I usually start my "official" Christmas celebration with this movie, which starts with the Thanksgiving Day parade and ends with Christmas afternoon.  This movie shaped much of my view of Santa Claus.

If you're dreaming of a Black Christmas, read this book!

Much better than you expect: 1960s TV cartoon with Broadway-caliber songs.

The best Little Women movie, IMHO.   Contains scenes of two Christmasses.  I'm getting teary-eyed just thinking about it!

The first of a handful of Little House Christmas TV episodes: a guarateed tearjerker, as the family plans simple gifts for each other on a tight budget.

the raucous Herdman family, poor and outcast, take over the church Nativity pageant and bring it down to their level--where it belongs. (Think about it!)  Inspired a play and a TV-movie.

This pilot for "The Waltons", where John-Boy searches for his overdue father, contains an African-American nativity scene, with Cleavon Little as the preacher.

watch this classic about an outcast who tries to steal the Whos' Christmas, and feel yourself melting into a pile of soft Christmas goo!

contains "Mary's Boy Child", "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day", "Rise Up, Shepherd" (mislabeled "A Star in the East; several songs are misnamed), and other lovely songs.

Before I learned that a few albums of Christmas spirituals already existed, I'd compiled a tape of Afro-American Christmas tunes. Here, Broadway artists perform a text edited by Langston Hughes.

forget the Suite; listen to the whole thing!  Preteen Clara in 19th-century Germany, and her beloved, enchanted Nutcracker.

Christmas enchantment in NYC.  If you don't live here, like I do, console yourself with this!  Two books also carry the title "Christmas in New York".