This is the title of an el cheapo DVD I picked up at Fred's (sort of a poor man's Woolworth's) in a paper sleeve; only cost me 50¢ as I recall. It has three 1950s Christmas presentations on it, including the one featured on the cover, the Christmas episode of Date With the Angels starring Betty White and Bill Williams.
The first offering is "A String of Blue Beads," taken from the classic Fulton Oursler story about a storekeeper named Pete, who, embittered after the death of his fiancé, finds life again on Christmas Eve thanks to a little girl. This is a very short story that has been embellished mercilessly for its 26-minute timeslot; some of the embellishments, such as showing him with Marilyn, the girl he loves, are fine additions, but had they stuck to Oursler's original dialog it would have been a lot better. The whole cast is very stiff and Louis Jourdan is just not my idea of Pete. The "acts" of the story are introduced and closed by marionettes and the passing of time is, interestingly, illustrated by seasonal paintings from a Manhattan art gallery.
It is also filmed in some rudimentary version of color which has altered and faded so that the only two colors seem to be red and green (with the occasional flash of beige). It was so ennerving that I finally turned the color down and watched it in good old-fashioned black and white.
The second cut is from a religious series called Crossroads, which is, the titles and the credits tell us stenoriously, vetted by a military Protestant chaplain, a Catholic priest, and a rabbi. The story, "Our First Christmas Tree," concerned a German minister who planned to introduce a Christmas tree into the service and was roundly cheered by the local children and condemned by the children's parents, who think the minister is taking their children away from "the Bible, the Psalms, and hymns" and leading them to worship a pagan idol. These neighborhood busybodies never give the well-meaning reverend a chance to explain and are about to tear down the tree when the minister's brother, also a man of the cloth, explains to them how the tree fits into the ceremony. I have heard several stories of the origin of the Christmas tree, the two most popular being the story of Martin Luther coming home in the snow one night and seeing the moon sparkling on the snow-covered branches of the fir trees, which led him to create a similar scene in his home with candles on a small cut tabletop tree, and the story of St. Boniface, who, seeing Druids about to make a human sacrifice, chops down the Holy Oak and a small pine tree springs up in its place.
But I had never heard the story the pastor tells his brother's congregation, about all the animals and plants going to Bethlehem to worship the Christ Child and of the struggling little cedar that almost gives its life to do so, and is rewarded by God with everlasting life and has stars rained down upon its branches.
Of course the congregation is abashed and the pastor and the happy children have the Christmas tree. (One of the boys is played by Todd Ferrell, who played Timmy's buddy Boomer for a year on Lassie.) Again, done in a rather stiff style, but with a charm of its own.
The Date With the Angels "Christmas Show" probably would come as a revelation to devotees of today's sitcoms. While there are two-tart tongued characters in the story—Vicki Angel's (Betty White) friend Connie, played by Nancy Kulp, who later went on to fame as Jane Hathaway in The Beverly Hillbillies, and Richard Deacon—Gus and Vicki Angel are our sweet-tempered protagonists (not an insult is passed between them) who help an elderly neighbor (the father of Richard Deacon's character) get a Santa Claus job at the department store where Connie works for a Mr. Scrooge-ish manager and also assist a lost child at the store. It's very sweet and nostalgic, and all three are interesting representations of 1950s Christmas programming.
I haven't seen Volume 2, if one actually exists, but it would be interesting to see what was on it.
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