Memorable Christmas Movies

I love Christmas movies. For a matter of fact there are certain movies I have to watch each year to make my holiday complete.

Here are some of my favorites:

Scrooge - The original 1951 black and white staring Alastair Sims is by far the best screen adaption of the Christmas Carol.

White Christmas -- Bing Cosby, Danny Kaye, and Rosemary Clooney. The songs are great, especially the song "Sisters, Sisters, never seen such devoted sisters..." I crack up every time I see Bing and Danny do that number.

Christmas Vacation -- A Chevy Chase's classic. This film never ceases to make me giggle. It presents that picture of an old fashioned dysfunctional family Christmas. Who among us hasn’t in the past dread spending the holidays with your in-laws? My favorite character in this movie has to be Cousin Eddie.

Christmas in Connecticut -- another classic. This one stars Barbara Stanwyck who plays a journalist who poses as a Martha-Stewart wannabe in her weekly column.

Home Alone 2 - - I think I like this one better than Home Alone. It’s slap-stick humor never fails to crack me up.

A Christmas Carol - - The latest film adaptation of author Charles Dickens classic tale, A Christmas,Carol benefits from high production values and solid performances. Patrick Stewart as Ebenezer Scrooge is very effective as the man who needs a bit of holiday cheer. (I love Patrick Stewart’s voice, he could make a Telephone Directory sound interesting!) Patrick Stewart had been doing a one man stage version of the story, he then adapted that performance for an audio presentation before doing the film, therefore, he is very comfortable in the role as Scrooge and its characters. His acting is just great here. Stewart knows how to show a more human side to Scrooge that never seems forced or fake. Actor Joel Grey gives a magnificent turn as "the ghost of Christmas past", as does Bernard Lloyd playing Jacob Marley. This film isn’t perfect, some of the acting can be a bit hammy at times.

The Polor Express - - Yesterday I finally found the time to see this beautifully adopted film based on the wonderful Christmas book by Chris Van Allsburg. The artwork of the book has been amazingly transformed to film in Zemeckis' film. Zemeckis has directed the movie well and translated the book onto the screen in an excellent way. The Zemeckis/Hanks combination once again brings out a memorable role for Hanks as the conductor and even though it was CG, there were moments when I thought that I was actually watching the real actor, not a computer generated character. This film has captured my heart. I believe that children of all ages will enjoy this story as a wonderful Christmastime treat. This one is destined to become a memorable Christmas classic. I know that as soon as this one is available on DVD I will adding it to my collection of Christmas Classics.