The Rude Cactus Holiday Classics

I’ve been thinking about all things Christmas and what might possibly help get me into the spirit this year. One of the things on which my brain stumbled was the question of my favorite Christmas movies. It was a tough question made all the more interesting by my answers. They’re all old. Not a recent one (barely one shot in color) in the bunch.

Number Five - Christmas in Connecticut.  Quirky?  Yes.  Kitchy in that mid-forties, post-World War II kinda way? Of course.  But still a classic.

Number Four - It's A Wonderful Life.  I realize it's cliche but it's also a fantastic movie.  And frankly I'll watch anything with Jimmy Stewart.  I love almost everything about this movie except the mean pharmacist when he goes all homicidal and slaps young George Bailey around.  Yes, it's a little depressing in parts but the end more than justifies the pain in getting there.

Number Three - Miracle on 34th Street.  I'm still reasonably convinced that actor Edmund Gwenn is Santa Claus.  All the holiday spirit bundled up in me and secreted away since I was a kid wants to believe that this is really more of a documentary than anything.  I mean, I know it's not but, as with the movie, all you have to do is believe, right?

Number Two - White Christmas.  Hand's down, one of the best holiday movies around.  I mean there's singing and dancing and Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye.  I swear I'm straight.  If this one doesn't get you in the mood (the holiday mood, not that mood - there's nothing attractive about Rosemary Clooney), nothing will.

Number One - The Bishop's Wife.  Shot in 1948, this relatively unheard of classic stars Cary Grant, Loretta Young, David Niven and the insanely talented yet massively under-appreciated James Gleason.  Yes, that terrible pile of crap called The Preacher's Wife starring Whitney Houston was based on this film but please please please don't let that influence you.  This is an undiscovered holiday classic and is my favorite holiday movie.

I'm not sure why I only really dig the classics.  Maybe it's because there seems to be an innocence in them that reminds me of the genuine Christmas spirit I felt as a kid.  Those movies, like childhood Christmases, aren't jaded by modern cynicism.  They're silly, naive and fun.  And maybe we all need more of that.