Christmas Movies

Christmas movies are just an extraordinary extension of the great storytelling tradition of Christmas. In lands far and wide one of the key entertainment elements of the season has always been storytelling and nothing tells the stories of Christmas better than a mash-up of film, music and script that make up great Christmas movies. Did you know that one of the first movies ever made way back in 1898 was in fact a Christmas movie? We have on record well over a century of Christmas on film. We explore them all — from It’s a Wonderful Life to Elf — both old and new and Christmas movies yet to come. We feel that if Dickens were to have lived to the age of film in the 20th century he would have left us more great Christmas stories to enjoy on film today.

Kurt Russell and the Ultimate Santasy

Jeff Westover Christmas Movies, Christmas News November 25, 2018November 25, 2018 6 Comments

There’s a new Santa in town. Everyone is talking about him. Over Thanksgiving weekend Netflix debuted their new Santa-driven Christmas film they dub, probably because they will make this a regular holiday thing, The Christmas Chronicles. In others words, it’s a story – a Christmas tale. This one is a Santa story – a fantastical, magical story as most Santa stories are. It is a Santasy. Suiting up for Santa this time is Kurt Russell. The previews for weeks have raised the eyebrows of men and set a-tingle the hearts of women. The Christmas Chronicles with this casting suddenly madeRead more

The Next Really Bad Nutcracker Movie

Jeff Westover Christmas Movies August 8, 2018August 8, 2018Disney, The Nutcracker 4 Comments

Sad to say this but our tradition of bashing yet-to-be-released movies of a Christmas theme continues. You could say we are compelled to put the screws to the new Nutcracker coming out this fall. Hollywood just gives us no choice. This time, as other times in the past, the maker of a holiday stinker is none other than Disney. Out now are some truly bizarre trailers of a butchered Nutcracker story that Disney calls The Nutcracker and the Four Realms. As discussed in a recently released edition of the Merry Podcast, the Nutcracker is a 200 year old tale writtenRead more

Bruce, how could you?

Jeff Westover Christmas Movies, Christmas News July 16, 2018July 16, 2018Die Hard 0 Comment

Bruce Willis is all over the news this week after he declared that Die Hard, celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, is not a Christmas movie. This has roiled the ranks of movie fans everywhere because it is one of the classic debates of both Christmas and movies. Let me share with you a true story, a story that takes us back more than 30 years ago before Die Hard was made. Even though I have been writing about Christmas since we began here in 1991 I’ve only shared this story once, last year during an episode of Tim Babb’sRead more

Tis the Season for Christmas Movies

William Werner Christmas Movies, Christmas News May 22, 2018May 19, 2018Christmas movies 0 Comment

A new survey commissioned by MyMerryChristmas.com has determined that 46 percent of annual Christmas movie watching happens between Memorial Day and Labor Day. The survey, conducted over a three day period offline in 7 American cities, reveals some surprising facts about summer Christmas movie watching in America. More than 1 in 3 Americans will see something Christmas-related at home during the dog days of summer and of those a whopping 82 percent watch a Christmas-themed show on purpose. The primary reason people watch so much Christmas during the off-season? Simple. There just isn’t time to see it all when itRead more

Dickens Preview Surprises Little

Jeff Westover Christmas Movies, Christmas News September 5, 2017September 5, 2017the man who invented Christmas 1 Comment

Dickens might be sick. The long awaited first preview of the Charles Dickens biopic awkwardly titled The Man Who Invented Christmas is here and it is as horrid as we feared. The movie hits theaters on November 22nd and it is billed as the big Christmas movie release of 2017. The movie casts Christopher Plummer as Scrooge and features every computer animated/generated special effect to give you the feel of Victorian-era England. Dan Stevens stars as the great Charles Dickens, author of A Christmas Carol and a long time legend of Christmas. This movie purports to tell the story ofRead more

The Five Most Essential Movies of Christmas

Jeff Westover Christmas Community, Christmas Movies July 15, 2017July 15, 2017Christmas movies 2 Comments

By Lloyd Larsen — Guest Blogger on My Merry Christmas The history of film is slowly watering down the quality that was once fairly exclusive to Christmas. Recent releases with Christmas themes such as “The Night Before” has taken the once proud genre of Christmas and cast it as a suspect reason for even making a movie. That is why the following list of essential Christmas movies contains mostly older titles. Some will brand me old fashion. Or stubborn. Or maybe just old for doing it this way. But if you are a Christmas fan who guards closely not onlyRead more

The Christmas Movie They Will Never Make

Jeff Westover Christmas Movies March 24, 2017March 24, 2017Christmas movies, Mariah Carey, St. Nicholas 2 Comments

The world was underwhelmed with Mariah Carey’s breathless announcement this week that she is turning her 1994 Christmas tune – All I Want for Christmas Is You – into the next animated Christmas movie. This clearly isn’t the Christmas movie we are waiting for. What we’re waiting for is the Christmas movie they will never make. The reason the world is underwhelmed is because we’ve seen this before. White Christmas the movie wouldn’t be anything without White Christmas the song. Grinch the movie is not the classic that Grinch the TV show proved itself to be. (Oh, and they’re makingRead more

Five Must See Movies Over Thanksgiving Weekend

Jeff Westover Christmas Movies, Thanksgiving November 21, 2016thanksgiving movies 0 Comment

Thanksgiving represents a lot of traditions in American culture. Some enjoy the parade, others get into the football and some are all about the food. For many, it is a simple day of being together and playing games. Thanksgiving, more than any other holiday, really is a true holiday. Everything stops for something different. Thanksgiving is also traditionally a time set aside to kick off the Christmas season. Many put up or cut down their Christmas tree on Thanksgiving weekend. Most have their Christmas lights hung and many use Thanksgiving night as their time for turning them all on. ByRead more

Dan Stevens to Portray Charles Dickens

Jeff Westover Christmas Movies November 8, 2016Charles Dickens 0 Comment

Dan Stevens — the actor once-upon-a-time who played Matthew Crawley on Downton Abbey — has been cast to play Charles Dickens in a new movie to be titled The Man Who Invented Christmas. This is a project both to greatly anticipate and to loathe. The story of Dickens and his creation of A Christmas Carol is a great Christmas story in it’s own right. We celebrate Dickens after 200 years because A Christmas Carol has become such an integral part of our modern Christmas celebrations that we cannot think of Christmas without it. The Christmas music world clings to WhiteRead more

Collateral Beauty Trailer Showcases a Real Christmas Movie

Jeff Westover Christmas Movies, Christmas News September 7, 2016September 8, 2016christmas movies 2016, new Christmas movie 2016 0 Comment

We’ve been hankerin’ for a real Christmas movie to arrive in theaters — and we may get it in 2016. Below is the very extended trailer of Will Smith’s Collateral Beauty — a low budget tear jerker with an all star cast. The film follows Howard (played by the indomitable Will Smith), a man who loses his love and drive for life following the death of his daughter. Additionally, it seems to focus on three things that are universal to all humans: Love, time, and death. As Howard divulges in the trailer, “We long for love, we wish we hadRead more

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