If you’re like me, the first thing you pull out of the
Christmas boxes once they are lugged in from the garage are the Christmas
movies! (Also if you’re like me, you like to end each December night with a cup
of Stephen’s hot chocolate. Also if you’re like me, sometimes you wonder if you
have a uterus, because you sound like a girl.)
I love Christmas movies. I am a complete and total sucker
for all Christmas movies. My impenitent opinion is that there is never enough
time between Thanksgiving and Christmas to watch all the Christmas movies. And
that is because my broad definition of “a Christmas movie” is “any movie taking
place during Christmastime.”
A Charlie Brown
Christmas? Obviously a Christmas movie. How
the Grinch Stole Christmas? Clearly. Miracle
on 34th Street? It’s a Wonderful Life?
Duh. Scrooged? Christmas Vacation? Home
Alone? Yes, yes, and yes. Serendipity?
About a Boy? Better Off Dead? Die Hard?
(Did I just blow your mind?) Well, my narrow-minded-Christmas-movie-defining
friend…you tell me…
I am a big fan of the Rankin/Bass productions, largely for
nostalgic reasons. Rudolph the Red-Nosed
Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, Santa Claus Is Coming to Town, The Year Without a Santa Claus, etc.,
etc. Millions and millions of years ago – in the 1970s – you would have to
actually wait until December to enjoy these holiday gems, rather than popping
in the DVD any ol’ time you fancied. My mom, securing her place in heaven,
would get out the TV guide and map out which nights they would be appearing on
our average size television. And my gosh, the anticipation. All of us kids
would crowd around the TV, and the moment you could see the animation or
claymation come on the screen, Christmas magic exploded all over the room. My
adrenaline would be running so hard, I couldn't hear! It was like someone had
intravenously given us kids Hyperness Syrup! It was usually about 45 seconds
into the show before we could actually hear anything. And then, it was as if
all of our senses were heightened. We’d never felt so alive! We had never heard
wittier dialogue, seen more sophisticated animation, or heard more stunning
music. Pure joy. Due to the Christmas bliss these shows brought me in my youth,
I am able, as an adult, to overlook the plot holes, forced exposition, and lack
of clarifications that drive these shows. But I refuse to allow all of that to
dim the Christmas pandemonium that fills my home when these movies make their
debut each December.
In addition to Rankin/Bass, our family takes great Christmas
glee in all the standards, including A
Charlie Brown Christmas, How the
Grinch Stole Christmas, and Disney’s Mickey’s
Christmas Carol. There are also multiple showings of Elf, Muppet’s Christmas Carol,
and The Santa Clause.
And we also have a few favorites that I consider quite
underrated. Bloom County’s A Wish for
Wings that Work (starring Opus and Bill the Cat), where Opus saves Santa
from drowning, and Disney’s Small One,
where a young Judean boy is told by his father to take their donkey into town
and sell him because he is a runt and uses up their resources without providing
any real work. After some close calls with some swindlers and a tanner, this
young boy sells his donkey to…(surprise!) Joseph and Mary. Yes, I’m sure you
immediately saw that one coming when you saw that the story featured a donkey.
But let me tell you this. When you are watching this movie with your three-year
old daughter, and she starts bawling because she is so moved by the kindness of
a young boy and a man named Joseph, it’s pretty hard not to love it.
As far as full-length motion pictures go, anything that
takes place in New York or London or a big city where there are Christmas trees
and lights all over town, choirs and bands randomly performing, and people
wearing fashionable outerwear, I am immediately captivated. With Christmas as a
backdrop, I feel like the season is as much a character in the movie as any of
the actors. It’s a time of forgiveness. A time of rekindling. A time when
people are a little kinder. Except John McClane. Because if you are trying to
take over the Nakatomi Plaza, and you are messing with his family... Christmas
eve or not, you are going down, my friend.
What are your Christmas movie must-sees? What should I make
sure is on my list?
