SICK CHILD/ TRAGIC TALE

VERDICT

MANY films, including Die Hard, fulfil lots of the criteria. But the only one that hits every note perfectly is It’s a Wonderful Life. Miracle on 34th Street comes close (only missing a proper singalong moment). It’s no surprise then that those two films are listed as the world’s favourite Christmas movies. MANY festive films focus on the idea that giving is more important than receiving (The Grinch, The Polar Express, A Christmas Story) and holding on to childlike wonder and innocence (Elf, Miracle on 34th Street, Bad Santa).

But the most common message in Christmas films – including It’s a Wonderful Life, The Muppet Christmas Carol, Scrooged, Home Alone, The Christmas Chronicles and Love Actually, above, – is that family and love, or the greater good, are more important than material wealth or presents. ALL stories need emotional weight and this is the perfect way to elicit that at this time of year. Charles Dickens’ Tiny Tim is the ultimate example but you can also include cute and sickly Zuzu in It’s A Wonderful Life, cynical and fatherless Susan in Miracle on 34th Street, Thomas Sangster’s motherless character in Love Actually, homeless kid Joe in Santa Claus: The Movie and unappreciated and literally forgotten Kevin in Home Alone. Weird kid Thurman makes the story work in Bad Santa. And even a grown-up like Kate in Gremlins has a brilliant backstory, having lost her dad down the chimney, while teen hero Anna from Anna and the Apocalypse has lost her mum.