Like eggnog, wassail, and good cheer, this time of year people enjoy Christmas movies because somehow these films show us something true about life.

The best stories convey human emotions, ranging from joy to sadness, revealing secrets, temptations, embarrassment, envy and greed, resentments and regrets, giving us “just a glimpse” of other people’s problems.

“To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world.”

Can we see ourselves in these edited motion pictures of life?

After reading my recent blog, a friend mentioned The Family Man (2000), noting the story’s similarities to It’s a Wonderful Life (1946).

Nicholas Cage and Téa Leoni star in a story about a man who is given “just a glimpse” of the life he could have had if he had married his college sweetheart, Kate.

Instead, he grabbed the golden ring of Wall Street success on a merry-go-round in the corporate business world. Rich, single, worldly-wise, Jack Campbell had everything. He drove a Ferrari, for goodness sake.

Was there anyone more important and powerful than Jack Campbell? He felt invincible. He told other people what to do. He declared he didn’t need anything.

And that’s when the hole in his life opened up.

Jack loved things and used people instead of loving people and using things.

Jack goes to sleep in one life and wakes up in another. He’s now “the family man,” two kids, living in Jersey, driving a mini-van.

When he glimpsed where his choices had taken him, did he have regrets?

Making a List, Checking it Twice

This year, I made a list of Christmas movies to watch again.

#1 on the list, It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), but my husband and I started with Die Hard (1988), # 4 on my list. People argue whether or not Die Hard is a Christmas movie, but no doubts here.

On Wednesday, our mailman Stan told my husband that It’s a Wonderful Life was showing–– that day only. What made Stan even mention that? Timing! (see previous post)

Plans shifted and at 2:00, I sat in the historic Cactus Theater in Lubbock, seeing my #1 on the big screen––larger than life. What a gift!

The Cactus opened in 1938 and operated as a movie house until 1958. It reopened in 1995 as a venue for live performances, showcasing local talent as well as music legends. [1]

Movies Made Before 9/11

How many movies show the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in NYC before 9/11? More than a thousand, filmed over the course of 30 years. [2]

How many Christmas movies shot scenes where the Towers cut through the skyline, as unmistakable as the Statue of Liberty?

I don’t know, couldn’t find an answer, but noting the towers in the distance immediately dates films made before 9/11. [3]

The most remarkable scene I’ve seen is in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992). Kevin, played by Mccaulay Culkin, stands atop one of the towers, above the 110 floors of that sky-scraper, surveying the city below. [4] Also in this movie, Kevin asks Donald Trump for directions to the lobby of the Plaza Hotel.

But following the national tragedy of 9/11, Home Alone 2 removed that Tower scene. Restored before Christmas 2018, lest we forget.

9/11 Memorial and Museum, picture I took in 2019.

A Moveable Feast

Taste, timing, and values affect the choices you and I make, deciding what to watch and when.

In pursuit of understanding ourselves and others, movie-goers seek just a glimpse of how other people live, how they navigate through problems (no problem, no story), but the characters in any movie have to make audiences believe no one is watching, knows what they are thinking, or guess what they will do.

Unguarded moments. Aye, there’s the rub.

My mother told me that my slip was showing before she took this picture because she hated posed pictures.

Unguarded comment, I actually watched a movie I used to love, but actually don’t love it now.

While it’s still on the list of movies many people consider “Best” of the holiday season, the scenes that made me uncomfortable when this movie first came out evoke disgust now. I can’t unsee that!

Why are some of the best movies ruined by scenes that do not add to the story?

Just a glimpse of what other people think, do, and how they live played out on a big screen, especially in a movie that appeals to the emotions that surrounded 9/11, for me, the positive feelings the various vignettes intended to promote have vanished.

Cultural tastes make a moving target. In the long run, timeless values shape our lives.

Movies: Part of my Education about Life

Memories from my childhood include going to the movies with my mom. After my sister and my dad were gone, she took me with her to see movies at the drive-in, long after their theatrical release and way before ratings existed.

Many of those films I saw filled my eyes and my mind with questions.

One question I have never forgotten came after seeing the movie, The Apartment, which won the Best Picture Oscar in 1961––5 Oscars and 25 nominations. IMDb (online database) rates The Apartment at 8.3.

Watching that movie as an adult, no wonder I didn’t understand what was going on.

But I remember asking my mother about the boss giving a secretary––his mistress––$100. for Christmas.

“What’s wrong with that?” To me, a $100. was fantastic!

Mom said, “Money is the least thoughtful gift a person can give or receive.”

I console myself with her words when the gifts I use money to buy, take time to wrap, and give to someone I care about go unappreciated, unused, and unwanted. Oh well.

I have told my kids that a gift says more about the giver than the recipient.

Think about God’s gift to the whole world! His name is Jesus.

Just a glimpse of the movies I have watched so far this Christmas season:

It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), George Bailey reminds us all that life is a gift and that we cannot imagine how other people’s lives would be affected if we had never been born!
Holiday Inn (1942)
White Christmas (1954), I watched these movies back-to-back, noting their similarities and differences. Irving Berlin wrote the songs for both Holiday Inn and White Christmas, popular movies made 12 years apart. Fred Astaire (b.1899, d.1987) starred with Bing Crosby (b. 1903, d. 1977) in Holiday Inn but then refused the offer to co-star in White Christmas, saying he was too old for the part. Bing Crosby was 51 when he starred in White Christmas. Maybe Fred Astaire thought Bing Crosby was too old. (Remember, the audience has no idea what the actor is thinking).
Fred Astaire kept dancing into his seventies, and in Holiday Inn, he danced the famous fire cracker dance.
Holiday Inn begins with Bing Crosby singing the song “White Christmas,” the number one song of all time, so the song is in both movies. Holiday Inn tells the better story.
Die Hard ((1988) It takes a big crime and criminals led by Alan Rickman to bring Bruce Willis and his wife together at Christmas. This action movie suspends reality and set in motion a series of sequels, films, and television shows that have grossed collectively more than $2.5 billion for Willis.
The Family Man (2000) Watching Nicholas Cage reevaluate his life makes the point that there’s more to making a life than making money.
Red One (2024) Santa gets kidnapped by an evil ogre determined to punish everyone on the Naughty list, which means everyone. Santa doesn’t keep a list of who has been naughty or nice. That got added by the song lyrics, “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” (1934), or possible origin from a 16th century Dutch tradition.
Home Alone (1990) The tricks and traps remind me of The Three Stooges. An 8-year-old left home alone outsmarts the Wet Bandits, somehow demolishing the house he sought to protect. But all’s well that ends well when the family returns to find that Kevin took care of himself. “Good job, Kevin, you didn't die.” Kevin overcame his fears, creatively dealt with the bad guys, and helped his neighbor see how important it was to reunite with his estranged family. All good fun and heart in the right place.
Home Alone 2 (1992) Seldom do sequels match the original, but this movie comes close. Lost in New York, Kevin has his father’s credit card and cash, sets himself up in a suite at the Plaza Hotel, and manages to outwit the same two characters from the first movie. Escaped from prison, the miscreants plan to rob a toy store on Christmas Eve. With the help of toy store owner and the bird lady, Kevin escapes revenge of the “sticky bandits.” Pure slap-stick, but enough to make you cringe when the bad guys fall into Kevin’s traps.
Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) Good News/Bad News. Good news: The World’s Fair is coming to St. Louis! Bad news: Father announced that for his job, the family must move to New York. Crisis: family dynamics on display as each of the Smith’s four daughter’s must process their griefs. Judy Garland sings the classic “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” while trying to comfort her youngest sister Tootie. Tootie responds by destroying all the “snow people” in their yard. Is Father missing something here?
A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965, a TV movie) Charlie Brown confronts the commercialization of Christmas. He learns the true meaning of Christmas directing a play; instead of an aluminum tree (a type that was a commercial success in the 1960s), a spindly tree served as a pitiful prop. Linus saves the Christmas play when he recites Luke 2. (Link to film clip)
“That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.”

Have yourself a Merry Christmas, little or big, these last days of 2024.

Readers, I hope you will share your favorite Christmas movies, songs, or hymns. Just a glimpse.

[1] https://www.cactustheater.com/about

[2] https://www.voanews.com/a/new-yorks-twin-towers-appear-in-many-hollywood-films-128592413/165032.html

[3] Construction on the World Trade Center began on August 5, 1966, but most of the work in the first two years was below street level. The Twin Towers began their vertical climb in 1968. The North Tower was completed first in December 1970, followed by the South Tower in July 1971. https://www.911memorial.org/learn/resources/digital-exhibitions/world-trade-center-history/world-trade-center-facts-and-figures

[4] BTW, for Home Alone 2, Culikin was paid $4.5 million, which was 100 times his salary for Home Alone.