10 Classic Christmas Movies to Watch Before December 25th
“Isn’t there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?” — Charlie Brown, A Charlie Brown Christmas
Everyone has their opinions on their absolute favorites when it comes to Christmas movies. Whether it’s indulging in the The Christmas Story marathon every year on TBS or popping in your favorite rendition of A Christmas Carol, chances are you already know what movies are on your binge-list this December. However, there are so many great Christmas tales with so much to teach us about the real meaning of the season. Here’s 10 that should be checked off of everyone’s movie bucket list!
1.White Christmas (1954)
Though many tie the song “White Christmas” to the movie, the song was first performed by Bing Crosby 13 years earlier, on the radio show The Kraft Music Hall.
2. Holiday Inn (1942)
Kemmons Wilson, who founded the “Holiday Inn” motel chain in 1952, named it after this movie.
3. Miracle on 34th St.(1947)
Kris Kringle (Edmund Gwenn) “plays” Santa Claus at Macy’s. His employment card reads: Name: Kris Kringle; Address: Brooks’ Memorial Home for the Aged, 126 Maplewood Dr., Great Neck, Long Island; Date of Birth: As old as my tongue and a little bit older than my teeth; Place: North Pole; Next of Kin: Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donder, Blitzen.
4. It’s A Wonderful Life (1946)
For the scene that required Donna Reed to throw a rock through the window of the Granville House, Frank Capra hired a marksman to shoot it out on cue. To everyone’s amazement, Reed broke the window by herself. She’d played baseball in high school, and had a strong throwing arm.
5. The Grinch (1967)
Dr. Seuss was initially uninterested in animating this or any of his books, but Chuck Jones, of Looney Tunes fame, managed to persuade him.
6. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)
The face of Sam the Snowman was intentionally designed to resemble singer-actor Burl Ives, who provided the voice for the character.
7. Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town (1970)
Mickey Rooney would later reprise his role of Santa Claus in two other Rankin-Bass specials, The Year Without a Santa Claus (1974) and Rudolph and Frosty’s Christmas in July (1979), and the sequel to ‘Year without a Santa Claus’, A Miser Brothers’ Christmas(2008).
8. Scrooge (1970)
It took more than three hours each day to apply the old-age Scrooge makeup to Albert Finney, who was only 33 years old at the time.
9. A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)
The movie broke many of the rules prevalent for animated holiday specials during the 1960s: it didn’t make use of a laugh track; real children were used for the character voices instead of adult actors imitating children’s voices; and Biblical references were used to illustrate the true meaning of Christmas.
10. The Bishop’s Wife (1948)
Originally Cary Grant played the bishop and David Niven the angel. When original director William A. Seiter left the film, Henry Koster replaced him and viewed what had been shot so far. He realized that the two were in the wrong roles. It took some convincing because Grant wanted the title role of the Bishop. He eventually accepted the change and his role as the angel was one of the most widely praised of his career.