| Summary: | A&E 6 DECEMBER 12, 2008 5. “A Charlie Brown Christmas is one of the cutest little Christmas movies of all time. Running at just under an hour, this movie allows you to see the manifestation of a commercial Christmas through the eyes of children. Char-lie Brown attempts to discover the true mean-ing of Christmas and share it with his friends by picking out a sad, lonely, little Christmas tree for the Christmas pageant. Linus gives an incred-ible speech about the true meaning of Christmas. This movie is short, adorable, and leaves you say-ing, “Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown!” 4. “Elf ” is about Buddy, an infant who was at an orphanage and stowed away in Santa’s sack, ending up in the North Pole. Santa didn’t really know what to do, so he made him an elf. Buddy doesn’t quite fi t in up at the North Pole. He’s six feet tall and can’t make toys very fast at all. Santa then allows him to go to New York City to fi nd his birth father, Walter Hobbs (who just happens to be on Santa’s naughty list.) Through Buddy, Walter fi nds the true meaning of family and to-getherness. My favorite quote of this movie is “Santa, I know him! I know him!” This Christ-mas delight will make you cry… because you’re laughing so hard. 3. “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” is a clay-mation classic. Sam, the snowman, tells us the story of a young red-nosed reindeer who, after being left out from all the reindeer games because of his obnoxious red nose, teams up with Hermey, an elf who just wants to be a dentist, and Yukon Cornelius, the prospector. They run into the Abominable Snowman (my favorite!) and fi nd a whole island of misfi t toys. Rudolph promises to get Santa to help the toys, and he goes back to the North Pole on Christmas Eve. Unfortunately, Santa’s sleigh is fogged in. But when Santa looks over to Rudolph, he gets a very bright idea. This movie ends with a song in which everyone is in-cluded, showing us that no one should be exclud-ed from Christmas! 2. “It’s a Wonderful Life” is an Academy award-winning fi lm that will make you cry, for real! George Bailey has the picture-perfect life: a loving wife, four young children, and his own business. However, on Christmas Eve, George encoun-ters severe business diffi culties at the Bailey Building and Loan. This leads George to a life cri-sis, and he contemplates suicide. He’s saved at the last moment by the appearance of his guardian angel, Clarence. Clar-ence shows George how much his life means by showing him how the world would be without him. It’s not pretty; his cheerful, friendly town is dreary and impoverished. Finally, George is con-vinced and Clarence returns him to the world as if nothing had happened. My favorite line from the movie is “Every time a bell rings, an angel gets it’s wings.” 1. “White Christmas” makes my Christmas complete. Without it there would be a void where Bing Crosby sits in my heart always singing. This musical Christmas treat is about two war veter-ans, Bob Wallace and Phil Davis, who team up to be a successful song-and-dance act. They meet - not quite by chance - these two lovely sisters who also have an act. They all decide to travel to a lodge in Vermont, neglecting mundane respon-sibilities. There the men fi nd their for-mer commander, General Waverly, who is the new lodge owner. In order to help the Gen-eral’s lodge from going under, the foursome put on a spectacular show and also fi nd themselves in a little romance. This movie embodies Christmas and the music is spectacu-larly sung by Danny Kaye, Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney! If you want outstanding musical gift ideas, turn to the next page. If you want to celebrate the sea-son by basking in the atrocious glory of the most depraved Christmas albums of all time, then Ho- Ho friendly reader—read on. Jeff Foxworthy and Bill Engvall Redneck Twelve Days of Christmas Copenhagen, fl annel, and commemora-tive NASCAR dinner plates—sounds like Christmas to me. Someone probably lost their job over this one. Various Death Row Label Artists Christmas on Death Row This record may be the fi rst in which Snoop Dogg says “ho, ho, ho” and it would not be edited on MTV. I half expected this album to portray Santa Claus as a pimp. Naturally, St. Nick appears strapped into an electric chair for the cover art. The Brady Bunch Christmas with the Brady Bunch America’s favorite, utterly tone deaf teens deliver an album that is enough to make anyone hate Christmas music—at least for the 20 ear-bleeding minutes that this album lasts. Also, note the Christmas gift bow atop the dog’s head—classic. Twisted Sister A Twisted Christmas Idea: Christmas album for those af-fl icted with hair-band afi cionado-itis. Mas-cara on men, lethal amounts of hairspray, spandex—it seems all too sacrilegious. Isn’t Dee Snyder Jewish anyway? Albums for the naughty list BY ALEX MORSTAD A&E Writer Classic Christmas movie countdown BY KATIE WOLF A&E Writer
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