I’m going to the movies again this week.

This week it’s my favorite Christmas movies. These may not be the best Christmas movies or had the biggest box office, but they are my favorites. The movies I have selected while conveying the Christmas spirit have messages that often transcend the holiday. Three of the films were not even released as Christmas movies but during the summer months of June and August.

It is not a Christmas movie per se, but it introduced the largest selling Christmas song of all time with 50 million physical copies sold of the Crosby version, Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas.” The movie stars Bing Crosby along with Fred Astaire and the Music of Irving Berlin.

It’s the story of a crooner who dreams of a working farm that becomes a Holiday Inn, a night club that only opens on holidays. It’s also about a convoluted love story where the right guy gets the girl in the end. For those who might not know what a crooner is, think Bing Crosby.

Irving Berlin’s songs focus on the holidays, and some have stood the test of time beginning with “White Christmas,” followed by “Happy Holidays,” and “Easter Parade.” Holiday Inn opened in New York on Aug. 4, 1942, to a very positive critical reception. It was the sixth highest grossing film of 1942.

Another favorite is “Christmas in Connecticut” Starring Barbara Stanwyck, Dennis Morgan, and Sideny Greenstreet ably backed up by Reginal Gardiner and S.Z “Cuddles” Sakall.

The plot goes like this. Jefferson Jones played by Morgan is a sailor who survives a wartime sinking at sea. While in hospital on a restricted diet he tells a nurse how much he enjoys magazine articles by Elizabeth Lane played by Stanwyck where she writes of her life on a Connecticut farm where she lives with her husband and family while collecting antiques and preparing sumptuous meals.

The nurse writes to the magazine whose publisher Alexander Yardley, played by Greenstreet, gets wind of the note. As a publicity stunt he insists the Lane invite Jones to her farm for an old fashioned Christmas Dinner.

But Lane really is an unmarried New York apartment dweller who does not own a farm and can’t cook. Lane’s editor, fearful of them both losing their jobs just before Christmas should Yardly find out the truth, insists she has to do something. She finds a farm whose owner wants to marry her anyway, a mixed bag of babies, and chef S.Z. Sakall to prepare the food. In the end Stanwyck and Morgan fall in love and probably live happily ever after.

Christmas in Connecticut opened in general release on Aug. 11, 1945, to generally good reviews. It earned $3,273,000 in those days when a movie ticket cost 50 cents.

“It’s A Wonderful Life” today considered the classic Christmas Movie was a box office failure when placed in general release in January 1947. It only became a classic Christmas movie after its copyright expired in 1974. It then entered the public domain allowing it to be broadcast without licensing or royalty fees being paid. Today it is rated highly on all lists of the greatest films ever made.

It’s the story of George Baily of Bedford Falls whose one wish was to leave Bedford Falls and see the world and go to college. However, circumstances intervened and he remained in Bedford Falls running the savings and loan, marrying and raising a family. When faced with ruin over money lost by his uncle and in despair he thinks that he has been a failure and that his life had made no difference. He then meets Clarence, an angel, who shows him that his life had real meaning and impacted the lives of many.

1947’s “Miracle on 34th Street” was a fantasy and comedy that starred Maureen O’Hara, John Payne, a very young Natlie Wood and Edmun Gwenn. It is a story about a man named Kris Kringle who claims to be Santa Claus. The claim, never proven, is upheld by the courts as a way of saving face by politicians. I suspect that many have come away from the movie thinking, “But you never know!” It was produced by 20th Century Fox, which released it in June 1947 to good reviews by the critics.

Cinematic versions of Charles Dickens’ Christmas ghost story “A Christmas Carol” have been produced many times starting in the silent era and have also spawned modern versions of the story. For me the classic version is the 1951 British produced “Scrooge” released in the U.S. as “A Christmas Carol.” The movie follows Dickens’ novella closely and Alister Sim’s portrayal of Scrooge the miserly man of business in Victorian London whose life is redeemed after his experience with the three ghosts is spot on. I also recommend the 1984 version of the story produced for CBS and starring Geoge C. Scott.

Finally, a few honorable mentions; 1944’s “Meet Me in St. Louis” because of Judy Garland’s singing of the song “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas,” 1940’s “Remember the Night” starring Fred McMurry and Barbara Stanwyck, 1947’s “The Bishops Wife” starring Cary Grant, Loretta Young and David Niven, and 1949’s “Holiday Affair” starring Janet Leigh and Robert Mitchum.

Those are some of the movies that make Christmas for me. By the way if you think that I only watch movies from the 1940’s, I recently streamed 2020’s “Fat Man” starring Mel Gibson, an interesting take on the Santa Clause legend. Also “The Christmas Chronicles” 1 and 2 starring Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn are regular holiday viewing.

Merry Christmas.

Thomas Kirkpatrick Sr. is a Silver Creek resident. Send comments to editorial@observertoday.com