There's no shortage of holiday films here thanks to our DVD Christmas film collection and Netflix as well. We start our seasonal viewing on Thanksgiving Day with The Grinch That Stole Christmas and continue almost nightly through the end of the year. We take turns selecting the evening's entertainment.
We have multiple versions of A Christmas Carol in 1938, 1984, 1992, and 2009 excluding the classic 1951 Alastair Sim version which we may include one day. The Sim version is regarded as the best of the genre with a tour-de-force performance and the standard by which all other Scrooges are measured.
Similarly, we don't have the 1970 film Scrooge with Albert Finney, but do have the 1988 Scrooged with Bill Murray. Two more variations on the same Christmas Carol theme, the first one is a musical, the second (what else) is a comedy with Murray.
The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017) is a biographical drama which recreates author Charles Dickens struggle to write A Christmas Carol. Set in the 1840s London, it stars Dan Stevens, Christopher Plummer, and Jonathan Pryce and focuses on Dickens' obsession with writing and completing the story during the holiday season.
The Man Who Saved Christmas (2002) is based on the story of toy inventor Alfred Carlton (AC) Gilbert who was forced by the U.S. Government to turn his factory into a munitions plant during the WWI. (AC Gilbert trained to be a physician but created the Erector set and founded one of the largest U.S. toy manufacturers.)
The 1947 film, The Bishop's Wife with Cary Grant, David Niven, Loretta Young was redone and retitled as The Preacher's Wife in 1996 and starred Whitney Houston and Denzel Washington. (I like this one; Grenville tolerates it because of Grant and Niven.)
Miracle on 34th Street was popular in 1947 with Edmund Gwenn, John Payne and Maureen O'Hara. The same title was used in the 1994 version by writer/producer John Hughes and starred Richard Attenborough, Elizabeth Perkins, Dylan McDermott. (The movie was adapted from a story by Valentine Davies, American film and television writer, producer, and director. Both versions were released by 20th Century Fox.)
Another 1947 film, It Happened on 5th Avenue, lost the Academy Award for Best Story to Valentine Davies. This comedy set in New York City during the Christmas season starred Victor Moore, Don DeFore, Charles Ruggles and Gale Storm. Coincidentally, the story was originally optioned by Liberty Films in 1945 for director Frank Capra who opted to direct It's a Wonderful Life instead.
The 1940 film, The Shop Around the Corner with James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan had a holiday theme which was lost when it became the basis of the 1994 film, You've Got Mail with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. (The setting for the original film is Budapest.)
The 2004 film, Christmas with the Kranks starring Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis is based on the 2001 novel, Skipping Christmas by John Grisham. (Personally, I think they should have used the same title as the book.)
Our favorite holiday trilogy is the Santa Clause series with Tim Allen in the title role. The first film was released in 1994, followed up by sequels in 2002 and 2006. (We always watch them in sequence on a weekend.)
An animated squirrel is the headliner in the 1950 film, The Great Rupert which starred Jimmy Durante who sings in this film, which also includes a romance.
The 1940 fantasy film, Beyond Tomorrow (also known as Beyond Christmas) is a contemporary, but often, forgotten Christmas film. It did not include stars who would receive billing above the title and instead relied on a veteran character actors: Richard Carlson, Maria Ouspenskaya, C. Aubrey Smith, Charles Winninger, and Harry Carey.
In the 2001 film, Serendipity, a man and woman surreptitiously meet in 1991 on Christmas Eve and reunite a decade later on the same day and there is a happy ending.
Many classic films feature have some Christmas in them, including Love Finds Andy Hardy, Meet John Doe, Meet Me in St Louis, Remember the Night, The Lemon Drop Kid, The Man Who Came to Dinner.
Here's what's currently in our collection. We've seen all of these films including others not in our collection.(The Die Hard movies were added this year; both place on Christmas Eve in NYC and Washington, DC.)
- Beyond Tomorrow
- The Bishop’s Wife
- A Charlie Brown Christmas
- A Christmas Carol (1938, Reginald Owen)
- A Christmas Carol (1984, George C. Scott)
- A Christmas Carol (1992, The Muppets)
- A Christmas Carol (2009, Jim Carrey)
- Christmas in Connecticut
- A Christmas Story
- Christmas Vacation
- Christmas with the Kranks
- Deck the Halls
- Die Hard
- Die Hard 2
- The Family Man
- The Family Stone
- The Great Rupert
- A Holiday Affair
- The Holiday
- Holiday Inn
- Home Alone
- Home Alone 2 (Lost in New York)
- How the Grinch Stole Christmas (cartoon version)
- How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Jim Carrey)
- It Happened on 5th Ave
- It’s A Wonderful Life
- Love Actually
- Love the Coopers
- The Man Who Invented Christmas
- The Man Who Saved Christmas
- March of the Wooden Soldiers
- Miracle on 34th Street
- Mixed Nuts
- Muppets Christmas Carol
- One Magic Christmas
- The Nutcracker
- One Special Night
- The Polar Express
- The Preacher’s Wife
- Santa Clause
- Santa Clause 2 (The Mrs. Claus)
- Santa Clause 3 (The Escape Clause)
- Scrooged
- Serendipity
- The Shop Around the Corner
- White Christmas
I haven't neglected the seasonally popular Hallmark holiday movies, but we don't subscribe to any premium TV services. Any of these we've watched has been through YouTube which are (usually) commercial-free.
Last week, fellow blogger Emma Springfield posted a "must not miss" list of her favorite Christmas movies in this post. You might also enjoy reading that one.
How about you — Have you seen any of these films; do you have some 🎄 favorites?
We're always looking for ones we haven't seen and would appreciate your input 🎅
Last week, fellow blogger Emma Springfield posted a "must not miss" list of her favorite Christmas movies in this post. You might also enjoy reading that one.
How about you — Have you seen any of these films; do you have some 🎄 favorites?
We're always looking for ones we haven't seen and would appreciate your input 🎅
17 comments:
Best one-one special night
neither of us watch Christmas movies. the only one on the list that I love and have watcher several times is Miracle on 34ths street, both the old and the newer. I have watched Love Actually, did not think of it as Christmas, and loved it. I did watch The shop around the corner. there are a few here that I have seen. I have never watched and never wil White Christmas, Bob has never seen any on this list... we also own zero movies of any kind.
I make a point of watching the Christmas Carol version that you don't have. We also have the for-tv version with GC Scott. I like that too.
We will probably watch Polar Express with the kids on Christmas Eve.
Sue will want to see White Christmas after Christmas but over the holidays. I will tolerate it.
I don't mind Miracle on 34th although we don't make a point of watching it.
I am not so keen on Wonderful Life. I've seen it a number of times and prefer not to watch it again, but if others do, I will go along with it.
I have already watched many from your list and have others ready to watch. We see a lot of Christmas movies, don't we?
I'd say you're an expert on Christmas films. My favorite is not a movie...Emmet Otter's Christmas jug band. I think it's being shown here this Christmas.
There's another movie version of A Christmas Carol, done as a television movie, but I believe it's out there on DVD, with Patrick Stewart as Scrooge.
And I'd recommend Gremlins as a Christmas movie. And there's Denis Leary in The Ref, a black comedy in which he plays a burglar who's robbing a house on Christmas Eve and finds himself taking hostage a married couple who hate each other.
I've seen four of these films and got some catching up to do :-)
I love Polar Express.
And I'm going to watch Love Actually on Netflix tonight. :)
That's quite the list of movies. We've seen many of these and had them also on dvd but donated them to charity years ago because we got rid of our television. Glad to you still get a lot of enjoyment from watching them.
Re your question about what kind of boats they were, they are fishing boats. There are quite a few of them in the harbour which was expanded during the last couple of years.
Have a wonderful day!
I don't watch films on television, or anywhere else for that matter. Hubby was an avid film watcher which drove me to another room to be creative in the book writing field. I think my problem was that watching TV killed any creativity I might have. Each to their own, as they say.
Yes, I remember your movie watching habits...
Of that list, I have seen Home Alone.
I think I may have watched 2 movies in 2018, but I have no idea what they were- probably something with Judi Dench as Queen Victoria?????
WOW ,,, you really do it up big time. My favorite is the Bill Murray "Scrooged". Also just heard 1A on NPR talking about "Love Actually" which I'd never heard of. It sounded controversial.
What a collection! and what a way to get in the Christmas spirit. Merry Christmas
I love your list and see a few I would like to see! We are amazed at how many movies have Christmas in them...many of our favs! Merry Christmas!
I have watched a few Christmas movies this week. We have both Netflix and Amazon Prime, so we have a lot available to us.
I love The Preachers Wife! You have a lot of good ones in your collection. Merry Christmas!
This is a nice holiday movie collection. I recognize most of them but there's a few I haven't seen which I would like to check out. And they aren't even the older films. I need to check out the man who invented Christmas! Happy holidays. Hugs-Erika
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