Christmas is quickly approaching, so to keep that yuletide spirit alive, this morning I present my favorite Christmas movies/shows.
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer - Classic Rankin/Bass stop-animation
White Christmas - Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, and Vera-Ellen singing and dancing. How can you go wrong?
The Year Without A Santa Claus - Two reasons: Heat Miser and Cold Miser
It's A Wonderful Life - It wouldn't be Christmas without this film
The Bishop's Wife - I'm a sucker for Cary Grant movie
Rudolph's Shiny New Year - More Rankin/Bass goodness. This time featuring Red Skelton as Father Time and Morey Amseterdam (of 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' fame) as a cave man
A Christmas Story - Flick? Flick who?
Santa Claus Is Coming To Town - Fred Astaire is the narrator in this Rankin/Bass stop-animation classic
The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade - Technically not Christmas, but essentially officially kicks the season off. And I never miss watching it.
Twas the Night Before Christmas - A lesser know Rankin/Bass production that is straight illustrated animation and features the voice and singing of Joel Grey
A Christmas Carol - There are a lot of versions out there, but I'm partial to a recent retelling starring Patrick Stewart
Scrooged - A humorous retelling of 'A Christmas Carol' starring Bill Murray and the always lovely Karen Allen
Christmas Vacation - SQUIRREL!
I can't add it to my list of favorites quite yet, but one that is has a good chance of making it is Elf, starring Will Ferrell, James Caan, Bob Newhart, and Ed Asner as Santa. Heather and I just watched it over Thanksgiving weekend and I found it to be very funny. Director Jon Favreau did a wonderful job of taking David Berenbaum's script and perfectly balancing the humor with the human elements. The result is funny but touching Christmas film in very much the same vein as A Christmas Story. Not too sappy, but not too silly.
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