When I was a kid in the late ...
Question: When I was a kid in the late '60s/early '70s, there was a Christmas movie I saw more than once on TV. It was about a little shepherd boy who chases a bird off a cliff and died. He goes to heaven, where the angels are preparing for Jesus' birthday, but he just wants to go home. Finally he's allowed to go home, and he comes back with the little box he keeps his treasures in and realizes that giving it to the baby Jesus would be a true gift from the heart. Do you know the title? Now that I think about it, I'm not even sure whether it was a movie or a television Christmas special.
Answer: You're remembering a Hallmark Hall of Fame TV-movie called The Littlest Angel (1969), starring Johnny Whitaker of the series Family Affair (1966-1971) as the child angel. Many people have strong and vivid memories of the impression this movie made on them, but a lot of them have been disappointed when they saw the film as adults: The low-budget effects and staginess of the production is painfully apparent. That said, I think part of the problem could be that to see the movie as grown adults and as parents themselves, the very notion of a dead child trapped in heaven cuts so close to home that it overwhelms every other aspect of the story.
