Here are ten mostly unheralded moments from film history, listed in chronological order.  Of particular importance are the individual moments, and not necessarily the films as a whole.  Oh, and these are Holiday Themed movies.

1. ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas (1914; dir. Ashley Miller):  Simply the fact of this film’s existence.  As soon as movies could tell stories, filmmakers wanted to make this story. It’s magical.
2. Going My Way (1944; dir. Leo McCarey):  The image of Father Fizgibbon (Barry Fitgzerald) standing stoically silent after Father O’Malley (Bing Crosby) gives him a Christmas present.
3. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946; dir. Frank Capra):  Sure, in the end George has enough money and lots of friends, but Mr. Potter is still alive, still wealthy, and still a prick.  This is Bob Cratchit’s fairy tale, not Ebenezer Scrooge’s.
4. Scrooge (1951; dir. Brian Desmond Hurst):  Scrooge’s (Alistair Sim) exasperated sigh of surrender when he meets the Ghost of Christmas Present, then turns away wanting to just go back to bed.
5. A Christmas Story (1983; dir. Bob Clark):  It’s a beautifully photographed movie.  Reginald H. Morris’ cinematography gives us one of the greatest single shots in film history:  Mother and The Old Man, sitting together on an armchair, a Christmas tree alight, watching snow gently fall outside their front room window (a window, by this time, vacated by The Major Award).
6. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989; dir. Jeremiah S. Chechik):  Mirroring my own astonishment at how well this film was made, Clark (Chevy Chase) nicely sums up the day-to-day experience of his Life, “If I had woken up with my head sewn to the carpet, I wouldn’t be more surprised than I am right now.”
7. The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993; dir. Henry Selick):  Frantic that he’s ruined Christmas after all, Jack asks Santa if there’s still time to set things right.  Santa simply replies, “Of course there is! I’m Santa Claus.” Kringle-Ex-Machina.
8. Love Actually (2003; dir. Richard Curtis): Celebrating Love, happy or sad, in all of its myriad forms has rarely been so well done.
9. Bad Santa (2003; dir. Terry Zwigoff): “You people are monsters,” he finally tells his partners-in-crime. Even the alcoholic criminal Willie Stokes has lines across which he will not step.
10. The Polar Express (2004; dir. Robert Zemeckis): Laborious, costly and counter-intuitive, here anyway is the first feature-length motion picture crafted primarily from motion-capture technology.  And, boy howdy, it’s beautiful.