I hope you and your family had a great Thanksgiving. We did. It was the real Thanksgiving, but it felt like fake Thanksgiving because we already had Thanksgiving with our extended family. We went out to a lovely restaurant and somebody else cooked, which, as you know, is a gift to us all.
Tis the Season
It’s now December, and we have the red studio decorated with Christmas trees with fake snow all over them and little twinkling lights. It makes me so happy. We also have Christmas decorations up in our home already. Doesn’t it just improve your mood?
And no, it is not too early to play the Christmas carols – even my boys had to admit I am allowed to play them now. I love that SiriusXM has made channel four the Holly channel; channel 15 is now Jimmy Fallon’s Christmas. That’s a new one. And then I love all the classics on Holiday Traditions, which is channel 71.
What to Watch
Soon, we’ll be busting out the Christmas specials. Do you unleash those in a certain way? I love Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town (1970) and the Burgermeister Meisterburger. It’s a great one, except we fast-forward through the scene where Jessica sings. That is not good.
I’ll give you another one I grew up watching: The Christmas That Almost Wasn’t (1966). To be honest, it is not particularly well made. You see that when you are an adult in a way that you don’t when you are a kid, but I still love it. It is about a guy named Mr. Prune who lives to ruin Christmas. He is harassing Santa and Mrs. Claus at the North Pole, and Santa has to go get a job in an every man town. He takes one at a toy store. Mr. Prune won’t let up. He is a major antagonist, this guy. It is just such a fun film.
And I mention this every year, but my favorite Christmas special of all time is Christmas in Connecticut (1945). It stars Barbara Stanwyck. It is in black and white. They have a sleigh that they ride through the Connecticut countryside in the snow. There is a weird and inappropriate love story that somehow you root for anyway. The whole setting of it makes me feel like it is Christmas.
My guest, Mark Halperin, had a few recommendations of his own when we discussed this on The Megyn Kelly Show. He said he loves the claymation Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964) and A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965).
He also suggested The Dog Who Saved Christmas (2009), which he described as “hokey but really good.” And one more for good measure: Bing Crosby and David Bowie’s “Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy” from 1977. He called it “one of the 10 times greatest of all time,” and I have to agree with him.
Enjoy It
Here in Connecticut, we are supposed to get some snow tomorrow. I miss snow. At heart, I am just a Syracuse girl. That is where I lived the first 10 years of my life. I miss snow and sledding.
In any event, I love Christmas and I know you do, too. So, let’s take a moment on this December 1 – you only get some 80 to 90 to 100 of them, if you’re lucky in your life – and enjoy the most wonderful time of the year.