Sunday, December 13, 2009

the 12 days and the 16 movies of Christmas...

Christmas movies!!!

i love 'em!!! the best Christmas films bring out the holiday spirit within us all. so much so that we watch them year after year, greeting them as if they were a dear old friend.

you may have guessed by now that i don't need much of an excuse to get a movie marathon going! but i've been looking forward to this one for a long time! i picked out 16 Christmas movies to watch over 12 days. started yesterday, actually.

the first 8 are something of a random mixture of my beloved favorites and films that i have somehow never seen. the second half of my list are my alltime favorite Christmas classics! can't wait for that!

(i ruled out the tv specials, by the way, as i figured i'd probably just watch 'a charlie brown Christmas' 16 times in a row. and that just wouldn't be fair to the rest of the movies).

16) "the polar express" great movie. great story. watching it again, however, i was a little freaked out by how creepy those kids looked. i didn't really notice it too much in the theater, but... i dunno, something about having them in my living room... y'know? yikes!

still, i love pretty much everything tom hanks has been in. and i do admire the deep appreciation this film has for one of my favorite seasonal traditions... hot chocolate.

15) "disney's a Christmas carol" watched this in 3d on the big honkin' imax screen on saturday. really enjoyed it. animation has come a long way in five years! i thought jim carey was great-- and it was really cool to have the princess bride and her farm boy in the same movie again!!!

14) "the santa clause" ...actually, i'd kind of forgotten that this movie was a bit crap. i mean, y'know, sometimes you greet a dear old friend with a warm hug and then, five minutes later, you remember why you only see them once a year.

really, i think Christmas movies have the right to be hokie. in some ways, i actually prefer that, but... y'know, give it a LITTLE bit of dignity, right? and more than one or two good actors?

and, whatever you do, don't give a seven year old a line at the end of the flick like, "i love you, santa claus". especially when santa is also the child's father. because, i'll tell ya, that only made me side with judge reinhold on the subject of the kid needing some serious therapy.

still... as a guy who can't cook, i love the scene at denny's. tim allen and a scattered few other fathers nodding at one another knowingly on Christmas eve. "you burn the turkey, too? ...ouch." LOL!


the five things i fell in love with today...

1) i've been living in westchester county, new york for about fifteen years now, and-- for the FIRST TIME!!! --i FINALLY made it over to see the tree at rockefeller center last night!!! and i have to say, it was worth the wait! it was what the norwegians of yesteryear would have called "eh hughekehn hohnkehn sprughsen ahrsen." which loosely translates to, "a... big ass tree."
2) my farmville homies!!! had dinner and dessert with them before heading off to see the tree. such great people, such a fun night. great eats (names and addresses to follow in another blog), the light show at saks, steel drummers playing Christmas carols! loved it!!!
3) there was a HUGE crowd at the tree. like seven people deep. couldn't even see the skating rink, even though we knew it was right in front of us. but it seemed like everyone there was in such a great mood y'know? how can you not be in a good mood when strangers are shaking your hand and giving you a hearty "merry Christmas"?
4) my favorite woman of the night was the lady in her fifties or so who said to me outside of one of the decorated windows at macy's, "i'm a santa letter writer too!"
5) while on 34th street, of all places, and after listening to one of my favorite carols, captain farmville and i came up with the idea of bringing back the word, "hark!" into the popular lexicon. i know it's not sweeping the nation yet, but last night it went really well.

"hark! who wants some coffee?"
"hark! my shoelace is untied!"
"hark! that tree is quite sparkly!"
"hark! where's lady farmville?"
"hark! ...did you just call her JEFF?"
"hark! starbucks is closed!"

song of the day...
"hark! the herald angels sing" by nat king cole

movie of the day...
"the princess bride"

"farm boy? fetch me that pail...?"
"as you wish."

1 comment:

  1. The Polar Express kids freak me out, too. I thought it was just me.

    ReplyDelete