Fractured Christmas Movies and TV Specials Quiz

Answer: White Christmas

Starring Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye, who play a famous song and dance team. The team meets up with a sister act and the four travel to a Vermont ski resort just in time for a Christmas season sans snow. "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas, just like the ones I used to know. Where the treetops glisten, and children listen to hear sleigh bells in the snow. Oh!" The best song in the movie, in my opinion? "Sisters."

Answer: life

This 1946 Christmas classic stars Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed. A friendly angel (played by Henry Travers) helps George Bailey realize how dreary his town would be without him and the good deeds he has done during his life. Lionel Barrymore plays mean Mr. Potter. If you haven't seen Saturday Night Live's comedy sketch based on the last scene of "It's a Wonderful Life," look for it online.

Answer: Holiday Inn

Starring Bing Crosby (he was big on Christmas) and Fred Astaire. At an inn which is only open on holidays, a singer (Crosby) and a dancer (Astaire) compete for the love of a beautiful fellow performer.

By the way, the term Agnus Dei means "lamb of God" in Latin. "Yin" is the female part of "yin and yang."

Answer: Home Alone

I was amazed to discover that "Home Alone" star Macaulay Culkin turned 35 in 2015. Yikes. This is a Christmas classic about a little boy who accidentally gets left at home when his large family jets off to Europe for the holidays. I didn't see the sequel, but I assume it's not as good.

Answer: How the Grinch Stole Christmas

By Dr. Seuss. Narrated by the creepy-but-gentlemanly Boris Karloff. A true classic. "You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch!" A TV special originally made in the 1960s, Seuss's own adaptation of his book tells the story of a mean green Grinch who tries but fails to steal Christmas from the "Whos down in Whoville."

Sorry, but I HATE the Jim Carrey live action movie. I kid you not: it literally nauseated me. I think it was partly because of all the sugary and neon colors and over-the-top set design and grotesque hair and make-up combined with all the sliding down long curvy tunnels. I felt like I'd eaten too much cotton candy and then gone on some monster rollercoaster. And the story about the Grinch's childhood was SO disgusting. Plus, the baby Grinch himself was gross to look at. Blech! And I hated the script. Everything about that movie creeped me OUT!

Answer: This Christmas

This is a really wonderful movie about an African American family coming home at Christmastime. Every character is interesting and likeable (even the bad guys) and most are beautiful to look at. The music is fabulous. And it's "heartwarming" in a not-corny way. Great Christmas movie. Chris Brown sings like an angel.

Answer: Love Actually

Love this movie with Hugh Grant and about fifty other adorable, mostly British, actors. Contains a network of funny, heartwarming plots, including one about a prime minister (Grant) who's in love with one of his aides at 10 Downing Street. Very Christmassy.

Answer: A Charlie Brown Christmas

A melancholy but merry animated tale with beautiful piano music. Made in the 1960s. Charlie Brown adopts a pathetic little waif of a Christmas tree and discovers the true meaning of Christmas.

Answer: carol

"Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol," is a version of Dickens's "A Christmas Carol" starring Mr. Magoo as Mr. Scrooge, a miserly old businessman who learns the meaning of Christmas with the help of three ghosts. Even though this is a funny animated tale, it has scary parts. My 60-year-old husband and I still quaked in our boots when we watched the part where various toothless evil shysters stole poor dead Mr. Scrooge's belongings, including his bedclothes. Also made in the 1960s.

Answer: While You Were Sleeping

Starring pretty, funny, sweet Sandra Bullock, who falls in love with one brother (who spends most of the movie in a coma), only to be adopted by his family at Christmastime. In the process she falls in love with the other brother. It doesn't really matter, though, because the first brother wasn't really her type and didn't really know her in the first place.