Ep. 117: Top 5 Christmas Movies

December 24, 2023 Peter Jans

Intro

Hello and Welcome to this Christmas edition of the podcast, "The Mnemonic Tree", where we add a single mnemonic leaf to our Tree of Knowledge.

I’m Jans you Mnemonic Man and our special Christmas edition today will be on the top five Christmas movies. Now to compile such a short list is extremely difficult with the plethora of Christmas movies out there to choose from and to not be able to include Die Hard and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation I’m sure will disappoint many, along with myself.

Other notable exemptions include A Christmas Carol, A Christmas Story, The Polar Express, Miracle on 34th Street, The Nightmare Before Christmas, White Christmas, The Santa Clause, and Home Alone. But now is not the time for disappointment rather to be grateful for all of life’s gifts and the chance to catch up with friends, family, and loved ones over the Christmas holiday.

So, with that Christmas Spirit, we will begin with a summary from Wikipedia.

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Wikipedia Summary

Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25[a] as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world.[2][3][4] A feast central to the Christian liturgical year, it follows the season of Advent (which begins four Sundays before) or the Nativity Fast, and initiates the season of Christmastide, which historically in the West lasts twelve days and culminates on Twelfth Night.[5] Christmas Day is a public holiday in many countries,[6][7][8] is celebrated religiously by a majority of Christians,[9] as well as culturally by many non-Christians,[1][10] and forms an integral part of the holiday season organized around it.

The traditional Christmas narrative recounted in the New Testament, known as the Nativity of Jesus, says that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, in accordance with messianic prophecies.[11] When Joseph and Mary arrived in the city, the inn had no room and so they were offered a stable where the Christ Child was soon born, with angels proclaiming this news to shepherds who then spread the word.[12]

There are different hypotheses regarding the date of Jesus' birth and in the early fourth century, the church fixed the date as December 25.[b][13][14][15] This corresponds to the traditional date of the winter solstice on the Roman calendar.[16] It is exactly nine months after Annunciation on March 25, also the date of the spring equinox.[17] Most Christians celebrate on December 25 in the Gregorian calendar, which has been adopted almost universally in the civil calendars used in countries throughout the world. However, part of the Eastern Christian Churches celebrate Christmas on December 25 of the older Julian calendar, which currently corresponds to January 7 in the Gregorian calendar. For Christians, believing that God came into the world in the form of man to atone for the sins of humanity, rather than knowing Jesus' exact birth date, is considered to be the primary purpose in celebrating Christmas.[18][19][20]

The celebratory customs associated in various countries with Christmas have a mix of pre-Christian, Christian, and secular themes and origins.[21][22] Popular modern customs of the holiday include gift giving; completing an Advent calendar or Advent wreath; Christmas music and caroling; watching Christmas movies; viewing a Nativity play; an exchange of Christmas cards; church services; a special meal; and the display of various Christmas decorations, including Christmas trees, Christmas lights, nativity scenes, garlands, wreaths, mistletoe, and holly. In addition, several closely related and often interchangeable figures, known as Santa Claus, Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, and the Christkind, are associated with bringing gifts to children during the Christmas season and have their own body of traditions and lore.[23] Because gift-giving and many other aspects of the Christmas festival involve heightened economic activity, the holiday has become a significant event and a key sales period for retailers and businesses. Over the past few centuries, Christmas has had a steadily growing economic effect in many regions of the world.

Extracted from: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas]

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Mnemonic

Top 5 Christmas Movies Mnemonic – I HEAL

(Picture being able to heal all your woes with some good Christmas spirit from some good Christmas movies)

1. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)

2. How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966)

3. Elf (2003)

4. A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)

5. Love Actually (2003)

Five Fun Facts

1. The movie It’s a Wonderful Life left no Christmas cheer with director Frank Capra. Though it is now considered a quintessential American Classic, when released it performed well below expectations. As a result, this left director Frank Capra $525,000 in the hole and struggling to finance his production company’s next movie, which was State of the Union.

2. How the Grinch Stole Christmas was a collaboration between animator Chuck Jones and Theodor Geisel better known as Dr Seuss. He wrote the book due to his own disenchantment with the Christmas holiday and actually drove around at the time with a license plate labeled “GRINCH”.

3. Jim Carrey was initially tagged to star in the Christmas movie ELF. For various reasons, the project was delayed and it took another 10 years before it started to move again, this time with Will Ferrell playing the elf William “Buddy” Hobbs.

4. A Charlie Brown Christmas was supposed to have a laugh track. This was standard practice back in the 1960’s vis-à-vis The Flintstones. The creator of Charlie Brown Charles Schultz was not at all happy about this and made his feelings known. In the end, he won that battle, unlike the battle he lost when the syndicate named his comic strip Peanuts which he was left to despise for a lifetime.

5. As busy as the storyline is in Love Actually, it was actually meant to be a lot bigger. The director Richard Curtis had penned in a total of 14 love stories. Two were cut in the scripting phase and another two cut in post-production. The two cut in the scripting phase involved a girl in a wheelchair and a boy who writes a love song for a classmate only to see her go off with his drummer. While the two cut in post-production involved an African couple supporting each other during a famine and a school headmistress and her lesbian partner.

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Three Question Quiz

Q.1. Was the film It’s a Wonderful Life cited by the FBI for communist infiltration of the motion picture industry? True or False

Q.2. Where does the Grinch live?

Q.3. What was the first rule of the code of Elves in Elf?

Bonus Q. Who created Charlie Brown (Peanuts)?

Bonus Q. Which actor played the president of the United States in the movie Love Actually?

Mnemonic Recap

Top 5 Christmas Movies Mnemonic – I HEAL

(Picture being able to heal all your woes with some good Christmas spirit from some good Christmas movies)

1. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)

2. How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966)