Christmas movie time is here. I've already seen several. And yes, I have favorites. 6. And 3 of those are Scrooge based. In no particular order:
the 1951 Alistair-Sim-A Christmas Carol-Scrooge (in the UK)
Scrooged
Albert Finney the singing Scrooge
A Christmas Story
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
It's a Wonderful Life
Beyond those, I've grown to love Love Actually for those mixed-emotion Yuletide moments. The Bishop's Wife is part of my family traditions and I've given it to my brothers. We watch it every year. Along the watch-it-every-year line, there's Miracle on 34th Street, Home Alone, The Polar Express, The Santa Clause, all the Rankin-Bass stop-motion specials, the Twilight Zone Art Carney episode, at least one Honeymooner or Father Knows Best, the Mary Tyler Moore where she works alone Christmas Eve, and A Charlie Brown Christmas. I'd say that probably means a yearly ritual of watching Christmas programming for at least a full 36-hour period over 4 weeks or so. And that doesn't count the shows that play as background noise while doing holiday things. At least 2 channels on my cable system are pretty much All Christmas All The Time, have been since after Thanksgiving, maybe 3 or 4.
Do we need so much? I think maybe. We're in interesting times and more than a few of my friends and family are PTSD and shellshocked. It takes a lot to get thru that density of emotions til you feel anything, much less holidays. So maybe repetition is good in that case. Seems to be working for me this year.
We also all just need a break. This has been an outstandingly awful year for a lot of people. How great is it to throw everything to the side for a little bit and step out of Hell? It doesn't hurt. In fact it helps. The last week I've been blogging like mad about the holidays and I ain't the only one. We need a lot of Christmas this year. I'm not even a Christian but I'll never give up Christmas. They'll pry Santa out of my cold dead hands. : )
MYSTERIOUS GARDEN
10 months ago
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6 comments:
Every year it seems to take more and more effort to get into the "Christmas spirit". I'm considering next year going to Florida and just running away from the whole thing. Just imagine sending a few gift certificates or cheques in the mail with my ever diminishing card list and then just relaxing in the sun.
I know what you mean. As the years went by even my mother backed off on Christmas. I barely did it one year and realized how important it was to me, so here I am in the thick of it again. Now that I have a system it's not so stressful but it still takes a lot to get in the mood.
It is not Christmas in our home without National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. We all know the words by heart, but we laugh out loud throughout.
This might be hard to believe, but this year was the first time that I watched the entire "It's a Wonderful Life." It was truly "wonderful". Even though the acting is dated, Jimmy Stewart was wonderful. Why did I wait so long.
Movies do put me in the mood to be jolly and festive and even though I have reached the senior citizen status, there is still joy left in my heart.
Just love your last line.
That's the thing, Arleen. If we can't get to joy and don't even seek it, what the hell?
And wow! You must've set a record with never seeing IAWL til now!
Growing up I missed out on the Xmas movies for the most part so they don't mean much to me now.
Next weekend we get our tree (the last or next to last one on the lot, by tradition). While we
decorate it we'll probably play some ghod awful xmas music by Frank, Ella, Gladys Knight, Ray Chuck & maybe Elvis...just 'cuz we love the voices...
Sometimes I wish I'd been raised pagan.
Well if you want to see any of the movies, let me know. I own most of them.
You can't get away from Christianity in this country! LOL!
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