For me, the holiday season is a time of reflection. A wrap up of the year that’s been and a preparation for a Great New Year! It is a time for good will to others and to revitalize one’s faith.

I have found several movies that reflect the spirit of the holiday season. I would like to talk about these movies and hope that you will watch and enjoy them as much as I do year after year.

A Christmas Carol – 1951

The first movie I want to talk about is the classic, A Christmas Carol from 1951 starring Alastair Sim. With an all British cast and authentic, ancient London locations, this movie brings Charles Dicken’s classic to incredible life. The acting is superb and the message is clear. The way you treat others affects your life.

Alastair Sim IS Scrooge. In the beginning, you can see how selfish he is and also, living a lonely, barren life. From the moment the spirit of his deceased business partner, Jacob Marley comes to warn him, you see an intense transformation. At the end of the movie, Scrooge is a totally different person, a caring man who takes joy in helping others. Each time I watch this movie, I am moved. It is very touching and shows that you can change your ways, no matter where you are in life. It is a movie of redemption and the restoration of faith. I watch it every year and I hope you will too. I particularly like that the original b/w has a colorized version although you have to be careful when you order as some releases are only in b/w so read the description. I like color and the costumes are very colorful.

The Bishop’s Wife

The bishop is a man who has lost his way. Promoted to the office of bishop at a younger age than normal, he becomes obsessed with building a large cathedral to prove his worth. His obsession alienates him from his family and the congregation of the little church from which he came. The project is so expensive, he is constantly ingratiating himself to wealthy people for funding and losing respect. Desperate to build this cathedral, he prays for help and his prayers are answered.

Help arrives in the form of an angel, magnificently played by Cary Grant, but the bishop has been too buried in the material world and has lost sight of the spiritual one. Even though the angel performs numerous miracles, the bishop is doubting and suspicious, almost as if he doesn’t really believe in angels.

From the very beginning of the movie and throughout, the angel is constantly helping people. The angel realizes that this cathedral is not what the world needs and arranges things so that the primary donor decides to give the money intended for the cathedral to directly help people in need. Thus, the bishop’s crisis of faith is solved. He returns to his roots and his faith. The angel disappears with no one remembering he ever was there.

This is a wonderful movie. It makes one feel good to see the angel helping those in need and restoring their faith, something we each need to examine within ourselves. Again, I like the colorized version as I’ve never been a fan of b/w. It is available in both forms.

Miracle on 34th Street

This is another movie of faith and redemption. A young single mother, a manager at Macy’s Department store in New York City, is a cynic to the world because of her failed marriage and teachers her young daughter to be that way as well.  On the day of the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, the man who was hired to play Santa Claus has gotten drunk but she doesn’t realize it until she is informed by an plump, elderly gentleman with a white beard.

The parade is about to start and in desperation, she pleads with the elderly man to put on the Santa suit. Reluctantly, he does so in order to not disappoint the thousands of children.

Little does the cynical woman know that this elderly, plump gentleman with the snow white beard calls himself Kris Kringle and accepts himself to really be Santa Claus. After being hired to work as the official Macy’s Santa, his supervisor is infuriated to find that “Santa” is directing parents to other stores to find the toys their children want but Macy’s doesn’t have. However, the supervisors anger is quickly gone when the multitude of grateful parents thank the owner of Macy’s and he keeps Kris on. But the jealous, petty store psychologist who demanded that Kris not be hired sets him up for a psychiatric commitment, resulting in a court sanity hearing.

Is Kris Kringle the genuine Santa Claus or a mentally incompetent old man? Watch and find out.

I hope you enjoy these movies as much as I do. Have a happy holiday season and a wonderful New Year!