Merry Christmas to You!

So I’ve told you my Christmas guilty pleasures.  Here are four of my (movie) Christmas pleasures--sans guilt, avec pleasure.  Why no guilt?  Well, it’s kind of like the guilty pleasure movies are like Harlequin romances: really tacky and probably not well-written, but somehow really enjoyable.  And with no real value.  (I do still remember my favorite, called The Breadth of Heaven—in fact, I still own it, dog-eared and much-loved—where the main character is suddenly whisked away from her boring job as hotel clerk to become the secretary-companion to the Princess of Tirhania, complete with new wardrobe, new country and eventual new husband—the Prince of Tirhania, no less.  Ahh, I still can picture her russet suit, with a blue scarf that matched her cobalt blue eyes...)  But I digress.  The movies I’m including here are (just in my humble, but always correct, opinion), like literature--some are kind of silly literature, but literature, nonetheless.  Or at least closer to that than to a Harlequin romance.

How cute is that??

Elf:  I never liked Will Ferrell on Saturday Night Live.  Couldn’t stand him.  And I used to avoid his movies.  I didn’t know!  I didn’t know that somehow, after his transition from comedy skits to real movies, out popped this sweet, innocent, sincere, loveable guy!  And never more so than in Elf, where he plays a human who’s been raised as an elf and never sees anything amiss, despite the fact that he’s, oh, about ten times bigger than all his friends and neighbors.  I’m happy every time I watch this.

Love Actually – I didn’t actually love this the first time I saw it.  But it’s grown on me so much that it’s now one of my absolute favorites.  A bunch of separate Christmas stories, each very different and mostly quite funny, that all unexpectedly tie together in the end.  Touching, heartbreaking, funny, and full of great actors:  Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Colin Firth, Bill Nighy, Liam Neeson, Alan Rickman…   Love this!  And it includes perhaps my favorite modern day Christmas song:

White Christmas:  My favorite movie—and I’m not limiting this to Christmas movies.  It was made just for me, I’m sure of it.  It’s got it all: Bing Crosby, Danny Kay, Rosie Clooney, Vera-Ellen (the most amazing dancer ever, with the teeny-tiniest waist ever), the 1940’s, singing duos, beautiful clothes,  a snowy lodge in Vermont, lots of song and dance production numbers, and absolutely hilarious.  I’ve seen it every year for years and years (actually, we had to put this on an every-other-year rotation with The Bishop’s Wife—we know it too well!), and I laugh out loud every time, and can sing every song, if I’m so inclined (which I usually am.)  Here’s one of my favorite scenes—nothing to do with Christmas, but a killer:

The Bishop’s Wife:  Here’s all you need to know:  David Niven as a pastor, Loretta Young as his sweet wife, and Cary Grant as an angel who’s sort of hankering after Loretta Young (who wouldn’t?)  It’s sweet, a little spicy (just a tiny bit suggestive, in a wistful sort of way), and very funny.  I leave you with the beautiful final line of the movie:

…loving kindness, warm hearts, and the stretched out hand of tolerance; all the shining gifts that make peace on earth.

Merry Christmas, one and all!