But It Isn't About Christmas!! Films, Shows, Books that Remind You of the Holidays

Cachoo

Cachoo

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Ok--so another place I post that is based on a love of basketball had the old favorite Christmas movies list. And some of these guys love and I mean LOVE "Die Hard" as their #1 Christmas film. Then I was directed to the Instagram of former MMA/UFC Fighter Tim Kennedy who was actually reading a book (the die hard version of "The Night Before Christmas".) Do YOU believe this is a holiday film? I'm open to it as a great action film but Christmas????


Are there films, shows, books --any media really---that is not necessarily a "Christmas movie" that makes you think of the holidays?

My fave has to be from "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist" when they find Norah's very drunk bestie, Caroline, at a gay cabaret Christmas production (long before Christmas) dressed as a Christmas tree. I love that movie.
 
Anastasia (the cartoon) (I DVR'd that a couple Christmases ago, and I watched it last Christmas too. I'll do that again this year. Maybe Monday. It's supposed to snow.)

And when I read the first post that said Die Hard, that made me think of Lethal Weapon. Wasn't he going to kill himself on Christmas because his wife died. I haven't seen it since it was in the theater.
 
Susan1 said:
Anastasia (the cartoon) (I DVR'd that a couple Christmases ago, and I watched it last Christmas too. I'll do that again this year. Maybe Monday. It's supposed to snow.)

And when I read the first post that said Die Hard, that made me think of Lethal Weapon. Wasn't he going to kill himself on Christmas because his wife died. I haven't seen it since it was in the theater.
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I think you are right; I forgot about LW. And I've never watched "Anastasia."...I will now. "Eyes Wide Shut" is certainly not a holiday film but there are lovely Christmas lights in so many scenes. I've often wondered what Kubrick thought of the holiday.
 
Cachoo said:
I think you are right; I forgot about LW. And I've never watched "Anastasia."...I will now. "Eyes Wide Shut" is certainly not a holiday film but there are lovely Christmas lights in so many scenes. I've often wondered what Kubrick thought of the holiday.
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And, thanks! I might have forgotten if I wouldn't have posted about Anastasia in this thread. She's farther down in my DVR list where the "don't delete" things are.

If it's going to be "personally" reminds you of Christmas - we went to see Yentl on Christmas Eve, so I always think of that.

And Six Weeks with Dudley Moore and Mary Tyler Moore (funny, I never noticed that before - Moore and Moore). It was set around Christmas because she danced in The Nutcracker ballet at the end. My cousin and I went to see that - also on Christmas Eve - when she was up here on Christmas break from college.

(related detour - Remember that Katherine Healy (the dying girl) was a figure skater before she was a ballerina? I just looked up "whatever happened to". I'm sure I heard this somewhere before, but she was married to figure skating coach Peter Burrows for 17 years. He was 30 years older!)
 
Sorry, there was a glitch.

I've always loved the movie Angels Sing. I love the song that Lyle Lovett and Kat Edmonson sing together. It always reminds me of a family Christmas.

Christmas Time is Here
 
Susan1 said:
Anastasia (the cartoon)
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Me again - what was I thinking. "Cartoons" are funny. It's an "animated" film. Maybe an hour and half long. (I've seen a couple of the actual movies too. The original, I guess, and one with Susan Lucci. I still wish they would have found the real Anastasia in real life.) Moving on......
 
gkelly said:
She Loves Me

I have directed it twice, 19 years apart, not at Christmastime. But we needed to get Christmas decorations for props and set dressing.
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I had no idea that "The Shop Around the Corner" was inspiration for a Broadway musical. I love that film (and "You've Got Mail." ) Meg Ryan reminiscing about her Mom as she is decorating her tree and then Meg Ryan again, enjoying the season with Billy Crystal in "When Harry Met Sally" are both sweet (and bittersweet) moments.
 
Simone411 said:
Sorry, there was a glitch.

I've always loved the movie Angels Sing. I love the song that Lyle Lovett and Kat Edmonson sing together. It always reminds me of a family Christmas.

Christmas Time is Here
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Jeez--- Kat's voice!!!! She is awesome. I love their "Baby It's Cold Outside" too. I never saw this movie.

In "Just Friends" the romance featured Ryan Reynolds and Any Smart. But it was the toxic relationship between Reynolds and his client, played hilariously by Anna Faris, that kept me laughing. And this film is set during the holidays. Maybe it is a holiday movie????
 
Cachoo said:
Ok--so another place I post that is based on a love of basketball had the old favorite Christmas movies list. And some of these guys love and I mean LOVE "Die Hard" as their #1 Christmas film. Then I was directed to the Instagram of former MMA/UFC Fighter Tim Kennedy who was actually reading a book (the die hard version of "The Night Before Christmas".) Do YOU believe this is a holiday film? I'm open to it as a great action film but Christmas????
Click to expand...
Funny - The new James Patterson, The 19th Christmas - starts on December 21, which coincidentally is when I started reading it (yesterday). Yuki and Jackson were getting snacks and drinks together to watch Die Hard in bed.

And I noticed that I saw it on the cable onscreen guide the other day, so I looked. December 24 and 25, it is on various times on POP, MTV, WGN and an all day marathon on December 25 on Paramount. There's also single listings for Die Hard 2 other Die Hard somethings. What-ever. ha ha
 
"A Christmas Story" (quite obviously LOL)
"Holiday Inn" (the origin of "White Christmas", which inspired its own film of the same name)
"The Trouble with Angels"
"Steel Magnolias" ("Down here in Louisiana, we have a Cajun Christmas")
"Auntie Mame" and "Mame" ("We Need a Little Christmas")
"Meet Me in St. Louis" ("Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas")
"A Charlie Brown Christmas"
"In the Good Old Summertime" (which oddly takes place mostly during the holiday season)
"The Bells of St. Mary's" (the children's Christmas pageant)

As mentioned before:
"Little Women" (1933 and 1949 versions, haven't seen the others)
 
VALuvsMKwan said:
"A Christmas Story" (quite obviously LOL)
"Holiday Inn" (the origin of "White Christmas", which inspired its own film of the same name)
"The Trouble with Angels"
"Steel Magnolias" ("Down here in Louisiana, we have a Cajun Christmas")
"Auntie Mame" and "Mame" ("We Need a Little Christmas")
"Meet Me in St. Louis" ("Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas")
"A Charlie Brown Christmas"
"In the Good Old Summertime" (which oddly takes place mostly during the holiday season)
"The Bells of St. Mary's" (the children's Christmas pageant)

As mentioned before:
"Little Women" (1933 and 1949 versions, haven't seen the others)
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Great list---Musicals are a great source of Christmas moments. Hayley Mills was someone I loved when I was a kid mainly because of "Angels." But the sequel with Susan St James always reminded me of summer.

I like "Silver Linings Playbook" and I love that Christmas plays a part of that film.
 
Garden Kitty said:
Sound of Music - it has nothing to do with Christmas, but in the years before every movie was available at all times, watching this on tv once a year at Christmas was a big deal.
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Best Movie ever! Got me through my father's death. I saw that movie in the theatre at least 9 times. And, in those days, it meant driving from the San Fernando Valley to Beverly Hills and buying a ticket (that had a seat number). Oh but for a few hours I was in life as it should be.

I went to Grauman's Chinese Theatre when Julie a Andrew put her foot and hand prints in the square of cement. She is / was so gorgeous. I had never seen skin like that before!
 
^ Even though we own "The Sound of Music" on DVD, I still watch it every year, and sing along, of course. Julie is my all time favorite actress!
 
www.musictheorytutor.org

What is Solfege? - Music Theory Tutor

Have you ever tried to sing a melody to which you didn’t know the words, or that had no words? You probably used a syllable like “la,” “da,” or “ma” for every pitch; we call these “neutral syllables,” and while they can be useful, they can also make it pretty tricky to sing melodies correctly. …
www.musictheorytutor.org www.musictheorytutor.org
 
Cachoo said:
So if I said gibberish like do mi mi, mi so so, ra fa fa, la ti ti you would understand:):)?
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Love the movie and I've known the words to all the songs since I was 5 years old (I have a tape of me singing Climb Every Mountain with my dad playing the piano - I couldn't even read the lyrics in the sheet music yet), but I'll be grinchy today with how corny and silly they were. I know they write the songs to advance the plot, but who learns how to sing with do-re-mi, etc. Even if you can read music, those "words" aren't on there. The words don't even correspond to c-d-e-f-g-a-b-c. And if someone was reading it, they would pronounce it like "do the dishes". "A deer" would be doe and the "so" you typed is actually "sol". :wall: :)

They said they didn't know how to sing. Have they ever heard records or a radio? And then Liesl just picks up the guitar and starts playing? But nobody has ever sung notes before? And "Sixteen going on Seventeen"? Well, duh. Edelweiss makes me cry though, especially at the end.

And - why is The Wizard of Oz on every day? That definitely has nothing to do with Christmas. Although, I always hated that it was on in the spring growing up because there could be real tornadoes then. I guess they're not as scary in December. Although 2 - it's been in the 50's for three days, could hit 60 on Thursday. I'm glad there aren't any thunderstorms predicted. And there is still snow on the shady hill next to my house. Not complaining! I've been stuck in the house for three days because of snow over Christmas before.
 
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gkelly said:
Read the link in my post before yours.

Here's another one:
www.musical-u.com

Solfege: Why Do Re Mi Isn't Just Child's Play - Musical U

Solfege is a powerful framework to recognise notes by ear, which lets you improvise and play by ear easily. This training series teaches you how to do it.
www.musical-u.com www.musical-u.com
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o.k. - that's very confusing! ha ha. I just meant if you are going to teach kids notes, they could make a song of c is for cat, d is for dog (um.............), e is for ear, f is for foot, g is for goat, a is for ant, b is for bat and that brings us back to ca-a-a-at (which rhymes with bat! I just did that in my head sitting here.) ha ha again
How did I ever learn to spell after learning that song - how do you spell doe? do. ray? re. me? mi. far? fa. sew? so(l). tea? ti.

My dad played the piano by ear. I DO NOT know how. I grew up having to listen to Liberace and Ferrante and Teicher and Peter Nero records. He used to play along with the records. He could not read music at all. I brought him my Barry Manilow Christmas (timely, huh?) tape with When the Meadow was Bloomin' because it was such a good piano song, and he listened to it and played with it a bunch of times and then recorded himself on the electronic piano by the time my mom and I got home from shopping. Amazing. My mom played piano by music. I learned simple things by music, but then once I learned them, I didn't need to use the book anymore. I bet I could still sit down with the piano book (if my fingers still worked) and relearn the themes from Love Story and Romeo and Juliet and Greensleeves and Stay Awake (from Mary Poppins) and then play them from memory. So I only got pieces of what each of my parents could do, not good enough at either thing. I was too shy to take actual piano lessons.

A-ha - When the Meadow was Bloomin' only mentions December (not Christmas) so that fits in this thread. Everybody go find it online and try not to cry. I couldn't listen to it when I was driving cause I'd get choked up. edited to add sorry the thing is so long. I can't make it show up as the subject: https://video.search.yahoo.com/sear...7efa7315bb79eef7ca9f13ed089fc145&action=click

And back to The Sound of Music then. Why do they play My Favorite Things at Christmas? It doesn't have anything to do with Christmas. Brown paper packages? Warm woolen mittens? Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes. (see, I told you I knew all the words - ha ha.) Not Christmas. ho ho ho
 
Susan1 said:
And back to The Sound of Music then. Why do they play My Favorite Things at Christmas? It doesn't have anything to do with Christmas. Brown paper packages? Warm woolen mittens? Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes. (see, I told you I knew all the words - ha ha.) Not Christmas. ho ho ho
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Well, during the thunderstorm scene in the movie (in the original Broadway musical the song is sung by the Mother Superior & Maria @ the Abbey just before Maria is sent off to be the governess for the von Trapp family) Maria encourages the children to think about their favorite things. One of the children says "Christmas presents," followed by another child saying "any presents," so maybe that's why? Yeah, I know it's a loose connection, but ... :D

Cachoo, I love singing the harmony parts of "Do Re Mi" ( Do Me, Me, Me, So, So/When you know the notes to sing, you can sing most anything). As a skating aside, my favorite line from the whole show - "God bless what's his name .... God bless Kurt!"
 
paskatefan said:
Well, during the thunderstorm scene in the movie (in the original Broadway musical the song is sung by the Mother Superior & Maria @ the Abbey just before Maria is sent off to be the governess for the von Trapp family) Maria encourages the children to think about their favorite things. One of the children says "Christmas presents," followed by another child saying "any presents," so maybe that's why? Yeah, I know it's a loose connection, but ... :D
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A loose excuse. ha ha But really, growing up, The Sound of Music used to be on around Easter. Then it started being on Thanksgiving night or that Sunday (yeah, I've watched it practically ever year of my life). Now it's a Christmas movie? Heck, it was on a Barbra Streisand Christmas album back in the 60's. Is it just the title that makes people think of hoping you get your favorite things for Christmas or something? Never mind that it is about what to think about after you've been bitten by a dog or stung by a bee - on Christmas? It's a "thinker"!

Jingle Bells doesn't mention Christmas either. And Winter Wonderland, Let It Snow, Sleigh Ride. Do they enjoy those songs in Hawaii, Florida, Southern California. ha
 
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myhoneyhoney said:
Little Women always reminds me of the holidays. Because of that I only watch it during the holidays.
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I saw that it's on right now - the 1933 one - so I looked at the guide. The 1949 one (which is the one I watched years ago) is on at 2:15 a.m. Tuesday on TCM. The 1994 one is on CMT (Same letters - funny. I looked at what I wrote down, and yeah, no typos - Turner Classic/Country Music) at 12 a.m. Saturday (Friday night) 12/28.
 
Susan1 said:
I saw that it's on right now - the 1933 one - so I looked at the guide. The 1949 one (which is the one I watched years ago) is on at 2:15 a.m. Tuesday on TCM. The 1994 one is on CMT (Same letters - funny. I looked at what I wrote down, and yeah, no typos - Turner Classic/Country Music) at 12 a.m. Saturday (Friday night) 12/28.
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I enjoy watching all versions of Little Women. It was one of my favorite books. I even watched a Japanese anime version.
 
I would add a few to the lists. Bell Book and Candle with Kim Novak and Jimmy Stewart is also set around Christmas. Life Begins at 8:30 with Monty Woolley made about five years before Miracle on 34th St and has a few things in common including a Macy's Santa Claus. Also Vice Versa made in the 80s with Fred Savage. It is set at Christmas and has a department store and a body switching plot.
 
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