Lesser-known holiday classics
After Thanksgiving, some of my favorite holiday traditions begin. There's something comforting about routine and tradition this time of year, especially as I'm eagerly awaiting the days until I can go home again at the end of December. For now, I'm sitting in my snowflake pajamas, drinking coffee and polishing off the last of my grandmother's biscotti (she sent me home with extras post-Thanksgiving!), and feeling nostalgic. Last week, I talked about how my family and I put up our decorations while playing Bing Crosby's White Christmas album, and this week, I'm giving a shout out to some beloved holiday, TV movies and lesser-known favorites that I try and re-watch every holiday season.
The morning after Thanksgiving, my brother and I sleepily head downstairs to watch the 2003 Disney movie, Eloise at Christmastime. This film has everything: Julie Andrews singing off-key to Jingle Bell Rock, a mid-20s Gavin Creel dancing through the Plaza, Christine Baranski with an extra dose of attitude and a random kidnapping subplot tossed in at the end. Wondering how you've missed out on this classic for years? Me too, because it's amazing. The Christmas version is a "sequel" to the Eloise at the Plaza television movie that came out earlier that year. While it features most of the same cast, it's definitely not required viewing before watching the holiday edition. Sofia Vassilieva reprises her role as the mischievous, but goodhearted, Eloise, and she does the perfect job embodying the spirit of the character, without ever falling into "annoying child actor" territory. Whether or not you're a fan of the book series, the movie vividly brings these eccentric characters to life in a believable way and concludes with a storybook ending that typically makes me teary.
Moving backwards in time, in 1999 Fox aired Olive, the Other Reindeer. It's a computer animated special about Olive the dog (voiced by Drew Barrymore), who doesn't behave quite like the other pups in town. When she hears a radio broadcast announcing that Santa's Christmas Eve flight will be cancelled due to a sick reindeer, she mishears Santa's plea for "all of the other reindeer" as a call for "Olive, the other reindeer," and decides to take a journey to the North Pole to fulfill her destiny as a reindeer, instead of a dog. Along the way, she befriends the penguin Martini, the bus driver Richard Stands and the flightless reindeer Schnitzel (voiced by the lead singer of R.E.M.). She also makes enemies with a deranged postal worker, who hates the holiday season and tries to stop Olive from completing her mission. It's a musical animated series, so prepare yourself for some catchy tunes to pop up throughout the movie. It's incredibly clever and can be enjoyed by adults and kids alike!
In 1996, CBS aired the musical special, Mrs. Santa Claus, starring Angela Lansbury in the title role. Set in 1910, it's a Christmas story with a feminist twist! Mrs. Claus, Anna, wants some appreciation for all the hard work she does running the toy shop, but kids only write letters to Santa -- it's a man's world, am I right? "I want the world to know, there's a Mrs. Santa Claus!" she sings. She puts together a new route to increase efficiency for Santa's journey, and he blows her off, because he's tired. So Mrs. Claus decides to take matters into her own hands and takes the reindeer and sleigh to travel on test-drive the new route a few days before the holiday. When they hit some storms, she and the reindeer make an emergency landing in New York City, where she befriends Marcello, who owns stables and agrees to nurse one of the hurt reindeer back to health, Nora, an Irish immigrant who works at a toy factory and Sadie, who is campaigning for a woman's right to vote and whose mother owns a boarding house where Anna stays. Right away, Mrs. Santa Claus is busy! She works at the toy factory and helps the child workers fight back against their boss, who hates Christmas. She helps Sadie put together a march for women's rights (there's a whole song called the Suffragette March, if you had any doubts that this movie is AMAZING). She helps give hope to Nora, who is missing her mom and baby brother in Ireland. It's fun, it's touching and it teaches Santa a lesson about undervaluing his wife! The music is incredibly catchy and there are some really beautiful dance sequences -- it feels like Broadway show that you can watch from the comfort of your couch. And guess what? After watching this movie, my brother and I addressed our Christmas letters to both Mr. AND Mrs. Santa Claus every year since.
Required Reading
With the now iconic Thank You, Next music video released last week, I, along with my fellow millennials are feeling extra nostalgic for movies released in the '90s and '00s. Alanna Bennett's BuzzFeed piece on Karen McCullah and Kirsten “Kiwi” Smith hits at the perfect time. Karen and Kiwi are the writing duo behind 10 Things I Hate About You, Legally Blonde, She's the Man and many other film classics, so it's surprising that they aren't household names! This piece gives fun insight into their writing process (they penned 10 Things via snail mail!) and how they crafted the now iconic leading ladies that star in their movies.
Speaking of powerful women... Elle put together a profile highlighting 27 out of the 35 new female Congressional representatives during their orientation. Jill Filipovic writes, "Women in power almost never have an easy path. While backlash and disappointment are likely, disillusionment is only as powerful as we make it. That isn’t a plea for overlooking craven decision-making or political expediency, but rather an offering to savor this particular moment and know that the highs are what sustain and arm us for the unavoidable lows. Change begets change, and this moment marks not the conclusion of a struggle, but one signpost in a longer journey toward a truly equitable nation." Sounds like these ladies are ready to unite and bring about some change!
