Two Christmas movies that have become such a part of popular culture that they both rate their own 24 hour marathon showings during the days before the twenty-fifth.

The first of these is the sentimental Depression-era story It's A Wonderful Life. In this story George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) gets to see what life would have been like for his family and his town if he had never been born. After George sees just how much influence he had on others, how big a difference his presence made for his community, he runs through the street filled with the joyful knowledge that his IS a wonderful life.

But since George Bailey is a grown-up, the events and experiences he learns to re-appreciate as wonderful are the most obviously important occurrences in a grown-ups life: e.g. when he saves his broth…