Friday, December 11, 2020

Are These The Top 20 Christmas Movies?



Recently we saw a 1952 Christmas movie that we never knew about. It's The Holly and The Ivy, a British flick about an English clergyman (Sir Ralph Richardson) and his family. It all centers around Christmas eve and Christmas day in a small British village outside of London.

We  thoroughly enjoyed the movie (which aired on TCM) and felt we had made a new discovery -- a Christmas film from a bygone era that we were heretofore unaware of.

Similar somewhat lesser-known Christmas movies from long ago include Holiday Affair, It Happened on Fifth Avenue, Remember The Night and The Bishop's Wife. Look them up. Many are quite easily accessible online and/or via a variety of cable and on-demad outlets.

What are the top 20 Christmas movies ever?

Well, we'd put that nostalgic Barbara Stanwyck classic Christmas In Connecticut (pictured, above) on our list. And we'd also include a number of other old black-and-white movies from Hollywood's golden age, such as the 1951 version of A Christmas Carol with Alistair Sim.

One thing's for sure: The legendary Hollywood studios and the movie moguls of yesteryear knew how to do Christmas. And they did it up right.

But when Entertainment Weekly decided to rank the Top 20 Christmas movies of all time, they also included some that actually originated on TV. 

Anyway, with our personal faves in bold, here (from number 20 to Number One) is the list they came up with:

20. The Santa Clause (1994)
19. Gremlins (1984)
18. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989)
17. Scrooged (1988)

16. Die Hard (1988)
15. Miracle On 34th Street (1947)
14. White Christmas (1954)
13. The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
12. Trading Places (1983)
11. Home Alone (1990)

10. Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)
9. The Year Without A Santa Claus (1974)
8. The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)
7. Bad Santa (2003)
6. Love Actually (2003)
5. How The Grinch Stole Christmas (1966)
4. Elf (2003)
3. A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)
2. A Christmas Story (1983)
1. IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946)

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