Favorite Holiday Movies / LibraryThing Movie Night

Two related questions:

1. What's your favorite holiday movie?
2. Do you have any ideas for a holiday-themed LibraryThing Movie Night? We generally choose movies based on books.

1)
The late MrsHouseLibrary's favorite (somewhat) holiday-themed movie was Love Actually. As for the bookish part, it's got Colin Firth attempting to crank out a murder novel. And really, what could possible say Happy Holidays more than that?

She also liked National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, and of course, It's a Wonderful Life, but there's no literary reference to either, as far as I recall.

2) How about The Man who Invented Christmas? Made in 2017, it's a delightful account (with wonderful embellishments) of how Charles Dickens came to write A Christmas Carol.

My answer:

1. It's a Wonderful Life. This was based on a short story (The Greatest Gift by Philip Van Doren Stern), which I own and isn't that great.
2. Muppet Christmas Carol. Excellent because it plays much of it straight, and Michael Caine is great. I don't think LibraryThing members will group-watch this with me…
3. Die Hard. Yes, it's a Christmas Movie. It too is based on Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorp. The latter has 154 copies on LibraryThing—well less than the movie.

That's three good movies—but not really books.

>2 WholeHouseLibrary: Mine, too. Love Actually

timspalding (#3):

2. Muppet Christmas Carol. Excellent because it plays much of it straight, and Michael Caine is great. I don't think LibraryThing members will group-watch this with me…

It's the best version of Christmas Carol I've seen. I will take any excuse to watch it.

>3 timspalding: Die Hard is one of my favorites!

I've always loved A Christmas Story, which is based on Jean Shepherd's In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash.

Not (that I know of) based on a book, but fun:

Bernard and the Genie, about a guy who loses his job and his girlfriend on the same day, right before Christmas, and when she cleans out the apartment all she leaves is one lamp...

Based on books AND fun:

Hogfather from the book by the late, much missed T. Pratchett. Death gives up his own gig to take over from that other anthropomorphic personification, the Hogfather. Death just doesn't quite get the whole gift-giving thing, though. His granddaughter, Susan, has to take over the Death job. There's a tooth fairy, the OhGod of Hangovers, assorted wizards, and an assassin.

The Snowman from the book by Raymond Briggs. Wordless, beautifully animated film with a lovely musical soundtrack.

I have The Muppet Christmas Carol only on VHS. I still have the technology to watch it, but it's kind of a pain to get it hooked up.

Die Hard

The other classic, while not a movie per se due to length, is the original "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". Not the new one or the horrible live-action abomination with Jim Carrey, but the original one with Chuck Jones animation and Boris Karloff narration (basically just reading the book with a couple songs added in).

>9 lorax: Yes!

1) My favorite holiday movie is probably (the scheduled to be released tomorrow) film I'm Dreaming of a White Doomsday, which is about a mother struggling to take care of her son in a post-apocalyptic world. It is actually based off of a short story written by the director, but probably isn't suitable for a movie night here.

2) I suppose neither one is really long enough to count as a movie, but my favorite Christmas specials are (the original) How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas, both of which are based off of books.

>7 tardis: Oh, how could I have forgotten about Hogfather? It's excellent holiday reading/viewing.

1. The Bishop's Wife (Cary Grant, Loretta Young, David Niven); Love Actually;
2. Truman Capote's A Christmas Memory with Geraldine Page (Technically a short story and the movie is difficult to find but one of my all time favorites) Also may be more Thanksgiving than Christmas. Still one of my favorites.

The other classic, while not a movie per se due to length, is the original "How the Grinch Stole Christmas".

We watch it every year. And of course I have the Latin version.

Not the new one or the horrible live-action abomination with Jim Carrey

That movie is morally and aesthetically obscene. It pollutes the book. Whatever is wrong with millennials, I blame them seeing that movie during their formative years.

The Bishop's Wife

I kept seeing that when looking up movies for this. Also The Shop Around the Corner. Haven't seen either. Someone should mention White Christmas, which really is a good movie.

Also, does Fanny and Alexander qualify?

I just read that Ron Howard was the director of the that abominable movie. It's shaken me. How? Was Apollo 13 really a disgusting blasphemy? Did A Beautiful Mind traverse its source material completely too? Probably.

My favorite Xmas movie is Brazil.

I'm with lorax (>9 lorax:) on this one. I frequently get "It Feels Like Christmas" stuck in my head at random times regardless of season. I'll take any excuse to watch The Muppet Christmas Carol.

I know It's a Wonderful Life is a classic, but I don't care for it.

Any takers on The Nightmare Before Christmas? I love it because it brings together my favorite holiday (Halloween) and another holiday I enjoy.

>15 timspalding: Not every good director's film can be a masterpiece. The trailer for Tim Burton's "live action" Dumbo just came out the other day and now I can't unsee it. BIG nope.

>16 paradoxosalpha: Wait. I loooove Brazil, but how on earth does that figure as a xmas movie?

>18 lorannen:

'Tis the season. Don't you recall the parties and gifts?

My favorite Christmas movie of all time is Miracle on 34th Street : based on the book Miracle on 34th Street by Valentine Davies

>19 paradoxosalpha: Only vaguely, but you're right. Clearly time for a re-watch!

And here I thought I was unique in my love of Die Hard as a holiday movie!

>22 lesmel: Oh goodness, no. Maybe that says something about my friend group.

See also: Gremlins

>14 timspalding: I love The Bishop's Wife (the first one, please), although I'm ambivalent about the book.

https://www.librarything.com/work/340430

The film expresses joy, and I've often included the ending sermon in various moments in my life.

As an aside, I'm not very fond of Jim Carrey, and while I don't wish him harm, I *do* wish he'd go away. The first Grinch film is the only one that I accept. There are also animated versions of Horton Hears a Who and Horton Hatches the Egg that I haven't seen for years, that follow the books precisely. Dr. Seuss cannot be improved on. I miss him.

ETA: Just adding the sermon from the Bishop's Wife here.

Tonight I want to tell you the story of an empty stocking.
Once upon a midnight clear, there was a child's cry. A blazing star hung over a stable and wise men came with birthday gifts.
We haven't forgotten that night down the centuries; we celebrate it with stars on Christmas trees, the sound of bells and with gifts. But especially with gifts. You give me a book; I give you a tie. Aunt Martha has always wanted an orange squeezer, and Uncle Henry could do with a new pipe.
We forget nobody, adult or child. All the stockings are filled -- all that is, except one. And we have even forgotten to hang it up.
The stocking for the child born in a manger. It's his birthday we are celebrating. Don't ever let us forget that. Let us ask ourselves what he would wish for most, and then let each put in his share.
Loving kindness, warm hearts and the stretched out hand of tolerance. All the shining gifts that make peace on earth.

Another for Muppet Christmas Carol. I've read the book, finally, and decided that it really is the best adaptation. The Jim Carrey one was supposed to be more faithful to the book than its predecessors, and in some ways it was, but the spirit wasn't right. Dickens say right off that his intention is not to put anyone "out of sorts" with the story. That movie put me out of sorts!

The other two would be The Nightmare Before Christmas and Die Hard of course. ;)

Not sure if I like the as much as they are tradition but we always watch the old clunky animated things, especially Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer with with snowman narrator, the Bumble, and Yukon Cornelius. Don't bother with the fixed up new version. I like the old clay/stop motion thing. Santa Clause is Coming to Town is pretty fun, too.

Among the many excellent suggestions, let me second The Shop Around the Corner. It's a happy tears movie, based on a Hungarian play. There's a musical version with Judy Garland, but for some godsforsaken reason it's set in the summer, In the Good Old Summertime.

Shop Around the Corner is one I'll watch any time it's on. That, and To Be or Not To Be also directed by Lubitsch.

So many of my favorites have already been mentioned so I'll just add Holiday Affair. The 1949 version with Janet Leigh and Robert Mitchum. It was based on an out of print story titled Christmas Gift by John D. Weaver. I loved that when I was a little girl and still watch it every year.

White Christmas, It's a Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34 th Street and Frosty the Snowman.

Not based on books to my knowledge, but two of my favorite Christmas-adjacent movies are Better off Dead with John Cusack and Trading Places with Eddie Murphy and Dan Ackroyd. Both hilarious and they still hold up even after all this time.

I love Die Hard! It is my favorite Xmas movie. I just went to a screening in the theatre this week. Another favorite is The Ref.

I always watch Bell, Book, and Candle, with Kim Novak and James Stewart. It starts out around the season, and it just seems like it belongs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell,_Book_and_Candle

>24 Lyndatrue: Thank you for adding the sermon. I will be keeping it in my collection.

Shamefully I've never seen the Muppets Christmas Carol, so will nominate the classic 1951 film version, Scrooge a.k.a A Christmas Carol. The 1999 TV film with Patrick Stewart and Richard E. Grant is also pretty good.

William Goldman died today. We should do The Princess Bride. :(

>34 timspalding: Yes.

>34 timspalding: That's a great idea. Love The Princess Bride!

I'd also vote for Muppet Christmas Carol.

>3 timspalding: I will watch The Muppet Christmas Carol any time, for any reason. Ditto for the Chuck Jones How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Classics both . . . and although Miracle on 34th Street isn't quite in that league for me, it's up there.

>34 timspalding: I hadn't heard about William Goldman . . . sic transit gloria mundi . . . and, yes: The Princess Bride, absolutely . . .

No one has mentioned one of my favourite movies, Elf. Will Farrell makes me laugh, plus it has Bob Newhart.

I love The Princess Bride, and did from the first time I saw it. I watch it often (I have cable, and it is frequently on). I've seen it enough times that I can (and do) drop in anywhere, and it is a wonderful and genuine film. The thing is, though....

It just doesn't seem like a Christmas movie.

As an aside, it always astonishes me to remember that the person who wrote Princess Bride wrote Marathon Man (one of the few works that genuinely frightens me).

>39 raidergirl3:

Elf is alright but if I had to pick one and only one, it's still the Muppets.
Plus Michael Caine. ;)

>40 Lyndatrue:

Marathon Man is an amazing film.

Wow! So many great Christmas movies. I love many that have been mentioned. My all time fave is It's a Wonderful Life . I always look for that movie during the holiday season. I also enjoy the Muppet Christmas Carol, Die Hard (I just love the Die Hard movies, and with this movie staring Alan Rickman is my all time fave!!), The Nightmare Before Christmas. I will watch almost anything Christmas related!!

Muppets Christmas Carol is our family favorite, and the book is one of my favorite Christmas reads as well.

I gave in an bought a digital version of Elf because it really is sweet. When the kids were small, we used to watch the Muppets Christmas Carol, It's a Wonderful Life, The Lemon Drop Kid, La Pastorela (a musical with Linda Ronstadt as a warrior angel, Cheech Marin as a hookah smoking demon and lots of other fun stuff) and several other movies.

I love reading Hogfather at Christmas, but don't recall being in love with the film version.

>44 MrsLee: Yeah, Michelle Dockery is good as Susan (imho), but the movie overall lacks the spark of the book.

Now, I'd be up for a Hogfather group read - I read it every year anyway - but I don't have any interest in the film version.

Really, has no one else seen The Man who Invented Christmas? It's hard for me to believe that no one else has recommended it.
It became MrsHouseLibrary's favorite holiday-related movie, even over Christmas Vacation.
Will someone else please give it a viewing?

Wouldn't mind reading/watching Hogfather, as I haven't gotten to either yet. Same with the Muppet Xmas Carol: I haven't seen it, and I would happily see it for the first time.

Though if we're going Dickensian, to me the best adaptation is the one starring Alasatair Sim as Scrooge. (There are many fine movies! This one does the best adaptation of Dickens' original story, I think.)

AH! Scrooged is a hoot! I don't seek it out like I do Die Hard; but if it is on, I'll watch it. Others I like:
The Polar Express
The Holiday (in which Jack Black does not play a scruffy slacker and I still love him)
The Santa Clause with Tim Allen (only the first one, though)
Last Holiday with LL Cool J and Queen Latifah
Home Alone the first one.

My absolute favorite is Miracle on 34th Street (1947) in glorious black and white (not the colorized version), story by Valentine Davies. A close second is Holiday Affair (1949), story, "Christmas Gift," by John D. Weaver.

1. My favorites are Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), It's A Wonderful Life, A Christmas Story and Home Alone.

2. My idea is kind of wacky. I call it "Merry Bookmass!" The idea is that instead of celebrating one book, we celebrate all the great books we've discovered this year. I think Serendipity (2001) would be a good film choice because it's set during Christmas and is about a man searching for one special book so he can be reunited with the woman he loves.

National Lampoons Christmas Vacation we watch every year, and we even have a couple of moose mugs and moose mug Christmas lights. I find that I mostly stick to the fun or fantastical movies over the realistic ones. Minus Die Hard. I kind of like the movies to also be like something of a decoration so it tends to be cartoons and clunky animated things.

My must watch every year Christmas movie is Christmas in Connecticut.

A Christmas Carol from 1951, with Alastair Sim as Scrooge, based on the Dickens novel
Desk Set, based on a William Marchant play.
Mixed Nuts, written by Nora Ephron, based on a French movie
I, the Jury, 1953, based on the Mickey Spillane novel

I really greatly disliked Will Farrell, until I saw Elf. He plays that role with such glee and delight that it substantially redeemed him in my eyes. (I still don't like Stepbrothers though).

Definitely classic animated childhood favorites, like Peanuts and Frosty the Snowman. I like the classic animated Grinch and wish they would stop trying to do any other versions.

I like goofy fun holiday movies, like Scrooged with Bill Murray, and National Lampoons Christmas Vacation, and as mentioned in >29 Bookmarque:, Trading Places which always makes me laugh.

I remember once liking Olive, The Other Reindeer, which is voiced by Drew Barrymore, but recent viewings remind me that it does contain a lot of lowbrow humour of the fart-joke level, which does wear thin.

I'll give a shout-out to Steve Martin and John Candy in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (https://www.librarything.com/work/4095255).

>56 jjwilson61: +1!!

>55 Darth-Heather: Step Brothers is just bad, period. I still haven't seen Elf for the same reason (not because Step Brothers, but general dislike of Will Ferrell's schtick). I realize at this point that I may be empirically Wrong about that movie, but here we are.

I admit to liking parts of Elf a whole lot (Peter Dinklage scene, anyone?) and other parts I was kinda meh about so it works out to be okay. I'll throw it on the TV if I see it, just to be amused by the antics and the references, like the elves that look suspiciously like elves from another Christmas movie I watch all the time.

I love A Year Without a Santa Clause! That is one of my favorite animated ones.

I'd forgotten another one that I can watch any number of times. It's Holiday Inn, from 1942 (with the introduction of the song White Christmas). It's got many of the holidays (although it's rather like time traveling, since there's a celebration or two that would mystify many of the younger set nowadays), and it's just a sweet and nostalgic moment from long ago.

There are some moments in the film that are cringe-worthy, though. Blackface *always* makes me sad. I still love the movie (and thank you, TCM, for showing it last night).

My favorite literary Christmas show is Hamlet, although I don't, alas, know of any filmed versions of it that play up the Christmastide aspect.