"I have endeavoured, in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly ...."

With that brief prologue, Charles Dickens introduced his short novel, A Christmas Carol.

More than 160 years later, Dickens' story is still the basis for most Christmas movies.

There are about a dozen full-length movie versions directly adapted from Dickens' story; a new one just about every decade since the first appeared in 1917. And there are many others that owe their inspiration to Dickens' tale.

Most people would pick the 1951 film version, starring Alistair Sim as Ebenezer Scrooge, as the best of the lot.

"Darkness is cheap, and Scrooge liked it," Dickens wrote in describing Scrooge's arrival home to a dark and dreary house on Christmas Eve. And the 1951 film seems to capture that mood better than any other. It's as much a ghost story as it is a Christmas story, as Dickens intended.

Sim's portrayal of Scrooge is by far the most popular of all. He plays Scrooge as cold-hearted, miserly and unpleasant, but there's always a hint that, deep inside, lurks is a kind, generous soul yearning to rejoin the human race.

You can also watch for a very young Patrick Macnee as the young Jacob Marley.

The film will show up several times on TV in the next couple of weeks. CBC usually shows it late on Christmas Eve.

Christmas movies are enjoying something of a golden era, right now. More Christmas-themed movies have hit the screen in the past 25 years than in any other era of film history.

That's not to say people haven't been watching Christmas movies for a long time. One of the earliest-known films, made sometime around 1898, was one that depicted Santa Claus making his annual visit to a certain home. There were occasional Christmas releases in the first quarter of the 20th century, but it wasn't until the late 1930s that Christmas movies became popular with filmmakers.

Some of those early creations became classics, still eagerly anticipated every year.

The original versions of Babes In Toyland and The Lemon Drop Kid both appeared in 1934. A version of Heidi came out in 1937, and there was a reasonably good rendition of A Christmas Carol released in 1938 along with The Captain's Christmas.

Holiday Inn (1942) wasn't strictly a Christmas movie but it gave us a classic screen moment -- Bing Crosby's singing of White Christmas. A few years later, trading on the popularity of the song, the studio had Crosby cast in a movie bearing the same name.

The years immediately following the end of the Second World War produced three of the giants of the Christmas movie category. Crosby had another film hit with Bells of St. Mary's (1945). Jimmy Stewart was brilliant in It's a Wonderful Life  (1946) and Edmund Gwenn and a very young Natalie Wood made Miracle on 34th Street (1947) into an Oscar-winning product.

The 1980s had its share of great ones, too, especially comedies. 1989's National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation has to be considered another Christmas classic. The best of the National Lampoon movies, it rings true over and over again in depicting the lighter side of family Christmas celebrations in the latter 20th century.

A few years earlier, a nice little movie was released that got small notice at the time. Someone got the idea to piece together a collection of stories by Jean Shepherd, whose radio program consisted of telling tales from his childhood. Thus was created A Christmas Story, the tale of little boy named Ralphie who dreams of having Santa bring him a BB gun even though every adult seems certain he'll shoot his eye out. A Christmas Story is really several stories woven together into one plotline.

When it was first released, it was lost behind several big-name films including another Christmas release that year, Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, starring David Bowie.

Once it got to video, however, and onto commercial television screens, A Christmas Story became one of the most popular holiday films.

And then there's Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. Adults love to pretend they only watch these films for the kids' sake. Truth is, Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern actually make their bumbling stooge characters just believable enough. And strong performances by the "befriended" characters -- Roberts Blossom as the "scary" neighbour in the original and Brenda Fricker as the Central Park pigeon lady in the sequel -- make that little bit of Christmas spirit bubble up.

Unless you're the Grinch, of course. Some say the world is made up of two types of people -- those who love the original animated version of Dr. Seuss's How The Grinch Stole Christmas (1966) and those who prefer the live-action, 2000 version starring Jim Carrey. Having been 10 years old when the original was produced -- and therefore squarely in the target audience -- I was skeptical about the remake. But I have to admit I found myself liking it. So, take your pick.

Speaking of Carrey -- and getting back to Scrooge -- there's a rumour floating around that says a new version of A Christmas Carol, featuring the comic Canadian as Scrooge, is in the works.

So what versions of the story are out there?

The first was made in 1917. You probably won't find that one-reeler is available at your local video store. The next is the 1938 version, starring Reginald Owen. You have to get past Owen's acting -- he seems every bit the stage actor trying to make the transition to film -- but this version has a lot going for it, including a livelier script than the 1951 version. Lots of people will change the channel in disppointment if they find this one coming on instead of the Alistair Sim version, but give it a watch next time.

A couple of other respected versions are readily available. One is An American Christmas Carol, starring Henry Winkler. Despite the title, the film was made in Canada and most of the cast are Canadians. Another good version stars George C. Scott and a solid supporting cast of Brits. Scott was just too good an actor to do a bad Scrooge, so you know this is going to be a good film. Scott just doesn't pull off the happy ending as well as Sim.

You can even get a comic version, Blackadder's Christmas Carol, starring Rowan Atkinson. In a style reminiscent of the Blackadder television series, this one turns the Dickens story upside-down -- the "Scrooge" character is a generous twit who gives away every penny and every scrap of food he has.

And there's a musical made-for-TV version. Kelsey Grammer, star of the series Frasier, plays Scrooge in a film that was better than many expected it to be.

Then there's the comic-horror version, Scrooged, starring Bill Murray as an over-reaching television executive who gets the proverbial three ghostly visits.

For the kids, there's the animated versions. Disney, of course, made one, Mickey's Christmas Carol, but much better is the 1971 release, A Christmas Carol. It stars Alistair Sim, as the voice of Scrooge, 20 years after his live-action portrayal. Michael Hordern, who played Jacob Marley in the 1951 film, is back as the voice of Marley in this one.

If that's not enough for you, try One Magic Christmas, partially filmed in Meaford and Owen Sound. It stars Mary Steenbergen as a 30-something woman who's lost her Christmas spirit and Harry Dean Stanton as an angel intent on helping her regain it. Local resident Jan Rubes appears as a very old-fashioned St. Nicholas.

Another favourite is Elf, starring Will Farrell as an oversized and overly-enthusiastic Elf sent to meet his father in New York City. Best part of this film is Bob Newhart as the boss elf.

Christmas with the Kranks stars Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis as a couple who decide to spend Christmas in the Caribbean instead of taking part in the usual neighbourhood festivities. Plans change when their daughter announces, on the morning of Christmas Eve, that she and her fiance are coming home for a good old family Christmas.

Allen stars as Santa in a couple of other Christmas movies, The Santa Clause and The Santa Clause II. They each have their moments but you get the sense there was a licenced toy marketing guru involved in writing the script. Sorry, but Santa's elves attacking a police station? Gimme a break.

There's a Santa Clause III, pairing Allen with Martin Short, but the reviews are less-than-enthusiastic.

The Polar Express polarizes audiences. People either love the spirit of the movie and the art, or they hate the creepy lack of expression in the faces. Some reviews even mention small children crying in the theatres because they found it too frightening. But if you like it -- and hey, it's got Tom Hanks, right? -- enjoy it again this year.

There are a lot of bad Christmas movies out there, but someone must like some of them. Bad Santa and its sequel are implausible messes. Jingle All The Way should only be shown to people who get caught up in pursuing the latest fad toy. Surviving Christmas can't survive even with an all-star cast.

New releases include Fred Claus, starring Paul Giamatti and Vince Vaughn. Reviews are tepid, at best. This Christmas lasted about four days in theatres.

The Man Who Saved Christmas could only have been written by a public relations lobbyist for the U.S. toy industry. As the Americans entered the First World War, their Congress passed legislation directing that making materiel for the war effort took precedence over toys and other consumer goods.

Jason Alexander plays a toy factory owner who lobbies to have the law repealed so his factory can keep churning out toys. That's 'saving Christmas'? No, there would have been a Christmas, but the factory owners' profits would have been down. So what was really saved? This movie, with its commerce-jingling-all-the-way theme, is a good example of bad Christmas films.

Want to be on the safe side? Go back to the 60s.

Check out the lists of Favourite Christmas movies on the internet and you'll find those '60s-era made-for-TV Christmas films on nearly every list. Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, A Charlie Brown Christmas, and of course that original version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas show up over and over again.

Which tells us, I suppose, that either those films have a long lifespan or lists of favourite Christmas movies are primarily drawn up by people who grew up in the 1960s.