The Christmas Film Recommendables - Part 6

Another December Day and another five reasons to spend Christmas in front of the television with replacement relatives like The Patridge Family’s Shirley Jones and The Wonder Years’ Fred Savage.

Looking to catch up? Parts 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 are all available.

26. The Christmas Tree (1996)

A subtly odd film about nuns and their intimate relationships with foliage. Enjoyable and sweetly sentimental with a human-romance subplot. Directed by Sally Field.

No trailer, but you can watch the whole thing online. (At least for the moment).

27. Silent Night, Lonely Night (1969)

Two strangers meet in a New England hotel: both in Amherst to visit family members in hospital. In the bubble of the holiday the duo find intimacy. A kind of Christmastime Brief Encounter (1945).

Lovely, understated performances from Lloyd Bridges and Shirley Jones. Hard to track down a copy of, but for the moment it’s watchable online.

28. A Snow Globe Christmas (2013)

A workaholic, Grinch-ish television producer hits her head on a snowglobe and wakes up living inside the ornament. Sure, it’s ridiculous but it’s a Christmas film. Very sweet performances from Alicia Witt and Donald Faison.

29. Love Actually (2003)

Even outside of Christmas films, Love Actually is one of my favourites. It’s corny and twee and requires the best part of a tissue box. Qualities I appreciated in a Christmas film.

30. Christmas on Division Street (1991)

Quite a few Christmas films do the scruffy-vagabond-changes-the-lif-of-a-brat storyline. Christmas on Division Street provides a particularly well-executed example, starring Hume Cronyn as the homeless Cleveland, befriended by Trevor (Fred Savage). Tissues are necessary.

(For a bad version of this storyline, please do subject yourself to the achingly preachy Wish For Christmas (2016). An abomination).

Watchable online.