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A Very Pop Culture Look at Christmas
As this time of year reminds us to sit in front of the TV and wait for the annual specials, we look at how the Grinch Stole Christmas and how we should look forward to Christmas being stolen again this year, just in time for Christmas. If you are traditional and nostalgic, you will be pleased that Holiday Inn is still on the list of the best holiday films. Christmas film traditions continue with modern and old-timey Holiday Classics, including It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), A Christmas Story (1983), Elf (2003), National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989), and Miracle on 34th Street (1947 and 1994). Some of the most well-known and popular Christmas are listed on Pop Culture Madness’s list of the Top 100 Christmas Movies.
Elf has become a modern holiday classic. The reason Elf is one of the best Christmas movies is that Ferrell’s character reminds you to look forward to Christmas, and he’s at his absolute best. If you’re like me, there’s no other film on this list that’s too good to be true, then watch horror-comedy Krampus, where director Michael Dougherty does for the holidays what he did for Halloween.
Love Actually (2003) has become a Holiday Classic, although it was never really intended to be a Christmas film. The same could be said for 1984’s Gremlins, which takes place over the season. Bad Santa, starring Billy Bob Thornton, tells the story of a very R-rated Santa Clause, while The Santa Claus, starring Tim Allen, really brings Santa home for the holidays. 1996’s Jingle All the Way highlights the battle between two fathers for a much wanted but nearly sold out Christmas gift.
In Die Hard, a Christmas party at Nakatomi Plaza is rudely interrupted by a thief dressed as a terrorist. Die Hard has become the biggest “Action Christmas Film” Hit. Tim Burton’s Batman Returns takes place over Christmas.
On the other side of the emotional turnstile, there are 200 Christmas Movies brought to us by The Hallmark Channel, including Northpole (2014) and 2017’s The Christmas Train. The first Hallmark Channel Christmas film was 2000’s The Christmas Secret (a.k.a. Flight of Reindeer), starring Beau Bridges and Richard Thomas. The Hallmark Channel has been releasing dozens of films every year, 2020 introduced 40 new Hallmark Christmas films alone. Hallmark Channel Radio includes a wide variety of classic and modern Christmas carols as well as Christmas classics such as Christmas carols. It should be noted that The Hallmark Channel has a near-monopoly on the modern Christmas holiday sentiment.
Netflix has made great strides in recent years with the release of Christmas films, and there’s no doubt that the successful Christmas Chronicles vols I & II has done just that. Frankly, I’m surprised it took so long for someone to cast Kurt Russell as Santa Claus, but it’s worth it.
The modern celebration of Christmas was actually introduced by A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens. The story has been told by The Muppets, in several direct adaptations, musicals, and even with a twist like Scrooged (1988), starring Bill Murray.
While gentle sentimentality can be the main ingredient of any wonderful film, Miracle on 34th Street delivers a warm holiday message without falling into betrayal. Edmund Gwenn plays Kris Kringle, the bearded old man who is a living image of Santa Claus.
The earliest Christmas songs were hymns, and singing cowboys like Gene Autry introduced Santa Claus in popular music, and Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer was soon to follow. Christmas carols, hymns, and children’s songs are among the most important holiday traditions, but the Christmas concerts of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir are a fixture of the Christmas season in Temple Square. In Popular Music, Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas (is you) has pretty much replaced Bing Crosby’s White Christmas as the most popular Christmas Song of all time. Hot Pop Songs’ Top 100 Christmas and Holiday Songs.
Television gave us Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol (1962), Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964), A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965), and How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966).
There are common tropes- almost every television show, whether drama or sitcom offers an annual Christmas episode, that often ends with a view from outside, in a light show shower, into the stars’ home. Watching hundreds of television shows have taught us that Santa Claus is real, but often not as we expected him to be. Radio stations race to start playing seasonal and holiday music, often starting at midnight on Halloween every October 31.
