From the Cheap Seats

The decorations are up and the sprouts are on; what better time for a short discussion of festive films?

So, where shall we start: the cheerful Christmas fare, like the evergreen It’s A Wonderful Life or Miracle on 34th Street, perhaps. Alternatively, there’s the anti-Christmas films, like Gremlins, Bad Santa and Tales From The Crypt, where Joan Collins gets stalked by a very bad Santa. There’s even the art-house option, where Christmas forms an ironic counterpoint to the bleak plot – c.f. Eyes Wide Shut or Eastern Promises.

Actually, I don’t want to talk about any of those. I was thinking about Christmas films and it struck me that the films I most associate with the season actually have very little – or even nothing – to do with Christmas itself. Their links are more tenuous and much more personal – and thus, all the more valuable.

One of the films I always associate with the festive season is Jason and the Argonauts. There’s actually a very good reason for this and it isn’t that I’ve been ingesting powerful psychoactive compounds.

Jason and the Argonauts is always on telly around Christmas and has been for as long as I can remember. It’s been a while since I read A Christmas Carol but I’m pretty sure that Tiny Tim is watching Jason and the Argonauts when Scrooge shows up with his goose.

Jason and the Argonauts turns up with a far greater regularity than The Great Escape, usually on Christmas Eve at about eleven in the morning. It’s one of those films that always reminds me of what it was like as a child – even in this age of CGI and whatnot, Ray Harryhausen’s effects always make me wide eyed, which is not a bad way to be at Christmas.

However, I have just perused this year’s bumper Radio Times and I am distressed to report that Jason will not be rescuing the golden fleece this year. They’re not showing it, yet another example of PC thugs trying to destroy our most beloved Christmas traditions. Why, it’s as bad as ‘Winterval’.

Mind you, they’re not showing Death on the Nile either. Technically, it’s not actually a Christmas film but a post-Christmas film, since it usually turns up on the 27th or 28th. I sometimes wonder if my enormous affection for this film is to do with the circumstances under which I habitually watch it: i.e. sloshed on inexpensive red wine and filled with sprouts. Recently, it has been showing up at Easter: I can no more countenance watching it then than I would eating a mince pie in April.. If this carries on, I’ll buy the DVD but it won’t be the same without ad-breaks.

My final choice is rather more seasonal. Trouble is, it isn’t a film. I was at the perfect age in 1984 to be captivated by the BBC adaptation of Box of Delights and it’s something I’ve returned to again and again. Adulthood has revealed enough dodgy special effects and plot longueurs to make me hesitate before recommending it to anyone who didn’t first encounter it as a child but I still return to it, I still enjoy it and whenever Patrick Troughton is on the screen, it’s genuinely magical.

I’m not trying to make any converts here, just to share some of my Christmas traditions. And I’d like to hear about your Christmas rituals and customs. Which are the films you dig out or look out for at this time of year? What are the movies that you associate with the festive period? There’s a comments section below and I’d like you to reply with your Christmas crackers, especially those that have no obvious Christmas connection. Oh, and explain why, won’t you.

Have a merry Christmas.