It’s a dirty little not-so-secret: I enjoy a lot of the holiday/Christmas movies. I just do. There is a expectation of wishes coming true, and of good triumphing over its opposition, that makes for an enjoyable viewing experience. Of course, there are few movies that hit all the right bells all the way through. That doesn’t mean they aren’t worth watching, just that sometimes there are bumps in the one-horse-open-sleigh that you might have to endure.
This page is going to be the index of my blogs about these sorts of movies. I don’t think that what I write will be purely a review, or a critique, or even just a chat. The posts will likely have those elements and more. The goal isn’t so much to make this an academic exercise, but just to share some of my joys–and maybe a few disappointments–of the holiday fare.
Some of the movies are going to be classics that have played since we were children. Some will be the new stuff that shows up on cable networks like Hallmark and Lifetime. Many will fall somewhere in between. There are a lot of these sorts of movies out there. Unless you totally bah-humbug the entire season, I expect that many of you have more than a couple of these films in your want-to-watch list every year.
Movies in the list are in traditional alphabetical order (leading “A”, “An”, and “The” ignored for sorting purposes). Those with active links have reviews you can jump to. The other ones are placeholders for the time-being…they’ll get written soon enough with more to be added as time allows (feel free to suggest others):
- Annie Claus is Coming to Town
- The Case For Christmas
- A Charlie Brown Christmas (yeah, not a movie, but so what?)
- Crazy For Christmas
- The Christmas Card
- A Christmas Carol (1984)
- The Christmas Heart
- Christmas Magic
- The Christmas Pageant
- A Christmas Story
- A Christmas Wedding Tail
- A Christmas Wish
- Christmas With Holly NEW
- Come Dance With Me NEW
- Dear Santa (2011)
- Farewell Mr. Kringle
- Help For the Holidays NEW
- A Holiday Engagement
- The Homecoming: A Christmas Story
- Love at the Christmas Table
- Love At the Thanksgiving Day Parade
- Matchmaker Santa NEW
- Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
- The Most Wonderful Time of the Year
- Naughty or Nice
- An Old-Fashioned Christmas
- One Magic Christmas
- A Princess For Christmas
- Santa, Jr.
- Scrooged
- A Season For Miracles
- Silver Bells
- Three Wise Women
- Trading Christmas
- The Wishing Tree
- (more to come)
* Disclamer: As long-time readers are aware, I’m not a follower of any specific faith–though I also don’t poo-poo the messages, either. I’m pro-Santa, pro-peace, pro-love, pro-happy, pro-understanding, and generally in favor of the fundamental message of these films.
