Holiday Classics for Your DVD Library

Ah, the leaves are falling, and if you want to avoid all of those political commercials and the endless drone of 24 hour news and really enjoy the coming season, why not hunker down with some great holiday films. And by holiday I mean everything from Halloween right on through to New Year's (including the Rugrats Hanukkah special).

Fall is my favorite season anyway, but what really begins to get me in the mood as the temperatures finally begin to dip, the lawn becomes covered in red, orange, yellow and brown leaves and the rains begin to fall, is a great movie, a warm fire and my family around me.

We generally begin our fall and winter rituals this time of year with 'seasonal' movies that include more than one holiday. Always at the top of our list as fall thickens is "The Trouble with Angels", the classic featuring Hayley Mills and Rosalind Russell - tracing the antics of Catholic School girls over four years in prep school. The film has its best moments during the winter holidays and two highlights are Hayley's epiphany as she stands in the shadows of the chapel and watches the and listens as the sisters sing in Latin during Christmas Eve mass, and the annual gathering at the old ladies' home when the girls are forced to bring holiday cheer.

Next we like to watch "Hocus Pocus", featuring Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy and Sarah Jessica Parker as the Sanderson sisters, witches brought back to life when an unwitting boy lights the 'black flame candle' in modern New England. It's a great Halloween ride for the entire family.

We also really enjoy "Stepmom" with Susan Sarandon and Julia Roberts, which takes place also in New England (Connecticut mostly) during the fall and on through Christmas as a blended family comes together as one as the mother facing down terminal cancer prepares to hand over the mantle to the stepmom. It is another one of those heart-warming stories about really wealthy families, but it has real heart.

As Thanksgiving looms we move on to "Mermaids" featuring Cher, Wynona Ryder and Bob Hoskins, also set in New England and also moving from Halloween and all the way through New Year's. Set in the fall of 1963, with Cher's Rachel Flax is the embodiment of the anti-June Cleaver much to the chagrin of her deeply spiritual and love struck teenage daughter Charlotte (Ryder). Charlotte's loss of innocence, about her fantasies of what her childhood had really been like, about the possibility of her mother finally taking down roots, and about the course of true love are all cast against the nation's collective loss of innocence with the assassination of President Kennedy. A really great film for the ages, with suitable redemption to hold out the holiday theme.

"Pieces of April" is one of three Thanksgiving classics we enjoy with our extended family once the relatives start arriving. Inked and pierced April (Katie Holmes), the obvious black sheep of her suburban family, awaits the arrival at her low rent New York apartment of her estranged family, a dying mother (Patricia Clarkson), father, memory-challenged grandmother, and two younger siblings, the youngest of whom is annoyingly controlling and protective. Nothing goes right as April faces one domestic crisis after another getting her holiday meal made while her boyfriends searches for a nice suit to wear to impress the family, ut along the way April meets and becomes endeared with her prevously anonymous neighbors. When the family finally arrives, all does not go well and eventually the family flees to a highway restaurant - but Clarkson, realizing this may be her last chance to make piece with her oldest, turns events around.

"Home for the Holidays" - from the first time I saw this movie, in a theater that also unbeknownst to me held my sister, brother in law and another brother in law's parents (whose laughter I recognized), I knew it would be our family Thanksgiving favorite. Holly Hunter's long trip home to Baltimore, the loss of her expensive coat, her job, and her regrettable make out session with her boss still fresh in her mind - is punctuated by glimpses of other complicated trips home for the holidays for other strangers. Once mom and dad (Anne Bancroft and Charles Durning) pick her up, all bets are off about a peaceful retreat. Robert Downey, Jr and Cynthia Stevenson round out the immediate family, and long simmering rivalries and secrets of course come home to roost in hilarious and sometimes heartbreaking fashion when the whole clan gathers. The closing scenes, set to Nat King Cole's "The Very Thought of You", will leave no eye completely dry.

"Avalon", also set in Baltimore, but tracing an immigrant family's journey over three generations, is an honorable mention Thanksgiving film because of its priceless scenes of hte huge Jewish family always waiting every year for the one uncle to arrive before anyone can eat. It's a great film to watch during the holidays because it speaks to the 20th century American ideal perhaps more than any film, and reminds us all these years later in the 21st century of what Thanksgiving is all about - being grateful for being here, in America, and for having family. Everything else, as they say, is gravy.

Christmas/Hannukah Movies:

"White Christmas" - The sequal to Irving Berlin's "Holiday Inn" is probably more of a holiday classic because it is in technicolor. Sorry, but that's the main reason. We love to hear Bing sing the theme song, and Danny Kaye is manic and goofy, Vera Ellen and Rosemary Clooney charming, and the idea that they all come together to save the Holiday Inn is lovely - but we love the bright colors, the fake snow, the whole schmear.

"A Muppet Christmas Carol", is very true to the Dickens' story, surprisingly, and with Michael Caine as Scrooge we can forgive the acting inadequacies of Kermit the Frog as the loveable Bob Cratchit. Some prefer the Alastair Sim black and white original, but this telling of the story is a marvelous blending of the traditional with schtick that only Muppets can pull off in these roles. No Christmas is complete without this ghost story, so whether this is your favorite version, the George C. Scott remake, the improbable Albert Finney musical version "Scrooge" or the silly update with Bill Murray "Scrooged" - watch at least one of them.

"It's a Wonderful Life" - Should probably be at the top of the list. It's what we all want out of Christmas, not a new train, not an iPhone - but to be reassured that we are loved just for who we are and that the world is indeed a better place for us having been born. Jimmy Stewart is just flawless as George Bailey, and Donna Reed as the faithful, devoted Mary is also wonderful. The whole town is of course, the story, along with hapless angel awaiting wings, Clarence (Henry Travers) , and I suspect that even back in July of 1946, when Frank Capra released this sleeper, he knew it would endure.

"A Rugrats Chanukah" - Which is, I think only available on VHS, but runs throughout the holiday season on Nickelodeon, is a nice retelling of the Biblical story of the Macabbes, set as a school play, and as interpreted through the young minds of the babies, Tommy, Chuckie, Angelica and Phil and Lil. It's a great special for the whole family to watch together, as it provides a context for the celebration of Hanukkah and is just plain fun.

"A Charlie Brown Christmas" - Before our families move too far forward into the 21st century, this timeless Charles Schulz classic reminds the Peanuts gang of what is really important about Christmas. The kids get caught up in the school play, haplessly 'directed' by Charlie Brown, Snoopy focuses on winning the holiday lights award, Sally wants cash, etc. Linus brings everyone together at the end with his gentle reminder that the purpose of the season is to recollect the gift of Christ.

"A Christmas Story" - Peter Billingsley is every kid in simpler times as Ralphie, slogging his way through grammar school, neighborhood and family life while keeping his eyes on the prize, the Red Rider BB gun. One of the best comedies ever about holidays or anything else for that matter, you know it's Christmas when you see the bunny ears, hear the howls of the Bumpus hounds, and hear the strains of "Fa Ra Ra Ra Ra" before the duck gets the hatchet.

"Elf" - Will Ferrell is magical as Buddy, the outsized 'elf' who goes on an odyssey to New York in search of his 'real' father when his adoptive elfen dad (Bob Newhart) comes clean about his heritage. Buddy epitomizes innocence and sincerity, qualities that are surprisingly contagious with his newly discovered half brother Michael (Daniel Tay), his stepmother (Mary Steenburgen), and his work colleague (Zooey Deschanel), but which seem to fall flat with his father, Walter (James Caan). This is a movie that spread happiness and reminds us it's okay to be a child at heart.

"Last Holiday" - Actually takes place over New Year's, but Queen Latifah is enchanting as a self-sacrificing but always cheery department store worker who crushes on her workmate (LL Cool J) and covers for her boss (Matt Ross) who is both incompetent and oppressive. Then she hits her head and discovers she has a fatal illness. With nothing left to lose she sets off for an alpine uber resort where she enchants the rich and famous as well as the reknowned French chef Didier (Gerard Depardiu) and even the most difficult member of the hotel staff, Gunther (Susan Kellerman), but gets under the skin of the double-dealing owner of her department store chain (TImothy Hutton). Latifah is sweet, real and lights up the screen. The film is actually a remake of the 1950 original, which starred Alec Guiness as the doomed main character, but the update is the better of the two films.

"Millions" - This 2004 British film follows brothers Damian (Alex Ettel) and Anthony "Lewis McGibbon" as they moved with their widowed father to a neat new suburban development and leave their old city house and Damian's treasured memories of his mother behind. Damian sees visions of the saints, and is all too quick to share his stories of their martydom with new friends. teachers, etc. When 'millions' of British pounds drop 'from heaven' into his fort in the waning days before the conversion to euros, Damian knows it is a gift from God. Anthony forces his little brother to keep the discovery a secret, as he knows money brings popularity. The real owner of the money, a ruthless bank robber, is hot on their trail even as Damian seeks out the elusive Saint Maureen (his mother) as he is variously visited by Sts. Peter, Joseph and Ugandan martyrs leading up the his school's Christmas pageant. This is just a marvelous story of innocence and faith.

Other films you should also have:

"The Family Stone", "Santa and Pete", "The Bishop's Wife" (the original and the Denzel remake); all 3 in "The Santa Clause" series but the second film, "The Mrs. Clause" is the best of the bunch; "Miracle on 34th Street" (the original with Maureen O'Hara and Natalie Wood); "A Christmas Wish" with Jimmy Durante; "The Littlest Angel" (with Johnny Whittacker); and these animated films - "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer", "Santa Clause is Coming to Town"; "The Little Drummer Boy" and "Frosty the Snowman".

If all of these films can't get you and keep you in the holiday spirit, best to dip into the egg nog....