Here are just a handful of Christmas/Holiday musicals that began life on the silver screen. NiteLife Exchange Publisher Scott Barbarino and all of us here at NLE wish you all the best of the season however you celebrate at this festive time of year.
In 2003’s Elf, Buddy (Will Ferrell) was accidentally transported to the North Pole as a toddler and raised to adulthood among Santa’s elves. Unable to shake the feeling that he doesn’t fit in, the adult Buddy travels to New York, in full elf uniform, in search of his real father. As it happens, this is Walter Hobbs (James Caan), a cynical businessman. After a DNA test proves this, Walter reluctantly attempts to start a relationship with the childlike Buddy with increasingly chaotic results.
of a performing trio who plan to quit and run a country hotel. When Lila says she has fallen in love with the dancer in the act, Ted (Fred Astaire), Jim leaves town with a broken heart. After turning the inn into a holidays-only live entertainment venue, Jim winds up booking — and falling for — Linda (Marjorie Reynolds). But when Ted shows up at the place after being dumped by Lila, he too sets his sights on beautiful Linda.
Dr. Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas was released in 2000 based, on the 1957 children’s book by Dr. Seuss and drawingg from a 1966 animated TV version. Many additions were made to the storyline to bring it up to feature-length: a backstory was created and the minor character of the Grinch was elevated to a main character. Most of the rhymes that were used in the book were also used in the film, with some lines changed and several new rhymes added. The plot centers around the fact that The Grinch hates Christmas. He decides to stop the jolly, happy Who’s, who live in Whoville, from celebrating by stealing all their presents and decorations. Of course he is thwarted, and by the end of the musical, the reformed Grinch discovers what Christmas is all about.
This 2009 musical A Christmas Story was based not on a big-screen film, but on a wildly popular 1983 television film, based on the writings of Jean 
Shepherd. Set in the fictional town of Hohman, Indiana in 1940, all Ralphie Parker wants for Christmas is a Red Ryder Carbine Action 200-shot Range Model air rifle. Ralphie’s desire is rejected by his mother, teacher and a department store Santa Claus who all warn him “You’ll shoot your eye out.” Comic vignettes about Ralphie’s life that December culminate on Christmas morning when Ralphie receives his presents but the rifle among them. But then his father directs him to one last hidden box, and it is—the coveted rifle. There are a few more misadventures, including the rifle backfiring and hitting him in the face, but all’s well that ends well, and on Christmas night, Ralphie goes to sleep with the gun by his side.
This 1954 film reaches back to World War II. White Christmas begins on Christmas Eve, 1944, song
-and-dance men Capt. Bob Wallace and Pvt. Phil Davis, putting on a show. Their resultant relationship post war is the basis of the movie’s plot—the two become a popular duo, performing their revue, Playing Around. Eventually, the two decide they need to find a “good” woman and settle down They arrive at a nightclub, where Betty and Judy Haynes, the sisters of a former Army buddy (a general), are performing. It’s revealed that the sisters are broke, and Phil and Bob decide to help. Plot machinations lead them to “snowy” Vermont, which is anything but, and at the struggling Columbia Inn, where they are to perform, they’re informed by the owner, the general, that he can’t afford to pay them. With all hands on deck, the film becomes focused on efforts to save the inn—with plenty of romantic complications involved. Finally, on Christmas Eve, hundreds of veterans and their families swarm to the inn to surprise the general, who is deeply moved by the presence of so many of his men. Then, as snow begins to fall, Betty and Bob, and Phil and Judy kiss, happy in the knowledge that they will soon be married.
And, of course, last but not least, there is Charles Dicken’s 1843 novella, A Christmas Carol, which has been adapted into countless films and stage plays, revealing how the miser Ebenezer Scrooge is transformed into the veritable spirit and symbol of Christmas by mystical intervention.
Enjoy your holidays!
