Cheesy Christmas flicks I can’t resist

December 6, 2008 in Family

During this holiday season, there are many things that warm me up inside — but for some reason, I have a special soft spot for these cheesy movies:

Comfort and Joy
With Nancy McKeon (‘Jo’ from the Facts of Life)
The life of Jane Berry was all materialist, until one Christmas Eve, she is involved in a car accident that changes her life forever. She wakes up to discover she is the mother of two, a wife and that her only job is in the house, besides her frequent volunteer work.

On the 2nd day of Christmas
With Mary Stuart Masterson (Young “Idgie Threadgoode” from the movie Fried Green Tomatoes)
Con-woman Trish and her niece/ward Patsy are caught trying to steal from a department store right before Christmas. With the holidays so near, Bert, a store employee, agrees to be responsible for the pair so that Patsy need not spend the holidays in social services.

Secret Santa
With Jennie Garth (‘Kelly’ from Beverly Hills 90210)
Newspaper reporter Rebecca Chandler, who feels she got no fair chance to prove her worth in her thee years career, looks forward to a Hawaian holiday with her fiancé Ryan, but instead of a ring he brings her the news that he found someone else. So she accepts again to be the bachelor on duty in the Christmas season, and write the annual romantic non-news feel good-story, once more about the elusive Secret Santa in small-town Hamden. Considering this is a ‘B’ movie, the acting is excellent.

The Man Who Saved Christmas
With Jason Alexander (‘George’ from Seinfeld)
About the real-life story of Alfred Carlton Gilbert and his real life toy factory, set in World War I America. Gilbert, a successful toymaker, is requested by the government to re-tool his factory to help produce goods for the war effort. Gilbert initially agrees to this, but comes to regret his decision. The movie also deals with Gilbert’s relationship with his father (played by Ed Asner) and his son.

The Shop around the Corner (1940)
With Jimmy Stuart
“Matuschek’s” is the gift shop around the corner. Among the staff is Alfred Kralik, a likeable young man who’s in love with a woman he has never met and whose name he doesn’t even know (their “romance” has been conducted through a post office box). When Klara Novak comes to work as a clerk in the shop, the sparks begin to fly: she and Alfred can’t stand each other. Of course, what neither knows is that Klara is the woman Alfred has been romancing through the mail! (Remade and ruined in the 1998 movie You’ve Got Mail)

A Chance of Snow
With Charles Durning (“Pappy O’Daniel” from the movie O Brother, Where are thou?)
After signing her divorce papers, a woman heads out to her Minnesota airport with her sister and daughters for a flight to her mother’s home. At the airport, her sportswriter husband shows up to catch a flight to Miami to visit his father. When a blizzard hits, the two suddenly find they have time to re-evaluate their relationship with assistance from an older couple. I really like the dialog between the older couple and the younger couple in this movie.