I watched one of my favorite Christmas movies the other night, 'White Christmas' with Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Mitzi Gaynor. I am sure those names don’t mean much of anything to people younger than fifty. It is a musical tied lightly to a romance and a tribute to a WWII General by his soldiers. Certainly, by today’s standards it would be considered corny and a little silly. But it made me feel good and I even cried a bit at the tear jerk moments. When I reflected upon it I realized that it made me feel good because it embodied many basic virtues of love, friendship, loyalty and generosity. These are values which are largely disguised, or simply missing from many contemporary movies and TV shows.

The movie was made after WWII and reflected the efforts of the society to move back to normal life after having been on a war footing for four years. But it also reflected a kind of innocence that was also characteristic of the TV shows of that time such as 'Ozzie and Harriet' and 'My three Sons'. And it was also true of the first TV shows for children particularly, 'Captain Kangaroo', and 'Mr. Rogers Neighborhood'. These shows, whatever their faults, nonetheless reflected the same values as 'White Christmas'. At the heart of these values was the belief in human progress, that we and the world we live in are getting better and we’re destined for a bright future.

That belief in human progress, in the benefits of advancing science and industry for mankind, is all but gone from contemporary society. We worry about atomic bombs, terrorism, global warming, and degradation of the environment, not to mention the commercialization of childhood. And it is hard to believe that human nature is getting better when so many people are willing to give up their lives to kill others whom they do not know and who have done nothing to them. Perhaps that is why so many of the contemporary films and TV shows disguise, or require us to dig out, the feel good virtues that are so up front and in-your-face in 'White Christmas'. For example, I watched the animated movie 'UP' with my granddaughter Lily. While it had some of the values of 'White Christmas' with a lot of violence, including vicious snarling dogs that made Lily cringe. The closing scene, meant to be a tearjerker, had the old man given the boy his merit badge. But I only felt pity for the boy whose neglectful, divorced father wasn’t there to pin on the badge.

To be sure, there is evil in the world and bad things happen even to little children. But do we, and particularly children, have to be constantly reminded of these truisms. Yes, the straightforward depiction of positive human values in movies like 'White Christmas' are a bit overdone and trite. But if they restore, for even a short time, a belief in human goodness then I believe they are worthwhile, particularly for children.

So for this Christmas season I sincerely hope that parents will rent, download or even buy, some of the feel good movies like 'Miracle on 34th Street', 'It’s a Wonderful Life', 'A Christmas Carol', and 'The Wizard of OZ'. In these movies there are bad guys to be sure, but the evils they inflict are overcome by virtuous behavior. At this time of year particularly, we need to be reminded of the good in human nature.