Home for the Holidays

Love Actually (2003)
Arguably one of the most shown films during the Christmas season, Love Actually remains at the top of every Christmas watchlist. Unlike a traditional film following a certain main character and certain side characters, Love Actually follows the love stories of eight different couples in the month leading up to Christmas, ranging from the British Prime Minister to just a simple photographer who pursues his best friend’s wife. Each of the “stories” is somewhat linked to each other in various ways, and characters of one story can play pivotal roles in another.

The unique parts of Love Actually are not the stories — they follow the standard romcom formula — but how it ties together these eight tales at the end in an interesting epilogue. Ultimately, the essence of the film lies in the love that the characters show at the airport, the pure unadulterated love that perhaps is the hallmark of Christmas.

Memorable quote: “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.”

A Christmas Carol (2009)

And to cap things off, let us never forget the meaning of Christmas with the animated adaptation of Charles Dickens’s 1843 story of the same name. Funnyman Jim Carrey takes on the role of not just Ebenezer Scrooge, but the ghosts that come to haunt the grumpy old man.

Be warned, this movie is not for the really young kids, as its dark tone and intense scenes can be slightly disturbing. The film was panned for having a dark tone, but it is perhaps the truest representation of Dickens’ tale. And it is perhaps this tone that really reminds us that in our commercialised world of Christmas, it is not all about the sales, the gifts and what you spend your year-end bonus on, but its really about the kindness, generosity and compassion that we share with the people in our lives, as Scrooge’s nephew said in the film.

“I have always thought of Christmas time ... as a good time ... the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.”