HO HO HO

It is Christmas Eve, and since this blog has always been about entertainment I want to discuss my favorite Christmas movies.  Now some of them are not Christmas at all, but hold some part of my heart during the season.  As soon as Thanksgiving is over, I am immediately ready for my Christmas movies.

This is true of my first Christmas favorite, Mamma Mia. I saw it about 4 years ago at Christmas time. I loved it and am a huge Abba fan.  I have fond memories of driving around North Phoenix looking at Christmas lights with my son, listening to Abba in the car. So when I think of that movie it is along with Christmas lights. This year I have fallen in love with another movie, that is becoming part of my Christmas movie marathon, it has nothing to do with Christmas, but is about love and a second chance.  It is We Bought a Zoo. I love Matt Damon and Scarlett Johanson, however, Maggie Elizabeth Jones is my new star. It tells the story of a man who has lost his wife, and drifts until he buys a house in the country that comes with a Zoo. It has the warmth of a great Christmas movie. So it is now part of my experience.

The second movie is slightly irreverent, and yet after turkey at Thanksgiving, it is my first of the season.  Christmas Vacation.  The wonderful Griswold Christmas, with exploding cats, Christmas tree fires, sleeping with your prepubescent brother, and green jello with kitty litter. Who doesn't love Randy Quaid as the white trash brother-in-law Eddie.


For a more British Christmas I found one in Love Actually. Honestly this is my new favorite of them all.  Love really is all around. It has Hugh Grant as the Prime Minister who falls for the cute yet foul-mouthed Natalie.  There is Alan Rickman as the straying husband of the very brilliant Emma Thompson.  Laura Linney as a codependent sister. Keira knightly and Andrew Lincoln (now of The Walking Dead fame) play part of an unrequited love triangle. Colin Firth is a jilted man who finds a new life with Portuguese Aurelia. Kris Marshall, finds love in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  Shy sex body doubles Martin Freeman and Joanna Page fall in love and marry. Finally, Liam Neeson is the great and widowed step father to orphaned and in-love Sam (Thomas Sangster).  I love so many parts of the film it would be easier to tell you what I did not like, which is almost nothing.

I do love classics ! I always watch "It's a Wonderful Life", with the amazing Jimmy Stewart, and Donna Reed as the Baileys of Bedford Falls  Then there is White Christmas with Bing Crosby and the amazing Danny Kaye help their former commanding officer at the Pine Tree Ski Lodge save his business. It includes Vera-Ellen and the wonderful Rosemary Clooney.  There is another movie I love for Christmas, called Holiday Inn with Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire. I used to confuse the two as they both take place at resorts, both are about buddies who are performers and both use the song "White Christmas".  Both are great films, but I personally think White Christmas is more magical.

There are wonderful TV Cartoons around the Holidays that are classics from my youth.  A Charlie Brown Christmas is a must see, along with Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, that follows the song, and Frosty the Snow Man also follows the song of the same name and is a classic narrated by the late Burl Ives.

I love movies, and TV.  This time of year there are so many wonderful shows and movies I possess, but these are really the ones that introduce the Christmas season for me.  Movies are one the my most treasured experiences in my life, and I hope you enjoy these as much as I do.