Crazy as it may be we're well on our
way towards Christmas, with celebrations begin even closer for some
of the other holidays. Maybe it's because I seem to have a slump
after turkey day, or maybe it's because it took far too long to
decorate, but I'm just not ready for Santa to wiggle his fat butt
down the chimney. Reality dictates that there's only two weeks left
before presents and eggnog flow freely so if we want to enjoy this
season while it's here we may need to step things up. That's the plan
for today, sharing as many festive odds and ends as possible with you
all and maybe inspire a little celebrating.
One excellent way to boost the holiday
spirit is to come up with something new, possibly even a new
tradition. Back to when I was taking down Halloween decorations,
which feels like an eternity ago, an idea occurred that was just
cheeky enough to work. In the continuing battle to improve the
Christmas display something just had to be done with our pear tree. I
mean it's in the song, right? A partridge in a pear tree, so why not
Keith Partridge? In an odd twist this particular notion didn't simply
fade away. Instead it took a decent printer, some lamination, along
with a paper punch and zip-ties have yielded the perfect melding of
festive decoration and embodiment of bad puns. It's just big enough
to be seen from the street but I've yet to hear any comments from the
neighborhood. Wouldn't be surprised if some poor sap who doesn't know
any better mistakes it for a memorial to some family member. Or maybe
that's just me hoping for the chance to giggle at someone while they
express sympathy for our loss. Even if nobody says a thing the best
part is I can do this for years to come with different Partridge
folks. Maybe next year will be Danny Bonaduce or Susan Dey.
Another way to lift our collective
holiday mood is indulging in traditions which means it's time to show
off the annual Patrick Swayze Christmas Barstool. Those who recall
the written rules should know that any chair is acceptable for this
task which turned out to be a godsend as the usual stool has up and
vanished. With the change in seating I thought it best to alter the
mood a bit for this edition. Instead of trying to replicate a seedy
roadhouse I thought maybe Swayze could bounce for a more feminine
environment, the sort of place with specials on mimosas. Given the
sudden rush of this month that was about all the inspiration I could
muster which resulted in a largely freeballed display. Gotta say I
still like the results. The tree provides decent accompaniment
without overshadowing the chair while the big plastic noel candle
serves as a focal point. Those who remember this years Halloween mood
table might recognize Clancy Brown Bear, this time sporting a Krampus
mask. On one hand I know that if given more supplies I could have
done a better job yet this seems to match the season perfectly.
One tradition I've never had much luck
with is advent calendars. Up until a few years ago I'd never even had
one of the things, and even then it wasn't all that great. That
changed a little this month when my sister brought back something
strange from Canada. This big ole slab of cardboard is a rather adult
Abtey Chocolates advent-calendar Inside each compartment is a
chocolate filled with hooch. There's an interesting variety here with
some fruity and a few more traditional drinks on offer be it
Cointreau, Kirsch, or some fine Camus Cognac. The actual flavor and
eating experience can change wildly. For instance I've had two
Cointreau chocolates so far that were far removed from each-other.
The first surprised me by popping in my mouth like an orange liqueur
zit to the point that I nearly spat some out. The second however
either had less filling to begin with or had simply absorbed more of
it which lent a nice alcoholic burn to a solid orange chocolate. Even
with such variances there are still clear favorites and one type to
be dreaded. The absolute winners thus far are Label 5 whisky and
Camus Cognac whereas the Saint James Rum is pretty awful. There's yet
another Camus offering that I've yet to encounter though, given an
educated guess, it seems like they are likely in the two large
compartments for the 23rd and 24th. While this
certainly isn't a holiday tradition for everyone, wet alcoholic
chocolate can be a bit off-putting after all, it's still a fun way to
mix things up and make this Christmas a little different.
It just wouldn't be Santa season
without the stash of yuletide horror movies. This year I decided to
continue displaying items on the corner shelf with all the xmas
terror tales placed in levels of importance. On top are most of the
essentials like Christmas Evil, P2, the original Black
Christmas, the stuff that just has to be viewed each and every
December. Level two is for the really good but not always necessary
films like The Box, Better Watch Out, and Krampus,
Three gets into trashier territory along the lines of Jack Frost,
Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension (bet you forgot that
was a festive flick), and the Black Christmas remake. Actually
we have to start calling that the first remake, don't we? That's
gonna be a problem in casual conversation. The final level is is a
grab bag of weaker or extra trashy fare, Don't Open till
Christmas, combined with a pile of films that only barely include
the holiday, Blue Sunshine. Streaming services have offered
some extra experiences this month, first with Blood Beat. If
you ever had a weirdly specific wish for a samurai possession film
set in rural Wisconsin for the holidays then this is for you.
Seriously though this movie is absolutely nuts and occasionally
hilarious yet it never makes a bit of damn sense. On the opposite end
of the spectrum is I Trapped the Devil which is too slow for
its own good only to mostly make up for it with a solid final act. Of
the two the latter is the more festive... then again it totally lacks
psychic samurai action.
For those of you who are extra brave
there's always the risks and rewards of digging up old forgotten
holiday specials on physical media or by scouring the halls of
streaming services. Just this very night I settled in for A Very
Merry Cricket. Like so many of these things there's a rather sizable
history to this special but the short version is there was a popular
book called The Cricket in Times Square which
then had an animated special directed by Chuck Jones. Both the book
and special would have their own sequels with this being the second
of an animated trilogy that would later cap off with Yankee
Doodle Cricket.
The
story for this holiday special revolves around how hectic, noisy, and
downright awful New York City is during the holidays, and during the
70s in general. Harry the cat and Tucker the mouse are upset by the
horrific hustle and bustle created by people who've obviously
forgotten the meaning of Christmas. The duo quickly recap the
previous special where they made a friend named Chester the Cricket
who was a musical genius that once managed to make New York quiet
down and listen for the first time in history. Deciding Chester is
the answer the pair set out for Connecticut in order to retrieve
their buggy friend. The journey two and fro isn't all that exciting
and then the group fails in their plan as the city is simply too loud
for Chester to be heard. Eventually the demands of the public exhaust
the power grid allowing Chester to play and once again bring peace to
New York as people join hands and light the city with candles.
Despite having not seen the previous tale this one still stunk of
sequelitis. The trio even has a song about how they're going to do
this again. There's nothing all that spectacular here, don't come at
it expecting a forgotten Grinch level gem, the message is solid
enough though. Lord knows many of the best holiday memories are
formed in those quiet moments like sitting with a pet and some jolly
drink by the light of the Christmas tree. Actually that sounds quite
nice. Think I'm gonna get drunk with the cat.
. That's all for this sampling of
holiday cheer. Would love to hear some new and old holiday practices
from everyone out there, maybe even a hot tip on weird specials and
movies. Got a good amount to work on today but n case you though this
update was two small, worry not. I've got a special Friday the 13th
update for you all tomorrow. See you then.
No comments:
Post a Comment