Do you have any favourite shows you watch only at Christmas? Anything that puts you into a Christmassy mood?
The movies I especially like to watch at this time of year are The Bishop's Wife (with Cary Grant, Loretta Young and David Niven) and While you were sleeping (with Sandra Bullock, Bill Pullman and a huge cast of fantastic actors playing a whole family). Of course, there are the tv specials as well, and of those I love The Grinch most.
The Duck Thief over at Great White North has put together a must-see list of some of her favourite holiday movies. Can you add any more? Favourites are an idiosyncratic thing but there are quite a few on her list that I also love. Although I am probably the only person in the entire world who doesn't like It's a Wonderful Life!
I also love The Bishop's Wife, but White Christmas is my favorite.
ReplyDeleteMy family usually watches Christmas Vacation, which I loathe---a lot. I like It's a Wonderful Life just fine, but I don't love it. I don't ever seek it out.
My favorite TV special for Christmas is Charlie Brown Christmas--hands-down the best of them all.
I enjoy It's A WOnderful Life, but it's not a "must-see."
ReplyDeleteI'm with Teresa's family. Love "Christmas Vacation."
And I'm one of the few that really doesn't like Charlie Brown's Christmas. Linus's speech-- so obviously aimed at adults-- drives me nuts.
You're definitely not the only person who doesn't like It's a Wonderful Life. It's too sirupy for me. I don't think I have movies I particularly associate to December. December for me usually means tons of exams to prepare so it's not particularly festive :) One of my favourite movies is The Shop Around the Corner by Lubitsch which I watch every two months and will probably be watching soon.
ReplyDeleteI love The Bishop's Wife with Cary Grant. I don't watch it every year, though. Maybe every two or three years. It's my favourite Christmas movie.
ReplyDeleteI've never seen a lot of the classics, including It's a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street. My sisters and I never miss a viewing of Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, though! I also loved the movie One Magic Christmas...one of my favorites that I haven't seen in a while. Hmm, off to go find a copy!
ReplyDeleteI still watch all my favourites from childhood. There are few 'adult' ones that I don't mind, but I am still stuck in the past, I guess. ha ha. So, it is the Christmas specials like Muppets Christmas Carol or Mickey's or the Grinch (the old one), etc...
ReplyDeleteJust as I start feeling Christmasy I watch "Little Women" (the Wynona Ryder version) and Marc & I watch "Love Actually".
ReplyDeleteNow that our kids are old enough, we have a tradition of watching "Home Alone" while eating a plain cheese pizza. Love it! (Mostly the pizza.)
Marc & I also have to watch "Christmas Vacation". And I like to watch "The Muppets Christmas Carol".
For cartoons, I have "How the Flintstones Saved Christmas". I used to watch it over and over when I was kid. And, of course, "The Grinch". Madeline loves Charlie Brown, so we watch that one too (she had a Charlie Brown birthday when she was 4 and we watched it then too).
Funny thing about that Charlie Brown Christmas... when Madeline was 3 we were talking about the meaning of Christmas, and she turns to us and says, "I'll tell you the mean of Christmas. LIGHTS PLEASE. And behold..." (and then she said almost every word of Linus's speech). That girl was way too smart for her own good back then.
:)
Thanks for the mention!
ReplyDeleteAny particular reason "It's a Wonderful Life" isn't your cup of tea?
Lots of great suggestions here!
ReplyDeleteDuck thief - the reason I'm not fond of It's a Wonderful Life is because 1. Jimmy Stewart is not my favourite actor and 2. Mary's dreadful fate without George (she becomes, gasp, a librarian!!) drives me nuts. ;)
I'm a "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" girl myself. The best gift I got a bunch of years ago were the two of them on DVD because I kept missing them on TV since I was working in retail and always on the night they were shown.
ReplyDeleteThe one year I tried to tape The Grinch (back when I had a VCR) was the year the CBC's tape broke at the end and the show never finished that year! (Do you remember that?)
So now I can sit there on Christmas Eve, with the lights down low, a bowl of popcorn and watch my two childhood favourite Christmas specials!
(Also, I really, really loved the Stephen Colbert's Christmas special from this year, I think it's my new tradition!)
Oddly, my ironclad tradition for nearly two decades has been to watch Hitchcock's "Spellbound" (Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck) on Christmas. I can't imagine why, but there you go. I've decided it's not Hitchcock's best film, but it is my favorite. Besides, there's the fabulous Rozsa soundtrack with the theremin. Fabulous (and so non-Christmas-y)!
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