{"id":2553,"date":"2012-12-15T20:15:46","date_gmt":"2012-12-16T00:15:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.parksleepfly.com\/blog\/?p=2553"},"modified":"2025-08-22T06:07:46","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T10:07:46","slug":"favorite-holiday-movies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/parksleepfly.com\/blog\/favorite-holiday-movies\/","title":{"rendered":"Favorite Holiday Movies – Ours & Yours!"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are many words used about our tried-and-true Christmas movies \u2013 emotional and moving and family-sweet among them \u2013 but one you hear less often is among the most crucial: repeat. Our favorite holly-bedecked films become our favorites through their annual December return, each year, to our cable channels and DVRs. Soon we can say all the lines along with the characters we love, from \u201cBah! Humbug!\u201d to \u201cYou\u2019ll shoot your eye out!\u201d Thank their staying power, a staying power non-holiday movies can\u2019t rightly claim, for their places in our hearts. Thank them also for being good, and fun, and, yes, moving. Here are a few of our chestnut-scented favorites.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a Wonderful Life\u201d<\/a>: The town of Bedford Falls has entered myth, as has the town\u2019s most famous resident, the noble-of-spirit George Bailey. From George\u2019s sweet picket fence-adjacent stroll with Donna Reed to the tear-provoking closing scene where all the townspeople turn up to help an old pal, \u201cWonderful\u201d is wonderful, top to bottom. And Mr. Bailey, as played by the truly inimitable Jimmy Stewart, was a paragon for the changing world of 1946. And today, too, of course.<\/p>\n

\u201cMiracle on 34th<\/sup> Street\u201d<\/a>: Coming not long after \u201cIt\u2019s a Wonderful Life\u201d was this snappy \u2018n sappy life-affirmer (\u201csappy,\u201d of course, being a very good thing). A wee Natalie Wood and her mom, the always glamorous Maureen O\u2019Hara, meet the real Santa Claus at Macy\u2019s in New York. But is he the actual Kris Kringle? No spoilers here, although we\u2019re pretty sure there isn\u2019t a person born after 1947 who doesn\u2019t know the sparkly, cheerful reveal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhite Christmas\u201d<\/a>: It\u2019s a flick with a famous song for a title, though the stays-with-you-for-days \u201cSisters<\/a>\u201d is also a wonderful ditty. The film stars Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye as World War II vets looking to pay tribute to their former commanding officer; Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen are the sisters who sing \u201cSisters\u201d and fall in love with the gents (and vice versa). The sweet song for the general near the end makes this 1954 charmer solid gold. But, really, so does everything else in the movie, including the cozy Vermont setting.<\/p>\n

\u201cA Christmas Story\u201d: A tongue isn\u2019t normally the first thing one thinks about when one thinks of the holidays, but given that a tongue stuck to an icy pole on a dare is without a doubt this flick\u2019s most famous scene, we had to reference it first. The movie hails from 1983 but it\u2019s a sepia-toned look-back at a mid-century, all-Americana Christmas. Will Ralphie Parker ever get his dream gift, a Red Ryder BB Gun? Millions re-watch every year, just to see.<\/p>\n

\u201cScrooged\u201d<\/a>: A certain tale about a certain miser and his glorious change of heart gets re-imagined just about every year, so it can be hard to land on a favorite version of \u201cA Christmas Carol.\u201d George C. Scott? The Muppets<\/a>? They\u2019re all twinkly. But this 1988 laffer starring Bill Murray has a Christmas Past who\u2019s a cabbie, Carol Kane as a semi-not-nice fairy, and Mary Lou Retton as Tiny Tim. Surely Charles Dickens couldn\u2019t have foreseen his tale flowering in quite this funny manner, but it works.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are many words used about our tried-and-true Christmas movies \u2013 emotional and moving and family-sweet among them \u2013 but one you hear less often is among the most crucial: repeat. Our favorite holly-bedecked films become our favorites through their annual December return, each year, to our cable channels and DVRs. Soon we can say […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[681],"tags":[559,626],"yoast_head":"\nFavorite Holiday Movies<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When the holidays roll around, there's nothing better than curling up on the couch and watching your favorite holiday movies. So... 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