Remember when movies used to be inspired by books (as opposed to TV shows and Marvel comics)?

This week on “Picture Perfect,” enjoy an hour of music from movies adapted from novels and short stories on Christmas themes, or with memorable Christmas moments.

We’ll begin with Alfred Newman’s score for “O. Henry’s Full House,” a 1952 anthology based on five separate O. Henry stories, each presented by a different screenwriter and director. The film is doubly literary in that each of its segments is introduced by none other than John Steinbeck. We’ll hear music from the final portion, based on the classic Christmas tale “The Gift of the Magi.”

Louisa May Alcott’s “Little Women” sports a memorable Christmas chapter, in which the March family helps out a neighbor-in-need by donating their Christmas breakfast – only to be rewarded later in the day with a feast of their own. “Little Women” has been adapted to film at least six times. With the latest version now in theaters, we’ll look back to its 1994 incarnation, with Winona Ryder and Susan Sarandon, and featuring an Academy Award-nominated score by Thomas Newman (son of Alfred).

Miklós Rózsa won his third Academy Award his music for the 1959 version of “Ben-Hur” (now filmed three times). We’ll hear the prologue and Nativity scene. General Lew Wallace’s novel, published in 1880, became the bestselling work of American fiction for the next 50 years. Its streak was broken in 1936 with the appearance of Margaret Mitchell’s “Gone with the Wind.”

Finally, we’ll turn to a suite from a 1951 adaptation of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” (released in the UK as “Scrooge”). I can’t even count how many times that one’s been filmed. This particular version stars the great Alastair Sim. The music was composed by Richard Addinsell – he of the “Warsaw Concerto” fame – and the performance is conducted by Alfred Newman’s OTHER musical son, David.

Take a break from the holiday hurly-burly, and cozy in for a library of Christmas classics, on “Picture Perfect,” this Friday evening at 6:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.