I have a hard time wrapping my head around the reality that the southern hemisphere is a day ahead and in the opposite season. We live on the same planet! How can that be?!
Yeah, I know the SCIENCE behind it. Earth tilting on its axis away from and toward the sun on opposite sides of the globe I just find it insane to think that I could hop on a plane right now, spend 23 hours in the air, and arrive in a summer place a day AFTER their Christmas, when Christmas hasn’t even happened here, yet.It’s Christmas Eve morning here in Tacoma, WA!
Santa on a surfboard. Santa in shorts. INSANE!
But to the southern hemisphere, Santa in a sleigh with reindeer pulling it is okay. They’ve seen it a hundred times in movies and on TV shows. I haven’t seen any instances of Christmas on the beach, though.
One year my Christmas newsletter featured a Santa in shorts on a skateboard in outer space with the Starship Enterprise looking on with a giant bubble above it: “????!!!” I thought that was hysterical, but for folks down under, it would have been less so.
Since I’ve had a lot of down time this month, I’ve been watching some Christmas movies that I managed to miss until now. I was prepared to love HOME ALONE and ELF just from friends’ recommendations, and they were — barely okay. I finished ELF (HAPPILY!), but turned HOME ALONE off after about 45 minutes (not at all regretfully). I started one with Ben Affleck last night and only got 20 minutes into it before turning it off. If I sound like Scrooge (Bah! Humbug!) I’m far from it. I enjoy scads of movies, but prefer the ones with more substance, less mayhem, and more heart all the way through, not just at the end.
Examples: I LOVED “Last Holiday” with Queen Latifah, which is leaving PRIME in eight days. Catch it if you can! I also got a kick out of Tyler Perry’s A Madea Christmas. That was my first Tyler Perry and Madea movie. It’s about a couple of rednecks and racists (black and white) finally coming around to recognizing the error of their ways. It’s a hoot to watch, and also painful, but redemptive in the end.
I like real stories about real people facing real obstacles and mindsets and overcoming them with love and decency.
Does anyone have recommendations for other Christmas movies? I’ve seen all the classics (It’s A Wonderful Life, Christmas Story, Miracle on 34th Street, etc.) I won’t watch Hallmark Christmas movies because they’re all the same… as are all Hallmark movies. They produce to a single template, seemingly. And they’re all white, straight and predictable.
Among my favorite movies of all time are these (to give you a sense if the kind of movies that float my boat)
LES MISERABLES (WITH HUGH JACKMAN)
THE GREATEST SHOWMAN (DITTO)
THE MUSIC MAN (ORIGINAL) (WITH ROBERT PRESTON AND SHIRLEY JONES)
AMAZING GRACE (ABOUT WILLIAM WILBERFORCE’S FIGHT TO END THE SLAVE TRADE IN ENGLAND)
HOW THE WEST WAS WON
THE UNSINKABLE MOLLY BROWN
2001 A SPACE ODYSSEY
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND
THE WIZARD OF OZ
THE AFRICAN QUEEN
THE GRAPES OF WRATH
ITS A WONDERFUL LIFE
ET THE EXTRATERRESTRIAL
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
WEST SIDE STORY
BUTCH CASSIDY AND AND SUNDANCE KID
TOOTSIE
LITTLE BIG MAN
FORREST GUMP
DANCES WITH WOLVES
MY FAIR LADY
GUESS WHO’S COMING TO DINNER
THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION
DEAD POETS SOCIETY
TITANIC (WITH LEONARDO DICAPRIO)
AMISTAD
LINCOLN (SPIELBERG)
WAR HORSE
UP
LIFE OF PI
PETE’S DRAGON
LADY AND THE TRAMP
BAMBI
LION KING
THE BEAR
PLANET OF THE APES
MADAGASCAR
FINDING NEMO
BORN FREE
NEVER CRY WOLF
FREE WILLY
OLD YELLER
THE ELEPHANT MAN
12 YEARS A SLAVE
MALCOLM X
MARY POPPINS
SINGING IN THE RAIN
FIDDLER ON THE ROOF
CABARET
THE FANTASTICKS
A STAR IS BORN (ALL INCARNATIONS)
VICTOR/VICTORIA
FUNNY GIRL
PORGY AND BESS
LOST HORIZON
PAINT YOUR WAGON
CAMELOT
PETER PAN (WITH MARY MARTIN)
HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME
SOUTH PACIFIC
1776
MAMA MIA
YENTL
LOVE, SIMON
ROCKETMAN
GOD DAY AFTERNOON
THE COLOR PURPLE
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN
BOYS DON’T CRY
PHILADELPHIA
… and of course, everthing with DeForest Kelley in it!
