Top 5 Characters Who Embody the Christmas Spirit
There are many wonderful tropes in Christmas movies, but one of the most rewarding is the character who embodies the Christmas Spirit. This person is sometimes the lead and sometimes not, but always the inspiration for others to cast aside their malice and gloom and find the joy in Christmas. They also often go through arcs where they lose their Christmas Spirit, only to find it again through those they saved along the way. Tiny Tim from A Christmas Carol is the prototype for this character, joyful in the face of certain death and rewarded for helping to save Ebenezer Scrooge when Scrooge, in turn, saves him. These are my five favorite examples of those, ranked:
*SPOILERS*
Honorable Mention: Clarence (Henry Travers), It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
“You see, George, you really had a wonderful life. Don’t you see what a mistake it would be to throw it away?”
How could Clarence, George Bailey’s guardian angel, not make the list? He would seem the prototype for this kind of character. He’s described early on as having “the faith of a child,” and that’s evident in his interactions with George. He pops up on Earth with the idea that, of course, everyone will believe he is an angel. He orders the wrong drinks at a dive bar. He’s jolly to everyone he meets. And he’s determined to save a wayward soul who’s lost the Christmas Spirit, not to mention the will to live. When George wishes he were never born, Clarence at first tries reasoning with him, then ultimately decides to give George a taste of a world without him. Giving hope, love, and joy back to the man who readily gave those things to others cements Clarence as a Christmas icon. So, why is he only an honorable mention? Get to the end of the list, and you’ll see.
5. Whitey Duvall (Adam Sandler), Eight Crazy Nights(2002)
“Have a holly jolly one, guys!”
The lead character of Eight Crazy Nights, Adam Sandler’s animated ode to Christmas and Hanukkah, is Davey Stone, a miserable thug who wishes ill will on everyone he meets and, after a night of drunken vandalism, is about to be sent to prison, much to his town’s relief. But the one guy who sticks up for Davey is Whitey Duvall, an odd-looking old man brimming with kindness and charity. Whitey is the opposite of Davey in every respect, constantly doing for others, taking joy in life’s smallest pleasures (like window shopping), and wishing everyone he sees a Merry Christmas or Happy Hanukkah, depending. (Whitey celebrates both Christmas and Hanukkah because he won’t let his lack of Judaism “stop me from enjoying a holiday.”) He’s the kind of guy who takes joy in window shopping when he can’t afford to treat himself and refuses to eat sugar in solidarity with his diabetic sister. And luckily for Davey, he’s the only person in town who won’t give up on a troubled kid who needs a friend.
Throughout the movie, Whitey tries and fails to be a positive influence on Davey, with his every good deed and kind gesture going unappreciated. Even when it seems like he’s finally making some headway, Davey stumbles back to jerkiness, telling Whitey that his helpfulness and charity are meaningless and nobody cares about him. It’s when Whitey loses his faith in the goodness of mankind that Davey sees the value in his philosophy. Whitey has always wanted to be awarded the town’s Dukesberry All-Star Patch, an award given to the year’s best citizen; when he loses for the thirty-fifth year in a row, he takes Davey’s insults to heart and decides to leave town. But Davey proves him wrong; he admonishes the townspeople for abusing Whitey’s kindness, admitting that he is “the worst offender of all.” And in a final display of gratitude, the townspeople give Whitey every All-Star Patch they’ve received over the years. Whitey’s faith in the Christmas (and Hanukkah) Spirit is restored when he turns the meanest malcontent in town into the one guy who recognizes the good in him and brings it out in everyone else.
4. Thurman Merman (Brett Kelly), Bad Santa(2003)
“I know there’s no Santa. I just thought maybe you’d want to give me a present because we’re friends.”
If anyone has a right to be a Grinch at Christmas, it’s Thurman Merman. His mother is dead, his father is in jail for embezzlement, he’s being raised by his dementia-suffering grandmother, he’s the target of seemingly every bully in town, and he has no friends. Despite this, Thurman is a sweet kid who wraps himself in the Christmas Spirit, letting the bullying and insults of others roll off his back as he gleefully heads to the mall to tell Santa what he wants for Christmas. As luck would have it, the mall Santa this year is Willie T. Soke, a safecracker who works as St. Nick every Christmas so he and his partner Marcus can rob whichever shopping center hires him. Willie is a festering boil of a man, but for some reason, Thurman takes to him, seemingly convinced Willie is the real Santa. And when Willie sees Thurman is effectively all alone in a big house, he uses it to hide from the cops. It’s a match made in a true crime documentary, but Thurman is happy to be helping Santa Claus.
And he helps Willie more than the alcoholic thief could have imagined. Willie berates Thurman at every turn, never even bothering to learn the boy’s name till he sees it on a report card. But slowly, Thurman’s innocence and good cheer chip away at Willie’s hate and anger. He tries to help Thurman, first in little ways like tending to a wound or mildly reassuring him about his grades. But it escalates until, at one point, Willie is in the middle of committing suicide but stops when he sees Thurman with a black eye and assaults the bully who hit him. Despite his best efforts, Willie has made a friend in a little boy who believes in him, and Thurman makes Willie believe he can be better. When Willie and Marcus’ robbery is interrupted by the police, Willie risks his possible escape to deliver a Christmas present to Thurman, determined to do right by the one person he cares about. Thurman has given Willie his humanity for Christmas; it seems only fair Willie would give him a blood-soaked elephant in return.
3. Buddy (Will Ferrell), Elf (2003)
“The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear.”
Buddy is an elf in name and upbringing only; he’s actually a human who crawled into Santa’s sack and ended up in the North Pole, where he was raised by a veteran elf named Papa. (Convenient, no?) But when Buddy learns he’s human, he heads to New York City to meet his biological father Walter Hobbs. The culture clash is immediate, as Buddy – overflowing with joy even by elf standards – is cheerful in the face of relentless New York cynicism, nowhere more so than in the reaction of his father. It then becomes a battle of wills: will Buddy melt the hearts of jaded New Yorkers, or will the city eventually wear down even the relentless optimism of the innocent man in elf’s clothing? It’s touch and go for a while, and despite finding love with weary department store elf Jovie, winning over his dubious half-brother Michael, and turning the Empire State Building’s dour mail room into a dance party, he’s ultimately run out by his father when he accidentally starts a fight with Peter Dinklage.
As with the others, Buddy’s good nature is seen most vividly not in his own childlike innocence but in the way he brings out the Christmas Spirit in others. Jovie, a worn-down big-city girl who’s given up on happiness, can’t help but fall for the doofy guy brimming with Christmas cheer, finally willing to share her singing talent with the world. Michael, who had become a bored, lonely child, finds a friend in Buddy and is finally able to be a kid again. And Walter learns the value of family from the son he never knew and cast out. These characters come together at the end to help save Christmas when Santa’s sleigh crashes in Central Park on Christmas Eve. At the film’s climax, Buddy doesn’t actually do anything; it’s those he inspired who get Santa flying again, and because of Buddy’s inspiration, get New York to believe in Christmas miracles once more.
2. Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase), National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation(1989)
“We’re gonna press on, and we’re gonna have the hap-hap-happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap-danced with Danny fuckin’ Kaye!”
What makes Clark Griswold such a great character through all of the Vacation movies (particularly the first three because they’re the good ones) is that all he wants is to show his family how much he loves them. In Christmas Vacation, that takes the form of giving his kids a “good old-fashioned family Christmas,” like the ones he enjoyed as a child. Clark’s determination to have the entire family together may seem like vanity, but it’s not; it’s all about his kids. And while everything he does goes horribly wrong, his heart is in the right place, and he desperately tries to give his family the best Christmas he can. His Christmas bonus is going towards an in-ground pool, something that will give his kids fun memories all year. Even when his hated Cousin Eddie shows up, Clark decides to buy Eddie’s kids presents for Christmas, including his unwanted guests in the festivities. But in the end, after enduring one disaster after another and finally learning that his Christmas bonus is a membership in a jelly-of-the-month club, Clark finally snaps, wielding a chainsaw and declaring the Griswold Christmas to be “at the threshold of hell.”
But throughout Christmas Vacation, and especially at the end, Clark’s Christmas Spirit rubs off on everyone. It first happens to his daughter Audrey, who spends the first act of the film whining about everything, but when Clark’s first attempt to put up Christmas lights fails, and his in-laws insult him, Audrey comes to her father’s defense. From then on, she’s grateful for everything Clark does for her. When Clark finds the phony Christmas bonus and loses his mind, Cousin Eddie, who’s been shamelessly mooching off of Clark since his arrival, leaves and kidnaps Clark’s boss, bringing him to the Griswold home tied up to fulfill Clark’s anger-induced Christmas wish. And when Clark tries to make his boss understand how he hurt his employees, even Clark’s critical and dismissive father-in-law stands up and glares at the man. Finally, Clark’s boss gets a front-row seat for the Christmas he helped ruin – the one Clark has been working tirelessly to save – and relents, reinstating the Christmas bonus and adding 20%. While Clark’s cheer was taken for granted and even mocked, the idea of it being stolen from him melts the hearts of those who’d been putting him down, and despite a sewer main explosion, Clark has finally given everyone a Merry Christmas.
1. George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart), It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
“Hello, Bedford Falls! Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas, movie house! Merry Christmas, Emporium! Merry Christmas, you wonderful old Building and Loan! Hey, Merry Christmas, Mr. Potter!”
Much of It’s a Wonderful Life doesn’t take place on Christmas (depending on how you look at it; technically, the first two acts are a story being told to Clarence the angel on Christmas Eve). But it tells the tale of George Bailey, a man who, more than any other, embodies the Christmas Spirit all year round. It’s not that George is always cheerful; he can be angry, jealous, and downright mean when he wants to be. But George embodies the spirit of giving, constantly doing without so others may be happy. When his brother Harry falls into a frozen lake, George loses his hearing in one ear to save him. When he’s ready to go off to college, his father dies, and he stays behind to run the Building and Loan, his dad’s business in the town of Bedford Falls. Then, it comes time for his brother to take over at the Building and Loan so George can start his life, but when Harry gets a job offer from his new father-in-law, George abandons his plans and stays at the Building and Loan so Harry can have a better life. And when the stock market crashes and everyone is about to sign their loans over to Henry Potter, the evil money man, George spends his wedding day giving out loans to those in need with his own money, losing out on his honeymoon. He doesn’t even realize it, but George has given everyone in his life the means to be happy, denying himself his dreams so others may live theirs. But on that one fateful Christmas Eve, when his doddering uncle loses a bunch of money, and he’s looking at going to jail for embezzlement, George finally snaps, running out on his family and contemplating suicide.
This is why George Bailey is on this list, and Clarence isn’t. While Clarence gave the Christmas Spirit back to George, George gave it to an entire town bit by bit throughout his wonderful life. When he returns home, awash in joy and cheer and ready to tell his family he loves them, he fully expects to be arrested for a crime he didn’t commit. (“I’ll bet it’s a warrant for my arrest! Isn’t it wonderful? I’m going to jail!”) But Bedford Falls has a Christmas present for George Bailey: they all pooled their resources and came up with the money he supposedly stole, saving the man who spent his life saving them. Clarence may have brought George back from the brink, but George gave the Christmas Spirit to everyone in Bedford Falls (aside from Mr. Potter), and in saving him, they’re reflecting how he saved them. It’s a give-and-take, something George didn’t realize at the time; despite his griping and brooding over his lost dreams, he helped everyone because that’s who he is. He didn’t expect a reward, nor did anyone expect to give him one, but sometimes, the chance to do right by a good man presents itself, and sometimes, those who feel most alone need to be reminded they have friends. As luck would have it, that time was Christmas for George Bailey.
***
I hope you enjoyed the list and that these characters inspire you to help others find their Christmas Spirit. But most of all, I hope you and yours have a Merry Christmas!
