Twelve Days of Christmas (movies)
Wednesday night as I was busy preparing the Thanksgiving dinner we'd have the next day, I searched on the TV to see if anyone was playing Planes, Trains and Automobiles - my all time favorite Thanksgiving-time movie. I started in the movie channels, hoping that it would be playing on HBO so that I could get the full-fledged no editing for TV version. With no luck, I checked on TNT, USA and the old movie stronghold - WGN. Nothing. But after using the search feature, I found that it would be playing at 8:00AM on Thanksgiving Day. I was excited - I'd certainly be up by then, cranking away on our food.
In that long stretch while I waited - I had time for a lot of holiday movie reflection as I washed floors and mashed vast quantities of potatoes. I thought about how awesome it would be to watch one Christmas movie every day between Thanksgiving and Christmas. The more I thought about it, I realized that there are two things that would keep me from actually completing this terrific idea:
1) I have two small children who aren't yet ready for some of my favorite holiday movies
2) There aren't THAT many that I like
I did find that I could name a bunch right off the top of my head - twelve, in fact. So to kick off this holiday season, I bring you:
The Twelve Days of Christmas Movies
Day One: Holiday Inn - I love this movie, have you seen it? It's a love story filled with singing and 1940's style antics. It makes you want to open up a country inn where you can invite all of your showbiz friends to stop by and perform so that you can host fantastic parties. What? You don't have any showbiz friends? Me either. Fine. I just need to make one friend who can show up and play White Christmas on the piano in our living room even though Martin has lodged pennies between some of the keys.
Day Two: A Christmas Story - An old favorite at the Mitchell house, we've watched this movie many, many times. It's filled with great lines that you can toss into conversation year round - like anytime you have meatloaf, see the word "fragile" printed somewhere, or with any mention of a bb gun.
Day Three: National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation - Probably my very favorite Christmas movie, also ranks pretty high on the quote scale. Last year after we cut our tree out at my parents farm I found myself stealing glances at the tree frequently, certain that a squirrel was hiding somewhere in it's sparse branches.
Day Four: Elf- at our house, this film is known as "Buddy" and Sophie LOVES it. She doesn't save this one for the holiday season, but wants to watch it all year long. Just the other day I noticed Martin smiling at me while I was trying to get him to put his shoes on. "What are you doing?" I asked. "Smiling, it's my favorite" he said. Well-played movie quote, son, well-played.
Day Five: Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas - this is the old animated one, not the one from a few years ago with Jim Carrey. It's short, not too scary, and of course there are all those "fahoo fores dahoo dores" to keep on traipsing through your head. [Editorial note: I don't know if those are the real lyrics, all this time I thought it was "yahoo do re" but I did a little searching and this was from a fairly official lyric source, so, I don't know. Whatever, you know what I'm talking about and now it's stuck in your head - WHATEVER it is.]
Day Six: The Santa Clause - I've only watched this one once, but liked it. I'd definitely like to watch it again. Maybe even parts 2 and 3, which of course would have to be done as a marathon to fit within the allotted twelve days.
Day Seven: Miracle on 34th Street- It's been many years since I've watched this movie. I remember watching it for the first time on TV when I was a kid. I was in my parents bedroom where they had an old black and white TV. This was before we had cable, and the reception was kind of bad. I remember thinking that it was a great movie, and was surprised years later to find out that it actually was in black and white, not just on mom and dad's old TV. It was right, I'm not making that up in my memory?
Day Eight: It's a Wonderful Life - I was in high school when I watched this movie. My boyfriend Greg (at the time, because of course I don't have a boyfriend now, unless that's what you call my husband and of course his name is Marty) was shocked that I'd never seen it before.
Day Nine: Scrooged - Another Mitchell family holiday favorite, we've watched this one loads of times. Watching it for the first time, I remember none of us could breathe because we were laughing so hard when Carol Kane clocked Bill Murray with the toaster. That's just the kind of family we are.
Day Ten: The Polar Express - Martin got this movie last year for Christmas from his Grandma Lou and they watched it several times in a row. I was busy just then and missed out on it for the first run. After that, he didn't want to watch it for a long time. I think mostly because I kept suggesting it. So it was sometime later that winter, maybe even spring before I got to watch the whole thing. The animation is really pretty, even though the kids expressions are a little weird - vacuous even.
Day Eleven: Surviving Christmas - I started out typing this as "Christmas with The Kranks" and went to link to it and realized that I'd never seen that movie. I had to search on Ben Affleck to find the movie I had renamed in my mind. So, I guess I liked the idea of the movie but my memory was pretty foggy. Guess I better watch both on Day Eleven.
Day Twelve: Olive the Other Reindeer - A kid movie that I don't mind watching, and sometimes that feels kind of rare. The animation is great in this, a different style than most current animated films. Plus Drew Barrymore is in it, and we like her. Or I like her. Whatever.
Movies that Did Not Make the Cut
How the Grinch Stole Christmas (John Carrey version), Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Home for the Holidays, It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie (which is weird because I love the Muppets but didn't like Whoopi as God, go figure). With any luck, these movies will NOT make the playlist this holiday season.
In that long stretch while I waited - I had time for a lot of holiday movie reflection as I washed floors and mashed vast quantities of potatoes. I thought about how awesome it would be to watch one Christmas movie every day between Thanksgiving and Christmas. The more I thought about it, I realized that there are two things that would keep me from actually completing this terrific idea:
1) I have two small children who aren't yet ready for some of my favorite holiday movies
2) There aren't THAT many that I like
I did find that I could name a bunch right off the top of my head - twelve, in fact. So to kick off this holiday season, I bring you:
The Twelve Days of Christmas Movies
Day One: Holiday Inn - I love this movie, have you seen it? It's a love story filled with singing and 1940's style antics. It makes you want to open up a country inn where you can invite all of your showbiz friends to stop by and perform so that you can host fantastic parties. What? You don't have any showbiz friends? Me either. Fine. I just need to make one friend who can show up and play White Christmas on the piano in our living room even though Martin has lodged pennies between some of the keys.
Day Two: A Christmas Story - An old favorite at the Mitchell house, we've watched this movie many, many times. It's filled with great lines that you can toss into conversation year round - like anytime you have meatloaf, see the word "fragile" printed somewhere, or with any mention of a bb gun.
Day Three: National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation - Probably my very favorite Christmas movie, also ranks pretty high on the quote scale. Last year after we cut our tree out at my parents farm I found myself stealing glances at the tree frequently, certain that a squirrel was hiding somewhere in it's sparse branches.
Day Four: Elf- at our house, this film is known as "Buddy" and Sophie LOVES it. She doesn't save this one for the holiday season, but wants to watch it all year long. Just the other day I noticed Martin smiling at me while I was trying to get him to put his shoes on. "What are you doing?" I asked. "Smiling, it's my favorite" he said. Well-played movie quote, son, well-played.
Day Five: Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas - this is the old animated one, not the one from a few years ago with Jim Carrey. It's short, not too scary, and of course there are all those "fahoo fores dahoo dores" to keep on traipsing through your head. [Editorial note: I don't know if those are the real lyrics, all this time I thought it was "yahoo do re" but I did a little searching and this was from a fairly official lyric source, so, I don't know. Whatever, you know what I'm talking about and now it's stuck in your head - WHATEVER it is.]
Day Six: The Santa Clause - I've only watched this one once, but liked it. I'd definitely like to watch it again. Maybe even parts 2 and 3, which of course would have to be done as a marathon to fit within the allotted twelve days.
Day Seven: Miracle on 34th Street- It's been many years since I've watched this movie. I remember watching it for the first time on TV when I was a kid. I was in my parents bedroom where they had an old black and white TV. This was before we had cable, and the reception was kind of bad. I remember thinking that it was a great movie, and was surprised years later to find out that it actually was in black and white, not just on mom and dad's old TV. It was right, I'm not making that up in my memory?
Day Eight: It's a Wonderful Life - I was in high school when I watched this movie. My boyfriend Greg (at the time, because of course I don't have a boyfriend now, unless that's what you call my husband and of course his name is Marty) was shocked that I'd never seen it before.
Day Nine: Scrooged - Another Mitchell family holiday favorite, we've watched this one loads of times. Watching it for the first time, I remember none of us could breathe because we were laughing so hard when Carol Kane clocked Bill Murray with the toaster. That's just the kind of family we are.
Day Ten: The Polar Express - Martin got this movie last year for Christmas from his Grandma Lou and they watched it several times in a row. I was busy just then and missed out on it for the first run. After that, he didn't want to watch it for a long time. I think mostly because I kept suggesting it. So it was sometime later that winter, maybe even spring before I got to watch the whole thing. The animation is really pretty, even though the kids expressions are a little weird - vacuous even.
Day Eleven: Surviving Christmas - I started out typing this as "Christmas with The Kranks" and went to link to it and realized that I'd never seen that movie. I had to search on Ben Affleck to find the movie I had renamed in my mind. So, I guess I liked the idea of the movie but my memory was pretty foggy. Guess I better watch both on Day Eleven.
Day Twelve: Olive the Other Reindeer - A kid movie that I don't mind watching, and sometimes that feels kind of rare. The animation is great in this, a different style than most current animated films. Plus Drew Barrymore is in it, and we like her. Or I like her. Whatever.
Movies that Did Not Make the Cut
How the Grinch Stole Christmas (John Carrey version), Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Home for the Holidays, It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie (which is weird because I love the Muppets but didn't like Whoopi as God, go figure). With any luck, these movies will NOT make the playlist this holiday season.
The only one missing for me is "John Denver and the Muppets - A Christmas Together". This is a favorite CD as well. Which brings us to...favorite Christmas CDs or songs!
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Frosty the Snowman!!! The part where he melts? Christmas melodrama at its finest.
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Holiday Inn? On the Netflix list. Thanks for the tip.
Olive the other reindeer? The BOOK is fantastic. My favorite part is where Olive meets Round John Virgin (from Silent Night).
And finally how can you leave off the moving with "I'm Mr. Heat Miser, I'm Mr. Sun" - I think its Santa Claus is coming to town. I love that song, and I sing it all year. It also has the classic "Put one foot in front of the other, and soon you'll be walking cross the flo oo oor!" Maybe it could be 13?
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