It’s hard to choose my favorite Christmas movie. Each time I try to pick one, I’m afraid I’ll shoot my eye out.

There are, of course, obligatory holiday movies which bring to mind one’s parents and grandparents. A period in post-war national history which featured Buicks Roadmasters, Hula Hoops, and pineapple upside down cakes made almost completely of mayonnaise. This era features movies such as “Miracle on 34th Street” (1947); “A Christmas Carol” (1951); and “White Christmas” (1954).

Somewhere at the top of my movie list sits “A Christmas Story” (1983). Perhaps because, not unlike the movie’s protagonist, Ralphie, I too grew up among folks who believed no Christmas gift better embodied the True Meaning of Christ’s Birth than an American-made firearm. //

I’m also a big fan of the multiple retellings of Dickens’ Ebenezer Scrooge. For my money, George C. Scott delivers a prize-winning performance in 1984’s “A Christmas Carol.”

Still, it is the Dickensian musical “Scrooge” (1970), starring Albert Finney, that takes the cake. The movie’s flagship song, “Thank You Very Much” is a musical ear worm which will burrow into your frontal lobe and live there until your death. //

I’m skipping over a lot of great Christmas movies here, such as “Holiday Inn” (1942), “It’s a Wonderful Life” (1946), “Die Hard” (1988).

But if you forced me to choose the greatest Christmas movie of all time, I would have no choice but to choose “A Charlie Brown Christmas” (1965).