Holiday films erase the Scrooge in all of us
- Brett Hiner: A Work in Progress
- November 30, 2020
- 749
In my youth the arrival of Christmas was marked by two very distinct moments: one was my parents putting out an annual Advent calendar and the heated scuffle that followed between my three siblings and me over the pecking order in which we would open the doors, and the other was the airing of both “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” and “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” To this day those broadcasts still elicit the inevitable countdown from weeks, to days, to hours, to the minutes leading up to Christmas morning.
Recent generations have no appreciation for the agony children suffered in the '60s through the mid-'80s waiting for our one and only chance to catch those animated classics. Pre-VHS, DVD and streaming services, one viewing chance, per broadcast, was all we had to soak in all the Christmas magic, and then they were gone as quickly as the snowflakes would melt on Linus Van Pelt’s tongue.
These days every retail store tells us the holiday season begins Nov. 1, and it feels as if Freeform begins their Christmas broadcast countdown 264 days prior to Dec. 25. But in the past several years, an alarming trend has begun to take shape on televisions in households across the globe, a trend that has infiltrated our house as well: the Hallmark Christmas movie.
This year 40, that is right, 40 new Hallmark Christmas movies began airing on Oct. 23, not to mention the number of reruns flooding the channel’s airwaves. I am told every time I walk into a room where one is showing in our house, it is a different movie, but paint me green and call me the Grinch if it does not seem like they all have the same actors, following the same plot line, taking place in the same setting and all culminating with a kiss at the end.
A few folks in our household love these movies, so I am wise enough to know when to quietly do an about face and go in search of a “nonchloric, silicon-based kitchen lubricant” to grease the ole metal sled in anticipation of the first snowfall.
To be clear, I do not fault Hallmark for pumping out Christmas movies, especially when the need to feel good has never been more important; however, I just wonder how many of them will be worth remembering, or more likely, are they simply saturating the market? Will youngsters, 20 years from now sitting around the fire sipping eggnog while reminiscing about childhood memories, ask, “You remember that classic movie, ‘Never Kiss a Man in a Christmas Sweater’? Why isn’t that one airing every year?”
To me, that title sounds like the movie equivalent of the song, “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer.” We might be better off making it through the holiday season without either.
But at the risk of sounding like Ebenezer, longing for the old days, one can certainly not go wrong sticking with the greats, even the more modern ones. In a recent poll of 86 Wooster High School faculty and staff members, 26 (30.2% of them) said “Elf” was the Christmas film of choice to watch repeatedly. Filled with classic lines and highlighting a scene where Buddy disproves a drunk shopping mall Santa from being the real thing — “You smell like beef and cheese; you don’t smell like Santa” — provides annual laughs. And its message of the need to “spread holiday cheer all throughout the year” may never be more meaningful than this season.
A close second, coming in with 26.7% of the vote, was “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.” The magic of this film is your perception of it changes over the years; that is to say, aside from the tear-jerking laughs involving every scene with Cousin Eddie, watching “Vacation” as a father is a different experience than when viewing it as a senior in high school when it came out in winter 1989. Meaningful moments change over time, and now I think the best scene in this film is when Clark is viewing his old family movies while trapped in his attic. Next year it may be something completely different. Sentimentality makes for good holiday viewing, and that is why “A Christmas Story,” “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “Miracle on 34th Street” all also received votes.
There is something to be said for connecting our own Christmas memories and traditions with those we view on screen. In many cases these movies become part of our traditions, where the tears and laughter they elicit provide for a meaningful familial experience with those we love the most.
Whether it is listening to Linus’ message at the end of “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” smiling as Rudolph and Santa instill belief in all those toys sensing abandonment on the Island of Misfit Toys, or — good grief — trudging through “A Shoe Addict’s Christmas,” maybe one commonality amongst them all is whatever finds its way onto your television screens this holiday season, viewing them helps get rid of the Scrooge in all of us.
Brett Hiner is in his 24th year of teaching English/language arts at Wooster High School, where he also serves as the yearbook advisor and Drama Club advisor/director. He can be emailed at workinprogressWWN@gmail.com.