You know what’s better than the holly jolly holiday season? Nothing. Not one teeny, tiny, microscopic thing. And it’s finally here!!! Hello, November, you grand and glorious prelude to what I hope will be the merriest of holiday seasons! 🎄 🎅 🎁 🔔 🕯️ ⛄
I, for one, have never been more ready to celebrate the most wonderful time of year! A time of bountiful blessings, fun-filled family festivities, mouth-watering morsels of heaven, timeless carols, and holiday traditions old and new. Ohhhhhhh baby, I can already hear those sleigh bells jingling, ring-ting-tingling too … “Do you hear what I hear?” … “Hot, hot, hot, hot chocolate” … “teacher says, ‘Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings’” … “Kevin, you are such a disease!” … “I’m a cotton-headed ninny-muggins” … siiiiiiilent night, hooooooly night … “Snow, snow, snow” … “Why to the North Pole, of course! This is the Polar Express!” … And let’s not forget all the delicious delicacies: turkey-gravy-stuffing-cranberry-sauce-pecan-pie-pumpkin-cinnamon-rolls-pierogi-babka-chocolate-Italians-jewels-sugarballs-cutouts-eggnog-festive-libations. I could go on and on and on! Can you tell how much I adore—no, revere—this time of year?!?! I’m convinced it’s the sole reason I’ve been in such a sprightly mood lately.
Not surprisingly, my family’s getting into the holiday spirit extra early this year (we put up our Christmas tree and indoor decorations this past Sunday!) and I’m quite confident I don’t need to explain why. The Year That Must Not Be Named has already taken so much from all of us—and it is with a heavy heart that I acknowledge we won’t be indulging in several of our favorite Christmas chestnuts this year—BUT I refuse to let even the slightest disappointment ruin my family’s most beloved time of year! I refuse! And so, I’ve been putting together a list (and checkin’ it twice!) of goodies and fanfare to serve up some extra special holiday cheer for my children. Most of them are slated for late-November/December so I’ll share more about them as we get closer. But there are two ginormously fun festivities that are already well underway here in our home.
First up (“on the housetop, click, click, click”) we have my star-studded Christmas carol jubilation, and by jubilation, I mean every day, all day, from sun-up to sun-down, beginning Nov. 1 and ending, oh, I don’t know, somewhere toward the end of January (although I have been known to keep the season going well into February). I’m a traditionalist at heart when it comes to my classic carols, so we started out low-key with Percy Faith and his orchestra (his Christmas Is … Percy Faith album reminds me of seasons past) and then moved on to merrier crooners: Andy Williams, Bing Crosby, Ray Conniff, The Carpenters, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole, Burl Ives, The Chipmunks.
And, of course, my list wouldn’t be complete if it didn’t include my beloved Josh Groban and some Michael Bublé (thankfully they sing many of the traditional classics!). My kids are really into ’80s Christmas songs, too, so there’s that. Maybe I’ll even throw in a little “Funky, Funky Christmas” by New Kids On The Block at some point (boy does that song bring back memories!!). Ahhhhhhhh, Christmas music! Nothing makes me happier than starting off my days with those jingling jangling J-I-N-G-L-E bells (extra points if you know whose song I’m singing)! 🔔🎶🎅 This year is even more special on the Christmas carol front because we bought tickets for two holiday livestreams coming up in December: Josh’s first-ever holiday concert, which I assume will feature his amazing Christmas album, Noël, and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s “Christmas Eve and Other Stories!” My husband and I are stoked!!
As if all that wasn’t exciting enough, we’ve also begun one of my most-favorite Christmas rituals of all: our Merry, Merry Christmas Movie List, which grows every year as we unwrap new gems and rediscover old classics. And this year my children are finally at that age where they enjoy cuddling on the couch with a hot cocoa and popcorn (or perhaps some dark chocolate peppermint pretzels?!) and watching a movie together. We’ve been sharing family movie night almost every Sunday since March and it segued perfectly into our holiday classics because Nov. 1 fell on a Sunday this year (we’re watching our Christmas movies every night, though, not just on Sundays).
We began this year’s list with Frozen (we always include this one because my husband and I went to the theater to see it for the first time in December 2013, about a month before our daughter was born, so it doesn’t feel right not to include it every year), Winnie the Pooh’s A Very Merry Pooh Year, and two adorable Olaf shorts: “Once Upon A Snowman” and “Olaf’s Frozen Adventure,” which were a huge hit and will likely become family faves (as you can see below I added them to our list)! Speaking of favorites, I’m noticing that each season there’s one movie—a different one each year—that for some unknown reason stands out as the epitome of the holidays for me. I never know when it’s going to hit, that warm, fuzzy, homey feeling, or which movie’s going to trigger it. Last year it was It’s A Wonderful Life, the year before that it was White Christmas, in 2017 it was Disney’s A Christmas Carol, then The Polar Express, and finally Home Alone in 2015. Crazy that I recall each one, right?!
If you’re wondering, this all started when my son was born. I remember that year so vividly. He was born just after 8 p.m. on Christmas Eve in 2015. We begged the hospital to discharge us on Christmas Day so we could salvage what was left of the holiday for our daughter (she was almost 2 at the time) and thankfully they obliged. But as you can imagine, most of the magic got lost in all the commotion of caring for, and adjusting to, a newborn and a toddler. I couldn’t shake the overwhelming sadness over not getting a “normal” Christmas that year, so I clung to my Christmas movies for as long as I could, watching Home Alone over and over and over again during the sleepless nights with my infant son. I can’t even watch Home Alone these days without thinking about that time.
That was also when I became enamored with Hallmark’s holiday movies, too, because they played at all hours, one after another, and really soothed me on those long, cold, lonely nights. This lasted well into February of that year; I just couldn’t let the holidays go. Sadly, that feeling never really went away … and, so, I cling. I suppose there are worse things to cling to, though, right? Should be interesting to see what movie drums up (“pa rum pum pum pum”) that magic for me this year (of all years); I’ll keep you posted.
OK, enough reminiscing, let’s get to the goods, the sugarplums, if you will. Here’s this year’s Merry, Merry Christmas Movie List:
Christmas Classics (we generally save these for the week leading up to Christmas because they’re our absolute favorites):
–Disney’s A Christmas Carol
–Elf
–Home Alone
–It’s A Wonderful Life
–National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
–The Polar Express
–White Christmas
Christmas Chestnuts:
–A Charlie Brown Christmas
–A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving
–A Christmas Story
–Arthur Christmas
–A Very Merry Pooh Year
–Christmas With The Kranks
–Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas (the original from 1966)
—Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch (This is a newbie to the list (released in 2018). I realize we already have two Grinch titles on here, but my daughter and I came across this little nutcracker last year during one of our mommy-daughter days. We sat on the floor in our family room sharing a “picnic lunch” while we watched, and it was one of the best afternoons. The movie is adorable, too. I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected. If you have little ones, check it out. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.)
–Ernest Saves Christmas (1988)
–Four Christmases
–Fred Claus
–Frosty the Snowman (1969)
–Home Alone 2: Lost In New York
–How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Jim Carrey; 2000)
–Mickey’s Christmas Carol (1983)
–Miracle On 34th Street (1947)
–Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol (1962)
—Olaf’s Frozen Adventure
—Once Upon A Snowman (Olaf)
–Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)
–Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town (1970)
—The Man Who Invented Christmas (My husband and I watched this for the first time last year and loved it, although I am hardcore biased because I adore the deliciously lovely Dan Stevens! Stevens plays Charles Dickens in this true-life tale of how he came up with the idea behind his classic story, A Christmas Carol.)
–The Santa Clause
Christmas-ish Tidings (these aren’t traditional “Christmas” movies, but we love them and keep them on our list anyways):
—12 Dates Of Christmas (Another newbie! If you like Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Amy Smart, which I do, this is a cute Christmasy take on Groundhog’s Day.)
–Frozen
—Last Christmas (And one more! My husband and I caught this one when it became available on HBO a few months ago [there is such a thing as Christmas in July, don’t you know?!] and I added it here immediately. Emilia Clarke is the cutest, and a far cry from her Game of Thrones counterpart! Oh, and Emma Thompson is hysterical–annoying but hysterical! I love her in pretty much everything, though.)
–Love Actually (Emma Thompson again!)
–The Family Man
–The Holiday
–March Of The Wooden Soldiers (Babes In Toyland, 1934; this one is a classic that reminds me of being a kid and watching with my brother)
I honestly can’t believe I’m already writing about Christmas. On the one hand this year has felt like a decade and on the other I’m astounded at how quickly we raced from March to November! I’m definitely ready to put The Year That Must Not Be Named behind us, but until that time I’m all about living up the holidays as best we can. And who knows, maybe after everything we’ve been through, this will be the merriest, most joyful, most blessed, most festive, “hap-hap-happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap-danced with Danny-fucking-Kaye.” 😂
(P.S. If you don’t know where that last quote comes from, I’m not sure we can be friends anymore!)
Annnnnnd on that note, friends, let the holiday festivities begin!! Feel free to share any of your special holiday faves below—movies, songs, traditions—I love hearing about them and am always looking for new ideas to embrace and share.