Edward Scissorhands is a Christmas movie. Don’t argue with me.

It’s Saturday morning, and after I wrote my blog post, I decided to take care of some household chores and stuff. Because I’m a bachelor and I do these things.

Anyway … I turned on the TV and planned on airing some movie in the background. You know, something that I could hear while I’m doing something else.

Scrolled through the Disney+ menu. Maybe a Star Wars movie I’ve seen 50 times already, perhaps some 1970’s-era Disney Medfield College film (you know, “The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes” or “The Absent-Minded Professor”).

Then I saw that Disney+ had the film Edward Scissorhands as a selectable movie choice.

Hold all my calls for the next two hours.

And for a moment, it was 1990 and I was front-row at the Madison Theater, watching this classic on its then-single big screen.

And I was lost in time.

Edward Scissorhands is a dark fairy tale, populated by director Tim Burton’s pastel-tinged suburbia and the dark underbelly hidden beneath it. And all it takes is a character created from equal parts of Charlie Chaplin, Pinocchio, Marcel Marceau and Freddy Krueger to make this film sparkle.

Trust me, this story is just emotion-ripping. That scene where Winona Ryder tells Johnny Depp to hold her, and Depp softly whispers, “I can’t” – it gets me in the heartstrings every time. It’s one of those motion pictures – along with the silent classic City Lights, the war film Memphis Belle and maybe even the 1970’s boxing film The Champ – that can really catch my emotions.

And I also believe that Edward Scissorhands qualifies as a Christmas movie. Hey, if you can put Die Hard in that category – maybe even the first two Home Alone movies as well – then sure, Edward Scissorhands counts as a Christmas movie. Some of the climactic scenes take place during a Christmas party, and there is the theme that runs throughout the movie of the gifts of beauty being discovered in what would normally exist as items of cruelty. Plus, it’s one last great performance by Vincent Price as The Inventor, so there’s that as well.

See? Another great Christmas movie. And it didn’t even have Candace Cameron Bure or Lacey Chabert in it. 😀