by Michael Lyons
Hallmark Christmas Movies are now a seasonal institution. Fans spend entire weekends watching the latest tale of someone from the big city who travels to a small town where Christmas is celebrated 24/7 for a whole month and learns a life-changing lesson.
The Hallmark movies carry on a long-lasting tradition of the TV movie, specifically those themed around Christmas. The 1970s and 1980s were almost a golden age of the made-for-TV movie. Before theatrical Christmas movies like Home Alone and Elf, these movies produced for the small screen provided a nice, cozy home for Christmas stories.
Here are just a few of the made-for-TV movie memories from the groovy 70s and the big 80s:
The House Without a Christmas Tree (1972).
This incredibly touching story takes place in Nebraska in 1946 and centers on a 10-year-old Addie (Lisa Lucas), who desperately wants a Christmas tree in her home, but her father, James (Jason Robards), won't allow it.
James has soured toward the world since his wife, Addie's mom, passed away. However, a selfless gesture from Addie may just change things.
With a strong supporting performance by the legendary Mildred Natwick, as Addie's grandma, this film is a heart-tugger throughout.
It's also a reflection of a simpler Christmas, not only in the movie but in the fact that The House Without a Christmas Tree is shot on video, which provides even more of a homespun feel to the proceedings.
It Happened One Christmas (1977)
A gender-reversed remake of one of the greatest films, Christmas or otherwise, It's a Wonderful Life provides the basis for this made-for-TV film. Marlo Thomas plays Mary Hatch, who considers suicide on Christmas Eve, until an angel named Clara, played by Cloris Leachman, shows Mary the positive impact she had on so many others.
A virtual scene-by-scene replay of Frank Capra's original masterpiece is well crafted, and fans of It's A Wonderful Life will get a kick out of how so many familiar scenes play out, as well as the casting choices that were made - Orson Welles is the perfect Mr. Potter!
The Man in the Santa Claus Suit (1979)
The multi-story series era of shows like The Love Boat and Fantasy Island brought us this entertaining tale of three men on different paths in life, who all rent Santa Claus suits from a magical New York shop owned by a man with a twinkle in his eye, played by Fred Astaire.
One man, Bob (Gary Burghoff of M*A*S*H), is looking to impress a girl who lives in his building; another, Chris (Bert Convey), is hoping to get closer to his estranged son, and Stan (Jon Byner) is a hapless crook seeking a disguise, and winds up hiding out with a wealthy family.
Spoilers - an extra dose of Christmas magic helps all of these stories end happily ever after.
The Night They Saved Christmas (1984)
A big oil company is set on blasting and drilling for oil at the North Pole, which threatens Santa's workshop. Claudia (Jaclyn Smith) must convince her oil executive husband (Paul LeMat) to stop the project and save Christmas.
If that very 80s plot isn't enough to lure you to this one, how about the casting of Art Carney as Santa and Paul Williams as his elf?!?
The Christmas Gift (1986)
Singer John Denver plays a divorced, big-city architect sent by his firm to a small town in Colorado for a potential real-estate bid and falls in love with this town steeped in Santa Claus mythology, going against his firm just to preserve it.
This, essentially, was a Hallmark Channel movie before they were even a "thing."
A Very Brady Christmas (1988)
Of all the retro-TV-series-reunion movies that were once the rage, this one ranks up there. Almost the entire Brady Bunch cast returns (Susan Olsen didn't come back as Cindy and is replaced here by actress Jennifer Runyon).
With the six Brady kids now grown and moved away, Mike and Carol (Robert Reed and Florence Henderson) invite their kids, wives, significant others, and grandkids back to the ol' Brady home for Christmas.
Each one arrives bearing different life challenges that they're keeping secret but will soon reveal, just in time for an amazing finale, in which architect Mike finds himself trapped in a collapsing building, and the only thing that will save him is his entire family singing, "O Come All Ye Faithful."
A Very Brady Christmas is both famous and infamous and deserves to be on any nostalgia fan's seasonal movie-watching list.
And, there you have it, just a few of the oh-so-many made-for-TV movies from when television viewing, particularly at Christmas time, was appointment viewing.
So, choose any of these, or so many others, circle it in your TV Guide, light the tree, and settle in by the warm glow of your television for a portal back in time to the Holiday Seasons of yesteryear!
Merry Christmas, Everyone!
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