I have a somewhat different reaction to “Christmas Movie Tradition.”
To me, Christmas in much of my 1950s Christmases meant MAKING movies. Dad had a 16mm movie projector he used for showing movies at church, and then he got a windup 16mm camera. Film and processing was so expensive, he shot only on special occasions- one four-minute roll at Christmas and one or two rolls on summer vacation.
The Christmas roll showed opening presents and running the Lionel trains which ran entirely around the living room, behind the couch as the tunnel and staging, and a loop into the dining room. Much more elaborate than the permanent layout in the garage. (This is the garage layout:
I would be afraid to try to run the films on the old clunky 16mm projector-- someday I need to transfer them to DVD. (Before DVD becomes obsolete!!!) The Christmas moviemaking was the beginning nof my own 40-year career in motion pictures and television. (Well, mostly local television…)
A Christmas movie memory that did NOT become a tradition. I would not DARE repeat it. Dad scratchbuilt a 3-track-section long truss bridge for the Lionel setup in the living room, with ramps up and down for an over-and-under. Soldered together out of strips cut from sheet metal and bent into angles, and heavy steel wire as the tension members. Too big ever to use on a 4x8 permanent layout but great for the living room setup at Christmas. A fantastic toy and model.
After Christmas, we went to see a movie about the brave pilots bombing the bridges. Since I now had a bridge like the one in the movie, I could duplicate the scene with brick bombs. Dad was able to solder the twisted bridge back together but it wa
Our favorite Christmas Movies which we usually watch while wrapping gifts are: A Christmas Carol (with George C. Scott), Love Actually, White Christmas and The Gathering.
The wife and I always go to my mom and dads for a big dinner which is usually lasagna but this years was a roast beef. We then head home and thats about the time it hits me that its christmas. We then watch Garfield’s Christmas and right now shes watching white Christmas ( I dont care for it too much ) earlier in the week we made sure to watch Christmas Vacation and Christmas story. In the morning we head back over to my Parents to see the nephews and then head to her Moms for dinner. I told her too that I want to watch Christmas vacation again when we get home tomorrow,lol.
great to hear others traditions, As I get older ( 30 now ) I miss more and more each year the Christmas when I was a kid, there good now with the nephews seeing there faces when you hand them a present but It always makes me go back in my memory to when that was my brother and sister and I running down the stairs to see what goodies Santa left and having that feeling. Looking back on it now it wasnt the gifts and presents that left the memory for me, it was that “feeling of excitement”
[(-D] I forgot to mention that we enjoy Alistair Simm in A Christmas Carol from 1951. I was lamenting to my wife the other day that we have either misplaced our DVD version or we never replaced the one we still have, which is VHS. What did she do today but stop to look for a nice keepsake version of that film while she was shopping for other things, and she brought it home with a triumphant smile on her face. Gotta love that woman’s spirit.
I’m with you on the original A Christmas Carol. I have watched it almost every year since I was a teenager (and that is a lot of years!).
Our other favourite Christmas Eve tradition is to get way too much finger food like stuffed jalapinios, shrimp, sausage rolls, scotch eggs (which we make ourselves), spring rolls etc. etc. and over indulge (to put it mildly). It is really very healthy - that is for our pleasure centers!!! We throw in some vegies and dip so we don’t have to feel too guilty!
I saw that Leg Lamp from A Christmas Story on several mail order websites. It’s a full size replica. Might be fun to put it out for Christmas, along with the other household decorations.
We usually watch White Christmas. I have seen it every year for the last 47 years and have most of it memorized. There are such great songs and one liners in that movie.
One of my favorite scenes is when they are traveling from Florida to Vermont and the trains you see are Santa Fe and the (I believe) Western Pacific. I didn’t know those railroads ran on the East Coast.
And one of my favorite lines from the movie is delivered by Danny Kaye (Phil Davis) to Bing Crosby (Bob Wallace) and goes like this:
Phil Davis: When what’s left of you gets around to what’s left to be gotten, what’s left to be gotten won’t be worth getting, whatever it is you’ve got left. Bob Wallace: When I figure out what that means I’ll come up with a crushing reply.
The other movies we watch are Miracle on 34th Street (B/W only!) and A Christmas Carol with George C. Scott and of course Polar Express!
