the meaning of Christmas, which really resonated with me.
What this movie taught us
“Home Alone” reinforced our belief that family is important. Now that we have a toddler, it’s even more important for us to teach him the meaning of family. It also taught us to see past appearances to find the heart and good in everyone.
Amrish Nair and Shanthini Sandramohan
Our fave Christmas movie: Love Actually (2003) 
The plot
Set during Christmas, it’s a movie that explores the various facets of love as told by 10 intertwined storylines involving very different individuals each facing a conundrum. Storylines include a newly elected British prime minister who falls in love with a young junior staff, and a graphic designer who had to put her love life on hold to care for her mentally ill brother.
What makes this movie special to us
We found out very early on when we started dating that we both liked this movie a lot. One Christmas, it was on TV and we watched it together as a couple. It was such a rewarding experience to watch one of our favourite movies together. Since then, it has become a yearly tradition for us to watch it during Christmas. It has become such a big part of our Christmas routine that it would be “incomplete” if we did not watch it.
Favourite scenes from the movie
Amrish: Nothing can top Jamie’s (Colin Firth) and Aurelia’s (Lúcia Moniz) storyline. It was such a sweet depiction of how love needs no language. They fall in love despite having some language barriers. I mean, Jamie learns Portuguese and flies back to France just to find her and tell her he is in love with her? Super romantic. 
Shanthini: Definitely David’s (Hugh Grant) dancing scene! He plays quite a serious character in the movie as the prime minister so that short scene of him dancing around 10 Downing Street had me in stitches.
What this movie taught us
We had so many takeaways from “Love Actually” because there were multiple storylines but some of the things that stood out for both of us was how important it is to fight for what you love, stepping out of your comfort zone and to be open to possibilities because you really won’t know until you try. For example, in David’s and Jamie’s storylines, they both decided to fight for their love despite all odds, and had positive results!