It's A Wonderful Christmas

Many people have special traditions at Christmas; grandma's favorite recipe, reading the Christmas story, whatever. What many women might find surprising is that for many men, the 1946 Frank Capra film, "It's a Wonderful Life" holds a special place in their hearts. It's not that they find the story so compelling, it's the memories they have a Christmas Eve's spent assembling bicycles and various other toys while the movie played in the background.

You see, years ago, it was not uncommon for the movie to be shown simultaneously on two or three different channels. So if you were a dad tasked with putting together the gifts left by Old Saint Nick in the middle of the night, it was either "It's a Wonderful Life", or the pope. Not speaking Latin, or Italian, or whatever it is the pope speaks, most dads, me included, opted for the movie.

In later years, I found out that the reason the TV stations aired the movie, was not out of sentimentality, but economics. You see, due to some legal screw up, the movie was not copyrighted, meaning that the networks could show it for free. A few years ago, some enterprising soul (probably a lawyer) figured out that while movie was not protected by copyright, the songs were. So the rights to the songs were purchased and the movie's holiday airing were greatly restricted.

Younger dads are missing out.