If Christmas Films Spawned Classified Ads Quiz

Answer: Scrooge

Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" received a lavish musical treatment in 1970 with the release of "Scrooge", starring Albert Finney in the title role and Alec Guinness as the ghost of Jacob Marley. As with most adaptations of this classic story, the film sees Scrooge learning the error of his miserly ways when he is visited by the ghost of his deceased business partner, and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come. He turns over a new leaf and resolves to be kind and generous to his fellow man to avoid an awful fate in the afterlife. In a memorable scene, Scrooge opens his window after his change of heart and shouts down to a street urchin below to procure his assistance in purchasing the prize turkey hanging at the butchers, which he plans to present to Bob Cratchit and his family.

Characters based on Ebeneezer Scrooge have been memorably preserved on celluloid by actors as varied as Alastair Sim (1951's "A Christmas Carol"), Michael Caine ("The Muppet Christmas Carol"), and Bill Murray ("Scrooged"), but it was this 1970 musical adaptation of "Scrooge" that saw Albert Finney win a Golden Globe award for Best Actor in a Musical/Comedy.

Answer: The Bishop's Wife

Bishop Henry Brougham (David Niven) is preoccupied with raising funds to build a cathedral, causing him to neglect his familial duties. When this creates a strain in his relationship with his doting wife (Loretta Young), he prays for help. Assistance comes in the form of a dashing angel named Dudley (Cary Grant), who is here to provide much needed guidance to the poor bishop. Along the way, Dudley revolutionizes the storing of filing cards, helps the bishop's daughter to rediscover what it is to be a child, decorates a Christmas tree with a few waves of his hands, and even acts as a stand-in for Henry with his wife, and ends up falling for her. In one memorable scene, Dudley offers to finish Henry's assistant's secretarial work so that she can do some last-minute Christmas shopping, and dictates a sermon about an empty stocking to a typewriter. Dudley erases all memories of his visit when his work on Earth is done, leaving Bishop Brougham to deliver the sermon on Christmas Eve, believing that he wrote it himself.

In 1996, "The Bishop's Wife" was remade as "The Preacher's Wife" with Denzel Washington, Courtney B. Vance and Whitney Houston.

Answer: How the Grinch Stole Christmas

All of the denizens of Whoville love Christmas, all except the Grinch, whose hatred of the holiday stems from a traumatic childhood experience. A loner, the Grinch lives at the top of Mt. Crumpit with only his dog, Max, to keep him company. When he travels into town to wreak havoc on the post office, he meets Cindy Lou Who, the six-year-old daughter of the postman, and against his better judgment saves her life. Intrigued by the enigma that is the Grinch, Cindy Lou nominates him to be the town's Holiday Cheermeister, to the horror of almost everyone in Whoville. After a painful memory is triggered by a holiday celebration in town, the Grinch resolves to ruin Christmas by donning a Santa suit and stealing all the presents and holiday decorations from everyone's homes. When the Grinch realizes that his efforts were for naught because the townsfolk still intend to go forward with their celebrations and that "Christmas still came", his heart grows three sizes and he learns the true meaning of Christmas.

"Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas" was a box office success, and went on to become the highest grossing film in the US in 2000. It earned over $340 million worldwide.

Answer: A Christmas Story

All Ralphie Parker wants for Christmas is a Red Ryder BB gun, and boy will he do anything to get one. He drops subtle hints to his parents while daydreaming of using the gun to defend his family against Black Bart and his terrifying gang (who all seem to be dressed like mimes).
When his mother, his teacher, and even Santa Claus all reject his repeated attempts to get the ultimate Christmas gift with the same warning ("You'll shoot your eye out, kid."), it all seems hopeless. But his father finally comes through for him on Christmas morning, and Ralphie almost shoots his eye out with it! The movie is full of other memorable sequences, like Flick getting his tongue frozen to a lamppost, Ralphie's parents' epic fight over the hideous leg-shaped lamp, as well as Christmas dinner in a Chinese restaurant.

Although only moderately successful during its initial release in 1983, "A Christmas Story" has become a perennial Christmas favorite and a mainstay on TV during the holiday season. In 2007, AOL picked the movie as its #1 Christmas film of all time.

Answer: Serendipity

Jonathan meets Sara five days before Christmas when they both reach for the last pair of black cashmere gloves hanging on a rack in Bloomingdales. Although they are both in a relationship with someone else, they spend the evening together and end up wishing that they could have something more. They are a match made in heaven, despite their differences - One believes that "life is not merely a series of meaningless accidents or coincidences", while the other firmly believes in free-will and choice. When Jonathan suggests they exchange contact information, she gets him to write his name and phone number on a $5 bill, which she uses to buy some mints at a newsstand. Sara then promises to write her name and number in a copy of "Love in the Time of Cholera" and sell it to a used book store, the idea being that fate will see to it that they get each other's numbers if they are truly meant to be together. The pair spend the rest of the movie trying to find each other again. By the time they finally meet again in Central Park, they know that they are meant to be together.

"Serendipity" starred John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale, and answers the immortal question: What if you had the most incredible night with a perfect stranger, and then left it all to chance?

Answer: The Polar Express

A magical train called The Polar Express goes around picking up children on Christmas Eve to bring them to the North Pole. After many adventures, the boy and his new found friends finally make it to their destination, and eagerly try to catch a glimpse of Santa before he embarks on his journey to deliver all the Christmas presents. A single sleigh bell detaches from Santa's sleigh, and bounces over to the boy, who picks it up and returns it to Santa. When Santa picks the boy to receive the first gift of Christmas, he asks Santa for the sleigh bell. Later, when he is on the train going home, the boy realizes that the bell had fallen out of a hole in the pocket of his robe. Disappointed, he goes home and wakes up on Christmas morning to find that Santa had found the bell on his sleigh, and delivered it to him sometime during the night. The bell rings for the boy and his sister, but his parents hear nothing because they stopped believing in Santa Claus years ago.

The book and the film both end with the same memorable line: "At one time, most of my friends could hear the bell, but as years passed, it fell silent for all of them. Even Sarah found one Christmas that she could no longer hear its sweet sound. Though I've grown old, the bell still rings for me, as it does for all who truly believe."

Answer: Elf

Buddy the Elf doesn't really fit in at the North Pole. He's bigger and taller than all the other elves, and has trouble making his quota of 1,000 Etch-a-Sketch's each day. When he discovers that he's really a human who stowed away on Santa's sleigh when he was just a baby in an orphanage, he travels to New York City to find his biological father. There, his child-like personality and elf-like-ways get him into more trouble and, above all, puzzled looks from those around him. He uses an Etch-a-Sketch to reproduce the Mona Lisa, as a day planner, and to leave an elaborate note for his family when he decides to run away ("I'm sorry I ruined your lives, and crammed eleven cookies into the VCR."). In the end, Buddy saves the day by restoring power to Santa's sleigh by getting everyone in New York City, including his curmudgeon of a father, to believe in Santa Claus.

"Elf" was directed by Jon Favreau, and starred Will Ferrell, James Caan, Mary Steenburgen, Bob Newhart, Zooey Deschanel and Ed Asner.

Answer: Miracle on 34th Street

This classic from the 1940s features a department store Santa who believes he is the real thing. He certainly looks and behaves the part, and is a hit with customers, but after concerns are raised about his mental state he is sent for psychological evaluation and gets committed to a psychiatric ward. At his lunacy hearing, Kris Kringle's lawyer needs to prove that his client is really Santa Claus to keep him from being permanently committed. In one memorable scene, a mail sorter at the post office gets the idea to clear out all the undelivered letters addressed to Santa in the dead letter office and delivers all 21 sacks to the Court, establishing that an official agency of the United States Government acknowledges Kringle to be the true Santa Claus, and winning the case for Kringle.

"Miracle on 34th Street" starred Maureen O'Hara, John Payne, Natalie Wood and Edmund Gwenn, in an Oscar-winning performance as Kris Kringle.

Answer: Home Alone

A series of freak accidents and coincidences results in the extended McCallister clan flying off to Paris for a Christmas vacation with one family member missing, leaving eight-year-old Kevin McCallister home alone. Young Kevin relishes the fact that he has the whole house to himself and lives it up, ordering pizza and doing whatever he wants, including trashing his older brother's room, inadvertently setting his pet tarantula free in the process. Kevin's joy is short-lived when he becomes the target of a pair of burglars known as the "Wet Bandits", forcing him to test his resourcefulness by defending his home from intrusion through a series of elaborate booby traps. In one memorable scene, Kevin distracts one of the burglars who had grabbed a hold of his trouser leg by placing his brother's pet tarantula on the terrified burglar's face.

"Home Alone" was a phenomenal success when it was released in 1990. It remained in the #1 spot at the US box office for 12 weeks in a row, and eventually set the Guinness Book record for highest grossing comedy film.

Answer: It's A Wonderful Life

This classic movie from 1946 regularly tops the lists of all-time holiday favorites. Directed by Frank Capra, the film stars James Stewart as George Bailey, whose life hasn't quite worked out the way he had planned. A combination of fate and circumstance has left him trapped in his home town of Bedford Falls, despite his dreams of seeing the world. When he is faced with the prospect of bankruptcy, scandal and prison, he contemplates suicide on a bridge over a raging, freezing river. Hope comes in the form of Clarence, George's guardian angel, who intervenes and shows George how Bedford Falls would have turned out if George Bailey did not exist. George comes to realize that he all but single-handedly saved the town from a dark fate at the hands of a ruthless banker, and positively affected the lives of family and friends all around him. He ends up with a deeply felt appreciation for his life, and discovers the true meaning of community. The film also teaches us that "every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings".

Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore and Henry Travers round out the rest of the cast.