CITY Screen, York is celebrating the Christmas season with a series of festive films and satellite ballet, and concert screenings from Monday to December 31.

These will include live broadcasts from the Royal Opera House, London, and the Berlin Philharmonic alongside such films as Elf, Mary Poppins and It’s A Wonderful Life.

Dave Taylor, marketing manager at City Screen, says: “We have a delightful selection of films this month. There’ll be action movies, comedy capers, children’s favourites, an autism-friendly screening, classic movies and the festive buffet screening on Christmas Eve. Not forgetting two ballets and a New Year’s Eve gala concert live from Berlin.”

The season opens on Monday with the 8.45pm screening of odd-couple cop movie Lethal Weapon (15), in which long-suffering Danny Glover has to contend with loose-cannon new partner Mel Gibson.

Will Ferrell plays a man raised by elves who travels to New York and discovers that everyone there has forgotten the true meaning of Christmas in Elf (PG) on December 16 at 6.15pm.

Cary Grant appears as a debonair angel opposite Loretta Young’s eponymous heroine in the heart-warming romantic comedy The Bishop’s Wife (U) on December 20 at 3pm and December 21 at 12.30pm.

No Christmas goes by without It’s A Wonderful Life (U) returning to City Screen. Sure enough, Frank Capra’s sentimental testament to small-town life and life-long love, starring James Stewart and Donna Reed, is booked in for four performances: December 20 at 6.30pm; December 21, 3pm; December 23, 8.30pm; and Christmas Eve, 11.30am.

Cinema Paradiso (PG), Giuseppe Tornatore’s romantic, nostalgic, funny and exuberant story of a young Sicilian boy’s friendship with the irascible village cinema projectionist, enchants again on December 22 at 11.30am; December 23, 5.45pm; and Boxing Day, 12.30pm.

In the wake of last week’s release of Saving Mr Banks, the story of Walt Disney’s battle of wills with Mary Poppins author PL Travers, the Disney film of the supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Mary Poppins (U) pops into City Screen with Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke Sunday on December 22 at 1pm and Christmas Eve at 11.30am.

An Autism-Friendly screening of Arthur Christmas (U), Aardman Animations’ family fantasy about a mission to save Christmas for one little girl whose presents goes missing, takes place on December 23 at 10.45am.

The Nightmare Before Christmas (PG), Henry Selick’s magical stop-motion animation about the King of Hallowe’en Town, based on a Tim Burton story, will be shown in 3D on December 23 at 6.15pm.

City Screen’s traditional Christmas Eve film and buffet special precedes Miracle On 34th Street (U) at 3pm with festive food, mulled wine or a soft drink and a mince pie at 2.30pm.

The film season ends with John Landis’s slyly satirical comedy Trading Places (15) on December 30 at 8.45pm. Eddie Murphy stars as a street hustler who swaps lives with Dan Aykroyd’s businessman in order to settle a bet.

The satellite ballet screenings starts on December 12 at 7.15pm with the Royal Ballet Live in The Nutcracker, wherein two children have a magical adventure on Christmas Eve with toys that come to life, an evil Mouse King and a visit to the Kingdom of Sweets.

Svetlana Zakharova and David Hallberg dance the lead roles in the Bolshoi Ballet production of Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty on December 22 at 3pm.

The City Screen satellite year ends on December 31 at 4.30pm with the Berlin Philharmonic New Year’s Eve Gala Concert, in which Sir Simon Rattle conducts Chinese pianist Lang Lang and the Berliner Philharmoniker in a live programme of Brahms, Prokofiev, Hindemith, Dvorak and Khachaturian works.

• Tickets can be booked on 0871 902 5726 or at picturehouses.co.uk/york