10.) A Christmas Carol

Charles Dickens’ 1843 novella is possibly the most enduring and familiar Christmas story of all time. It has been adapted for TV and film hundreds of times, including the latest 3D animated version released by Disney this year. Collectively, they are all our number-ten pick. Some of our favorites include Scrooge (1951), Scrooged (1988), starring Bill Murray, and Mickey’s Christmas Carol (1983) (TV), starring Scrooge McDuck as Ebeneezer, of course. Two we could do without, both from the late 1990s, are Patrick Stewart’s A Christmas Carol (1999) (TV) and Ms. Scrooge (1997) (TV), starring Cicely Tyson as “Ms. Ebenita” Scrooge.

9.) Love, Actually (2003)

The most modern movie to make our list, Love, Actually, was an unexpected surprise. The British romantic comedy weaves together a number of love affairs into one well-wrapped holiday package. Sure to spark a dialogue among its viewers, as it did with our staff, this hip Christmas movie is actually loved.

8.) Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964) (TV)

Developed in 1939 by Robert May for the department store Montgomery Ward, Rudolph remains one of the most recognizable Christmas characters. It’s hard to not feel sympathetic toward the lovable, red-nosed quadruped, and it’s nice to know that even he has a place at Christmas.

7.) How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966) (TV)

The Grinch is the most famous holiday villain, and Chuck Jones’ 1966 cartoon is Seussean to a degree the big-budget, live-action Christmas movie just couldn’t achieve. Christmas isn’t Christmas without Cindy Lou, roast beast, and this TV classic, and we’d all do well to see our own hearts grow three sizes in a day.

6.) White Christmas (1954)

Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, starring Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye, is the lone musical to make our list. The popular song by the same title actually first arrived on the American scene in 1941 when Crosby performed the song on his popular NBC radio show, The Kraft Music Hall. The rest, as they say, is history. In 1942, the song was released as part of an album from the film Holiday Inn. In 1954, White Christmas, the film, was released, building on the song’s popularity, which subsequently became the top selling record of all time, selling more than 50 million copies.

5.) National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)

No holiday family function is complete without the dysfunction of Clark W. Griswold Jr. and clan. Unequivocally quaint and quotable, our number-five pick is already a classic in its own right. It’s hard to not feel right at home at the Griswold’s table, and the disaster that is the Griswold family makes us all feel a little better about our own.

4.) A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965) (TV)

The first animated TV special based on the popular Peanuts comic strip by Charles Shultz is also arguable the best. It is easy to see a little of all of us in the downtrodden Charlie Brown as he attempts to see past the secularism of Christmas to find true meaning.

3.) It’s A Wonderful Life (1946)

The bells still ring for this 1946 black-and-white classic starring Jimmy Stewart. As one of Stewart’s most memorable achievements as an actor, the flick delves into darker and more dramatic themes than most Christmas movies, including financial woes, troubled family life, and suicide. Still poignant today, especially in the midst of the current economic climate, this tale of retribution, family, and community captures the true spirit of the holidays.

2.) A Christmas Story (1983)

It’s Americana, nostalgic, and an almost perfect Christmas classic. In many minds, A Christmas Story is the quintessential Holiday tale. What is more American than spending the holidays with one’s family under the warm glow of a gleaming, Italian, sex-exuding “major award”—complete with fishnet stockings?

1.) Miracle on 34th Street (1947)

Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, New York City, and Santa—it’s Christmas in America, and our number one Christmas movie of all time is sure to make almost any Christmas curmudgeon believe.

Best Christmas Movies Ever The Saturday Evening Post

“Teacup,” used loosely, covers a number of minipigs and micropig breeds. They aren’t new, but have been thrust into the spotlight as Brit celebs just can’t seem to get enough of them. Rupert Grint, best known for his roll as Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter films, purportedly owns two of the tiny, scrunched-nose quadrupeds. Those owned by Grint are a cross of potbellied, Kune Kune, Tamworth, and Gloucester breeds and aren’t cheap at $1,100 each.

More on MSNBC.com: Adorable ‘teacup pigs’ are latest hit with Brits.

According to Joyce Wells of Centerhill, Florida, who has been breeding minipigs for the past four years, pigs make great pets, are as smart as a whip, and potty train in a matter of days. By Thursday morning, her personal, pig-centric Web site and blog had hosted over 37,000 visits, a 1,600 percent increase, she said.

Will this sudden interest translate to pet pork pandemonium stateside? You tell us.

Move Over Beatles, Here Come the Piglets The Saturday Evening Post

Over the next few months, though, I found myself with chicken on the brain. Weekly, if not nightly, I revisited the site, as well as a menagerie of similar ones. I read blogs, forums, and story after story of urban and rural Americans falling back in love with this once-familiar, feathered farm friend.

Idle curiosity promptly gave way to intense research. I wanted a flock of my own. I studied coops, breeds, feeders, feed, and anything else I could find related to raising chickens. I met owners, asked questions, and was introduced to their flocks. I was becoming a “chicken person.”

Since then, I have leaped feet first into avian ownership. I jumped aboard the urban-chicken bandwagon last week when I drove 40 minutes west to Heavenly Springs Farm in Greencastle, Indiana. There, I met Sally Mayall, a fellow chicken person, and six one-day-old, unsexed chicks, for which I paid $2 each. Sally and her family are blue-blooded chicken fanatics. “I love chickens. I think everyone should have one!” she exclaimed. Her daughter, she said, even watches TV with them.

A mature, blue bantam Ameraucana chicken poses for the camera at Sally Mayall's Heavenly Springs Farm in Greencastle, Indiana. October 1, 2009.

My new flock are bantam Ameraucanas, a smaller, exotic breed that lays bluish-green eggs, which I found quite novel. In a New Yorker article last week, though, writer Susan Orlean pointed out that Martha Stewart once featured her flock of the same breed in her first book, Entertaining. Disappointed that Martha beat me to the punch on this one (in my defense, I was one year old at the time the book was published), I am, however, pleased to discover we chicken people are in good company.

Want your own flock? Here are some resources I found helpful:

Small Flock Management, Mississippi State University Extension

Community/Forums on BackyardChickens.com.

Where to buy: Craigslist.org is a great resource to find local hatcheries, breeders, and chicken people. Navigate to the site, find your city, and search for “chicks” and/or “chickens.” Also check your newspaper’s classifieds.

Gallery: View more photos, click here.

Questions? Please, ask. Comment below.

Chick Magnet The Saturday Evening Post