Christmas
Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...
themes have long been an inspiration to artists and writers. A prominent aspect of
Christian media, the topic first appeared in
in literature and
Christmas music.
Filmmakers have picked up on this wealth of material, with both adaptations of
Christmas novels
Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...
, in the forms of
Christmas films
Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year, ...
,
Santa Claus films, and
Christmas television specials.
It also includes animation, comics, and children's books, including ''
A Charlie Brown Christmas'', ''
How the Grinch Stole Christmas!'', and ''
Frosty the Snowman''.
Films
Many Christmas stories have been
adapted to movies and
TV specials, and have been broadcast and repeated many times on TV. Since the popularization of home video in the 1980s, their many editions are sold and re-sold every year during the holiday shopping season. Notable examples are the many versions of the ballet ''
The Nutcracker'', the 1946 film ''
It's a Wonderful Life'', and the similarly themed versions of Dickens' ''
A Christmas Carol'', in which the elderly miser
Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by ghosts and learns the errors of his ways. By contrast, the hero of the former,
George Bailey, is a businessman who sacrificed his dreams to help his community. On Christmas Eve,
a guardian angel finds him in despair and prevents him from committing suicide, by supernaturally showing him how much he meant to the world around him.
A few films based on fictionalized versions of true stories have become Christmas specials themselves. The story behind the Christmas carol "
Silent Night" and the story of "
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus" are two examples.
Sometimes, family films and classics boasting special effects and/or uplifting messages, but having no real relation to Christmas, are telecast during the season as part of the holiday programming. ''
The Wizard of Oz
''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' or ''The Wizard of Oz'' most commonly refers to:
*'' The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'', a 1900 American novel by L. Frank Baum often reprinted as ''The Wizard of Oz''
** Wizard of Oz (character), from the Baum novel serie ...
'', for instance, was always telecast during the Christmas season between 1959 and 1962. Other films often seen around the Christmas period are ''
Singin' in the Rain
''Singin' in the Rain'' is a 1952 American musical romantic comedy film directed and choreographed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, starring Kelly, Donald O'Connor, and Debbie Reynolds and featuring Jean Hagen, Millard Mitchell and Cyd C ...
'', ''
Some Like it Hot'', ''
Casablanca'', ''
The Golden Compass'', ''
Great Expectations'', ''
Annie'', ''
Grease'', ''
The Adventures of Robin Hood'',
Johnny Depp
John Christopher Depp II (born June 9, 1963) is an American actor and musician. He is the recipient of multiple accolades, including a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award, in addition to nominations for three Academy Awar ...
's ''
Alice
Alice may refer to:
* Alice (name), most often a feminine given name, but also used as a surname
Literature
* Alice (''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''), a character in books by Lewis Carroll
* ''Alice'' series, children's and teen books by ...
'' ''
Saga'', ''
Sunshine on Leith'', ''
The Star Wars'' ''
Saga'', ''
The Simpsons Movie'', ''
Cinderella
"Cinderella",; french: link=no, Cendrillon; german: link=no, Aschenputtel) or "The Little Glass Slipper", is a folk tale with thousands of variants throughout the world.Dundes, Alan. Cinderella, a Casebook. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsi ...
'', ''
Maleficent'', ''
Into the Woods'', ''
Oz: The Great and Powerful'', ''
Paddington
Paddington is an area within the City of Westminster, in Central London. First a medieval parish then a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Three important landmarks of the district are Padd ...
'', ''
Around the World in Eighty Days'', ''
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
''Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'' is a 1968 musical-fantasy film directed by Ken Hughes with a screenplay co-written by Roald Dahl and Hughes, loosely based on Ian Fleming's novel '' Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang: The Magical Car'' (1964). The film sta ...
'', ''
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'' (or simply ''E.T.'') is a 1982 American science fiction film produced and directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Melissa Mathison. It tells the story of Elliott, a boy who befriends an extraterrestrial, d ...
'', ''
Fiddler on the Roof
''Fiddler on the Roof'' is a musical theatre, musical with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and musical theatre#Book musicals, book by Joseph Stein, set in the Pale of Settlement of Russian Empire, Imperial Russia in or around 190 ...
'', ''
My Fair Lady
''My Fair Lady'' is a musical theatre, musical based on George Bernard Shaw's 1913 play ''Pygmalion (play), Pygmalion'', with a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. The story concerns Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flowe ...
'', ''
Mary Poppins'', ''
Oliver!'', ''
Crocodile Dundee'', ''
The Railway Children'', ''
The Sound of Music
''The Sound of Music'' is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, and a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. It is based on the 1949 memoir of Maria von Trapp, ''The Story of the Trapp Family Singers''. ...
'', ''
Bedknobs & Broomsticks'', ''
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory'', the ''
Marvel Cinematic Universe
The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is an American media franchise and shared universe centered on a series of superhero films produced by Marvel Studios. The films are based on characters that appear in American comic books published ...
'' movies and
Peter Jackson's
''Middle Earth'' ''
saga'', as well as several animated
Disney
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
,
DreamWorks, and
Pixar movies. Others have some scenes during the Christmas season, such as the
''Harry Potter'' films which are frequently included in the viewing rotation. The action film ''
Die Hard'' is seen by some as a Christmas film, as it takes place on the holiday, and is often viewed during the season, although whether or not ''Die Hard'' should be considered a Christmas film has been debated due to its story not being about the holiday itself. Others in this category include ''
Iron Man 3'', ''
Lethal Weapon'', ''
Batman Returns'', ''
Eyes Wide Shut'', and ''
Doctor Zhivago''.
In the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
, during the 2000s
ITV usually showed a
James Bond
The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 19 ...
and/or a
Harry Potter
''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young wizard, Harry Potter, and his friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, all of whom are students a ...
film(s) during the Christmas Holidays whilst the
BBC showed
the Chronicles of Narnia
''The Chronicles of Narnia'' is a series of seven high fantasy novels by British author C. S. Lewis. Illustrated by Pauline Baynes and originally published between 1950 and 1956, ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' has been adapted for radio, te ...
and/or
High School Musical films. And for many years
Channel 5 have shown American/Canadian made-for-TV Christmas films during the weeks before Christmas.
In North America, the holiday movie season often includes release of studios' most prestigious pictures, in an effort both to capture holiday crowds and to position themselves for
Oscar consideration. Next to summer, this is the second-most lucrative season for the industry. In fact, a few films each year open on the actual Christmas Day holiday. Christmas movies generally open no later than Thanksgiving, as their themes are not so popular once the season is over. Likewise, the
home video release of these films is typically delayed until the beginning of the next year's Christmas season.
American Christmas-themed films are also broadcast on the
Hallmark Channel and its companion channel
Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, which during the holiday season generally feature new films along with reruns of favorites from prior years. Actresses
Candace Cameron Bure,
Lacey Chabert, and
Danica McKellar, along with actor
Niall Matter, are frequently featured in lead or major roles. The films themselves generally feature a similar theme of a person who has "lost the Christmas spirit" and through "Christmas magic" regains it (commonly by a romantic encounter; frequently one of the two in the romance is a single parent or has lost someone special around a prior Christmas season). Another theme plays on the "big city-small town" dynamic, whereby a lead character has either left a small hometown for the big city (and has had to return), or a big city person has to go to a small town, in either case deciding that the small town is where they should remain.
The settings are usually in the northern United States, or in a mountain area (such as Colorado), where snow (and the ensuing "White Christmas") are used as a backdrop for the film (though the films themselves are often filmed in British Columbia due to favorable film tax benefits).
As of 2020 ''
The Grinch'' is the
highest grossing Christmas film of all time. ''
Green Book'' was the last movie with a Christmas setting to win the
Academy Award for Best Picture
The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) since the awards debuted in 1929. This award goes to the producers of the film and is the only categor ...
.
Television specials and episodes
Before 1962, when ''
Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol'' premiered, true Christmas specials made for TV were either adaptations of stories such as ''A Christmas Carol'' (with live actors), or the Nativity Story, or episodes of variety shows highlighting Christmas music. They were often hosted by such celebrities as
Perry Como,
Jane Wyatt, or
Florence Henderson. (A notable exception was ''
The Spirit of Christmas'' in 1950, which, although featuring an appearance by
Alexander Scourby, who also narrated, starred the Mabel Beaton Marionettes.)
This all changed once variety shows began dying out in the late 1980s and Rankin-Bass began producing more and more Christmas specials.
One notable television special usually seen at Christmas was ''
Amahl and the Night Visitors'', commissioned by
NBC and telecast annually in the U.S. from 1951 to 1966. It was the first opera written especially for television. Composed by
Gian-Carlo Menotti with a libretto in English by the composer, the opera told of a disabled beggar boy living with his (presumably) widowed mother in the Holy Land. They are visited by the Three Wise Men who are on their way to see the Christ Child, and when Amahl offers his crutch as a gift, he is miraculously cured. In 1978, it returned to television, with less success.
United Kingdom
TV programmes which have had special Christmas episodes in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
include ''
Top of the Pops
''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly between 1January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show. For most o ...
'' (from 1960s-2006), ''
Morecambe and Wise'' (1970s), ''
The Two Ronnies'' (1980s), ''
Stars in Their Eyes'', ''
Only Fools and Horses
''Only Fools and Horses....'' is a British television sitcom created and written by John Sullivan (writer), John Sullivan. Seven series were originally broadcast on BBC One in the United Kingdom from 1981 to 1991, with sixteen sporadic Christmas ...
'' (both 1990s), and more recently, ''
Doctor Who'', ''
Top Gear'' (both 2000s) and ''
Downton Abbey'' (2010s).
The 1982 animated tale ''
The Snowman'' has been screened for many years during the Christmas period (usually Christmas Eve or Christmas Day), and a new story, ''
Father Christmas'', by the same artist and company, is usually broadcast around the same time.
Adaptations of novels from
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...
are also common around Christmas time. Along with ''
A Christmas Carol'' (the most popular due to its Christmas season setting, and the message portrayed), such as ''
Bleak House'' (2005), ''
Oliver Twist'' (2007) and ''
Great Expectations'' (2011), among others. These adaptations usually featured
all-star casts.
Christmas Day begins at 12 at night with the showing of
Midnight Mass on the
BBC. In addition, Queen
Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...
annually broadcast a
10-minute speech on Christmas Day at 3 p.m., charting her views of the past year and giving her own reflections and advice. Many long-running British
soap opera
A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...
s have Christmas specials, usually involving a dramatic storyline developed over several weeks which culminates at Christmas. Often these stories are tragic, involving a death, divorce, a dramatic revelation or similar event.
Most Christmas specials in the UK are specially commissioned separately to a
production season, and many are extended from the usual episode length. For example,
the 2007 ''Doctor Who'' Christmas special was 71 minutes as opposed to the standard 45 minutes, was broadcast six months after the third series had finished and four months before the fourth series started. UK Christmas specials may or may not feature the holiday itself as part of the narrative.
While the season receives almost universal acknowledgement on British TV, some channels and programmes have tried "alternative" or "anti-Christmas" ideas. One example is
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
which has run an
Alternative Christmas message since 1993. In 2009, two movie channels renamed themselves for the season;
Sky Movies Screen 2 became ''Sky Movies Christmas Channel'' and
Movies 24 became ''Christmas 24''. From 2010, changes to Sky Movies line-up meant that Sky Movies Showcase was used for Sky Movies Christmas Channel. On 16 November 2012, two music channels renamed themselves;
Bliss became ''Blissmas'' and
Greatest Hits TV
Greatest Hits TV was a British satellite TV music channel owned by UltimateHits Limited. The channel is ultimately owned by All Around the World Productions, a British record label who also operated Channel AKA, Clubland TV and Planet Pop.
Histo ...
was rebranded as ''Christmas Hits TV''.
United States
In the United States, many television series (particularly those of a family-oriented nature) produce a Christmas episode, although seldom outside of a season's production block. Stand-alone Christmas specials are also popular, from newly created animated shorts and movies to repeats of those that were popular in previous years, such as ''
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is a fictional reindeer created by Robert L. May. Rudolph is usually depicted as the ninth and youngest of Santa Claus's reindeer, using his luminous red nose to lead the reindeer team and guide Santa's sleigh on ...
'' and ''
A Charlie Brown Christmas''. Some local affiliates provide the ''
Yule Log,'' a block of time either on Christmas morning or both during the evening hours of Christmas Eve and Christmas morning showing footage of a fireplace, coupled with popular Christmas music. Some local affiliates that provide the ''Yule Log'' simulcast Christmas music from a radio station playing it. Every
Christmas Day
Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...
,
ABC airs a
Christmas parade at Walt Disney World Resort and along with its sister cable network,
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
,
NBA games
A game is a structured form of play, usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator sports or games) or art (su ...
featuring some of the league's best teams and players, broadcasting a doubleheader,
[ while NBC airs an ice skating special. Many US sitcoms or dramas like to include Christmas specials in their series. NBA games airing on network television on Christmas Day are notable because it is the day the first NBA games air on network television each season.] Additionally, CBS airs college basketball
In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...
games the day after Christmas while NBC airs a Premier League soccer match that same day.
Christmas specials based on classical music have also been well received. Among them, in addition to the previously mentioned ''Amahl and the Night Visitors'', have been the many telecasts of the ballet '' The Nutcracker'', and concert
A concert is a live music performance in front of an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, choir, or band. Concerts are held in a wide variet ...
specials featuring musicians such as the Boston Pops, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, the Cincinnati Pops
The Cincinnati Pops Orchestra is a pops orchestra based in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, founded in 1977 out of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Its members are also the members of the Cincinnati Symphony, and the Pops is managed by the same ...
, and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO) is an American orchestra based in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. The ASO's main concert venue is Atlanta Symphony Hall in the Woodruff Arts Center.
History
Though earlier organizations bearing the same name date b ...
and Chorus.
Radio
Many radio stations begin to add Christmas music to their rotation in late November, and often switch to all-Christmas programming for December 25. Some do for part of or all of December 24 as well. A few stations switch to all-Christmas music for the entire season (some beginning as early as mid-November); in Detroit, 100.3 WNIC in 2005 started Christmas music day and night on midnight of October 31 because programmers believed that at least some listeners who are attracted by the Christmas music will remain loyal listeners when the station reverts to its standard format
Format may refer to:
Printing and visual media
* Text formatting, the typesetting of text elements
* Paper formats, or paper size standards
* Newspaper format, the size of the paper page
Computing
* File format, particular way that informati ...
on Boxing Day. Radio stations also broadcast traditional Western art music, such as the "Hallelujah" chorus from Handel
George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel (; baptised , ; 23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-British Baroque composer well known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi, and organ concertos. Handel received his train ...
's ''Messiah
In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; ,
; ,
; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of '' mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach ...
''. Among other pieces inspired by Christmas are Tchaikovsky's ballet '' The Nutcracker'' and the popular suite
Suite may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
*Suite (music), a set of musical pieces considered as one composition
** Suite (Bach), a list of suites composed by J. S. Bach
** Suite (Cassadó), a mid-1920s composition by Gaspar Cassadó
** ''Suite' ...
drawn from it, and Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the ''Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard wo ...
's " Christmas Oratorio" (BWV 248). Some radio stations play Christmas music commercial-free the entire day on Christmas Day, with only interruptions for Christmas messages from station personnel and personnel from the station's parent company. Others, like 96.5 KOIT in San Francisco do on both part of or all of Christmas Eve and the entire day Christmas Day. Frequently, the first song played on an "all-Christmas" station is the popular tune ''It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas
"It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" is a Christmas song written in 1951 by Meredith Willson. The song was originally titled "It's Beginning to Look Like Christmas". The song has been recorded by many artists, but was a hit for Perry Como ...
''.
The UK music industry features the battle of the bands and artists to make it to the Christmas No. 1 spot, recognised on the first Sunday before, or on, Christmas Day. Many of these songs are festive, while others are novelty songs that remain but briefly at the top of the chart. Gospel singer Cliff Richard
Sir Cliff Richard (born Harry Rodger Webb; 14 October 1940) is an Indian-born British musican, singer, producer, entrepreneur and philanthropist who holds both British and Barbadian citizenship. He has total sales of over 21.5 million s ...
is a fixture of Christmas charts, appearing nearly every year, and subsequently being mocked for doing so. In more recent years the Christmas chart has been dominated by the winner of '' The X Factor'' and various social media backed records aimed to hijack the charts.
As with television, British radio programmes also schedule Christmas specials. These mainly include comedy shows such as '' I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue'' and '' The Now Show''.
The Music Choice channels have over the past few years have begun playing Christmas music as early as the beginning of November, instead of waiting till after Thanksgiving.
Literature
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Christmas By Medium
Bible in popular culture
medium