Welcome to the third episode of Pop Culture Matters, a conversation with my good friend and yours Martin Strong. Today we’re talking about Christmas movies, our favorite Christmas movies, and what we think makes for a good Christmas movie. We asked a lot of people on campus at UBC and St. Mark’s and on social media, what their favorite Christmas movies are. Here’s a list of a bunch of them, in no particular order that people mentioned to us:

Love, Actually; White Christmas; It’s a Wonderful Life; Elf; While You Were Sleeping;-Miracle on 34th Street; Muppets Christmas Carol; The Shop Around the Corner; Christmas with the Kranks; Rudolph; A Christmas Story; The Ref; Home Alone; The original Grinch; The Bishop’s Wife, Christmas in Connecticut, The Man Who Came to Dinner, Holiday Inn, Alistair Sim’s Scrooge; Fred Claus, The Holdovers, Tokyo Godfathers, Batman Returns, A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas, About a Boy, Scrooged, Die Hard, The Santa Clause, The Nativity Story, and Bad Santa.

Why are these are favorites and what do we think is need to be a Christmas favorite? Get comfortable and cozy with your loved ones and settle in with a cup of hot cocoa and a Christmas cookie. If this podcast hits some of the right Christmas notes, you’re going to change your selfish ways and be transformed by the warmth of Christmas.

Christmas movies are fun, but I think Martin hit it on the head when he said the best ones are also earnest. Not saccharine, not too sweet, but warm, uplifting, and hopeful. They encourage us to be better. They point us away from commercialization to what really matters in life.

They often call us to transformation, often through the use of angels or spirits, who show us the better path and how to embrace the joy of the life through Christmas time.

And sometimes they do indeed move into the Christmas story, the nativity of Jesus, as with Linus reciting the story of Jesus’ birth from Luke as he explains the true meaning of Christmas to Charlie Brown and the whole Peanuts gang. Or in the Bishop’s Wife, when David Niven’s Bishop says the gifts to give Jesus are lovingkindness, warm hearts, and a stretched out hand of tolerance.

Merry Christmas from all of us at the Centre for Christian Engagement and St. Mark’s College.

Merry Christmas to Martin Strong for joining me in this venture!

Merry Christmas to Kevin Eng for editing and engineering this episode and integrating all the wonderful music in the podcast.

Merry Christmas to Fang Fang Chandra, the CCE assistant, who helps me bring this podcast to you, but also makes the CCE run so much more smoothly.

Merry Christmas to Kenton McDonald-Lin for the interviews on the UBC campus that spiced up this Christmas episode.

Merry Christmas to all of our donors to the Centre, whose generosity enables this work to take place at all: Peter Bull, Angus Reid, and Andy Szocs. We are thankful to their commitment to the life of the academic world and of the work of the Church in the world by funding the work of the CCE. I am also thankful to the Cullen family, Mark and Barbara, for their support of the ongoing work of the CCE through financial donations that allow us to bring speakers to the local and international arenas.

If you are enjoying the podcast, please let your friends know and give the gift of What Matters Most by also rating and reviewing What Matters Most on your favourite podcasting platform.

Thanks again for listening and remember Merry Christmas.

Since St. Mark’s Centre for Christian Engagement seeks to enable the creation of a culture of encounter and dialogue, let me invite you into that discussion. Follow us at our Instagram page, @stmarkscce, newly revived, and drop us a line as to what you want to see or hear. We’ll post there with a question as to what you are most interested in. I will also post the question on Facebook @biblejunkies. We will be moving to a CCE Facebook page, but in the meantime, feel free to check us out @biblejunkies. When we decide what’s next, we’ll let you know and then we can all make sure to watch it or listen to it or read it before the next episode of Pop Culture Matters. Or email us with your suggestions to jmartens@stmarkscollege.ca or cceconferences@stmarkscollege.ca.

John W. Martens

Pop Culture Matters: Christmas Movies with Martin Strong