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I had intended to write up my holiday movie watching on Epiphany but that day was a little chaotic here in the U.S. Instead, I decided to post a game of sorts. You know, if you are looking for something to distract you from our crumbling democracy.
This year, in the spirit of the season, I watched (or rewatched) forty-eight holiday-themed or holiday-adjacent films between December 1 and January 6. Starting on Christmas Day, I decided to tweet some of my favorites—one (or two) per day—as a cinematic version of the 12 Days of Christmas.
See if you can match the films to their line in the song.
Note: Two of these lines each cover two different movies. Here’s a visual hint for two of the movies that go together for one line.
On the 12th day of Christmas my true love sent to me…
12 soldiers marching,
11 men with letters,
10 BB pellets,
9 friendly squatters,
8 thousand dollars,
7 murder suspects,
6 packs of Twinkies,
5 new in-laws!
4 troubled souls,
3 timed ghosts,
2 dollar bets,
and a jailbird out of prison.
Movie List
A Christmas Story
Die Hard
I’ll Be Seeing You
It Happened on 5th Avenue
It’s a Wonderful Life
Miracle on 34th Street
The Muppet Christmas Carol
The Ref
Remember the Night
Scrooge
The Thin Man
Trading Places
While You Were Sleeping
White Christmas
Did you get them all? How many have you seen? Which ones are your favorites?
What is your favorite Christmas movie not on this list and what would its line be?
I can’t match them all, but I do know the bb pellets, the 2 dollar bet, and the timed ghosts.
I watch White Christmas every single year, but wasn’t really feeling it this year, so I ended up skipping it and not watching any Christmas movies at all. Two of my other favorites that I don’t see mentioned much are The Bishop’s Wife and Christmas in Connecticut. I haven’t seen either in several years, but every year, I think about revisiting them.
At least on classic film Twitter, both of those are mentioned quite a bit, especially Christmas in Connecticut, which has been in my holiday rotation for some years. I like it, but it performs spectacularly weak in my Christmas Movie test (yes, there’s a spreadsheet). I mean, really, you could remove Christmas from the premise and you would barely have to change the script. For me it falls into the category of “movies to watch at Christmas that aren’t really ‘Christmas’ movies” (see also, Meet Me in St. Louis, Shop Around the Corner, etc.) I only saw The Bishop’s Wife for the first time last year. I could certainly see it being in the mix, but I just didn’t latch onto it like some of my other discoveries. I think I need to get the Denzel/Whitney remake and see if it’s the plot or the actors. Have you seen The Holly and the Ivy (1952)? It only recently became more easily available so it’s another recent discovery, but I think it would be right up your alley.
I love that you have a spreadsheet!
I saw The Preacher’s Wife when it first came out and really liked it but haven’t seen it since then. I should rewatch it. I haven’t seen The Holly and the Ivy, but I’ll look for it!