“Kind of” Holiday Films for 2020

Are you feeling festive yet? We’re working on it. Closing out the tumultuous year without any parties doesn’t mean no celebration, and for many that means revisiting favorite holiday or holiday adjacent films. This Holiday Season at the Attic, we asked our contributors which watches help them to truly feel the season, even if the plot doesn’t revolve around a specific holiday. Fill a glass with a drink that brings you back to childhood, add something extra warming to it if you feel so inclined, and don your best dressing gown for a good lounge. There’s nothing going on out there that you’re going to miss.

Annie Jo Baker

The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942)

Yes, my favorite holiday or holiday-adjacent movie is the one where a radio comedian breaks his leg on a dinner host’s icy porch and proceeds to take over their house during his convalescence, which just so happens to be during Christmas. It was adapted from a play and it has all the zany hijinks and zero moral lessons one expects from the sort of comedy often performed by community theater. The comedian, Sheridan Whiteside, threatening lawsuit, sets up office in the living room, receiving increasingly bizarre gifts from his famous friends and generally wreaking havoc on all the other characters’ lives. Everyone ends the film exactly as they began it, albeit much, much more frustrated. Watch it when you’re in a weird mood and want to laugh at some nonsense.

Amy Richardson

The Muppet’s Christmas Carol (1992)

There are no words for how much I love this film. It was released the year I was born, my parents bought it on VHS for the next year (my dad is a massive Muppet fan) and I have watched it at least once every single year I have been alive. Ever since I went to university nine years ago, it’s been at least twice. I’ve probably seen it nearly 40 times and yet I still love it. I sing along to every word of the wonderful songs, I laugh, I cry - I love it! As I’ve grown older, I’ve understood more of the jokes, so it’s definitely still something adults can enjoy. It’s a heartwarming, slightly kooky take on a well-loved classic that’s suitable for the whole family. Plus, they’ve rediscovered the footage of a song that was cut for the DVD release, ‘When Love Is Gone’, which is actually one of the best songs of the whole thing so that’s exciting. Fingers crossed it’ll be on Disney+ in time for my Christmas Eve re-watch, so our ancient VHS can have a rest.

Sarai Seekamp

Meet Me In St. Louis (1944)

Certainly in the category of holiday-adjacent, this movie has been a long-standing tradition during the month of December ever since I was in high school and discovered the film while watching AMC in the middle of the night on my janky, second-hand television set placed on the floor of my bedroom. Like most older movies, there are of course parts that have not aged well, however at the time it was Judy Garland’s cheeky smile and luxurious dresses that made me fall in love with the film. Not to mention her unique and immediately recognizable voice that gave audiences the very first rendition of ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’ as she perched in the window in her red ball gown and pearls. I’d like to think that Esther Smith’s romantic scheming heavily influenced my own day-dreaming tendencies. Then again, Tootie’s imaginative story telling and knack for dramatics is probably a more realistic comparison. The movie itself takes the audience through all four seasons including the halloween antics of the neighborhood children and the spring World Fair exposition in 1904. In my opinion, though, the highlight of the film is the formal Winter Ball, when the handsome John Truitt shows up to almost literally sweep Esther Smith off her feet around the Christmas tree before proposing beneath a snow dusted tree. The best part of all, Mr. Smith surprises the family with the only Christmas gift they wanted: to remain in Tootie’s favorite town, St. Louis. It’s a heartwarming and romantic film and a must for all Judy Garland fans.

The Sound of Music (1965)

This is another movie that, while not specifically a Christmas movie, was always a movie we watched as a family on or around Christmas. It wasn’t a winter break trip to my grandmother’s house in Walla Walla, Washington without it. Everyone would bundle up and squeeze into the TV room to watch Julie Andrews sing her heart out to all the von Trapp children, slowly but surely winning the Captain over . ‘Edelweiss’ and ‘My Favorite Things’ have long been lullabies sung to the children of our family; in fact, I can’t recall being rocked asleep to any other song. Even during my early adolescence during moments of immense anxiety, I remember my mother singing each of the songs and rubbing her fingers across my nose and forehead. Upon departing my grandmother’s house to make the long drive back to Portland, she would stand in the driveway or on the rough, pebble path up to the front door and sing “so long, farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, goodnight.” The movie was a Christmas staple and is one of those that will forever hold a special place in my heart for the role it has played for my family.

Olivia Gündüz-Willemin

White Christmas (1954)

A favorite of my grandmother’s, White Christmas has been a favorite of mine since childhood and I’ve seen it maybe twenty times over the years. Yet, there’s something about it that remains fun and fresh, despite being almost seventy years old at this point. The story of two musical duos — veterans Bob Wallace and Phil Davis, and sisters Betty and Judy Haynes — whose paths cross in Florida. Running from the police, the group make their way up to Pine Tree, Vermont for a white Christmas where the Haynes sisters are booked to perform over the holidays. Arriving in Pine Tree, they find that snow is nowhere to be found, tourists are fleeing, and the inn where the sisters are due is not only run by Wallace and Davis’s beloved general from the war but that it’s in immediate financial peril. The four musicians come together and attempt to organize a variety show to save the inn. White Christmas is a very 1950s combo of musical numbers, comedy, and an earnestness that might not be as welcome at other times of year.

The Thin Man (1934)

Less aggressively Christmas-centric, The Thin Man is my other December go-to and lifelong favorite. Focusing on Nick and Nora Charles and their propensity for solving crimes, The Thin Man is based on a detective novel by Dashiell Hammett and is developed into an entire series of films. There is almost nothing I don’t love about it. Glamorous, funny, and full of intelligent banter, The Thin Man ages well and is just the thing for a December evening and a batch of martinis.

Caitlin Carroll

Little Women (2019)
Yes, this is a new holiday favorite. Last year this blew me away, an adaptation less about duplicating the novel and more about showing the before-and-after of childhood. Technically, the story begins at Christmas, but the film jumps forward and back in time, slowly juxtaposing the warmth of a house full of family members to Jo alone in the city. I’ve been listening to the soundtrack nonstop since the first snowfall here and, since it came out at Christmas last year, I still feel very Yuletide-ish watching it. I won’t argue about where this falls in the hierarchy of LW adaptations, but to me it has the most heart. The family chaos is authentic, bickering devolving into shouting matches and tackling ended with a hug. Also, watching the family struggle to enjoy a less jubilant holiday in wartime gives me strong COVID-19 vibes.

Zoë G. Burnett

Holiday (1938)

After nearly thirty years of reruns and an ever-growing list of projects, it’s difficult to make time for each and every one of my holiday favorites. Holiday is a new-to-me Cary Grant film that had escaped my attention up until very recently, and it arrived exactly on time. Following The Awful Truth and Bringing Up Baby, all released in the same year, the film has no less charm and humor than its predecessors. Grant is a handsome, driven, and inexplicably acrobatic young man who is shocked to discover that his ten-day fiancée belongs to one of New York’s most prominent families. Her sister also happens to be the incomparable Katharine Hepburn. More holiday adjacent than about the season itself, swags are decoration and Christmas carols are used for comedic timing. Does that make it any less of a holiday film? I don’t think so, especially when the mere sight of a New Year’s Eve party that took place almost a century ago makes my eyes well up.