Hallelujah, I'm not alone! *hands wagga a fruit shield*
Ahaha, about the librarian thing! I laugh because I never thought about that. In all seriousness, though, I understand your point and agree. I didn't particularly like that aspect - that it was one or the other. To be honest, being a librarian is, to me, one of the best jobs out there.

I quite see what you meant in the spoiler. The cavalier attitude some old movies have to women has quite a good deal to do with my own attitudes to that movie, in particular. So I'm afraid I'll have to remain a party pooper of a retired librarian. We did see a few Christmas films including Home Alone, which was quite good. I did think the Macaulay Culkin character was quite clever to dream up the other means of defending himself apart from the rifle. We also saw a Christmas film about Dennis the Menace and, of all things, Matilda. I never expected that movie to be a Christmas movie.

Merry Christmas everyone, whatever you watch. Even Lethal Weapon. Most of your holiday movie choices, including Die Hard , were in a wordsearch puzzle I did over the holidays, and yes, it did include 'A Bush Christmas' .

My favorite Christmas movies:

It's a Wonderful Life - I disagree that it is saying being librarian is a tragic thing - it is that Mary never found love. There is a remake that was made for television in the 70's and Mary and George's parts were reversed (It Happened One Christmas). That one starred Marlo Thomas as Mary and Cloris Leachman as Clara the angel. Since George didn't meet Mary - he was an automachanic and just as lost as Mary the librarian was in the orginal film. One of the things that I really appreciate about It's a Wonderful Life over its remake is at the end of the film when George is asking to live again - he first asks Clarence, but he doesn't get it back and it doesn't start snowing again until he prays "Dear God, I want to live again." In the remake, Mary only prays to Clara. It's a Wonderful Life always leaves me with a feeling of hope. Jimmy Stewart is one of my all time favorite actors too.

The Bishop's Wife - again so much better than the remake The Preacher's Wife (if you listen to the sermons at the end - the one in Bishop's talks about what can we do to give to Jesus and Preacher's talks about feeling better about yourself). I love just about everything that Cary Grant was in.

The Nativity Story - although I don't like some of the things they did with this telling of THE STORY - I do like some of the things that they brought out - like Joseph questioning if he would be able to teach Jesus anything. Over all, it was a good movie.

A Charlie Brown Christmas - the only animated one on my list - Charlie Brown searching for the real meaning of Christmas. And I read once that Charles Schultz was so excited that he got to include the passage from Luke in the script. The network tried to get him to take it out, but he refused.

There are many more that I really like - but we'll move on to those I don't.

I cannot stand A Christmas Story - Ralphie and his family just irratate me.

Home Alone - I just can't get beyond the fact that the parents didn't realize their kid wasn't with them for that long. I don't find it the least bit funny.

I'm not so sure of the parents taking such a long time to notice the boy in Home Alone was missing and was utterly convinced by the time they took to return back home on what was the eve of a public holiday. You should try crossing Sydney on a public holiday, when the powers that be are getting up to date with the track work, and when the shuttlebus to the airport might not bring you back home, however much of a hurry you might be in.

It's a Wonderful Life - I disagree that it is saying being librarian is a tragic thing - it is that Mary never found love. There is a remake that was made for television in the 70's and Mary and George's parts were reversed (It Happened One Christmas).

Yes, I do see what you mean. But why did Mary have to be a librarian, in particular, and not any of the less skilled jobs single women of the time were obliged to support themselves with, especially in the immediate post-war era? I do agree with you that the more secular emphasis of remakes might leave them lacking. But I would have to see the '70's remake before I can decide for myself whether it might work better. After all, the automechanic would undoubtedly feel lonely not having had love, but love or no love, his trade, a still-needed one, would stay with him.

Whereas, It's a wonderful life definitely reflects 1947 attitudes, when the reason that older working women, not only librarians, were generally unmarried and considered loveless, had a lot to do with the huge amount of men who were killed and injured in both World Wars, even in USA, the privations of the Great Depression, and labour practices that forced women to resign from their jobs when they got married. There were many far worse off than Mary as a librarian, then, and even now. Conversely, would you feel as sorry for Mary without her George, if she was a nurse, a teacher or a doctor?

Wasn't the character George in that movie mostly despondent over his career problems?