#little-women-1994

#little-women-1994

Many Christmas movies announce themselves with green-hatted elves, Santa, the red-nosed reindeer, snowmen named Frosty, and other recognizable figures. But the Christmas spirit is about more than ornament-ready characters. And a movie need not take place during yuletide, or end with a choir of schoolchildren singing "Silent Night," to evoke what the season is all about. The exact meaning of the season, of course, is different for everyone-hence the nine movies below might not be anyone's first choice when Grandma says

Nearly every Christmas film hinges on a seasonal, often kitschy surge of sentimentality in the final act. But for all the reunions, reconciliations and promises of renewal that occur at the end of the year, there is something to be said for the filmmakers who tap the rest of the winter months' potential as a backdrop for introspective, humanist storytelling.