Fra-gee-lay

We find ourselves wading into December. While that brings the deadline for harried shoppers to complete their tasks, it also brings a diversion in our busy lives. It marks the launch of the holiday specials. While these have gotten fairly bleak over the years there are still some worth watching.

I still love to watch the classics with a sense of nostalgia. Sitting with my parents and watching poor Charlie Brown drag home his ragged stick of a tree. Booing as the Grinch stripped the every last shred of Christmas trappings from Who-ville. Watching with horror along with Rudolph and Hermie as Yukon plummeted to his doom......you get the idea.

Over the years we saw the classics get reinvented and again some were good. The Muppets, a constant favourite of mine with their muppet Christmas Carol and Muppet Christmas specials. While Alistair Sim is still the best Scrooge ever, Bill Murray did a fantastic job in Scrooged.

Amongst all the holiday specials and movies I have two top movies. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation is one favourite, but my all-time winner is A Christmas Story. I don't know if it's because it's like watching my own family at Christmas, or if it's the embittered mall Santa. Anyone who has seen it can't help but cheer Ralphie on in his quest for the Red Ryder BB gun with a compass in the stock, and a thing which tells time. Not to mention that there are few males alive who have seen the movie who don't want one of those lamps. Hearing Jean M Shepherd narrate his genius was fantastic. If you've seen the movie and loved it as much as I have, you should seriously consider getting a hold of Jean's books. The movie itself was based on In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash, but the rest of his stuff is pure gold.

I won't puree the details of the fascinating man behind all of this, rather I will steer you to Flick Lives, a site put together by Jim Clavin. Thanks for all your hard work on the site Jim, if you loved making it as much as I loved perusing it I'm happy for you.