Before we get to the number one movie on my Christmas movie list, I want to briefly explain why I left certain ones off this list.

First, I could only choose 25. That was tough enough.

I didn’t choose anything less than an hour because to me that’s more a “special”. So, yes, although I hated to, I left off “Charlie Brown’s Christmas” and “Frosty” and “Garfield”. I know I could have chosen any of the other Rankin Bass films but Rudolph stood out from them all. Doing “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” and “Year Without A Santa Claus” would’ve taken two spots away from other.

I did not choose any of “The Santa Clause” movies with Tim Allen because, quite frankly, Tim Allen is an ass. So that’s why I didn’t choose “Christmas With The Kranks” either, although I greatly admire Jamie Lee Curtis and Dan Aykroyd. I know, you could argue and say Randy Quaid and Chevy Chase are asses too and I’d agree. But I like “Christmas Vacation” better than any of the Santa Clause movies. So I guess that’s my reason.

I was going to put “Trading Places” on the list but then I remembered “Home Alone”. No, I wasn’t going to do “Die Hard” or “Lethal Weapon”. And I didn’t do “Home Alone 2”, although I feel it’s just as good as “Home Alone” but since in some airings have SHITHOLE appearing in it, I left that one out.

There’s many more that I left out simply because I have seen it only once and don’t remember much about it or didn’t care for it. And like I said, there are so many that I could have chosen but just didn’t have the space.

So many “Christmas Carol” versions exist and I chose my three favorites. I adore The Muppets and there are at least two other Muppet Christmas movies I could have included and probably should have.

So there you have it.

If you want to make your movie-watching Christmas complete, you must make sure there’s a viewing of this Christmas classic. No Christmas is happy until you witness Bing Crosby dancing with Danny fucking Kaye. Even if you’re not a musical-watching person, this musical is one to watch.

Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you know the movie was made post-World War II in 1954 but it opens up ten years before in 1944 during the height of the war. Bob Wallace (Crosby) and Phil Davis (Kaye) are performers in the Army and are doing a Christmas show for their fellow troops. They sing a rendition of “White Christmas” and afterwards Wallace makes a speech about losing their commanding officer General Waverly (Dean Jagger), when unbeknownst to him Waverly is there in the audience watching the whole thing.

Suddenly there’s a bombing and everyone runs helter-skelter. A building almost falls on Wallace but Davis saves him, breaking his arm in the process. Davis holds this arm-breaking /life-saving incident over Wallace’s head throughout the movie. It’s how he worms his way into becoming a duo act with Wallace. Among other things.

About two weeks before Christmas the duo is performing in Florida and are getting ready to travel by train to New York to perform on the Ed Harrison show. Davis keeps trying to set Wallace up with any woman he sees free. Wallace informs Davis that while they’re there in Florida they have to go see an act. It turns out that they received a letter from an old Army buddy, Benny Haynes, and he is asking them to see his sisters Betty (Rosemary Clooney) and Judy (Vera Ellen) perform at Novello’s. As it turns out, Judy wrote the letter and it’s interesting to note that Betty mentions their mother wrote to tell them Benny’s out of the country in Alaska. Because at the time of this movie, Alaska was not even a state yet!

So Wallace and Davis witness the Haynes sisters singing “Sisters” and in not-so-obvious ways they all fall for each other. We learn that Judy is as interested as getting Betty settled down as Davis is as getting Wallace settled down. And who knows? Maybe Judy and Davis will hit it off as well.

Davis learns that the girls are headed to the Columbia Inn in Vermont to perform over the holidays. And the girls learn that the sheriff is there to arrest them because they owe the landlord $200 for burning a hole in a rug. Davis sneaks them the train tickets because their train tickets aren’t good until the next day. Ironically, Davis and Wallace happen to end up on the same train. And they don’t end up going to New York. They end up going to snowy Vermont.

They arrive in Vermont, minus the snow. Go to the Columbia Inn and ironically discover that–gasp!–General Waverly owns the place. What are the chances?

And the inn, normally jumping this time of year, is hurting because of the lack of snow. Wallace and Davis get the idea of moving their show up there to bring in business. So be ready for a lot of singing and dancing. Great dancing. Dancing that even if you’re not into dancing, you’re going to enjoy it. Davis and Judy are mesmerizing in their moves.

A slow burning love story plays out between Wallace and Betty, as well as between Davis and Judy. A little tiff happens between Betty and Wallace when she thinks he’s pulling some kind of business stunt when all he’s really trying to do is get General Waverly’s platoon to the inn for Christmas. Because the General is down on his luck and is depressed because Washington doesn’t want him any longer.

In the end it’s a truly happy ending for all when Davis and Wallace become Davis, Wallace, Betty and Judy. And what better way to end it than with the same way it began: singing “White Christmas”.

Nearly sixty years ago, this is the one that began it all for Rankin-Bass.

Years ago nobody thought anything of this film other than an hour-long entertainment for the family. Today it’s been scrutinized up and down and all around. If you truly think about it, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” is a lesson for humankind: treat others as you would like to be treated, accept others for who they are, what they look like, what they believe, etc. Because if we all would live with kindness and acceptance, the world would start to be a better place.

You know the story: Rudolph is born with a red nose instead of a “normal” nose. Because of his nose he is treated differently by not only his peers and Santa himself, but his own family. Can you blame him for wanting to leave? Then there’s Hermey, the elf who wants to be a dentist. Again, he’s different. He isn’t “normal”.

As an aside here, let’s discuss the word “normal” for a moment. I once had a teacher who discussed this with the class and said “define ‘normal'”. The fact is, you can’t. Because “normal” to you is different than “normal” to me. For Rudolph, having a red nose is all he’s experienced. He was born with it. To him, it is “normal” whereas to someone born without a red nose wouldn’t know what it’s like. It’s the same thing with any kind of human difference you can dream of. You never know what someone is experiencing in life unless you are able to walk in their shoes. And you never know. All may be well for you now but someday you may be walking in those very shoes.

Okay, back to the movie. So Rudolph and Hermey meet and discover they’re both “misfits”. They both decide to leave the North Pole and in their travels they encounter Yukon Cornelius, a prospector searching for silver and gold. They don’t really seem to have any destination but when the Abominable Snow Monster discovers them, they escape on an iceberg and end up on the Island of Misfit Toys.

There they meet all the imperfect toys of the world: A Charlie in the Box (why don’t you just change your name to Jack?), a doll that doesn’t appear to have anything wrong with it, and other various toys which, when you look at them as an adult, you say “shit, they can be fixed so that they work properly”. Like the train with square wheels. Just put round wheels on it and it’s a simple fix. Yeah, I know. But it’s part of the movie.

So while Hermey, Rudy and Corny are there on the Island of Misfit Toys, Rudy feels his nose is going to be an issue in regard to Abominable so he takes off. We don’t really know how long Rudy is roaming around, but he grows up and eventually makes his way back to the North Pole. Santa tells him that his whole family has gone out to find him (Rudolph has been gone for months). So Rudolph goes to find them and discovers them in the Abominable’s cave. Enter Hermey and Corny just in time. Hermey removes Abominable’s teeth and Corny knocks himself and Abominable over the cliff. Sadly, everyone thinks Corny is gone.

Fast forward to Christmas Eve and the storm of all storms has hit. Santa decides he has to cancel Christmas because he cannot see through the dense fog. Until Rudy’s nose lights up and it hits Santa that he can use him to lead his sleigh. Corny shows up with Abominable who proves to everyone he’s a great asset when he can put the star on top of the tree. Yeah!

Everyone sings “Holly Jolly Christmas” and Santa takes off, rescues the toys from the Island of Misfit Toys (what the hell is King Moonracer going to do now with no toys? Find new ones to keep as captives?) and delivers them to children around the world (probably the ones on the not-so-nice list).

As a final note, I want to share a story as to how special this movie is and that no matter what, you must watch it every year. Of course now you can find this movie on DVD. Back in the day, it was aired once on TV every December and if you missed it, you missed it until the following Christmas. So it’s 1980-something and my husband, in his 20’s at the time, was at college in Lowell. He and two friends had been downtown when they realized that Rudolph was on that night. By the time they realized it, it was about 20 minutes to eight. And they’re two miles from the dorm. One of the guys had run track in high school, my husband was a good runner at the time (this was before he was diagnosed with MS) and the other guy was a chubby little Italian guy that probably couldn’t run to save his life. Well, they all ran. Two miles. To get back to the dorm to watch Rudolph. My husband and his running friend got back before the chubby little Italian guy but he made it too. All just so they wouldn’t miss the yearly showing of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”.