Classic Film : YOUR FAVORITE CHRISTMAS MOVIES

I have two:
A CHRISTMAS CAROL, with Alistair Sim as Scrooge.
THE BISHOP'S WIFE, starring Cary Grant, Loretta Young, and David Niven.

Yeah, it's early, but I imagine this subject would come up eventually, so I decided to start early, LOL.

We don't usually do Christmas films before Halloween.

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) - right up your alley!!!

A Christmas Story (1983) - the best ever

Rare Exports (2010)

and the worst Christmas film ever made: The Family Stone (2005).

jj

Uh, why is THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS "right up (my) alley"???

Because you started a Christmas-movie topic right before Halloween and this movie covers both!

jj

Oh, brother (eye roll)!!!

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and the worst Christmas film ever made: The Family Stone (2005).

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Be thankful that at least none of the characters are named Sly.

50 Is The New Cutoff Age.

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We don't usually do Christmas films before Halloween.

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Why not? The advertising for it starts before Halloween now.


Trump is Putin's bitch.

The two you mentioned are on my list but IHave others:

White Christmas
Holiday Inn
All Mine To Give
Holiday Affair

All the world is a stage and most of us are desperately unrehearsed.

Oh dear!

They're decorating the malls already!




Mice work in mysterious ways.
No, dear. That's God.

Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol

Good one. I'd probably go with It's A Wonderful Life first but they're awfully close. A first rate runner up: Holiday Affair, a charming sleeper with Janet Leigh, radiant and in fine form, having to choose between two very different suitors, as played by Robert Mitchum and Wendell Corey. Good scene in night court and a nice back lot suggestion of New York City. If you don't blink you can catch a young James Griffith in a small part.

I challenge any of you to watch Fanny and Alexander any cold evening before Christmas. It will become your go to favorite.

CLASSICS

WHITE CHRISTMAS
HOLIDAY INN
MIRACLE ON THIRTY FOURTH STREET
ITS A WONDERFUL LIFE
SHOP AROUND THE CORNER
A CHRISTMAS CAROL ( Alastair sim)

MODERN

ELF
OLIVE THE OTHER REINDEER


OFF BEAT

THERES NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINESS
LITTLE WOMEN
HEIDI
REBECCA OF SUNNYBROOK FARM


It was a toss-up whether I go in for diamonds or sing in the choir. The choir lost.

Cash on Demand (1961) / Quentin Lawrence
A Christmas Story (1983) / Bob Clark
Die Hard (1988) / John McTiernan
Rare Exports (2010) / Jalmari Helander
A Christmas Carol (2010) / "Doctor Who" Christmas Special
Last Christmas (2014) / "Doctor Who" Christmas Special

mf

Trust me. I'm The Doctor.

Movies where I watch the whole thing:
CHRISTMAS CAROL (4 Live action- Hicks, Sims, Finney, Scott/3 Animated- Magoo, Williams, Mickey)
2 NUTCRACKER (Baryshnikov and THE MOTION PICTURE)
SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE MARTIANS (The MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 version)
SIMPLE GIFTS: SIX TALES OF CHRISTMAS
A CHRISTMAS STORY

Anime
TENCHI MUYO: MANATSU NO EVE
THE LAST: NARUTO THE MOVIE
GUNDAM WING: ENDLESS WALTZ

MGM
2 BEN-HUR (1925 and 1959)
A TALE OF TWO CITIES
MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS
KING OF KINGS

Movies where I catch scenes of:
SANTA CLAUS THE MOVIE
IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE
BABES IN TOYLAND
MARCH OF THE WOODEN SOLDIERS
THE SANTA CLAUSE
A CHRISTMAS CAROL THE MOVIE (2003 Mainly the "What If" scene and the reunion)
RICH LITTLE'S CHRISTMAS CAROL (The Inspector Clouseau as the Ghost of Christmas Yet-to-Come sequence)
JESUS OF NAZARETH (The Infancy Narrative)
MARY AND JOSEPH: A STORY OF FAITH

Christmas in Connecticut with Stanwyck

It's a Wonderful Life

"Bad Santa" (Unrated)

One film I like to watch on Xmas is GWTW.

On Xmas Eve 1978, I was working at a radio station on normally what was usually a very lonely night. Jack, who has now been my housemate for 34 years showed up with his teenage son and then our former program director showed up, as his wife was a musician on a cruise ship for the holidays. He has copied GWTW off of NBC when it was first shown and edited out all the commercials. But this was before home video and this was 3/4" U-Matic tape, so the only way he could watch it was bring it into the station,, which was also an educational TV station (I was the TV station program director).

We sat doen to an evening of GWTW, stopping for show changes. It was a foggy night with friends that I remember fondly.

All the world is a stage and most of us are desperately unrehearsed.

Aw, that's sweet, LM.

Classics and modern. Christmas is either a main theme or there are just brief Christmas scenes.

Period of Adjustment

Christmas Vacation

The Polar Express

The Shop Around the Corner

In the Good Old Summertime (musical remake of The Shop Around the Corner)

Little Women (1933, 1949)

A Christmas Carol (starring Alastair Sim)

The Trouble With Angels

I used to enjoy the following, but these past few years I haven't been able to get through them:

Love Actually

We're no Angels (1955)

I have yet to get through It's a Wonderful Life or whatever that overrated film is called. I prefer James Stewart in The Shop Around the Corner, thanks.

~~~~~
Jim Hutton (1934-79) & Ellery Queen =

The Lion in Winter - the ultimate family Christmas movie: nobody gets what they want and they all try to kill each other.


"Security - release the badgers."

^^ This. Also, it's a very good film. Starring almost all of my all time favourite actors.

Totally agreed, Trev. My dad and I used to love that filmit was a staple of PBS pledge drive programming back in the day, and we watched every airing. Definitely a perfect holiday film for the familythe Addams family, that is.

50 Is The New Cutoff Age.

"It's heavy Oh Eleanor, you've brought me my tombstone! You spoil me!"




"Security - release the badgers."

Yeah, it real early!

Remember the Night '40


Will Hays is my shepherd, I shall not want. Wills prod and Will's gaff, they confound me.

Miracle On 34th Street.
It Happened on Fifth Avenue.
And also Barkley's of Broadway, my local TV Station for about 6-7years would play this movie every Christmas night.

A Child's Christmas in wales is my favourite, with Denholm Eliot. Lovely film.

We're No Angels (1955) is one I am partial to.

Comfort and Joy is another one I like.

Bad Santa is very crude, but funny.

the Muppet Christmas Carol is quite fun.

Many of those already listed, but a not-well-known personal favorite for me and my family is The Christmas Gift (1986) starring John Denver and Susan Kaczmarek.

http://www.imdb.com/board/10090839/combined

I like Doris Roberts' Mrs Miracle TV movies 'Mrs Miracle' and Miracle in Manhattan.' They are my favourite 'Christmas angel' stories.

I don't know as I have a particular favorite Christmas movie. That Bing Crosby special with David Bowie gives me all the annual tears-welling-up I need to get me through the holidays.

50 Is The New Cutoff Age.

Miracle on 34th Street
Mr Magoo's Christmas Carol

My baker's dozen:

Scrooge (1951)
It's a Wonderful Life
A Christmas Story
Holiday Inn
The Holly and the Ivy
Remember the Night
Babes in Toyland (1934)
Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
3 Godfathers (1936)
The Bishop's Wife
The Shop Around the Corner
We're No Angels (1955)
Holiday Affair





"Ain't it funny how coffee never tastes as good as it smells?"

3 Godfathers (The John Wayne version)

Christmas with the Kranks

Christmas Vacation

The Lion In Winter


No Particular, I watch each every Christmas Eve/ Day


You don't have to stand tall, but you do have to stand up!

SCROOGE (1951) -definitely the best version of Dickens's iconic tale, with the unique Alistair Sim and in glorious black and white.
MARY POPPINS (1964) -I first watched it on a Christmas Day indeed when I was a young boy, and it stood on my heart forever.
HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN (1952) -dear old Danny Kaye at his best, a gorgeous cinematography, cute settings and a few unforgettable songs.
A DOG OF FLANDERS (1959) - a moving story with a beautiful cinematography, and the happy ending takes place at the gorgeous Antwerp cathedral on a snowy and freezing Christmas Eve.
THE BOX OF DELIGHTS (1984) -a wonderful TV series full of magic and charm, just tailor-made for the occasion.

I would have included BOX as well, but I considered it a multi-episode serial and felt this thread was strictly films (although there was a two-hour edit).

If you watch all six episodes on a row you get a three-hour film, just fitting for an afternoon Christmas Eve.
Then you get into "Scrooge" for the rest of the evening and late night, the time of ghosts.

The Snowman
Meet Me In St Louis (it's not exactly a Christmas film but it has Judy Garland singing Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas)

That's enough for me, usersince03
.

When people start listing Ben-Hur as a Christmas movie you know we need a definition of "Christmas movie"! Anyway, some favorites.

Movies where Christmas is central to the film:
Scrooge/A Christmas Carol (1951)
The Holly and the Ivy (1952)
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
Babes in Toyland (1934)
The Bishop's Wife (1947)
Christmas Vacation (1989)
Bad Santa (2003)
It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1947)

Movies where Christmas is in the background:
The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
Come to the Stable (1949)
Die Hard (1988)
The Lion in Winter (1968) [Trevor had the best take on this film]
Meet John Doe (1941)
The Lady in the Lake (1946)
We're No Angels (1955)

Movies with brief, weird or offbeat Christmas sequences:
Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) [for obvious and excellent reasons]
Conquest of Space (1955) [snow on Christmas Day saves waterless astronauts on Mars]
Things to Come (1936) [war breaks out on Christmas Day, 1940]
L.A. Confidential (1997) [the Christmas riot at the police station triggers much of the plot]
The Apartment (1960) [love and attempted suicide at Christmas]
Peyton Place (1957) [rape and murder at Christmas]
Giant (1956) [draftees, love, family disappointments and oil deals at Christmas]
Since You Went Away (1944) [a warm wartime Christmas homecoming]
Black Narcissus (1947) [Christmas in the Himalayas with a bunch of mad nuns]
Scott of the Antarctic (1948) [the British have silly fun at an Antarctic midwinter Christmas party instead of preparing for the journey to the Pole]

And one Christmas movie that should never have been made but which I guess must be seen once:
Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964)

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And one Christmas movie that should never have been made but which I guess must be seen once: Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964)

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Yes, I would agree that in the sense of the film's unaltered form, I wouldn't give it more than one time. However, the MST3K version of the film is another Christmas tradition.

The 1935 version of A TALE OF TWO CITIES would fit in the 'Brief Christmas scenes' category. Dickens probably had Sydney Carton's transformation happen in less yuletide settings, but this adaptation has it happen on Christmas Eve, with Lucie Manette inviting the drunken Sydney to Christmas Mass. As the anachronistic 'Adeste Fideles' is sung, Carton begins to fall for her. The piece is repeated several times: When Carton considers changing his cynical life, when he decides on his sacrifice, and is played after his "Tis a far far better thing" coda.

Yes, I will admit BEN-HUR (the two MGM 1925/1959 versions) and for that matter KING OF KINGS (1961) are rather shaky in position as Christmas movies. They all have the Nativity, but their second parts are more Easter. Overall, I'd say its more a personal choice: I was introduced to these films in the Christmas season, so they are integral to my Christmas viewings (These are the only films I watch in complete form; JESUS OF NAZARETH or THE LIFE AND PASSION OF JESUS CHRIST I just limit to the Infancy Narratives). You don't view them as Christmas movies, and you are probably right. But their inclusion is my choice, however eccentric that may be.

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Yes, I would agree that in the sense of the film's unaltered form, I wouldn't give it more than one time. However, the MST3K version of the film is another Christmas tradition.

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Oh, well, MST3K could redeem anything!

I meant no criticism of your choice of Ben-Hur and in fact understood how one could consider this something of a Christmas movie, in the sense of its being a traditional religious film often watched at that time. We often watch Giant at Thanksgiving because it somehow feels right (obviously triggered by the Thanksgiving scenes in the film), so I definitely see where you're coming from.

My comment was only that many of the films people listed (myself included) really seemed to stretch the term "Christmas movie". How do we define that? Does the film actually have to be about Christmas? Can Christmas just be something in the background, or cover only part of the film's narrative? That's why in my list I tried to separate them by the degree to which Christmas really is a factor in each film's narrative.

For example, I added Die Hard as something of a joke; obviously it's not about Christmas, but then it does take place during Christmas and the holiday does play an incidental role in portions of the plot. Everyone, myself included, lists It's a Wonderful Life as a Christmas movie, but that's mainly based on the fact that the picture is bookended by George's despairing Christmas (along with the sequence in "Potterville"); the rest of the film which is most of it is in flashbacks that have nothing whatever to do with Christmas. So is it really a "Christmas movie"? That's why I say the term is so elastic you can include almost anything where Christmas is even incidentalor, in the case of Ben-Hur, King of Kings and the like, inferential.

Anyway, I only singled out Ben for mention because it's the one that came immediately to mind. Personally, although it could be classed as a "religious picture" I wouldn't associate it with any holiday, even though it begins with the Nativity (which would eventually become Christmas) and ends at what would become Easter. I understand that everyone will have different associations with different movies. So it wasn't a criticism. But in terms of its plot I don't think it could properly be called a "Christmas movie" in the way that many other films are. That said, all of our examples include films that seem somewhat off-point, which is why I said, partly facetiously but also partly seriously, that when talking about a subject like this it can get so nebulous that some agreed-on definition of what does and does not constitute such a film might be useful.

Uh-h-h, hobby BEN, I hope you're not referring to that movie about the rat, LOL.
BTW, I wonder whatever happened to Lee Harcourt Montgomery, who starred in that movie.
He's been off the radar for decades now.

Oh, yeah, that other "Ben". Didn't part of Willard, the precursor to Ben, take place at Christmas? I haven't seen it since 1971.

I have no idea whatever happened to Lee Harcourt Montgomery. Hopefully he became rat food. I always hated the chubby little bastard!

Actually, I never gave a rat's-ass about either movie.
;-)

Such language on a Christmas thread!

Well, I'm not Christian, so
;-)

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Well, I'm not Christian, so

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Does that mean you don't like Mutiny on the Bounty?

The Muppet Christmas Carol
The Bishop's Wife
White Christmas
It's a Wonderful Life
The Santa Clause


Go to bed Frank or this is going to get ugly .

Nightmare Before Christmas

Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice In Chains, and My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fan

It's A Wonderful Life
3 Godfathers (John Wayne version)
White Christmas
Scrooge (Alistair Sim version)
The Santa Clause

I sure hope TCM shows Remember the Night again this year. I watched it for the first time last year and thoroughly enjoyed it. TCM typically shows Christmas in Connecticut which is another one I find in my December viewing schedule every year now. But the diamond that TCM introduced to me has been an annual Christmas must: Holiday Affair.