Hanukkah in Texas, Christmas in Connecticut

I’m not spending Christmas in Connecticut, but I kind of wish I was, since I love this 1945 movie starring Barbara Stanwyck.

I first saw it on television randomly a few years ago, and have watched it every year since. I’m not exactly sure why this movie would appeal so much to a contemporary New York Jewish girl…but I think it’s partly because I love, love, love Barbara Stanwyck.

She’s in her late thirties when she appears in this movie, but she looks twenty. She plays a young writer for a women’s magazine who writes a column about cooking, cleaning, mothering, and housekeeping, even though (unbeknownst to everybody) she has no husband or child and can’t flip a pancake.

Dennis Morgan plays a soldier home from the war who she’s supposed to entertain for Christmas. It’s impossible not to fall in love with him. There’s a hysterical scene when he shows her how to bathe a baby…and in his uniform…let’s just say I would not be displeased if I had to entertain Dennis Morgan for Hanukkah, Christmas, or even Secretaries Day.

Or maybe I love this movie because there’s something incredibly romantic about falling in love in the winter. What could be happier than romance in the snow?

Happy holidays, everyone! Hope yours brings you some good chocolate, lots of great books, and some snow and romance (of the film variety…or any variety at all.)