Almost everyone has seen the classic great Christmas movies like It’s A Wonderful Life, White Christmas, Miracle on 34th Street, A Christmas Story, and the many iterations of Ebeneezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol. While familiarity is the point of re-watching your favorite Christmas movies, sometimes a person wants to branch out a little to find their own comforting movie for a quiet night.
Below are three movies that are not classics and have their faults, but that I enjoy for something a little different.
Holiday Affair (1949)
Viewers of Turner Classic Mvies are probably already fans of Holiday Affair. Like It’s a Wonderful Life, Holiday Affair was not a big hit when it was released after World War II, but repeated showings on television have given the movie a broader audience.
Holiday Affair doesn’t have the holiday spirit and deeper meaning of It’s a Wonderful Life. There’s no angels and Christmas plays more of a background in this romantic comedy. But it has Robert Mitchum, who reportedly accepted the role in the family friendly movie to repair his image after getting busted for having marijuana.
Mitchum and Janet Leigh are a great couple in the movie, even if the will-they or won’t-they aspect is fairly a foregone conclusion, as it is Mitchum after all. But the movie is fun, with a highlight being that Mitchum’s competition played by Wendell Corey is not a typical heel but a nice guy.
If you like your movies in black and white, check out a couple of Barbara Stanwyck films, Christmas in Connecticut (1945) and Remember the Night (1940). The latter also stars Fred MacMurray and is endearing for a storyline that is not your typical romance as a prosecutor ends up falling in love with the woman he is supposed to prosecute.
Daddy’s Home 2 (2017)
While Daddy’s Home was a fun comedy that touched on issues of masculinity, the sequel ramps up the fun with the addition of Mel Gibson and John Lithgow and with setting the movie at Christmas time. The cast also includes Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg, Linda Cardellini, and John Cena.
You do not need to have seen the first film to enjoy Daddy’s Home 2, which finds Ferrell and Wahlberg’s characters having come to a happy way to work together raising healthy kids while Ferrell is married to Wahlberg’s ex-wife. But things take a funny turn when their fathers show up for Christmas.
I won’t ruin more, but like many great holiday movies there is a wonderful music scene that helps bring everyone together and tie up some loose ends.
You will not be abandoning your favorite Christmas movies for this one, but it is a fun addition if you want something lighthearted and a little different.
A Christmas Story Christmas (2022)
This film is also a sequel, but this time a sequel to a movie that has become a classic in its own right, A Christmas Story (1983). Producers had made two previous tries at creating a good sequel to the original A Christmas Story. But My Summer Story (1994) and A Christmas Story 2 (2012) are at best, for die-hard fans of the original, or at worst, better forgotten completely.
A Christmas Story Christmas, however, does things that a good sequel does. It brings back many of the actors from the original, including Scott Billingsly as Ralphie but also many of the other kids as grownups. So as a start, the movie is a nice nostalgic trip to catch up with favorite characters (from an original movie that was already nostalgic).
A Christmas Story Christmas also has callbacks to man of the events from the original, like a trip to see Santa Claus, someone accepting a dare, etc. If there is one weakness in the movie it is that it might be a little too long and seem episodic, straying from the main story in an attempt to squeeze everything in. But those episodes gives something to fans of the original.
More importantly, the over arching story captures many of the themes of the original while adding something worthwhile. While the original focused on a grown up’s memories of being a child, A Christmas Story Christmas, at its best, is about the challenges of the holidays as an adult trying to survive Christmas while also trying to create new memories for the children.
While A Christmas Story Christmas may never reach the classic status of A Christmas Story, it has a lot to say and is a nice break from the repeated viewings of the beloved original.
Honorable Mention: While many might mention Love Actually (2003) as a fun second-tier holiday film that many love and many hate, there is another movie from one year earlier also featuring Hugh Grant that deserves mention. About a Boy (2002) is a comedy drama based on a Nick Hornby novel that is not entirely about Christmas, but has several Christmas references including he setting at the end and the lead character, played by Hugh Grant, living off the money from one Christmas song. But the film captures the holiday spirit, where one might see Grant being a version of Ebeneezer Scrooge and one awkward boy (played by Nicholas Hoult) replacing Dickens’ ghosts.
What your favorite second-tier Christmas movies? Leave your two cents in the comments.
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