The 12 films of Christmas

ALBANY — Nothing can be done — or overdone — quite like a Christmas movie.

The good ones give you a feeling of a chilly night with a fireplace, a tree filled with lights and cookies baking in the oven. With a bad one, you forgot to open the flue, a light went out on the tree and now the whole thing’s dark, and those cookies taste like they’re loaded with saccharine.

And with Christmas closing in, there’s no shortage of lists — from what kids want Santa to bring to the best Christmas carols. It’s also that magical time of year when lists tend to expand from the typical top 10 to a top 12, owing, no doubt, to the 12 days of Christmas.

This year, we’ve come up with a dozen films that might get you in the holiday spirit if you’re feeling a little grinchy. It’s not a 12 “best” list — though we’d argue several of them would end up on anybody’s list of great Christmas movies — but a mix of older and newer ones that just might do the trick.

12. Elf (2003)

Will Ferrell’s Buddy, unusually tall for an elf and a bit of a square peg anyway, discovers he’s human and leaves his adopted dad (an elvish Bob Newhart), Santa (Ed Asner) and the North Pole to find romance (Zooey Deshcanel) and his lost father (James Caan), a hard-nosed children’s book editor, in the wilds of New York City. In addition to an unusual duet of “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” by Ferrell and Deschanel, you also get a clue about where to find the official World’s Greatest Cup of Coffee.

11. Christmas in Connecticut (1945)

Barbara Stanwyck is a World War II-era Martha Stewart with Americans hanging on her every article about cooking. The problem is she’s not the farm housewife she purports to be, a lucrative secret that is in danger of being exposed when her publisher (Sydney Greenstreet) forces her to entertain a Navy hero (Dennis Morgan), who was rescued after being lost at sea, over Christmas at “her” Connecticut farmstead.

10. Home Alone (1990)

Every young boy’s dream is realized as Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) awakens with no rules after missing a family flight to Paris for the Christmas holidays. Kevin is forced to face his fears, along with two inept crooks — Joe Pesci (named Harry Lime in homage to Orson Wells’ “The Third Man” confidence man) and Daniel Stern (Marv). Fortunately, for a kid he’s a tactical genius. There’s also a great cameo by John Candy, who helps as Kevin’s mom (Catherine O’Hara) tries to get home.

9. White Christmas (1954)

“Holiday Inn” was better, but for pageantry it’s hard to find a better Christmas film that this one in which Army buddies turned song-and-dance team Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye try to save a Vermont lodge owned by their old commander, Gen. Thomas Waverly (Dean Jagger) while also working up a little romance with singing sisters Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen. A great soundtrack includes Crosby’s “White Christmas.”

8. The Polar Express (2004)

The realistic depiction of the animated characters can be a little off-putting to some kids, but Tom Hanks does a fine job of playing multiple characters in the story about a magic train that transports kids to Santa’s workshop on Christmas Eve.

7. A Christmas Carol (1951)

You knew Dickens’ classic would be on the list. There are several excellent versions, but Alastair Sim’s portrayal of Scrooge is still the one to which others are compared. Still, the 1984 version with George C. Scott playing the ol’ miser and the 1999 edition with Patrick Stewart (yes, Captain Picard/Professor X) are worth taking in, too. For a modern take, try “Scrooged” (1988), which gets the Bill Murray treatment. Murray’s a callous TV network exec who’s staging a live showing of Dickens’ story on Christmas Eve before fate and three ghosts, including an aggressively impish fairy in Carol Kane, intervene. Karen Allen and Bobcat Goldthwait co-star.

6. Christmas Vacation (1989)

For many families, it just isn’t Christmas without watching the Griswolds struggle through an old-fashioned family Christmas that requires 10,000 Italian twinkle lights that don’t twinkle. Chevy Chase is the dad who wants to give his family a big surprise Christmas gift, but a missing Christmas bonus threatens to derail plans until a delightfully maniacal Cousin Eddie (Randy Quaid) takes matters into his own hands, or at least his RV.

5. A Miracle on 34th Street (1947)

If Alastair Sim is the quintessential Ebenezer Scrooge, the same can by said of Edmund Gwenn’s portrayal of Santa Claus, who goes on trial to prove he exists. Hands down the best version of this story, which includes skeptical child Susan (Natalie Wood) and her overly realistic mom (Maureen O’Hara).

4. The Santa Clause (1994)

Tim Allen’s turn as St. Nick is a memorable one, particularly for his relationship with his son, played by Eric Lloyd. Allen’s Scott Calvin gets drafted into the role of Santa when Kris Kringle slips off his roof, which, admittedly, sounds like it should be a big downer. But the movie redeems itself because, at heart, this is a father and son bonding story. The only downsides: two vastly inferior sequels and the sudden inability of anyone in America to spell Santa Claus without an “e” at the end.

3. A Christmas Story (1983)

Another holiday staple, who doesn’t love the story that captures the feel of an old-fashioned Christmas as Ralphie (Peter Billingsley) tries every trick in the book to obtain the “holy grail” of Christmas gifts — a Red Ryder BB gun? A wonderful cast with Darren McGavin as “the old man” and Melinda Dillon as the mom. Narrated by writer/humorist Jean Shepherd (who appears on screen in a cameo in the department store), who can ever forget the battle over the lamp or the fate of the Christmas turkey?

2. The Bishop’s Wife (1947)

A wonderful cast makes a remarkably fresh telling of an angel (Cary Grant) who falls for the wife (Loretta Young) of the bishop (David Niven) he’s sent to help. Niven’s Bishop Brougham, unable to persuade a rich parishioner to donate a large sum, prays about the great cathedral on a hill he wants to build, and Grant’s Dudley is sent to show him the way. Monty Woolley, always fun to watch, is the Broughams’ old friend, Professor Wutheridge.

1. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)

A holiday viewing tradition for many families, the story of Jimmy Stewart’s George Bailey facing financial ruin on Christmas Eve for an event that wasn’t his fault just gets better with age. The top-notch cast includes Donna Reed as his wife, Mary; Lionel Barrymore as his nemesis, rich Old Man Potter; Thomas Mitchell as his absent-minded uncle, Billy, and Henry Travers as Clarence, possibly the most unusual angel ever.