On Holiday Movies

Once again this year we have the opportunity to see the old movies--A Christmas Carol (in any number of versions), Little Women (in the '30s version or last year's superb version), It's a Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street--and once again they work their magic, moving us to smiles and tears and leaving us somehow a little better. What is it that they have in common? Surely they are very different, a story about a penurious rich man in 19th century London, about a poor clergyman's family in Civil War era America, about a middle class family man in mid-20th century middle west America, about a single mother and her child in 1940's Manhattan. They have in common the triumph of the human spirit and the possibility of redemption through a recognition of our common humanity. No matter what we thought of him in the beginning, we all want to cheer when Scrooge realizes that his visits with the Spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Future have all taken place in one night and he still has the opportunity to celebrate Christmas. When George Bailey decides not to jump off the bridge, but to return home and, when that return home becomes a paean to generosity, it's hard not feel at least a prickle behind the eyes. When the thousands of letters pour in to Kris Kringle we are all letter-writing children once again. Because every one of these films remind us that Christmas (and, by extension, the holidays celebrated by our friends of other faiths) is about much larger concerns than what we get or even what we give.

Do you remember the opening line in Little Women? Jo says to her sisters, "Christmas won't be Christmas without presents." And then she finds that it surely is. So let's join with Ebeneezer Scrooge when he says: "I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all year."

E.F.B.