Joyeux Noël

Musique - "I'm Dreaming of Home" by the Scottish cast of Joyeux Noël

I've said it before, but Joyeux Noël is one of my very favorite Christmas movies. I find WWI fascinating and the Christmas Truce of 1914 that this film is about is my favorite part of the war. I feel like WWI was the last war when men were still gentlemen. I cannot fathom a Christmas truce occurring in the world that existed after the Great War.

This film always makes me cry because you see how terrible war is and how beautiful love and human kindness are. Seeing these men kill each other one day and then stop the next because it's Christmas Eve is a very moving thing. Watching them realize that the enemy really isn't so different from they are restores my faith in humanity.

Because this film is so wonderful and because I'm watching it right now, I'd like to share some photos from real life Christmas Truces that occurred the winter of 1914:

If you're interested in finding out more about the Christmas Truces all along the front in 1914, I'd highly recommend the book Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce by Stanley Weintraub.

Holiday Movie Extravaganza!

Musique - "Christmas Waltz" by She & Him

I am obsessed with watching holiday movies during Christmastime. This year, I have not watched one single regular, non-holiday movie since before Thanksgiving!! Here are all the movies I've been watching and will be watching for the next week or so.

1. Since You Went Away
2. Saturday Night Live Christmas
3. Christmas Lodge
4. A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas
5. Hercule Poirot's Christmas
6. The Bells of St. Mary's
7. Desk Set
8. Beyond Tomorrow
9. The Shop Around the Corner
10. How About You
11. Christmas Eve
12. Nothing Like the Holidays
13. Holiday Inn

1. The Bishop's Wife
2. Scrooged
3. All Mine to Give
4. Holiday Affair
5. It Happened on 5th Avenue
6. Blossoms in the Dust
7. Remember the Night
8. White Christmas
9. The Holiday
10. It's a Wonderful Life
11. Christmas in Connecticut
12. Joyeux Noël

Oops, I forgot—there are a few more! Meet John Doe is part of my Gary Cooper Classics DVD set, so it's not sitting with the rest of my Christmas movies and I didn't see it in time to include it with my pretty picture collages above. So it gets its own picture:

And Miracle on 34th Street is hiding in my DVD player now, so I didn't see it either. It gets its own picture too:

And if I can fit it in, I shall also watch The Thin Man since it has Christmas scenes: