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Sunday, December 26, 2021

Post #5496 Social Media Digest

 A Follow-Up Point on Christmas Movies

As a writer, I was constantly rewriting and tweaking things on my academic papers and book chapters up to the point of approving page proofs I don't apply the same standards in a blog where I currently publish on a 500-post clip annually. It isn't unusual for me to edit a longer essay 4 or 5 times for typos and the like. The same thing with typos in tweets. Most times I just let  those go, but maybe a dozen or so times I've deleted and republished corrected tweets.

In Saturday's discussion of holiday movies on cable, I intended to make a broader point about what I consider a classic Christmas movie and others that get recycled annually. A Christmas Story immediately comes to mind, although TBS and TNT have rarely been in my cable bundles  over the past 20 years, so I haven't tracked it. A movie that focuses on a boy's quest for a BB gun and his father's affection for a lamp in the shape of some showgirl's shapely leg isn't my idea of a classic. I think it's subjective. Other people may see my preferred selections as "once and done". And to a certain extent I can understand: do we really need 101 versions of 'A Christmas Carol'? But to me, 'A Christmas Story' is like a joke overtold one too many times. There's also 'Chris6mas Vacation', the Chevy Chase flick over a reneged Christmas bonus, wacko relatives, and an overcooked turkey. There's Murray's parody 'Scrooged'. Then there are the movies like various flavors of the Santa myth whether we are talking Tim Allen's spinoffs, my parents are the Clauses, the biographies, etc. There are a few films that milk on the Santa myth slightly, like 'Miracle on 34th St.' and certain cable movies like 'A Boyfriend for Christmas', 'Matchmaker Santa', etc.

I did catch the classic Grinch cartoon and the Jim Carrey flick on NBC Christmas night. I thought TBS had some exclusive contract that kept the cartoon off network TV for years. I thought the timing (post Xmas Eve) was odd. I knew my Faith Hill favorite, "Where Are You, Christmas", came from the flick but I don't think I ever watched the flick, having only a certain tolerance for watching Carrey shtick.  But I found the little girl who hitches a ride on Grinch's sleigh because she thought no one should be alone on Christmas was a really sweet touch.

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