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
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