White Christmas: Unexpected Learnings from my Favorite Christmas Movie

Every year we go out and hunt for the perfect Christmas tree, bring it home, drag the decorations up from the basement and start the Christmas season. While we decorate the tree the TV is on with the movie White Christmas playing in the background. This year our perfect Christmas tree was a 5 foot tree from The Home Depot, so our decorating finished early and I had more time to watch the movie.

The next morning I woke up with part of the song "Counting Your Blessings" running through my head. The part I am thinking of goes like this:

When my bankroll is getting small
I think of when I had none at all
And I fall asleep...
Counting my blessings

As I spent the day humming those lines I realized...not only does the song have a catchy tune, the movie itself holds great life lessons around money! Here are a few lessons I've gleaned from White Christmas.

1. Count My Blessings Now, Because There Have Been Harder Times. Now isn't that the truth! I arrived in the city I now call home via a one-way bus ticket with $10, a pillow, sleeping bag and change of cloths. No place to stay, no one I knew, nothing. That's a harder time. My husband had to resort to poaching for food in years past. That's a harder time too. I think most of us could think of sometime in the past that is harder than now. What a great moment to stop and thank God for all the blessings in our lives.

2. When There Is Opportunity, Take It! In the movie, Phil Davis saves the life of famous entertainer Bob Wallace. When Wallace tells him to let him know if there is ever anything he can do to return the favor Davis jumps at the opportunity and a great partnership is born. I think I would have taken the polite road and hemmed and hawed a bit, then not said anything and always wished I would have. Opportunities though tend to only come once and I need to learn to grab them just like Davis did!

3. Helping Others Can Cost Us At Times, And That's Ok.When Wallace goes to New York to put the plug in for his military buddies to come to the lodge he turns down lots of money in free advertising and other kickbacks. Although he could have made more money he put the human value over the dollar value, and in the end it made all the difference. Life isn't just about money, a lesson those of us in debt can sometimes forget. 

I wonder what hidden lessons are in other movies?