We’ve all seen our fill of It’s A Wonderful Life, Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer, A Christmas Carol, and A Christmas Story. And, while those are all classic holiday films, sometimes enough is enough and we long for something a bit different in our holiday DVD, download, television, or Netflix viewing queue. Fortunately, Christmas, with its endless string of memories, traditions, and heightened emotions has long been a popular subject for filmmakers, and there are quite a few unsung classics in the category of little-known movies either about, or set during, the holidays.

The Christmas season becomes an interesting time of the year for entertainment viewing pleasure. The reason for this is that there are a number of perennial television and film favorites that are so well made that they attract new audiences year after year. Granted, some really great animated Christmas specials have seemingly been lost to history and are not often repeated (The Flintstone’s Christmas Special was a classic that has yet to be given a DVD release and its appearances on TV are non-existent)

Most of us are familiar with the Christmas song, “The 12 Days of Christmas,” even though many folks might have a bit of trouble keeping the lines of the song straight after about the sixth day! This song has been sung for generations, and is a traditional part of the Christmas season. There have even been many versions of the song that have come out, since the structure lends itself well to variation and even humor. But did you ever stop to think what this seemingly nonsensical song really is about? While there is some disagreement over the actual purpose for “The 12 Days of Christmas” among historians, the theories regarding this fun and lively song are quite intriguing.