Christmas Movies

RHYS BOWEN:  Christmas movies–love them or hate them? 

I don't mean the Hallmark Christmas movies where the high powered New York lawyer with failed romance/writer with writer's block/ moves back to a small town to help her grandmother/run a store/save the town from developers and meets a lumberjack (who is really a renowned doctor/writer or country vet or the developer who becomes good.  I mean real movies.

I always have certain movies I have to watch each year, to get me into the holiday spirit. This year I have watched:

It’s a Wonderful Life. I always walk away feeling annoyed that Mr. Potter didn’t get his just desserts. But it is warm and fuzzy and says a good message.

A Christmas Carol. Ye olde version in black and white. My favorite is Scrooge with Albert Finney but I couldn’t find it anywhere on Netflix or Prime. I just enjoy watching the Cratchetts being so happy and loving and Tiny Tim being saved.

White Christmas: Although this is not a white Christmas until the very end and although Bing Crosby is over fifty at the time of filming while Rosemary Clooney is only 24 I still enjoy the schmalz. And the dancing.

The Holiday: It’s quite improbable and if I wanted to trade houses I would never get a house in Beverly Hills or a cottage with a handsome brother nearby, but I love it anyway.

Love Actually: Why is this my favorite? There is so much that’s annoying–Hugh Grant dancing. The embarrassing porno movie. The British guy in America. AND a writer who doesn’t back up what he’s writing but lets it be blown into a lake? What sort of writer does that? But… that scene with Emma Thompson crying as she listens to the CD is one of the most moving I’ve ever seen. And the guy with the cue cards at the door. Brilliant. Worth watching over and over.

Movies I will not watch: Rudolph. What kind of kindly old Santa would discriminate against a reindeer who was “different’? And what message is that sending–shunned and mocked because he had a red nose? 

Home Alone. Can’t handle the thought of people not missing their child.

Movies I didn’t see but love: A Charlie Brown Christmas.

Miracle of 34th Street.

So how about you? What are your favorite holiday movies? Any that you hate?

HALLIE EPHRON: I have never seen DIE HARD. Or HOME ALONE. I know lots of people rate those at the top of the Christmas movies list. I do like LOVE ACTUALLY so much that when it’s over I watch it again. There’s some nice Christms bits in YOU’VE GOT MAIL.

A Charlie Brown Christmas? Feh. 

HANK PHILLIPI RYAN: I'm on the fence about Love, Actually, but I do love the "just in cases" part. (And he had a TYPEWRITER, okay, that's how he was.) And I thought Hugh Grant dancing was really funny, but he would NEVER have been PM. Oh, and his surprisingly-talented aide caroling, that was great.  (And, the cue cards are sweet, but REALLY? What's he trying to do, make her re-think her wedding? Nope.)  We could really talk about his whole movie, because it's either wonderful or cringey.

Christmas in Connecticut is fun--Barbara Stanwyck as a chic "homemaker" columnist who is a total fraud. Love that. Oh, and what's the one where they dance and topple the couch? Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn?  Holiday, right? Fabulous.

It's A Wonderful Life— well, it always seemed really too sad and almost disturbing to me. (Am I being awful about this?) White Christmas, sure (the dresses and the technicolor!), but I don't really need to watch it ever again. And A Christmas Carol--I recently re-read a lot of the book, and it is absolutely wonderful. Wonderful! 

Is Sleepless in Seattle Christmas? Or is that New Years? And When Harry met Sally, that's new year's, right? AND An Affair to Remember. (Is THAT New Years?)   I think I like new year's movies better. Hmm. Is this humbuggy?

JENN McKINLAY: It’s a Wonderful Life is my all time fave. I just think everyone has their George Bailey on the bridge moment but no one is ever honest about it. Seems way ahead of its time to me :) I love Love Actually - even with the ridiculous writer (it’s Colin Firth which  makes it forgivable) besides Emma Thompson steals the movie anyway. A Christmas Carol but with Alistair Simm is a tradition for us. We attend Christmas Eve service, go home and make pizza, and watch that version of the movie. I enjoy Charlie Brown but my all time fave is The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. Never should have been a movie, it was perfect as is, also, this new trend on social media of people having a Grinch break into their house and steal presents in front of the kids to what - terrify them? - really disturbs me.

LUCY BURDETTE : Oh, we have just tonight been watching love actually! We watched the first half and will finish it tomorrow. I think Hugh Grant dancing is hysterical, about half of the movie is wonderful. The stepfather talking with his bereaved stepson is priceless, Emma Thompson is amazing, and I do love the scene where Colin Firth goes to propose to the Portuguese woman. Not a fan of the Q cards! Lol all in all, love the movie and love saving it for the Christmas season. Ditto on you’ve got Mail. 

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Hank, I didn’t know there were any other Christmas In Connecticut fans! It’s one of my favorites, and often what I watch while wrapping gifts, because I could never get the rest of the family into it.

Also: Die Hard. Yes, this is our family’s traditional Christmas Eve must-watch movie. It’s a little odd going from Bruce Willis mowing down bad guys to Midnight Mass, but we make it work. It’s the perfect counterbalance to all the sweetness and schmaltz of the season.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I just now pulled all the Christmas DVDs out of a box–now if I can figure out how to play them with our new TV and the myriad remotes!! I have to confess that I have never seen Home Alone–how is that possible? Maybe this year. I think I was always horrified by the idea that a parent could forget their child. We do watch Die Hard. I think it was Alan Rickman's first big Hollywood part (as the bad guy, for anyone who's never seen it) and I fell utterly in love with him. I love A Christmas Story–I even went to visit the Christmas Story house in Cleveland. And It's a Wonderful Life. But my two must watch holiday movies are Love Actually and The Holiday. Hope to get them both in this year.

RHYS: have we missed any? Any other favorites or hates?

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah from the Reds

RHYS: We know you're all busy today so we're keeping our greeting brief but warm.

From our house to yours, whether your Christmas is white or tropical, may your day be filled with love and laughter, plenty of good books to read by a warm fire, and , as the old song says,
"May your days be merry and bright, and may all your Christmases be white!"
               Hank, Hallie,Lucy, Rhys, Deb, Julia and Rhys

Hallie's beautiful Hanukkah flowers and Rhys's tree:

FAVORITE CHRISTMAS MOVIES

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Hooray, it's the Jungle Red Saturday List, and now that Thanksgiving is over, we are of course thinking about Christmas. But just to take the sting out of all the hoopla of shopping, wrapping, mailing, decorating, and sending cards, I thought we should turn our minds to pure, unadulterated pleasure--Christmas movies. I love Christmas movies, unabashedly, and would happily watch them non-stop for a month if I could find the time.

I meant to say limit your choice to one movie, but since I'm going to cheat and put in two, everyone else can, too.

Oh, so many to choose from! But my very close second spot goes to LOVE ACTUALLY, which I will undoubtedly make my husband watch at least once, and he will complain that it's incredibly sappy but watch it anyway, bless him.

#1, however, must go to A Christmas Story. Although this movie debuted in 1983, I didn't see it until my husband introduced me to it in the mid-nineties, and I've been in love with it ever since. It is a writer's movie if ever there was one, adapted from Jean Shepherd's story, "Red Ryder Nails the Hammond Kid," first published in the December, 1965, issue of Playboy Magazine. (How many of you knew that?) Wonderful performances from Darren McGavin, Melinda Dillon, and Peter Billingsly as "Ralphie." (Peter Billingsly, by the way, grew up to be quite dishy. Recognize him without the glasses?)

So, Reds, what are YOUR faves?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: LOVE, ACTUALLY, is my favorite. Absolutely. NO question, no second thoughts. I play the album all the time--and people say, isn't that a Christmas movie? And I don't care. Second? Ah...I'm stumped. I do like It's a Wonderful Life, especially the dancing on the swimming pool,but --shrugging. Sometimes I think it's creepy. (What can I say? He was going to kill himself, and leave his whole family?) You've Got Mail? How about that? But I don't like the ending.

JAN BROGAN: Miracle on 34th Street, hands down. What better fantasy than one of those shopping mall Santas is the real guy. And it's got to be the version with Natalie Wood as the little girl. Although I am a big fan of A Christmas Story, I still think my second place goes to It's A Wonderful Life - even if I groan a little at the length of it.

RHYS BOWEN: I have so many favorites, including "You'll shoot your eye out!" but every year I don't feel Christmassy until I watch WHITE CHRISTMAS and IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. (And I also love Scrooge, but that would be cheating to slip another one in, wouldn't it :)

ROSEMARY HARRIS: So mean to make us stick to just two! I love all of the movies mentioned - Albert Finney as Scrooge, so brilliant.(But so was Bill Murray.)
Okay...stop cheating.)

A Christmas Carol - must be the Alistair Sim version and Love Actually. I will probably watch that twice between now and New Year's. "I feel it in my fingers, I feel it in my toes....."

DEBS: Hank and Rosemary, I LOVE the soundtrack to Love Actually. It's stayed at the top of my playlist for years. I wonder what ever happened to that darling girl singer?

ROSEMARY: I had googled her a while ago! Her name is Olivia Olson and she's still singing and still cute as a button. Here's a link to her version of All I Want from Love Actually: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0H_WKfRDA8w

HALLIE EPHRON: You've named all my favorites! Top of the list, I agree with you, Debs: A Christmas Story. Testament to its staying power: I saw in one of the store ads (K-Mart? Target?) that sexy leg and tassel lamp the father lusts after.

For a little less treacle, I like Home for the Holidays. Holly Hunter has to spend the holidays with her family, where she so does NOT want to be. Brilliant turn by Robert Downey Jr. Plus Ernst Lubitsch's The Shop Around the Corner (Margaret Sullavan and James Stewart at their most vulnerable) - watch it back to back with its adaptation You've Got Mail.

LUCY BURDETTE: Sleepless in Seattle, not completely Christmas but the holiday's in there. Going to watch Love Actually again, along with A Christmas Story and Home for the Holidays. thanks for the suggestions!

JAN: Lucy, I think you just cheated :) Watch out for coal in your stocking from my Macy's Santa.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I must be the oldies fan in the bunch. Two of my favorites are Christmas in Connecticut (1945) and White Christmas (1954.) The first one has the stunningly fashionable Barbara Stanwick who does what we'd call lifestyle blogging today. Except she's a complete fake who lives in a West Side apartment and who can't cook. Caught out by her publisher's offer to host a wounded vet, she has to scramble to recreate her "perfect" rural lifestyle - complete with husband and baby!

Everyone knows the second. How can you go wrong with Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye and Vera Lynne and the incomparable Rosemary Harris, all harmonizing on "Snow" as they take the train up to Vermont? It has all the hallmarks of the 1950's musical - songs that make no sense, silly romantic mix-ups, and a stage in a barn that's larger than Lincoln Center. I love it.

DEBS: Okay, I'm cheating--how could I have forgotten The Holiday? I love that one, and would watch it over and over just to see Eli Wallach.

I'm putting Home for the Holidays on my to-watch list, and some of the ones I haven't seen in years, like Christmas in Connecticut and White Christmas.

Sounds like a great alternative to shopping!

So, what about you, readers? No cheating--well, maybe a little... Tell us your faves!