Don't we
all have pieces of time in television and movies
that we love to recollect over and over with
fondness? Particularly the holiday films and
television specials, the ones we jump in to every
single year on Christmas Eve, or Christmas day and
watch with excitement before the all too brief day
passes us by once again? These are only a few choice
moments from Christmas films and Television that we
love to revisit over and over again.
Merry
Christmas.
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George Bailey on the
Bridge
It's a Wonderful Life
Frank
Capra's ode to the everyman and the life
worth living is one of the most compelling
and human tales told to date, and George
Bailey's confrontation with death that leads
him in to a dance with fate brings about one
of the most quoted lines in film history and
one of the more interesting scenarios. After
Bailey contemplates suicide on the bridge,
he dives in after a small old man who
accidentally falls in to the freezing water.
Suffering from the cold, the two men discuss
Bailey's life, and he makes the ultimate
wish that not only shows him how far off the
track people in his life have gone without
him, but how life is very much worth living,
even if you don't think you have nothing to
life for. Every person has a relevance in
life, and every single person sets the
course of history forward adding a real
lesson on the cosmos and the natural order.
All the while Frank Capra tackles a moment
in our life we have all had at one point or
another, when we wonder if life and our
family would be better off without us, for
some reason. And he dares to challenge that
thought with a lesson in life and learning
to appreciate it. |
Frosty the Snowman's Hat
Frosty the Snowman
For a long
time my brother and I found it hilarious that Frosty
screams "Happy Birthday" with a stomach rumbling
declaration because he is much too simple minded to
realize that there is no actual birthday! But later on I
realized that whenever Frosty is brought to life he
declares Happy Birthday because he's being born every
single time a child puts the old top hat on his head.
The hat is both an expression of love from the children
and the rebirth of Frosty who every time he's given life
again gives his appreciation to his creators by
celebrating his birthday with unabashed joy. Unlike most
people he's happy to be alive and kicking, and most
importantly he savors every single moment he dons the
hat and the freezing snow. And like every creation, he
soon finds a purpose.
Fra-gi-lè!
A Christmas
Story
Who
among us have never been so excited that
common sense escapes us for a moment? "A
Christmas Story" is about wanting that one
key element in our life that can grant us
satisfaction or appreciation, and Ralphie's
search for appreciation behind the Red Ryder
BB Gun is sidetracked for a moment by his
father's meeting with a prize he won for a
crossword puzzle. A leg lamp. Probably one
of the tackiest pieces of furniture ever
made, he is too overcome by his victory of
winning something to acknowledge that it's
tasteless. And in the middle of unwrapping
his token of victory, however small, he
mistakenly reads Fragile for Fragilè in a
hilariously dead pan moment between the
married couple that has happened to even the
smartest of us in the midst of unwrapping
what we've anticipated for a long time. |
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Gus realizes The People He's Carjacked
The Ref
As fate would
have it, Gus is a thug whose last job was botched now
leaving him on the lam and on the verge of being taken
to jail. Through sheer coincidence Gus ends up in the
car of Caroline and Lloyd, two people he intends to
carjack and kidnap for a while until the smoke clears.
Before he can instill a sense of fear in them, he's just
realized, much to his horror, that the two people he's
carjacked aren't your normal yuppies. They are in fact a
warring married couple on the verge of divorce, and so
embroiled in their bickering, Gus can barely force them
to drive away, let alone listen to his threats. By the
time he decides to escape, it's much too late. They've
already seen his face, he's already in the car, and he
can do nothing but take them home and see where the
night takes him. If you've seen "The Ref," you already
know how that goes.
Billy's Eye
Black Christmas
One of the key
moments in "Black Christmas" comes from the most
horrific scene in the 1974 classic yuletide slasher film
in where director Bob Clark continues to ratchet up the
tension and terror, but takes such great pains in
creating an unpredictable monster of a maniacal villain,
he sets up moments where the villain can prey on certain
victims of the house, but chooses the right time and
place. One of the more interesting scenes in the entire
climax is when Jess is looking for her friends after
specifically being told the calls they've been receiving
are coming inside the house. The terror is apparent when
the police officer over the phone urges Jess to put the
phone down and walk out of the house quietly. She does
the opposite, in a bid of hope, and he screeches over
the phone begging her to leave, which results in a
showdown with the killer. He is so meticulous in his
madness he stands behind a door and whispers to Jess
showing his one glaring eye from the crack in the door
almost calling for her cooperation in this insanity, to
which she smashes the door on him inciting a terrible
rage. It's a terrifying scene in an absolute
masterpiece.
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Garfield Hears out a
Lonely Widow on Christmas Night
A Garfield Christmas
Mother Arbuckle
is something of an oddity in the Arbuckle
farm. She's very quiet, and very reserved,
but she's also devilish and feisty.
Throughout the entirety of "A Garfield
Christmas" she sits back and watches the
insanity happen as John and his brother
argue and bicker, her daughter in law and
son rant about Christmas, and she
occasionally takes it upon herself to
undermine them and throw her hammer down. In
one instance she alters the recipe of her
daughter in law's Christmas meal, and she's
often prone to speaking out whenever
necessary. She also pushes aside John's
brother during a bad Christmas piano
performance, and has her own grandma jam. In
the middle of the familial discord, Grandma
Arbuckle sits by the window looking out on
to the snow and in the middle of Garfield's
quest to find the presents from John, he
happens across old letters. |
He bestows them upon
grandma Arbuckle and in one moment of coincidence, she
finds solace in an orange cat who takes it upon himself
to sit on her lap and hear her out. This is a moment in
Christmas television that still brings me to the verge
of tears, because it's a moment in Garfield history that
touches down on humanity the most. We all have someone
in our lives that we want to share Christmas with us and
we can't share the festivities with them no matter how
much we want to. Grandma Arbuckle thinks back to her
husband, a man who was traditional and reserved, but
also loved the holiday. "Sometimes at night I can still
feel his strong arms around me," she whispers as
Garfield lends her an ear. It's a truly touching and
absolutely heartbreaking moment, and one that really
speaks to every single one of us in the audience who are
likely wishing that special someone could celebrate the
holidays with them. If only for a moment. |
