Over the Christmas I didn't get to see It's wonderful life but I did watch Elf once again and enjoyed and Christmas with the Kranks, which lived up to expectations and more.
A guest introduced us to A Christmas Story from 1983, which is from a Jean Shepherd novel and is based in the 1940s. It gently tells the story of a young boy named Ralphie attempting to convince his parents, his teacher and Santa that a Red Ryder BB gun really is the perfect Christmas gift. Great nostalgia and Christmas feeling. I also caught a large chunk of the 1984 version of Dickens' A Christmas Carol with George C. Scott, Frank Finlay and Angela Pleasence. Both films have the advantage of being period pieces but inevitably it is not hard to see when they were made.
We also watched on Netflix a newer film (2019) Klaus a cartoon that gives a nice twist on the Christmas legend.
The other thing we saw over the holiday worth mentioning here is the BBC TV mini-series Black Narcissus, an adaptation of the 1939 novel by Rumer Godden in which a group of nuns face challenges in the hostile environment of a remote old Himalayan palace that they wish to make a convent. This version was in three parts. I found the first a bit slow but the second part was better and quite Christmassy with snow. Not everyone will want to watch this series due to the overall content.
Trivia: Peter Billingsley, the child star of A Christmas Story makes a cameo 20 years later as an elf at the beginning of Elf.
