Christmas Viewing

One surefire way to get ready for Christmas: watch Christmas films or television programs. Unfortunately, considering some of the material, that’s also a surefire way to kill the Christmas spirit. Then again, so is Christmas shopping in crowds of mean spirited jackasses. Perhaps too much and too soon, especially in the wrong tone, should be a warning sign.

As a film and television fan, I love a night’s worth of entertainment with friends or family. Nothing beats cozying up on the couch with a sweet TV special or a fun movie… which is probably why so many specials and films come out with a Christmas theme or story. However, it’s easy to find something that merely uses Christmas as a setting or a backdrop and not as an element of the story, or the reason for the story.

British television seems to have a tradition of big deal productions on Christmas, but Christmas is only the vehicle. There’s nothing wrong with that in and of itself… Only Fools and Horses is funny and enjoyable, Doctor Who is exciting and thrilling (especially Voyage of the Damned), but sometimes you want something with a stronger meaning. Something that does more than entertain.

As a kid I often resented the obligatory Christmas message in television programs. To be sure, I wasn’t ready for it, but also some of those shows probably could have used a bit more care in getting the message across.

You might group these shows and movies into three types:
• Real Christmas stories that relate to Jesus, God, and the religious message
• Family stories that involve people during Christmastime
• Peripheral stories like Santa, Rudolph, elves, the giving of presents, and so on

The real Christmas stories include The Nativity Story and probably A Christmas Carol or Scrooge, depending on the production.

For the second type, you can’t get much better than “A Christmas Story”. Say what you will about how often the movie gets played, but I’m very fond of this movie. The message was right there out in the open, winding its way to the end, but it used an endearing series of vignettes to get from the beginning to the end.

The peripheral stories, while a number of them are rather nostalgic, usually don’t amount to much. Folks who are not fans of Blackadder probably won’t find themselves watching Blackadder’s Christmas Carol. The classic Frosty the Snowman cartoon while cute, especially if you have children, doesn’t do much heavy lifting.

Speaking of that Frosty cartoon… Mitchell from Our Word comments on the idea that it might have a poor man’s version of Christ in the story. The next time you watch it, consider various story elements. While it conveniently leaves out, to my memory, any reference to Jesus and God, there are thematic similarities. Whether or not they are intended as references to Christ is for the writers and producers to tell you… but remember that Frosty sacrifices himself to prevent the little girl from freezing to death and Frosty also comes back after he melts. Read the Mitchell’s post… he even comments on an Old Testament connection in Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town, which features the same writer as the Frosty cartoon. It seems there is at least an argument to be made that the similarities are intentional.



All this makes me want to go over a number of films and shows I own or can get my hands on. “Elf” recently became a new Christmas favorite, in spite of the fact that it is merely a charming story that simply wears the trappings of Christmas… the Rankin-Bass parodies, Ed Asner’s Santa, and Bob Newhart really made it a pleasant surprise.

I’ll gladly take recommendations on what to watch, and chastisement on what I haven’t seen. I'm partial to George C. Scott in "A Christmas Carol" from 1984, Alastair Simm's "Scrooge" from 1951, and as a Saturday Night Live fan from the 70s I'm fond of Bill Murray in "Scrooged". The Christmas episodes and specials from Bless Me Father, Good Neighbors (The Good Life for those of you from the UK), Mr. Bean, To the Manor Born, and The Twilight Zone (an epsidoe featuring the brilliant Art Carney) likewise warm my heart.

I don't recall the episodes, but I found two Christmas episodes listed for The X-Files... and since I really enjoy the series I'm going to need to remind myself. I remember some kind of X-Files episode with Ed Asner and Lily Tomlin, but I don't know if it was one of those Christmas episodes.

The family watched a couple of scenes from the Doctor Who Christmas specials this past week... a great scene with a bride kidnapped in a London taxi cab (and the Doctor's fly-by rescue in his TARDIS), and an even better scene where a space-cruiseliner nearly crashes into Earth (specifically Buckinham Palace).


What's for this week? Your guess is as good as mine... but rest assured it won't be the Star Wars Holiday Special. ;)
Although, to be fair, Art Carney does quite well in that... he was a genius.

Christmas Traditions: part six

Christmas Day sees much the same… however, this time we do it all at with relatives and we tend to have a bar available for a tasty libation steady my reflexes and stiffen my resolve. I consider myself clever and intuitive if the present I give my father to yield a “Hmm,” with a nod. This has occurred precisely once… and that doesn’t disappoint me, in fact, one time in the span of my adulthood to be quite a feat. This year might well see similar results. Should we have sufficient snow I might use last year’s Christmas present (from my sister and her cool boyfriend) to cross-country ski.

Regardless, we’ll go home tired, worn out, and in need of a vacation. However, I’ll go back to work Wednesday in the hopes that all of my clients have taken the rest of the week off. With a post-Christmas light load at work I might just be able to finish my Christmas shopping.

Christmas Traditions: part five

The week of Christmas, the D&B puts up our stockings… which is a relief since I have no idea where in the Hell the damn things go when we store them or how they get hung up during Christmas. She’s not keeping secrets… she just knows, much like I just know how to put away all of the boy’s Thomas trains and rolling stock.

Of course, even she isn't immune to the tradition of dropping the ball on Christmas traditions... she's putting the stockings up right now as I blog. To make this more interesting, I didn't get anything for her stocking. I got her a few extra things for the Advent calendar-box-thingy-with-doors... I suppose that counts.

Christmas Eve sees a flurry of activity. Driving off to someone’s house. Driving back home after halfway to the destination because we forgot some presents. Hastily wrapping yet another forgotten present. Rushing off to a gas station to fill up. Filling out the cards in the car… with bumpy handwriting. Church at a mammoth church… either getting there early and waiting, or getting there on time and wandering around to find a seat. These days the boy gets too antsy… just like his old man, but with two of us we manage to get out and walk around. Somehow we find our car, then after about seven hours we start pulling out of the parking lot. Back to our relatives for diner… somehow there is no bar that I notice. Ever. We used to go out for diner… T.G.I. Friday’s, believe it or not. (I cannot say anything about this previous tradition without getting hit by my wife on behalf of her family.)

After eating we of course open presents… and the boy loves to help unwrap everything as well as throw away the wrapping paper, ribbon, and bows. After a little relaxing (again, without a tasty libation) we then rush out to get the boy home and into bed and the wife ready to go sing at our church. We also need to haul a few bags out of the car… and dump them unceremoniously inside somewhere with a few wrapped items (from Santa) prepared to be tucked under the tree as soon as a safe time appears.

The wife is out and the boy is asleep. Ah, Christmas time for Daddy. That means either I author a DVD for the new episode of Doctor Who as I've got folks counting on me, or I watch something fun on DVD.

Oh, shit! More last minute presents to wrap!

Christmas Traditions: part four

Over the course of the Christmas season we also have a little case with twenty-five doors… it isn’t really an Advent calendar (although, I think Target believes it is), but it is close enough. It marks all of the days of December until Christmas in white with Christmas in red. We put little surprises behind each door… if we remember to do it. Some days are for the boy, some for me, some for the wife, some for the wife and me, and some for all three of us. Chocolate coins (otherwise known as Gelt), money, toy cars, magnets, candles, flowers… a little something to say “Whoo-hoo… it’s Christmas soon!”

More accurately, “Whoo-hoo… it’s chocolate, let’s eat it!”

Even more accurately, “Whoo-hoo… it’s a candle… let’s burn it!”

Candle. Aw, damn... forgot the Advent wreath again.

Christmas Traditions: part three

As a movie fan, I prepare our Christmas viewing list. This involves me taking unsolicited suggestions from the D&B and turning them down while I try to select something, anything, worthwhile. I include a number of Christmas related television shows such as “The Blue Carbuncle” from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes featuring the incomparable Jeremy Brett. The D&B always turns this down in spite of the fact that I select the material. We always agree that we always watch “A Christmas Story” and “Scrooged” so we always agree to turn them down… however, if any part of those films appears on television we sit hooked for at least two scenes even though we have them ready to watch at a moment’s notice in splendid wide screen format.

A couple of years back I made special arrangements to watch a version of “Scrooge” highly recommended to me by a dear friend… the version with Alastair Sim. It is quite good, and as my friend insists it is rare in so far that you can believe the transformation Scrooge undergoes through the visits with the ghosts. I had to watch it without the wife since she wasn’t sold on watching yet another version of “A Christmas Carol”. Over the last few years we’ve been greatly surprised to discover that Patrick Stewart’s version (with Richard E. Grant!) isn’t very good although George C. Scott’s version (with David Warner!!!) is worth viewing again.

At least one television show gets watched on Christmas morning… “Merry Christmas, Mr. Bean”. If we’re lucky we also watch “The Season of Goodwill” from Bless Me Father. Maybe “Blackadder’s Christmas Carol”. As soon as the episode is available (typically in the evening) we also watch the new Doctor Who Christmas special. (This year, “Voyage of the Damned” appears to be a sci-fi disaster movie with a luxury spaceship designed to look like a titanic S.S. Titanic, golden robots in the form of angels, and an imminent crash into Windsor Palace.)

Christmas Traditions: part two

After the tree, the wife puts up the garland, purchased from a family friend. They cover the outdoor railings and will probably be up until they turn a little brown… and the nettles fall off merely from someone looking at them briefly. I’d say around April. She also puts up the indoor garland (meaning fake) on the china cabinet.

We also set up our Advent wreath and candles. Some times we even do it on the first day of Advent. Occasionally, we even light them up on the right days.

With a tree in place, out come the boxes of decorations. I prefer to buy a new set of ornaments each year or every other year. Perhaps five years ago I found a nice set of small lanterns that evoke a Victorian house light. I only picked up four… should have picked up six, especially since I broke one this year.

“Daddy destroyed one, Mamma… but it was an accident.”

The boy wanted to pick up the broken glass, and he loves to maintain his reputation as a Really Useful Engine. Daddy, however, prefers to diminish his reputation as a “careless jackass” [the boy just said, "That's you, Daddy,"] and as a “toddler injuring moron”. (About a year ago, he fell down… head first… on to a die-cast caboose… in his hand… as he was running… pretending to be Sheriff from “Cars”… chasing me as Lightning McQueen. That’s three stitches.) He didn’t touch a thing… but I still broke one of my favorite ornaments.

Anyway, we put on The Rat Pack Christmas album (with Sinatra’s “Mistletoe and Holly”) as well as the Brian Setzer Orchestra’s Christmas album (with a great rendition of “Oh, Holy Night”). Between the D&B and I (with plenty of coaching and offers of help from the boy) we get the lights up. For the first time in many years (probably since I was a kid) my tree has multicolored lights. Typically, we have all white as it goes great with our cranberry colored string of beads. The boy wanted multicolored lights… and they look nostalgic.

For the first time ever I decided to bedeck the fake garland with ornaments. I didn’t want to put up the homemade ornaments this year… no offense to my nephew, but they really are not holding up anymore. The wife insisted, so I suggested the china cabinet. They look nice. Not only that, a few other decorations and it really looks nice.

My other favorite ornaments include Spider-Man hanging upside-down, a pair of long and dangly pieces with cranberry and gold bits that look like earrings worn by Goliath’s older sister for prom in 1987, and an old sailing ship in a globe. We also have a very nice wooden Father Christmas, a pyramid of tiny martini glasses, a swanky reindeer in a pin-stripe suit and a cigar, and a swanky reindeeress in a fur wrap. We also have a red English phone booth… and we’re looking for a blue police box, too. With luck, and a little more patience than I exhibited this year, they will all last until the boy reaches eight.

We prefer to put up a few ornaments at a time so we can gradually build up a nice looking tree over the span of a week. Fortunately, that tradition works well and it helps to cut down the frantic rush to get everything perfect in one night. However, it does tend to mean that a couple of ornament boxes sit around.

Christmas Traditions: part one

Christmas traditions at the Badda household consist of several wonderful activities. Perhaps you practice some of the same.

On or shortly after Thanksgiving we start talking about our annual trip to the Revak Nursery. My Dutiful & Beautiful Mrs. Badda started going years before I entered the picture. Interestingly, one of my cousins ended up marrying a gal who occasionally works there. I think she said she still comes in once a year to help out. In any case, we cut down our own tree from those folks more often than not. In the eight years we’ve been getting trees as a married couple we’ve only picked up a tree from the local Boy Scouts twice.

We talk about the tree so we have one on the first or second weekend of December. I prefer to have it on or around the day of Saint Nicholas. Of course, we don’t always get the tree by that time. In fact, the tradition is that we put it off, for various lame reasons, until the week before Christmas. (The two trees from the Boy Scouts… days before Christmas.)

A recent tradition sends us to my family farm where we get a nice tree for outside. We even looked for a few trees before Thanksgiving. Some of them looked perfect. Technically, they still do as they are still in the ground up at the farm. Of course, without that little tradition we’re also going to miss another comedy of errors… the outside tree constantly blown down by harsh winter winds. There’s nothing like seeing a tree on its side in front of a half-decorated house (yet another great tradition). This year, we wanted to put the tree outside the boy’s window with plenty of lights and a light dusting of snow. We didn’t tell him so it could be a surprise… and when we actually put it up it will be a surprise.

Next year, I suspect.

It's Christmas... Get Over It, Pagans

I'm re-gifting a topic I blogged for Anti-Strib a couple of weeks ago.

It is effing-Christmas. Screw Kwanza (and the Marxist overtones tainted with Symbianese gibberish). As for Hanukah, at least it is an actual holiday, but it does not compare in significance to Christmas. (You want a good Jewish holiday, we've got Yom Kippur... that's a major holiday.)

So gather with your family, your loved-ones, old friends, neighbors, and even co-workers if you've got one of those jobs that must run through December 25th. Even the grumpier folks. (Hmmm, especially the grumpier folks... just because they are in a mood or have in-laws annoying them or bosses harping on them doesn't mean we should avoid wishing them a Merry Christmas.)

Perhaps you dislike Christmas because you have to get together with your family and put on a good face... how is that so bad? It might help other folks in your family to be civil. On the other hand, nothing's perfect. You'll have a couple of gripes now and then... if it is on Christmas, so be it. Just remember a little forgiveness and humility and you might end up at least where you started.

One of the in-laws' in-laws goes to Kuwait in a couple of weeks. Good kid. Air force reserves, I think, so he's probably going to be fine. However, that'a a lot closer than most of us are, so clearly his odds for trouble are a little higher than ours. He's a new addition and a good guy. (He's a fire fighter... likes "Rescue Me", "The Job", "Battlestar Galactica", sci-fi in general, and has a good sense of humor, so he's a nice addition to the growing list of in-laws in my wife's extended family.)

A Doctor Who Christmas special later today... "The Runaway Bride". Probably as silly and pantomime-esque as last year's "The Christmas Invasion" (oh dear), but should still have a couple of good gags, a few good lines, and should at least tide me over for another couple of months until the new season kicks in. (Luckily, there will be no "Harriet Jones, Prime Minister" lines to induce mega-cringing.)

Friends to visit later today... after I see my family. A pretty full day of stuff, and if there's enough snow (and I doubt there will) I'll get in some cross-country skiing. I'm not looking for a lot of stuff at all... in fact, I'd be satisfied with a good meal, some fun with my nephew and son, a few drinks with some of my friends, and a half-way decent Doctor Who. What do I need? The year was fine, a new one is ready to hit, and while nothing is massively spectacular (other than the boy), there is clearly nothing to worry about.

Merry Christmas.