How often do you find yourself sitting down to enjoy a film that you’re genuinely excited for? Not just the excitement of it being a movie you’ve been looking forward to, but one that the critics are calling “The best film of the year” or “a stunning masterpiece that will open up your soul” or some such hyperbole. It makes you feel like you’re about to partake in something important: a piece of art that is so critically lauded that it becomes a socially shared experience like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo or Jersey Shore. Now, after getting bombarded with all the hype and accolades, how many times does that piece of art actually live up to the standards you’ve already set? Not very often, right? I think that might have been my problem with The Descendants, a very good movie that I’m sure will do well come awards season, but that never quite crosses the line into “great.”

Because New Year’s Eve is a unique movie experience—or at least as unique as you can get from director Garry Marshall and screenwriter Katherine Fugate, who subjected us to Valentine’s Day just 20 months ago—a standard movie review feels inappropriate to the task of capturing what it’s like to be watching. So, in an effort to convey its ineffable magic, here’s a pseudo-live-tweet replication of a preview screening.

I don’t want to see Miracle on 34th Street. Ever. Same goes for It’s a Wonderful Life, Home Alone, A Christmas Carol and A Christmas Story. I can still handle the Charlie Brown Christmas movies, A Nightmare Before Christmas, Bad Santa, Love Actually, Die Hard, Scrooged and Gremlins, but even those are starting to wear a little thin (except for Die Hard which is eternal like fruit cake). I’m 31 years old and I’ve been watching these movies every year since I was old enough to form memories and I need to start mixing it up a little before I go insane. This year, I decided to try to dig up some Holiday classics that are a little more under-the-radar, so we can start making new traditions to fit alongside the old. With that in mind, here are seven modern holiday classics to add to your Christmas tradition.

I have to cut Martin Scorsese some slack for his foray into family entertainment. I saw him on The Daily Show the other night and he confessed a couple of reasons as to why he made Hugo. One was because his wife hounded him to make “something that everyone can see” and then his 12-year-old daughter requested it be made in 3-D. Secondly, he wanted to make a love letter to the birth of filmmaking honoring Georges Melies (1902’s A Trip to the Moon), the inventor of fantasy and science fiction in cinema, based on Brian Selznick's 2007 novel The Invention Of Hugo Cabret. So while we get a kids' fantasy ripe with mystery, we also get a cinematic history lesson. It’s a tricky balancing act and Scorsese handles it with panache, delivering a magically imaginative mini-masterpiece that uses 3-D not as a gimmick but rather for wondrous enhancement.

I saw Melies’ infamous Trip to the Moon when I was in film school. Ingenious and way ahead of his time, Melies took experimental film to the limits. It’s no wonder that Scorsese is fascinated with this brilliant reclusive filmmaker and who better than Scorsese to use wild camera shots and mesmerizing 3-D to tell the story of the man who invented special effects.

The Muppets have a long, deep history, and most people on this Earth today can say that these familiar felt creatures played a part in their upbringing. Even those, like myself, who were too young to have regularly indulged in The Muppet Show when it aired on television, are nevertheless familiar with The Muppet Christmas Carol, Muppet Treasure Island and, of course, Jim Henson’s Muppet Babies. And just when it seemed like the Muppets had faded out of the pop culture in recent years, Kermit, Missy Piggy and the rest of the crew surge back into relevance in Jason Segel’s resurrection of the franchise.

This big screen Muppet reunion features Gary (Segel), a simple man who spends his time with longtime girlfriend Mary (Amy Adams) and his brother Walter. The brothers share an obsession with the Muppets, and Walter (weirdly) actually happens to be one. When the trio discovers an evil oil tycoon's (Chris Cooper) plans to drill for oil under the old, rundown Muppet Theater, they find Kermit and round up the gang to resurrect The Muppet Show

for a telethon to raise money to save the theater.