Dinner for One (or The 90th Birthday): this short British comedy film from 1963, virtually unknown in the English-speaking world, is one of Europe’s favourite holiday season movies. Starring Freddie Frinton and May Warden, it concerns an elderly lady and her butler celebrating her birthday with four imaginary friends. The butler becomes increasingly inebriated as he is forced to imitate each of the long-dead guests and drink toasts in their names. The recurring line “The same procedure as every year” has become a catch phrase across northern Europe.
For some reason this little slapstick farce has become a tradition in late December in many countries. It is broadcast every December 23 on Norwegian television and on New Year’s Eve in the rest of Scandinavia and Germany.
Similar curious broadcast traditions occur in Italy where the 1983 American comedy Trading Places has become a Christmas Eve staple, Britain where the animation of Brigg’s book The Snowman is shown every year over the holidays and in eastern Europe where a variation on the Cinderella story Tři oříšky pro Popelku is popular.