The Princess Bride: A Holiday Classic?

In the spirit of my 10 Days of Christmas promise, I’m posting the second in what will hopefully be a slew of updates this coming week.  Since I’m still stuck in the middle of writing my Cisneros paper, I’ll try to make this one quick.

Today I noticed something while my mother and I were watching Christmas movies on TCM.  While TCM had advertised that it would be showing holiday movies during the day (including White Christmas and this movie All I Want for Christmas that starred a young Thora Birch), the movie following All I Want for Christmas was, funnily enough, The Princess Bride.

Now, don’t get me wrong.  I absolutely love The Princess Bride.  It’s one of my favorite movies of all time, and I will admit that throughout the movie, I kept posting Facebook statuses with quotes from the movie.

However, I was not quite sure if The Princess Bride would really be considered a “holiday” movie.  What made it worthy of being included with all of the other holiday movies?  Other than the fact that it’s just plain awesome, of course.

In my quest to find the answer to this question, I started looking closer at the movie.  With that said, here are a few reasons why The Princess Bride could technically be considered a “holiday” movie:

1.   Ever notice the background of the first scene of the movie?  The one where Fred Savage is sick in bed?  Ever notice the Santas in the background?  That’s right.  Santas, as in plural.  One on the closet and the other behind Fred Savage’s head.  I guess this really does take place during Christmas. 
2. The grandfather, played by Peter Falk, gives Savage the book as a present, wrapping paper and everything.  Yeah, I know the kid is sick in bed, and the grandfather may just be giving the boy the book to make him feel better…but still, it’s a present, right?
3. This may just be me, but is that snow on the roofs of the houses outside the grandson’s window?
4.  Christmas is nothing if not a time for miracles, and this movie is full of miracles.  It even has a character named Miracle Max!  Who brings Wesley back from being mostly-dead!  If that’s not a Christmas miracle, I don’t know what is.
5.  As we’ve all learned from Love Actually, Christmas is a time to be with loved ones and just be in love.  Buttercup and Westley’s love story certainly qualifies.

That’s all for now.  And next time you want to pick up a holiday classic, don’t be afraid to watch The Princess Bride.  It totally counts.

Happy holidays,

Shannon