Why Families Should Have A Christmas Movie Tradition

(ANALYSIS) A year ago, I led a Nativity Lent retreat at our Orthodox parish here in the Southern Highlands focusing (#surprise) on faith and family in the digital-screens era.

I have already written about the first lecture in this Rational Sheep post: “Our Home Is Different — talking tech with the Orthodox.” I didn’t post the second lecture because it directly addressed the season of Christmas from my point of view as an Orthodox parent and grandparent.

However, I have decided to post it now (later in this post) because part of it does happen to address a topic that I think is relevant for Christian parents and grandparents — period.

I will state this as a question: Why do I think Christian families should have a “Christmas movie” tradition in which there are a few (very few) wonderful flicks that they watch as part of its “traditional” (small “t”) festivities linked to Christmas?

First, it can be lots of fun. Second, it’s also important to let children and grandchildren know that there are movies worth watching many times, just as there are books that should be read many times.

Ah, but what raises a “Christmas movie” to this status?

That raises another question: What is a “Christmas movie”? Trust me, this has nothing to do with online arguments about “Die Hard” and certainly not “Love Actually.”

First of all, there are movies about the Christmas story itself, even one from VeggieTales (rule No. 1, never portray Jesus Christ as a vegetable). Frankly, I have seen some movies of this kind that I thought were OK or even good, but none I would show to children of all ages over and over.

You can read the rest of this post on Substack.

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Terry Mattingly is Senior Fellow on Communications and Culture at Saint Constantine College in Houston. He lives in Elizabethton, Tennessee, and writes Rational Sheep, a Substack newsletter on faith and mass media.