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Sunday, November 21, 2010

My Favorite Christmas Movies - Sarah Morgan

My first seasonal story for Harlequin Presents, The Twelve Nights of Christmas, is in stores now so to celebrate all things Christmassy I’m talking about festive movies that make me smile.

Here, in no particular order, are my favourites.

While You Were Sleeping – I know I’m not alone in loving this film. Sandra Bullock plays Lucy, a lonely ticket collector who rescues a man when he’s pushed onto the train tracks on Christmas Eve and ends up pretending to be his fiancée. It has humour, warmth, gorgeous family scenes, tears and best of all Bill Pullman as sexy Jack. And lots of snow.

It’s a Wonderful Life – an angel shows a despairing businessman what a difference he has made to other people’s lives. No Christmas would be complete without at least one showing of Frank Capra’s classic, which was nominated by the American Film Institute as one of the 100 top American films ever made.

Love Actually – eight stories in one film, some of which work for me and some that don’t (I cannot believe that Laura Linney would let the divine Rodrigo Santoro slip through her fingers), but it always puts me in a Christmas mood. I love the scene where Colin Firth stumbles his way through a Portuguese lesson so that he can tell the girl her he loves her.

Home Alone 3 – I can hear everyone shrieking ‘what? She cannot be serious’ but yes, I am serious. I love this film. It might be because I first watched it when my youngest son and I were ill at the same time one Christmas. We curled up together feeling sorry for ourselves and had a surprisingly happy time. I love the little boy (Alex D Linz, same actor who played the little boy in One Fine Day with George Clooney and Michelle Pfeiffer) and the film as painful as every Home Alone film is supposed to be. And there’s snow.

Die Hard – yes, I know it’s a weird choice but it is a Christmas movie. Sort of. It has snow and Christmas carols and the incredible, inestimable Alan Rickman.

A Christmas Carol – I love the Dickens story in almost any version.

The Family Man – Nicholas Cage as a driven, workaholic investment banker who gets to see what his life might have been had he taken a different path. He goes to bed on Christmas Eve and wakes up in the life he would have had if he’d chosen to marry his girlfriend instead of putting his career first. Tea Leonie is gorgeous as his ‘wife’, the kids and the slobbering dog are sweet and yes – there’s snow.

What’s your favourite Christmas movie?

Sarah
http://www.sarahmorgan.com/

24 comments:

Nas said...

Our favourite movies are Home Alone 3 and A Christmas Carol. I say "our" because we watch them as a family.

Sarah Morgan said...

We're obviously watching the same things Nas :)

Unknown said...

I love all Christmas movies, especially The Polar Express. The realistic animation is just beautiful. When I was a child I loved the movie called 'Santa Claus' with Dudley Moore.
My son and I also love the home alone movies, and a really nice one to watch is A Perfect Day which stars Rob Lowe.

Sarah Morgan said...

Julie, I've never seen Polar Express because my kids went with friends. I ought to try it. Never seen A Perfect Day but I love Rob Lowe so thanks for that suggestion!

Laurie G said...

My favorite Christmas movies are Prancer and Miracle on 34th Street both the old and new versions.

Sarah Morgan said...

Laurie, I love Miracle on 34th Street too. I don't know Prancer but I'm addin that to my list too. Sounds like on the children would enjoy.

Dina said...

The Family Man was on last night.

My favs are White Christmas,While You Were Sleeping, It’s a Wonderful Life and one version esp for A Christmas Carol.

Sarah Morgan said...

Dina, I love A Christmas Carol too, but I particularly love the book (it's one of our 'Christmas reads', curled up in the warm by the fire).

ev said...

White Christmas (which is now on Blue Ray, so I had to buy it! is my favorite. I really want to go see it on Broadway.

My daughter and I do the Die Hard movies on New Year's Eve as a tradition. I love the movies. And everything is better with Alan Rickman in it.

The original Miracle on 34th Street is another must see every year. So is Love Actually and A Christmas Carol. I want to see the Jim Carrey version this year. You can throw in the Harry Potter movies too, just because.

I've never been a big fan of It's a Wonderful Life for some reason. Seems to run in the family too.

The only problem with Christmas themed books, is that I am always so busy I don't get to read them til Spring!!! :-)

Lois said...

Well, I love Home Alone 2... Mickey's Christmas Carol... Pinky and the Brain's Christmas Special... oh, and Muppet Family Christmas (with lots of Ernie!) :) So I guess with a few of my choices, you could say I never grew up for Christmas! LOL

Lois

Unknown said...

The Family Stone, starring Diane Keaton. My husband went to high school with her and so one year I bought it for us to watch during the holiday season. It's great.

Description: Sarah Jessica Parker, Diane Keaton, and Rachel McAdams lead an all-star cast in The Family Stone. Join the eccentric Stone family for a holiday gathering filled with unexpected surprises. Before the festivities are over, love affairs will unravel, new ones will form, outrageous secrets will be revealed and the family will come together like never before.

Sarah Morgan said...

Ev, yes you're right about Alan Rickman - anythng with him in it is worth watching.

Lois, I love Mickey's Christmas Carol too! And The Nightmare Before Christmas etc etc so I suppose I'm with you on not growing up! :)

Marilyn, I love Diane Keaton although I haven't seen this film.

Mary Kirkland said...

I'm a bit of a curmudgeon and don't really like most Christmas movies, but one I like to watch is The Nightmare Before Christmas. Yeah I know it's animated but it's fun.

Unknown said...

Sarah, A Perfect Day is also a good author movie! Rob stars as an author getting his first big publishing deal and how it affects his life and family leading up to Christmas.
I also watched another of his Xmas movies recently - The Christmas Shoes (based on the book) which was really nice.

ev said...

The Christmas Shoes. I forgot all about that one. It always makes me cry.

The Dog Who Saved Christmas got me last year, and there is a new one this year. I'll cry.

The Hallmark Channel and ABC Family get a lot of play here during the season.

one6ylady said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
one6ylady said...

I love reading these posts... you gals always make me smile. Now I'm reading about great christmas movies that I love and this makes me want to crack out the DVDs early. LOL

I know it sounds silly, but the one DVD my hubby and I don't own is the Christmas Story (you know "You'll shoot your eye out"). We watch it on tv every year and refuse to buy the DVD unless they quit showing it on TV.

one6ylady(at)aol(cot)com

Christina Hollis said...

Hi Sarah
As my children's choice is 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' I escape with 'The Lion In Winter'. The dialogue is so brilliant ('What shall we hang - the holly or each other?') though IMHO Brian Cox is the only man who can play Henry II convincingly.

Sarah Morgan said...

Mary, I know plenty of people don't enjoy Christmas movies so you're not alone, but yes The Night Before Christmas is great.

Julie, I'm definitely going to try A Perfect Day and now you've given me another one too - I don't know the Christmas Shoes and Ev mentioned it too so it's obviously worth a look. I think the problem is that because I associate the familiar films with warm fuzzy feelings, I don't always try anything new. But those two are on my list.

Ev, the Dog Who Saved Christmas sounds like a great one to watch with the kids

Sarah Morgan said...

One6ylady, I know what you mean - I was determined to wait until December to start dusting off the Christmas movies but I've got myself all excited and in the mood now so I'm going to have to start early.....A Christmas Story is the one with the BB gun I think, yes I've seen that one :)

Christina, I haven't seen The Lion In Winter in years - what a great suggestion. Except that I'm never going to get any work done............

ev said...

A couple years ago for Xmas hubby got me a undercabinet mounted tv/dvd/radio, so now when I am out there cooking for the holidays, I can watch my movies and not have to deal with football all the time. Works for me!!

Sarah Morgan said...

ev, that's a great idea! Lucky you

Michele L. said...

Call me goofy but I love all the Charlie Brown holiday cartoons at this time of year! They always take me back to my childhood.

Great fun reading this blog Sarah! Thanks for the memories!

ev said...

How could I have forgotten The Sound of Music!!