This was a blog I originally wrote in 2006 and I figured I'd repost it here.
As I have previously mentioned, I love Christmas. The problem, I've discovered, is that I get this amazing Christmas build-up and then I'm supposed to just move on as if nothing ever happened. So I propose that we have the Christmas cool-down - a period of time (the week between Christmas and New Year's) where the Christmas obsessed can slowly purge the Christmas celebration out of their system instead of quitting cold turkey
First step is the radio music. Koast and the Fish have played non-stop Christmas music for one month and then, on December 26th it's back to the same old thing. Maybe we can compromise. For cooldown week perhaps they can play a series of 'winter' songs and New Year's songs. Here is a possible play-list: Baby It's Cold Outside, Winter Wonderland, Let it Snow, What are you doing New Year's, Auld Lang Sayne. For starters. This slow dissipation will take the edge off.
Next, we have the Christmas specials on TV. I love Christmas movies, do they have to end? The answer is simply, NO! There are plenty of movies in which the story takes place over the ENTIRE holiday season. These can be shown during cooldown as well. Here are some examples: Boyfriend for Christmas (my new favorite), When Harry Met Sally, Holiday Inn, that great one I saw on Lifetime about the homeless divorcee who gets her real estate liscence (I'm not kidding, I watched it yesterday and delighted in every delicious minute of it), and I can't think of any more, but they do exist.
Now about decorations. I feel that Christmas decorations can be left up during Cooldown. It's just one week more and I spent all that time putting them up. Maybe I can just put away one decoration a day and then it won't be such a shock.
Spreading Holiday cheer. This is the worst, because people seem to lose that 'true holday spirit' by the 27th. I am not going to let this one go. I'm going to wish people a happy new year and then a happy winter and then a happy Martin Luther King Jr. day, and then a happy President's day and I'll keep finding some holiday to wish people joy. [side note: I was shopping on Dec 23rd and I was so happy because it was almost Christmas, I was done with school, and I was almost done shopping. I was smiling so big and nearly skipping on my way to Barnes and Noble (or 'home', as I like to call it). I was deliciously happy. The best part was people would stare at me and then smile back. One group of people stopped their conversations and said, "Merry Christmas!" "Merry Christmas!" I shouted back and then I really did skip. I love that kind of community joy]
So please support me in my effort to relieve my post-Christmas blues by celebrating the Christmas Cooldown. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a wonderful New Year. And for those who celebrate various other holidays (Channukah, Kwanza, Festivus, etc) I hope that you enjoyed those as well.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Friday, December 18, 2009
I am Buddy the Elf
I was watching "Elf" again and I realized that I have so much in common with Buddy (the elf who is actually human, but raised by elves). Here's some ways in which we are similar:
1) I love sugar and I like to put sugar in lots of things (even things that don't usually have sugar)
2) I am usually happy and cheerful.
3) I like to whisper, too.
4) I get distracted by shiny things.
5) I love New York.
6) I don't sleep much (last night I got a full 45 minutes)
7) I love to decorate for Christmas.
8) I like to hug people.
9) I sing in public even when there's no song playing anywhere, even when people are around.
10) I went through the Lincoln Tunnel.
I was not raised by elves, but I do celebrate Christmas in the Reimer family, so that's practically the same thing.
1) I love sugar and I like to put sugar in lots of things (even things that don't usually have sugar)
2) I am usually happy and cheerful.
3) I like to whisper, too.
4) I get distracted by shiny things.
5) I love New York.
6) I don't sleep much (last night I got a full 45 minutes)
7) I love to decorate for Christmas.
8) I like to hug people.
9) I sing in public even when there's no song playing anywhere, even when people are around.
10) I went through the Lincoln Tunnel.
I was not raised by elves, but I do celebrate Christmas in the Reimer family, so that's practically the same thing.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
My Love For Christmas Movies Grows Greater With the Hallmark Channel
Yes, Brenda, there is a Santa Claus. Apparently, the cable that comes with our HOA fees for our condo as been upgraded. Julie called me the other day and told me the great news, "Christmas has come early for you, Bren!" "What?" I asked. "We now get the Hallmark Channel!" She giggled into the phone. "Record EVERYTHING!"
To me, there is no better TV than a cheesy Christmas movie. Old or new, poorly made and funded or a beautiful classic; I've seen them all. Julie keeps trying to stump me. She'll name the actors and the title in the latest one she recorded and I can tell her the basic storyline and rate it. Tonight she turned on one and I thought for sure it was one I hadn't seen. But then it started to look familiar, "If there's a lake on the other side of that house, then I've seen this one before. I think it's one of those darker, more serious ones." Sure enough, there was a lake.
Now, I know that not all of them are great, heck, some of them are down right awful. But I love them just the same. I've decided to collect a little list of some of my top Christmas movies. I'm sure I'll leave some off the list out of pure forgetfulness on my part. No slight is intended. They are listed in no particular order.
1) White Christmas - Premise: two WWII veterans meet during the war and form a musical act that leads them to fame and fortune, but sadly also leaves them without much of a personal life. They meet the Haynes sisters and fall for them quickly. They also, unwittingly, follow them to Vermont to ski resort run by their old general who is now retired. The season is slow as the snow has not fallen. The team decided to help the old man out by holding their show at the lodge. Romance, dancing, singing, comedy, misunderstanding, and some of the best costumes in the world follow. How can you beat Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, and that really skinny blond chick? You can't. This is one of my favorite movies, period.
Rating and suggested audience: A+, everyone should see it.
2) Holiday Inn - this is the one that started it all! Premise: Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire are an entertainment team. Fred steals Bing's girl (Fred's dancing partner). Bing decides to leave the entertainment world behind and open an inn. It does poorly until he decides to open it on Holidays with a great show about that Holiday. Fred's partner leaves him and he comes to Bing's place and falls for Bing's new girl.
Best Parts: Singing and dancing for all seasons. This has the songs: Easter Bonnet and White Christmas (this is where it first came out). Bing sings and Fred dances...no more needs to be said.
Rating and suggested audience A-, people who love old movies or anyone who loves musicals.
3) A Boyfriend for Christmas - In my opinion, the best Hallmark has ever made. Premise: A young pre-teen asks Santa for a boyfriend for Christmas. He promises her one, but says she must wait 20 years. Sure enough, she grows up and still has not met mr.right. The same Santa sets her up with a handsome lawyer. All goes as it should in a Christmas movie, but some deceit that lingers and an old ex boyfriend threaten to ruin Christmas romance! No fear, it's a Hallmark movie.
Best parts: "Diane sent you a man for Christmas! Where was she when I was single?"
Rating and suggested audience: A+. any girl and some guys. It's a chick flick for sure, but a really good one.
4) Elf - the best Christmas comedy. Premise: Buddy, a human, was raised by elves in the North Pole. He later discovers that he is, in fact, not an elf and searches out his real father in New York. Christmas may be ruined, but by people believing (in some nebulous thing they must 'believe' in) Christmas is saved.
Best parts: So many quotable lines come from this movie...so many! "I just like smiling, smiling's my favorite."
Rating and suggested audience: A+ everyone
5) Miracle on 34th St. - the real one. Premise: a single mom, who works for Macy's, raises her daughter, Suzie, to be very practical and not believe in fairy tales like Santa. Santa of course comes in and changes their minds and connects the mom to the love of her life.
Best parts: When Santa speaks to the little girl in Dutch, when all the letters get delivered to Santa, when Susie runs into the house and her mother says, "Susie, you know better than to run into strange people's homes."
Rating and suggested audience: A+ everyone
6) If you believe - Premise: a book editor sours over time and alienates herself from all of her family and friends. She is bitter and has become bad at her job. On Thanksgiving, she falls and hits her head and as a result, her inner child comes out and tries to guide her back to a time where she enjoyed life and lived it. She discovers a new writer (who is also, single, charming, and handsome) and he (along with her inner child, played by Hayden Pannitierre from Heroes) bring her back to her former glory.
Best parts: I'm a book nerd, so I love the parts where they are editing the book. I don't think other people would like that part as well.
Rating and suggested audience: B-, girls
7) I'll Be Home for Christmas, A Holiday for Love, and A Holiday to Remember: Why are these three listed together? Because they are the same movie, essentially. Premise: Small town desperately needs something to save it (a new Dr, the town plant to not close, children who need saving). Big town character comes to town (sometimes their hometown) and they clash with the equally single and attractive small town character who is in opposition to them. Through the Christmas time, they grow in love and understanding and Christmas, and the town, are saved!
Best Parts: guessing correctly about what the actors will say next.
Rating and suggested audience: C-, people know what Fa La La La Lifetime is.
8) A Season for Miracles: Premise: a young woman is not allowed to take care of her drug addicted sister's two children and they will be split up for foster care. She kidnaps them and drives in her old bug to escape. Her car breaks down in a small town. The night is very cold and they decide to sleep in a beautiful home that in not currently lived in. The whole town thinks she is the dead owner's niece, come to inherit the property. She goes along with the scheme in the hopes that she can take care of her niece and nephew. She falls for the town sheriff and the town falls for her. The truth is discovered and she is still forgiven. The kids get to stay with her and she and the sheriff are reunited.
Best Parts: the cheese of the whole thing
Rating and suggested audience: B+, chicks only
There are so many more: The Christmas Card, The Christmas Box, Time piece, The Christmas Child, Single Santa Seeks Mrs. Claus and Meet the Clauses (the sequal), Midnight and Mistletoe, Eve's Christmas, A Carol Christmas, Die Hard, The Bishop's Wife (that one's such a great one, A++), The Polar Express, His and Her Christmas, The Perfect Day, The Most Wonderful Time of the Year, The Christmas Angel (creepy, don't see it), The Note and The Note II, Silent Night (about WWII), Joyeux Noel (so wonderful and a true story about WWI and an amazing Christmas Eve), and Mixed Nuts, and too many movies!! Oh, yeah the Christmas Story, A Charlie Brown Christmas, A Muppets Family Christmas, The Muppets' Christmas Carol, Rudolf, man, there isn't enough time to watch them all.
I hope you enjoy your Christmas specials this season. Let me know if you have any great ones and I'll add it to my list.
To me, there is no better TV than a cheesy Christmas movie. Old or new, poorly made and funded or a beautiful classic; I've seen them all. Julie keeps trying to stump me. She'll name the actors and the title in the latest one she recorded and I can tell her the basic storyline and rate it. Tonight she turned on one and I thought for sure it was one I hadn't seen. But then it started to look familiar, "If there's a lake on the other side of that house, then I've seen this one before. I think it's one of those darker, more serious ones." Sure enough, there was a lake.
Now, I know that not all of them are great, heck, some of them are down right awful. But I love them just the same. I've decided to collect a little list of some of my top Christmas movies. I'm sure I'll leave some off the list out of pure forgetfulness on my part. No slight is intended. They are listed in no particular order.
1) White Christmas - Premise: two WWII veterans meet during the war and form a musical act that leads them to fame and fortune, but sadly also leaves them without much of a personal life. They meet the Haynes sisters and fall for them quickly. They also, unwittingly, follow them to Vermont to ski resort run by their old general who is now retired. The season is slow as the snow has not fallen. The team decided to help the old man out by holding their show at the lodge. Romance, dancing, singing, comedy, misunderstanding, and some of the best costumes in the world follow. How can you beat Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, and that really skinny blond chick? You can't. This is one of my favorite movies, period.
Rating and suggested audience: A+, everyone should see it.
2) Holiday Inn - this is the one that started it all! Premise: Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire are an entertainment team. Fred steals Bing's girl (Fred's dancing partner). Bing decides to leave the entertainment world behind and open an inn. It does poorly until he decides to open it on Holidays with a great show about that Holiday. Fred's partner leaves him and he comes to Bing's place and falls for Bing's new girl.
Best Parts: Singing and dancing for all seasons. This has the songs: Easter Bonnet and White Christmas (this is where it first came out). Bing sings and Fred dances...no more needs to be said.
Rating and suggested audience A-, people who love old movies or anyone who loves musicals.
3) A Boyfriend for Christmas - In my opinion, the best Hallmark has ever made. Premise: A young pre-teen asks Santa for a boyfriend for Christmas. He promises her one, but says she must wait 20 years. Sure enough, she grows up and still has not met mr.right. The same Santa sets her up with a handsome lawyer. All goes as it should in a Christmas movie, but some deceit that lingers and an old ex boyfriend threaten to ruin Christmas romance! No fear, it's a Hallmark movie.
Best parts: "Diane sent you a man for Christmas! Where was she when I was single?"
Rating and suggested audience: A+. any girl and some guys. It's a chick flick for sure, but a really good one.
4) Elf - the best Christmas comedy. Premise: Buddy, a human, was raised by elves in the North Pole. He later discovers that he is, in fact, not an elf and searches out his real father in New York. Christmas may be ruined, but by people believing (in some nebulous thing they must 'believe' in) Christmas is saved.
Best parts: So many quotable lines come from this movie...so many! "I just like smiling, smiling's my favorite."
Rating and suggested audience: A+ everyone
5) Miracle on 34th St. - the real one. Premise: a single mom, who works for Macy's, raises her daughter, Suzie, to be very practical and not believe in fairy tales like Santa. Santa of course comes in and changes their minds and connects the mom to the love of her life.
Best parts: When Santa speaks to the little girl in Dutch, when all the letters get delivered to Santa, when Susie runs into the house and her mother says, "Susie, you know better than to run into strange people's homes."
Rating and suggested audience: A+ everyone
6) If you believe - Premise: a book editor sours over time and alienates herself from all of her family and friends. She is bitter and has become bad at her job. On Thanksgiving, she falls and hits her head and as a result, her inner child comes out and tries to guide her back to a time where she enjoyed life and lived it. She discovers a new writer (who is also, single, charming, and handsome) and he (along with her inner child, played by Hayden Pannitierre from Heroes) bring her back to her former glory.
Best parts: I'm a book nerd, so I love the parts where they are editing the book. I don't think other people would like that part as well.
Rating and suggested audience: B-, girls
7) I'll Be Home for Christmas, A Holiday for Love, and A Holiday to Remember: Why are these three listed together? Because they are the same movie, essentially. Premise: Small town desperately needs something to save it (a new Dr, the town plant to not close, children who need saving). Big town character comes to town (sometimes their hometown) and they clash with the equally single and attractive small town character who is in opposition to them. Through the Christmas time, they grow in love and understanding and Christmas, and the town, are saved!
Best Parts: guessing correctly about what the actors will say next.
Rating and suggested audience: C-, people know what Fa La La La Lifetime is.
8) A Season for Miracles: Premise: a young woman is not allowed to take care of her drug addicted sister's two children and they will be split up for foster care. She kidnaps them and drives in her old bug to escape. Her car breaks down in a small town. The night is very cold and they decide to sleep in a beautiful home that in not currently lived in. The whole town thinks she is the dead owner's niece, come to inherit the property. She goes along with the scheme in the hopes that she can take care of her niece and nephew. She falls for the town sheriff and the town falls for her. The truth is discovered and she is still forgiven. The kids get to stay with her and she and the sheriff are reunited.
Best Parts: the cheese of the whole thing
Rating and suggested audience: B+, chicks only
There are so many more: The Christmas Card, The Christmas Box, Time piece, The Christmas Child, Single Santa Seeks Mrs. Claus and Meet the Clauses (the sequal), Midnight and Mistletoe, Eve's Christmas, A Carol Christmas, Die Hard, The Bishop's Wife (that one's such a great one, A++), The Polar Express, His and Her Christmas, The Perfect Day, The Most Wonderful Time of the Year, The Christmas Angel (creepy, don't see it), The Note and The Note II, Silent Night (about WWII), Joyeux Noel (so wonderful and a true story about WWI and an amazing Christmas Eve), and Mixed Nuts, and too many movies!! Oh, yeah the Christmas Story, A Charlie Brown Christmas, A Muppets Family Christmas, The Muppets' Christmas Carol, Rudolf, man, there isn't enough time to watch them all.
I hope you enjoy your Christmas specials this season. Let me know if you have any great ones and I'll add it to my list.
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