Living in the present moment can be difficult, and our busy lives make it even more so, especially during the Christmas season. The season can weigh heavily, pulling us in a hundred directions. Our minds drift to memories of past Christmases that seem warmer, then quickly project into the future: Will Mom or Dad still be here? Will the children be alright when they leave?

Christmas stokes unease even as its rituals, such as midnight mass, carols, candles, and familiar prayers, wash over us. The season seems to demand presence; yet we often fall short, and it passes in a blur.

Losing gratitude for the present moment lies at the heart of Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life (1947), the greatest Christmas film ever made. Jimmy Stewart, in his finest performance, portrays George Bailey, a family man who is forced to reconsider his life on a cold Christmas Eve. His life is shaped as much by what he’s missed as by what he has. He longs to leave Bedford Falls, to travel, to design magnificent buildings, to get from under Mr. Potter’s thumb. George’s unfulfilled dreams magnify his uneasiness and obscure the goodness around him.

Although the film has a veneer of sentimentality, beneath it Capra advances a subtle current of anxiety and postwar malaise. The film begins........

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