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Tag Archives: Christmas
Celluloid Santas: Which Is Your Favorite?
Santa Claus features in so many motion pictures that it’s almost as if Santa movies are their own sub-genre of cinema. In fact, these films go way back to 1897, when, in a short called Santa Claus Filling Stockings, the bearded one is just doing that. Nothing else is happeningjust Santa filling stockings! There were other Santa pictures in the three subsequent years after that. And there were further interpretations of the fat guy in the red costume in the 1920s, 1940s and 1960s. Some films even explored the origins of the mythical figure.
More recently, notable Saint Nicks include Dan Ackroyd in the 1983 picture Trading Places, which portrayed the world’s most famous gift-giver as a down and out. David Huddleston took on the role in 1985’s: Santa Claus: The Movie.
In 1994, legendary British actor and director Richard Attenborough donned the red suit in Miracle on 34th Street, though perhaps his beard needed a little work. The films centers on the disbelief of young Susan, whose mother employs a kindly old man to play Santa Claus at Macy’s; he later persuades Susan that he really is Santa
In the same year, Tim Allen committed the ultimate Yuletide crime in The Santa Clause by accidentally causing the man himself to fall off his roof. Allen dons Santa robes to do the job of Father Christmas himself, eventually falling in love with the role. The movie spawned two sequels.
Other pictures, such as The Nightmare before Christmas (1993) by Tim Burton and 2003’s Bad Santa feature impostors. In the latter, Billy Bob Thornton plays a miserable conman.
Finally, this year’s Arthur Christmas is an animated movie about the Claus dynasty, with Santa passing on the title, workshop and responsibilities to his son, down the generations.
These are just some of the celluloid incarnations of the great onewhich one is your favorite?
Photo © Sandra Cunningham – Fotolia.com
Tagged Christmas, family, Santa Claus, Seasonal
Irreverent Christmas Movies
Don’t like all the warm fuzziness of Christmas? These films bring new meaning to the term “naughty or nice.”
Bad Santa (2003)—Willie T. Stokes (Billy Bob Thornton) plays Santa every year at the mall, and dwarf friend Marcus (Tony Cox) is always his elf. Each year the duo steal from the mall after hours and have yet to be caught. This all changes when Willie befriends a lonely boy he calls The Kid (Brett Kelly) and attempts to give him fatherly advice and guidance. Lauren Graham plays his bartender love interest Sue, and Bernie Mac is the corrupt Security Chief who wants in on the next heist.
Black Christmas (2006)—In this remake of the 1974 film of the same name, Billy (Robert Mann) and his daughter Agnes (Dean Friss) snap because of their horrific upbringings and begin a killing spree on Christmas Eve. After killing a man in a Santa suit, Billy dons the costume, and Agnes begins murdering sorority sisters who—to outsiders—mysteriously go missing. This film also stars Michelle Trachtenberg in a minor role.
Santa’s Slay (2005)—Santa (Bill Goldberg) is not who everyone thought it was. It turns out he was the product of an immaculate birth from Satan and has been forced to hand out presents for the past 100 years. Only now, the 100 years are up and he is free to continue his killing spree. Santa kills everyone in his path in a plethora of horrific ways until the holiday ends and he returns to the North Pole until next year.
Photo © davorr – Fotolia.com
ABC Family Christmas Movies
Holiday in Handcuffs (2007) Gertrude “Trudie”Chandler (Melissa Joan Hart) has just been dumped by her short-term boyfriend right before the two were supposed to meet her family for the holidays. Trudie, who is notoriously unlucky in love, desperately kidnaps a patron at the restaurant where she waitresses and forces him to accompany her to the secluded cabin her parents have rented for the weekend. David Martin (Mario Lopez) at first protests, but after growing to appreciate and respect her family he goes along with it for Trudie’s sake. Only know Trudie is faced with a different dilemma—what if her family loves David more than they love her? And what will happen when the weekend’s over?
Snowglobe (2007) Angela Moreno (Christina Milian) is a working-class girl who is disappointed that her family doesn’t celebrate Christmas traditionally but instead feasts on green-colored noodles. She receives a mysterious snow globe in the mail from an unknown sender, and once she falls asleep she finds herself inside the magical wonderland. At first she becomes mesmerized by the seemingly-perfect little village, until that perfection finds its way out of the snow globe and into her 21st Century life. Suddenly Angela realizes that perfection may come in many different forms.
Christmas Cupid (2010) Sloan Spencer (Christina Milian) is competing for the VP spot at her PR firm when one of her top clients accidentally chokes on an olive and dies. The client, Caitlinn Quinn (Ashley Benson), returns as a ghost sent to help Sloan improve her shallow life and discover what really matters. She is visited by three ghosts of “boyfriends past” and realizes how much she hurt her college boyfriend Patrick (Chad Michael Murray) and how unsatisfactory her current relationship is.
Photo © kjolak – Fotolia.com
Tagged Christmas, drama, made for tv, Seasonal
Christmas Movies To Watch Every Year
Ring in the holiday with these all-time favorites.
1. A Christmas Story (1983) All Ralphie (Peter Billingsley) wants for Christmas is an “official Red Rider, carbine action, two-hundred shot range model air rifle,” to which everyone in his Indiana hometown exclaims, “You’ll shoot your eye out!” Ralphie undergoes many humorously traumatic events such as encountering a not-to-jolly Santa Clause, having to wear a homemade bunny suit, getting his tongue stuck to the flagpole outside of school, and being tormented by the school bullies.
2. Love Actually (2005) “Love actually is all around” in this British romantic comedy about the intersecting lives of its protagonists. Harry (Alan Rickman) is tempted by his secretary even though he’s happily married with children. Mark (Andrew Lincoln) struggles with his feelings for his best friend’s new bride (Keira Knightly). Prime Minister David (Hugh Grant) finds himself drawn to his sweet and insecure junior member each time she brings him tea and cookies. And in its biggest story arc, prepubescent Sam (Thomas Sangster) develops his first major crush and enlists his stepdad Daniel (Liam Neeson) to help him win her over.
3. A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965) In this timeless animation, Charlie Brown is dismayed by the commercialization of Christmas that he sees all around him. Even Snoopy has given in by entering a holiday lights decorating contest. Charlie rouses his friends by organizing a play based on the nativity scene, but his friends are reluctant to keep it simple and sweet. When Charlie finds a tiny tree to add to the play, his friends first scorn him but then help him decorate it, realizing that Christmas is about more than just commercial interests.
Photo © AlessandraM – Fotolia.com
All-Time Top Christmas Movies
It’ll soon be that time of year again, when it’s freezing outside, and many of us love nothing better than snuggling up in front of a classic Christmas moviepreferably one we’ve already seen a hundred times before! And it doesn’t matter how corny or schmaltzy they would seem at any other time of year. We still love ‘em! Here are a few of our favorites, but which are yours?
Released more than 20 years ago, Home Alone provides festive comedy gold, with Macaulay Culkin outwitting the world’s most incompetent burglars. The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, released a decade later, also provided another instant classic. Who could forget Jim Carey’s performance in the leading role?
Joyeux Noel is an Oscar-nominated drama focusing on life in Scottish, French and German trenches during the First World War. Poignant and heartfelt, this movie is too often overlooked.
Will Ferrell stars alongside Zooey Deschanel and James Caan in Elf as an overgrown elf whose realization that he was born human sparks an identity crisis. This warm movie is as touching as it is heartfelt.
Love Actually has a cast list reading like a ‘who’s who’ of British cinema, Richard Curtis’s quintessentially English rom-com has captured hearts worldwide with its interlinked love stories, set in a snowy Christmastime London.
The Santa Clause is a family comedy and one of the strangest seasonal movies of the 1990s, starring Tim Allen as Scott Calvin, a regular guy who accidentally kills Santa Claus on Christmas Eve.
It’s a Wonderful Life is another iconic movie which must feature high in everyone’s all-time seasonal favorites list. James Stewart is about to jump to his death when a guardian angel shows him how much he has to live for. This feel-good film is a solid gold holiday classic.
Finally, The Muppet Christmas Carol is an adaptation of one of our greatest stories, performed almost entirely by a collection of felt puppets! With Michael Caine providing a rare human presence as Scrooge, this flick is an endlessly endearing film rightly held in great affection.
There are many more holiday movies, and it’s almost time to start enjoying them all over again!
Photo © maresz_1980 – Fotolia.com