Christmas movies in the 70s usually fell on one end of the spectrum or the other, warm and inviting or horribly awkward and just downright terrible. Yes, despite being a Star Wars fan I too can admit that the Star Wars Holiday Special was just awful, so be certain you won’t see it on this list. But others were touching and quite capable of warming one from the inside with their cute and sappy ways. The 70s were kind of an odd decade for movies in general since the decade almost seemed to be in a constant transitory state, as though it the effort to keep the 60s feel was clashing with the need to move forward and embrace what was to come. In any case, the Christmas movies of this decade were kind of all over the place, but they at least featured some titles that were still enjoyable.
Here are some of the best Christmas movies of the 70s.
5. Christmas Eve on Sesame Street
Sesame Street has always been a bastion for kids to come and enjoy themselves and learn to understand the difference between people and their different cultures and ways of thinking. This is proven in this holiday special when people from different religious backgrounds come together in order to share the spirit of the holiday if not the same principles and practices. One thing Sesame Street has always been good for is teaching children how to be accepting of others and how to keep an open mind when interacting with those around them, and during the Christmas season these lessons grow even stronger.
4. Jack Frost
Jack Frost has been seen a lot of times as a nimble and playful sprite that likes to have fun and gets a good laugh out of playing tricks on people. But when he fancies a human woman he decides to take a chance and give it all up in order to win her hand. The only problem is that she has romantic visions of a knight that eventually falls for her as well. When a cruel ruler decides to kidnap the woman and take her for his bride however Jack intervenes and decides to shed the human guise in favor of rescuing her from the evil tyrant. But in the end the woman and the knight fall in love and Jack realizes that he’s better off being who he was.
3. Rudolph’s Shiny New Year
It would seem that Rudolph’s tale didn’t end with the one film since this time around he’s been charged with retrieving Baby New Year so that he can bring him back and start up the new year, otherwise it will remain December 31st forever. So taking the adventure Rudolph meets an entire host of characters that originate from the prehistoric age to the modern day, learning that every time Baby New Year took off his hat people laughed at him. When he shows Rudolph, the reindeer laughs as well, but explains that he’s laughing because he’s happy, not because he’s making fun of Baby New Year. With that said he and Baby New Year return so that the new year can be rang in.
2. The Year Without a Santa Claus
Think about what Christmas might be like without the legend of Santa Claus. You can assume that a lot of commercialism would be affected but the whole idea of Christmas, aside from the religious aspect that is just as important, is that Saint Nick is bound to make his way to all the children of the world and reward them for being good, thereby verifying their faith in him and keeping the belief alive. Now think if the legend wasn’t there and there was no one that believed in Santa. Christmas might still be around, but it would be just a little bleaker and perhaps not quite as fun.
1. Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town
This is perhaps one of the best explanations of Santa’s origins without a doubt since it goes through the motions and the idea of how he came to be and how his legend continued to grow throughout the years. Magic of course is kind of a deus ex machina device that a lot of people don’t really take into consideration when they’re paying attention to the story, but in this case it works since knowing how it operates would only ruin the story and taking it apart piece by piece to examine it would probably disillusion a lot of kids. Simply telling the story and allowing people to decide whether they have the necessary faith to accept it or not is usually a much better option.
The 70s were just as odd when it came to Christmas movies as anything else, but they were also very effective in telling a story that people would listen to.
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