Christmas Family Tradition With A New Baby – Star Trek Movies

Some families use an advent calendar to count down the days till Christmas, but we kick off the winter holiday season by watching all 13 Star Trek movies in order, December 1-13 instead.

And if you and/or your child(ren) are getting tired of the same 20 or so christmas movies that consistently air on TV during December, you may find this article helpful.

Our Family’s Star Trek Marathon Schedule

Every year starting on the first of December, our family watches the Star Trek movies in order. It was an honor that our baby wanted to watch it with us this year. She would stay quiet through most of the movies and stayed up for most of them as well. 

Here is our schedule of movies (for 2018):

December 1 = Star Trek I: The Motion Picture

Fun fact - our baby’s name Eileah (pronounced eye-lee-uh) was inspired by one of the characters from Star Trek I: The Motion Picture, Ilia (pronounced eye-lee-uh). When this scene in came on in the video below, I was very happy to see that our baby was watching and intrigued by the movie. 

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Night #1 of our family’s 13 nights of #StarTrek movies in December. A tradition started by my husband. It’s our daughter’s first time watching, and she hears where her name came from. ? People ask me all the time how I spell my daughter’s name and I tell them E-i-l-e-a-h. In the movie credits the lead female character (played by #PersisKhambatta)’s name is spelled I-l-i-a, which is the plural name for a pelvic bone in medicine and the way a beauty line spells it. To save her from mispronunciations and to not be associated with anything embarrassing or already taken, I figured out how the spelling that a computer would pronounce the name as phonetically as possible. I ran polls on all the pregnancy apps I was using during the pregnancy for opinions too. Lo and behold we arrived at Eileah and it’s lovely and unique. It’s fun now to hear it in the first Star Trek movie (1979) and be reminded of how we chose her name. It goes to show how you never know where inspiration will come from. . . . . #Ilia #StarTreki #StarTrekTheMovie #RobertWise #baby #puppy #babynaming @startrek @paramountpics #startrekthemotionpicture #Eileah

A post shared by Stephanie (@tinleyparkmom) on Dec 1, 2018 at 7:50pm PST

December 2 = Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Kahn

December 3 = Star Trek III: The Search For Spock

December 4 = Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

December 5 = Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

December 6 = Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country 

December 7 = Star Trek VII: Generations

December 8 = Star Trek VIII: First Contact

December 9 = Star Trek IX: Insurrection

December 10 = Star Trek X: Nemesis

December 11 = Star Trek XI

December 12 = Star Trek XII: Into Darkness

December 13 = Star Trek XIII: Beyond

Every year, we also rank the movies on which we enjoyed the most. I was surprised that our baby watched Star Trek III: The Search For Spock all the way through. Star Trek IV: The voyage home she fell asleep a little bit, but then wanted to get right back up and watch the end. 

For me, the list changes every year. This time, I would rank the movies as follows:

1. Star Trek I: The Motion Picture – Because of my daughter’s name
2. Star Trek III: The Search For Spock – Watched iwth friends
3. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home – Watched with Friends
4. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier – Because what does god need with a starship? And Row row row row row row your boat
5. Star Trek IX: Insurrection – the fun family like feel between the characters
6. Star Trek X: Nemesis – the action
7. Star Trek VIII: First Contact – the action again
8. Star Trek VII: Generations – the Christmas scene
9. Star Trek XIII: Beyond – Feeling like Star Trek again
10. Star Trek XII: Into Darkness – One of my favorite opening scenes
11. Star Trek XI – A cool reboot!

I look forward to next year when we watch the movies together again. With each passing year it’s going to be fun to see how our daughter engages with the movies. It really does feel like we are going on a Trek!