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Christmas Traditions: Part 2 - Movies

By Melissa Markham on December 4, 2007 11:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Yesterday I blogged about our Christmas traditions of baking cookies and shared our favorite recipes with you. I thought about doing a post with everything we do for Christmas in it, but it would have been huge! So I decided I would just tackle one aspect a day. Then it will be recorded for posterity and your reading enjoyment!

Christmas is a time that I love to watch Christmas movies and I have favorites that I enjoy watching every year! I thought you might enjoy reading our list of Christams favorites. I would love to hear if any of them are on your favorites list or if you decide to add them to your holiday movie watching!

Here they are in no particular order:

Miracle on 34th Street The one I like is the 1947 version with Maureen O'Hara, John Payne, Edmund Gwenn and a very young Natalie Wood. I have always thought Maureen was an excellent actress ( I love her in The Quiet Man with John Wayne).

It's a Wonderful Life We watch this movie every year either on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. It is such a heartwarming reminder of how each and everyone of us makes a huge difference.

Elf with Will Ferrell and James Caan is a recent addition to our Christmas movie line-up. We love the big Elf with the huge heart....and the even bigger burp!

Christmas Vacation with Chevy Chase. This movie is electrifying! I don't know which part I like better...Chevy Chase and his great lighting adventure or Randy Quaid and his shenanigan's. Randy really made the movie explode with laughter!

Another movie that we watch on Christmas Eve is How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Would any holiday be complete without the message that the true meaning of Christmas was in the hearts of the Whos down in Whoville.

An American Christmas Carol - this version of A Christmas Carol displays the acting talents of Henry Winkler (the Fonz). It is a wonderful story of a 20th century Scrooge. The familiar story will feel comfortable like a pair of old slippers, but the updated twists are delightful.

The Polar Express with Tom Hanks is another new addition to our movie collection. We were lucky enough to see it in an IMAX theater. I highly recommend doing that if you get the chance. The scenes where the train are going down into the gulch will take on a whole new meaning for you!

A Christmas Carol with George C. Scott. In my humble opinion, George C. Scott makes the best Scrooge ever! If you haven't seen this version, be sure to check it out this holiday season!

The Night They Saved Christmas with Jaclyn Smith, Art Carney and Paul Williams. This is a movie from the 80s, but I still enjoy watching it.

Disney's The Santa Clause this movie is hilarious! And they use some of the same fun cinema magic in Evan Almighty.

Jingle All the Way with Arnold Schwarzenegger will make every parent who has ever missed out on that 'special' toy laugh and shake their head in a very knowing manner.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

Rudolph and The Island of the Misfit Toys

A Charlie Brown Christmas

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

Emmet Otter's Jugband Christmas

Frosty the Snowman

The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus

The Year Without A Santa Claus - This is one of my favorite Christmas cartoons...Mr. Heat Miser and Mr. Freeze Miser...gotta love them!

Irving Berlin's Holiday Inn and White Christmas and The Bells of St. Mary. - My mom loved Bing Crosby. When he died, she sent a sympathy card to his family and got a lovely response in return from his wife. I have to watch those movies every year at Christmas time.

A Christmas Story - this is another classic that is part of our Christmas Eve ritual. My husband loves to watch this movie. A couple of years ago I bought him his own leg lamp.

Christmas in Connecticut with Tony Curtis, Dyan Cannon and Kris Kristofferson is another fun Christmas tale of love.

and finally...Little House on the Prairie There are two episode I love to watch:

Christmas at Plum Creek - I dare you to watch this episode and not cry! When Laura makes a huge sacrifice out of love for her mother...I get misty eyed just thinking about it!

The Christmas They Never Forgot - in this episode, the adults (Mary and Laura now among them) remember past Christmas stories during a blizzard.

oh yeah...in order to balance out the sentimental movies, my hubby demands to watch at least one Die Hard movie during the holidays! Well, it does take place during the Christmas holiday...

As I look atthe two towering stacks of Christmas movies here, I am wondering when we will have time to watch all of these this Christmas season...and the fact is that we probably won't. I just don't have that much time anymore. But we will watch our favorites and we will remember the lessons they share about faith, love, family and tradition!