My favorite holiday stories and why I love them!

What would be the holidays without our favorite holiday movies? These movies hold a special place in my heart, and they still pretty much make up a cornerstone of my Christmas traditions, and some of the traditions that I’ve imparted to my children.

It’s a Wonderful Life came on television seemingly on every station at least once a day. At any given moment, you could easily find a station that was running that movie. To me it still represents one of the great holiday movies of all time.

This idea that your life, no matter how small you think it is, represents an integral part interlocked with all the lives around you is a tale as old as time. And it’s a central theme that I’ve used in writing before. No matter how insignificant you think you are, you leave a fingerprint on everyone you talk to, email, or associate with in any way. You are a piece of them, and they are a piece of you. Either of those ingredients suddenly go missing from the equation, the result isn’t right.

Miracle on 34th Street 

Most people don’t know this, but the version with Natalie Wood and Maureen O’Hara was not the original version. But it is perhaps the most famous. 

For me one of the things that stands out is the central character of Santa Claus, played by Edmund Gwenn, and this willing suspension of reality that Santa Claus truly was there with them. He is very much what I believe Santa Claus would be like in the real world. I especially like the fact that when he runs into his troubles at the department store, after striking Mr. Sawyer on the head, he displays a certain type of despair over the situation. He feels like the world doesn’t need him anymore, or perhaps it’s more likely that the world has just simply discarded him. A feeling I think we’re all too familiar with sometimes in our lives today. He needed to be reminded, just like we have to sometimes, that we are valuable and loved.

A Christmas Carol

I have seen about 100 different versions of the story. Anywhere from stage productions, some of them better than others, to television adaptations to include Bill Murray’s, Scrooged. The two stage performances that stand out for me are the ones which involve my family.

But as a child the version which I saw on TV most often, and what I would come to understand as one of the more true to the original work when seen on television is A Christmas Carol starring George C. Scott. He is, at least for me, the quintessential Scrooge. The portrayal is cold, mean, and unforgiving. A man whose heart is so hardened and so chilling that the only thing that could change him is the visit of four specters.

I think the most poignant part of A Christmas Carol is this idea that the spirit of Christmas is something that shouldn’t exist in us just one day a year. The idea of charity, humanity, love, and an open heart are ideas we should have all year long. But the movie also reminds us that being able to open our hearts in such a way is a hard thing to do.

A Christmas Story 

Yes, you’ll shoot your eye out. 

Any of you have seen videos of my renovated office know that behind me, on the wall, is an official Daisy red Ryder BB gun, 80th anniversary edition. And yes, it’s one of my favorite presents ever.

The movie is set in Hammond Indiana, which is about 20 minutes away from where I grew up. While the year in which the movie takes place is certainly earlier than when I was growing up, there’s a lot of symbology and references that are very specific to those of us that grew up in that Chicago metro area.

Thanks for spe

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