Christmas Movie 11: “The Christmas Chronicles”

Christmas Movie 11: “The Christmas Chronicles”

by MichelleMcHatton

If it’s one gem Netflix has given us within the past five years, “The Christmas Chronicles” is it.

Released in November 2018, the film stars Kurt Russell as Santa Claus who takes on two kids from Lowell, Massachusetts (Kate and Teddy Pierce played by Darby Camp and Judah Lewis) who have discovered him in the act of delivering gifts. 

But we must back up a bit to understand how we got to two kids hiding in Santa’s sleigh. The Pierce kids have lost their firefighter father, which has been hard on both them and their mother. Their mother Claire (Kimberly Williams-Paisley) works as a nurse and is away from home a lot (and unfortunately she’s covering on Christmas Eve, leaving the kids to their own devices). Teddy has recently been hanging with the wrong crowd and doing illegal things. Kate is trying to keep the belief in Santa alive and save Teddy at the same time. So when Kate sees the flash of a figure in a video of a past Christmas when her father was alive, she tries to convince Teddy it’s Santa and that they must set up a trap to try to catch him in the act.

So that’s how we get to the point with the kids in the sleigh, which, once Santa learns this, becomes startled and crashes the sleigh, losing his magic hat and sack in the process.

Now that he’s lost his hat Santa can’t move as quickly as he normally does and if he doesn’t get back to delivering presents, the Christmas spirit will be lost. With the kids help, they set out to find his hat and sack.

Of course trouble ensues and Santa gets arrested and ends up performing a rousing rendition of “Santa Claus Is Back In Town” with Steve Van Zandt in the clink. The kids rescue the reindeer and Kate finds the sack and teleports to the North Pole and where the elves help her. One elf reaches Santa at the jail with a replacement hat so Santa is able to finally get a move on and finish his task. The sleigh is repaired, the hat and sack have returned to their rightful owner and the kids are still in tow. Plus it’s now the 11th hour. So Kate and Teddy help Santa finish the delivering and he returns them to their humble Lowell, MA abode.

The kids ask Santa if they’ll ever see him again and he tells them “not if he can help it”. He gives Teddy his hat, proving that Santa really didn’t need it after all.

Christmas morning the kids open their gifts. Kate gets the skateboard she has wanted and Teddy gets a magical ornament that shows his father’s reflection when he looks into it.

This film is very touching and well-done. It has become a yearly viewing staple for me. Unfortunately, “Christmas Chronicles 2” was not quite what I expected. Also, watch until the end for a surprise appearance.

Christmas Movie 12: “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation”

Christmas Movie 12: “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation”

by MichelleMcHatton

If you grew up in the 80’s, chances are you saw at least one of National Lampoon’s “Vacation” flicks, if not all of them. The 1989 “Christmas Vacation” is the third of Lampoon’s installments. Once again it stars the Griswold family, you know, lain-brain Clark (Chevy Chase), his pretty and enduring wife Ellen (Beverly D’Angelo) and their two kids Audrey and Rusty (always played by new actors in each movie–in this one they are played by Juliette Lewis and Johnny Galecki).

The premise of this film does not revolve around a physical vacation, per se (unlike “Vacation” and “European Vacation”), but more the subject of it being Christmas, we need a tree, the relatives are coming to visit (stressful), Clark wants to don the entire house in Christmas lights (he can’t get them to work) and he’s anxious about his company bonus. Because he’s planning to use the money to put in a pool.

The grandparents have arrived (who wouldn’t be stressed with a mother played by Doris Roberts?) and to add to that Ellen’s crazy, steel-plated brain cousin Eddie (Randy Quaid) has taken it upon himself to arrive in his RV with his wife, two brats and a dog named Snots. Let the Christmas zaniness begin!

Between the shitter being full and Aunt Bethany and Uncle Lewis arriving with a leaky Jello mold and a wrapped up cat, it doesn’t get much more fun than that. Oh wait. Snots gets into the garbage, the cat bites the electrical cord, causing the tree to catch on fire and the tree Clark cuts down in the front yard to replace it has a squirrel in it. Then Clark gets his bonus–enrollment in the Jelly of the Month Club–and Eddie kidnaps Clark’s boss as revenge for the shitty bonus.

All’s well that ends well when Lewis tosses his stogie into the sewer causing an explosion and the Santa lawn ornament flies off into the night as Aunt Bethany sings “The Star Spangled Banner”. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Christmas Movie 13: “Christmas Eve on Sesame Street”

Christmas Movie 13: “Christmas Eve on Sesame Street”

by MichelleMcHatton

This 1978 Emmy-award winning film revolves around Big Bird worrying about how Santa Claus can fit down the chimney. Oscar doesn’t help matters any by placing doubts in Big Bird’s mind. So Big Bird does what any self-respecting bird would do when trying to find out the truth: have Kermit and Grover interview various children about how Santa does it.

Also in this film Bert and Ernie play out their own version of “The Gift of the Magi” when they want to exchange gifts but have no money to do so. So Bert exchanges his paper clip collection at Hooper’s store for a soap dish for Rubbie Duckie. Ernie exchanges his Rubber Duckie at Hooper’s for a cigar box for Bert’s paper clip collection. Being the kind soul that he is, Mr. Hooper later returns the paper clip collection and Rubber Duckie back to their respective owners.

In another side note during the film, Cookie Monster is trying to get in touch with Santa and in the process, ends up eating a pencil, a typewriter and a landline telephone. This is a hilarious bit and has always been one of my favorite parts of the movie.

In the end the entire neighborhood is frantically searching for Big Bird when he decides to sit atop the brownstone to wait for Santa so he can see exactly how he gets down the chimney. Of course when Santa arrives, Big Bird is asleep. Bird eventually wakes and goes down to Gordon and Susan’s apartment where he learns that Santa has already come and gone.

Christmas Movie 14 “How The Grinch Stole Christmas”

Christmas Movie 14 “How The Grinch Stole Christmas”

by MichelleMcHatton

Take a tale from a beloved children’s author, add in one of the best film directors in the world, mix in the antics of a talented comedic icon and you have the 2000 live-action film “How The Grinch Stole Christmas”.

If you’re at all familiar with the story itself, you know it revolves around The Grinch and his loathing of Christmas and anything that has to do with it. He hates it so much that he decides to take it away from his neighbors The Whos, so they can’t have Christmas either. This movie plays out the story well but what I like most about it is how Cindy Lou Who (Taylor Momsen) is curious enough to learn about The Grinch (Jim Carrey) and why he is like he is. And she’s not afraid of him like her adult counterparts. And in the end she becomes his friend.

Hilarious hijinks ensue after Cindy nominates The Grinch as the town’s Holiday Cheermeister, much to the dismay of his former bully and current mayor of Whoville, Augustus MayWho (Jeffrey Tambor). Once MayWho presents The Grinch with an electric razor and then proposes to Martha May Whovier (Christine Baranski), a girl from The Grinch’s past who never laughed at him in school and whom The Grinch has a crush on, The Grinch loses it (rightfully so) and goes amok on Whoville and all the Whos before fleeing back to Mount Crumpit.

Once home, The Grinch seeks revenge on the Whos. You pretty much know what happens from here. He tosses some antlers on his dog Max’s head, dresses as Santa and descends upon the town to take away their Christmas cheer. But the ending is a bit different than the cartoon because Cindy is involved and The Grinch saves her. They return to the town together and The Grinch is remorseful. Martha realizes that MayWho is really a buffoon and declares her love for The Grinch.

All is well that ends well in Whoville.

Christmas Movie 15: “An American Christmas Carol”

Christmas Movie 15: “An American Christmas Carol”

by MichelleMcHatton

What better way to celebrate Christmas than a 1979 made-for-TV version of Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” starring The Fonz himself?

This drama has Henry Winkler playing the “Scrooge” character named Benedict Slade, a depression-era New England businessman. You already know his type: lonely, miserly, greedy, uncaring for others. How else would Scrooge–uh–Benedict be?

You already know the story. Benedict gets visited by three ghosts who take him to the past, present and future to show him what his life was like, is like and will be like if he doesn’t straighten up. Except Benedict’s ghosts are portrayed by his debtors, which is a cool twist on the story. Another twist is that instead of just giving his clerk (Thatcher) Christmas day off, he actually fires him for not helping him tear apart leather-bound books that he got from one of his debtors. He fires him! On Christmas Eve! Scrooge himself never even did that! Benedict is a badass (and I mean that in a bad way).

On Christmas when Benedict awakes he is a new man, ready to forgive his debtors and returns their possessions. He also adopts a boy from the very orphanage where he grew up.

I love that Gerard Parkes plays Jessup, the manager of the orphanage and one of the debtors/Ghost of Christmas Present. Because who doesn’t love Doc from “The Fraggles”?

If you flip around the old telly enough during the Christmas season, you should be able to find this gem somewhere to watch. It’s probably on YouTube as well. Worth a view, if only for Henry Winkler alone.