christmas movie essay

What makes Christmas movies so popular

Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Cinema and Media Studies, by special appointment, Hamilton College

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S. Brent Rodriguez-Plate does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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If you are one of those people who will settle in this evening with a hot cup of apple cider to watch a holiday movie, you are not alone. Holiday movies have become firmly embedded in Americans’ winter celebrations.

The New York Times reports a massive increase in new holiday movies this year. Disney, Netflix, Lifetime and Hallmark are now in direct competition for viewers’ attention, with both new releases and reruns of the classics.

Holiday movies are so popular not simply because they are “escapes,” as my research on the relation between religion and cinema argues. Rather, these films offer viewers a glimpse into the world as it is could be.

Christmas movies as reflection

This is particularly true with Christmas movies.

In his 2016 book “ Christmas as Religion ,” the religious studies scholar Christopher Deacy states that Christmas movies act as a “barometer of how we might want to live and how we might see and measure ourselves.”

These movies offer a variety of portraits of everyday life while affirming ethical values and social mores along the way.

The 1946 classic “ It’s a Wonderful Life ” – about a man who longs to travel but remains stuck in his childhood town – represents visions of a community in which every citizen is a vital component.

Another movie commonly replayed this time of year is 2005’s “ The Family Stone ” which portrays the clashes of a mostly average family but shows viewers that quarrels can be worked through and harmony is possible.

The 2003 British holiday film “ Love Actually ,” which follows the lives of eight couples in London, brings to viewers the perennial theme of romance and the trials of relationships.

Movie watching as ritual practice

As holiday movies bring viewers into a fictional world, people are able to work through their own fears and desires about self-worth and relationships. Such movies can provide solace, reaffirmation and sometimes even courage to continue working through difficult situations. The movies offer hope in believing it all might turn out alright in the end.

When people see some part of their own lives unfold on screen, the act of viewing operates in a fashion that’s strikingly similar to how a religious ritual works.

As anthropologist Bobby Alexander explains, rituals are actions that transform people’s everyday lives. Rituals can open up “ordinary life to ultimate reality or some transcendent being or force,” he writes in the collection “ Anthropology of Religion .”

For example, for Jews and Christians, ritually observing the Sabbath day by sharing meals with family and not working connects them with the creation of the world. Prayer rituals in the Muslim, Christian and Jewish traditions connect those praying with their God, as well as with their fellow believers.

Holiday movies do something similar, except that the “transcendent force” they make viewers feel is not about God or another supreme being. Instead, this force is more secular: It’s the power of family, true love, the meaning of home or the reconciliation of relationships.

Movies create an idealized world

Take the case of the 1942 musical “ Holiday Inn .” It was one of the first movies – after the silent era’s various versions of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” – where the plot used Christmas as a backdrop, telling the story of a group of entertainers who have gathered at a country inn.

In reality, it was a deeply secular film about romantic interests, couched in a desire to sing and dance. When it was released, the United States had been fully involved in the World War II for a year and national spirits were not high.

The movie hasn’t endured as a classic. But Bing Crosby’s song “White Christmas,” which appeared in it, quickly became etched in the holiday consciousness of many Americans, and a 1954 film called “ White Christmas ” became better known.

As historian Penne Restad puts it in her 1995 book “Christmas in America,” Crosby’s crooning offers the “quintessential expression” of the holidays, a world which “has no dark side” – one in which “war is forgotten.”

In subsequent Christmas movies, the main plots have not been set in the context of war, yet there is nonetheless often a battle: that of overcoming a materialistic, gift-buying and gift-giving kind of holiday.

Movies like “ Jingle all the Way ,” “ Deck the Halls ” and “ How the Grinch Stole Christmas ” center around the idea that the true meaning of Christmas is not in rampant consumerism but in goodwill and family love.

Dr. Seuss’s famously grouchy Grinch thinks he can ruin Christmas by taking all the gifts away. But as the people gather together, giftless, they join hands and sing while the narrator tells viewers, “Christmas came anyway.”

“All’s right with the world”

Though Christmas is a Christian holiday, most holiday films are not religious in the traditional sense. There is hardly ever a mention of Jesus or the biblical setting of his birth.

As media studies scholar John Mundy writes in a 2008 essay, “Christmas and the Movies,” “Hollywood movies continue to construct Christmas as an alternative reality.”

These movies create on-screen worlds that kindle positive emotions while offering a few laughs.

“ A Christmas Story ,” from 1983, waxes nostalgic for childhood holidays when life seemed simpler and the desire for a Red Ryder air rifle was the most important thing in the world. The plot of 2003’s “ Elf ” centers on the quest to reunite with a lost father.

In the end, as the narrator says late in “A Christmas Story” – after the family has overcome a serious of risible mishaps, the presents have been unwrapped and they’ve gathered for Christmas goose – these are times when “all’s right with the world.”

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Why Christmas Movies Make Us Feel Good

The health benefits of nostalgia, romance, family, snowflakes, and miracles..

Posted December 4, 2022 | Reviewed by Lybi Ma

• The familiar tropes, and simple, predictable, and non-stressful stories of Christmas movies deliver comfort and improve mood.
• Recurring themes of romance, family, and friendship reflect and satisfy our deep-seated need for social connection.
• Holiday movies build bonds across generations and feel like visiting old friends.
• Feel-good holiday films provide a welcome escape from the pressures of real-world demands.

There's no better way to start the holidays than with a Christmas or Holiday movie. Lists of the "Best Christmas Movies" are everywhere, and Hallmark Channel launched its Countdown to Christmas over Thanksgiving, with ratings that were only bested by ESPN football coverage. Hallmark's promise of 40 new holiday movies this season is a drop in a bucket already filled with old holiday classics from A Christmas Story and White Christmas to new ones like Love Actually and the Christmas Chronicles . Yes, holiday movies are formulaic, predictable, and often cheesy. But they also offset the stress , family pressure, and gloom from shorter days and less sunshine (in the northern hemisphere). An evening spent watching a feel-good movie can be an easy, low-cost, and rewarding form of self-care.

The Benefits of Holiday Movies

There are several benefits from a journey into Christmas movie land. Holiday movies can boost mood and relieve symptoms of depression by providing an escape from daily stressors and increasing perspective-taking . They are heart-healthy, reducing stress hormones like cortisol that can damage the cardiovascular and immune systems. Positive emotions, like hope, joy, and gratitude , can stir personal and social reflection and inspire new activities and goals. Sharing a movie increases intimacy and can even improve relationships. And they are easy, uncomplicated, and have happy endings (Wildschut & Sedikides, 2020)..

Nostalgia Triggers Emotion

Christmas movies are designed to activate emotional resonance through nostalgia . They rely on our desire to visit the "good old days" with images, stories, and music that stimulate our sentimental and wistful associations from the past. Christmas movies remind us of times in our lives that were simple, hopeful, fun, and happy (Newman et al., 2020). We have a cognitive "nostalgia" bias that makes us think things were better "before." Some people see memories through rose-colored glasses because the negative emotions of the past fade faster than positive ones for them. As time goes on, the good things get better; the bad ones recede, making us yearn for those better days (Routledge et al, 2013).

Christmas movies trigger those psychological longings to feel loved and safe. Several theories of motivation are based on the need for human connection. It is at the core of healthy psychological and physiological development. We all want to be loved and included, to feel protected and safe and we respond instinctively to social connection, even in media. Christmas movies capture that sense of safety by taking us on a journey into a world of childlike simplicity and innocence—where families are warm, welcoming, and fun, where friends and partners bask in the glow of good cheer, and where we feel embraced, protected, and loved, and where there is still a promise of magic and wishes fulfilled under the tree.

Feel-Good Stress Busters

Since very few of us have "Hallmark Christmas" lives, the movies provide a welcome escape from the pressures and demands of the real world. The holiday season can bring unwanted guests and annoying family members and the burdens of gift-giving and entertaining. Holidays can exacerbate financial strain and emphasize our loneliness and isolation. Images of Christmas can also make us aware when our lives, families, jobs, or friends don't live up to our aspirational ideals and desires. It's no wonder that depression and anxiety spike during the holidays. It also explains the relief we feel when holiday movies wildly exaggerate those holiday woes, like Christmas with the Cranks , Bad Santa , or Bad Moms Christmas .

Christmas movies allow us to flee the stressors of the holiday and forget our troubles. They provide easy access to effective an effective coping strategy: a healthy, time-limited escape traveling into a story that makes us feel good, reminds us of the meaning of love, helps us feel gratitude for family and friends, and even have a little vicarious romance. The predictability of holiday movie plots and characters is part of the appeal. Pick your fantasy : rekindled relationships, mismatched lovers, small-town antics, royals in disguise, discovering the real meaning of Christmas, snow on Christmas morning, or overcoming the odds. Whatever the conflict, the genre guarantees a feel-good, grant-your-wishes ending to anticipate (Walters, 2019).

Family-Friendly Bonding Traditions

It's an added benefit that most holiday movies are family-friendly, providing a way to create new traditions. When we watch with others, we create shared memories, amplify positive emotions, and strengthen relationships (Fiese et al., 2002). The laughter and joking about unrealistic movie tropes create a positive bonding experience; the stress and conflict in dramas provide a safe space to process personal struggles and feel supported by others—especially when we know they have a happy ending. For years, our kids watched Charlie Brown Christmas and The Muppet Christmas Carol . Now all grown with families of their own, they still make a point of watching them together—even if some join via Facetime.

Happy Brain, Happy Body

Our brains find comfort in patterns. The predictable happy endings combined with joy, laughter, and happy tears trigger our neural rewards center. Changes in mood affect our body chemistry; lifting our spirits makes us feel good physically. Laughter becomes a literal antidote to stress without involving pharmaceuticals.

Feel-good movies do more than just make us happy for a moment. While there's nothing wrong with enjoying fleeting hedonic experiences, drama with resolution can also provide a longer-lasting form of happiness that increase well-being. Feel-good movies can be inspirational, uplifting, and profoundly moving, provoking us to reflect, see things in a new way, or feel inspired to make new plans (Raney et al., 2019).

When we rewatch a favorite movie or talk about them with friends, we mentally replay scenes and reexperience emotions. The anticipation of the emotional journey we know is to follow creates a neural reward before the movie even starts. When the characters feel like old friends and the settings like familiar places, these parasocial connections trigger the oxytocin -induced warm fuzzies of real social experience.

Positive Media Consumption

Positive psychology represented a shift in how psychologists approached the spectrum of human experience. The focus on pathology made room for the scientific study of the things that helped people flourish. This extends to media consumption. Media gets a bad rap, but there are recognized benefits of media-related activities like watching movies, from mood-boosting and stress release to personal and social reflection.

So, if you're starting to feel the holiday stress, make some popcorn and take a holiday movie vacation. Consider it a form of self-care. Remember that positive emotions encourage productivity that will make your chores go faster, and resilience that will make any testy relative a little easier to bear.

Fiese, B. H., Tomcho, T. J., Douglas, M., Josephs, K., Poltrock, S., & Baker, T. (2002). A Review of 50 Years of Research on Naturally Occurring Family Routines and Rituals: Cause for Celebration? Journal of Family Psychology, 16(4), 381.

Newman, D. B., Sachs, M. E., Stone, A. A., & Schwarz, N. (2020). Nostalgia and Well-Being in Daily Life: An Ecological Validity Perspective. JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, 118(2), 325.

Raney, A. A., Oliver, M. B., & Bartsch, A. (2019). Eudaimonia as Media Effect. In Media Effects (pp. 258-274). Routledge.

Routledge, C., Wildschut, T., Sedikides, C., & Juhl, J. (2013). Nostalgia as a Resource for Psychological Health and Well‐Being. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 7(11), 808-818.

Walters, J. H. (2019). Personal Storytelling for Wellbeing; Form, Content and Process. Sheffield Hallam University (United Kingdom).

Wildschut, T., & Sedikides, C. (2020). The Psychology of Nostalgia: Delineating the Emotion’s Nature and Functions. In Nostalgia Now (pp. 47-65). Routledge.

Pamela Rutledge, Ph.D., M.B.A. , is the Director of the Media Psychology Research Center and a professor of media psychology at Fielding Graduate University.

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What I learned about writing from watching Hallmark Christmas movies

An appreciation of hallmark requires swimming against the tide of a half-century of literary and political criticism..

This article was originally published Dec. 13, 2017.

For more than a year, I served as official caregiver to my wife of 46 years, Karen Clark. Two years ago she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Two surgeries followed, along with three months of chemotherapy, and 37 radiation treatments. It has been a life-changing experience, of course, and I am happy to report that all her doctors express great optimism about her prospects.

As a caregiver, I can testify that four powerful forces combined to help both of us through our struggle:

• Medical science
• Prayer and magical thinking
• Comfort food (mashed potatoes and tapioca pudding)
• Hallmark Christmas movies

It is this last force I want to cover in this essay, which is meant as a parable, not for cancer patients or caregivers, but for writers everywhere. I try to learn something new about the craft every day and that includes the writing knowledge that comes from watching these happy holiday movies on my 55-inch screen.

But first picture this. A cancer patient is deep into chemotherapy. She has lost all her hair and may be losing weight. She doesn’t want to look in the mirror much because she thinks she looks like a prisoner in a concentration camp. No matter what the doctor says, she feels as if she is dying. She needs help coming to terms with this crucial concept: It is not the cancer that is making her feel this way. It’s the cure.

The poisons are hard at work, hunting down any ninja cancer cells now making their way through her system. She is laying a bet, of sorts, that these treatments will raise her prospects of avoiding a re-occurrence from 70 percent after surgery to maybe 85 or even 90 percent.

We’ll take those odds: a half-year of hell for many more years of health.

But what do you do while you are lying on a couch most of the day, feeling like you are dying? You watch Hallmark Christmas movies. They have become so popular, in fact, that, according to a story in the Washington Post, even former critics of their formulaic sentimentality, have come around. Each movie is a happy pill for what’s ailing us in America, a sweet alternative to popping opioids.

If you have not seen one, I encourage you to do so. In the meantime, the best way to introduce you to the genre — and it is as exacting a genre as a Shakespearean sonnet — is to offer you a movie treatment of sorts. Imagine, please, that I am pitching a movie to Hallmark. I have seen about a dozen of these, so it may turn out that I am actually writing a composite of the narratives I’ve witnessed.

Here we go:

A young woman, Marci McGregor, is headed home for Christmas. She is 31, single, but interested in a co-worker, a handsome, but slightly overbearing real estate developer in Miami, where she now lives. His name is Neil.

Marci is successful in her work, pretty, but not beautiful. She is unhappy in her personal life, but doesn’t know that yet.

She decides to travel home for the Christmas holidays. She grew up in Snowbound, Ohio, a rural town of farms and small businesses.  Her parents raised her in a picturesque farmhouse out in the woods, but not far from town. Her dad was a successful attorney, who passed away not long ago. Marci’s mom Peggy runs a side business, always a big hit during the winter months, especially during the Christmas holidays.

People from all over the country travel to Snowbound to experience sleigh rides. Make that “one-horse open sleigh” rides. Since the death of her husband, Peggy is trying to keep up the family business, but is having a hard time. She secures the help of Uncle Nicky, but at the age of 80, with his white beard and flannel shirts, he looks like a Santa abandoned by his elves and reindeer. “I’m all tuckered out,” is his favorite expression.

When Marci returns to Snowbound, she is re-introduced to the magic of her childhood.  A snowstorm blows in, threatening to extend her stay. Marci realizes her mother is no longer capable of taking care of the farmhouse on her own and tries to persuade her to retire to Miami and move into a condo.

Enter a nice looking — but not handsome — man named Mitchell Lawlor. Mitch is a neighbor of the McGregors. He is 39. He is the single dad of a cute — but not adorable — 8-year-old girl named Rosie. Mitch’s wife died three years ago (we never learn the cause) and he has tried his best to raise his daughter. Sometimes Peggy and Uncle Nicky help him out.

Mitch is the editor of the Snowbound Sun, a weekly newspaper that serves the surrounding counties. He inherited the paper from his dad. His father always assumed Mitch would move away to find a better job in a bigger town, but Mitch came to understand, after the passing of his wife, what it meant to live in a tight-knit community.

There is another woman in town with designs on Mitch. Mona is quite beautiful and wealthy — and, unlike Marci, blond and divorced. She wants to purchase and knock down several of the older farmhouses, clearing the land and selling it to an agricultural conglomerate that has its sights on all of Snowbound.

Okay, that’s enough. You can guess the rest:

• Marci reluctantly begins to fall for Mitch.
• Mona senses the competition and does whatever she can to sabotage Marci.
• Neil keeps calling from Miami, wondering when Marci will be coming back to Florida.
• Marci reconnects with her mom and other townspeople, suddenly reminded of the blessings of small-town America.
• Marci begins to bond with little Rosie. Mitch notices this and begins to change his mind that he would never marry again after the loss of his wife.
• Uncle Nicky, it turns out, is not just a codger. Full of folk wisdom, he offers Marci gentle advice that clears her vision. “The weather may be warm in Miami,” he tells her, “but our hearts are warm here in Snowbound.”
• On a perfect snowy evening, Uncle Nicky offers to take Marci, Rosie, and Mitch on a horse-drawn sleigh ride. It is a transformative experience. When they get back to the farmhouse, Nicky takes Rosie into the farmhouse for some hot chocolate (extra marshmallows!). Marci and Mitch sit in the sleigh as the snow falls gently, each flake aglow. They kiss — but no tongue.
• Marci decides to move back home. She and Mitch will join forces, raise Rosie, fight off big agriculture, and do their best to preserve the values that make Snowbound special.

When I am watching these movies, I do my best to give myself over to the narrative. That means an abandonment of irony and cynicism, a relaxing of my critical muscle. Then, in tranquility — maybe with a beer in one hand and a pen in the other — I can list the requirements of the genre.

The protagonist: Young, white, pretty but not beautiful, in her late 20s or early 30s. She is successful, an ambitious professional woman who has moved away from the small town she was raised in to make her way in the big city. Never married, she has had men in her life, but never the right one. She is often played by a familiar actress, someone you recognize from television work when she was younger, the kind of performer where you say, “Oh, I know her … [snapping of fingers] … she was in [such and such].” The main problem with our protagonist is that she is successful, but unhappy — and she doesn’t know it.  She desperately needs a return to her roots.

The setting: The main character must find herself in small-town America, a place with a Northern climate and a good chance of snow. Think Idaho or Ohio. The snow is magical. No paralyzing blizzards. The snowflakes must be as big as cornflakes, big enough to cover the ground for sledding and to cover the landscape for beauty. This snow floats from sky to ground even when the sun is shining. Since this movie is set at Christmas time, the town must have an appropriate name: Evergreen, Joyville, Holly Park, Pine Village, Snowbound.

Minor characters: We need a love interest, a man who may not attract her at first; maybe he is already engaged, or she knew him back in the day and nothing clicked. To form a triangle, there must be another woman, beautiful, entitled — but not entitled to him.  A child is optional, but desirable, but not more than one, please. We need a wisdom figure with Santa-like qualities. Finally, to form another triangle of sorts we need another man — boyfriend, boss — who represents a gravitational force back to the big city and away from small-town values.

Story pattern: A number of archetypes — bending toward stereotypes — are at work here. The first is the classic tension between big urban and small town values. American literature plays out this tension in countless narratives. If you think they are just literary, consider for a moment the 2016 presidential election and its consequences.

The Wizard of Oz, written by a Midwesterner, gave us the theme of “there’s no place like home.” But this stands in constant contrast to the magnetic force of the frontier: “Go West, young man.” In the myth of the American West, people are renewed in their journey away from home. In the Hallmark universe, they are not renewed but corrupted. It is in the return to home that the heart is converted and paradise is regained.

The traditional hostility to Hallmark movies comes from a long-standing skepticism expressed toward sentimentality as an aesthetic experience. Scholars have noted that the sentimental novel and the pornographic novel arrive in Western civilization at about the same time — the 18th century. They are written, of course, for different audiences, but both have a parallel purpose: arousal. Most pornography is meant to stimulate the senses in men. The sentimental story is meant to purge the emotions, to move women to tears. (For the record, I cried this morning after watching a Toyota ad on the telly!)

In spite of this appreciation of the Hallmark movies, I must confess that I am reluctant to enjoy them too much. Even to honor them as a genre feels, well, unmanly. (I suspect there is a strong feminist critique nearby as well, skeptical of stories in which a woman, say, gives up a promising career for family life in a small town.) Beyond unmanly, my appreciation feels uncritical. After all, it has taken me more than four decades to sharpen my skepticism, my ironic sensibility, my post-modern critique, my aggressive meta-cognition, my dark denial of truth-making. Excuse the jargon, friends, but an appreciation of Hallmark requires swimming against the tide of a half-century of literary and political criticism.

I find a colleague in a scholar named Rita Felski, author of a book titled “The Limits of Critique.” I have no idea how she would react to my little story about the town of Snowbound, but I know she believes that a cynical view of the world — one that comes from a hyper-skeptical education — can often lead to a limited perspective of culture and the works that constitute it.

When we accept “skepticism as dogma,” as journalists often do, we align ourselves with both an effete intellectualism and a corrupt populism. Felski notes, “There is a growing sense that our intellectual life is out of kilter, that scholars in the humanities are far more fluent in nay-saying than in yay-saying, and that eternal vigilance, unchecked by alternatives, can easily lapse into the complacent cadences of auto-pilot argument. It is a matter, in short, of diminishing returns, of ways of thinking that no longer surprise us, while closing off other paths as ‘insufficiently critical.’”

When there is too much skepticism from political partisans, “… it can often take forms that are much less likely to garner sympathy from professors…: right-wing populism, hostility toward big government, grassroots opposition to multiculturalism and a scapegoating of migrants, disdain for out-of-touch intellectuals and an energetic debunking of their scholarly credentials.” For the record, Felski published this in 2015.

The metronomic critique that even responsible reporting constitutes “fake news” has turned skepticism — by way of cynicism — into nihilism.

So join me, if you dare, in front of the television set for the next Hallmark Christmas movie. Oh, wait, I saw that one before.  Oh, what the hell, I’ll watch it again.  It’s the antidote — at least for the moment — to all that ails you. Even cancer.

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Writing Christmas Films & Navigating the Holidays: The ULTIMATE Guide

When writing Christmas films there’s multiple sub-genres and elements to consider to make it the perfect holiday watch. It’s no secret that there are a range of elements to cover when trying to make a classic Christmas film. But where do you start? And how do you make sure you’re following the right beats whilst writing something fresh? We take a look…

Table of Contents

What is a christmas film, 1. christmas genre: romantic comedy holiday, 2. christmas genre: fantasy holiday, 3. christmas genre: horror holiday, 4. christmas genre: action holiday, 5. christmas genre: family comedy holiday, 6. christmas genre: holiday adventure, 7. christmas genre: animated holiday, 8. christmas genre: musical holiday, 9. christmas genre: dark comedy holiday, 10. lifetime christmas films & hallmark christmas films, 1. a christmas transformation, 2. from non-believers into believers, 3. two worlds collide – magic vs. life, 4. emotional guarantee, 5. a journey to saving christmas, 6. moral lessons, 7. time for romance, 8. together with the family, 9. conflict, 10. nostalgia, in conclusion: happy holidays.

Christmas films can come via many different genres. But one thing all Christmas films have in common is that the festive time is established straight away. The themes are not subtle. Whether Christmas is in the forefront or the background of the story, the film reminds the audience of the holiday season upfront.

When writing Christmas films it’s helpful to think of two forms of theme – abstract themes and concrete themes.

Abstract themes are, for example, feelings of selflessness and endearment.

• These feelings can change depending on the genre.
• For example, romantic Christmas films evoke feelings of warmth and generosity. Whereas horror Christmas films induce terror and fear.
• But both are considered to be in the Christmas film universe.

In comparison, concrete themes are physical changes.

• These can include a physical transformation and a character arc where the protagonist undergoes a substantial journey.

Christmas films often contain themes of tragedy and profundity too. For example, The Family Stone (2005) is a romantic comedy and Christmas classic. Yet the poignant ending showcases that although the holiday season is a magical time it can still be grounded in reality.

In contrast to this, some Christmas films have such a heavy focus on this magical element that the real world never shines through. Thus, all it’s aiming to do is make the audience break free from reality for a few hours by escaping into a fantasy world.

So you can see that Christmas films are a broad church. They can cover a myriad of different genres, themes and intentions. But they’re unified by Christmas and the holidays as a backdrop. However, Christmas isn’t just a backdrop but a key driver of the story in one way or another.

The Different Types of Hybrid Christmas Genres

Christmas movies can take the form of many genres. From bright and airy rom-coms to terrifying horror films. We’ve broken down 10 of the major Christmas-hybrid genres below.

Often these sub-genres overlap and Christmas films will be made up of a mixture of many together. But however you use these sub-genres, when writing Christmas films they can act as a guide for you to find the right tone and potential market.

Romantic comedy is a sub-genre of comedy and focuses on characters in a romantic relationship with comedic elements. These often include comedic characters, storylines and amusing scenarios in which the protagonist finds themselves unwittingly involved.

When writing Christmas films this genre tends to be the most popular. The lovers typically end up together and the holiday is a light-hearted time, where positivity is supposedly all around.

At a time of year when people want something for Christmas, sometimes that something is a new love or love they’ve always wanted. The romantic comedy holiday genre takes a very popular genre, the romantic comedy, and adds a sprinkle of Christmas. It’s the perfect recipe for easy, breezy watching during and approaching the holidays.

Examples: Love Actually (2003), The Holiday (2006), Four Christmases (2008), The Princess Switch (2018), Last Christmas (2019).

Fantasy films combine magical elements with imaginary worlds to create fantastical stories.

Fantasy takes the Christmas traditions of the real world and plants them in the imaginary world. This way, the audience can identify with the themes whilst being taken on an adventure.

Christmas is often the perfect excuse to explore fantastical worlds or a fantastical intrusion on the real world. It’s an opportunity to heighten emotion, themes and setting. And it’s therefore the perfect ground for the imagination to run wild. It can provide an unusual take on a familiar setting and consequently give fresh thematic insight.

Examples: It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), Edward Scissorhands (1990) and How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000).

Holiday horror films evoke the same feelings of terror and fear in horror films but with a festive spin. This is an alternative way to enjoy the Christmas spirit.

Horror holiday classic franchise Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984-2012), for example, turns Santa Claus into an axe-wielding maniac. Whilst Gremlins turns seemingly sweet Christmas toys into creatures you definitely wouldn’t want to find underneath the tree.

This sub-genre is often an opportunity to have some fun with the context of Christmas. It allows for capitalization on the market for Christmas films but does something original and alternative with the story.

Examples: Black Christmas (1974 & 2019), Gremlins (1984) and Krampus (2015).

Action holiday movies involve high octane action around the holiday season. And writing Christmas films for the action genre typically involves either foregrounding Christmas or placing it in the background.

For example, protagonist John McClane in Die Hard is the classic action hero trying to save the day in the backdrop of his wife’s office Christmas party.

In contrast, Christmas action classic, Reindeer Games , sees robbers dressed in Santa suits. It foregrounds the festive season and doesn’t let the audience forget that Christmas can be twisted.

For some, the holiday season is not a time for relaxation but for action. Christmas might not be a particularly resonant theme for the film in this sub-genre. But it’s nonetheless an important way to bring characters and storylines together.

Examples: Die Hard (1988), Lethal Weapon (1989) and Reindeer Games (2000).

Comedy and family come together to show that the majority of fictional families have the same problems as real-life households.

The Family Stone (2005) is a great example of a close-knit traditional family dynamic intruded upon by the favourite son, Everett’s fiancé and her sister. The problems in family-comedy holiday films are typically relatable and realistic. However, they’re also heightened for comedic effect.

In addition to family problems, in Elf , for example, Buddy is trying to find his real father in a world unknown to him. And this need for family drives his character journey. Moreover, Deck the Halls plays with the need for strong family reputations when neighbours go head-to-head to compete for the best Christmas lights display.

These films often take familiar storylines and turn them up a notch. They heighten the stakes and consequently raise the opportunities for comedy.

Examples: National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989), Elf (2003) and Deck the Halls (2006).

Adventure holiday films take the audience and protagonist on an epic journey. The protagonist moves quickly through the environment and will face a daunting antagonist . They’re taken away from their comfort zone and we’re consequently taken somewhere new and exciting.

Moreover, the protagonist will transform. This will most likely be through the act of giving in the true nature of Christmas or the gathering of family. After an epic journey, the true spirit of Christmas hits them and makes them change their ways. But it’s the adventurous nature of the journey that provides the meat of the story in this sub-genre.

Examples: Home Alone (1990), Jingle All the Way (1996), The Christmas Chronicles (2018) and The Christmas Chronicles 2 (2020).

Animated Christmas films see characters going on adventures in a bid to save Christmas. Usually, they involve characters crossing the realm between real life and the fantasy world. The adventure typically needs to involve both worlds in order for the story to work.

For example, Jack Skellington in The Nightmare Before Christmas crosses between his known world of Halloween Town into the unknown world of Christmas Town.

Similarly, ‘Hero Boy’ in The Polar Express goes from Michigan to the North Pole to find out if Santa Claus really exists. Animation allows vast imagination and Christmas to combine. And this often creates highly original visions. The world is limitless here and the audience will typically be families and children. For such audiences, Christmas is the perfect time to be captivated by a unique, fantastical vision and world.

Examples: The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), The Polar Express (2004) and Arthur Christmas (2011).

Musical holiday films usually embed singing, dancing and performing within the narrative. However, these stories also have strong plotlines as the characters break into song as a way to convey their feelings and emotions.

Additionally, the majority of holiday musicals are built on an ensemble of characters, with relationships at the heart of the story.

Musicals and Christmas go well together because of the celebratory nature of the Christmas spirit. It’s often a time for stories of heightened emotion and heightened characters. Therefore, characters breaking out into song in order to express the full nature of their thoughts and feelings doesn’t seem so strange.

Examples: Nativity! (2009 – 2018), Anna and the Apocalypse (2017) and Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey (2020).

Dark comedies take a different comedic approach. Here serious topics are undermined and placed under comedic scrutiny. Writing Christmas films of this kind is another chance to put an alternative and original spin on Christmas.

Bad Santa (2003), for example, takes the good reputation of St Nicholas and reduces him to a conman who acts as Santa for a big department store. Conman Willie Stokes is the worst possible portrayal of this character. Santa being an alcoholic criminal turns the table on conventional Christmas films.

Additionally, it is perhaps the rarest holiday genre because it portrays a somewhat realistic view of the festive season. Gone are the solely saccharine takes on the most wonderful time of year. In comes acerbic attitudes and a dose of bah humbug. Typically these films often leave room for the Christmas spirit to take hold eventually. But that’s not how they’re presented and certainly not how they start.

The audience for these films will likely strictly be adults, who long for a film that doesn’t fawn over Christmas and instead provides something a little different.

Examples: Scrooged (1988), Mixed Nuts (1994) and Bad Santa (2003).

On the opposite end of the spectrum are overtly romantic and family-orientated Christmas films. These films make no bones about chasing the gooey, saccharine Christmas feeling. That’s their mission statement and that’s what everyone watching knows they’re getting themselves in for.

Lifetime and Hallmark films are perhaps the most prominent and classic examples of these kinds of films. Writing Christmas films for either Lifetime or Hallmark might include such elements as: a new romance or a couple reuniting for the Holidays, the whole family gathering together, a love that seemed out of bounds finally becoming a reality. This is all wrapped up with Christmas settings and holiday decorations.

Examples of Lifetime Christmas Movies: Too Close For Christmas (2020), The Holiday Fix Up (2021), A Fiancé for Christmas (2021). Examples of Hallmark Christmas Movies: Tis the Season to be Merry (2021), Sugar Plum Twist (2021), Gingerbread Miracle (2021).

10 Key Elements to Writing Christmas Films

So there are a number of different sub-genres that a Christmas movie can fall into. But what are the elements that actually make up the story arc? When writing Christmas films, what is important to keep track of in terms of the main themes? It’s clear to see that there are some familiar, recurring themes and story beats across the Christmas film genre. Below are 10 of the main key elements…

Writing Christmas films usually entails the protagonist learning something along their journey. Perhaps the best example of this is George Bailey in It’s A Wonderful Life (1947). He starts and ends in a very different place emotionally. And it’s the time of year that allows for his family to come together and for him to see his true value to them and vice versa.

In this journey, the protagonist changes their old ways and the magic of Christmas alters their perception. But most importantly, they realise their mistakes. This big realisation is a progressive journey running the course of the film. However, it’s only in the third act that the character fully changes.

The holiday season provides an opportunity for us to reflect on our lives and re-think what’s truly important. And Christmas films often represent this through the protagonist ‘s transformative arc.

Similarly, across Christmas in cinema, there are many brilliant examples of characters who do not believe in the power of this magical time of year. Examples include Buddy’s father in Elf (2003), Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol and The Grinch in How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000).

There is usually a character, protagonist or otherwise, whose role it is to convince this character to see the true power of Christmas. And by the end of the film, they have achieved their goal. This isn’t always about the character changing overall ( as the previous element is). It’s often typically just about the attitude towards Christmas itself.

These films present us with those who are cynical about Christmas and via changing their attitude, proves what it’s really all about.

Most Christmas movies overlap the contrasting elements of magic and reality. But some Christmas films separate these magical and realist elements. These are usually fish-out-of-water stories. For example, Buddy in Elf grows up in the North Pole but travels to Manhattan to find his real father. However, the two worlds are separate until Buddy arrives and the elements overlap. Here, he clearly stands out among New Yorkers.

Additionally, magical elements overlap in The Christmas Chronicles (2018). This film is set in the real world with magical features. Similarly, It’s a Wonderful Life (1947) is set in the real world but a guardian angel comes to show George Bailey what life would look like without him. This, therefore, overlaps reality with the fantastical.

In contrast, The Santa Clause franchise (1994 – 2006) separates the two worlds of the North Pole and home. But it also makes it known that Santa exists and travels between both worlds.

Being that Christmas is itself a fantasy (sorry kids), providing a juxtaposition between two worlds of fantasy and reality can be a great way to tap into the spirit. It allows for a sprinkle of the magical, whilst also keeping the story grounded.

Love Actually (2003) is an emotional rollercoaster with its intertwining Christmas stories and interchangeable emotions. It goes from a positive moment for one character to a negative turn for another character.

It’s not as straightforward as a singular character going on a journey. Instead, many different characters experience a range of different emotions, some complicated and difficult, throughout the course of the film. But Love Actually proves one of the golden rules of the Christmas film – that in the end, the emotion pays off in a positive and uplifting way.

We sense this is where the film is going and the reward is in watching the story get there through its different arcs. It may be cheesy and a little predictable. But in this sense, it’s a genre where the audience knows what they are getting. There is an emotional guarantee implicit in the tone and it takes a bold, alternative direction to subvert this.

The art of saving Christmas is present in a great majority of holiday films. Whether it’s reuniting a couple in time for Christmas in While You Were Sleeping (1995) or fulfilling a child’s Christmas wishes in Jingle All The Way (1996).

Similarly, in Noelle (2019), Santa’s daughter must find her brother in time for Christmas after he flees his duties as Santa Claus’ heir. It’s often the protagonist ‘s job to save Christmas from the threat of an antagonist force.

Via this theme , Christmas is presented as a precious thing that often must be fought for. It’s another way of demonstrating its value and getting audiences in the right frame of mind to enjoy it. The characters (and audience) may take Christmas for granted. But this theme is out to show that this shouldn’t be the case, forcing the character into justifying its existence and value.

Christmas films often present the characters and audience with the chance to learn a moral lesson. And perhaps the best example of this comes in A Christmas Carol . This isn’t just a time for transformation. It’s also a time for characters to learn how their past mistakes match up with their new reality.

Ebenezer Scrooge learns the implication of his current way of life. He sees how his actions affect others. And he comes to eventually understand the detrimental effect his own negativity has. This is the ultimate moral lesson, teaching the value of kindness towards neighbors.

And Christmas films often make this their modus operandi. They see Christmas as a time for us all to reflect on our actions towards those around us. Furthermore, they implore us to see the possibility of change. A New Year can bring a new start.

Christmas films often use a time of year when everyone is getting together to put together two characters either destined for each other or seeking to be with someone.

Again, Christmas provides the opportunity for characters to reflect on what (or who!) they really want. Magic is in the air and therefore so is romance. Everyone being together for Christmas might highlight the protagonist ‘s own isolation and consequently force them into action when it comes to their love life. Or the novelty of the holiday period may be the catalyst for two lovers meeting for the first time or finally getting together.

Either way, Christmas films provide the perfect backdrop for a romantic arc to take place. This applies whether the arc takes up the main body of the film or acts as a subplot.

The majority of Christmas films centre on perfect families, all decorated with presents and festive spirits. However, in Surviving Christmas (2004), millionaire protagonist Drew, pays a family to spend Christmas with him. They need money and he needs family. It’s an alternative take on the Christmas family story but it ultimately conveys the same message – the importance of family at this time of year.

Deck the Halls (2006), meanwhile, is a film that revels in Christmas family traditions, such as ugly Christmas jumpers and annual family photographs. Every family differs in their festive traditions and Deck the Halls is a chance to enjoy these dynamics. Neighbors Buddy and Steve go all out to compete in the race for the best decorations, taking these traditions to their extreme.

Additionally, Kevin McCallister’s parents in Home Alone (1990) learn the importance of the whole family being together. They come to understand the value of every family member after leaving Kevin home alone.

However they get there, Christmas films will typically convey the importance of family. Characters might have taken their family for granted for the rest of the year. But the holidays force them, one way or another, to appreciate what they have or what they’re missing in the first place.

However, other holiday films may focus on the reality of families at Christmas. Via drama, tension and embarrassment, conflict can make up a big part of many holiday movies.

This is often deployed for comedic effect, via drama in Christmas with the Kranks (2004), to tension in Love the Coopers (2015) to embarrassment in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989).

The conflict may serve comedy more than searing drama. But typically the original conflict will stem from a genuine place. The conflicts in Christmas family dramas are usually relatable and cathartic for the audience. These may include certain characteristics of family members clashing or rekindling emotional connections.

Again, the holidays provide an opportunity for resolution. Conflict comes to a head but is usually solved by the end of the story. An alternative take would be to use Christmas as an opportunity to bring families together and blow them apart. However, either way, it’s clear to see that family is an important part of the Christmas film, whether for better or worse.

Christmas films will often tell stories through a nostalgic lens. Characters may reminisce on childhood experiences. Or writers and filmmakers may themselves be reminiscing on their own experiences of Christmas. Either way, nostalgia makes up an important part of Christmas films as it allows the audience to connect with the story, regardless of their age.

This is often what gives holiday movies in general their universal appeal. Whilst younger audiences may be transfixed by the magic of Christmas, adults will get the opportunity to think of their own experiences of Christmas throughout the years. There’s something for everyone in this regard.

Christmas is often a time when people of all ages come together. And so Christmas films need to provide a unifying experience, something that intimate holiday nostalgia can do very well.

Christmas films can take form through many sub-genres. There is a malleability to the genre in this sense. Many ways to slice the pie. But the key elements and themes of writing Christmas films are what make the genre tick. And they’re what Christmas and the holidays tick in general.

There are many elements and themes that where they in any other movie might stick out as predictable or worn. But holiday movies typically intend to comfort and remind us of what’s important. Of course, the Christmas films that subvert this can be exciting and rewarding in their own right. But they still typically contain many of the elements shared with their more traditional counterparts. And this is worth remembering when writing Christmas films, whatever the sub-genre, tone or intended audience.

These films aren’t just about the backdrop of Christmas, they’re often about the opportunity for characters to learn something fundamental that they wouldn’t at another time of the year. Christmas can be the perfect inciting incident in this regard. It’s a moment to force the character into change. A moment that only comes once every year.

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This article was written by Hannah Taylor and edited by IS Staff.

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1 thought on “Writing Christmas Films & Navigating the Holidays: The ULTIMATE Guide”

Have a humorous, light hearted, moral, magical, Halloween/ Christmas book to be made into a holiday film starting around Halloween right into Christmas. A story for the whole family to enjoy!

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Three Famous Christmas Speeches to Inspire Writing

It's the "most wonderful time of the year" once again!  Every year, the holiday season inspires new movie ideas, and some of these movies go on to become some of the most beloved films of all time with some of the most well-known movie speeches in film history.  As English teachers, we can tap into the popularity of these films to inspire our students to create new pieces of writing while also targeting writing skills.  

Students can watch these famous Christmas speeches and complete the FREE CHRISTMAS MONOLOGUE ANALYSIS GUIDE by Bespoke ELA to analyze the components of effective speeches and then apply those skills to creating their own original holiday speeches!  This is a lesson that specifically targets persuasion, argument, and rhetoric in a context that students are sure to love.

Here are THREE famous Christmas speeches from well-known and beloved Christmas movies to inspire new pieces of writing!

It's a Wonderful Life

In this iconic scene from It's a Wonderful Life,  George Bailey (played by the beloved Jimmy Stewart), stands up to the wealthy man to advocate for the rights of the "everyman" and tugs on the heartstrings of the bankers to do what is right for the poor.  

"Just remember this Mr Potter. That this rabble you're talking about, they do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community. Well, is it too much to have them work and pay and live and die in a couple of decent rooms and a bath? Anyway my father didn't think so. People were human beings to him but to you, a warped frustrated old man, they're cattle. Well, in my book, he died a much richer man than you'll ever be."

In this speech, George Bailey appeals to pathos and ethos to evoke a sense of charitable responsibility among the wealthy class.  He also utilizes rhetorical devices such as polysyndeton ("they do most of the working and paying and living and dying"), hypophora ("is it too much to have them work and pay and live in a couple of decent rooms and a bath?" followed by an answer to the question), and metaphor ("rabble" and "cattle").  Students can apply these rhetorical tools to their own speeches to evoke a sense of ethical responsibility.   

Writing Prompt:

Identify an ethical issue that is relevant to the holiday season such as poverty, consumer spending, greediness, etc. and write a speech that calls attention to this issue using rhetorical devices such as polysyndeton , hypophora , and metaphor to convey a strong, persuasive message.

Love Actually

In this scene from Love Actually,  Jamie (Colin Firth) proposes to Aurelia (Lucia Moniz) in broken Portuguese, with the entire town looking on.  This iconic holiday proposal definitely tugs on the heartstrings with the layers of Christmas nostalgia and a love story.

"Beautiful Aurelia, I've come here with a view to asking you to marriage me. I know I seems an insane person because I hardly knows you but sometimes things are so transparency, they don't need evidential proof. And I will inhabit here, or you can inhabit with me in England. Of course I don't expecting you to be as foolish as me, and of course I prediction you say 'no', but it's Christmas and I just wanted to... check."

Jamie appeals to the pathos and ethos of love at first sight by using rhetorical devices such as anaphora (repetition of "of course"), climax (tension increases up to the last word "check" in the proposal), procatalepsis (introduces the objection "I know I seems an insane person because I hardly knows you" and then counters it with "but sometimes things are so transparency, they don't need evidential proof").  

Overall, this is a romantic holiday film clip that will inspire students to appeal to the pathos aspect of argumentation. 

Write a speech in which you propose marriage to another person.  Use rhetorical devices such as anaphora , climax, and procatalepsis to convince this person to marry you. 

Scrooged tells the famous Christmas story of a greedy man who didn't believe in Christmas until he was visited by three ghosts who showed him the error of his ways, and he learns to be generous and embrace the Christmas Spirit.  Bill Murray's speech at the end of the film is inspiring.

"I'm not crazy. It's Christmas Eve.  It's the one night of the year when we all act a little nicer, we smile a little easier, we cheer a little more.  For. a couple of hours out of the whole year, we are the people that we always hoped we would be.  It's a miracle.  It's really a sort a of a miracle because it happens every Christmas Eve.  And if you waste that miracle, you're going to burn for it.  I know what I'm talking about.  You have to to do something.  You have to take a chance.  You do have to get involved.  There are people that are having trouble making make their miracle happen.  There are people that don't have enough to eat.  There are people that are cold.  You can go out and say hello to these people.  You can take an old blanket out of the closet and say, "Here."  You can make them a sandwich and say, "Oh by the way, here."  I get it now.   And if you give, then it can happen.  Then the miracle can happen to you.  It's not just the poor and the hungry; it's everybody who has got to have this miracle.  And it can happen tonight for all of you.  If you believe in this spirit thing, the miracle will happen, and then you'll want it to happen again tomorrow.  You won't be one of these bastards who says, "Christmas is once a year, and it's a fraud."  It's not.  It can happen everyday.  You've just got to want that feeling.  And if you like it and you want it, you'll get greedy for it.  You'll want it everyday of your life, and it can happen to you.  I believe in it now.  I believe it's going to happen to me now.  I'm ready for it.  And it's great.  It's a good feeling.  It's really better than I've felt in a long time.  I'm ready.  Have a Merry Christmas everybody." 

In this scene, Murray uses rhetorical devices such as parallel structure and anaphora ("we all act a little nicer, we smile a little easier, we cheer a little more" & "You have to to do something.  You have to take a chance.  You do have to get involved"), and epistrophe + parallelism ("You can take an old blanket out of the closet and say, "Here."  You can make them a sandwich and say, "Oh by the way, here") to convey a message about ethical responsibility to help others.  He appeals to both ethos and pathos in his speech about how it makes a person feel to be generous-- a great message for the holiday season!         

Write a speech in which you try to convince a modern-day "scrooge" to give his money to charity. Use rhetorical devices such as anaphora , parallel structure, and epistrophe to convince this person to be generous.  

Click here to download the FREE CHRISTMAS MONOLOGUE ANALYSIS GUIDE from Bespoke ELA and use it with your students to analyze famous speeches from well-known Christmas movies!

What other famous Christmas movie monologues would you use?  

What are your favorite christmas movies  , we'd love to hear from you  , please leave us a comment below, about the author.

Meredith is the founder and creator of TeachWriting.org and Bespoke ELA.  She has taught high school English for 10+ years in Dallas, Chicago, and New York City and holds a M.A. in Literature from Northwestern University.  She has always had a connection to the written word-- through songwriting, screenplay writing, and essay writing-- and she enjoys the process of teaching students how to express their ideas.  Meredith enjoys life with her husband, daughter, and sweet pups.

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FiveThirtyEight

The definitive analysis of ‘love actually’.

By Walt Hickey and Gus Wezerek

Filed under Movies

Published Dec. 22, 2016

Universal Pictures

“Love Actually,” the 2003 film that launched a generation of cinematic hot takes , is the story of nine interconnected relationships in the weeks ahead of Christmas in the United Kingdom. They’re united not just in their relationships but also by Heathrow Airport, a third space that bookends the film and is used by lowly tourists and prime ministers alike. It has a plotline for every moment in your relationship, from first crush to the grave, and the story covers all the holiday season staples: the Christmas party, the school pageant, the holiday songs. Plus, the cast is great, and the performances are solid — there’s a lot to like, actually. Yet by the time the credits roll, you may not have learned much about the titular emotion. 1

To get to the bottom of this intricately structured Christmas classic, we watched the film and ruthlessly coded scenes — how long they were, who was in them, who spoke to whom — and pulled a big pile of box office data to figure out what happened to all of these nice, attractive actors after they wrapped up this movie that makes us all cry. Then we diagramed all of that using network analysis strategies recently applied to “Hamlet” and “ Les Misérables ” — you know, “Love Actually’s” literary equals — to find the most important character at the core of the film. (It’s not the manic pixie dream Mr. Bean played by Rowan Atkinson.)

The film has launched careers. Thomas Brodie-Sangster — who played Sam, the precocious kid who falls for the girl with the same name as his recently deceased mother — has gone on to appear as a regular character on “Game of Thrones” and as a lead in the ongoing Maze Runner franchise. Still, it’s the actor who played Sammo’s step-father whose post-“Love Actually” movies have made the most money. Liam Neeson’s parenting in the movie was questionable — encouraging a child to sprint through security toward an airplane post-9/11 is never good fatherhood — but Neeson’s later attempts at parenting were even worse, oftentimes resulting in the child being Taken . That awful parenting, though, led to an outstanding and lucrative franchise.

As for quality, the pair of actors in the crappiest relationship ended up making the very best films. Emma Thompson and the late Alan Rickman — each no doubt buoyed by their roles in the good half of the Harry Potter franchise, but icons of British cinema nonetheless — are at the top of the heap, according to the average IMDb rating of films that came after “Love Actually.”

And it’s those enduring performances and staying power that sell this movie. Even if you are an emotionally dead monster, you have to admire how ably the screenwriters juggled the different plots for Neeson, Thompson, Hugh Grant, Colin Firth, Keira Knightley, Martin Freeman and the other A- and B-list Brits who pop in and out of the movie. Plot the movie’s social network by how many scenes the pivotal characters shared, 2 and you find that the linchpin of it all — the axis on which the world of “Love Actually” turns — is that schmuck with the cue cards, played by Andrew Lincoln. He’s the dumbwaiter in this “Upstairs, Downstairs” key party.

The network analysis also reveals two Londons in love: one young, one a little less young; one rich, one a little less rich; one white, the other pretty white as well.

This tale of two cities is a mirrored one, with one side’s romantic narratives echoed in the other’s.

In the plot that you probably remember, we watch Knightley’s character learn that her husband’s best man has been stalking pining for her from afar. Will she cheat on her spouse? File a restraining order? Let’s call her milieu London A. Over in London B: Cracks appear in the bourgeois life that Thompson’s character leads when her husband, played by Rickman, finds that his new secretary likes to vamp around whispering things like “it’s all for you, sir.”

Or how about a classic tale of boy-meets-and-ogles-girl-who-works-for-him? In London B, Grant plays the newly elected prime minister (he also happens to be the brother of Thompson’s character). Things start to go off the rails when he falls for the “chubby” maid on staff. If you can’t stomach that plot’s relentless fat jokes, there are fewer ( but not none ) in the London A version, where Knightley-wedding-attendee Firth takes the meet cute to the French countryside. In the movie’s only slow-motion scene, we watch the camera pan up and down Firth’s Portuguese housekeeper as she strips to her underwear before jumping in a lake.

Not zany enough for you? In London A, the catering staff at Knightley’s wedding includes Kris Marshall, who can only be described as a randy derp (sample dialogue: “Try my lovely nuts?”). On the other side of the Thames in London B, 3 Rowan Atkinson plays Rowan Atkinson, screwballing with Rickman’s character in a department store.

The movie ends with what amounts to a curtain call, summoning all the characters to the arrivals gate at Heathrow. It’s either a shiny bow on the ultimate Christmas comedy or a damning testimony that the movie has nothing to leave us with aside from ginned-up serendipity.

If you’re inclined to believe the latter, let us call your attention to the one major character who’s absent from the airport epilogue. Earlier, we counted how many scenes characters shared — Andrew Lincoln’s silent-but-treacly cue card guy was the linchpin of that “Love, Actually” — but the other way to measure social activity is to count how many different characters each actor has a conversation with. It’s here that Laura Linney, our absentee star, our emotional glue, rises to the top.

While everyone else is running around London, obsessed with their own problems, Linney stands as a rogue beacon of good will toward others. She’s there at Knightley’s wedding, asking the mopey best man if he needs a shoulder to cry on. She’s there at the Christmas party, reassuring Thompson, who is watching her husband fall for another woman. And she’s there for her mentally ill brother, whose incessant phone calls derail a long-awaited night under the mistletoe with Rodrigo Santoro’s abs.

Linney’s character is the one that truly straddles the two Londons. In a movie stuffed with redundant plots and permutations of the same stereotypes, there’s no character quite like her. If you find yourself forced to Grinch through a viewing of “Love Actually” this holiday season, treasure Laura Linney — she’s a bona fide Christmas miracle.

You can see all the data from our network analysis on our GitHub page . Ella Koeze contributed reporting.

That’s love, for the record. Not confusion over missing commas.

Rodrigo Santoro, Martine McCutcheon, Lúcia Moniz — there are a lot of “Love Actually” actors who we didn’t put in the chart above. That’s because they rarely cross storylines. When they do, it’s in the company of the actor who we did include, the linchpin of that plot.

I have no idea if this happens on the other side of the Thames.

Walt Hickey was FiveThirtyEight’s chief culture writer. @WaltHickey

Gus Wezerek was a visual journalist for FiveThirtyEight. @guswez

Filed under

Movies (127 posts)

A Christmas Story

By bob clark, a christmas story themes, traditional christmas.

The overwhelming theme of the movie is the traditional Christmas celebration. It depicts Christmas as a time of both stress and joy for the average, middle-class, Midwestern American family in the 1940s: small riffs between mother and father, children's fantasies of certain gifts, a family trip to purchase and decorate a tree together, a visit to an angry mall Santa, and the chaotic but joyful Christmas morning spent opening presents (children) and drinking wine (the parents). While all viewers will likely relate to the film's portrayal of Christmas, viewers of a certain age might find particular details in the film most relatable, including the children listening to the radio, the father constantly fighting with the furnace, walking to school in the snow, and the soap punishment Ralphie receives for swearing in front of his parents.

The film draws a humorous contrast between Ralphie's parents, often portraying the mother as warm and patient and the father as distracted and intimidating. It also pokes fun at the film's setting – the 1940s – and the gender stereotypes that existed at the time. When the family sits down for dinner, for example, Ralphie's mother is just about to take a bite of food when Ralphie's father asks her to get up and get him seconds. The adult Ralphie remarks, "My mother had not had a hot meal for herself in 15 years," emphasizing the expectation that his mother was meant to serve the rest of the family before herself. This portrayal of gender roles is generally lighthearted rather than seriously critical, however. Indeed, the film allows Ralphie's mother to exact a type of "power" of her own when she secretly breaks the hideous leg lamp, another instance of the sexes battling within what would have been a typical 1940s marriage.

A Child's Perspective

Although the film is narrated by the adult Ralphie Parker , it is primarily presented from the perspective of a nine-year-old child, who is discovering the gap between what parents say and what parents do, learning to stand up to bullies, and experiencing the reality that is a disgruntled mall Santa. When Ralphie uses a swear word, he is harshly punished, but he learned the word from his father, who peppers his mutterings with curses as he fights with the family's unreliable furnace. Similarly, nearly every adult in the film tells Ralphie, "you'll shoot your eye out" when he requests the Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas, emphasizing the difference between a child's perspective – having fun – and an adult's – danger and injury. The gap between a child's perspective and an adult's is one of the key themes in the film.

A Christmas Story follows what many would consider the average middle-class American household in the 1940s. Even the film's name suggests that this "story" is not necessarily a special one, but instead one to which many people will likely relate. One of the film's central themes, therefore, revolves around the family's economic status, especially with regard to the father (who, in the 1940s, would be considered the "provider" of the household). Throughout the film, Ralphie's father is preoccupied with getting rich fast; he does crossword puzzles daily for the chance to win money, and when he wins the infamous leg lamp from Western Union, he is convinced it is a high-class piece of decor. Through the character of Ralphie's father, the film showcases the common middle-class desire for wealth, flashy belongings, and ease of living.

Bildungsroman

The term "bildungsroman" typically refers to a coming-of-age novel, but it is just as operative in this film about a nine-year-old boy at Christmas time. When the film begins, Ralphie is very much a child with little control over his own life. His desire for the Red Ryder BB gun becomes a symbol of his desire to transition out of childhood and into adolescence, a transformation that starts to happen once he retaliates against the bullies at school. After that moment, both Ralphie's father and mother begin to see him in a different light, so much so that his father even buys him the Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas after all.

Part of the film's comedy stems from its reliance on exaggerated situations that border on the absurd. The disgruntled mall Santa, for example, sits atop a giant slide down which the mean elves send children after they sit on Santa's lap. In this scene, the film dramatizes Ralphie's perspective as a small child being dragged and pushed around by the intimidating adults, creating a humorous representation of the otherwise wholesome and popular Christmas activity. The film's absurdity helps frame typical Christmas traditions in a new light, subtly mocking them while reminding viewers of their own Christmas experiences as children and even as adults.

While the film follows Ralphie more closely than other characters, it is ultimately the story of a family celebrating the Christmas holiday. Over the course of the film, each member of the family becomes more complex, and viewers will likely sympathize with at least one character throughout. The final scene of the movie – in which Ralphie, his brother, his father, and his mother laugh uncontrollably at the Chinese restaurant – emphasizes the way that Christmas, with all of its stresses and surprises, ultimately does bring the family closer together. The adult Ralphie thinks fondly of that Christmas because of his Red Ryder BB gun, but he also suggests that that particular Christmas is significant because of the memories of his family that it left him with.

A Christmas Story Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for A Christmas Story is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

How do Scrooge and his nephew differ in there opinions of Christmas

Scrooge and his nephew are character foils (opposites). Scrooge's nephew is happy and giving while Scrooge is miserable and miserly. Fred is happy, joyful, full of love and charity. He doesn't worry about money and has happily married the woman he...

Share your responses to Capote’s characters and to the ways they are treated by others.

In Capote's story, A Christmas Memory , friendship is an important theme, particularly, friendship between those who aren't accepted socially. Buddy and his friend are alienated by the other members of their family. Family members "have power over...

Who is the antagonist and the protagonist of The Christmas Story?

I'm sorry, we are unable to answer film based questions unless otherwise noted in the category. This is a short-answer "literature" forum.

Study Guide for A Christmas Story

A Christmas Story study guide contains a biography of Bob Clark, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About A Christmas Story
• A Christmas Story Summary
• Character List
• Director's Influence

Wikipedia Entries for A Christmas Story

• Introduction
• Release and reception

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, tim burton's the nightmare before christmas.

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The movies can create entirely new worlds for us, but that is one of their rarest gifts. More often, directors go for realism, for worlds we can recognize. One of the many pleasures of " Tim Burton 's the Nightmare Before Christmas" is that there is not a single recognizable landscape within it. Everything looks strange and haunting. Even Santa Claus would be difficult to recognize without his red-and-white uniform.

The movie, which tells the story of an attempt by Halloween to annex Christmas, is shot in a process called stop-action animation.

In an ordinary animated film, the characters are drawn. Here they are constructed, and then moved a little, frame by frame, so that they appear to live. This allows a three-dimensional world to be presented, instead of the flatter universe of cel animation. And it is a godsend for the animators of "Nightmare," who seem to have built their world from scratch - every house, every stick and stone - before sending their skeletal and rather pathetic little characters in to inhabit it.

The movie begins with the information that each holiday has its own town. Halloweentown, for example, is in charge of all the preparations for Halloween, and its most prominent citizen is a bony skeleton named Jack Skellington, whose moves and wardrobe seem influenced by Fred Astaire .

One day Jack stumbles into the wrong entryway in Halloweentown, and finds himself smack dab in the middle of preparations for Christmas. Now this, he realizes, is more like it! Instead of ghosts and goblins and pumpkins, there are jolly little helpers assisting Santa in his annual duty of bringing peace on earth and goodwill to men.

Back in Halloweentown, Jack Skellington feels a gnawing desire to better himself. To move up to a more important holiday, one that people take more seriously and enjoy more than Halloween. And so he engineers a diabolical scheme in which Santa is kidnapped, and Jack himself plays the role of Jolly Old St. Nick, while his helpers manufacture presents. (Some of the presents, when finally distributed to little girls and boys, are so hilariously ill-advised that I will not spoil the fun by describing them here.) Tim Burton, the director of " Beetlejuice ," " Edward Scissorhands " and the " Batman " movies, has been creating this world in his head for about 10 years, ever since his mind began to stray while he was employed as a traditional animator on an unremarkable Disney project.

The story is centered on his favorite kind of character, a misfit who wants to do well, but has been gifted by fate with a quirky personality that people don't know how to take. Jack Skellington is the soul brother of Batman, Edward and the demon in "Beetlejuice" - a man for whom normal human emotions are a conundrum.

"The Nightmare Before Christmas" is a Tim Burton film in the sense that the story, its world and its look first took shape in Burton's mind, and he supervised their filming. But the director of the film, a veteran stop-action master named Henry Selick , is the person who has made it all work. And his achievement is enormous.

Working with gifted artists and designers, he has made a world here that is as completely new as the worlds we saw for the first time in such films as " Metropolis " (1927), " The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari " or "Star Wars." What all of these films have in common is a visual richness, so abundant that they deserve more than one viewing. First, go for the story. Then go back just to look in the corners of the screen, and appreciate the little visual surprises and inspirations that are tucked into every nook and cranny.

The songs by Danny Elfman are fun, too, a couple of them using lyrics so clever they could be updated from Gilbert & Sullivan. And the choreography, liberated from gravity and reality, has an energy of its own, as when the furniture, the architecture and the very landscape itself gets into the act.

PARENTAL ADVISORY The movie is rated PG, maybe because some of the Halloween creatures might be a tad scary for smaller children, but this is the kind of movie older kids will eat up; it has the kind of offbeat, subversive energy that tells them wonderful things are likely to happen. As an adult who was not particularly scared by the abduction of Santa (somehow I knew things would turn out all right), I found the movie a feast for the eyes and the imagination.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film credits.

Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

Chris Sarandon as Jack Skellington

Catherine O'Hara as Sally

Glenn Shadix as Mayor

Paul Reubens as Lock

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Directed by

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The psychology behind our love of Christmas movies

Holiday movies offer viewers a glimpse into the world as it could be.

By S. Brent Rodriguez-Plate/The Conversation | Published Dec 13, 2019 6:30 PM EST

If you are one of those people who will settle in this evening with a hot cup of apple cider to watch a holiday movie, you are not alone. Holiday movies have become firmly embedded in Americans’ winter celebrations.

The New York Times reports a massive increase in new holiday movies this year. Disney, Netflix, Lifetime and Hallmark are now in direct competition for viewers’ attention, with both new releases and reruns of the classics.

Holiday movies are so popular not simply because they are “escapes,” as my research on the relation between religion and cinema argues. Rather, these films offer viewers a glimpse into the world as it could be.

Christmas movies as reflection

This is particularly true with Christmas movies.

In his 2016 book “ Christmas as Religion ,” the religious studies scholar Christopher Deacy states that Christmas movies act as a “barometer of how we might want to live and how we might see and measure ourselves.”

These movies offer a variety of portraits of everyday life while affirming ethical values and social mores along the way.

The 1946 classic “ It’s a Wonderful Life ”—about a man who longs to travel but remains stuck in his childhood town—represents visions of a community in which every citizen is a vital component.

Another movie commonly replayed this time of year is 2005’s “ The Family Stone ” which portrays the clashes of a mostly average family but shows viewers that quarrels can be worked through and harmony is possible.

The 2003 British holiday film “ Love Actually ,” which follows the lives of eight couples in London, brings to viewers the perennial theme of romance and the trials of relationships.

Movie watching as ritual practice

As holiday movies bring viewers into a fictional world, people are able to work through their own fears and desires about self-worth and relationships. Such movies can provide solace, reaffirmation and sometimes even courage to continue working through difficult situations. The movies offer hope in believing it all might turn out alright in the end.

When people see some part of their own lives unfold on screen, the act of viewing operates in a fashion that’s strikingly similar to how a religious ritual works.

As anthropologist Bobby Alexander explains, rituals are actions that transform people’s everyday lives. Rituals can open up “ordinary life to ultimate reality or some transcendent being or force,” he writes in the collection “ Anthropology of Religion .”

For example, for Jews and Christians, ritually observing the Sabbath day by sharing meals with family and not working connects them with the creation of the world. Prayer rituals in the Muslim, Christian and Jewish traditions connect those praying with their God, as well as with their fellow believers.

Holiday movies do something similar, except that the “transcendent force” they make viewers feel is not about God or another supreme being. Instead, this force is more secular: It’s the power of family, true love, the meaning of home, or the reconciliation of relationships.

Movies create an idealized world

Take the case of the 1942 musical “ Holiday Inn .” It was one of the first movies—after the silent era’s various versions of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”—where the plot used Christmas as a backdrop, telling the story of a group of entertainers who have gathered at a country inn.

In reality, it was a deeply secular film about romantic interests, couched in a desire to sing and dance. When it was released, the United States had been fully involved in World War II for a year and national spirits were not high.

The movie hasn’t endured as a classic. But Bing Crosby’s song “White Christmas,” which appeared in it, quickly became etched in the holiday consciousness of many Americans, and a 1954 film called “ White Christmas ” became better known.

As historian Penne Restad puts it in her 1995 book “Christmas in America,” Crosby’s crooning offers the “quintessential expression” of the holidays, a world which “has no dark side”—one in which “war is forgotten.”

In subsequent Christmas movies, the main plots have not been set in the context of war, yet there is nonetheless often a battle: that of overcoming a materialistic, gift-buying and gift-giving kind of holiday.

Movies like “ Jingle all the Way ,” “ Deck the Halls ”, and “ How the Grinch Stole Christmas ” center around the idea that the true meaning of Christmas is not in rampant consumerism but in goodwill and family love.

Dr. Seuss’s famously grouchy Grinch thinks he can ruin Christmas by taking all the gifts away. But as the people gather together, giftless, they join hands and sing while the narrator tells viewers, “Christmas came anyway.”

“All’s right with the world”

Though Christmas is a Christian holiday, most holiday films are not religious in the traditional sense. There is hardly ever a mention of Jesus or the biblical setting of his birth.

As media studies scholar John Mundy writes in a 2008 essay, “Christmas and the Movies,” “Hollywood movies continue to construct Christmas as an alternative reality.”

These movies create on-screen worlds that kindle positive emotions while offering a few laughs.

“ A Christmas Story ,” from 1983, waxes nostalgic for childhood holidays when life seemed simpler and the desire for a Red Ryder air rifle was the most important thing in the world. The plot of 2003’s “ Elf ” centers on the quest to reunite with a lost father.

In the end, as the narrator says late in “A Christmas Story”—after the family has overcome a series of risible mishaps, the presents have been unwrapped and they’ve gathered for Christmas goose—these are times when “all’s right with the world.”

S. Brent Rodriguez-Plate is an Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Cinema and Media Studies, by special appointment, Hamilton College.

This article was originally featured on The Conversation

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Die Hard IS A Christmas Movie: Essays In Defense Of A Holiday Classic

Editor’s Note: portions of the paper below will be presented at a forthcoming American Association of Die Hard Studies – henceforth AADHS – Conference, immediately after I officially form the AADHS.  

Die Hard , released in 1988 and directed by John McTiernan, holds the dual distinction of being both the greatest action movie of all time, as well as the greatest Christmas movie of all time.  Below are reflections on the linguistic impact of  Die Hard,  the film’s impact on the family and the film’s impact on Christmas.

Die Hard Has Worked Its Way Into My Family’s Daily Vernacular 

There is a  Die Hard  quote for every occasion.  To wit:

When your friend gets a new suit:  “Nice suit…I have two myself,” which is what Hans said in the elevator when he was totally showing off to Joseph Takagi about his suits.

When you’re in a social context and somebody does a voice:  “Nice accent.  You ought to be on (redacted) TV with that accent,” which is what John McClane said to Hans when Hans was pretending to be Clay…Bill…Clay.

At the grocery store:  “Bag it. Big time,” which was uttered by the convenience store guy with the walrus mustache, who was one of my favorite non-essential Die Hard characters.

When welcoming someone to a party: “Welcome to the party, Pal.”

When traveling to either coast: “Come out to the coast, have some laughs.”

When I’m trying to encourage my wife, especially in some parenting issue: “I love ya…the guys love ya,” which is what Sgt. Al Powell said when McClane was feeling really discouraged about the fact that he was picking shards of glass out of his feet in a dark bathroom.

When I’m celebrating or lamenting or rolling-my-eyes-at some aspect of my own children’s classical education: “Benefits of a classical education,” which was said by Hans Gruber when he had to prove that he was the smartest guy in the room by talking about how Alexander wept because he had no more worlds to conquer.  Hans had a lot of suit-and-intellect-related insecurities.

When sharing a bit of news you just discovered: “I read about it in Time Magazine.”

Me, never:  “Hey babe, I negotiate million-dollar deals for breakfast,” said by low-key my favorite character, Harry Ellis.

When someone mistakenly says that Helsinki is in Sweden:  “Finland.”

When describing your perfect wintertime evening to your wife or significant other:  “Baked brie…crackling fire,” which is how Harry Ellis described a perfect date, when he was asking out Holly Gennaro (she declined).

When entering a hotel room with plush carpeting:  “Fists with your toes,”  which was the suggestion that the guy on the plane gave to McClane when observing that he (McClane) clearly hated flying.

When encountering a cute toy of any kind: “Cute toy,” which McClane said when trying to figure out the elaborate employee directory at the Nakatomi building.

When talking about Christmas:  “It’s Christmas, Theo, the season of miracles,” said Hans (the main bad guy) to Theo (another bad guy) shortly before killing some people.

Die Hard is a Family Movie 

The whole premise of Die Hard revolves around a man protecting his wife, restoring his marriage, and saving his family.  Typically, that happens in the context of repentance and reconciliation…though in this circumstance it happened in the context of one man singlehandedly killing dozens of terrorists at his wife’s place of business.

Die Hard is a Christmas Movie 

Die Hard is full of Christmas imagery, inasmuch as the whole thing takes place at the Nakatomi Corporation’s Christmas party which, weirdly, takes place on Christmas Eve.  I mean, what company that values work/life balance would drag its employees into work on Christmas Eve?  That said, it looked like a really lovely party until (spoilers, but it’s been 30 years) Hans Gruber shows up, kills the CEO, and takes the building hostage.

Regarding Christmas imagery:  There’s an assortment of lights and many Christmas trees in multiple locations in this film…including, but not limited to the lobby of the Nakatomi building, the main atrium where the party is taking place, Takagi’s office, Holly Gennaro’s house, the convenience store and even the dispatch office where John McClane calls 911 and indicates that he is not, in fact, ordering a pizza.

Regarding Christmas music:  It’s playing often, in the background of a lot of different scenes, but it’s probably my favorite when Sgt. Al Powell sings Christmas songs while driving.

Caleb Morgan

“Die Hard” is a Christmas movie. I thought about starting this essay off with some cryptic, “What REALLY makes a movie a Christmas movie” mumbo jumbo, real self-reflecting, soul-searching stuff. Then I would slowly reveal that “Die Hard” is, in fact, a Christmas movie. It would have been a drawn out and dramatic reveal, the kind that would leave the reader’s face painted with the same shock and awe that John McClane has when Gruber reveals that his accent was fake. I really could have milked it, not letting the audience know which side I was on, revealing an internal struggle of the highest caliber.

But it isn’t a struggle, I didn’t drag out the reveal and “Die Hard” is a Christmas movie.

To prove that it is to you, I’m going to take the time and compare classic Christmas movies with “Die Hard” (so you don’t have to), and use these comparisons to make my point.

“It’s A Wonderful Life”

“It’s A Wonderful Life” is a Christmas classic. Jimmy Stuart, angels, jumping off a bridge; you know, real family friendly stuff. The truth is, “It’s A Wonderful Life” is the story of an alcoholic who is saved from throwing his body off a bridge by an angel who then shows him a world where the man didn’t exist. Who says a Christmas movie can’t be dark?  Sure, maybe a few more people die in “Die Hard” (I mean it is in the name,) but for people who argue that an R-Rated action movie doesn’t qualify as milk and cookies fare, this proves that someone throwing themselves off something high does count as Christmas-y enough.

“Home Alone”

Since I’m already making bold claims, I’ll go ahead and say another: “Home Alone” is a kid friendly “Die Hard.” Hear me out. (1) Man/boy is trapped in a large building being broken into and must protect it, (2) Man/boy must use only what he finds around said building to protect themselves, (3) plot is set into action because of Christmas. The last point is key.

In a lot of arguments against “Die Hard,” it is said that it can’t be a Christmas film because the story could take place in any setting, therefor revoking it of any holiday spirit. Yet, if John McClane hadn’t been traveling home to see his estranged wife at the holiday party (in fact, without Christmas, there would be no holiday party for Gruber and co. to take hostage at), there would be no story. Just a vaguely foreign villain killing a bunch of people (or even worse, showing up to an empty skyscraper in Downtown LA).

“A Christmas Story”

I’m sure you’re thinking, “How in the world are ‘A Christmas Story’ and ‘Die Hard’ similar. Even if someone fully believes that ‘Die Hard’ is a Christmas movie, how mentally unhinged must one be to find commonalities between Ralphie and McClane?”

Here’s how:

Both Ralphie and John McClane are, at their core, everyday men dealing with the struggles of Christmas, albeit in extreme ways. In “A Christmas Story” Ralphie narrates his own childhood tales of everyday occurrences leading up to Christmas day, from fist fights in the snow to the struggle of determining what you want for Christmas. At its heart, it’s relatable.

In the same way, John McClane is really just a family man trying to make it home and reunite his family for the holidays. He finds that, while Christmas is supposed to be a less stressful time of year, it often proves to be the most strenuous.

Whether you’re struggling with an unwanted gift from your aunt (“A Christmas Story”) or dealing with the woes of an uninvited Christmas guest (“Die Hard”), there is no denying that Christmas movies are those that heighten the stakes of familiarity that we all struggle with during the holidays.

Any “Hallmark Movie”

Starting in October, the Hallmark Channel begins rolling out countless Holiday themed films in their ongoing efforts to create a year-round, post-apocalyptic winter wonderland. With such Dickensian names as, “It’s Christmas, Carol,” “A Shoe Addict’s Christmas,” “Sense, Sensibility, and Snowmen” and “A Gingerbread Romance,” Hallmark is able to crank out these cookie cutter Christmas flicks at an alarming rate, and with the same production quality as the video your grandma accidently took of her own face when she thought she was recording your cousin’s dance recital.

If these low budget “momploitation” films count as Christmas films, then why can’t a high quality, critically acclaimed, widely beloved piece of 80’s cinema also count as a feelgood holiday classic? Holiday films are made as an escape, and both “Die Hard” and “Romance at Reindeer Lodge” both encapsulate that feel good Christmas spirit.

I rest my case.

Say what you will, but on Christmas Eve, when most of my family goes to bed, and my dad, my brother and I sit in the living room under a single, dim lamp and watch “Die Hard” in all of its explosive glory; that is the closest I get to experiencing the same Christmas joy I felt when watching the Grinch and Charlie Brown back in the day. If “Die Hard” is able to replicate that holiday nostalgia in any way, then who are we to say it isn’t a Christmas movie?

The evidence is overwhelming. “Die Hard” is a Christmas movie. You have to accept it.

“Welcome to the party, pal.”

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Economic Aspects in “A Christmas Carol” Movie Essay (Movie Review)

A christmas carol: movie analysis, the examples of social studies economic topic.

The movie ‘A Christmas Carol’ addresses elements of social studies associated with economics. From the movie, understanding basic human needs has been emphasized using an impoverished character. The movie is based on a character that cannot spend money on luxuries during the Christmas Eve. In fact, this is a factual depiction of most societies around the world. However, with a vision and innovation, accessing basic human needs is addressed through natural resources and skills.

The movie addresses capitalism from a historical perspective. Capitalism is addressed as a historical injustice. Eventually, capitalism is addressed as a necessary economic concept in developing and empowering citizens. The movie depicts capitalistic businessmen and individuals as selfish, and only interested in making profits at the expense of others. However, this is a contradiction to a depiction of how capitalism is credited with human development.

Understanding the value of work is an essential aspect in addressing socioeconomic issues in the society. The movie ‘A Christmas Carol’ depicts how it is critical for one to play a part in the production of goods and services. Not appreciating various jobs is associated with increased inflation and unemployment rate.

The movie ‘A Christmas Carol’ revisits the significance of free enterprise system in the economy. From the movie, a student understands scarcity and its impact in production of products and services. The concept of free enterprise system is critical for students to understand how prices of essential products are determined in the market.

Illustration of the importance of critical thinking in terms of economics

The movie depicts how students get involved in multiple levels of critical thinking. For example, the movie is based on different plots, characters and themes. All these elements are essential in understanding human thoughts especially in economic concepts analysis. Movies allow students to analyze every allegation and determine facts from fallacies. Using rhetorical appeals such as logos, pathos and ethos, students identify consistencies depicted as major themes of economics. From such analysis, students develop critical skills essential in a classroom set-up.

Illustration of the concept of economy

The movie ‘A Christmas Carol’ illustrates the history of capitalism based on a Victorian English society. The Victorian English society is depicted as the background for the learning material. The movie describes capitalism using a story line and characters that link material with learning objectives. Engaging students in movie analysis activities such as group discussion and homework assignments can be integral in illustrating economic concepts. Sharing the movie via the internet is a simple way of making the learning materials accessible to students. In addition, this can be supplemented by downloading and embedding the movie into a PowerPoint presentation. The presentation of the movie can be linked with economic concepts for think-pair-share exercise and class discussions.

Age appropriateness of the movie

The movie ‘A Christmas Carol’ is not suitable for children aged below 5 years. To be precise, this is because the movie has flawed scenes with scary pictures. In fact, the movie is not suitable for preschoolers. Although, children aged five years can watch the movie, it is advisable that children with a high level of tolerance be allowed to access the same. However, parental guidance while watching a movie is recommended. The moral lesson from the movie is relevant for children aged eight years and above considering its genre is family or fantasy-based. Editing the scary scenes or using another movie to illustrate economic concept is highly recommendable.

Economics Activity

Lesson plan.

From the lesson, students will learn to review a movie based on the economic concepts. Students are to identify economic concepts as depicted in the movie’s themes and use them as a basis for review. Students are to develop critical thinking skills by synthesizing audiovisual concepts and literary style used in the movie. Finally, students are to acquire competency in knowledge and skills associated with economic concepts.

Introductory activity

The lesson commences by asking students if they would like to watch a movie. Most of the students will agree to watch a movie together. While watching the movie, introduce some questions to the students. The questions are to be based on the movie’s theme, characters and relation to economic concepts. Depending on the movie’s length, the students are to engage in a class discussion, in relation to the movie. In addition, this requires providing the students with necessary learning materials. The materials include the movie ‘A Christmas Carol’ in the form of DVD or VHS. Other materials include a notebook and writing apparatus. Install the classroom with the television set connected to a media player. Other materials to be installed for movie viewing may include overhead projector, transparencies and instruction copies.

Main lesson

The movie lesson addresses capitalism as a market-based economic system. The idea is to understand the historical aspect of capitalism and how it affects society from a socioeconomic perspective. Major lessons to be addressed concern the value of work, basic human needs and free enterprise system. To be precise, understanding the above economic concepts and how they affect individuals and society are given priority in the lesson plan.

Lesson evaluation will be conducted using a rubric and movie review form. Using a rubric with grading requirements is necessary for the instructors. Evaluation on whether the students understand the movie’s concept can be done using homework assignments. Using class-based and group discussions during and after watching the movie can determine student’s skills and ability review a movie. Finally, students are to write a general movie review.

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) addressed by the lesson.

Understanding the concept of basic human needs has been addressed as a critical lesson. Students are expected to learn and illustrate how families address the issue of basic human needs. In addition, students are to compare ways through which families access human needs. In this regard, students are to determine how production, purchasing and other trading activities affect availability of basic human needs. Students will develop knowledge and skills to differentiate between needs and wants.

Understanding capitalism from a historical perspective is a core lesson. However, capitalism is perceived as a free enterprise system in Texas. In this regards, students are to describe the historical development of the free enterprise system in Texas. In addition, students are to exhibit knowledge in free enterprise system and its mechanization especially in supply and demand. Therefore, illustrating how free enterprise is beneficial to the society is necessary.

The lesson also addresses the value of work. In this regard, students are to explain how work is integral in achieving revenue or income. More importantly, students must demonstrate how people choices especially in spending and saving money are related with the value of work. Therefore, the lesson is concerned with economics aspects of capitalism as a free enterprise system, value of work and basic human needs.

• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2020, June 4). Economic Aspects in "A Christmas Carol" Movie. https://ivypanda.com/essays/economic-aspects-in-a-christmas-carol-movie/

"Economic Aspects in "A Christmas Carol" Movie." IvyPanda , 4 June 2020, ivypanda.com/essays/economic-aspects-in-a-christmas-carol-movie/.

IvyPanda . (2020) 'Economic Aspects in "A Christmas Carol" Movie'. 4 June.

IvyPanda . 2020. "Economic Aspects in "A Christmas Carol" Movie." June 4, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/economic-aspects-in-a-christmas-carol-movie/.

1. IvyPanda . "Economic Aspects in "A Christmas Carol" Movie." June 4, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/economic-aspects-in-a-christmas-carol-movie/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Economic Aspects in "A Christmas Carol" Movie." June 4, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/economic-aspects-in-a-christmas-carol-movie/.

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The 50 Best Christmas Movies of All Time, Ranked

The most wonderful time of the year deserves the most wonderful films.

There are plenty of yearly holidays celebrated throughout the world, and many of the biggest ones have movies attached to them. There are movies that capture the spirit of Valentine's Day , there are movies that are best watched around Easter , the horror genre is intrinsically tied to Halloween , and 2023 even graced cinema with a noteworthy Thanksgiving film, appropriately titled Thanksgiving . But no time of the year gets represented quite as often in cinema as Christmastime, perhaps owing to the fact that it's a holiday which - alongside New Year's Eve - concludes every single year.

There are distinct visual elements of Christmas (snow, colors like red and green, warm clothing, etc.) that look good on screen, and it's a time of year when many have time off work, which gives people more time to watch movies. More free time means more Christmas movies getting made each and every year, because there's clearly a real market for them. With such a vast ocean of Christmas movies, it can be difficult to seek out some of the very best , but that's what the following intends to do. It's a ranking of iconic Christmas movies and a few offbeat titles that capture a Christmas feel while also being a little subversive or unexpected, all ranked below from great to greatest.

50 'The Santa Clause' (1994)

Director: john pasquin.

It might not rank as one of the very best movies of 1994 , but The Santa Clause is at least something of an iconic Christmas movie , and a reliably family-friendly one, too ( well, for the most part ). The premise is admittedly a little bizarre, though, given its premise involves a family man accidentally knocking the real Santa Claus unconscious one Christmas Eve, forcing him to take on the mantle of Santa so that the rest of the night's presents can get delivered on time.

Things play out as you'd expect, with a simple story about family and finding newfound purpose in life during middle age, along with getting in tune with the Christmas spirit once more. The Santa Clause has sequels that can be skipped, but the original holds up pretty well for what it is, and though its Christmassy visuals and messages are in-your-face, it does all ultimately feel sincere and good-natured.

The Santa Clause

Watch on Disney+

49 'While You Were Sleeping' (1995)

Director: jon turteltaub.

Though While You Were Sleeping is a cheesy romantic comedy, in many ways, cheese is good as part of a balanced diet, and sometimes, it's okay to indulge a little around the end of the year (that's what New Year's resolutions are for, anyway). It goes hard on Christmas aesthetics and an overall holiday feel , telling a story about mistaken identity and a love triangle that develops unexpectedly between a woman and a pair of brothers.

If you want to be critical, While You Were Sleeping is schmaltzy and predictable, and perhaps corny, too. Again, that's not necessarily a bad thing, and it all depends on what you want out of a holiday-themed movie. Those who like their Christmas movies a little subversive or edgy in some ways should think about staying asleep for this one, but those in the mood for the opposite may well want to wake up for While You Were Sleeping .

While You Were Sleeping

48 'krampus' (2015), director: michael dougherty.

Make sure not to get Krampus mixed up with Krampus: The Reckoning , which came out the same year and probably only exists so people would get the two films mixed up, and perhaps accidentally watch the latter. Krampus is the real Krampus movie of 2015, though, make no mistake, and is an overall funny, weird, and oftentimes unsettling horror-themed Christmas movie about a folklore monster that's said to be the opposite of Santa Claus.

While Santa is said to give gifts to well-behaved children on Christmas, the titular Krampus is a legendary creature that punishes children who've been naughty rather than nice. At the center of Krampus is a dysfunctional family, the members of which haven't exactly found themselves in the Christmas spirit, which sets the monster after them. It's probably more of a comedic dark fantasy movie than a truly terrifying work of horror, but it's fun overall for those who are after some mild scares come Christmastime .

Watch on TNT

47 'Lethal Weapon' (1987)

Director: richard donner.

Lethal Weapon primarily functions as a buddy comedy/action movie , and a fairly good one at that, but it does also work as a Christmas film, at least in part. It has a familiar premise for those who are well-versed in the kinds of breezy action flicks popular in the 1980s and '90s, with a mismatched pair of cops initially clashing and then learning to work together as they take on a complex case that involves murder and a possible drug ring.

A good chunk of Lethal Weapon plays out a little while before the holiday period, and then it memorably ends on Christmas Day. It's one of those possible holiday movies that doesn't wholeheartedly embrace the most wonderful time of the year, but flirts with it a little and can still qualify for those who are feeling generous with their definition of what a "Christmas movie" is. It's also just a good movie, so if it can be enjoyed any time of the year, why not around the end of December?

Lethal Weapon

Rent on Apple TV

46 'Christmas Bloody Christmas' (2022)

Director: joe begos.

Plenty of Christmas movies embrace a family-friendly feel, in the spirit of being inclusive and all for the holidays, but Christmas Bloody Christmas certainly isn't one of them (if you couldn't already guess from the title). Not only is it a gleefully violent Christmas-themed movie, but it also might well hold the record for the most profanity featured in a single Christmas film, as it contains close to 500 F-bombs , despite being less than 90 minutes long .

Anyone afraid of movies that embrace violence, bad language, and other adult content to an arguably gratuitous extent might want to stay away from Christmas Bloody Christmas and the ridiculous slasher thrills it provides. It takes gory violence and other things not often associated with the holiday period and makes everything as extreme as possible, resulting in something that could well be a bloody good time for those in the mood for such a thing.

Watch on Shudder

45 'Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence' (1983)

Director: nagisa ōshima.

Like Lethal Weapon , Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence isn't explicitly Christmas-related until the very end, where the title is finally said out loud. It's also hard to think of Christmas throughout much of the film's duration, as this is a rather bleak and haunting World War II drama about Allied prisoners of war experiencing the hardships of life in a camp run by Japanese forces.

Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence is about a clash of cultures , focusing on this more than it does scenes you might expect to see in a more traditional war movie (no grand scenes of combat or action here). It looks at the global conflict on a small scale, and presents a balanced view by showing things from two perspectives , exploring why the two sides clash and the consequences that come about as a result. It's a great movie, and " Christmas " is in the title, so why not sneak it into an all-time ranking? Christmas is about generosity, after all, so some of that giving spirit should be afforded to this film, and its subsequent placement here.

Watch on Criterion

44 'The Bishop’s Wife' (1947)

Director: henry koster.

Nowadays, Cary Grant might be most well-recognized for his collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock , though he also starred in plenty of broader comedies in the 1930s and '40s that still hold up very well. One of these is The Bishop's Wife , and though it's a comedy set around Christmas, it also functions as a family drama and has a plot that even includes some fantastical elements for good measure.

Like various Christmas movies based around a family, the main character here is a father ( David Niven ) who's something of a workaholic and at risk of alienating his family. Things change for him when a literal angel (Grant) enters his life and begins to make things better, though it causes a little jealousy and tension for the father, despite the help. The Bishop's Wife is another Christmas film that's all about appreciating what you have and learning to make compromises for the greater good , and it tells this simple yet inevitably nice story quite effectively.

The Bishop's Wife

Watch on Prime Video

43 'Scrooge' (1970)

Director: ronald neame.

While many Charles Dickens stories have proven popular for film adaptations, none seem quite as well-represented within the cinematic as A Christmas Carol . It tells the familiar story of Ebenezer Scrooge, and how his hate for Christmas is challenged one Christmas Eve when he's visited by spirits who convince him to change his outlook on the holiday period, and his life overall. Sometimes, these adaptations are named after the protagonist, as is the case with 1970's Scrooge .

This one manages to stand out from the pack a little by being a musical version of the frequently told story, and a fairly vibrant/enjoyable one at that. Of course, it's unlikely to convert many people who aren't already fans of musicals, and it'll similarly turn off those who don't love Christmas films, too, given it doesn't get much more Christmassy than A Christmas Carol . One could well call Dickens the man who, in a way, invented Christmas...

Watch on Paramount+

42 'The Man Who Invented Christmas' (2017)

Director: bharat nalluri.

The Man Who Invented Christmas argues, with its title at least, that Charles Dickens more or less invented Christmas as it's now known and celebrated, though perhaps it would be more accurate to say he redefined Christmas. Then again, The Man Who Invented Christmas isn't an entirely straightforward biographical film about Dickens, as it takes an interesting approach to showing how the author developed and wrote one of his defining works: A Christmas Carol .

The real-life world Charles Dickens inhabited crosses over with the one he created for A Christmas Carol , and he discovers things about himself while interacting with - and developing - the characters of his story. It brings something fresh to the biopic genre (if it can be labeled as such), and also manages to recontextualize and retell a familiar story in an engagingly novel way, working as a rock-solid Christmas movie in its own right in the process.

41 'A Christmas Carol' (1984)

Director: clive donner.

Got through Scrooge (1970) and still find yourself in the mood for some more Christmas Caroling ? There are plenty more to choose from, of course, but 1984's A Christmas Carol could be a decent next step, considering it wasn't made long after and is similarly acclaimed as far as adaptations go. This one isn't a musical, but it makes up for that by having George C. Scott in the lead role , as he was one of those legendarily reliable actors who was always good, no matter what he appeared in.

This version of A Christmas Carol is also a TV movie, but overcomes budgetary limitations thanks to the warmth with which it tells its story, and the fact that Scott commits wholeheartedly to playing the protagonist at the film's center. It's one of the better Christmas Carols out there, and perhaps one of the more direct and least flashy adaptations, too, in turn capturing the essence of the original story without much by way of distractions.

A Christmas Carol (1984)

Watch on Starz

40 'Christmas in Connecticut' (1945)

Director: peter godfrey.

Christmas in Connecticut is a bright and lightweight romantic comedy set around Christmas, following a woman who's found success as a food writer at a magazine, yet her writing isn't entirely authentic. Circumstances end up forcing her to set up the life she's pretended to have or risk losing her job, and the entire scheme gets further complicated when love enters the picture in the form of a soldier returning from World War II.

Barbara Stanwyck might be best recognized for her femme fatale roles , but she's also just as capable in less heavy/intense movies, as Christmas in Connecticut shows. It's a very good and charmingly old-fashioned Christmas movie and, interestingly enough, was also remade as a TV movie in 1992... a TV movie that was directed by Arnold Schwarzenegger , of all people (his sole directorial credit to date).

Christmas in Connecticut

Watch on Max

39 'Trading Places' (1983)

Director: john landis.

A film starring Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy , as well as Jamie Lee Curtis , Trading Places takes a comedic look at wealth and power during a decade when money felt, more than ever, like it was all that mattered. In the film, a businessman and a con artist find their positions in life swapped, with one getting everything and one forced to get by with next to nothing, all because of external forces deciding to manipulate their lives through a bet.

If a movie's set around Christmas and seems to center on greed or a lack of generosity, it's not exactly hard to work out where things will progress, but the story here in Trading Places is arguably secondary to the comedy. There might be an argument to be made that Trading Places hasn't aged perfectly when it comes to exploring the sorts of issues it chooses to explore, but it's fairer by '80s standards, and does ultimately end up working surprisingly well as a somewhat offbeat holiday film .

Trading Places

38 'national lampoon’s christmas vacation' (1989), director: jeremiah s. chechik.

A Christmas comedy classic that ended up inadvertently birthing another beloved Christmas movie , National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation is arguably the best entry in the Vacation series. Other entries were defined by the perpetually unlucky Griswold family traveling to other locations, but Christmas Vacation sees them spending their vacation time at home and with more extended family members than ever.

Typical for these characters, staying in one place proves just as chaotic as taking a trip somewhere more exotic; perhaps even more so . The comedy is broad and in-your-face, but there is something inherently funny about much of National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation , and it earns its status as a comedic classic of its decade for good reason, emerging as a cynically funny yet accessible holiday flick.

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

Watch on Hulu

37 'Fanny and Alexander' (1982)

Director: ingmar bergman.

The holiday period means time off from work for many (albeit not all), and so if there's any time of year when you can afford to spend three hours watching a movie, it's debatably December. And for an epic like Fanny and Alexander , you will need just over three hours if you choose to watch the theatrical cut, and more like five hours if you're feeling brave and want to watch the (arguably superior) miniseries cut .

Whatever the case, Fanny and Alexander is an essential film, standing as debatably the greatest Ingmar Bergman ever made while also being a highlight of the entire 1980s . Many scenes capture the holiday spirit, with various family events and a good deal of snowy weather, even if the central narrative about the two titular children surviving a new (and tyrannical) stepfather doesn't always scream Christmas. It's a unique and tremendously moving film, and well worth the time required to soak it all up.

Fanny and Alexander

36 '3 godfathers' (1948), director: john ford.

John Ford made countless iconic American movies throughout his filmmaking career, and many of them starred the equally iconic John Wayne , usually in a leading role. One of the films the two collaborated on was 3 Godfathers , a uniquely Christmassy Western ; two worlds (or genres, if "Christmas" counts as a genre) you don't see colliding all too often.

The whole film takes place around Christmas, and follows a trio of outlaws who come across a dying woman and her infant, and are unable to abandon the child. The woman makes a dying request for her baby to be returned to safety, and the men oblige, despite the riskiness of the mission. It's a film about sacrifice and redemption, and ends up capturing the Christmas spirit within the kind of movie you might not expect it to be in. 3 Godfathers works surprisingly well, overall, and is another typically reliable film from the two aforementioned Johns.

3 Godfathers

Watch on TCM

35 'Bad Santa' (2003)

Director: terry zwigoff.

It shouldn't come as too much of a surprise that a movie called Bad Santa has a mean streak to it for much of its runtime, making it stand out as one of the better R-rated Christmas films out there . It's a movie that blends crime with Christmas (Crimemas?), telling the story about a relatively miserable conman who robs department stores while dressed up as a mall Santa, and the way his life changes after he meets a young and socially outcast kid.

Bad Santa gets kind of bleak by comedy standards, meaning it's possible to define it as a dramedy. It has some heart hidden behind a good deal of coal, and benefits immensely from Billy Bob Thornton delivering one of his best-ever lead performances. It might not be the kind of dark Christmas movie that'll appeal to everyone, but those looking for a dark comedy with a Christmas setting and overall holiday flavor will likely find that Bad Santa satisfies.

34 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas' (1966)

Directors: chuck jones and ben washam.

Forget about the divisive 2000 live-action movie that's a beloved childhood classic to some a nightmarish fever dream of a movie to others; 1966's How the Grinch Stole Christmas is where it's at as far as adaptations go. This 1966 animated short film manages to condense the beloved Dr. Seuss story into a runtime that clocks in at just under half an hour, meaning little time is wasted and the narrative remains faithfully told without any filler.

The direct yet charming story is about a creature that gives Scrooge some competition when it comes to deciding which fictional character hates Christmas the most. Like the protagonist of A Christmas Carol , the Grinch does eventually have a change of heart, ending things on a hopeful note. The animation used for this version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas is quite simple by modern standards, but it also looks endearing in its own way, and the core of the story is undeniably timeless.

Dr. Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas!

Watch on Peacock TV

33 'Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale' (2010)

Director: jalmari helander.

Jalmari Helander is a filmmaker who specializes in making unusual and rather out-there genre films, as demonstrated more recently in the relentless 2022 action movie that was Sisu . Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale is even more bizarre, though, given this one centers on the discovery of a creature that's such an evil, twisted version of Santa Claus that it makes Krampus look like the real Father Christmas in comparison .

This is up there with the very best Christmas-themed horror movies, especially because it's played a little more for horror than comedy compared to a good many horror films with a festive spirit. Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale is a remarkably atmospheric movie that's not afraid to take its time throughout, but those willing to give it a chance should find themselves well rewarded with an effectively creepy slow-burn of a blisteringly chilly and largely entertaining film.

Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale

Watch on Hoopla

32 'A Christmas Tale' (2008)

Director: arnaud desplechin.

There are plenty of well-established Christmas movies in the English language, but it's also worth highlighting Christmas movies that are in languages other than English , given the holiday is celebrated outside English-speaking countries. A Christmas Tale is one such movie, being a French production that stars some of the country's most well-known actors, including the likes of Catherine Deneuve and Mathieu Amalric .

It's not quite up there with Fanny and Alexander , admittedly, but A Christmas Tale is still quite long for a holiday movie, with a runtime of approximately 2.5 hours. It centers on a large family, with many of its members not exactly being thrilled about the idea of gathering around Christmastime, but nevertheless doing their best to get along. It's well-acted and balances its family drama with just enough comedy to prevent it from being too downbeat.

A Christmas Tale

Watch on MUBI

31 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' (1965)

Director: bill melendez.

A Charlie Brown Christmas joins the ranks of How the Grinch Stole Christmas as another beloved short film with a Christmas theme that was released in the 1960s. It's one of the most well-known pieces of media within the series/franchise that is Peanuts , and follows its titular character as he struggles with finding the true spirit of Christmas, initially believing it to be hopelessly lost under the materialism and money-spending most people get wrapped up in every year.

In that way, it's possible to call A Charlie Brown Christmas ahead of its time, or, at the very least, timeless, given concerns about such a thing persist to this very day. At the same time, this beloved TV short is also just a good deal of fun to watch, and ultimately positive in the kind of message it delivers. It'll resonate for viewers regardless of age, and with its brevity, is always a good pick to watch on Christmas Day if you find most of your time is spent on various (and sometimes lengthy) family events.

A Charlie Brown Christmas

Watch on Apple TV

The 30 best Christmas movies of all time

From miracle on 34th street to elf to a christmas story (duh), these are the most wonderful films about the most wonderful time of the year.

After a long day of braving frigid temps and long queues—online or at the mall—for gifts and stocking stuffers, there’s nothing better than taking a break in front of the warm glow of the silver screen (or in front of your own big screen at home). Well, that, and some popcorn. Lots of popcorn. There you’re likely to find the likes of Tom Hanks, Will Ferrell, Hugh Grant, and Santa Claus himself, all on hand to make sure your yuletide is the best it can be. Here, then, is a different kind of Christmas list, with films that are sure to make your season bright.

30. The Santa Clause

The Santa Clause is the Christmas movie of the ’90s. It didn’t exactly have a lot of competition— Jack Frost probably traumatized far more kids than it uplifted—but it succeeded because it blends classic Christmas wonder with a modern family situation that a lot of kids could relate to. Scott Calvin (Tim Allen) is a divorced dad who’s forced to take over as Santa after accidentally killing the previous St. Nick. Scott struggles to connect with and make time for his son, Charlie, and he’s initially dismissive of donning Santa’s duties. Of course, because this is a modern Grinch tale (and a kids’ movie to boot), Scott eventually realizes the error of his ways and embraces his new role. The Santa Clause was refreshing in its willingness to admit that the holidays aren’t always rosy, but its whimsical charm keeps things from getting too grim. [Jen Lennon]

29. The Polar Express

While some fans of the movie still debate whether or not The Polar Express ’ CG characters look creepy or cute, most agree that Robert Zemeckis’ first animated holiday film (based on the classic children’s book) offered a surprisingly heartfelt story for all ages for people looking to add a new movie to their Christmas playlist. Using then-landmark motion capture techniques, Zemeckis and star Tom Hanks (in multiple roles) teamed to tell a compelling story about a young boy’s journey to hold onto his holiday spirit in a world that could use more of it. [Phil Pirrello]

28. The Christmas Chronicles

Kurt Russell as Santa Claus?! Yes, please. One of the newest entries into the must-watch Christmas movie canon, Netflix’s 2018 film The Christmas Chronicles follows two siblings—Kate and Teddy Pierce—as they accidentally crash Santa’s sleigh then team up with the big guy to save Christmas. How all this plays out is a genuine delight, with Russell delivering a full-throated Santa that ranks up there with some of the best ever brought to the screen. [Phil Pirrello]

27. Tokyo Godfathers

While this touching animated import from Japan may not seem like a Christmas movie at first glance, Tokyo Godfathers takes place on Christmas Eve, so it counts. It’s also about wandering around in search of a meager home for a newborn baby, which is about as old-school Christmas as it gets. The film follows three Tokyo street dwellers who discover said baby in a dumpster and spend a snowy winter’s night trying to find her parents while confronting the uncomfortable truths of their own fractured lives. If your knowledge of Japanese anime is limited to sci-fi and fantasy, Satoshi Kon’s down-to-Earth, heartfelt masterpiece will change your opinion of what the medium can be. [Cindy White]

26. Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town

The holiday season is a nostalgic time of year, and sometimes returning to the movies we watched as children is the best way to recapture a sense of Christmas spirit. So it is with the Rankin/Bass stop-motion specials like Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town . Expanding upon the classic Christmas tune, Fred Astaire narrates the origin story of how Kris Kringle (Mickey Rooney) became Santa Claus. It’s got adventure, romance, some semi-plausible explanations as to why Santa enters via chimney and has flying reindeer, plus great tunes of its own (“Put One Foot In Front Of The Other,” anyone?). Many movies have come up with their own Santa stories, but this whimsical one feels the closest to the magical myth that propels the season. [Mary Kate Carr]

25. Love Actually

Richard Curtis’ Love Actually became a beloved modern holiday classic thanks in large part to how well it wears its occasionally sappy, always enchanting heart on its Christmas sweater-y sleeve. With a narrative seemingly powered by the Christmas spirit itself, Curtis weaves together a compelling and complicated tapestry of relationships—both romantic and familial—that hinge on how the holidays often help us find that which we seek or didn’t know we needed. Love is indeed all around, as the movie convincingly argues. Even though a few of Curtis’ threads feel more problematic now than upon initial release—especially the way Andrew Lincoln’s character “courts” his best friend’s newlywed wife, played by Keira Knightly—the writer-director ties them all up in a heartstring-tugging finale that will have you reaching for tissues or hugging your closest loved one. [Phil Pirrello]

24. Happiest Season

Director and co-writer Clea DuVall gifted audiences with her inclusive Hulu rom-com that subverts “home for the holidays” movie tropes with a story that is equal parts funny and timely. Mackenzie Davis stars as a woman struggling to come out to her very conservative parents while visiting them with her new girlfriend, played by Kristen Stewart. The usual holiday movie shenanigans ensue, but with several welcomed and clever twists. Happiest Season walks a tonally difficult tightrope between drama and holiday comedy, but it makes it seem effortless. [Phil Pirrello]

23. Black Christmas (1974)

Arguably the ultimate expression of the Christmas horror film, Bob Clark’s 1974 classic Black Christmas is both a seasonal delight of macabre excellence and a vital ingredient in the formation of the slasher genre. The story of a group of sorority sisters who are menaced by a hidden killer over the Christmas holidays, it’s a wonderful juxtaposition of all-out terror and the kind of holiday warmth Clark would later apply to A Christmas Story . Olivia Hussey and Margot Kidder are fantastic at the heart of a great ensemble cast, several of the kills are all-time classics, and if you find mystery phone calls creepy, you’ll definitely have a skin-crawling experience. [Matthew Jackson]

22. It Happened On Fifth Avenue

One of Old Hollywood’s most rewatchable films, It Happened On 5th Avenue is as charming and effective now as it was when it first came out. A mix of rom-com and holiday drama, the movie centers on a rich businessman who discovers that a drifter has been living in his luxury New York townhouse. When the rich man’s daughter shows up—along with an unemployed veteran—a romance sparks that leads to one of Hollywood’s most inspiring Christmastime tales. [Phil Pirrello]

21. The Muppet Christmas Carol

Amid the endless adaptations of Charles Dickens’ novella A Christmas Carol , we at The A.V. Club remain adamant that the Muppets’ version is the gold standard. What separates this 1992 instant classic from its ilk is the commitment to the source material; Dave Goelz, Steve Whitmire, Jerry Nelson, and Frank Oz’s wacky puppets provide a surface-level twist, but using Dickens’ exact words and rendering his morality tale with genuine heart reminds viewers why Scrooge’s story still resonates. Thanks to Michael Caine (dare we say career-best work?) as the miserly grouch, there’s pathos aplenty amid the silliness, making this annual favorite perfect for the whole family. [Jack Smart]

20. Scrooged

Richard Donner’s dog-eat-dog Dickens update Scrooged is a triumph of casting as much as anything else: Who better to play a kind, sharp-witted ex-love than Karen Allen? Bobcat Goldthwait as a pencil pusher on the edge? Carol Kane, as a nut-kicking, pixie-ish Ghost Of Christmas Present? And, at the bitter little heart of it all, Bill Murray, at his ’90s Bill Murray-est, as our modern Ebeneezer, TV executive Frank Cross. At its heart, Scrooged is a pretty traditional Christmas Carol riff. But it’s so buoyed by the visuals, and especially the performances, that you might not notice until “Put A Little Love In Your Heart” has already finished playing. [William Hughes]

19. Bad Santa

In Bad Santa , Billy Bob Thornton plays professional thief Willie T. Soke. Each Christmas season, Willie and his dwarf partner in crime get hired, respectively, as Santa and elf in a department store and then rob the place after hours. Willie is a misanthropic, foul-mouthed drunk who despises children, so it’s a Christmas miracle that he even lands the Santa gigs in the first place. The first movie features John Ritter, in his last live-action film performance, as an anxious store manager. Brett Kelly is hilarious as a hapless youth for whom Willie develops a soft spot. If you’re looking for the opposite of It’s A Wonderful Life , your search is over! [Robert DeSalvo]

Add this exceptional animated movie to your Netflix queue. One of the best holiday films in years, Klaus is full of beautiful moments and sometimes shocking visuals as it finds new ways to mine what Christmas really means and how the titular character serves as our guide through that journey. Klaus is a hopeful tale full of comedy and tears, and it’s a movie that only gets better with each passing year. [Phil Pirrello]

17. Remember The Night

Written by Preston Sturges—his last script directed by someone other than him— Remember The Night is a must-see romantic comedy headlined by Barbara Stanwyck. She’s joined by Fred MacMurray in this excellent twist on a courtroom story. An ill-timed theft of jewelry leads to a trial with a jury drunk on the Christmas spirit, as well as an old-school road trip full of funny one-liners and endless romantic sparks between the lead actors. [Phil Pirrello]

16. Christmas In Connecticut

Barbara Stanwyck and Dennis Morgan star in this 1945 Christmas rom-com about a single magazine writer who, while pretending to be a farm wife, falls for a war hero. English director Peter Godfrey grounds the sometimes farcical material on the very human romance at its core. And Stanwyck gives one of her best performances—one that’s worth viewing no matter the time of year. [Phil Pirrello]

15. Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)

Easily the best and most beloved stop-motion-animated Christmas classic, 1964’s Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer has embedded itself into the cultural consciousness—enough to earn a USPS postage stamp at its 50th anniversary. Like fellow Rankin/Bass special Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town , it’s a colorful, whimsical tale inspired entirely by the lyrics of a song; turns out Johnny Marks’ descriptions of Rudolph make for a fully fleshed-out origin story for this magical, mocked reindeer calf. The cherry—or glowing red nose?—on top are musical numbers like “A Holly Jolly Christmas” and “Silver And Gold,” sure to melt even the coldest hearts every holiday season. [Jack Smart]

14. How The Grinch Stole Christmas (1966)

The kind of TV special that rewards annual rewatching, How The Grinch Stole Christmas is proof that Christmas cheer is all the sweeter when it’s actually sour—or, as Thurl Ravenscroft sings in this film’s iconic tune, “a bad banana with a greasy black peel.” Charles Dickens understood that juxtaposition, gifting us A Christmas Carol ’s Scrooge, but equally important in the curmudgeon canon is Dr. Seuss’ Grinch. As cuddly as a cactus, as charming as an eel, this green goblin with a heart deficiency continues to provide representation for the asocial and anti-commericalist among us. [Jack Smart]

13. The Nightmare Before Christmas

What’s this? The Nightmare Before Christmas appearing on another A.V. Club list? Why, yes it is! How could we exclude it from a list of the best Christmas movies ever? It’s got “Christmas” right there in the title! And it’s ultimately Santa who saves the day, after Pumpkin King Jack Skellington’s semi-hostile takeover nearly ruins everyone’s holiday (as Sally could have told him, if he’d only listened). The themes in this stop-motion classic of being true to yourself and finding new inspiration to rekindle old passions are relevant all year round. It works for Christmas, Halloween, and everything in between. [Cindy White]

12. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

Highly quotable (especially Cousin Eddie) and very entertaining, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation brings screenwriter John Hughes and one of his most successful contributions to cinema, the Griswolds, back for one of the best holiday movies and threequels ever made. This time, Chevy Chase’s Clark Griswold has his Christmas spirit tested when he insists on having all of the family over to celebrate the holiday. Part of Christmas Vacation ’s considerable charm is how it finds the silver lining in all the messiness that comes from Clark’s myopic, but sincere, attempt to make December 25 special. From gift-wrapped cats to “Bing Crosby dancing with Danny Fu**ing Kaye,” Christmas Vacation keeps you laughing long after the end credits roll. [Phil Pirrello]

Based on Patricia Highsmith’s novel The Price Of Salt, Carol follows two women (Rooney Mara and Cate Blanchett) as they fall in love over the Christmas season in 1952. It’s a classic Hollywood romance, but it doesn’t shy away from showing the societal repercussions gay women faced during that time. What makes Carol such a masterpiece , though, is that it still has a happy ending—and what’s more heartwarming than love conquering all? [Jen Lennon]

10. White Christmas

Few Christmas classics are more classic, or more Christmas-y, than 1954’s White Christmas . It represents the peaks of all four of its cinema icons, Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, and Vera-Ellen, and catchy tunes that have endured in our cultural consciousness for a reason. Centered on a group of entertainers whose simple quest—spread the holiday spirit amid the tensions of World War II—involves delightful diversions of the romantic comedy variety, White Christmas has just the right amount of zippy comedy to cut the sentimental treacle that makes it an annual favorite. Fun fact: Crosby and Kaye’s comedic “Sisters” number wasn’t originally in the story, but was added with little rehearsal—the laughter between the two of them isn’t acting, they’re genuinely cracking each other up. [Jack Smart]

9. The Shop Around The Corner

Jimmy Stewart is a holiday staple for other reasons (which can be found further up this list), but don’t discount this lovely winter romance, which predates Stewart’s other Christmas classic by six years. A predecessor to Nora Ephron’s You’ve Got Mail , The Shop Around The Corner sees Alfred Kralik (Stewart) unwittingly enter a rivalry with his own anonymous pen pal, Klara Novak (Margaret Sullavan). They’re surrounded by colorful characters at a leathergoods shop gearing up for their big Christmas sale, but the chemistry between Kralik and Novak–plus a heavy dose of Stewart’s good-guy charm–propels this timeless treasure of a romantic comedy. [Mary Kate Carr]

8. Home Alone

Home Alone is easily one of the most enjoyable Christmas movies—and rewatches—of all time. There’s a reason, “Keep the change, ya filthy animal” is burned into our memory forever. The movie livens up with slapstick humor as an 8-year-old Kevin (an endearing Macaulay Culkin) traps two goofy thieves trying to break into his family’s house on Christmas. The ridiculous physical comedy paves the way for surprisingly saccharine moments (like Kevin in the church with his neighbor or when he reunites with his mother), proving that at its core, Home Alone is a cozy holiday movie, after all. [Saloni Gajjar]

7. A Charlie Brown Christmas

Charlie Brown and the Peanuts gang never disappoint with this timeless animated classic. For a story aimed at children, A Charlie Brown Christmas hinges on some very adult themes as Charlie confronts the commercialism that surrounds Christmastime by trying to find a deeper, more meaningful way to celebrate this special time of year. [Phil Pirrello]

6. Gremlins

Christmas is chaos, and no film captures that haphazard tumult better than Joe Dante’s violent, cartoonish, and beautiful ode to literally the worst thing that could possibly happen if you don’t read the instructions on a last-minute present. (Remember, kids: Don’t give animals as gifts—especially not magical ones!) Nearly 40 years later, Gremlins remains a refreshingly nasty Yuletide celebration, while also still being irresistibly fun—just clock the scene of Dante’s tinsel-decked monsters losing their minds watching Snow White in a movie theater and see if you don’t catch some holiday cheer. And, of course, it contains one of the greatest monologues ever performed about the horrors of the holidays. Say it along with Phoebe Cates, folks: “The worst thing that ever happened to me was on Christmas …” [William Hughes]

Christmas movies don’t get much better (or funnier) than Elf . A pre-Marvel Jon Favreau teamed up with Will Farrell at the height of the comedic actor’s star power to deliver an endlessly rewatchable holiday comedy. Buddy the Elf’s silly enthusiasm for Christmas is rivaled only by his determination to find his father, a very cynical and grumpy New York book publisher (the late James Caan). Buddy’s search takes him from the North Pole to Fifth Avenue in truly hilarious and heartfelt ways. [Phil Pirrello]

4. A Christmas Story

For a holiday primarily viewed through the eyes of children, it’s a strange thing to note that relatively few Christmas movies are—instead tending to focus on adults who re discover the holiday’s meaning in later life. Bob Clark’s A Christmas Story , based on excerpts from Jean Shepherd’s hilarious In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash , is different. Clark and Shepherd (who narrates the film to perfection) dial into what being a kid at Christmastime actually feels like: The anticipation and anxiety of a deeply craved present, the weird little family rituals that develop, the various humiliations and triumphs of simply being a kid. It’s a nostalgic touchstone that works because it doesn’t paint the past with rose-colored glasses. (Because, after all, you’re probably just going to shoot your eye out anyway.) [William Hughes]

3. Miracle On 34th Street (1947)

The most successful holiday films are those that re-capture what it’s like to be a kid again, and the original Miracle On 34th Street pulls this feeling off effortlessly. When a man claims to be the real Kris Kringle and gets institutionalized for it, a young attorney struggles to prove not only the man’s innocence, but that he is the genuine article. If there’s a better last reel of a holiday movie, we don’t want to know about it. [Phil Pirrello]

2. A Christmas Carol (1951)

This very British adaptation of Charles Dickens’ classic Scrooge tale is one of the finest takes on the well-tread material. Directed by Brian Desmond Hurst, A Christmas Carol features Alastair Sim giving arguably the definitive Ebenezer Scrooge performance. He goes all-in with his portrayal of the miserable curmudgeon as Scrooge learns how wrong he is about Christmas being a waste of time. The third act contains zero surprises for those familiar with the tale, but the way Carol hits those tried and true beats are nonetheless still satisfying no matter how many times you’ve seen the film. [Phil Pirrello]

1. It’s A Wonderful Life

Frank Capra’s Christmas classic was initially (and undeservedly) a disappointment when it was first released. But thanks to endless holiday airings on TV, It’s A Wonderful Life became a Christmas staple, in large part because of its timeless story about the generosity of spirit and how easy it is to lose sight of it, even with Christmas around the corner. Jimmy Stewart delivers an all-timer performance as a fragile man who finds the true meaning of Christmas where it often resides: With those we love. [Phil Pirrello]

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Why We Need Black Holiday Films, According to a Houston Cinephile

By Chloe Gray December 22, 2021

Kirk Franklin's A Gospel Christmas, is a holiday film about a female Black church pastor that's set in Texas.

Image: Courtesy Lifetime Network

While coming of age in Dallas during the 90s, my parents heavily curated the images that I viewed. Some days after school my dad would take me to independent stores to purchase books and movies on VHS, to ensure that I saw Black children and families that affirmed our existence.

It was important to them that I saw images of young Black girls getting their happy ending on film or on television. This movie curation helped me build a healthy and positive self-esteem. To this day, the only Cinderella movie I know  is Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella (1997), starring Brandy Norwood.

Thirty-years later, living and working in Houston, I'm still inspired by my dad to curate what I watch for myself and others. I share movies that I like through MNC Movie Club with my best friend. We look for movies that amplify Black stories and celebrate Black filmmakers.  My favorite list to curate is our "25 Days of Black Christmas," where we highlight some of our favorite classic and newly released Christmas movies.

Does representation in television and movies matter? You bet it does.

But Christmas movies present a uniquely positive opportunity for representation: holiday films are overwhelmingly positive and uplifting, giving their characters endless chances for redemption, for finding love, for gaining inner peace, for discovering the true meaning of Christmas. And, in turn, they give viewers reasons to be inspired. It's important that there are plenty of options where the inspiration comes from a Black point of view.

Yes, Christmas movies are often sappy—but it’s the one time of year where it’s okay to be sappy. Consider watching some films that focus on Black holiday joy this season,  h ere are 5 movies to stream, including a few with major Texas and Houston ties:

Our Christmas Journey

Platform: Hallmark Channel

Part of Hallmark’s Countdown to Christmas, its notable lineup of Christmas movies from late October through Christmas Day, this movie stars Holly Robinson Peete, Lyriq Bent and Nik Sanchez. It's a story of an overprotective African-American mother struggling to let her autistic son become independent. It means a lot to me to be able to watch a Black actress like Peete, who I grew up seeing on television, play a role that really touches the heart in a non-stereotypical story.  

In the past, Hallmark has wrestled with the importance of representation since a controversy in 2019 , over ads with same-sex couples being pulled . Since then, t he company  hir ed  Wonya Lucas, a Black woman, as president and CEO of Crown Media Family Networks which is home to the Hallmark Channel.  

Kelly Rowland of Destiny's Child stars in her own trilogy of Black Christmas films with the Merry Liddle Christmas  series created for Lifetime.

Merry Liddle Christmas

Platform: Lifetime 

The channel aired its first Christmas trilogy with the Merry Liddle Christmas series starring Houstonian (and Destiny’s Child member) Kelly Rowland as Jacqie Liddle. Jacquie is a workaholic tech entrepreneur in Silicon Valley that is hosting her first family Christmas in her new home. This is a new take on the commonly used Christmas trope of the workaholic realizing the true meaning of love and Christmas. 

I love that the movies feature Rowland in this role of an upwardly mobile Black woman making a living in the tech sector. Each film in the series has her going through the key stages in life, from marriage to creating a family. It's beautiful.

A Gospel Christmas

Platform: Lifetime

Another feature with Lone Star State ties is Kirk Franklin’s A Gospel Christmas , starring Demetria McKinney and Chaz Lamar Shepherd. It's a story of an African-American female pastor sent to lead a church in Texas.

While living in the shadow of her mother, and the previous pastor of the church, she struggles to find her voice. I love how this story puts a twist on movies about the church. Traditionally, we usually see men leading churches, in both reality and in movies, so it is a breath of fresh air to watch the journey of a woman coming into her own as a church leader; while following in the footsteps of her mother.

Christmas Déjà Vu

Platform: BET+

BET’s Christmas lineup includes stories about loss, grief, and addiction, like Christmas Deja Vu starring Amber Riley, Blue Kimble, and Houston native Loretta Devine. It's a holiday movie about a woman struggling with grief 10 years after the death of her father on Christmas Eve.

She believes that if she is given everything she ever wanted, it will make her happy. An angel visits her at a bar, and she wakes up to the life she has always wanted, or so she thinks. I love stories of redemption and this movie does not disappoint. 

A Chestnut Family Christmas

Platform: OWN

Oprah Winfrey Network’s (OWN) A Chestnut Family Christmas is another example of a film that really made me feel the holiday spirit through a Black experience. Starring Meagan Holder, Brad James, Jaime M. Callica, and Klarc Jerome Wilson, it’s a movie about three siblings who are all struggling with living up to other people’s expectations. It also features one of my favorite Christmas movie tropes with two people pretending to be a couple during the holidays to avoid having to deal with a judgmental family that is constantly asking, "When are you going to get married?!".

If you are looking for more movies to watch over the holidays here is a list of classic and new releases currently streaming.   

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This Christmas (2007)

Film and plot synopsis.

Six African-American siblings return to their mother’s home in Los Angeles for the Christmas holiday for the first time in four years. Each of the siblings has a secret. Lisa’s husband is cheating on her. Claude is AWOL from the Marines and has secretly married a white woman. Kelli is single and lonely. Baby wants to follow a music career, but knows it will break his mother’s heart. Quentin is a traveling musician who is haunted by the memory of his absent musician father and disapproves of his mother’s new relationship with the church pastor. Over the few days before Christmas, the siblings will learn once again what it means to be a family and the spirit of Christmas.

‘This Christmas’ Movie Summary

Lisa Whitfield-Moore ( Regina King ), her husband Malcolm ( Laz Alonso ), and their two kids are about to leave their home in San Francisco to go to Ma’Dere’s house. Lisa feels the need to act as the responsible one in managing her extended family’s welfare. As a result, she often sacrifices her own wants in the process. Lisa wants to sell the dry-cleaning business, something her husband urges her to press with her siblings.

Michael “Baby” Whitfield ( Chris Brown ) still lives at home with Ma’Dere while he tries to figure out what he wants to do with his life. Quentin Whitfield Jr. ( Idris Elba ) has a career as a traveling musician, much like his father. He plays a saxophone in a local bar and has not seen his family in four years. Quentin is disconnected from his family and is not aware of his mother living with Joe. Kelli Whitfield ( Sharon Leal ) is a wealthy New York ad executive who openly admits to being the selfish one in the family. Claude Whitfield ( Columbus Short ) is in the United States Marine Corps and harbors a secret from this family. Melanie “Mel” Whitfield ( Lauren London ) is in college and shows up at the house with her new boyfriend Devan Brooks ( Keith Robinson ).

Lisa, Kelli Whitfield ( Sharon Leal ), and Claude Whitfield ( Columbus Short ) are the first to arrive at Ma’Dere’s house to spend the Christmas holiday. During dinner on the first night, Malcolm asks Devan how he feels about attending an all-black college. Both Mel and Devan stated that they have the same major. Lisa suggests that the family should give up the dry-cleaners business, which results in a fight between Lisa and Kelli. Quentin finally arrives and startles everyone since no one expected him to attend. He engages his family at the dinner table. When Quentin sees Joe, he begins to make rude remarks towards him. In the kitchen, Mel informs Devan about Ma’Dere’s ex-husband and the children’s father before the young couple begins to make out.

Sometime later, Quentin finds Joe and threatens him again. Quentin sees Joe as an obstacle to his father one day returning to the family. After Joe leaves, Quentin plays his father’s piano in the garage. Ma’Dere has kept the piano even though it reminds her of the pain caused by Quentin’s father. Claude attempts to sneak out of the house to go to a club, but everyone ends up coming with him. At the club, Baby sings “Try A Little Tenderness” which surprises everyone in the family. Kelli meets Gerald ( Mekhi Phifer ) at the club and has an instant attraction towards him. Eventually, Claude loses his temper with a couple of guys who attempt to hit on his “secret” wife Sandi ( Jessica Stroup ) and pulls his gun out, which causes everyone in the family to leave the club.

Back at the house, Baby convinces his siblings to keep the fact that he can sing secret. Baby tells them that he wants to inform Ma’Dere himself. The next day, the Whitfield men head out to look for a Christmas tree while Kelli, Lisa, and Mel stay back and wrap presents. Kelli confesses to her sisters that she slept with Gerald the night before. Malcolm suddenly has to return to San Francisco because of his job, and Lisa confronts him as to why he needs to leave. Malcolm tells Lisa that everything is going to work out. Lisa feels depressed when her husband refers to them as partners. Lisa returns home from the airport with Mo ( David Banner ) and Dude ( Ronnie Warner ) who attempt to beat up Quentin for owing them money. Quentin frightens them off by telling them that a police car is nearby.

Claude is arrested. Lisa and Quentin go to the police station to try and get him out. Lisa tells Quentin why they have to sell the dry cleaners. Back at home, Ma’Dere scolds the family for not cooking dinner or being ready for Christmas. Lisa and Quentin return home without Claude. They tell the family that Claude is AWOL from the Marines, and the family is shocked when they meet Sandi, none of them being aware that Claude was married. Sandi tells Mel why Claude is AWOL and reveals that she is pregnant. Mo and Dude meet Ma’Dere, resulting in Quentin acting nonchalant. Later, Quentin confronts his mother about her relationship with Joe and why no one told him that she and his father were divorced.

Outside the house, Kelli talks to Lisa about the events that took place and Lisa’s desire to sell the family business. Lisa tells her sister that even though she didn’t get a college degree, someone had to help their mom with the dry-cleaning business while Kelli attended Harvard. Kelli tells her sister that Malcolm is unfaithful to her and Lisa tells Kelli that she already knew. Kelli tells Lisa that she is pathetic for sharing her husband with another woman, and the two proceed to get into a fist fight in the rain. Mel comes outside and breaks up the fight and tells Kelli about Sandi’s pregnancy. She also shares that Claude does not know his wife is pregnant. At the same time, Lisa damages Malcolm’s car when she lets it fall off a cliff.

That night, Kelli spends the night with Gerald. Baby gives Quentin a scrapbook of Christmas pictures of the family before the musician leaves the house. Baby tells his mother that he has singing talent, but Ma’Dere refuses to listen. Quentin goes to the train station to leave town, but he is ambushed by Mo and Dude. Joe shows up in the nick of time to save Quentin. Selfish Kelli asks Gerald to visit her in New York. Lisa confronts her husband about his infidelity while he is in the shower and repeatedly beats him with a belt. Lisa and Malcolm reluctantly agree to get a divorce.

At church that night, Baby sings “This Christmas” and Claude is released from jail. At the church service, Quentin reunites with his family and reconciles his differences with Joe and his mother. The film ends with the cast members singing “Got to Give It Up” before the credits roll.

Additional Film Information

• Add the film to your collection today
• This Christmas official website
• Peruse IMDb’s article on This Christmas
• Learn more This Christmas information at Wikipedia
• Get This Christmas numbers at Box Office Mojo
• Find out what people think about This Christmas at Metacritic
• Read This Christmas reviews from the folks at Rotten Tomatoes

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Screen Gems released This Christmas on November 21, 2007. Preston A. Whitmore II directed the film starring Regina King, Columbus Short, and Delroy Lindo.

Film Analysis Of A Christmas Film : A Christmas Carol

An aspiring New York actress who is considering abandoning her dream and taking a real job in Chicago following years of near-misses and bit parts, lands the role of a lifetime in a new production of A Christmas Carol. However, the play’s director is a successful TV actor, and the one she blames for her biggest professional disappointment. First of all, let me applaud the myriad of people involved behind the scenes because there are several things I noticed that set this movie apart from the typical Hallmark holiday fare. I congratulate the writer (Jennifer Notas Shapiro), the director (Bradley Walsh), and the production team (Brad Krevoy) for stepping outside the box to make a Christmas film that is singularly delightful and diverse in scope and story while still maintaining the elements of Hallmark holiday films that we love. At the end of the day, it is about following your dreams and passions even if it is not the easiest path. Additionally, it is about making sacrifices for that one person who complements you to perfection. Family and friends always surpass monetary success, societal influence, and consequential supremacy. Even though this tale does not take place in a small town (it actually happens in the heart of Manhattan!), the film celebrates family values, nurturing community, and old-fashioned values in a delightfully entertaining way. Special shoutouts are also extended to Bradley Walsh, Maggie Lawson, and Brennan Elliott who daily collaborated to polish the

The 1952 And 1986 Adaptation Of Oscar Wilde's Play

Is your reaction to the reenacted scenes different than to the written one? My reaction to the 2001 film is not much different from how I read the play myself. That is until I reached the end of the film. Things became seemingly different from what I would have expected.

Elf Movie Analysis

In 2003, many people would have never thought that Elf would be as great of a success as it is today. Elf is a once in a generation Christmas movie that includes clever and humorous jokes as well as hits the soft spot of much of the audience This comedy may seem cheesy to many but as the story takes off you will not want to leave your seat. From people getting hit by taxis to elves getting into fist fights with Santa, this totally unpredictable movie will keep you laughing for 97 minutes. You will have a hard time keeping up with the movie because you will spend so much time catching your breath. Once you watch the movie once, it will turn into a Christmas tradition for years to come.

Analysis Of A Christmas Carol

Have you ever thought of Christmas as a humbug, or just another ordinary day? Probably not, but if you were to ask Ebenezer Scrooge (from A Christmas Carol), his response to Christmas would be “Bah, Humbug.” Just after we finished reading the book A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, last week, on December 1, 2017, my classmates and I went to see a live performance of A Christmas Carol at Actors Theatre of Louisville. The play was adapted by Barbara Field, and directed by Drew Fracher. In this essay I will be reviewing how well Actors Theatre portrayed the plot, setting, and characters from the book A Christmas Carol into a live play.

Movie Analysis : Home For The Holidays

To my understanding, the movie Home for the Holidays not only reveals a lot of potential family conflicts, but also reflects a lot of different communication approaches of the various family members. As a foreigner, I have never experienced Thanksgiving homecoming dinner before, so I may cannot understand some of the holiday customs in the movie, but I found out that their family interactions are interesting indeed.

Analysis Of The Movie ' The Snow Queen '

My daughter and I went to the play “The Snow Queen” at the Marquis Theater in Northville, Michigan on December 10, 2016. The Marquis Theater is a beautifully restored historic landmark. Upon entering, you are transported back to an earlier time. The lobby features the original french doors, the stained glass windows, and the old fashioned ticket booth. The theatre is a victorian design that has two aisle ways with red upholstered seats on the left, right, and middle. The theater is quaint in size but that only adds to the magical allusion that is created when you watch “The Snow Queen.”

Film Analysis: The Princess Bride

In the film “The Princess Bride” directed by Rob Reiner, a story about a fairy tale adventure that all begins with a beautiful girl name Buttercup who works on a farm alongside the farm boy named Westley, who she is deeply in love with. After a while, Westley decides to go seek his fortune, which made Buttercup very upset as she wonders whether she’ll see Westley ever again.

Film Analysis: Exit Through The Gift Shop

Exit Through the Gift Shop is critical of how our culture values and judges artwork because of the degree to which expectations and others’ beliefs manipulate our interpretations of reality. The documentary demonstrates this phenomenon concerning art, but it also applies to all subjective experiences. Through Thierry’s opening gallery Life is Beautiful, Exit Through the Gift Shop shows how expectations and conformity manipulate our experiences.

Film Analysis: The Lion In Winter

The theatrical film The Lion In Winter stars Peter O’Toole as King Henry II, and Katharine Hepburn as his wife, Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine. Adapted from his stage play of the same title, author James Goldman provides a fictional, but plausible, account of intra-family deceit and political conniving within the large and powerful Angevin Empire, which spanned much of the land that is now Britain, and much of what is now Northeastern France, within the medieval world. Directed and edited by Anthony Harvey, the story, set in the winter of 1183, details the succession crisis faced by the aging King Henry II, as his three surviving sons vie for the crown, and Queen Eleanor plots, both with and against them, to regain her freedom, and become the

The Grinch Movie Analysis

In the movie How the Grinch Stole Christmas, one of the characters, the Grinch, is a fictional holiday antagonist, his only goal is to stop Christmas from happening (Howard, 2000). The Grinch lives alone on top of Mount Crumpits outside of Whoville, his age is undisclosed but appears to be around 40 years in age and is unemployed. He does not have any social relationships to friends or citizens of Whoville, and rather spend his time alone. The only social companion the Grinch has is his dog Max. Additionally, there is no history of drug or alcohol use. Antisocial Personality Disorder is more prevalent in men than in women, and is characterized by a callous unconcern for the feelings of others. The person disregards social norms and

A Christmas Carol Analysis

“Bah, Humbug” an iconic line from a story we all know and love, said by a character that was made for us to hate. Charles Dickens published A Christmas Carol in 1843, in part as an attempt to garner some success, and also as an attempt to convince the masses of kindness and charity at Christmas time. While it did not gain him commercial success, the legacy this story has left, succeeded in inspiring our society to give a little more at Christmas time. Nowadays, the story has become synonymous with Christmas. It would be hard to imagine a Christmas without some adaptation of Dickens masterpiece. As A Christmas Carol is one of the most adapted Literary sources, it is no surprise that Dr. Who would take a crack at it. The episode “The Unquiet Undead” aired in 2005, and takes place during the time of Dickens, and while it is not a direct adaptation of A Christmas Carol. it’s many allusions, and similar story structure, make it an apt analogy for it. Of course, revision is Dr. Who’s game, so the alien ghosts, and reanimated corpses are not a surprise either.

Analysis Of How The Grinch Stole Christmas

The animated and non-animated versions of the movie How the Grinch Stole Christmas can be compared to view the similarities and differences of both films. The animated movie was produced in the 1960’s and is approximately thirty minutes long, while the non-animated movie was produced in the 2000’s and is around an hour and a half long. They both star the Grinch, an angry man that hates Christmas. Because of his hate for the holiday season, the Grinch plans to dress as Santa Claus and steal all of Whoville’s decorations and presents. Both of these versions of the fim share similarities such as names of landmarks and characters, scripts, and story plots. However, these versions also have differences including the length of the movie, the

Character Analysis Of A Christmas Carol

The book A Christmas Carol tells a fantastic story that all readers will come back to time and time again. In this novel Charles Dickens excellently conveys the story of Ebenezer Scrooge. At the beginning of this tale Scrooge is a morose man who loathes Christmas with a passion. He is firm in his belief that the only business he need worry about in life is money. However the spirits of Christmas past, present and future haunt Scrooge with lessons that cause a drastic change in the way Scrooge goes about his business. Anyone who has ever read this story by Dickens knows that he conveys many messages throughout the text. The author makes readers understand that the true business of being human is the common welfare by showing how Scrooges’ experiences transform his perspective on business.

Miracle On 34th Street: Movie Analysis

The 1947 version the mother and the neighbor work a lot and rarely see each other. They fall in love. When he makes a decision to leave his law firm she’s not sure about going through with the plans, but comes around. The mother taught the daughter that there might not be a knight in shining armor coming to their rescue but they were doing just fine without one. In 1947 the lawyer argued that Kris Kringle wasn’t insane for claiming to be Santa Claus because that is his identity. The question of whether or not Kris Kringle is really Santa Claus is not resolved by proving the post office is willing to recognize him as such.

Film Analysis: A Christmas Carol

Have you every watched the movie yes or no called A Christmas Carol? A Christmas Carol is about an adapt. On Christmas Eve Scrooge had got to met three ghost Past, Present, Future. These ghost show him how his past, future, and present is going to be. Each ghost had an influence on him to me the Future had the greatest impact on him.

The Holiday Comparison

Since the holidays are getting closer what better movie to talk about than a movie about love and Christmas. The Holiday is a romantic comedy starring Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet, who play two women who are both suffering romantic disappointments and meet online on a website that helps people find the perfect vacation spot and exchange homes for two weeks. Both Iris (Winslet) who lives in a peaceful little town outside of London and Amanda (Diaz) who lives in crazy Los Angeles, decide to swap homes in order to vacate their lives for the holidays. At first, things are bit chaotic because they are trying to adjust to the culture change, but soon become acquainted with their surroundings. As they escape life they are open to many unexpected experiences that lead to what they have been running from… Love.

Related Topics

• Christmas music
• A Christmas Carol
• Hallmark Cards
• Canadian television actors

Home — Essay Samples — Literature — A Christmas Carol — Comparing and Contrasting “A Christmas Carol” Book and Movie Adaptation

Comparing and Contrasting "A Christmas Carol" Book and Movie Adaptation

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Redemption is a central theme in Charles Dickens' beloved novella, "A Christmas Carol." The story follows the transformative journey of the protagonist, Ebenezer Scrooge, from a miserly and heartless individual to a [...]

Charles Dickens' beloved novella, "A Christmas Carol," is a story of transformation and redemption, centered around the character of Ebenezer Scrooge. However, one character who stands out as a beacon of joy and generosity is [...]

Charles Dickens' novella, "A Christmas Carol," is a timeless tale of redemption and transformation. At its heart is the character of Ebenezer Scrooge, a miserly and cold-hearted man who undergoes a profound change over the [...]

A Christmas Carol was about a man named Ebenezer Scrooge who is a businessman that is greedy, rude, unhappy, and completely focused on making profits. Scrooge has a series of ghosts appear to him that show him his ways and [...]

“These are but the spirit of things that have been.” The metaphorical words of the Ghost of Christmas Past are typical of Dickens’ melodramatic writing style. Set in Victorian England, a time rife with greed and social [...]

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The ‘Black Christmas’ Remake Subverts a Complex Horror Trope

The final girl has been a staple of the genre for decades, but in 2019 female solidarity is how you survive.

By Lena Wilson

Ms. Wilson is a newsroom project manager.

This essay contains spoilers for the 2019 remake of “Black Christmas.”

Before a masked killer invades the sorority house in “Black Christmas,” directed by Sophia Takal and co-written by Ms. Takal and April Wolfe, the movie shows three Mu Kappa Epsilon sisters happily chatting over holiday dinner preparations. One asks her friends what their favorite animals are, and Marty (Lily Donoghue) chooses the ant. You can’t kill an ant, she explains, because they’re all extensions of the others.

This statement turns profound at the film’s climax, when a harried band of women crash into a frat house like Marvel’s Avengers, stopgap weapons at the ready. They have arrived just in time to rescue the protagonist, Riley (Imogen Poots), from being murdered by a lackey to the man who raped her. In any other slasher film, Riley would be the final girl — the lone young woman clever enough to outlast her peers and scrappy enough to kill the killer (or killers).

But in this 2019 remake of the 1974 horror film of the same name — and the second reimagining following a 2006 version — nine other sorority members join her in solidarity to vanquish an army of misogynists. The message is simple: Women need to band together to take down the patriarchy.

The original “Black Christmas” features one of the horror genre’s first final girls. This trope, first outlined by Carol J. Clover in her book “Men, Women and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film,” typically meets the following criteria: The final girl is virginal or uninterested in dating. She is aware of impending danger before her peers. And she is smart and competent in ways her flirty, flighty friends usually are not, able to rig a whole house with booby traps (as in the original “A Nightmare on Elm Street”) or turn a wire hanger into a weapon (the original “Halloween”).

While the final girl had more agency than most female characters in her ’70s and ’80s heyday (when the women of slasher films were most often topless or dead), she was alienated from other female characters — so much so that she often even had a masculine name. The final girl, like any male action hero, ultimately triumphed alone.

The sisterly alliance in the newest “Black Christmas” is even more meaningful given its multiple final girl red herrings. Riley’s closest Mu Kappa Epsilon sisters are Marty, Jesse (Brittany O’Grady) and Kris (Aleyse Shannon). None of these four women with androgynous names pursue sex, and all are smart, capable characters with unique personalities and interests. But none of them become the final girl.

Perhaps most subversively, Kris is a radical feminist hellbent on ridding their college of oppression, including Professor Gelson (Cary Elwes), a misogynistic instructor and an adviser to the evil fraternity Delta Kappa Omicron. She urges Riley, who was met with incredulity from the campus police after reporting her rape, to further challenge campus sexism by signing a petition against Professor Gelson. Kris would normally be a parody, easily mocked and murdered for her alarmist insolence. Here, she is a character to be taken seriously. The patriarchy at Hawthorne College is depicted as especially insidious.

And what a patriarchy it is. The frat boys of Delta Kappa, it turns out, are collectively killing sorority sisters in a grab for the halcyon days of male dominance. Led by Professor Gelson and possessed by the spirit of Hawthorne’s malevolent founder, they believe that women’s “true nature” is subservience, while men are “alphas.”

It seems hardly incidental, then, that Professor Gelson, with his eccentric accent and fondness for Camille Paglia , calls to mind the polarizing psychology professor Jordan Peterson . In his best-selling book “12 Rules for Life,” Mr. Peterson posits that an oppressive patriarchy does not exist. He compares the mating rituals of lobsters, whose females are attracted to male aggressors at the expense of male weaklings, to those of humans.

In a blog post on his personal website he’s written, “It’s been a truism among anthropologists and biologically oriented psychologists for decades that all human societies face two primary tasks: regulation of female reproduction (so the babies don’t die, you see) and male aggression (so that everyone doesn’t die).” The solution: heterosexual monogamy, or women coupling with men for the greater good.

Mr. Peterson’s thinking reaches its logical extreme in “Black Christmas,” where a group of fed-up young men exact violence against the women who denied them their sexual supremacy. Though in that blog post Mr. Peterson says he does not excuse or glorify male violence, such bio-essentialist thinking — that women and men need discrete, gendered roles for society to function, and that those roles naturally empower men — is echoed by Professor Gelson and the Delta Kappas.

“Don’t you see?” Professor Gelson asks during the final showdown. “Woman is inextricably tied to man.”

But it is her ties to women, rather than her alienation from them, that gives Riley the strength to survive the film. In an early scene, Marty, Kris and Jesse don “Mean Girls”-esque sexy Santa outfits to perform a number at the Delta Kappa talent show, but Riley feels uncomfortable joining them, knowing her rapist will be in the audience. Kris goads her into the performance: “Be a fighter,” she urges, “for your sisters.”

At first, it seems like a bizarre exchange — how does a provocative skit empower a rape survivor? — until the group’s hidden motive becomes clear. They perform a parody of “Up on the Housetop,” indicting the fraternity for their date rape reputation. (“Up on the housetop click click click, you slipped me a roofie and then your [expletive].”) In one of the most enjoyable scenes of the film, Riley becomes a “fighter” through comedic song and dance, with her sisters by her side.

In the ensuing showdown between the sexes, it’s important to note that the women take up arms only for survival; the rest of their combat is rhetorical. As the film ends, Riley tells Kris: “You were right. I should have been fighting this whole time.” Riley realizes she has the strength to speak up for herself, even in the face of an administration that did not expel her rapist, and the police officers who did not believe her. She can reassert her power, rather than make herself smaller.

The women of “Black Christmas” do not just take down one campus villain, they quash an entire patriarchal army — an impossible feat for Riley, our would-be final girl, on her own. When Kris and the other women barge into the frat house before that final blood bath, Kris announces, “You messed with the wrong sisters.” She is right. Sorority sisters become indistinguishable from radical feminist sisters. Together, these women are unstoppable.

Lena Wilson (@lenalwilson) is a newsroom project manager. In addition to The Times, she has written for Slate, Seventh Row and The Playlist.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook , Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram .

A Christmas Carol: Movie Analysis

Show More “In our daily life, we encounter people who are angry, deceitful, intent only on satisfying their own needs. There is so much anger, distrust, greed, and pettiness that we are losing our own capacity to work well together.” (Wheatley, 77) In Charles Dickens writing, he tells of a story about a man with nothing left in his heart, but greed. This craving for more led him nowhere, but by his own peers mocking of him. These friends and family attempted everything to change Scrooge’s ways and have him become a new person. During a particular time, Christmastime to be exact, the grumpiness inside was overpowering. Jacob Marley , a deceased business partner of Scrooge, came back to haunt him and promised him forgiveness if he abided by three other …show more content… The plot of the story is not very different than the play. Characters are either similar or exactly the same. In the film, you are able to have a visual perspective of the story line. Scrooge seems to be more grumpy and in a Christmas -Bah Humbug, than displayed in the written format. (Dickens, 7) The old man is also extremely judgmental and blunt, with no regards for any other person’s feelings. An example of this is, in the beginning of the film, Scrooge’s nephew visits to invite him to dinner. At this moment , Scrooge asks his nephew about his wife and impolitely discussed of how he disapproves of their marriage. The nephew, Fred, is a little taken back by the comment, but then argues that they love each other. The topic is dropped and Scrooge continues his day in his bad-tempered day, while Fred goes along an optimist. Another very small differences that can be spotted is how the film begins. The films opens up with the town in which the story is setted. The camera makes it way through the small terrain and shows of families that are gathering items for the holiday season. A blanket of powdery snow covers the city in layers of very little measures, and finally the workplace of Scrooge

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Essay On The Christmas Carol

The Christmas Carol There are a lot of Christmas movies and stories that families like to listen and watch around the holidays. Every movie has something in common. They teach a valuable lesson. For example, in the story, Rudolph the red-nosed Reindeer, it teaches you the being different can be a good thing. In the play and the movie, the Christmas Carol, it teaches you that you need to be kind and charitable. The drama and movie of the Christmas Carol is a holiday movie and play that can be different by how they might’ve been solved differently, different scenes, and sometimes extra characters. In the Christmas Carol the movie, it shows Scrooge and Mr. Cratchit in Scrooge’s office working and his nephew walks in and tries to invite Scrooge …show more content…

The nephew comes in invites Scrooge to dinner and he refuses. The two men come and ask him to donate to the needy, but Scrooge adamantly declines. Scrooge hears a little boy who is singing ,’Away in a Manger’ and Scrooge smacks him with a ruler. “Bah! Humbug! Christmas! Bah! Humbug!” Scrooge says after the boy leaves. He then is visited by Jacob Marley and the ghosts of past, present, and future. The ghost shows his days as a boy, his sister, and a little bit of him with his first love. Then the ghost of the present comes. He shows Scrooge Bob Cratchit ’s family and they are happy in the Christmas season. After showing Scrooge his nephew’s dinner party, Present shows him two baby dolls. One is called Ignorance and the other is called Want. After Present, the ghost of the future comes and sees Tim dead, a dead man under a blanket, and people selling his stuff. Scrooge finally sees his future gravestone and wants to change. The spirits gave him a second chance and Scrooge woke up on Christmas. He ordered a goose to be sent to the Cratchits’ home, payed extra for the goose, and payed the boy who helped. He changed and lived another

Ghost Of Scrooge Research Paper

The he goes out to eat some where cause it was freaky in his house so he was going to the Christmas dinner but it was to pack, then he saw Tiny Tim is coming, to grab the tissues and gets ready for tear-jerking. Scrooge is again really quick on the uptake and ask his front man ghost wether Tiny Tim will live. But the ghost rubes Scrooge nose in all of this just a little more, and then they float away to a mining field.

How Does Scrooge Change Throughout A Christmas Carol

He is warned by Marley that if he doesn’t change, in his afterlife he will end up just like him. He will be forced to eternally walk around with chains that are forged link by link due to his greed. (Page 246, paragraph 28) But however since Scrooge did not believe in Marley he tells Scrooge that he will be haunted by three spirits to hopefully help him change his ways.. The first spirit that appears to Scrooge is the Ghost of Christmas Past.

How Does Scrooge Change In A Christmas Carol

The Ghost brings Scrooge to a graveyard, where he appears to see his name on a grave, which is the final scare that Scrooge will endure, but the strongest of them all. “Scrooge crept towards it and it said his own name, EBENEZER SCROOGE.” Thus scared Scrooge so badly but made him realize, that after his whole life of working for money, all of it would be gone when he passed and he would never get to spend it all. This proved to Scrooge that money is worthless and he should live a life of living, and not in his work office

Examples Of Scrooge In A Christmas Carol

The first is Scrooge's old business partner, Jacob Marley, who comes to warn Scrooge of the dangers of his money-obsessed ways. He tells Scrooge that when the bell tolls one he will encounter 3 spirits. As predicted, when the bell tolls a spirit is there, a ghost of Christmas past. She takes him to the past and shows him his past self.

The Christmas Carol: Comparing The Book And Movie

The Christmas Carol is a great and popular story, people have made movies and plays about it, though the play can be more accurate. The movies can be very accurate to the actual story. Although it is not a very long play there are many different things going on. The story overall has a great message to it. As in, never say that Christmas lame or not worth it.

A Christmas Carol Play Analysis

In the play A Christmas Carol Mr scrooge is visited by jacob marley, his old but dead partner. He tells scrooge to get his act up or he will turn out to be like him. He marley told he would be visited by three ghost.(Dickens 8) When the clock strikes he is visited by the ghost of christmas past he shows scrooge his past from when he was a little boy to when he was an apprentice at a warehouse. Where he meet his first love.

The Industrial Revolution In A Christmas Carol By Charles Dickens

Then, he went to his house and he received a visit from three different ghosts. One of the ghosts was from the past. The second was from the present. The third was from the future. Their purpose was to change Scrooge attitude of being selfish and not helping others with necessities.

Christmas Carol Compare And Contrast Essay

Compare and Contrast Christmas Carol Book VS. Christmas Carol Movie Are you into the Christmas spirit where everyone is enjoying their time with their family, then the Christmas carol is the right book for you. Today I am going to be discussing about the similarities and the differences between the book and the movie, in the book and the movie Scrooge was the main character they both had the part where Scrooge had an argument with his Nephew. In the movie and the book they had the same types of lessons learned. The difference is that in the movie Scrooge had a dog while in the book, it never mentions that Scrooge had a dog.

The Change Of Scrooge In A Christmas Carol

After Marley warns him not to end up like himself, and informs him that he will be visited by three ghosts, the first ghost arrives in Scrooge’s home. This is the the Ghost of Christmas Past. The spirit is dressed in a bright white tunic and is holding branch of luscious green holly. The ghost shows him scenes from when he was younger. These scenes make a massive impact on Scrooge.

Essay Comparing A Christmas Carol And It's A Wonderful Life

To finish it off the Ghost of Christmas Future silently shows Scrooge his own grave, and has him interpret his death. The ghost is described as a non-speaking grim reaper, and symbolically represents that Scrooge’s death will be silent, and he will not be able to explain his choices to others. They will just be forced to make their own

Redemption In A Christmas Carol

When Scrooge sees the Ghost, he is scared by its frightening appearance, but he knows that the Spirit’s lessons are important. He says, “ ‘But as I know your purpose is to do me good, and as I hope to live to be another man from what I was, I am prepared to bear you company, and do it with a thankful heart’ ” (Dickens 2). In this point of the story, Scrooge wants to change and is ready learn how to change his ways. He realizes that the Ghosts’ lessons are vital if he wants to change.

A Christmas Carol: Similarities And Differences Of Book And Movie

The ghost of Christmas past, present, and future(Dickens 9,10). As Marly leaves and the ghost of christmas past comes, Scrooge at first is very frightened. The ghost then tells scrooge to touch her robe and they magically travel to the old past when they see Scrooge as a young school boy where they can see how Ebenezer’s father really hated him because his wife died giving birth to him. Now Scrooge’s dad blames him for it(Dickens 13,14,15). The spirit next takes him to his teenage years where scrooge sees himself as a young happy and poor boy at a dance party with his long time girlfriend.

Change In Ebenezer Scrooge's A Christmas Carol

The ghost of Christmas future shows Scrooge what happens after his possible death, and 3 people are seen selling his items that he needed to live and rest. One of the 3 people say ‘he died with no one by his side’ which leads to the fact that Scrooge loves nobody but his coin. The ghost lets Scrooge also see that Tiny Tim has died, significantly telling Scrooge that he has to change or he will die and so will Tiny Tim. However, Scrooge decides to change his ways once and for all, and he finally pledges to be a kind man to others, with no potential signs of threat or vile manners. The whole point of the spirit’s visit was to use the final blow on Scrooge’s Arctic organs and give him a few more scenarios of what happens in the possible future.

Compare And Contrast: A Christmas Carol

both film and play show scenes with people selling, buying, and trading his old possessions. Scrooge realizes that if he doesn’t change his ways, he is going to end up like his selfish, greedy business partner, Jacob Marley, unloved, uncared for, and forgotten. When Scrooge awakes from his night of horrors, he immediately sends someone to buy the largest turkey for the Cratchit household, gives a hearty donation to a charity, and attends his nephew's Christmas party, in an attempt to reconcile with everybody to save his spirit. Both versions show Scrooge as a heartless man who cannot see his wrongdoings, but after a visit from his old business partner and a couple spirits, he finally learns a valuable lesson that teaches us

A Christmas Carol: Literary Analysis: Christmas Carol

Scrooge finally changed when he saw what his life would become if he did not

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