About a Boy and Love, Actually: Two of my Favourite Christmas Movies

I love Christmas. I am not religious in any way but I love the feeling of Christmas; the togetherness, the peaceful feelings, the music, and the movies. My favourite part of going to church around Christmastime as a child was the music. I was in the school choir from the time I was 7 and our Christmas pageants were held at the local church, one of my fondest memories was being an angel in the Christmas concert.

I don’t look forward to the over commercialization of Christmas and I’m getting better at ignoring it. I look forward to the Christmas specials on television and the new Christmas CDs that come out every year. I also look forward to watching my favourite Christmas movies on DVD.

My current favourite Christmas movies both star Hugh Grant. The first one, About a Boy from 2002, is not really a Christmas movie but it does have Christmas themes and it ends on Christmas Eve. The main character in the movie lives off the residuals of a Christmas song that his father wrote. He is befriended by a boy who changes his life for the better. This was the first movie in which I actually found Hugh Grant sexy. I had enjoyed his other movies like Four Weddings and a Funeral but I did not find him overly appealing It wasn’t until About a Boy that I started to be interested in him as an actor and as a leading man; he has aged well. The soundtrack for the movie was written and performed by Badly Drawn Boy; it is one of my most played albums on my iPod.

The second movie, Love, Actually (released in 2003) does take place a Christmastime. It follows the stories of several characters, most of whom intersect at one time or another. Hugh Grant plays the newly elected Prime Minister of Britain who falls for his secretary, Emma Thompson is married to Alan Rickman, and she is the Prime Minister’s sister. Another favourite actor of mine is in this film; Colin Firth plays a writer who flees to France after discovering his wife is having an affair with his brother. There are several characters in this film that are unique and wonderfully written; Bill Nighy plays washed up singer Billy Mack who records a novelty Christmas record, and Kris Marshall plays Colin who decides he has to go to America to find a woman to love him . This is one of those movies that make me smile; I always feel better after watching it. It was written by Richard Curtis, who I have a huge crush on.

I also have a few other films that I always make a point of watching over Christmas. Here is a short list:

• Jack Frost (Michael Keaton is reincarnated as a snowman)
• A Christmas Story (A classic…and I love that leg lamp)
• The Bishop’s Wife (Cary Grant as an angel)
• Peter’s Friends (actually takes place just after Christmas)
• In the Bleak Midwinter (a group of English actors puts on Hamlet over Christmas)