A Christmas Film Festival

by Jim Bemis

One of the best things about Christmas is taking part in favorite holiday traditions. In the rush and crush of daily living, it's all too easy to forget about the permanent things. This time of year reminds us that we're a people with a past.

These traditions are the threads linking us to our past and binding us to the future. They give stability and permanence to customs and ideas, providing continuity as a counterweight for the inevitable change occurring in our lives. Through our heritage, we learn to distinguish between what's eternal and what's transitory, between what can be discarded and the things to be preserved.

But family rituals aren't always handed down intact; sometimes they're invented, embellished, or improved upon. At our home, for instance, we've created our own cherished tradition - the all-night Christmas film festival.

Each Christmas season, my family has a movie marathon where everyone picks a favorite holiday video to watch with the others. We make hot chocolate, the girls bake cookies, and everyone gets cozy in front of the fireplace to stay up late watching our favorite Christmas movies.

Predictably, my daughters' picks have changed as they've grown. Years ago, Meghan, my youngest, was content to watch the silent, beautiful "The Snowman," over and over, its wonderful music keeping her enthralled. Later, she loved "A Charlie Brown Christmas," a terrific children's movie, combining lovable Peanuts characters with a powerful theological message. She's moved on now, preferring Jean Shepherd's "A Christmas Story," the wry, whimsical look at Christmas through the eyes of Ralphie, a nine-year-old boy desperate to get a Red Ryder air rifle from Santa.

Marisa, my oldest, changed her choices too. At first, she had trouble choosing between "A Brady Christmas" and the venerable "Miracle on 34th Street." (Like me, she's a big Maureen O'Hara fan.) Nowadays, though, she's likely to pick either Chevy Chase's hilarious "Christmas Vacation," one of the funniest of all holiday movies (granted, it's a little raunchy for some) or the first "Home Alone," a nice blend of family warmth and slapstick humor. Too bad Macaulay Culkin had to grow up.

My wife, Lynn, has a long list of holiday favorites - "The Bishop's Wife" (in glorious black and white), "Christmas in Connecticut" (the black & white version, naturally - the 1992 color remake is a disaster), and "Going My Way" (also, needless to say, b & w; some wonder why we bother having a color TV at all.) Her most frequent pick, though, is "White Christmas," the superb Bing Crosby - Danny Kaye - Rosemary Clooney - Vera-Ellen collaboration. The plot's a little thin but with Irving Berlin's marvelous music - including the wonderful, wistful classic "White Christmas" - and such first-rate talent in the leading roles, who cares?

The film provides a great showcase for Crosby's extraordinary talent. If the definition of genius is making the difficult look easy, then what can you say about Der Bingle? The ultimate Irish crooner, he slides up and down the scales with the ease of a Nordic skier traversing the slopes. Listening to Crosby sing is what it must have been like to see Shakespeare pick up a pen, Mozart a baton, Michelangelo a brush. Talent like his comes along only once in great while, and when it's packaged as pleasantly as in "White Christmas," well, it's an everlasting joy.

In all the years we've been doing this, my pick has never changed - it's always "It's A Wonderful Life." Sublimely sentimental, the film features Jimmy Stewart's best performance as George Bailey, the self-sacrificing kid left behind during World War II. Even more critical to the film's success, though, is Frank Capra's wonderful direction, providing the movie with lots of heart without becoming sappy.

One other thing: The film recalls a better time in this country, where a sense of community and family pride held unbridled ambition in check. In a key scene, George is given a vision of life in his small town had he not lived - a world of bars, X-rated adult entertainment clubs, and pervasive crime. It's interesting that Capra's nightmarish vision of the crass, immoral life in Bedford Falls without George Bailey is very much like American society today.

Unfortunately, my pick is always the last one shown, beginning around, say, 2 a.m. By that time, everybody's eyes get a little droopy. If there's one refinement we need to make, it's to start showing Dad's pick first. Nowadays, the kids stay up later than I do.

We look forward to our Christmas movie night the way some families love chopping down their own Christmas tree or others light up their yards so it can be seen from Canada. Long after today's burning issues have flared out, leaving barely a trace, these traditions will have a permanent place in our hearts and in our memories - and will always be there for our children, and their children too.

James Bemis is an editorial board member, weekly columnist and film critic for California Political Review. He is also a columnist for the Internet website Catholic Exchange and served for years as a columnist for the Los Angeles Daily News. He is a frequent contributor to The Wanderer, the oldest weekly national Catholic newspaper. Mr. Bemis' work has appeared in National Catholic Register, Catholic Faith & Family, Catholic Digest, Thomas Aquinas College Newsletter, The Wanderer Forum Focus, the Los Angeles Times, the Ventura County Star, and the Simi Valley Enterprise. His five-part series, "Through the Eyes of the Church," on the Vatican's list of the 45 Most Important Films in the Century of Cinema, was published in The Wanderer. Mr. Bemis is currently writing a book on Catholic art, literature and film.