My Top Five Christmas Movies

I love Christmas, but as we're going to see in this list, I like nostalgic Christmas. I like warm and heartfelt Christmas more than flashy and funny Christmas. I like the magic of Christmas, not the commercialism. You can see what I'm getting at here.

But what makes a Christmas movie great for me, is not the warm and heartfeltness of it necessarily, because if that was all I was looking for then I'd like the old dumb Miracle on 34th Street (spoiler: I do not). What I love about Christmas movies are the ones that you watch that make you want to be a better person. That's rare, and it's true magic.

My Favorite Five Christmas Movies, in no particular order:

1. It's a Wonderful Life

It's A Wonderful Life is not only one of my favorite Christmas movies ever, but it's in my top five movies of all time. It's a movie that I feel very personally--it's heartwarming at the same time it's heartbreaking. I could write a whole blog about this movie, but this is the aspect I'm thinking about currently:

The Complete Helplessness and Desperation. George has lived a life that is full of self-sacrifice, always going against what he wants to do and instead doing what he knows to be right. He has given up so many dreams over his life trying to solve everyone's problems, but it isn't enough to save him. At the pivotal scene in Martini's bar where George prays he is completely helpless--there is just nothing left for him to do to fix things. And the thing that gets me is: I have been in that place and I have said that prayer. I have felt the things that George is feeling. I don't think I have ever seen a Hollywood portrayal of desperation that I have related to more.

Mr. Potter never gets his comeuppance. There is no victory over the villain here--in fact, once the $8000 is paid back, things are going back to the status quo. The difference is that George sees the world in a different way, and appreciates it in a different way. If we could all get to that point in life, appreciating our own lives, then maybe fewer of us would need to be visited by supernatural beings on Christmas Eve.

2. Scrooge

Speaking of being visited by supernatural beings on Christmas Eve, Scrooge is, for my money, the best version of A Christmas Carol. And that's saying a lot, because I really like A Muppet Christmas Carol, and I REALLY like the Patrick Stewart version of A Christmas Carol. But Scrooge has a special place in my heart.

In fact, following what I said previously about It's a Wonderful Life being in my top five favorite movies of all time, Scrooge is ALSO in my top five. Kinda neat that two of them are Christmas movies. (My three others, for the record, are On The Waterfront, West Side Story, and Evita. So, two Christmas movies and three musicals. That's me.)

The thing that I also love about this movie is the same thing I loved about Wonderful Life, and that it's a movie that makes me want to be a better person. In particular, I love this exchange that Scrooge has with the Ghost of Christmas Present (which, to be fair, is taken almost word for word from the book):

Ghost of Christmas Present: Here, Scrooge. I have brought you home.

Ebenezer Scrooge: You're not going.

Ghost of Christmas Present: My time upon this little planet is very brief. I must leave you now.

Ebenezer Scrooge: But we still have so much to talk about, haven't we?

Ghost of Christmas Present: There is never enough time to do or say all the things that we would wish. The thing is to try to do as much as you can in the time that you have.

Ebenezer Scrooge: Yes, but...

Ghost of Christmas Present: Remember, Scrooge, time is short, and suddenly, you're not there anymore.

I am not as good at "doing or saying all the things that I would wish" but I'm working on it and trying to get better. I know that I don't do the best job at it, but every Christmas I try to reach out to people I haven't talked to in a long time and tell them that I love them. If I had the funds of Ebenezer Scrooge I would bring them turkeys as big as me, but I do what I can in the time that I have. Or, I try to.

3. A Charlie Brown Christmas

I love Charlie Brown for starters. But I love A Charlie Brown Christmas in particular because Charlie Brown is going through something that I, also, go through every Christmas: depression. When Charlie Brown is talking to Linus, he says "I think there must be something wrong with me, Linus. Christmas is coming, but I'm not happy. I don't feel the way I'm supposed to feel."

I feel that every year. Because as much as I can write blogs about my favorite Christmas stuff, I really struggle with feeling down. And part of that is certainly medical. But part of it is that the world is just hard, and there is so much pressure when it comes to Christmas that it's hard to just sit and experience it: you're always putting on a show, making food, cleaning, trying to present the best version of yourself. It's hard to just enjoy Christmas for what Christmas is.

4. Christmas Eve on Sesame Street

Yes, I know I'm leaving A Muppet Christmas Carol off this list, but I'm not leaving the Muppets off entirely. This special, which came out in 1978, is the best Muppet Christmas show by a country mile. It was back when Sesame Street was still helmed by Jim Henson and had a little more Muppet bite to it than it does now, but it also is far more innocent and sincere than anything else on this list. It's earnest, above all else. Every storyline in the show, from the Bert and Ernie Gift of the Magi to the Big Bird Waiting for Santa Claus, to Bob and Linda teaching the kids to sing in sign language, is presented with such earnest honestly that it can't be viewed with any degree of cynicism.

5. Millions

You may not be familiar with Millions, because it wasn't a big blockbuster, but it's based on the book of the same name, which happens to be my favorite book of all time. (It wasn't really based on the book, and the book wasn't really based on the movie, because the author--Frank Cottrell Boyce--was also the screenwriter and he wrote them simultaneously).

The story is about two brothers--around 11 and 8--who have a sudden appearance of a ton of cash (hence "Millions") and they're trying to figure out what to do with it. And the main character, Damian, wants more than anything to "Be Good" because his mom recently died and he wants to get to heaven to be with her.

That makes it sound very sad, and it is sad, but it's also immensely joyful and terribly funny. I'm not a crier, particularly not when it comes to books, but this book makes me cry--from kind of a wonderful and poignant joy, not from sadness.

Anyway, it's great and you should watch it.