Magnum Mania!

So what tv episodes and movies are Christmas traditions in your house?


My favorites:

Movies:

It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Scrooge (1951)
A Christmas Story (1983)
A Christmas Carol (1984)
Joulutarina (2007)
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966)
Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)
We're No Angels (1955)
Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
Scrooged (1988)

TV:

The Andy Griffith Show: Christmas Story
The Honeymooners: 'Twas the Night Before Christmas
The Simpsons: Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire
Justice League: Comfort and Joy
Frasier: Miracle on Third or Fourth Street
Married with Children: It's a Bundyful Life

Radio:

CBS Radio Mystery Theater: A Christmas Carol

Rozhdestvo obitateley lesa (1913)
Seasin's Greetinks (1933)

marlboro wrote:So what tv episodes and movies are Christmas traditions in your house?
My favorites:

Movies:
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Scrooge (1951)
A Christmas Story (1983)
A Christmas Carol (1984)
Joulutarina (2007)
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966)
Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)
We're No Angels (1955)
Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
Scrooged (1988)

TV:

The Andy Griffith Show: Christmas Story
The Honeymooners: 'Twas the Night Before Christmas
The Simpsons: Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire
Justice League: Comfort and Joy
Frasier: Miracle on Third or Fourth Street
Married with Children: It's a Bundyful Life

Radio:
CBS Radio Mystery Theater: A Christmas Carol
Rozhdestvo obitateley lesa (1913)
Seasin's Greetinks (1933)

Hi Marlboro,
Great list, I don't think anyone will improve on it. I would only add
1) Run For Your Life - Time and a Half on Christmas Eve
2) All in the Family - The Draft Dodger
3) Twilight Zone - Night of the Meek
4) Due South - Gift of the Wheelman

These are the ones I always watched:

Scrooge (1951)
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966)
Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)

For Christmas TV episodes, I usually watch the Three's Company episode, "Three's Christmas" and the Little House on the Prairie episode, "Christmas at Plum Creek".

I still haven't seen "It's a Wonderful Life" and I've only seen "Miracle on 34th Street" once.

Great list. Not sure why, but I am one of the few people in the world who doesn't appreciate "A Christmas Story." I know I am in the minority there, and I'm fine with that. I like movies that other people don't, so...

I would add, in alphabetical order:

The Bishop's Wife (1947)
Christmas in Connecticut (1945)
Christmas Vacation (1989)
Holiday Affair (1949)
Home Alone (1990)
Sleepless In Seattle (1993)
While You Were Sleeping (1995)

I don't know what it is about "Home Alone," but I absolutely love that movie. On a recent trip to see my wife's family in Wisconsin, we drove to Winnetka to see the house and several other locations from the movie. Don't tell my wife's family, but that was the highlight of the trip for me.

We also like to watch "Indiscreet" (1958) around Christmas (often between Christmas and New Year's), although it isn't strictly a Christmas movie.

For movies all the usual suspects plus a few lesser known ones:

It's a Wonderful Life
Miracle on 34th St
A Christmas Story
Silent Night (this is a Hallmark movie with Linda Hamilton based on something that really happened in WWII Germany)
Remember the Night (Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray, it's not as popular as Christmas in Connecticut, but I kinda like it better)
The House Without a Christmas Tree (TV movie from the 70's based on a book by Gail Rock)

TV:
Magnum's "Operation Silent Night" (what else?)
Jag did a bunch of Xmas episodes, the best is probably "Ghosts of Christmas Past" (This one is dedicated to Bob Hope and the USO, bring Kleenex)
Andy Griffith Christmas Story (I always wondered why they only did one Xmas episode?)
The Garfield Christmas Special
The Pink Panther: A Pink Christmas (from 1978)
Emmet Otter's Jugband Christmas
Lassie The Christmas Story (Lassie gets hit by a car while in town Xmas shopping, you'll need Kleenex for this one too)

I don't think I've ever seen the Twilight Zone episode with Art Carney so I'm planning to watch that one this year. I've wanted to see Nestor the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey for years, but it's hard to find. Roger Miller does the voice of the donkey and that sounds hilarious to me.

Luther's nephew Dobie wrote: 1) Run For Your Life - Time and a Half on Christmas Eve

Every Christmas special should have an extended go-go dancer scene.

Also: How could I forget "Die Hard"?

Mad Kudu Buck wrote:the Little House on the Prairie episode, "Christmas at Plum Creek".

I still haven't seen "It's a Wonderful Life" and I've only seen "Miracle on 34th Street" once.

You need to watch "It's a Wonderful Life."


LHOTP - I remember watching the pilot episode of this around the time I was rewatching the old Maverick series. One tiny complaint I had about Maverick is the exorbitant sums that they routinely gambled with; it just seemed implausible. In the pilot episode of Little House there is a portion that takes place on Christmas. The kids receive very small presents like a tin cup and a single candy cane or something. It just seemed a lot more realistic than Bret Maverick walking around with a thousand dollar bill pinned inside his coat.

MagnumsLeftShoulder wrote:
Silent Night (this is a Hallmark movie with Linda Hamilton based on something that really happened in WWII Germany)

The Garfield Christmas Special

I've wanted to see Nestor the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey for years, but it's hard to find.

Is that Garfield movie the one with the old lady and the letters? God, I haven't thought of that in 30 years.

Long-Eared Christmas Donkey - there is a Rifftrax version of Nestor, I believe. Even the worst movies can be made watchable with some good riffing. Santa Clause vs the Martians is the perfect example.

That Linda Hamilton movie looks interesting. I may give that one a shot.

marlboro wrote:In the pilot episode of Little House there is a portion that takes place on Christmas. The kids receive very small presents like a tin cup and a single candy cane or something.

Yes, that's when Ma is super-thrilled when Edwards gives her a few potatoes. I wish I could get that excited about a few potatoes.

marlboro wrote:

Luther's nephew Dobie wrote: 1) Run For Your Life - Time and a Half on Christmas Eve

Every Christmas special should have an extended go-go dancer scene.

Marlboro,
Hey, if a run down joint on Christmas Eve was good enough for George Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life it's good enough for Ben Gazzara and Ernie Borgnine.
Actually there's more truth about the human condition and grace or the lack of same in this gritty story of a poor slob cab driver(think a Marty gone to seed if Clara had left him and he lost the butcher shop) than in your typical Christmas episode. There's a lot going on here, such as, is the series star Paul, a highly intelligent attorney bemused by his driver, really any better off than Borgnine's shabby cabby when both wind up alone in a 3rd rate joint, with no loved ones in their lives?
Not forgetting of course Paul has only one year to live, but what choices did he make with that deadline in mind that none the less found him in such circumstances?
A scene near the very end suggests that while they both drew the same seemingly doomed hand, Paul is still in the game and hoping to improve his in the draw while
the cabby is just going to fold.
In the last few years this episode has caught on with many tv bloggers/historians and has garnered a lot of interest generally. Well worth catching.

Is that Garfield movie the one with the old lady and the letters? God, I haven't thought of that in 30 years.

Yes the old lady is Jon's grandma

That Linda Hamilton movie looks interesting. I may give that one a shot

You should. I guess there's even a Magnum connection. The real life little boy(Fritz) grew up to run a bakery in Honolulu!

In the pilot episode of Little House there is a portion that takes place on Christmas. The kids receive very small presents like a tin cup and a single candy cane or something.

I don't remember the episode, but that's straight out of Wilder's books.

One of my all time favorites...A Year Without a Santa Claus (1974) featuring Magnum's own Buzz Benoit (Dick Shawn) as the Snow Mixer.

https://youtu.be/_SGlPnA_iCk

Hard to keep a list like this short...

Movies;
A Christmas Story
It's a Wonderful Life
Christmas Vacation
Ron Howard's How The Grinch Stole Christmas
and..
The Polar Express...In I-Max and 3-D as when it first was released, amazing!

TV.
It doesn't get much better than the Twilight Zone episode with Art Carney..

The Night of The Meek

If you see it is going to be on, watch it and see some of the best writing and acting in the history of television...

Anybody remember A Claymation Christmas Celebration [1987]?

It was made by Will Vinton, the guy who did the California raisins stuff and that claymation mark Twain movie.


It's on Dailymotion:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3dwrqo


I like the We Three Kings portion for some reason.