James Denton Dishes on Opry’s Hallmark movie, ‘A Grand Ole Opry Christmas’
The Hallmark Channel is partnering with the Grand Ole Opry to create “A Grand Ole Opry Christmas,” which will air later this year as part of the network’s countdown to Christmas.
Are you a “Die Hard” dude or a Grinch girlie? Do you like your Christmas movies with a cup full of tears? Are Christmas movies better when they’re about Santa Claus, or when they’re about people working through relationships during the holiday season?
Who doesn’t like a good argument? In this yuletide season, what better argument starter is there than this:
What are the top five Christmas movies of all time?
For your list, do you choose nostalgia, love, comedy, creativity, holiday-timed terror or something with a Christmas message?
I’m Keith Sharon, a Tennessean reporter with some experience making movies. My friend and colleague is breaking news reporter Kirsten Fiscus. We worked on the “Murder on Music Row” podcast together. We sit near each other in the newsroom, and we like to mix it up over movies.
We each picked a top five Christmas movies of all time. (And we picked one we each hated … just for fun).
The only rule: Movies had to have been shown in theaters. So sorry “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” fans. There is no “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” on this list. But Jim Carrey’s Grinch movie was eligible.
In this story, our picks include our comments about each other’s choices. Let us know if we got it right.
Have fun …
No. 5
Surprisingly there was immediate agreement on the number five spot. But don’t get too excited, it diverges from there.
Keith’s Pick: The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Keith: Easily the most creative holiday tale of all time, it combined two holidays with a weird love story, some great music and a Picasso-like world of odd-angled misfits. It is mean and nasty and heartwarming at the same time. Where else can you have fun listening to lyrics like “Kidnap the Sandy Claws, put him in a bag?”
This is the only movie in her top 5 that Kirsten got absolutely correct.
Kirsten’s pick: The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Kirsten: Ok, let’s pull this Band-aid off immediately. I, historically, have not been a Christmas girlie. And if you know me, this does not surprise you in the least. I find most traditional Christmas pop culture to be cringey. I want my Christmas music with zero words, only orchestration. With that confession, it should be no surprise to learn a Tim Burton movie is on my list.
While solidly a Christmas movie, it’s not your usual holly jolly film. It’s dark. It’s tormented. It’s Halloween in a Christmas movie. Perfection. I can think of nothing better than a movie that has legs from Halloween until Christmas. I challenge you to find another movie that can!
No. 4
Keith’s pick: Miracle on 34th Street
Keith: The crazy old man who thinks he’s Santa Claus just might have some magic in his boots. It’s a great underdog story in which the battleground is the heart of a little girl who has lost the Christmas spirit. Like the rest of us, she needs some kind of proof that goodness still exists in the world.
Kirsten: Remember when I said I’m kind of a Christmas curmudgeon? Well, are you surprised to learn I have VERY vague memories of this movie and nothing complete enough to form an opinion. But I think what’s most telling is that I have zero desire to find out what I think about it.
Keith: Kirsten, apparently, is more close-minded than I thought. What’s wrong with a black-and-white classic?
Kirsten: There’s nothing wrong with a black-and-white movie! I just don’t desire this one.
Kirsten’s pick: Home Alone
Kirsten: This movie captured my entire generation because it’s everything a kid has dreamed of. Unrestricted, unsupervised time to run amok? Yes, please! Booby traps? Who doesn’t dream of that! Would those two criminals be dead in real life if subjected to all those traps? Absolutely! But this isn’t real life, it’s fantasy.
Funnily, the thing that captured my imagination the most was the concept of a family traveling for Christmas. I grew up hours from my closest relatives. Christmas was always just me, mom, dad, sister and the family pets at home. It was quiet and uneventful from my perspective, though my mom may disagree as the Christmas dinner captain of the household.
Last note about Home Alone: The music SLAPS, but what else do you expect from John Williams? I still dream about the high school Christmas concerts playing this score on my French horn. Shoutout to my high school band director, Mr. Anderson, for really letting us horn players rip.
Keith: “Home Alone” is terrible. If you keep reading, you’ll find out why I hate it so much.
No. 3
Keith’s pick: A Christmas Story
Keith: This movie tells the truth about Christmas. Sometimes, you don’t get what you want. Your dogs eat your Christmas dinner. Your dad cusses too much. Your tongue gets stuck to a frozen pole. I have a miniature leg lamp on my desk at home.
Kirsten: I’ll hold my comments for later on this list.
Kirsten’s pick: The Holdovers
Kirsten: This was the role Paul Giamatti was born for. I didn’t expect to find emotional depth in a movie about a boarding school teen and his teacher left for the holidays, and yet I did.
An ode to compassion, this movie is a beautiful representation of loneliness at a time of the year when most people are surrounded by love. And it’s about a young man fearful of his future reaching out and connecting with a man who is quietly fighting his own battles.
There’s a Letterboxd review of this movie that I think sums it up perfectly: “There’s a handshake in this that feels more overwhelmingly warm and emotional than most hugs I’ve seen in movies.”
Come for the warm fuzzies, stay for the physical gag of Giamatti’s lazy eye.
Keith: I actually liked “The Holdovers,” just not enough to include it in my top 5. There are a couple of reveals in the film that I could see coming long before they arrived. So, it’s not as good as I wished it would be.
No. 2
Keith’s pick: It’s a Wonderful Life
Keith: I’m a crier, and this movie gets me every single time. What is one person’s life worth? If you’re a good person, will anyone notice? Will your friends come through for you in the end? Every time a bell rings, another viewer starts to cry.
Kirsten: I feel like what’s going on here is simply a generational gap. I know I have seen this all the way through, but it didn’t stick with me. My Millennial genes are too strong.
Keith: Age transparency … Kirsten is in her 30s, and I am in my 60s. She calls me old all the time.
Kirsten: I don’t call him old, per se, I just point out our differences which often, I think, come down to age!
Kirsten’s pick: National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
Kirsten: Growing up, I used to think the jelly of the month club sounded fun. Who wouldn’t want a monthly rotation of yummy fruit preserves?? As an adult, I get it.
I like to think I had an excellent movie education in my youth. Did my parents let me watch some movies at a questionable age? Maybe, but at least I’m cultured! This is one of those movies that I didn’t understand in full until I got older, and I still laugh just as much.
If I stripped away the jokes and just looked at this movie, it would still be one of my favorites. Visually, it’s chaotic! But in the world of LED lights, I LOVE those classic C9 incandescent bulbs. The glow from them is warm, cozy and in my mind the very definition of Christmas.
When you all gather with your family at the Christmas table this year, I hope you’ll remember to “play ball!”
Keith: Eh, this one is too silly for my taste. Chevy Chase makes stupid faces and delivers one-liners that fall flat.
Kirsten: You’re wrong.
No. 1
Keith’s pick: Love Actually
Keith: I think I loved this movie from the first time I saw the maid dive into the lake to save the manuscript. I realize the film hasn’t aged well in some parts, but the intertwined screenplay with multiple stories of love makes me happy every time. Which is the best story? Writer/maid? Drummer/singer? Billy Mack/manager? I love Laura Linney’s love for her brother despite his challenges. I love Emma Thompson’s sadness and Mr. Bean’s slowness and the whole movie’s sappiness. Wouldn’t the world be a better place if love, actually, was all around us?
Kirsten: I waffled on putting this in my top 5 for so long.
I know this one is a controversial pick. It absolutely does not hold up to today’s standards. I acknowledge that. But there’s something about it that I keep coming back to.
I suspect my draw to this movie is because I’m a journalist. The thing I love most about my job is listening to people’s stories. That’s what this movie is: People, dealing with their own vices, emotions, challenges. I think what this movie does is show the depth and width of emotion that the public experiences during the holiday season.
Each year, I find myself connecting more deeply with a different person in this movie. I’ve been through the range of relationships: Young love, dating, betrayal. I understand platonic love is just as important in life as romantic. I still hate Alan Rickman, and his secretary, for doing that to Emma Thompson. But in the end, I still enjoy the interconnected story lines.
Keith: So you should have put it in your top 5. It’s twice the movie that “Home Alone” or “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” are.
Kirsten: I said what I said, and I stand by it.
Kirsten’s pick: A Christmas Story
Kirsten: It’s hard to deny the soft glow of electric sex gleaming in the window. Maybe it’s the Midwesterner in me (born in Ohio where it was filmed, raised by Hoosiers where the movie is set), but this is peak nostalgia for me.
In the weeks leading up to Christmas, this was on our TV at least once a Saturday, if not more. The antics? Hilarious. The secondhand embarrassment? It’s there for sure. The quotes? Don’t get me started on the number of times I describe things as “fra-gee-lay” or how many times “I didn’t say fudge.”
This may be an unpopular pick, because so many people are tired of it being forced down their throats on cable TV, but in the era of streaming, I must admit that I miss walking out of my childhood bedroom on Christmas morning to find the tree lit up, presents aplenty, my mom handing me a steaming cup of coffee and A Christmas Story on the TV.
Keith: I love this choice. Kirsten loves it a little more.
Most despised
Keith’s Pick: Home Alone
I am not willing to suspend my disbelief for this cooked up fantasy of Christmastime crap. No family would forget their kid. No kid would be able to stop two burglars with just his wits and stuff he found in the garage. It’s like this movie was written by someone who was never in a family.
Kirsten’s Pick: Polar Express
Maybe I came too early for this seemingly beloved Christmas adaptation. Maybe I just hate the magic of Christmas. I know it’s not because of Tom Hanks, a national treasure and America’s dad.
But there’s one thing all you people who love this movie cannot deny: Every character has dead eyes. It’s like the animation budget stopped just before they could add the glimmer. It’s very uncanny valley, and I shan’t be adding it to any Christmas movie rotation.
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