Based on the Charles Dickens classic, "A Christmas Carol" stars Bill Murray as Frank Cross, an uber-successful but heartless TV exec whose idea of a happy holiday special has Santa battling terrorists with automatic weapons.
It's not really his fault. The product of an unhappy home, Frank's best childhood moments were spent in the electric glow of the television -- so he doesn't relate well to people.
But after visits from the ghosts of Christmases past, present and future (not to mention his late ex-boss), he sees the error of his hard-driving, TV-loving, money-grubbing ways, starts appreciating the people around him, and gets a real life.
What it reveals: "Money is the means to the end, and not the end in itself," says Ira Bryck, director of the Family Business Center at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Revelation for cynics: The ending, featuring the R&B classic "Put a Little Love in Your Heart," also puts a little life in your holiday music. Who says all carols have to be minor-key dirges or reindeer ditties?