THE BEST CHRISTMAS MOVIES EVER – JOE SANTA CLAUS (1951)

 

Joe Peters (Ray Montgomery) works for a department store and at short notice he’s moved from the hardware department to become the store Santa Claus which he is unhappy about.

It was just one more thing to irritate him which all mounted up on top of his separation from his wife Maria (Maria Palmer) and daughter Ellen (Sigrid Gurie).

While the janitor Uncle Willy (Houseley Stevenson) is helping him into his costume he recounts to story of that he and his wife separated because his wife wanted to go to work and earn extra money, and Joe felt undermined, so he deserted his family. While playing Santa in the grotto he meets his daughter by chance and discovered what she really wanted for Christmas.

THE BEST CHRISTMAS MOVIES EVER – SANTA CLAUS (1898)

 

In this early George Albert Smith short film, a brother (Harold Smith) and sister (Dorothy Smith) who are sent to bed on Christmas Eve by their nurse (Laura Bayley) and while they are asleep, Santa Claus enters the room from the fireplace.

after descending down the chimney he proceeds to trim the tree and then fills the stockings that were hung on the mantle by the children with toys.

After surveying his work, he rushes at the fireplace and disappears up the chimney.

THE BEST CHRISTMAS MOVIES EVER – SANTA CLAUS (1925)

 

On Christmas Eve two children sneak out of their bedroom in the hope of seeing 'Santa Claus' when he visits them.

When he appears in their living room, they ask him what he does during the rest of the year.

So, Santa proceeds to tell them all about where he lives, in the Land of Winter, the creatures that live there, and how he and his helpers make toys for children all over the world.

THE BEST CHRISTMAS MOVIES EVER – A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1910)

 

Marc McDermott plays the title role in this tale about miser as Ebenezer Scrooge in this 1910 retelling of Charles Dickens' “A Christmas Carol”.

The classic tale in which he is taught the true meaning of Christmas by three Spirits who visit him, revealing to him the truth about his own miserable existence, what opportunities he wasted in his youth, his current catalogue of cruelties, and the dire fate that awaits him if he does not change his ways.

Scrooge is faced with his own story of growing bitterness and meanness, and must decide what his own future will hold, death or redemption.

 

Also featuring Charles Ogle, William Bechtel, Viola Dana, Carey Lee and Shirley Mason.

THE BEST CHRISTMAS MOVIES EVER – A CHRISTMAS ACCIDENT (1912)

 

Mr. and Mrs. Gilton (William Wadsworth and Mrs. William Bechtel) live next door to Mr. and Mrs. Bilton (Augustus Phillips and Ida Williams), the Gilton’s and well off and childless whereas the Bilton’s are a poor family of seven and subsequently Mr Gilton looks down on his neighbours, but the Bilton’s are the most loving and happy family.

Just before Christmas the grocer's boy accidently delivers Gilton's order to Mrs. Bilton and she thinks her husband sent the food, so she cooks it and Gilton is furious.

On Christmas Eve, Gilton staggers home in a blizzard, with a turkey under his arm and blinded by the snow he staggers into the wrong house and finds the Bilton’s, gathered about the table listening open-mouthed to Mr. Bilton reading "The Night Before Christmas." old Gilton looks on with tear filled eyes fill that night the breach between the families is healed as though the spirit of Santa Claus himself had sealed it.

THE BEST CHRISTMAS MOVIES EVER – MIRACLE DOWN UNDER (1987)

 

Like many others in the district the O’Day’s, Patrick and Elizabeth (John Waters and Dee Wallace) are struggling in the drought In the Australian outback and are close to losing everything with no water for the sheep.

The only property owner not struggling is Trevor Watson (Bill Kerr), because his cattle station has a lake, but he won’t share, much to the disgust of his son Angus (Grant Piro).

Angus is a much kinder person and would have granted access to the O’Day’s and not just because Sarah O'Day (Nadine Garner) had caught his eye.

But the status quo was broken because of her younger brother Ned (Andrew Ferguson) and the arrival in the district of an old business partner of Mr Watson, Max Bell (Charles 'Bud' Tingwell) who Ned believes is Father Christmas, and between them the ensure that the nasty, curmudgeonly Mr Watson gets the Christmas spirit.

THE BEST CHRISTMAS MOVIES EVER – MOTHER SUPERIOR (1966)

 

Mary Clancy (Hayley Mills) and Rachel Devery (June Harding) meet for the first time when they arrive as students at the St. Francis Academy, a Catholic boarding school for girls, in St Francisville, run by Mother Superior (Rosalind Russell).

The girls immediately become firm friends and partners in crime in their many pranks, including setting off fire alarms, smoking cigars in the basement, and putting bubble baths in the nuns' sugar bowls.

After three years the girls mature and gain a greater respect for their teachers and what makes them tick and learn an appreciation of the commitment and devotion they show in their lives as Sisters, so much so that one of them makes a life-changing decision.

 

The long suffering Sisters, Celestine, Constance, Clarissa, Liguori, Rose Marie, Barbara, Elizabeth, Ursula, Margaret and Prudence are played by Binnie Barnes, Camilla Sparv, Mary Wickes, Marge Redmond, Dolores Sutton, Margalo Gillmore, Portia Nelson, Marjorie Eaton, Barbara Bell Wright and Judith Lowry.