When I was a kid growing up in New Jersey, it was such a treat to go with my grandmother to New York City around Christmastime. We would go out for lunch at an expensive restaurant in Rockefeller Center and watch the ice skaters as they would effortlessly glide underneath the very tall and lighted Christmas tree.

Then the highlight would be to walk to Radio Music Hall to see the Rockettes strut their stuff on the stage and then finally,  get to my favorite part of the day, to watch the Christmas movie on the big screen in the  velvety and ornate theater that was Radio City Music Hall.

I think I was around 10 years old when one of the Christmas movies we saw stuck with me like no movie ever has. I don’t recall ever hearing about this movie again nor do I ever see it during the annual Christmas movies and TV shows that light up the screen each year. Yet, the movie haunted me like no other Christmas movie.

I don’t remember much and I wonder how off track I am in my memory. Seems as if the film was filmed in either England or France and the only part I remember is, most likely, the last scene of the movie.

I remember a little boy around the same age as me living in this big beautiful mansion with wall length windows and heavy mustard drapes. I remember the film splitting between the young boy in the living room full of Christmas packages and a beautiful Christmas tree at least 20 feet in stature to a scene with the boy’s father in some sporty foreign car with a look of worry racing on an empty wooded road rushing towards the house with the boy.

The scene ends with the father rushing into the living room to find his son dead under the Christmas tree without opening any presents. I vaguely remember that during the movie, the young boy was suffering from leukemia.

This is all I remember of the movie. Not really the sort of Christmas film that captures the redemptive spirit of  Christmas giving, or the romantic comedy or Santa Claus with elves movies one sees these days on the screen, but the reality of the film and the sadness surrounding the loss of a young boy at Christmas has stayed with me for over forty years.

It made me, even back then and more so, now, think about the celebration and the solemnity of Christ’s birth – the true meaning of what Christmas is and should mean. That sacrifice, family, hope, faith, and love are not mere words, but what our life, here on earth, is all about.

Just in case you’re wondering:  The Christmas Tree is a French film entitled, L’Arbre De Noel that was distributed in 1969 featuring William Holden, Brooke Fuller, and Virna Lisi. It did not receive good reviews and was criticized for its bad acting and sentimentality. It can be seen, in its entirety, on youtube.com.