Holiday TV - Another Load of Repeats...

Well, at least there's the Dr. Who Christmas special. Snowmen! (Voiced by Sir Ian McKellen.)

I'm hoping to minimise the whole Christmas experience.
A couple of days with my folks is plenty, they either have the TV SO LOUD IT'S DEAFENING or the sound is off!
I'm looking forward to some nice bracing walks in the woods (Yew tree spotting).

One of my fave meals is a few days after Christmas, a good hearty Turkey soup made with the left overs... well it's so thick it's more like stew.
A year is an odd length of time, on the one hand it doesn't seem long, but on t'other it seems like ages ago.
Enough musing, Mrs Cat is decorating the tree so I expect it'll look nice and cheery when I pop home at lunch time.
I gather Sophie the cat has been 'helping'
Del

A long weekend in Berlin means missing The Railway Children this year. If only one could miss Bing Crosby too...

ABC Family is pretty much on every day. All of the specials I watched as a kid, along with the newer ones, like Home Alone and Elf. My 5 year old likes to watch them over and over and over and over again.

I remember my parents getting together with friends and consuming lots of alcohol over the holidays. Now I understand.

EasyJet doesn't do flights to North Carolina, does it? Shame - it would have been quite a party.

Miracle on 34th Street (1947) - IMDb

Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas (film) - Wikipedia, the ...

White Christmas (film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (TV special) - Wikipedia, the free ...

And one of the boy's favorites:The Polar Express (film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia which we now have in 3D, at home. (the "hot chocolate" scene is really good in 3D)

Don't forget Charlie Brown and Rudolph cartoons !!

We watch Polar Express every Christmas. The volume on my 5.1 system goes WAY up when that train makes its first appearance. Awesome, it is.

A favorite for me:

A Christmas Story, a story with many subplots, the primary thread is of a boy and his quest for an Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle.

YES!

You'll shoot your eye out!

'Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol' is coming back this year (50_^th anniversary).

So it will be a new "Old one"!

because Xmas just wouln't be the same unless Clarence got his wings!

What's TV?

Man (or squirrel) who likes dressin' up in ladies clothes.
Well ok, we all do really, but they actually get round to doin' it.

Del

I have to agree with Doorman, Being almost 50, A Christmas Story was not around during my childhood, but it has since become one of my favorite holiday movies that I look forward to seeing every year.

A few Christmas movies that aren't part of the usual routine are 'The Bishop's Wife' with Cary Grant, Loretta Young and David Niven, 'We're No Angles' with Humphrey Bogart, Basil Rathbone, and Peter Ustinov, 'The Apartment' with Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine, and 'One Magic Christmas' with Mary Steenburgen and Harry Dean Stanton. Like any holiday movie there is a bit of sentimentality in each of these, but the acting is outstanding.

A (very) non-Christmas movie, but one that takes place in wintertime, is 'Runaway Train' with Jon Voight and Rebecca DeMornay. Voight could have won the Oscar that year, but it was an excellent year for lead actor roles and all of the nominees deserved it.

Not TV--haven't had that in the house for years--but radio--CBC--Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

On Christmas eve, every year for 32 years, they have put on Fredrick Forsyth's "the Shepherd" read by the late Allan Maitland.

It's 1957 and an RAF pilot is flying an early fighter jet home for Christmas late on Christmas eve. It gets foggy over the North Sea and all radio communication is lost.

I first heard this when I was driving home by myself on a dark Christmas eve a bunch of years ago. It resonated with me right to my core and I look for it every year now.

Jon.

Although being lucky with the fact that many British and Germany stations transmit without ads the whole year round, I feel its a good time to put on some festive music (radio or CD, I don't play anything other than a HiFi myself....) and turn the TV off.

I do try and record a few programs of possible interest and then try to watch them "between the years" (Zwischen die Jahren) as Germany calls the time between Christmas and new year.

Over the last 30 years or so (although its all on DVD now in MP3 format, the collection started when CDs appeared) I have collected 49 DVDs worth of MP3 music of every type there is. Some repeats are in there, but very few.....that is a lot of music. Every new CD I buy is copied (legally here as I have the original somewhere) and added, including artwork.....

I now need a new DVD storage box as the old one is full.

Ah yes, the music.

I do have a sentimental side. Christmas wouldn't be complete without Nat King Cole.

It will all be over soon - less than a fortnight to go.

_{Jingle Bells...}