Christmas Recommendations: Pretty Please?!

I will get up, make a cuppa and open my presents, (I already have 2) I will cook my dinner, eat a few treats in the afternoon. Have a slice of Christmas cake or maybe mince pie for tea and watch the soaps on TV. During the day will skype my sister, talk to my children on the phone. Go to bed and it is all over for another year.

I'm so glad tracked down this thread,I saw it late yesterday and I've been thinking about it a lot!
Christmas is such a sensory time and at the best of times such a time of reflection. I love when I open my Christmas decorations and the lovely spicy smell of my favourite scented candles wafts up,its like a Christmas firework going off! Its varied over the years but I love the traditional Christmas films. I always try and watch/ read A Christmas Carol. I love the smokiness of a ghost story on a dark winter's day,or the sumptuous adaptations of Dickens or Agatha Christie. A particular favourite is Christmas with the Kranks,its silly and sentimental but the first time I saw it my eldest daughter was returning home for Christmas and it hit a spot. Elf is the same for me,initially it slightly irritated me but my youngest daughters love of it has rubbed off! Carol's from Kings is lovely and reminds me of my Mum.
Of course this year is a bit different! I dont know about anyone else but despite fully acknowledging the difference and as happy as I could be with it I'm still surprised by my reactions. Some favourites just dont feel quite as enjoyable and leave me feeling rather flat. Some things unexpectedly make me feel Christmassy. I have the ingredients and intention of making a Christmas it's a boiled fruitcake so can be last minute.
Apart from a few highlights when I had a look at main tv channels they looked rather uninspiring. I love Call the Midwife. This morning it occured to me I wonder how filming under Covid restrictions will look? Although I did find her a little bit OTT I did find myself watching and very much enjoying her Christmas Cruise programme. It still does however still take me a little by surprise at how very different things were a year or so ago. I look on with wonder at all those people close to each other,laughing,eating,touching an arm gently,that does still hit home!
I'm not sure what I will want to watch/occupy myself with over the festive period. The only certainty is it will feel what's right at that particular moment whether its traditional or something else!

That should be spookiness of a Christmas ghost story?

I'm so glad that this thread caught on! I've only read a few posts, I'll read it or later.
Thank you so much for all of your lovely ideas and recommendations.
I hope that everyone discovers at least one new thing to add a bit of extra sparkle to this Christmas x

I love the Die Hard films at Christmas when there has been too much saccharin and chocolate. Also the bad guy gets a thumping and I wish Covid would as well.

When my DD was small she borrowed a book from the Library called ‘Fat Santa’. From that year on the book has been read on Christmas Eve. (It’s now out of print, but I managed to get a second hand copy from an online book seller years ago). Now my DGS listens to the story which dated as it is, (what’s a Walkman Grammy?) still kicks off our Christmas celebrations.

Deedaa. I used to love all the Green Knowe books, and had them. I wonder where they went? Once I wrote to the author and had a lovely post card back from her.

Has anyone read the Jan Karon series of books? They are lovely.

We went to the cinema last December to see a new film called Last Christmas and loved it. Along the lines of The Holiday and Love Actually. We’ll definitely be watching it again if we can get it.

Lost Christmas by David Logan is a lovely book, really enjoyed that. Arthur Christmas is a good film. When my son was small, we had a lovely pop-up book of the Night Before Christmas, and a Christmas Carol we used to enjoy together and for years after he was too old for that, I still enjoyed looking through that and moving all the tabs which changed the scenes in the books. (Can't remember where I put them or I'd still be doing that!). I don't have any planned TV viewing (I'm not a great TV watcher), will just catch bits of whatever husband and son are watching while I'm running around doing all the Christmas jobs - making dinner etc!

Any Christmas film on Channel 5 or Christmas 24: they're all very similar but I don't care! I like to read anything with a winter or snowy theme. Mr MC always reads The Night before Christmas!

White Christmas for me every time. Even as a child, the first thing I did when my mum bought the Christmas double Radio Times was to look in the films section to see when it was on. I then bought the video and now have the DVD. I have to wait until I’m on my own though, as no one else likes it (or so they say...). Another Miss Read fan here. I have her books constantly at my bedside.

I watched a black and white film yesterday - ‘The Bishop’s Wife’ - starring David Niven and Cary Grant. It was delightful and it’s amazing how quickly you forget it’s not in colour.

Found an animated film called Klaus this year which I enjoyed but I'm looking for the old classics, The Shop Around the Corner, The Bishops wife, Alistair Sims version of Scrooge. I've already watched It's a Wonderful Life and of course the Christmas morning film is always A Muppets Christmas Carol.

The Nine Lessons and Carol's from Kings College Chapel, especially Once in Royal Davids City. The warm smell of cinnamon, Salvation Army band playing carols, Miracle on 34th Street( both versions), a sparkly Christmas tree, Cadbury Roses, light hearted bickering over the best way to cook the Christmas Dinner. Too many to mention.

Polar Express for me love it

Love actually and The Holiday are a must for me.

'Doing our best to minimise the risk'
No you aren't.
The best thing to minimise the risk is not to mix households.

Argh!!!
Wrong thread
Still - a timely reminder!

Our family favourite has to be The Flint Street Nativity. This was a 'made for TV' production about an infant class putting on their nativity play in front of their parents. The children (and their respective parents) are played by a brilliant range of adult comedians in a scaled up version of their classroom and you get all the wonderful backstage bickering ("I'm gonna be Mary") as well as the performance on stage. I've often thought it should be required viewing for trainee teachers!

Calendar girl......I'm with you National Lampoons Christmas Vacation. Our DVD comes out every year. Our grandson has re introduced us to Home Alone.

DH hasn't told me what I'm watching!! But We are staying at home but will watch the GC via Zoom open their pressies. DD will deliver our Xmas Dinner, all plated up, and i will have a Zoom chat to my sisters, one whom was widowed late 2019

The Holiday with Hugh grant Jack Black Kate Winslett. Lovely Christmas film set in beautiful English countryside.

Films I like to watch over Christmas are The Snowman, Polar Express, Wind in the Willows, Holiday Inn, Scrooge and Miracle on 34th Street along with a good Agatha Christie Christmas whodunit.
I enjoy reading anything Christmassy including Dickens, Miss Read, Christmas murder mystery classics and Rosamund Pilcher

I've the DVD of "Its A Wonderful Life" which comes out the Sunday before Christmas every year, so I know what I'll be watching tomorrow afternoon. Also "Little Women" the very first one made, as I think of my mum when I watch it as it was our favourite to watch together when I was a child.

Well I've been getting daily photos of the 'elf on the shelf' this year, and my word he's been up to mischief overnight. Found amongst the Barbies one morning, then surrounded by empty miniature gin bottles another.
I'm not a slushy Xmas film watcher usually, but Love actually left me in a blubbering mess this year. All the people hugging in the airport arrivals with Beach Boys 'God only knows' playing.