I love this time of year when you can watch all of your favorite old holiday movies. Some of my favorites are “White Christmas.” “Holiday Inn,” “It’s a Wonderful Life,” “Christmas in Connecticut,” “Holiday Affair,” and “Best Years of Our Lives.” Some favorites from my childhood are ”The House Without A Christmas Tree,” “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” and “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” Occasionally a newer movie becomes a classic like “A Christmas Story,” “Christmas Vacation,” and “Elf.”

But now there are whole channels devoted to making Christmas movies, like the Hallmark Channel which has over 300 Christmas movies, with 30 - 40 new ones each year. Although most of these movies are likely not to become classics sometimes there is a good one. Today I watched a Hallmark Christmas movie that was actually pretty good. Maybe because it was based on the old classic movies from the 40’s. It was called “A Biltmore Christmas.”

But sometimes you just want to have a cup of cocoa and watch a “bad” movie. Last week I came across a movie called “The Fabric of Christmas” (sometimes titled “A Cozy Christmas Quilt”) about a quilter and a fireman. It was a very sappy movie and not very good, but it was fun watching a movie centered around quilting. They had the quilting terminology and process of making a quilt down pretty well. But I had to laugh when they were piecing a block and just put a completed block under the sewing machine needle and sewed over the top of it. No right-sides-together for these “quilters.” Also, when the quilting teacher taught a hunky fireman (who had never even used a sewing machine before) to make his first quilt, it was a bed-size feathered star pattern with lots of background needing to be heavily quilted. Oh, and he had to complete it in just a few weeks. It was an amusing watch, but I don’t think it will go on my list of favorite Holiday films. I don’t think this is a movie that I would want to watch over and over each year.

That’s the thing with a classic Christmas movie. After watching them every year, you can often even recite the lines and sing the songs along with the movie. Of course we all know the lyrics of “White Christmas”, but there is another tune in this movie where the two lead actresses, Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen, sing the song “Sisters.” A week or so ago I went with a friend to see a local belly dancing group do a holiday show. They did various dances in groups, pairs and solo. About halfway through the show, two woman came on stage wearing blue belly dancing costumes and each had a fan. When the music started playing, after only a few notes, I laughed and leaned over to my friend and said “I think they are going to do the fan dance from White Christmas.” And sure enough they did the fan dance to the song “Sisters.” Definitely not something that I was expecting to see at this show. How amusing, since my friend knew all the words. Turns out she and her sisters used to sing this song together, into a hairbrush.

Well, I think it’s time to watch another holiday movie, if I expect to see all of my favorites before the season is over. What’s your favorite holiday movie?