Christmas Movie Nights - Haiku - and my own Top Three Christmas films

Christmas movie nights
Gathering together in
joy, laughter and cheer

Too late for the #yourtop3 contest, which I only learned of this morning from @jayna's entry post, but here are my own Top Three favorite Christmas films, all of which are near and dear to my heart.

My first, 1970's "Scrooge," is a retelling of Dickens's ubiquitous classic tale A Christmas Carol, and gives us the wonderful Albert Finney as the miserly and humorless Ebenezer Scrooge, with one of the best musical scores it has been my pleasure to enjoy, in one of the last "cast of thousands" big screen musicals.

A favorite scene is when he is shown a scene in his future, and joins in the celebration, believing that his life is being celebrated; never realizing that the people are in fact celebrating his recent death, complete with the man leading the song literally dancing on his casket.

It is at once funny, sad, moving, and discomforting.

I've always loved the story, and many films have done it well over the decades, but this is hands down my favorite version.

My second film is 1988's "Scrooged," another, far less traditional retelling of the Scrooge story, this time with Bill Murray in the role of a Scrooge-like TV executive who is producing a live televised version of A Christmas Carol, with a hilarious and stellar cast, including the brilliant Carol Kane as the Ghost of Christmas Present.

Sometimes the truth is painful, Frank! ;-)

Finally, with the understanding that I'm leaving out a whole host of amazing films that I've loved for decades, I'll end with the fun and poignant 1995 film "While You Were Sleeping," where Sandra Bullock and Bill Pullman fall in love, despite her having been mistakenly introduced to his family as his brother's fiancee, after she saved his life by pulling him from in front of an oncoming train.

This is my favorite role with Bill Pullman. I would have fallen for him too. ;-)

And this is a favorite scene from the film, where they are first really discovering their mutual attraction.

Finally, just because it is wonderful, here is the reprise of the song "Thank You Very Much," from 1970's "Scrooge," in which the townspeople celebrate Scrooge for real, after he learns his lessons and emerges from his ordeal a truly changed man.

I really hope that I've led more people to this wonderful film, as most of the people I talk to aren't familiar with it, which is a true shame.

It is a classic Christmas film in all the best ways.

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art and flair courtesy of @PegasusPhysics