White Christmas Diamond Anniversary Edition (both Blu-ray & DVD with multiple discs and new content) - 10/14/14

The Christmas Gift (John Denver TV-movie from 1986/DVD only) - 11/4/14

A Double Feature of TV-Movies:  The Thanksgiving Treasure/The House Without a Christmas Tree (1973/1972/DVD only) - 11/4/14

The Christmas Gift is a wonderfully old-fashioned, "Christmasy" movie filmed in snow-covered Georgetown, Colorado.  John Denver plays an architect who has recently lost his wife and is forced by his unscrupulous boss to take a working vacation with his daughter in Georgetown to scope out property for big-scale development that would change the character of the close-knit town.  When he arrives, John and his daughter are enchanted by the quaint town and its inhabitants--many of whom are characters, and all believe in Santa Claus because of an old legend of how the town was saved over 100 years ago.  This is one of my favorite Christmas movies of all time, and I am thrilled that it's finally being released on DVD (I'd rather have Blu-Ray, but I'll gladly settle for this!).

The double feature disc contains two TV classics from the early 1970s staring Jason Robards and Mildred Natwick as the father and grandmother of a fun-loving, but caring youngster (Addie, played by Lisa Lucas) growing up in a working-class home in the Midwest during the 1940s.  The House Without a Christmas Tree is the best-known of the two and has been previously released on DVD.

I'll mention one other favorite Christmas movie that was released in 2012 through Amazon.com with no fanfare at all:  The Gift of Love:  A Christmas Story.  This famous made-for-TV Christmas movie was shown several times in the 1980s, then disappeared.  It stars Angela Lansbury, Lee Remick, and Polly Holiday and has a snowy New England setting.  Lee Remick and her husband own a struggling downtown department store that has gone bankrupt, causing much stress in their marriage.  In the middle of their problems, Lee's mother (Angela Lansbury) has a heart attack and dies.  Lee takes to her bed and dreams that her mother and father have come back from the dead to help her by taking Lee and her children by sleigh back to her childhood home to learn the secret of personal strength and courage--kind of a play on It's a Wonderful Life.  The picture quality of the DVD isn't wonderful, but it was transferred from the best remaining film element that the producer could find. This was a pet project of the producer to finally get this movie released on home video.