pretty paper, charming movies

One of the tasks my mom usually gives me on Christmas Eve is wrapping any presents she hasn’t had time to finish. I also have had to wrap my own presents, because I usually fly there for Christmas and you can’t pack wrapped presents in your checked luggage.
(The airline personnel will unwrap them if you do. They have made this very clear. This is a practice that has been going on for years and years. I can’t blame anyone, and it does make sense, but it adds yet another level of stress at Christmas. I have to use my mom’s wrapping materials, I have to pack stuff that won’t break and can fit in a suitcase … but not this year, because I am driving! Hooray! This has been an official rant.)
I like to take all the wrapping materials and the gifts into a quiet room with a TV set. I can shut the door and forbid anyone from coming in, because I might well be wrapping their presents. (This doesn’t eliminate all the traffic, but it does cut it down significantly.)

I have all kinds of difficulties when wrapping presents in my parents’ bedroom, but that’s usually where I have to do the job because all my mom’s wrapping supplies are in there. Sometimes my mom has an old cardboard fabric-cutting board I can use as a hard surface, but lots of times I have been stuck wrapping on the bed or on the carpeted floor. It’s a challenge, especially since I do not exactly possess Martha Stewart-like wrapping powers to begin with. (I have terrible trouble with bows and ribbons. The years that I have flown into town, I try to bring a lot of festive holiday bags to use for wrapping my presents because they are just so much easier. Also, reusable, which means they’re environmentally friendly! Go me.)
It’s tricky to find the right background movie for Christmas present wrapping, particularly if you don’t have access to a VCR or DVD player and the movies of your choice. At my parents’ house, I am pretty much stuck with whatever appears on cable TV, and I guess I should be glad that at least they have cable. Lots of cable channels show movies on Christmas Eve or thereabouts, most of which have something or other to do with Christmas.
I think it’s nice to have a background movie that’s festive and Christmas-y, but not so interesting that I will stop wrapping to pay close attention to the movie. Something you might not select to watch under ordinary circumstances, but which provides a nice background noise while you try to figure out how to deal with a piece of wrapping paper that is an inch smaller than the gift for which it is intended.
Here is a list of movies that I recommend for background entertainment while present-wrapping, should you encounter them while channel-surfing. For best results, find two of them on nearby channels and alternate during commercial breaks.
I am not mentioning the ubiquitous Christmas films that everyone knows (A Christmas Story, White Christmas, etc.), because you should certainly be able to find and identify those yourself.
Auntie Mame—My favorite movie to watch while wrapping. I loved this movie as a child and I’m not as fond of it now (although I love the book) because Patrick tends to annoy me a bit and I don’t particularly like the stereotypes of the Southerners or Patrick’s fiancee’s family. I love Rosalind Russell, though, and it’s easy to ignore the more irritating bits while trying to make a ribbon curl in that bouncy holiday way. (Warning: Avoid the musical version, Mame, which is downright scary. Ugh.)
Remember The Night—I have some reservations about putting this on the list, because I found it a little too interesting and ended up behind schedule with the gift wrapping. This is an obscure movie from 1940 that isn’t available on VHS or DVD and only rarely pops up on TV during the Christmas holidays. Barbara Stanwyck is a shoplifter who faces Christmas in jail until the DA, Fred MacMurray, pays her bail and decides to drive her home to her family. Her family doesn’t want her, so he takes her to his family, which is made up of actors who worked together later on It’s a Wonderful Life. Written by Preston Sturges, directed by Mitchell Leisen … forget about the gift-wrapping thing. If you find this movie, drop everything and watch it, or at least record it for later. I would love to see it again myself.
Singin’ in the Rain—I don’t know why TV stations like to show this movie around Christmas, since there’s nothing Christmas-y about it, but it does seem to be broadcast a lot in December. Another fine movie for gift wrapping, although it is also a good movie to put on while cleaning up after everyone leaves your holiday party. I like watching it late on Christmas Eve or on Christmas night.
Meet Me in St. Louis—Most people don’t associate this movie with Christmas because it includes all four seasons (that’s how it’s divided up, if I remember correctly). But this is the movie where Judy Garland introduced us all to “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” which is the only time I really like to hear that particular song … her singing while she’s twirling the music box and Margaret O’Brien is crying in the background. You have to be careful during that number not to get any of the tissue-paper wrappings all soggy if you get a little too emotional. (While I am supposed to be recommending movies you might encounter on TV, I have heard that the recent release of this movie on DVD is absolutely stunning.)
Christmas in Connecticut (1945)—Again with the Barbara Stanwyck, but she’s always enjoyable even when the movie is second-rate. The plot of this movie is pretty dumb: Barbara got a job as a food writer by posing as the perfect housewife who lives out on the farm with her husband and child, but it turns out she’s a single career girl who lives in a tiny apartment and can’t cook to save her life. Her boss plans a huge Christmas dinner for a war hero at her big family home. Hilarity ensues. Flimsy, but Stanwyck and S.Z. Sakall (whom you might remember from Casablanca) and Sydney Greenstreet (yeah, him too) are a pleasure to watch. A very good movie for you to devote a third or half your attention to. (I have not seen the Schwarzenegger-directed 1992 remake of this film. Nor will I, voluntarily.)
Little Women—I was thinking of the 1994 version when I started writing this, but the 1933 version is good too. Everyone has a favorite version. (I haven’t seen the 1949 version since I was a little girl, but I don’t remember it much and it doesn’t appeal to me personally.)
I like Katharine Hepburn a lot in the 1933 movie, but the men in that movie are all kind of dreadful. No one ever seems to know how to cast Laurie or Professor Bhaer, which is why I like the 1994 movie: Christian Bale and Gabriel Byrne are in those roles. (I am particularly fond of Gabriel Byrne, but I like him in most things. Still, a Bhaer whom one might find attractive is, to me, a wonderful thing.) I don’t always like what the filmmakers did to the storyline in the 1994 movie; I think it strays a little too far from the book. Oh, did I mention Kirsten Dunst is in it? And Mary Wickes? Whichever adapation of the book you find on your TV would provide a pleasant accompaniment to Christmas tasks.
(I am realizing, looking through Web pages about the various adaptations, that the version I grew up with was the 1978 made-for-TV movie with Susan Dey as Jo and Eve Plumb as Beth. Wait, it gets better… know who was Professor Bhaer? William Shatner! No wonder I preferred the book for so many years. Laurie Partridge ends up with Captain Kirk after the tragic death of Jan Brady.)
The Godfather—Wait. Hear me out. We accidentally found The Godfather on TV last Christmas and my brother and I enjoyed watching it very much, until my mom came into the room and said it was probably the most inappropriate movie possible for Christmas Day and would we please turn it off immediately before the grandparents showed up. (Then they put on football, which is so much more appropriate.) Everyone needs a little antidote to the relentless holiday cheer, and what would be better than a film about The Family and what it has wrought? Merry Christmas.