My Favorite Things: The Big and Small Screen Collection

Along with silver bells and candy canes, the holiday season brings with it its very own genre of movies. Many of these movies have quickly become classics for me and I love watching them every year. In the same spirit, almost every sitcom past and present has had a few holiday epidsodes. Check out my favorites below (sans YouTube clips because I'm posting from work and it's blocked by our servers. Which is a good thing because instead of blog-stalking I would probably spend an obscene amount of time watching stupid people hurt themselves in hilarious ways. I love physical comedy):

• Ok, this is a TV show, but it's a good one so just accept it.Saved By The Bell: Probably my favorite sitcom growing up (I could do a post solely on my favorite top 10 episodes). I especially love the holiday episode where they miraculously all find jobs at the mall and hilarity ensues.... that is, until Zach discovers that his flavor of the week, Laura, is homeless and living at the mall/out of her car with her dad. Laura gets accused of stealing a blazer from Mr. Mooney's mensware store where she works with Kelly. But, the jokes on Mr. Mooney because Kelly has actually set aside the jacket so she can purchase it for Laura/Laura's dad. So, because Zach is a relentless blackmailer brilliant mastermind, he convinces Mr. Mooney to sponser the Christmas play at the mall. (what malls have Christmas plays?) It's a two-parter, so be sure to catch both parts. I'm sure TBS will be playing it soon.
• I'm a sucker for old movies (Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is my latest old movie obsession), especially during Christmas. There's something about them that is just simple and classic and lovely and they are really relaxing to watch. One of my favorites is Meet Me in St. Louis with Judy Garland, where she sings 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.' The movie is about a well-off family living in St. Louis right before the World's Fair occurs. The father plans on moving the whole family to New York because of his job, and everyone is devastated, especially Esther and Rose (Esther is played by Judy Garland) because they have friends and beaus in St. Louis. I won't spoil the ending, but the movie is full of turn of the century fashion and music, and Esther is a fiery teen who is very protective of her family. It's a musical romance (my favorite) and it's fabulous! If you've never seen it, I recommend checking it out! (I also adore It's A Wonderful Life, mostly because I'm pretty sure that if I had lived back then I would have been madly in love with Jimmy Stewart, but that movie gets a lot of face time around the holidays so I'm not going to talk about it here.)

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• Love Actually is one of my all-time favorite movies, whether it's Christmas or not. I love movies with multiple story lines that all tie in together at the end. Plus, I think it's sweet how there are all types of love shown in this film and how that love presents itself differently based on the person and relationship. It's not directly a film about Christmas, but it is set during Christmastime and some of the storylines feature Christmas as a motif. I looooove the Lobsters in the Nativity scene - too cute!

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• Mame isn't really about Christmas, but the first couple of scenes deal with the holidays and how Mame, an extravagant free spirit played by Lucille Ball  has fallen on hard times. The musical number "We Need a Little Christmas" is one of my favorites! When I was in elementary school, the older girls got to sing this song at the Christmas program and I was jealous because I loved it. So now I sing it whenever I watch! OH- and Bea Arthur is in this movie, too! Who doesn't love a little Bea every now and then!

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Obviously there are more and more movies that I love: Elf, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Miracle on 34th Street, A Christmas Story (I'm actually starting to get sick of this movie. It's ubiquitous), and Scrooged, just to name a few. And that doesn't even touch the Lifetime or ABC Family movies (even they are usually soooo predictable and horribly acted) that I sometimes find myself sucked into. Anyways, what are your favorite movies for this time of year?