The Christmas Chronicle

Oh man. I LOVE this time of year! I completely and utterly BINGE on Christmas Movies. And yes, I watch the same ones over and over and never tire of them!

My favorite Christmas story is A Christmas Carol, and I have a few favorite versions of them. The Muppet Christmas Carol is my absolute favorite, because it stays the most faithful to the book, and IMO, Michael Caine is the best Scrooge. It is also just plain fun. A close second is Scrooge the musical, starring Albert Finney. Then in third is the one with George C. Scott.

If you and your fellow watchers like a Christmas Carol, I recommend The Man Who Invented Christmas.

Others on my MUST watch list are Elf, National Lampoons Christmas Vacation, Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph, Charlie Brown, How the Grinch Stole Christmas (both the cartoon version and the Jim Carrey one) and I recently rewatched The Life and Adventures of Santa Clause, which I remembered from my childhood. I found it on YouTube and if I am honest, my reaction was " who comes up with these stories????" But I still really enjoyed it. It brought back those feel good memories.

Scrooge, the musical with Albert Finney is, I think, my favorite of all time. I also love Bell, Book & Candle with Kim Novak and James Stewart. There are lots more Christmas movies I enjoy as well. Elf is pretty great 🙂

Gotta watch the classic 60s A Charlie Brown Christmas and Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer & the original Grinch - do those count?

Lately, I've been watching sappy Lifetime and Hallmark Christmas movies on Pluto TV - they've got 3 channels streaming them.

Must watch, so I have most on DVD: It’s a Wonderful Life, Christmas in Connecticut, Elf (a family favorite), A Christmas Story, Love Actually, A Charlie Brown Christmas, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, White Christmas, How the Grinch Stole Christmas (animated only. I don’t find that Dr Seuss translates well to live action), Miracle on 34th Street (I saw a new-to-me version tonight, from 1955, basically a Reader’s Digest Condensed Books type version of the 1947 movie with new actors but sounding the same, Thomas Mitchell as Kris, and an hour long.) and The Santa Clause (i’m the only who watches that last one). Elf is our traditional tree-decorating movie, and before someone goes to New York for the first time, we watch it!

I’ve been streaming the Hallmark-ish movies this year. I can’t remember any of them because they are so similar. But, I watch anyway.

I just finished watching Die Hard with Bruce Willis. I am one of those who love this movie at Christmas (oh and the follow up Die Hard movies as well) It's the only movie I look for every year.

And I do get caught up in the Hallmark Christmas movies. I'm quite disappointed that some of my favourite actors (Candace Cameron Bure) have moved onto another channel.

I like the Godwink movies based on true life. Another favourite is The Christmas Jars.

As a kid (1950s) I loved The Miracle on 34th Street--original version, black and white.

We watch dozens of Christmas movies every year, many already listed above.

A few additional movies I recommend are The Shop Around the Corner (with Jimmy Stewart) , It Happened on 5th Avenue, and The Bishop's wife (1947) we always watch Christmas Eve:

I tend to run the Hallmark channels on Pluto a lot- I kind of listen to it as a podcast more than watch the movies. But they are similar enough that I never really miss storyline.

Two movies I always have to watch are White Christmas followed by Santa's Slay. Krampus has been added to the list of horror movies I often have on when Hallmark isn't, and I'm looking forward to Violent Night- it's out in the theatres now, but not sure if we will go see it or wait till it comes out for home viewing.

Christmas Vacation, A Christmas Story, Die Hard, Miracle on 34th Street (original and new versions), Love Actually, A Charlie Brown Christmas, Home Alone. And sometimes Planes, Trains and Automobiles.

There are so many good ones!

Love Actually, Polar Express, Home Alone... But I always save A Christmas Story until Christmas Eve. Since they started out playing it from 7PM when they first released it to tv, I continue the tradition. I turn it on, fall asleep to it, and wake up to it playing.

Along with the classics, Miracle on 34th St and It's A Wonderful Life, my standards are Love Actually, The Holiday, Christmas with the Kranks (my husband said that the wife behaves exactly as I would in the same situation.) National Lampoon Christmas Vacation, The Grinch - original version on Christmas Eve and the Jim Carey one at some point. I always watch Pride and Predjudice and Sense and Sensibility and Little Women while wrapping presents. Not Christmas movies but I associate them with Christmas for some reason.

Almost forgot about White Christmas, and its precursor Holiday Inn!

I love Christmas in Connecticut too, and the original, uncolorized Miracle On 34th Street and It's A Wonderful Life too. I've seen them so often, I know them by heart.

Another fave Capra film that has a Christmas Eve climax is Meet John Doe with Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck.

A Christmas Story.

North by Northwest. Don't ask me why. Well maybe because Cary Grant..

Die hard series
Home alone series even the horrible ones. Again don't ask me why. No excuse this time.

At least one of the animated narrated by Jimmy Durante or Burl Ives but often no more than one. I think I like Frosty The best. This year.

For some reason I always have to watch Arsenic and Old lace as well. Because Cary grant?

Also love bad Santa and Nightmare before Christmas. I sense a theme.

At least one of the Christmas Carol options. DH likes Alastair Sim the best so we usually have that on on Christmas Eve and

Christmas Day we have Jimmy Stewart's It's a wonderful Life.

I don't watch anything regularly.

The latest popular one on Netflix is The Noel Diary. I watched it last Sunday. It was pretty good. Stars Justin Hartley of This is Us fame so the acting was good, unlike the typical sappy Hallmark ones.

We just watched this one with Freddie Prinze Jr. last night. A nice one with a definite Hispanic flavor to it. Which feels familiar to me living here in New Mexico. Freddie has definitely grown up, playing the widowed father of a teenager in this movie. Oh my gosh, I still remember when he used to hang out next door with our neighbors’ son!

One of my favorites is The Cheaters, from 1945. It has a general "bad turns good at Christmas time" theme like It's a Wonderful Life, only in this case about a materialistic, wealthy, virtue signalling couple and their snobby young adult children attempting to cheat a poor woman out of her inheritance. Very, very underrated. The couple is played by Eugene Pallette (better known for Friar Tuck in The Adventures of Robin Hood) and Billie Burke (better known as Glinda, the good witch in The Wizard of Oz).

The Gremlins was our traditionally watched movie. Plus, all those cartoon ones like Peanuts, the Grinch, etc... Haven't seen any of them in years.

I just remembered I really enjoyed Zoey's Extraordinary Christmas last year, which moved me to watch the series, which I also enjoyed very much.

Something I also like at this time of year is classic Technicolor musicals, like Meet Me In St. Louis, The Harvey Girls, Flower Drum Song, The Bandwagon, America In Paris, etc. - those always feel like holiday fare to me.

The only Christmas movie I like is Auntie Mame with Rosalind Russel, but then I like all of her movies. One year, Kevin gave me the book Little Me by Patrick Dennis for Christmas.

I was unaware that North by Northwest was a Christmas movie.

I haven't seen Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, but I might like that.

Oh! Thanks for reminding me - I love both Mame movies 😃