BRITAIN HASN’T PRODUCED many great Christmas movies. Something about the collision of untainted hope and unbridled capitalism strikes more chords in the American soul. They stole A Christmas Carol from us and gave it to the Muppets, then tackled the holiday from every angle: the criminal in Bad Santa, the charming in Elf, the violent in Die Hard and all three in Home Alone. All we can offer is Love Actually, which I can never face, and Arthur Christmas.
The film I associated with Christmas in my was shown more or less every Boxing Day during the 1980s, and I was never allowed to watch it. This wasn’t for religious reasons, unless you count my grandparents’ belief that the television shouldn’t be turned on during daylight hours.
