Classic Christmas Movies


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Written by Paul D. Race for Family Christmas Online^TM

While your kids can safely watch any of the movies we recommend on our Christmas Movies to Watch with Your Children page, this page is for kid-friendly, uplifting Christmas movies that your kids should enjoy, but (with a few exceptions) you probably won't need to see more than once. Note: I'm not being cynical about this - there is a whole 'nother set of supposedly kids-oriented Christmas movies and specials that I don't list anywhere, because they're too cynical, are too badly made, or have no "Christmas message" of any kind.

That said, we may have overlooked a worthwhile movie that actually belongs on this list - if you think we have, please let us know.

Right now we only have a few movies listed, but check back later in the year - we hope to have more soon.

It's a Wonderful Life - Includes information about now-illegal colorizations and remakes
Holiday Inn and White Christmas
Miracle on 34th Street (1947 version) - Includes information about the 1994 remake
The Bishop's Wife - Includes information about the 1996 remake The Preacher's Wife
A Christmas Story
Red Skelton's Christmas Classics

It's a Wonderful Life

Director Frank Capra and actor James Stewart had teamed up for previous movies like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington that show the "little guy" triumphing over incredible odds. This movie was darker and more complex than Capra's earlier works, though, and came at a time when the American public had become more pessimistic about the chance for good-hearted people to survive conflicts with "the system." In fact, contemporary critics dismissed it, ticket sales were down, and this movie all but heralded the end of Capra's productive years as a director. But there's something haunting about seeing Stewart believably play out the darkest hour of a well-meaning man's life, when it seems that everything that could go wrong has, and he really is worth more (financially) dead than alive.

Stewart's battle in this film is not with corrupt power (Mr. Potter notwithstanding), but with his own despair, and he needs more than a perky secretary to get him out of the doldrums - he needs supernatural help. The fact that it comes in the form of a bumbling trainee angel is what allows the movie to take a supernatural turn that is not all that different than Dickens' Christmas Carol. Stewart is at his best, and the supporting cast is fantastic. It's no wonder that two generations after it was made, this movie is the best-loved and best-remembered of either Capra's or Stewart's films.

On the other hand, if you've seen this before, we'll excuse you for zapping through Uncle Charlie's trip to the bank.

Colorizations and Remakes - For several years, due to an unexpected lapse in copyright, this movie was not under copyright protection. During that time three colorized versions were produced, at least one of which was distributed on VHS, and shown on television. In addition a made-for-television movie called It Happened One Christmas was produced and shown. In that version, Marlo Thomas plays a female version of the (Jimmy Stewart) lead, as the offspring of a bank owner who gets stuck in a small town by her sense of responsibility and later considers taking her own life. Wayne Rogers takes the spouse (Donna Reed) role, and Orson Welles plays a far more sinister Mr. Potter than the original. When the copyright was restored on the original film, those adaptations became "illegal" and therefore unavailable from any "legitimate" source, but I have to confess I DID enjoy them. If It Happened One Christmas ever becomes legal again, I'll post it here in a hurry. :-)

White Christmas and Holiday Inn

Question: What's the most-often recorded Christmas song of all time? Okay, I already gave it away. What movie introduced it? You might be surprised. Holiday Inn was the story of a postwar songe-and-dance team (Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire) at a resort that is only open during holidays. The movie's closing song started with a verse about a person in a warm climate lamenting that he wouldn't be seeing snow this Christmas. The verse is all but forgotten, but the chorus "struck such a chord" in America's imagination so that two generations later, folks are still asking their weathermen if they will have a "white Christmas" this year.

The song was such a hit that follow-up movie was made featuring a totally original plot about a song-and-dance team (Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye) that wind up at a resort that features a special Christmas gathering. More people have seen White Christmas, but if you're really a "White Christmas" fan, you probably owe it to yourself to see the movie that started it all, Holiday Inn. By the way, don't base your attitude toward the movie on your experiences with the hotel chain of the same name - they're nothing like.

Note: If you want to see one of these movies and you're out of time, you be glad to know that both of them are available for instant viewings on our Downloadable Christmas Movies page.

Miracle on 34th Street (1947)

The original and still many folks' favorite version of the story in which the real Santa stands in for the Macy's Department Store Santa one year, changing the life of a single mother and her young daughter.

Like "It's a Wonderful Life," this movie COULD have been filmed in color, but its monochromatic tones actually do a better job of contrasting the prosaic lives of the principles with the wonderful secret they barely suspect for most of the story.

If you have to see a movie in color, the 1994 version features Richard Attenborough and Mara Wilson, who do a delightful job as Santa and the young daughter respectively.

The Bishop's Wife

If you don't know the story, Cary Grant plays an angel come to help a stiff bishop (David Niven) and his wife survive what promises to be a tough holiday season. The only problem is that the wife, played by Loretta Young, is so much better company than the bishop that the angel loses focus.

If this plot sounds familiar, substitute Denzel Washington as the Angel and Whitney Houston as the wife, and you have the 1996 remake The Preacher's Wife, a decent movie in its own right, featuring many talented actors we don't get to see often enough, including the late Geoffrey Hines playing an opportunistic businessman who has gotten so far from the "hood" that he has forgotten how to clap on the "off-beat." Now that's fantasy.

A Christmas Story

I was a small child in the 1950s, not the 1940s, but many of the adventures, hopes and dreams of Ralphie (Peter Billingsly) were reminiscent of my own childhood. Gifts you got you didn't want, gifts you wanted you couldn't get, bullies, overcoats you couldn't move in, Christmas plans gone horribly awry, but somehow not ruining the holiday. What really makes this movie work, besides the humor, the great cast, and witty script, is how your own memories "fill in the gaps" as you watch young Ralphie attempt to negotiate the universal hazards of pre-adolescence.

Here's a present-day story from southeast Ohio that relates: a family that included an aging grandmother and grandfather had no one to visit with on Christmas evening, since the "young folks" had already come and gone. So they figured they'd go into town and find a place to eat. The only restaurant open was a Mexican restaurant run by real Mexicans - the sort of place that the grandparents would ordinarily avoid for gastronomic reasons. The help that night couldn't speak English, and "Ma and Pa" couldn't speak Spanish, so they just pointed at things that they thought looked edible. Their hosts were so gracious and the food was so good, that the next Christmas they made a point of eating there again, and it looks like a whole new tradition may be established. When I heard the story I wondered what the Spanish version of "Fa Ra Ra Ra Ra Ra" would sound like. If you don't know how this story relates to this movie, you NEED to see the movie now.

Actually, if you don't have time to order the DVD and you want to watch this movie anyway, you can download it now to your computer.

Red Skelton Christmas Classics

Red Skelton's Freddy the Freeloader sometimes spoke; that's one distinction between him and Chaplin's Little Tramp. But Freddie could also be an inspired pantomimer capable of juxtaposing humor and pathos in what, on the surface, seems to be a simple comedy skit. That skill, and many more, made Red Skelton's Christmas shows memorable, and worth watching many years later.

In fact, I still remember two of these skits from my childhood, and that was a VERY long time ago.

If you don't have time to order the DVD and you'd like to see these classic specials now, you can download them now to your computer.

Conclusion

As always, please contact us with any questions, suggestions, or corrections.

Paul and Shelia Race

www.familychristmasonline.com

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