There are so many Christmas films, they now fill a dozen categories: Christmas horror ("Slay Ride"), Christmas comedy ("Home Alone"), Christmas gross-out comedy ("Bad Santa") and Christmas romance ("Holiday Inn").
For this article, we asked members of the Deseret News religion team to choose a Christmas film that embodies the original Christmas message of good will — films that might be considered classics and not just popular entertainment. We wanted to showcase movies that have become more burnished and poignant as they've aged.
Here are four films that help define Christmas — this year, and every year:
"It's a Wonderful Life"
"I suppose it would have been better if I'd never been born at all."
"What'd you say?"
"I said I wish I'd never been born!"
— George Bailey, to his guardian angel, Clarence
Though it may be difficult to convince a generation raised on iPods and Technicolor that this black-and-white classic is worth watching, Jimmy Stewart's depiction of self-sacrifice, eventual despair and personal redemption through the love of friends and family remains a "must-see" every year.
The tiny town of Bedford Falls and a loving family nurture George Bailey as a child, providing him the foundation for what everyone assumes he will become: a high-profile and powerful businessman destined to make his hometown proud. But family loyalty and a call to civic duty keep him tied to the townspeople, who couldn't afford a shot at a better life were it not for his determination to keep the town's only savings and loan open at all odds.
As he watches his brothers and friends garnering fame and fortune elsewhere, George continues to shelve his personal ambitions for the good of others, resisting attempts to get him to "sell out" and put himself first for a change. When the savings and loan's viability is threatened after a relative misplaces its cash reserve, George's world comes crashing down, and he contemplates suicide. His guardian angel intervenes. When George says he wishes he'd never been born, Clarence uses the opportunity to show him the starkly dark version of what life would be like in Bedford Falls if he had never lived.
Meanwhile, family and friends have rallied, putting out the word that George is in trouble and gathering cash from throughout the tiny town on Christmas Eve. George learns of the wealth he has created in personal relationships when those people lift the man who has spent his life providing opportunity and hope for them.
Though the religious references are limited to George's interaction with his guardian angel, the film's depiction of Christian principles such as sacrifice, faith, duty, love, selflessness, charity and humility have helped make it the Christmas classic it has become.
Viewers find themselves wondering how different life would be for those they love had they never lived. For a tale that inspires self-reflection, moral courage and integrity, few films rival "It's A Wonderful Life."
By Carrie A. Moore
Miracle on 34th Street
I feel "Miracle on 34th Street" is the best Christmas movie of all because it is a magical holiday film on several levels.
The 1947 film's main premise — proving the existence of Santa Claus — can stimulate the heart on aspects of belief, including religious faith.
A pivotal line in the movie states, "Faith is believing when common sense tells you not to."
I love the word "miracle" in the title, too, as that's a key word for what Christmas and religious faith are all about.
The classic movie also illustrates how children seem born with faith and then, as adults, the world can disillusion them.
This timeless film highlights the world's tendency to want absolute proof of all things, to go to court to settle arguments and to send sane people to psychiatrists.
It's a Christmas movie that touches on religion without directly getting into that touchy subject.
It's a fun movie for kids and reminds adults of the bigger issues of belief and faith.
The several remakes haven't improved on the original, which won three Academy Awards and was nominated for a fourth.
By Lynn Arave
"A Charlie Brown Christmas"
Now in its fifth decade as an annual prime-time TV offering, "A Charlie Brown Christmas" touches a smorgasbord of seasonal elements — Christmas cards, lights, trees, presents, pageants, music and more.
Some of the animated film's enduring traits — the absence of a laugh track, inexperienced children providing character voices and Vince Guaraldi's jazzy soundtrack — initially horrified CBS executives, who upon their 1965 preview predicted a flop.
What troubled them most was the program's most revered scene — the eloquent recitation by the blanket-toting Linus of the Gospel of Luke, second chapter, verses eight through 14.
The executives wanted the telling of Christ's birth scrapped. "Peanuts" creator Charles Schulz was adamant about keeping it in.
"If we don't tell the true meaning of Christmas, who will?" he asked.
That first year, 50 percent of the nation's TVs were tuned in to watch what became a commercial and critical success.
Concluding his New Testament recitation, Linus says, "And suddenly, there was with the angel a multitude of heavenly host praising God and saying, 'Glory to God in the Highest, and on Earth peace and goodwill toward man.' "
Shuffling over to his friend, he punctuates his soliloquy: "That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown."
By Scott Taylor
A Christmas Carol (1938)
The movies we see as kids leave a lifelong impression. I remember seeing this film on television when my pajamas still had feet in them. It scared the dickens out of me. It also touched me deeply and gave me some long, long thoughts.
Over the years, I've rekindled those same childhood feelings whenever I've watched it. It's not a perfect film. Kids today would probably roll their eyes at the "special effects." And the story itself has some problems. (Did Scrooge's change of heart really only happen after he saw what his personal legacy would be?) And Charles Dickens himself had no idea this little story would eventually become his most revered piece of writing.
Still, the tale has many classic elements of storytelling — foreshadowing, repetition, metamorphosis of character — and the characters, though broadly painted, are unforgettable.
The only pity is that Scrooge, after working so hard to make amends for being such a cantankerous skinflint, has become the name we use today to describe cantankerous skinflints. The old number cruncher deserves better.
By Jerry Johnston