12.19.2014 | Michelle Randolph Faires
Hands down, my staff pick is Paramount’s White Christmas. When I think of all the family traditions instilled in me through the years, the one most prominent is hearing Bing Crosby croon White Christmas and laughing at the comedic genius of Danny Kaye. It’s not just a one-time viewing in my home, rather, it’s kept queued up at all times to be played during my holiday baking and wrapping of presents.
I’ve watched my daughters and their cousins grow up re-enacting the ‘Sisters” number more times than I can probably count and at this point I believe they could all give Rosemary Clooney and Vera Ellen a serious run for the money. When the show stopper scene of ‘Mandy” is performed, I still sigh “…if ONLY I had Vera Ellen’s legs!”
At one point the foursome find themselves traveling in a train car and they sing a number called “Snow’. Instantly, it is Christmas Eve night and I am back in my great-grandmothers front yard, making snow angels with my sisters in the unexpected snow blanketing the grass.
The finale is a cliché happy ending where the guys get the girls, the inn is saved and of course, the skies open and the much anticipated snow comes falling down, snowflakes synchronized to Irving Berlin’s song.
And every single time I cry.
Sometimes, the magic of a film is not necessarily in the script, the production or even the skilled actors. Sometimes our most deeply rooted feelings are the ones we attach to a film and how we relate the story to our life and our own experiences. It’s how it nestles its place into our hearts forever.
Here’s wishing all of you a very merry and White Christmas.