Restoring Your Soul Through Christmas Movies: Volume One

By Dave Montei

Whether it’s Kevin being left home alone, Ralphie getting a boot in the face from Santa for asking for a Red Ryder BB gun, or Buddy the Elf distracting New Yorkers with his costume, everyone has their favorite Christmas movie moments.

We remember all the funny quotes, the fun music, and even know what’s going to happen before the next scene occurs, but do we remember the messages these Christmas films deliver?

If we’re not careful, our casual obsession of watching and rewatching these holiday classics will have us miss out on a greater opportunity to renew our hope and restore our soul.

Along with fun-filled facts and trivia, Restoring Your Soul Through Christmas Movies explores the messages each Christmas film delivers and how we can apply them to our everyday lives.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: Jun 30, 2021
• ISBN: 9781638140757

Book preview

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Restoring Your Soul Through Christmas Movies

Volume One

Dave Montei

ISBN 978-1-63814-074-0 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-63814-075-7 (Digital)

Copyright © 2021 Dave Montei

All rights reserved

First Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Covenant Books, Inc.

11661 Hwy 707

Murrells Inlet, SC 29576

www.covenantbooks.com

Table of Contents

Joyeux Noël (Merry Christmas)

Home Alone

Christmas in Connecticut

A Charlie Brown Christmas

Christmas with the Kranks

Scrooge (A Christmas Carol)

A Christmas Story

Meet John Doe

Elf

Miracle on 34th Street

We remember the funny one-liners,

the memorable scenes,

the snappy tunes,

and the lovable characters,

but do we remember the messages they deliver?

Introduction

Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinions starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don’t see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere.

Often it’s not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it’s always there—fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know, none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge—they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I’ve got a sneaky feeling you’ll find that love actually is all around. (Opening monologue in the film Love Actually)

Christmas can be a defining moment in each of our lives; thankfully, we have Christmas movies to remind us that love and hope do exist. Whether it’s Linus in A Charlie Brown Christmas promising us of the hope we can have in Jesus Christ or George Bailey’s personal angel, Clarence, in It’s a Wonderful Life reminding us that, No man is a failure who has friends, Christmas films have a way of delivering hope to the hopeless.

There has always been that recurring yet redundant message at Christmas time that Christmas is to be with the people you love, but in reality, not everyone gets to experience this nor any other dimension of love during the holidays. In fact, Christmas will be a season filled with loneliness and depression for many.

One of the special ministries I co-led in recent years was feeding the homeless and needy in the city of Chicago, and my team was able to maintain and grow relationships with many of those broken lives that found themselves living in tents under the viaducts as they shared stories of their pasts, especially of family. One gentleman loved to brag on his momma who sang in the church choir with Aretha Franklin.

During the harsh winter months, many will struggle to find a place to stay warm with the shelters overcrowded; this is when the need becomes the greatest. And unfortunately, Christmas looks better in retrospect than in reality for many of those living on the streets. While our ministry team is out there handing out coats, hats, and gloves at this time of season, we would hear countless stories told of special Christmases with family from years gone by. One story we often heard told numerous times was how many of them as children would nestle together with their family to watch Christmas movies.

Christmas films reignite our quest and passion for that which we are searching for.

A coworker friend of mine a few years ago would ask me every holiday season to borrow the film Love Actually to watch because its specific message on love gave him hope that he too could find that special someone he had been longing for. (My only disclaimer for this film is it carries an R rating but still closely resembles any Hallmark Christmas movie with its content on finding love at Christmas time.)

Watching Christmas movies are just as much a part of our culture as eating pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving, and these yuletide stories have a way of filling an empty void during the holidays when we may find ourselves most vulnerable.

When Ralphie in A Christmas Story envisions himself receiving a Red-Ryder bb-gun for Christmas, he is, in fact, reminding us that our desires can be met if only we believe. And while Elf is teaching us that the best way to spread Christmas cheer is to sing loud for all to hear, Susan and her mother in Miracle on 34th Street are discovering how to believe in the impossible.

Six-year-old Susan has been taught not to believe in fairy tales or Santa, but after spending time with the Macy’s department store Santa, hope arises in her young heart. Santa Claus has given her hope to believe in something, while an attorney named Gailey is asked to prove that this Kris Kringle is the one and only Santa Claus as he reminds us that, Faith is believing when common sense tells you not to, and if things don’t turn out right the first time, you still gotta believe.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen is a familiar passage to many who read their Bible, yet for any living being Christmas can easily fit into this equation too. Sure, everyone carries hopes and wishes throughout the year, but it is during Christmastime where those hopes are elevated to an expectation, awaiting some Christmas miracle as if we’re living in our own Hallmark Christmas movie.

Many in society today will easily get discouraged, depressed, and distracted just from all of the negativity in the world, but as soon as the calendar flips to November, all eyes are on December and Christmas, the season of hope. This is why I love the underappreciated 1941 Christmas film Meet John Doe and felt the importance of adding it to this first volume of Christmas films to watch. John Doe is distraught at America’s neglect for the little people and suggests,

Why can’t that spirit, that Christmas spirit, last all year round?

The urban dictionary defines a Christmas miracle as any unusual and happy event that takes place during December, especially any event on Christmas Day or close to Christmas Day. In most cultures, Christmas is a time to celebrate the miracle of the virgin birth of Jesus, and thus, Christmas miracles were born. And from there, everyone from Scrooge finding himself to George Bailey discovering he has friends to John Doe saving society from itself at the stroke of midnight on Christmas Eve, miracles and Christmas become tied together in one big red fancy bow.

One of the strategies for most parents in getting their children to believe in something may have first started with that man in a red suit whom we call Santa Claus. My own personal belief system in the jolly St. Nick disintegrated somewhere between second and third grade when I caught my parents sneaking presents under our Christmas tree after midnight.

Most people refer to the 1947 film Miracle on 34th Street as being the first sighting of Santa Claus on the big screen, but to your dismay, Santa was birthed long before Edmund Gwenn’s Oscar performing role as the jolly ole’ fella.

Santa Claus first appeared in an 1823 poem titled A Visit From St. Nicholas and would later make his screen debut in 1898 in a mere one-minute-and sixteen-second silent film entitled Santa Claus, where he would visit a house on Christmas Eve and leave goodies in the kids’ stockings.

It is trivia like this that you will find throughout the pages of this book which makes it even more unique for readers. This faith-based book not only rekindles our love and passion for Christmas movies and the splendor of Christmas but highlights the many messages that can be found to enlighten our hearts and bring us hope.

In recent years, the Hallmark channel has been capitalizing on the vulnerability of those searching for a Christmas miracle by producing sappy romance made-for-TV movies geared toward women. Hallmark Christmas movies create the illusion that there’s always a happy, fairy tale ending in life’s journey, but in reality, we know that’s not always the case.

One of the reasons that I took on this project was I had found that beyond all of the humor and fun that the Christmas classics and films as recent as Elf provide, there are many great and important messages given that we can learn upon in our own journey through life.

Luther Kranks may not have received his Christmas wish at the end of Christmas with the Kranks, but he gained something of greater value and his faith in mankind is restored.

Elizabeth Lane in Christmas in Connecticut may not have pulled off her great charade at Christmas, but her desires were fulfilled, regardless of the outcome and taught us the importance of living in our true identity.

And while John Doe may not have changed the attitudes of society in Meet John Doe, he did however touch a handful of people who would take those principles he stood by and make an effort to change an entire nation.

Of course, one of the many reasons we love to watch Christmas classics aside from the humor and laughter is for sentimental reasons. Films like A Christmas Story remind us older folks of a simpler time when children had to use their imagination more and we began compiling our Christmas wish list for Santa in July. Heck, it’s all a kid had to live for back then!

Christmas Vacation reminds us of the craziness of holiday family gatherings and the joy they bring in spite of some family members resembling cousin Eddie.

One of the other great attractions to Christmas movies are the musical soundtracks they provide to carry us into a spirit of Christmas. Movies like Home Alone and Elf have our toes tapping in sheer delight and energize our spirits to new levels of expectation, while another underappreciated Christmas film, Joyeux Noel, tells the true story of how music inspired the hearts and spirits of opposing armies on Christmas Day during WW1.

Throughout each story within this first volume, I reflect not only my own childhood adventures but the many dreams, desires, and fraudulent adventures we all may have shared as children growing up as we relate to characters like Ralphie, Charlie Brown, and Kevin McCallister of Home Alone.

And we can’t rule out the many valuable lessons we learn as adults from characters like Luther Kranks, Ebenezer Scrooge, and Elizabeth Lane, for in each passing moment in viewing these Christmas classics, our hearts become filled and renewed with the joy and expectation of Christmas.

1

Joyeux Noël (Merry Christmas)

Trivia Nuggets

The film was originally rated R, but film critic Roger Ebert criticized the rating, and it was changed to PG-13. Ebert thought that it was an important part of history that all ages should be able to watch and learn from.

A cat was actually arrested and charged with espionage within this historical event.

Nikolaus and Anna’s vocal performances are dubbed over by two opera singers.

Cast includes Diane Kruger as Anna Sorenson, and Benno Furmann as tenor Nikolaus Sprink.

This 2005 French film, which includes subtitles, tells the story of a truce held in WWI on Christmas Eve 1914. The story is depicted through the eyes of French, Scottish, and German soldiers fighting along the Western Front. Although this is a fictionalized account of actual events, it is definitely a must-see film.

One fact you realize after watching this powerful film is that we truly are all one people. It doesn’t matter which side you are on politically, what religion you follow, nor even what race you may be, we are all one people created equally by God. And through the eyes of these soldiers fighting against one another, we still see various similarities between them:

They each share the same emotions about war and the will to survive.

They carry with them a desire to be home for Christmas with their loved ones.

Each soldier has a wife, sweetheart, or family back home that they desperately love.

They each hold in their hearts the same dream of peace.

Here is a little synopsis of this amazing story and then we will dig a little deeper within this important piece of history:

On one of the battlefields of the Western Front on Christmas Eve, the French soldiers are in their trenches preparing to celebrate Christmas with champagne, the Scottish soldiers are playing Christmas Carols with their bagpipes, and the Germans are in trenches filled with Christmas trees and listening to the vocal talents of one of their own soldiers, the famous German tenor, Nikolaus Sprink.

Even with all of these festivities occurring upon the battlefield, there’s still a sense of tension, an anticipation of an attack from one another. But just when the Scottish bagpipes begin to play in the cold desolate air, a calm stillness overwhelms all of the troops.

Nikolaus the German tenor grabs a Christmas tree and casually carries it out to the center of the battlefield while singing O Come All Ye Faithful. It is then that even us viewers of this stunning sequence of events can sense something magical is about to happen.

The leaders of the French, German, and Scottish troops come boldly face-to-face as they take center stage in a no-man’s-land to discuss and agree upon declaring a cease-fire for the evening. All three forces then descend from their trenches and acquaint themselves with each other while sharing chocolate; champagne; photos of wives, girlfriends, family; and intimate stories of Christmases past.

At the stroke of midnight, a Scottish priest named Palmer delivers a brief yet poignant message to which all of the troops emotionally respond in unison and are deeply moved. Later, the priest would remark,

Tonight, these men were drawn to that altar like it was a fire in the middle of winter. Even those who aren’t devout came to warm themselves; maybe just to