As I’ve bopped around on the ‘net during this Christmas season I’ve seen several blog postings on top 5 Christmas movies. I thought for my blog post this week I’d join in on the fun and publish my top 5 as well. Here they are, in order of my most liked… sort of.
The first reviews from this movie weren’t the best, blamed on the lack of “realness” from the animation. My thoughts: it’s fun, feel good, and some of the action scenes are simply incredible. A holiday must see.
So not technically a movie, but still a Christmas fav. One of the real reasons I love this is found from Wikipedia:
Network executives were not at all keen on several aspects of the show, forcing Schulz and Melendez to wage some serious battles to preserve their vision. The executives did not want to have Linus reciting the story of the birth of Christ from the Gospel of Luke; the network orthodoxy of the time assumed that viewers would not want to sit through passages of the King James Version of the Bible. A story reported on a documentary about the making of the program stated that Charles Schulz was adamant about keeping this scene in, remarking, “If we don’t tell the true meaning of Christmas, who will?”
It’s no secret that one of my favorite TV shows from the 2000’s was “Ed” on NBC (still not released on DVD!) When I saw that the lead character in Ed (Tom Cavanagh) was in this made-for-TV movie I had to see it. Perhaps not the greatest Christmas movie of all time, but I still love it and watch it every year.
I saw this in the theater when it was released. One of the most striking realizations that I took away from watching The Nativity Story was the immense persecution that the Jewish people lived under during this time period while being ruled by the Roman government. It was in this period that Jesus was born. No wonder that later in Jesus’ ministry the masses were so eager for Him to be the one to rescue them from Roman oppression. Thankfully He came to rescue us from so much more.
Love it, hate it, whatever your feelings on this movie may be; it’s a Christmas classic. One year while marooned because of snow and the pending birth of my daughter, this movie was watched nonstop for most of the day. Thank you TBS. I quote it throughout the year, but the quote ratio increases much this time of year.
So there you go – my top 5 Christmas movies. I could have added more (Elf is always fun) but these 5 represent my must-see Christmas movies each year. What are your Christmas must-see movies? Feel free to let me know in the comments. And, I hope you’re having a lovely Christmas season so far.
-DP