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.

The Five Most Essential Movies of Christmas

Jeff Westover Christmas Community, Christmas Movies July 15, 2017July 15, 2017Christmas movies 0 Comment

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 only the sanctity of the season but also holds high the standard of Christmas movie excellence you have to consider theseRead 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 making it again as an animated feature with the deep-throated Benedict Cumberbatch as you-know-who but they pushed the project back aRead 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. By Thanksgiving evening the Christmas music is heard without apologies everywhere. Part of our culture in celebrating Christmas is the watchingRead 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 White Christmas as it’s standard. The film world claims It’s A Wonderful Life as it’s Christmas gold star. But A ChristmasRead 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 had more time, and we fear death.” This is opening up against Star Wars. So don’t look for people to talkRead more

Top Ten Christmas Villains

Jeff Westover Christmas Movies, Merry Podcast August 31, 2016September 10, 2016Christmas bad guys 0 Comment

The newest episode of the Merry Little Podcast takes on the probing subject of Christmas bad guys in beloved Christmas movies. Almost every story has a bad guy. But the bad guys of Christmas movies are special — because most of them are guys we don’t really hate when all is said and done. After all, it’s Christmas. That’s just one of many Christmas top tens that we’re working these days. In an upcoming episode of the Merry Podcast we probe much, much deeper into Christmas top tens. But this is a good list…and we’re sure you have Christmas villains of your own that maybe didn’t make our list and that you’d argue about. If so, take your list toRead more

Will Smith Christmas Movie Buzz Building

B. Francis Morlan Christmas Movies, Christmas News August 23, 2016new Christmas movie, Will Smith 0 Comment

There is a new Christmas movie heading to theaters this year and the buzz is building — even if it is getting late in the year. Will Smith is starting to promote Collateral Beauty, which is due in theaters December 16th. The film tells the story of a man — Smith, apparently — who suffers a personal tragedy and is trying to put his life back together. The film has an all-star cast of Will Smith, Helen Mirren, Kate Winslet, Edward Norton, and Keira Knightley. Billed as a “dramedy” Smith says the film is a curious mix of “It’s a Wonderful Life” and the “Wizard of Oz”. Smith says “It’s a smart, funny, and heartwarming Christmas story about reclaiming one’sRead more

Casting a Remake of It’s a Wonderful Life

B. Francis Morlan Christmas Movies August 22, 2016August 22, 2016It's a Wonderful Life 0 Comment

Back in 2013 Hollywood announced a sequel to It’s a Wonderful Life. Thankfully the project never happened and hopefully it never will. It’s a Wonderful Life is a classic American film that is best honored by leaving it completely alone. In 1977 the film was remade as a made-for-TV movie. It was horrible. But you’ll have to recall that in 1977 It’s a Wonderful Life was not the Christmas classic it is today, even though it was 30-years old by that point. The strange path that It’s a Wonderful Life took to nearly untouchable status as THE film of Christmas came about because of television in the 1970s. It was played over and over right around the time the made-for-TVRead more

Disney Re-Releases The Enchanted Christmas

Ed Zachary Christmas Movies, Christmas News August 7, 2016August 7, 2016Beauty and the Beast 0 Comment

Beauty and the Beast — and Christmas. Does it get any better than that? Evidently after 25 years it does not get old — Disney is re-releasing the animated classic on DVD this October. The Enchanted Christmas tells a tale set within the story of the original feature, about Belle spreading Christmas cheer within the confines of Beast’s castle during her time there. The film’s all-star voice cast features Robby Benson as Beast and Paige O’Hara as Belle, along with the castle’s enchanted staff including Jerry Orbach as Lumiere, David Ogden Stiers as Cogsworth, Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Potts, Haley Joel Osment as Chip, Bernadette Peters as Angelique and Tim Curry as a grumpy pipe organ who threatens to ruinRead more

Office Christmas Party Trailer…Too Graphic to Show

Jeff Westover Christmas Movies, Christmas News July 26, 2016 0 Comment

The new trailer for an anticipated Christmas movie due out this year called Office Christmas Party hit the street today — but we can’t show it to you. Even the trailer is too raunchy to show. The movie stars an A-list of Hollywood millennials and is topped by veterans Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman. Aniston says her character is more or less “the Grinch”, in recent interviews. The premise is about a family owned company in crisis brought on by the death of the founder — and the kids are going crazy trying to see who can get control of it. As part of those shenanigans, an epic, obscene and raunchy Christmas party is planned. We’ll just pan this movieRead more

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