What's a good christmas movie (this has nothing to do with catholicism)

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Della said:
Both were adequate, but for my money the best Scrooge ever was Alastair Sim in the classic 1951 version. They filled in some blanks to create a really good telling of his story and the supporting cast were excellent, as well.
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This is my favorite version, also. 👍 I had it on VHS, but never replaced it. 😦 Appears the B&W version is on YouTube.
 
Della said:
Both were adequate, but for my money the best Scrooge ever was Alastair Sim in the classic 1951 version. They filled in some blanks to create a really good telling of his story and the supporting cast were excellent, as well.
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That is another excellent version!

They all fill in some blanks in different ways and choose to pick up different particular details, considering the original story, which is incredibly rich. Patrick Stewart did a one-man show on A Christmas Carol for some time before doing his film, and it shows.

I’ve even had a friend point out that the Mr. Magoo version has its unique points. The Muppet version is fun. But I’d say the first three are the best.
 
I love the little known movie “A Time to Remember.”

You can catch it on EWTN usually. That is where I saw it first, and I bought a copy of it from them after seeing only the last ten minutes of it. I watch it every year without fail.

As for Christmas Carols, I too like the Alistair Sim and Patrick Stewart versions. 👍
 
A couple of favourites:

“The Muppet Christmas Carol” - A Christmas Carol starring the Muppets! There is even a line where Emily Cratchit (Miss Piggy) says to Bob Cratchit (Kermit the Frog), “How was he [Tiny Tim] in church?” to which Bob replies, “Oh, as good as gold and better. He said he hoped the people saw him in church because it might be pleasant for them to remember, on Christmas day, Who made lame beggars walk and blind men see.”

“Miracle on 34th Street” - this is a beautiful story about a young girl whose faith in Santa Claus is restored after a trial in which Kris Kringle, a store Santa, is found to be the “real” Santa Claus.

“Nicholas: The Boy Who Became Santa” - this is from the CCC “Saints and Heroes” series. It’s a short film about the life of St. Nicholas. At the end, the song “Adeste Fideles” (“O Come All Ye Faithful” in its original Latin) plays, while we see St. Nicholas delivering gifts. He is dressed as Santa Claus. Eventually, he comes to a creche - and kneels down and removes his hat in adoration of the Christ Child.

“The Littlest Angel” - this is a Hallmark video that you can find on Youtube if not anywhere else. It’s about a boy named Michael who jumps off a cliff after a bird, goes to heaven, and becomes an angel. (The idea of angels as deceased souls is the only real theological issue in the movie.) He is assigned a guardian angel named Patience. Michael decides he doesn’t really fit in in heaven and wants to go back to Earth. He wants to get his box to show Patience - he made the box himself and filled it with treasures, such as rocks, birds’ eggs, a butterfly, a feather, and his dog’s broken collar. It’s his favourite thing. Patience lets him go, but is then exiled to the north side of heaven as he had been warned already about letting souls go back to Earth. When Michael returns to heaven, he can’t find Patience, but he is told that the Lord is about to speak. The Lord says that His Son is to be born that night, and they must all make gifts for the child. Michael is trying to figure out what to give. He’s told it must be the most wonderful thing he can think of. So, he decides to give his box, because it’s the most wonderful thing he has. Some of the other angels tell him it’s not an appropriate gift - and he notices that it does, indeed, look ugly compared to what the rest of them have given. But then, the Father speaks, and He says that there is one gift that shines above all the rest - it is a gift of things His Son will come to know and love, and then leave behind. He speaks, of course, of Michael’s box. That box becomes the Star of Bethlehem. Beautiful story - we rented it from the library I don’t know how many times when I was a kid. As I mentioned, the whole thing is on YouTube.
 
  1. White Christmas
  2. It’s a Wonderful Life
  3. A Christmas Carol - the best versions are:
    (1951) starring Alastair Sim, Meryvn Johns, Michael Hordern and Glyn Dearman 86 min.
(1984) starring George C. Scott, David Warner, Susannah York, Frank Finlay, Edward Woodward and Nigel Davenport. 100 min.

(1999) starring Patrick Stewart, Nick Adams, Desmond Barrit, Charlotte Brittain, Tom Brown, Kenny Doughty, Laura Fraser, Richard E. Grant, Joel Grey, Roger Hammond, Celia Imrie, Ian McNeice, John Mills, and Saskia Reeves. 93 min.

Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol (1962) 52 min.
4. “Miracle on 34th Street” original version
 
Some that have not been mentioned:

The Bishop’s Wife - Loretta Young

Meet John Doe - Gary Cooper & Barbara Stanwick

Scrooge - the musical

Polar Express

Little Women - latest version, with Wynona Rider as Jo

Meet Me in St. Louis - begins in summer, but Christmas near the end (very touching between mother and father)

While You Were Sleeping

The Christmas List - hard to find, but full version is on You Tube.

I like to start the season with something less obviously about Christmas, such as While You Were Sleeping or Meet John Doe, then work my way up to the usual Christmas movies such as It’s a Wonderful Life as it is closer to Christmas. This year I have not been able to sit and watch much. So I will fit all in between now and New Year’s Eve. (If home on New Year’s Eve, I watch When Harry Met Sally).

Muppet Christmas Carol is a great favorite of mine and uses dialoge that is very close to the book. A Charlie Brown Christmas is actually something I used for a movie night when I worked in a library. I held an annual celebration on the birthdate of Charles Schulz in late November, which included a Snoopy themed cake.

It’s a Wonderful Life is a must!

I was lucky enough to see Patrick Stewart do his one man show of A Christmas Carol on stage.

Edit - I now see The Bishop’s Wife was already mentioned. It bears repeating, though.
 
CAROLOFTHEBELLS said:
Some that have not been mentioned:

The Bishop’s Wife - Loretta Young

Meet John Doe - Gary Cooper & Barbara Stanwick

Scrooge - the musical

Polar Express

Little Women - latest version, with Wynona Rider as Jo

Meet Me in St. Louis - begins in summer, but Christmas near the end (very touching between mother and father)

While You Were Sleeping

The Christmas List - hard to find, but full version is on You Tube.

I like to start the season with something less obviously about Christmas, such as While You Were Sleeping or Meet John Doe, then work my way up to the usual Christmas movies such as It’s a Wonderful Life as it is closer to Christmas. This year I have not been able to sit and watch much. So I will fit all in between now and New Year’s Eve. (If home on New Year’s Eve, I watch When Harry Met Sally).

Muppet Christmas Carol is a great favorite of mine and uses dialoge that is very close to the book. A Charlie Brown Christmas is actually something I used for a movie night when I worked in a library. I held an annual celebration on the birthdate of Charles Schulz in late November, which included a Snoopy themed cake.

It’s a Wonderful Life is a must!

I was lucky enough to see Patrick Stewart do his one man show of A Christmas Carol on stage.

Edit - I now see The Bishop’s Wife was already mentioned. It bears repeating, though.
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Great thread & list 👍 Thanks. 😃
 
The original Miracle on 34th Street is a classic.

Babes in Toyland (Or March of the Wooden Soldiers) with Laurel and Hardy is a nice Christmas movie from 1934. Good family movie. While this movie predated my parents they felt it was a must see for me. I used to watch it has a young kid and still do every year. Kind of a tradition. I feel like not many people have heard of this one, but it is always on TV in Dec and usually on TV Christmas morning.

It’s a Wonderful Life is great.

Christmas Story is another good one.

I guess I like all the old/classic ones.
 
Hello.

Also, any of the old Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers movies are delightful…

Don’t know what it means but I like watching police/detective movies around Christmas.

This Christmas I’d like to see The 13th Day - the one about Fatima and that one about St. Joseph of Cupertino. Ben Hur and Fiddler on the Roof and the Sound of Music are old staples too.
 
If you like Muppet Christmas Carol…

My favorite Christmas movie is a TV special from the late '80s: “A Muppet Family Christmas”.

My mom had the excellent sense to tape it to VHS and we pretty much burned a hole into the tape in the following years. It* is* secular but one of the warmest, coziest, Christmas movies I’ve ever seen. And great for discovering “new” Christmas music. There are LOT of Christmas songs and carols in this one (including a reaaaally long medley at the end)

Basically all of Jim Henson’s major creations at the time (namely Muppets, Sesame Street, Fraggle Rock, and a Muppet Babies cameo) get together for a big family reunion for Christmas. We just watched it with our 2-year old and she LOVED it. Especially once the Sesame Street cast shows up.

Unfortunately the US DVD release had to cut a lot of the musical numbers because they weren’t licensed for this. These cuts *significantly *detract from the movie because major jokes, including the culmination of a major running gag, and plot points (entire scenes!) also got lost. If you were a fan of the original movie, these cuts probably will make you justifiably angry.

The Europeans, on the other hand, got a release with almost all of the movie intact. All of the songs are there and the scenes that were cut are not as important to the plot.
 
Della said:
Both were adequate, but for my money the best Scrooge ever was Alastair Sim in the classic 1951 version. They filled in some blanks to create a really good telling of his story and the supporting cast were excellent, as well.
Click to expand...
This. To me, nothing beats the Alistair Sim version. The others seem like pale facsimiles. I did, however, like *A Muppet Christmas Carol *and *Scrooged *(with Bill Murray).

Also, *Miracle on 34th Street *(the '47 one with Edmund Gwenn), *The Bishop’s Wife *(with Cary Grant and David Niven), *A Charlie Brown Christmas *(I can recite the Nativity story – King James Version – thanks to Linus).

And yes, the 1st 2 *Santa Clause *movies. I never saw *The Polar Express *-- I saw excerpts from it, I thought the facial animation was bad bordering on creepy – like it was The Attack of the Botox People.
 
So many great suggestions! Dicken’s Christmas Carol always scared me, but it was a very good movie. Great thread idea!
 
The Gift of the Magi is one of my favorites. 🙂

There are so many other wonderful movies on here that I can’t really think of any others…I take that back. One movie my sister and I love to watch around Christmas time is “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus.” It’s pretty clean, not really any language, but it is based on a young boy who sees his Mom kissing “Santa,” and since he thinks Santa is trying to ruin his parents’ marriage, he acts the worst any child ever could. It’s a pretty funny movie, and it even made my Dad laugh. 😃
 
It’s A Wonderful Life, Holiday Inn, and Going My Way. That last one isn’t really a Christmas movie, but part of the movie happens during Christmas, and it’s one of my favorite movies of all time, so I just recommend it whenever I can. 😃
 
A Christmas Story is absolutely my favorite. It’s the kind of movie that historians will one day dig up and use as an example of what life was like in the Midwestern US in 1940.
 
Am I the only one who absolutely hates A Christmas Story with a passion? 😃 It’s just so weird. I’ve seen it a million times, and have never thought any moment of it was funny or entertaining in any sort of way.
 
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