No stockings full of coal here. Ask me about the greatest Yule-themed movies of all time and you’ll get no answers on the order of “Bad Santa,” “Elf” and “Jingle All the Way.” They are what they are. What they aren’t is entertainment consistent with the heart and soul of the season. Neither is “Home Alone,” which I won’t quarrel is fun on its own terms. So what are the true Christmas classics• Until I began shaping lists, decade by decade, I didn’t notice something ironic: The most purely religious movies depicting the Nativity are what we think of as the Easter movies because they build to, and place much greater emphasis on, the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. What we’re left with is an overwhelmingly secular crop, many of which highlight, however indirectly, the most positive Christian values, including generosity, fellowship and sacrifice. I’ve excluded from consideration the many dozens of Christmas TV movies, some of which are remakes of theatrical films. I’ll pick some favorites for each decade, starting in the 1930s, and note others worth considering. But the decades aren’t balanced, and we’re no longer in a fertile period for the sentiments a really good Christmas picture dramatizes. The ones most richly charged with true Christmas spirit and familial values are designated by an asterisk. So consider renting — or buying a few as last-minute gifts — some of these holiday films to enjoy with your family over the next few days. 1930-39 “Little Women” (1933)* with Katharine Hepburn, Joan Bennett, Frances Dee and Jean Parker as the March sisters, sharing the holiday and everything else while their father is away. “Babes in Toyland” (1934) is an odd mix of the Victor Herbert score and a Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy comedy. “A Christmas Carol” (1938) with Reginald Owen as Ebenezer Scrooge, learning sugar works better than vinegar and humbug. 1940-49 “Beyond Tomorrow” (1940), released on DVD as “Beyond Christmas,” tells of three wealthy men sharing a home who find two honest young people and pool their resources to help them. “Holiday Inn” (1942), the first teaming of Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire (reunited only in “Blue Skies”) and the introduction of Irving Berlin’s imperishable “White Christmas.” “I’ll Be Seeing You” (1944) features Joseph Cotten as an amnesiac soldier and Ginger Rogers as a convict on leave for the holidays who meet and keep secrets. “Meet Me in St. Louis” (1944)* contains Judy Garland’s warmest portrayal as big sister to Margaret O’Brien. The whole swell family is unhappy because they’re about to be uprooted by a move to New York, leaving behind boy friends (Tom Drake is “The Boy Next Door”), convivial transportation (“The Trolley Song”) and down-home holidays (the bittersweet “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”). “Christmas Holiday” (1944) is among the least known and shown. Singer Deanna Durbin falls for Gene Kelly, an army lieutenant with problems she can only hope to soothe. “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” (1945)*, In the most remarkable performance by an American child, Peggy Ann Garner acts Francie Nolan, a poor girl in turn-of-the-century Brooklyn with a stubborn faith in her father (James Dunn), an alcoholic singer who resolves to pull himself together and do right by his family. “The Cheaters” (1945), also known as “The Castaway,” may be the most obscure film on the list. An elitist family, including Billie Burke, take into their home a struggling actor. “Christmas in Connecticut” (1945), with slight echoes of “Woman of the Year,” finds magazine writer Barbara Stanwyck trying to masquerade as an accomplished homemaker for boss Sydney Greenstreet and World War II veteran Dennis Morgan. “It’s a Wonderful Life” (1946)* with Jimmy Stewart as George Bailey, a good man whose generous spirit is corrupted by a series of misfortunes. Henry Travers acts a guardian angel named Clarence who earns his wings restoring George’s faith in himself. “Miracle on 34th Street” (1947)* with Natalie Wood as the girl skeptical that Edmund Gwenn is Kris Kringle as he claims. “The Bishop’s Wife” (1947) offers Cary Grant as a guardian angel sent to help troubled Protestant Bishop David Niven and supportive wife Loretta Young. “Little Women” (1949)* may be held in less favor than the ’33 version but it has spunk and heart of its own and an even more appealing quartet of March sisters in Margaret O’Brien, June Allison, Elizabeth Taylor and Janet Leigh. ” Holiday Affair” (1949) with Janet Leigh as a widowed mother with suitors including Robert Mitchum. 1950-59 “A Christmas Carol” (1951)* is the definitive film version with Alistair Sim as a delightfully creepy Scrooge. “The Lemon Drop Kid” (1951) catches Bob Hope in a Damon Runyon story notable now mainly for its introduction of the holiday classic “Silver Bells.” “O. Henry’s Full House” (1952)* is a quintet of O. Henry stories featuring all-star casts (Marilyn Monroe, Charles Laughton, Richard Widmark, Fred Allen). “The Cop and the Anthem,” “The Clarion Call” and “Ransom of Red Chief” delight on their own merits. “The Last Leaf” (Anne Baxter, Jean Peters) involves a fatal wintry sacrifice to lift a sick girl’s spirits. “The Gift of the Magi” (Jeanne Crain, Farley Granger) is the timeless story of a poor couple who give up their most valuable material possessions to purchase Christmas presents for each other. “The Holly and the Ivy” (1952)*, an evocative tale with Ralph Richardson and Margaret Leighton of one Christmas at the home of an English cleric who is privy to the problems of his three adult children. “White Christmas” (1954)* often is dismissed as a remake of “Holiday Inn,” which it is not. When they’re not performing a cornucopia of Irving Berlin songs (the title number, “Snow,” “Sisters,” “Count Your Blessings”), and sometimes when they are, Army veterans Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye (a last-minute sub for injured Donald O’Connor) woo sisters Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen while trying to save a snowless New England resort run by grand old retired general Dean Jagger. “Young at Heart” (1954) is a remake of “Four Sisters” but with Frank Sinatra as a moody musician, too much the embittered outsider to respond easily to the warmth of Doris Day and her family, especially at Christmas. 1960-69 “Babes in Toyland” (1961) is more colorful than the Laurel and Hardy version but also stodgier. Annette Funicello and Ray Bolger are among those performing the Herbert score. “The Lion in Winter” (1969) is James Goldman’s brilliantly scrappy, literate contest of wills, over Christmas, mind you, of Henry II (Peter O’Toole) and estranged wife Eleanor of Aquitaine (Katharine Hepburn). No holds barred. But then, as Eleanor says, “Well, what family doesn’t have its ups and downs?” 1970-79 “Scrooge” (1970). Although there were at least 17 TV Christmas movies of some note in the 1970s, it was an incredibly fallow period for theatrical films having a seasonal theme. The only one in the “1970s proper” was a horror film called “Black Christmas.” So we’ll fudge here and name the musical “Scrooge” as the decade’s best — and only — contender. Ronald Neame may have been the wrong director, and Leslie Bricusse’s score far from his best, but the cast is headed by Albert Finney and Edith Evans, reunited from “Tom Jones”, plus Alec Guinness, Kay Walsh and other great Brits. 1980-89 “A Christmas Story” (1983)* is the funniest of the seasonal favorites. Jean Shepherd recounts a season in the cockeyed childhood of the bespectacled Ralphie Parker (Peter Billingsley) who is obsessed with getting a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas. But then, having a father like his (Darren McGavin in a role crazily turned down by Jack Nicholson) is bound to engender an eccentricity or two. “One Magic Christmas” (1985) finds mom Mary Steenburgen losing heart, a latterday George Bailey figure. “Prancer” (1989) finds widower Sam Elliott and daughter Rebecca Harrell caring for a reindeer who might be one of them . 1990-99 “A Home of Our Own” (1993) went from being neglected to virtually unknown. Widow Kathy Bates struggles to make a life for herself and her six children in rural Idaho despite much adversity. “Miracle on 34th Street” (1994), except for clunky plotting near the end, is among the more accomplished of remakes, with Mara Wilson as the child inspired by Richard Attenborough’s Kris Kringle. “The Preacher’s Wife” (1996) is a remake of “The Bishop’s Wife” but with angel Denzel Washington dropping in on Whitney Houston and Courtney B. Vance. 2000-present “The Polar Express” (2004)* is hands down the best Christmas movie in years, and it’s in theaters now. Exceptionally lifelike animation is used to tell a tale of four dissimilar children — three lovable, one hilariously obnoxious — whose thrilling train trip to the North Pole on Christmas Eve changes them forever. An eventual candidate for classic status.

Cases can be made for the tearjerker “The Christmas Tree” (1969), “The Muppet Christmas Carol” (1992), “The Nightmare Before Christmas” (1993) and many others. But I’ll violate my own criteria and add to the list just one from the small screen – a 1960 “Twilight Zone” TV episode called “Night of the Meek” in which Art Carney plays a particularly vulnerable Santa. And to one and all, a most Happy Christmas.

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