Second vote for “The Ref”.
Very funny and irreverent, and def overlooked a LOT !
Worth a watch.
Please don’t forget Santa’s Slay, which has possibly the best explanation of exactly why Santa distributes toys to children. The bar scene is also well-done.
And Krampus has loads of fun for every little girl and boy, showing us exactly what happens to the naughty kids and cousins we never liked. After viewing it the first time, my wife simply said, “Not watching that again.”
I watch both each Christmas season.
Arthur Christmas. Another great Aardman film, where Arthur is Santa’s inept son who is fully into the Christmas spirit and who can’t let one present be undelivered. Wildly funny and with a big heart. James McEvoy voices Arthur, with Hugh Laurie, Jim Broadbent, Bill Night, and Imelda Staunton.
For TV, there’s “How Murray Saved Christmas.” Look for the full hour version instead of the mangled half hour one.
We just watched Klaus on Netflix, a clever story of the Santa myths origin.
Seconding A Midnight Clear. Also defending **The Preacher’s Wife ** on the grounds that I never saw Bishop, I get to hear Whitney sing, and who wouldn’t fall for Denzel under those circumstances?
And a vote for The Crossing, about Washington crossing the Delaware, with Jeff Daniels as ol’ George. Once watched it with friends and their tween sons. “It’s educational, there’s some badass hand-to-hand combat, and it shows what a lot of people have forgotten: Washington was a general before he was a statesman, and he was not to be messed with. He also knew better than to stand up in the boat.”
I saw ‘The Shop Around the Corner’ ( 1940 ) recently. Portrays a department store in Budapest Hungary. I didn’t know it was a Christmas movie from the title but it was interesting in a feel-good but not too corny way.
Was a little tough to imagine Jimmy Stewart and Margeret Sullivan as a Hungarian, but then at least there’s the shop owner with an accent.
Yes! Finally! I’ve been mentioning this outstanding film for several years here, but seemingly nobody has given it a chance. The other two I usually mention:
The sweet and humble A Child’s Christmas in Wales, starring Denholm Elliot in this take on the Dylan Thomas story. Lovely.
Truman Capote’s memoir on his childhood in a made for TV movie A Christmas Memory. A pleasant tale of growing up poor in the South and of the friendship between a young boy and his aging female cousin. This is very difficult to find in good condition, as the original ABC Stage 57 tapes have been lost, and the ones you find online are nth generation copies. Also DO NOT mistake that version starring Patty Duke with the original, which stars Geraldine Page. I did run across a clear color copy on YouTube some years ago.
Nothing says ‘Christmas Spirit’ quite like Bad Santa.
I’m a fan of Scrooged with Bill Murray.
Rapsittie Street Kids: Believe in Santa.
Followed up by 1991’s The Christmas Tree.
More seriously, though, another nomination for The Night They Saved Christmas, from me.
There’s also The Christmas Toy, and it’s bleaker British counterpart, The Forgotten Toys/The Night After Christmas. (Plus, the American partial redub) Y’know, in case you feel your Christmas isn’t complete without your heart getting torn out and stomped on a bit.
And Chad Rocco on Youtube has kept up a semi-annual list of forgotten/weird Christmas episodes or specials,which has some real gems.
Well, it’s set at Christmas, and it’s very upbeat, so I think it counts as a Christmas movie: Tokyo Godfathers. (For those who haven’t seen it, it’s the story of three homeless people and a baby girl that they find abandoned in the snow. Don’t worry – it has lots of happy endings for all the subplots.)
I used to watch The Bishop’s Wife every year at Christmastime, but I haven’t seen it aired in the past decade. It’s probably shown on TCM but I missed it. Who wouldn’t love Cary Grant as an angel? I’ve never seen The Preacher’s Wife, but I can see where it’s probably a worthy remake.
One we watched every year as children was a TV movie – Amahl and the Night Visitors. I don’t think that’s been shown in decades.
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation has been mentioned a couple of times. Did you know there was aNational Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation 2? I actually have a copy of this movie but it is reputed to be terribly bad and I’ve never bothered to watch it.
A Very Murray Christmas on Netflix is worth a look
So glad to find this thread. I started a similar one a week ago. Plenty of good suggestions here. I especially liked “Trapped in Paradise” and “The Bishop’s Wife”.
Here are my two suggestions:
Like I have mentioned a few times before, one of my favorite underrated Christmas movies is 2011 Canadian coming-of-age drama “Faith, Fraud & Minimum Wage”. The movie, taking place in Nova Scotia around Christmas time, centers around Casey McMullen, a troubled teenage girl who works at the local garden mall. Casey is raised by a single father, while her sister has been in a coma for a year, following a car accident. One day, in frustration, Casey throws her cup of coffee at the back wall of the mall, and leaves without cleaning it up. Some people see the stain the next morning, and decide that it looks like the face of Jesus. The word gets out, and many people soon start seeing it the same way, and claim that it is a miracle. Casey’s accidental hoax even makes the news, and attracts the tourists to Nova Scotia. Casey wants to tell the truth, but she can’t bring herself to do it, not only due to a fear of punishment, but also because she feels that the “miracle” gives people hope and makes them feel better.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faith,...6_Minimum_Wage
The movie is pretty well acted, especially for a low-budget film, with Martha MacIsaac’s and Callum Keith Rennie’s performances standing out especially. The setting is beautiful. I also really liked the character of local priest; Andrew Bush’s performance was spot-on. The ending is quite tense and may even come off as shocking to some, but it works really well. I think the movie was really hurt by being marketed as teen/family Christmas comedy, even though it is clearly not. I definitely recommend watching it.
But I also really liked “Morvern Callar”. That one is also a pretty serious and even gloomy movie, especially for a Christmas movie, much more so than my previous pick, but it’s got great acting and beautiful cinematography, and it delivers a powerful message.
The movie centers around a young Scottish woman, named Morvern. She wakes up on Christmas morning and finds out that her boyfriend has committed suicide. He did leave a suicide note, as well as few gifts for her, including a mix tape titled “Music For You” (the soundtrack of the movie).
Instead of reporting her boyfriend’s death, Morvern buries his body in the mountains (like he requested in his suicide note), and then goes on a road trip with her best friend, contemplating suicide the whole time. Morvern seems to make a decision to commit suicide at the end of the trip, but then starts having second thoughts about it.
Samantha Morton’s performance is masterful and deeply moving. The ending is both unexpected yet fitting, the kind that makes you wonder. There are lots of beautiful locations and landscapes throughout the movie too, so there is an impressive visual beauty there as well.
Also, merry Christmas to you all!