Christmas Traditions--Movie Watching (Non-Cartoons)

Here are the other two movies that we watch.  :D 

"Scrooge" A.K.A--The Christmas Carol" (with Alastair Sim)--This movie tells about Scrooge’s visits from three ghosts (four is you count Marley), all telling him about his Christmas'--Past, Present, and Future--and what a humbug he was when it came to the holiday.  Not only have we watched this movie every year, but every three or so years dad pulls out his copy of the Dickens’s masterpiece and spends a couple weeks reading it to us.  He's done it enough times, combined with watching the movie that any time someone say's "Marley" around anyone in our family esp. mom or I we are known to say "Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail."  From the second paragraph of both the book and the movie.

"Stingy old Ebenezer Scrooge is known as the meanest man in London. He overworks and underpays his humble clerk, Bob Cratchit, whose little son, Tiny Tim, is crippled and may soon die. He also has nothing to do with his nephew, Fred, because his birth cost the life of his beloved sister. On Christmas Eve, Scrooge has a haunting nightmare. He is visited by three ghosts and is given one last chance to change his ways and save himself from the grim fate that befell his business partner, Jacob Marley."

"If I could work my will," said Scrooge indignantly, "every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart.  He should!"

"Mrs. Dilber: Are you all right, Mr. Scrooge?
Ebenezer: [ecstatic] I... I don't know. I don't know anything. I never did know anything.

[starts laughing]
But now I KNOW that I don't know anything!

[begins to sing and clap his hands]
I don't know anything!  I never did know anything!  But now I know that I don't know  All on a Christmas morning!

[speaking again]
Ebenezer: Shall I stand on my head? I must stand on my head.
[He does so, and Mrs. Dilber runs out screaming]" 

"Mrs. Dilber: A guinea? For me? What for?
Ebenezer: I'll give you a guess!
Mrs. Dilber: [pause] To keep me mouth shut?"

"It's A Wonderful Life"--An all time favorite in our house, so much so that we've been known to watch it more than once a year.  Up to as many as three or four!!  Now, that's breaking tradition if I've ever seen it in our house.  :D  And all throughout the year we are known to comment on the movie, recite lines from it, or wish that we could watch it right then.  Think about it--A movie with Jimmy Stewart in it is always bound to be good.  :D

"On the Christmas Eve of Bedford Falls, the guardian angel Clarence is assigned to convince the desperate George Bailey to not commit suicide. George is a good man, that sacrificed his dreams and his youth on behalf of the citizens of his small town. He inherited the loan business of his father and he gave up traveling the world and joining University as scheduled. Later he resisted the proposals of the evil banker Mr. Potter, and never sold his business to protect the poor community of Bedford Falls and offer a means to afford to buy their own house. He married his beloved Mary Hatch Bailey and had four children with her and a tough life with his family. When his uncle Billy loses $8,000.00, found and stolen by Mr. Potter, George decides to commit suicide, since he believes he worth more dead than alive. When Clarence sees that he is not able to persuade George to give up his intention, he decides to show the life in town if George had never existed. George concludes that life is wonderful."

"George Bailey: I'm shakin' the dust of this crummy little town off my feet and I'm gonna see the world. Italy, Greece, the Parthenon, the Colosseum. Then, I'm comin' back here to go to college and see what they know. And then I'm gonna build things. I'm gonna build airfields, I'm gonna build skyscrapers a hundred stories high, I'm gonna build bridges a mile long..."

"Clarence: You've been given a great gift, George: A chance to see what the world would be like without you.

---

Clarence: You see George, you've really had a wonderful life. Don't you see what a mistake it would be to just throw it away?  

---

Clarence: Strange isn't. Each man's life touches so many other lives. When he isn't around he leaves an awful hole doesn't he? 

---

Clarence: [In book inscription] Remember, George: no man is a failure who has friends. "

" George Bailey: Merry Christmas, movie house! Merry Christmas, Emporium! Merry Christmas, you wonderful old Building and Loan!"