Best Holiday Movie Input and Vote?
 

With the holidays upon us and kids home from mid-December through the New Year, it’s time to talk Christmas movies. These classics are great to have on hand to watch throughout the season, especially as a family and then talk about the differences in culture from then to now. It is also a great way to segway into conversations about old memories and family traditions. They also make wonderful gifts.

Thanks to television programming in the 1970s and 1980s, when director Frank Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life” (1946) seemed to play continuously in December (public domain status meant no rental costs for stations), there is little question about what is America’s favorite yuletide picture. The trials and tribulations faced by Jimmy Stewart’s George Bailey have forever caught the country’s holiday spirit. Before examining this watershed work, it bears noting that Hollywood’s Christmas movie legacy has a strong 1940s connection.

All this is not to say, of course, that there are no decent modern holiday films without 1940s ties. I am especially taken with the 1984 TV movie, “A Christmas Carol,” featuring a fascinating interpretation of Scrooge by George C. Scott. This is my favorite version of Dickens’ timeless, often-adapted Christmas fable. The Patrick Stewart version of A Christmas Carol is also notable. Speaking of this story, I am reminded of my favorite guilty pleasure holiday movie–the Bill Murray “Scrooged“(1988), with a memorable turn by Carol Kane as the Ghost of Christmas Present. I must note a special almost 1940s Christmas movie – the hilarious “The Lemon Drop Kid” (1951), with Bob Hope in the title role of a Damon Runyon story. (The comedian also sings “Silver Bells.”) 1951 was also the year of A Christmas Carol with Alastair Sims as Scrooge. Kelsey Grammer did A Christmas Carol: The Musical version in 2004.


So what movie do you love every holiday, any traditional watchings?

I enjoy Miracle on 34th Street new edition with Kenny G