Have We Forgotten?

Edmund Gwenn, Natalie Wood, and Maureen
O'Hara in Miracle On 34th Street

Miracle On 34th Street is considered to be one of the greatest Christmas movies ever.  People always say it makes them believe in Santa Claus all over again.  For the length of the film, we're all a child again, getting into the Spirit of Christmas, as George Seaton's movie takes a hit at the commercialism that we've let Christmas become.

Over the years, we've somehow let it be thought that the picture is about Santa.  He's the main character, but the movie is about having faith.  Faith is an important aspect in life, and that is what Kris Kringle teaches to Doris and Susan, who've been leading lives of pessimism.  By the film's end, due to meeting Kris, they have both realized to accentuate the positive.

Another classic Christmas film is 1965's "A Charlie Brown Christmas".  It also deals with the commercialism that has sprung from the holiday, and Charlie Brown is the only one who is sickened by it.  Yet at the same time, he doesn't understand why we celebrate Christmas, and Linus, the wise sage of the group, explains it to everyone around.  It is a classic moment in television history. 

The only reason that scene made it into the show was Charles Schulz's insistence.  When CBS saw the finished special, they shrugged, saying, "Well, we don't have anything else."  Forty-five years later, despite the fact it's a huge seller on DVD, it is still a ratings winner ever December.

Interestingly, both of these films that attacked commercialism are now objects of it.  I don't mean the DVDs, but there are dolls dealing with both films.  Same with Christmas ornaments.  Look at all the books dealing with "A Charlie Brown Christmas" you see in the stores every year.  At first, we think it's cute, but then we realize . . . They just didn't get the meaning of the shows.

Charlie Brown would be appalled.