Analysis: The real magic of Christmas films is they come at us at precisely the moment we want to believe in something warm and uncomplicated
There is something irresistible about the Christmas movie. Will Ferrell wears an elf suit! Kermit and Miss Piggy take on Charles Dickens! Hugh Grant reminds us that Love, Actually is all around! A Businesswoman from the Big City goes to a Small Town where she meets a Rugged Man at Christmas time! Clarence gets his wings!
Nostalgic and cosy, we watch Christmas movies safe in the knowledge that all will live happily ever after. We know this for sure, because we have seen them before. Many times. But are these Christmas films "good"? And does it matter? They give us permission to switch off our critical brain and lean fully into comfort, which is all we really want at this time of year anyway.
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From RTÉ 2fm, Deirdre Molumby's definitive Christmas movie list
Christmas is a time where we set aside our usual bastions of taste. For 11 months of the year we pride ourselves on restraint, but December arrives and we are suddenly thrilled by anything that sparkles, sings or lights up when it absolutely should not. We are happy to wear novelty jumpers, sequins and sparkles. We indulge in visitors' biscuits and Baileys. We listen to Christmas songs played on repeat, our nostalgia levels reaching giddy heights.
We buy a "funny" €15 Secret Santa gift for that colleague in accounts whose name we didn’t know until yesterday. TV ads make us cry. Our homes become crammed with Christmas tat and even those with the most discerning eye for home interiors adorn their sitting rooms with fairy lights.
It is into this strange zone of taste that the Christmas film enters, our Christmas spirit adding a glow to a film which might not be there in July. In this nostalgic, syrupy frame of mind we are happy to watch sugary stories. Santa films like Miracle on 34th Street and The Santa Clause depict different stories about the Big Man. Films which have nothing to do with Christmas but are on telly each year and thus become a Christmas staple, like Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, E.T. or The Wizard of Oz.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's Drivetime, Dave Hanratty looks at the non-Christmas Christmas movies
Questionable "Christmas" films like Die Hard provide a welcome break from politics and social issues in pub debates, which become: "If a film is set at Christmas, does that make it a Christmas film or does it need to be about Christmas?". You could walk into any pub in Ireland on December 23rd and find at least three tables locked in this fierce, good-natured combat. Bruce Willis is as Christmassy as chestnuts roasting on an open fire at this stage
It's A Wonderful Life is a great example of how repeated viewing, and association with Christmas, can enshrine a film as a classic. Frank Capra’s film was a flop on release in 1946 and could easily have disappeared. But, thanks to a clerical error which did not renew its copyright in 1974, the film slipped into the public domain and started airing non-stop every December on US TV.
Audiences slowly fell in love with it because it became part of the seasonal ritual. Year after year, people encountered it in that hazy, sentimental Christmas frame of mind, and the film’s reputation transformed from forgotten failure to untouchable classic. It has become a genuinely beloved part of Christmas, thanks in large part to Jimmy Stewart, whose open-hearted, utterly sincere performance still feels disarming all these years later.
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From RTÉ Brainstorm, why It's A Wonderful Life still resonates today
No matter how many times we see him running down the street roaring "Merry Christmas you wonderful old building and loan!", our December tears will roll. It proves that repetition is powerful: if we see something every year at the exact moment we are feeling soft and sentimental, it becomes precious in a way we could never manufacture in July.
This is the real magic of Christmas films: they meet us at precisely the moment we want to believe in something warm and uncomplicated. They slip into that gentle space between nostalgia and hope, at the very time when we have abandoned all pretence of being sensible, discerning adults and become sentimental puddles clutching mugs of mulled wine. Perhaps it is no bad thing to let ourselves fall for a sugary story once a year, when the world outside is cold and the fairy lights are doing their best, even if we are eating chocolate for breakfast.
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The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
