Today’s newsletter is late because…well, because honestly this is usually my least pressing obligation (first being taking care of my kid, second being actual deadlines for something that pays me). But while it may not have a deadline or earn money, I am oddly attached this this little newsletter and writing it is one of the highlights of my week, as is getting comments and messages from those of you who read it! So even though my brain is currently a giant strand of tangled Christmas lights that are half burnt out and I don’t have one of those little light guns to figure out which bulbs don’t work, here we go. It’s newsletter time!
I couldn’t let the season go by without writing about Christmas/holiday movies. Initially I planned to have some kind of angle here, like “Messy Christmas Movies and Why We Love Them,” but frankly, right now I just want the comfort that my old favorites can provide. Also, I watched a new Christmas movie I didn’t like and it caused an existential spiral about the state of film specifically and also the idea of Christmas in general. I don’t like to spend a ton of time talking about things I don’t like in this newsletter (remember, the motto is NO HOT TAKES, only lukewarm takes), but I was so disappointed by the movie Love Hard that I almost quit watching Christmas movies altogether.
At one point, they sang a consent-filled version of Baby It’s Cold Outside that made me cringe so hard I thought I’d have to turn the movie off (I didn’t, but only because I was on the treadmill and it would’ve been too much work to pick a new movie). The movie had some good parts (the cast) and a lot of people I know liked it, so feel free to take my opinion with a grain of salt, but it made me so depressed that I had to return to the classics.
What the best Christmas movies do so well is translate that thrill of hope from song into cinema. The world is weary, and Christmas movies tell us that maybe if we “believe” in some vague, spiritual, but rarely explicitly religious way that we’ll wake up to a winter wonderland, a family that forgives each other despite their conflicts, and the love of the most unexpected person you could imagine (your fiancé’s brother, a soldier who’s staying at your home while you pretend to be an expert homemaker, the coworker you fight with while secretly sending each other letters at a shop in Budapest). Is it unrealistic? Maybe, but we need to believe in something. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.
I won’t repeat my “the best romantic comedies are sad” speech, but this is doubly true for holiday movies. We all know that the holidays can be heartbreaking and cold and lonely, all those twinkle lights serving to illuminate the holes where lost loved ones used to be. The best movies, then, are the ones that shine bright enough for us to notice the sadness and realize that it’s never going away. It can coexist with the cheer and the warmth; in fact, it has to. Why else would there be so many Christmas songs about missing someone who isn’t physically there? If only in my dreams. I’ll have a blue Christmas without you. Baby, please come home.
So here are my favorites. Looking over the list, there’s actually at least one that’s just plain happy and fun, but most of them make me cry.
It’s a Wonderful Life
If you someone haven’t seen It’s a Wonderful Life, let me be the one to tell you that it’s so, so weird. I only saw it for the first time a couple of years ago (for whatever reason, it was never in the Winfrey family rotation) and I assumed, from the way people talked about it and the cover and the “teacher says every time a bell rings an angel gets its wings!” line that it was a little schmaltzy and cheesy. But, well, it’s not. For starters, it’s about someone who’s about to commit suicide. There are so many beautiful shots, like Jimmy Stewart running through snowy Bedford Falls. It’s long (some might say too long!) and meandering and spends most of its time letting you get to know George Bailey. In fact, the actual plot of the movie, where an angel convinces him that his life has meaning, all happens within the last half hour of an over two hour long movie. But before that you get this simultaneously heartbreaking/heartwarming look at all the little moments that make up a man’s life. George Bailey doesn’t get to do anything he wanted to do. Over and over again, his own plans are thwarted as he sacrifices himself for others. His father, his brother, his town. But, the movie tells us, just because your life didn’t turn out the way you thought it would doesn’t mean it can’t have meaning. In fact, maybe being part of a family, of a town, of a community is the only meaning you can find. Remember, no man is a failure who has friends! Oh no, I started crying just typing this out. Chances are you’ve already seen this one, but if you haven’t, it’s streaming on Prime (in the original black and white and a weird colorized version).
The Shop Around the Corner
Here we go again: black and white, sad, attempted suicide, Jimmy Stewart. What can I say, I have a type when it comes to Christmas movies. You’ve Got Mail is one of my favorite movies, and yet this one might be even better? Plus, if you’ve seen YGM then you’ll recognize that some of the scenes are recreated verbatim (I have to be careful when talking about this because once on my author Facebook page I offhandedly joked that Nora Ephron stole the plot of this movie and people got MAD and called me “disrespectful” and it was ultimately a learning experience for me on how active I wanted to be as an author on Facebook, which is to say: not very). There are so many laugh out loud funny lines (“I don’t believe in mixing bags with pleasure” always gets me), Jimmy Stewart is so dang cute, and Margaret Sullavan has the most adorable little outfits. And the ending is so romantic. Truly, a perfect movie to watch any time of the year, and it’s streaming on HBO.
Christmas in Connecticut
Finally, a movie that’s all happy, all the time and doesn’t feature Jimmy Stewart at all! I watched this for the first time last year and promptly watched it a second time with Hollis because it’s just so fun. It’s all about a woman pretending she lives on a farm so she can fool her editor and also a recently returned solider. She has to try to flip pancakes and hang out with a cow. She has a comic relief uncle whose catchphrase is “hunky dunky.” It’s hard to explain the appeal of this one but it’s full of actual LOL moments. Also, Barbara Stanwyck is impossibly beautiful.
The Nora Ephron/Meg Ryan trifecta (Sleepless in Seattle, When Harry Met Sally, You’ve Got Mail)
None of these movies are Christmas films (I’d say they’re most associated with Valentine’s Day, New Year’s Eve, and fall, respectively), but they each feature a wonderful Christmas scene. In Sleepless in Seattle, it’s the big family dinner (and also “horses, horses, horses”) and Sam being lonely for the holidays. In When Harry Met Sally, it’s Harry and Sally carrying the Christmas tree and then Sally sadly dragging one all by herself. In You’ve Got Mail, it’s Meg Ryan decorating the shop’s Christmas tree while talking about her mother as Joni Mitchell plays and me crying very hard every time.
Love Actually
I showed this one to Hollis this year because he’d somehow never seen it. He wasn’t even aware of its divisiveness. His first impression was, “That wasn’t very good, but it was fun to watch,” and I think that’s a fair assessment. Most of the storylines are kind of ridiculous and that’s okay! It’s weird and fun and then there’s Emma Thompson, acting the hell out of her storyline. When she’s in her room, looking at pictures of her family as yet another Joni Mitchell song plays (what is it with emotional scenes in movies having a soundtrack of Joni Mitchell?? I also sobbed during CODA this year), I absolutely lost it. Alan Rickman! You ruined your family! You made, as Emma Thompson says later in the film, life a little bit worse. It’s such a heartbreaking scene and I love it so much because it really anchors the rest of the movie, which is basically floating around in the wind like the typewritten pages of Colin Firth’s novel. This movie doesn’t make any sense, but I don’t think anyone’s asserting that it does, right? It’s strange and messy and that’s fine! This one is never streaming around the holidays so I checked it out from the library.
Elf
Elf didn’t “hit” for me until I had a kid, when I realized that it’s one of the few movies that’s both (mostly) appropriate for little kids while having actual jokes. Unfortunately, a lot of family-friendly movies made today fall victim to non-jokes, like characters saying “Well, this is awkward!” or “that’s not a thing!” If you’ve noticed that in adult movies, trust me, it’s way more apparent in children’s entertainment. Elf is well-written, the music is great, and it has Zooey Deschanel. Will Ferrel is shockingly good at playing a childlike man (that scene in the doctor’s office…if you have a kid, you know how accurate it is). I cry at the end just like I do at the end of It’s a Wonderful Life. A community banding together to help someone (in this case, Santa Claus)? My tear ducts don’t stand a chance. Also, I love a Christmas movie that takes place in a department store (mostly I’m thinking about Carol here, which is another great Christmas movie). Streaming on HBO!
Holiday Affair
I’m actually still in the middle of this one (sometimes it takes me days to watch a movie), but I had to include it because it has everything I love. A department store! A model train! A seal at the zoo! A trained squirrel! A single mom who has to decide between a boring guy (a Baxter, if you will) and an exciting model train salesman. Everything is very cozy and Janet Leigh is just so pretty. Streaming on HBO.
Little Women (1994)
Much like the Nora Ephron movies, this is another all-season film with strong Christmas vibes. The four of them trouncing through the snow singing “Here We Come A-Wassailing” plays on a loop in my brain. Streaming on Prime.
While You Were Sleeping
I don’t think I can accurately describe my feelings for this movie or Bill Pullman’s reversible Carhartt/denim jacket. It’s snowy, it’s lonely, Bill Pullman is always growling and leaning on things and building furniture. What more do you need to know? I worry I’m not devoting enough space to this actually perfect film but you’ll just have to trust me. Go watch it. Streaming on Disney+.
Honorable mentions that I don’t have the space/time/mental capacity to write about: All That Heaven Allows, Muppet Christmas Carol, The Holiday, White Christmas, The Family Stone, Last Holiday, The Bishop’s Wife.
This will probably be my last newsletter of the year, so I wanted to take a moment to say thank you so much for reading. I expected maybe thirty subscribers, tops, so it’s amazing to me that so many (but not, like, that many people, let’s not get carried away) are reading along. I love your messages and comments and shares so much. I started doing this because I missed long form writing, but I wasn’t sure anyone even cared about my thoughts on anything other than rom-coms. And, sure, there are a lot of rom-coms here but I also got the most feedback about last week’s “stuff about old people” newsletter. Having this outlet has been a pure, easy joy for me, and it’s nice to have something like that (at any time, but especially now). I’m glad we’re all friends here.
Stay safe and I’ll see you in the new year. I know things are hard, but remember that movies are always there for you.
Love this list! Feel the same way about Love Actually!!! I cry at that scene every time!
All great choices. My sister and I watch the 1994 Little Women every Christmas. We actually saw it in the theater on Christmas Day the year it came out. One of your honorable mentions is my other absolute favorite Christmas film: The Bishop’s Wife.