Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)

I was looking for must-watch Christmas movies and Meet Me in St. Louis popped out. It was already on my watchlist —I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure Birgit over BB Creations talked about it in one of her Thursday Movie Picks post— so I checked it out, and it was a very pleasant surprise —I'm not a fan of musicals, after all. 

Set in early 1900s St. Louis, the film follows Smith family in the months leading up to the city's 1904 World's Fair. The second eldest of the four Smith girls, Esther (Judy Garland), has an endless crush on the boy next door, John Truett (Tom Drake), who hasn't noticed her yet; the oldest sister, Rose (Lucille Bremer), has a romance with Warren Sheffield (Robert Sully) who is now in New York City; the other two Smith girls, the younger ones, Agnes (Joan Carroll) and Tootie (Margaret O'Brien), engage in shenanigans. The family's dynamics are disrupted when the father, Alonzo (Leon Ames), decides to take a new position in New York City.

A Star Is Born (1954)

I've been meaning to watch A Star Is Born since the dawn of time but I kept putting it off because of its length. Having read great things about it eventually got the best of me. I guess it's because I had very high expectations but I didn't find it that special, just an average musical. 

The film tells the story of Esther Blodgett (Judy Garland), a talented young singer with a band, and Norman Maine (James Mason), an alcoholic movie star whose career is on the wane. He drunkenly stumbles into her act one night, he is smitten by her voice, takes her under his wing and gets her a screen test at the studio he works for. She becomes a major star, their relationship grows and they eventually get married. But soon Norman loses control as he can't control his alcoholism.