Holiday classics become treasured traditions

 

 

 

PULLMAN, Wash. – Think of a popular movie you’ve seen – “Star Wars” or “Jerry McGuire,” perhaps. Now imagine that once a year, every year, you watch it on television.

 

Would you?

 

Probably not, unless you’re watching the dramatic journey of George Bailey in “It’s a Wonderful Life” or the wacky antics of the bespectacled 9-year-old Ralphie in “A Christmas Story.”

 

Donna Campbell, associate professor of English.

When it comes to holiday films, Americans watch them over and over. For many, the process of viewing them is as much a season tradition as gathering around the tree, said Washington State University’s Donna Campbell, an associate professor of English who also teaches a course on American film.

“For a lot of people, watching a favorite holiday movie each year is an integral part of the holiday ritual,” she said. “It’s not as much about watching the movie as it is about the experience of watching it.”

 

Campbell’s own viewing experience is the 1942 ”Holiday Inn,” set in a New England inn where Bing Crosby sings “A White Christmas” near the fireplace. (The song became the biggest-selling single record of all time, according to the “Guinness Book of World Records.”) The movie, which also features the fancy footwork of Fred Astaire, is an example of how films of holidays past continue to cast their spell, she said.

 

“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched it,” she said. “It’s not just the storyline, the singing and the dancing that I enjoy. I also like the way it makes me feel.”

 

That feeling is what thrusts certain films – both old favorites and new offerings – into season tradition, she said. Not only do they evoke childhood nostalgia, but they also hit home with winning mixtures of sorrow and happiness. After all, real life isn’t a Christmas card setting.

 

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“We face challenges all through our lives,” said Campbell. “Some of them may be major and transform us in positive ways. In many films we associate with the holidays, hardship followed by redemption is a common theme.”

 

Take, for example, the classics “A Christmas Carol” and “It’s a Wonderful Life,” where Ebenezer Scrooge and George Bailey are good men who suffer hard times and turn bitter. Then something happens to redeem them. Though one tale unfolds in 1940s Bedford Falls and the other in Victorian-era London, “It’s the same story but told but in different ways,” Campbell said.

 

To get an idea of just how rooted in tradition holiday films are, consider that “A Charlie Brown Christmas” recently aired on TV for its 46th consecutive year. The story about the Peanuts gang character fed up with the over-commercialization of Christmas drew 9.1 million viewers on ABC – up one million from the year before.
 
And what about those holiday films that poke fun of Christmas? In “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” the Griswold household trembles with anxiety when the in-laws visit. In “Home Alone,” an 8-year-old boy relishes the idea of devouring holiday junk food and ripping open presents with no parent oversight.

 

“The main characters still come to an important understanding, one that’s symbolic of Christmas,” said Campbell, like goodwill and the value of family and friends.

 

With families more fragmented and our lives more hectic, holiday films remain one of the more constant traditions, said Campbell.

 

Which means, regardless of what happens in the real world, each year Scrooge will discover that generosity is the true spirit of Christmas, George Bailey will glow with happiness when Clarence the angel earns his wings, and rambunctious little Kevin in “Home Alone” will realize his true Christmas wish is that his family comes home.

And, of course, Ralphie will realize in “A Christmas Story” that owning a Daisy Red Ryder BB gun isn’t so great after all. If only he had listened to his mother.