Expounding a bit on some thoughts I had elsewhere (since I don't get that many of those, and I need to take advantage of them when they come), I realize that today's suggestion, White Christmas, should not be a film that I like. It's a musical (which rarely works for me), and it's about as resolutely secular (and unspiritual and downright silly) a Christmas film as I've seen, yet it defies those facts and remains one of my seasonal favorites.
When I'm not watching it, I think it contrived (because "musical," after all), melodically relentless, excessively silly (especially Kaye and Vera-Ellen, who just will.not.STOP!), stickily, artery-hardeningly sentimental (for the majority of its running time), and not at all the kind of thing I'd be inclined to consider when someone suggests the terms "Christmas" and "movie."
When I am watching it, though, and the ending rolls 'round and I watch General Waverly standing gratefully in the gently falling snow -- or standing tearfully on the barn dance floor as his men honor him for his uprightness and his perseverance and his courage -- I forget the sappy silliness and secularized, gift-wrapped, Hallmarked "Seasons Greetings-ness" of it all. There's just something about his character that gets me every time; there's something about the way his men love and revere him that is about as Christmas-y a as I can imagine. (And talking about things that get me every time and in spite of myself, Bing's voice is just perfect.)
It's on NETFLIX INSTANT.
Two talented song-and-dance men (Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye) team up after the war to become one of the hottest acts in show business. One winter, they join forces with a sister act (Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen) and trek to Vermont for a white Christmas.