We had our annual White Christmas viewing tonight and as the movie finished up, I came to a shocking revelation. Christmas never actually happens in the movie. The movie both begins during Christmas Eve, and ends during another Christmas Eve. But it never goes further.
So, is this a total anomaly, or are there any other Christmas movies out there in which we never see December 25th?
It’s a Wonderful Life. All set on Christmas Eve.
CMC +fnord!
At ~2:50 in the clip you can see the Baily’s grandfather clock and the time is either 11:00 or 11:55 (which makes no sense, since just a few minutes earlier George is running down “Main St” wishing a Merry Christmas to all the folks who are out doing what exactly on “Main St” in Bedford Falls on Christmas Eve after 7pm? :dubious: It’s not the cool town Pottersville was, with its swinging nightlife!).
Arguably the bells at the end of the film are striking midnight.
In Mame the scene that introduced the Christmas song “We Need a Little Christmas” is set in the summer (or at least, no where near Christmas).
Does Bill O’Reilly know?
In the movie “Auntie Mame” - the version with Rosalind Russell (far superior than the Lucille Ball one - but I digress) - the “We Need A Little Christmas” is before Christmas - but definitely in the season.
I’ve always felt that, in White Christmas, that the snow falling at the end of the big Christmas show starts at Midnight.
Randy Newman once said that Irving Berlin was the greatest Jew since Moses. He took the two most important Christian holidays, and turned one into a weather report (“White Christmas”), and the other into a fashion show (“Easter Parade”)!
It’s been a while since I saw the movie, but I thought this came up completely out of season, like in August.
The lyrics of the song itself set the date:
Oh, and Rosalind Russell was not in the musical version. Her film was made from the straight play Auntie Mame. The song is from the Jerry Herman musical, Mame.
Right - she doesn’t sing it - she just says “we need a little Christmas now if we ever did.” In my head, that always cues the instrumental version - but it could just be the voices . . .
I just remember that she’s taking all the orders for the roller skates on COD - and then later there’s a Christmas tree out and she uses some of the ornaments to decorate their coats and hats.