This is going to be a truly fluff holiday piece. I mean, ‘tis the season of Hallmark movies and lights. If I can’t write a fluff piece now I never could. To make this super fluffy, I’m going to list my favorite things about Christmas.
I gotta admit I enjoy the occasional Hallmark Christmas movie. Yeah, they are fluff stuffed with even more fluff. They all have the same basic plot: Working woman finds love in an unexpected place. They are true mind candy. But in today’s crazy world, a little fluffy mind candy goes a long way. It’s nice to turn the brain off and enjoy.
‘Tis also the season of Christmas music, as pretty much wherever you go the tunes playing will be that of the festive holiday. While I don’t love most Christmas music (I don’t enjoy any of Mariah Carey’s Christmas songs), I do enjoy hearing Band-Aid’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” But my all-time favorite Christmas song is “Christmas Wrapping” by The Waitresses. It’s fun, relatable and upbeat — hands-down my favorite Christmas song. Even though it came out in 1981, I never knew it existed until the “Shrek Deck the Halls” Christmas special.
This brings me to Christmas specials. While the “Star Wars” Christmas special was a HUGE embarrassment to the franchise, it somehow scored a 25% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. That had to be Christmas kindness by reviewers.
I do enjoy other Christmas specials. Last year’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” Christmas special was actually really fun. The Shrek ones are enjoyable. It’s also great to get a “Dr. Who” Christmas episode.
As for classic Christmas specials, I still like Rudolph and Peanuts’ Christmas specials, though the latter is a bit slow for a lot of modern tastes. Still, my talking with Charles Schultz when I was a mere teen has a lot to do with what I do today.
As for Christmas movies, it’s “Die Hard” all the way for me. Yes, it is a Christmas movie. My god man, poor Bruce Willis was doing whatever he could to get people home in time for Christmas.
And, of course, “It’s a Wonderful Life” is still a wonderfully acted and written story. Who doesn’t love 1983’s classic, “A Christmas Story?” “You’ll shoot your eye out.”
Christmas movies I don’t like are the ones that try to make Christmas like Halloween. I don’t need to be scared by my Christmas movies. The world is scary enough without a scary Santa!
I’d be remiss if I didn’t bring up Christmas cookies. OMG I do love me some Christmas cookies. Something about butter cookies with creamy frosting just makes my mouth water and my brain turn off. I become like Cookie Monster going, “Cookies!!!” In college, I never put on the “freshmen 15,” but during Christmas I get “the holiday 10.” That’s part of the reason why I never mind shoveling in January to burn off a few pounds.
Christmas is a time of bright lights. I like bright lights. I have to say the people in Geneva and the surrounding area have really upped their light game this season. A lot of the lights around town are phenomenal.
Finally, Christmas is a time for family get-togethers. This year we’ve already had one Christmas with my sister and her family. This week alone we have three other friends and family Christmas meals — hence the reason why I work out so much in January.
Besides the eating, I love hanging out with the family, talking, and playing ping-pong, foosball and air hockey — just enjoying each other (mostly). To me, that’s what Christmas is all about.
John Zakour lives in Geneva. He is a freelance humor writer with a bachelor’s in computer science from SUNY Potsdam and a master’s in human behavior. He is a chief happiness practitioner. He has sold thousands of gags to strips and magazines and had over 50 books published. He writes his own syndicated comic, “Working Daze,” which has anywhere from 30K-100K daily readers. His “Positive Vibes” column runs every Thursday. Contact him at johnzakour@gmail.com. Or, check out his blog at workingdaze.blogspot.com.
POSITIVE VIBES: Holiday thoughts
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1
21.12.2023
This is going to be a truly fluff holiday piece. I mean, ‘tis the season of Hallmark movies and lights. If I can’t write a fluff piece now I never could. To make this super fluffy, I’m going to list my favorite things about Christmas.
I gotta admit I enjoy the occasional Hallmark Christmas movie. Yeah, they are fluff stuffed with even more fluff. They all have the same basic plot: Working woman finds love in an unexpected place. They are true mind candy. But in today’s crazy world, a little fluffy mind candy goes a long way. It’s nice to turn the brain off and enjoy.
‘Tis also the season of Christmas music, as pretty much wherever you go the tunes playing will be that of the festive holiday. While I don’t love most Christmas music (I don’t enjoy any of Mariah Carey’s Christmas songs), I do enjoy hearing Band-Aid’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” But my all-time favorite Christmas song is “Christmas Wrapping” by The Waitresses. It’s fun, relatable and upbeat — hands-down my favorite........
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