Welcome back to the Virtual Advent Tour, where I’m today’s host.

Whether you’re looking to chill while addressing Christmas cards, mindlessly get in some knitting, or actively enjoy some family time, Christmas-themed films can be a nice way to get into the holiday spirit.

Today, I thought I’d share ten short reviews of Christmas features from the 20th century I recommend. (I’m your Virtual Advent Tour host for several days this year, so you’ll get some recommendations for 21st-century Christmas movies later.)

These are in no particular order:

1. Miracle on 34th Street (1947): Retiree Kris Kringle takes a job as Macy’s Santa Claus in part as a campaign to change the hearts of a seven-year-old nonbeliever and her disillusioned working mother. When he ends up committed, an idealistic young lawyer must convince a judge to free Kris in time for Christmas Eve.
2. The Bishop’s Wife (1947): An angel is sent down to New York to help answer the prayers of an Anglican priest who is working to build a cathedral — and also his wife, who misses spending time with her distracted husband. While on assignment, though, he may blur the line in protocol. Superbly acted by Cary Grant, Loretta Young, and David Niven.
3. Christmas in Connecticut (1945): America’s favorite domestic columnist gets an unexpected surprise when her media tycoon boss invites himself and a heroic soldier to her Connecticut farm to celebrate Christmas with her family. The only problem? She lives in a walk-up in Manhattan, isn’t married, and can’t cook. A mismatched boyfriend offers her an out — she (and her chef friend, who’s been giving her his recipes) can decamp to his country home, but only if she agrees to marry him once there.
4. White Christmas (1954): Two soldiers (played by Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye) become hit vaudevillians. After checking out a sister act (Rosemary Clooney and Vera Ellen) at the start of the Christmas season, they end up on a sidetrack trip to Vermont, where they encounter their beloved former general, who now runs a failing inn.
5. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946): A mild-mannered pillar of the community despairs of his life after a mishap with legal implications, and a hapless angel must be dispatched to help him.
6. The Thin Man (1934): A young woman begs Nick, a former gumshoe-turned bon vivant husband, to find her missing inventor father just before Christmas in Depression Era New York City. Nick’s heiress wife, Nora, hopes to help, but is routinely thwarted as both the elite and the criminal elements of society barge repeatedly into their hotel room. This film, which I like to describe as slapstick film noir, is the first in a series of seven.
7. Christmas Eve (1986): In this remake of a 1947 film, a wealthy widow helps the homeless of contemporary New York City, but her bitter son wants to protect the family fortune. When a judge grants her until Christmas to present another member of the family who will attest to the soundness of her mind, she hires a down-on-his luck P.I. to find her three estranged grandchildren.
8. The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992): Gonzo as Charles Dickens presents an adaptation of his most famous holiday tale. Starring Kermit as Bob Cratchit, Robin as Tiny Tim, and Michael Caine as Ebenezer Scrooge, the movie includes songs by Paul Williams, but they are less of a draw than
9. While You Were Sleeping (1995): A Chicago “L” toll-taker saves the life of a man she’s been crushing on just before Christmas but then, through a misunderstanding with a nurse while the guy’s in a coma, gives his family the impression that she’s his fiancée.
10. The Santa Clause (1994): A divorced dad accidentally startles Santa Claus, who falls to his death. After his son, who has witnessed this event, convinces his dad to step in to keep toy delivery on schedule, the man learns he must permanently assume the role in order to keep Christmas functioning properly.

See you back here tomorrow for our next holiday surprise!

Want to join in the fun of Virtual Advent Tour? Leave me a comment and I’ll help you get signed up!

Welcome back to the Virtual Advent Tour!

Day 2 will take us to The Ravell’d Sleave, where Bridget has a post for us about honoring tradition.

We’ll see you back here tomorrow!

Want to join in the Virtual Advent Tour fun? Leave me a comment and I can help you get signed up!

Welcome to this year’s Virtual Advent Tour!

If you stop by my blog every morning (~6 a.m. EST) between now and Christmas, much like a traditional Advent calendar, you’ll find there’s a door to open for a holiday scene of some sort. Many of them will be links to other folks’ blogs, where they’ll share a bit of holiday fun with you — maybe something about how they celebrate Christmas or their winter holiday of choice or a selection of favorite holiday movies or the like — and the rest will be shared here. We hope you enjoy them, and welcome your participation, should you want to join in the fun. You can find signups here, or leave me a note in the comments.

Without further ado, let me send you off to your Dec. 1 Virtual Advent Tour destination: Compassionknit, where kathy b has some suggestions for easy holiday cooking for you.

And I’ll see you back here tomorrow.

Welcome to signups for this year’s Virtual Advent Tour. 2019 marks my fifth year as host of this annual event.

If this is your first time here at the winter holidays, welcome! As you probably know, a traditional Advent calendar is a season-marking device on which each day in December leading up to Christmas Day you open a door to unveil a hidden scene or piece of chocolate or some other delight. The Virtual Advent Tour is a bloggers’ take on that. In our version, each morning I’ll point you to a post at someone’s blog in which they share something about their holiday season.

Would you be willing to share a winter holiday post one or two days next month? You’d know the date(s) ahead of time (and can request a specific one if you’d like), your post can be as simple or as complex and in whatever format suits you, and there’s no need to tell me what you’re going to write about in advance. Folks have shared favorite holiday music, charities, recipes, religious calendar dates, literature, local events, memories, and traditions both old and new, to name some of the topics from years past.

If it sounds fun and you’d like to participate, please leave me a comment on this post telling me what date(s) you’d like. I’ll update this post as people claim days.

Oh, and a couple final housekeeping notes:

1. While both the tradition of the Advent calendar and the timing skew Christian, the tour is inclusive and open to anyone who celebrates December holidays of any sort — from Hanukkah to Kwanzaa, from Festivus to Solstice, and from Christmas to a new-to-me holiday I’m excited to hear about — and wants to share them with us. We love reading about all kinds of holiday celebrations and the traditions you’ve developed around them!
2. I have links to the 2019 Virtual Advent Tour badges in 400px and 200px that you’re welcome to download and use on your blog. If you want another size, let me know.
3. I’m trying to keep things simple this year. I tend to write my posts shortly after midnight my time (Eastern U.S.) and will schedule them to go live at 6 a.m. It would be awesome if your post were live when I’m writing because then I can give a little preview and link directly to it. However, if it’s not, I will assume you’ll get it live at some point, and will just embed a song and will link to your blog’s homepage.
4. As a participant, you may find you’ll get more responses to your post if you allow open comments (comments that don’t require someone to sign in to Google or Disqus, for instance) on your blog for that day. Obviously that choice is entirely up to you, but I have noticed that trend in past years.
5. If you use social media, I’ve used the hashtag #VirtualAdventTour on Twitter without complication for the past couple years.

Thanks in advance for making this one of my fun December traditions!

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The Broke and the Bookish came out of retirement briefly to conduct their annual Secret Santa book swap earlier this month.

My package came from Lea of Lea Out West. She lives in Lake Tahoe, but her brother lives here in D.C. and surprisingly close by!

It didn’t strike me as unusual that both cats were interested in the box Lea sent. They’re big fans of boxes of any kind. But what I didn’t realize was that Lea had included presents for Jeremiah and Corey. I’d barely gotten the box open to pull things out when Corey hopped up, rooted around inside quickly, and ran off with this squirrel tail:

Jeremiah was not to be left out, but he is older and knew he should wait patiently for me to share a present with him. He got toast.

I’m not sure they shared willingly, but they did each steal the other toy to make sure they got to experience both.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that Lea was my cats’ favorite person that night. It shouldn’t surprise me, since this is the great Christmas card she sent:

But it was not just the cats who got presents. I got some as well!

I’ll be honest. Lea’s package arrived the week before Christmas, and it was kind of a crappy week for me. I was PMSing, the apartment had flooded, my Christmas preparations were not humming along in the way that it felt like they should for someone with no day job to distract them from getting stuff done, and I was in the emotional and mental place one might expect to result from that combination. So I used the package as a daily pick-me-up. Every day I opened a gift or two, and every time I did, the world felt a little bit more right.

I have four new books to read and have already started in on the Christmas-themed one. I’m saving the other three as treats to read this winter (okay, the new Lady Sherlock may only wait until New Year’s Day — I can’t wait to start it!). I have new nail polish in sparkly confetti and purples, which will be the festive manicure I give myself on New Year’s Day while watching the parade. There is a fancy tea to drink late at night when I should be sleeping (like now). There are bookmarks (already in use!), notepads, sparkly pens, stickers, and bags to tuck into purses to hold pens, pads, and knitting needles (the last of those may not have been in Lea’s plan, but they’re just the right size!).

It really is a great package, don’t you think? Thank you so much to Lea for making me a box that I (and the cats) loved and to Jamie and Jana for running the swap again. I had a lot of fun shopping for my swap partner (Megan of The Hungry Bookworm) and got so much enjoyment out of opening each present Lea sent.

It was a good day, filled with family, friends, tasty food, seasonal music and movies, lights, and gifts.

I hope your day was also filled with joy and wonder. Merry Christmas!