Pre-Christmas Family Tradition – Star Trek Movies Marathon

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.

13 Nights Of Star Trek Movies

Every year starting on the first of December, our family watches the Star Trek movies in order. The inception of this tradition began in 2012, when Stephanie and I started seriously dating. Stephanie had never watched anything Star Trek and she showed interest in learning about the franchise because I loved watching the movies when I was young. Lucky for her, she could enjoy watching the first eleven back-to-back and not have to wait years betweens like other Star Trek fans have had to do. It was her desire to learn about Star Trek and see what she had been missing that evolved into this sweet lead up to one of the most special times of the year.

And what better time to schedule a Star Trek movie marathon than December? Work and school winter break helps carve out time for everyone to be available for one. It’s easy to get into a galaxy vibe with early evening skies, thanks to daylight savings. There’s a prominent Christmas sequence in one of the movies that’s well known (Star Trek VII: Generations) too. And who wants to watch Christmas movies for an entire month?!

Here is our Star Trek movies marathon schedule (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. 

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

Ranking The Star Trek Movies

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!

Of all of the years we’ve been doing the 13 Nights of Star Trek, it was a special honor having our newborn baby watch them with us this year. She would stay quiet through most of the movies and stayed up for most of them as well. 

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! 

10th Anniversary

Can you believe 2024 is the 10th year of ’13 Nights of Star Trek’?!