Friday Five: Yuletide Favorites

From the RevGalBlogPals (see blogroll and go check them out!)...

For this mid-December Friday Five, let's explore some Yuletide favorites.

1) It's a Wonderful Life -- Is it? Do you remember seeing it for the first time? Definitely a major, major favorite, from time immemorial.

2) Miracle on 34th Street -- old version or new? Old, I think. We just watched it this evening, colorized. Now we need to record and watch the black and white version (the kids don't expect to like it!), and the Richard Attenborough version. I remember enjoying them all, actually.

3) Do you have a favorite incarnation of Mr. Scrooge? Love Patrick Stewart. And the, er, 1940s? 1937? movie. And Bill Murray in, I think, Scrooged. I think the story can take quite a lot of the adaptations done to it and still shine, but those three come to mind right away!

4) Why should it be a problem for an elf to be a dentist? I've been watching Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer for years now, and I still don't get it. I have no idea. I think it's really odd. Don't like the coach-like reindeer who is obnoxious to Rudolph in an adult-to-kid way, either. And yet, the story as a whole is great.

5) Who's the scariest character in Christmas specials/movies?
* The Bumble
* The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, Muppet Version
* That Mean Magician Who Tries to Melt Frosty
* Your Nomination
I nominate Whoopi Goldberg as a female Scrooge; she just didn't have the Scroogeish magic for me.

In this household we LOVE the Christmas shows, and the vaguely Christmas shows, and the shows that have a Christmas scene in them, and so on! From Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer to The Polar Express, from Harry Potter movies (great Christmas decor in the great hall, you know) to The Santa Clause I, II, III, and of course the classic Grinch cartoon and A Christmas Story, we love them.

We do, though, have a Must-Not list: the Jim Carrey Grinch movie, and many of the made-for-TV movies and shows. There can be gems, but some years we don't try to find them and other years we have fun seeing what's on the airwaves. Mr. St. Nick: not bad. Nestor the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey: have it recorded to watch for the first time since I was a kid.