Christmas Movie Recommendations

Five films that express the Spirit of the Season

Given the joyful culmination of the Christmas season, I wanted to share some Christmas movie recommendations that have regularly prepared my family for the season. Given the fun of the holiday, I thought I would do this in a playful way. First I have listed the titles of 5 of the films I love to watch with Cheryl each Christmas. Next, I’ve written descriptions that I hope will peak your interest in these films. The game is to match the film title with each description. Enjoy!

The Titles:

1. The Shop Around the Corner (Free on Amazon Prime)

2. A Christmas Carol starring George C. Scott (Free on Amazon Prime)

3. It Happened on Fifth Avenue (Free on Amazon Prime)

4. The Snowman (Free on Amazon Prime with an Ameba 7 day freetrial)

5. Babette’s Feast ($3.99 to rent on Amazon Prime or with a Max subscription)

The Descriptions:

• A 1987 film portraying the deeply moving celebration that is the result of a French refugee, an ascetic Christian community in Denmark, and food. This film, which tells a story in the late 1800s, was the first Danish film to win the Best Foreign Language Oscar.

• Nominated for the best animated short film at the 55th Academy Awards and number 71 on the top 100 British Television Programmes, this beautiful adventure of a young boy brings the “hot chocolate, marshmallows, and roaring fire” theme of Christmas right into your heart.

• Aloysius T. McKeever is a career homeless man who, unbeknownst to the homeowners, makes his winter home in a New York mansion. This Christmas season a G.I. who has been evicted from his apartment joins him along with the runaway daughter of a very wealthy man. The results are unexpected, to say the least, as was the film’s endorsement by the likes of Frank Capra, Orson Welles, and Al Jolson. It is light, wonderfully funny, and quite heartwarming.

• Here’s the pitch: “The film features a salesman and saleswoman at a pre-World War II variety shop in Budapest who cannot stand each other.” This isn’t what you would expect for a romantic comedy with a 99% rating on Rotten Tomatoes that is included in the American Film Institute’s 100 Greatest Love Stories in American Film. It is a perfect way to warm your heart for the Christmas season.

• A stingy miser is transformed into a man who generously and joyfully celebrates Christmas after he is visited by otherworldly spirits of the season. Not science fiction but the best adaptation of the novel by my writing mentor, Charles Dickens. George C. Scott’s performance is so powerful that we all may celebrate Christmas with deeper joy and greater generosity!

Have fun!

---