Today marks the American tradition of Thanksgiving, or as many have come to see it, the moment we, as a nation, are allowed to show our Christmas cheer without being mercilessly ridiculed by all the cool kids and curmudgeons.
Here are five seasonal indulgences I relish freely and without embarrassment the moment the turkey’s in the oven.
Merry Christmas by Mariah Carey
I by no means consider myself a Mariah Carey fan. There’s something about her voice that is just too close to banshee-like screeching. Still, magic seems to happens when that banshee starts belting out Christmas tunes.
Mariah Carey’s 1994 Christmas album, Merry Christmas, is quintessential for a proper holiday, in my opinion. While many artists release Christmas albums, not many make as indelible a mark as Carey did with hers. “All I Want for Christmas,” the romantic, upbeat and downright danceable lead single for Merry Christmas, fits perfectly in the pantheon of tolerable Christmas music.
A Charlie Brown Christmas
Christmas is depressing. Charles Schultz gets that. Nothing displays the emotional upheaval that the holidays are more perfectly than A Charlie Brown Christmas.
The Peanuts crew is a group of kids that sound like world weary adults. It’s a feeling that’s easy to relate to, even for the jolliest of enthusiasts. And still, we look forward to it, try to make newer and better memories, and can’t wait for it to come around again next year. A Charlie Brown Christmasgets it all down. It is accurately depressing with an ending that is full of spiritual uplifting and warmth, much like the actual Christmas.
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
Claymation is fucking creepy. Defend it all you want, but there’s a reason why it works so well for Tim Burton.
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer is just one in a long tradition of claymation Christmas television specials and it is by far my favorite. This makes it no less scary. An abominable snowman that feeds on reindeer, the island of misfit toys and that broken-in-the-inside doll with her unnatural claymation tears make the whole experience feel like an acid trip gone wrong. It’s so twisted, and yet damn delightful. It’s an underdog’s story, which is always the best kind of story.
Love Actually
Unless it’s a love story, I often feel that as a feminist I really shouldn’t enjoy romantic comedies as much as I do, but what can I say. I love all that lovey-dovey bullshit.
Love Actually is a romantic comedy-palooza, a film that with eight love stories in what feels like a too short 136 minutes began a tradition in the motion picture industry. How many big name celebrities can be squeezed into one film for maximum profit making possibilities? I realize I sound all cynical about this, but I love Love Actually. Its ridiculously large cast is filled with personal favorites like Hugh Grant, Colin Firth, Emma Thompson, Liam Neeson and Bill Nighy, just to name a few. It’s also the perfect balance of romantic bliss, heartbreaking depression and fuzzy holiday feelings. Just like actual Christmas!
Mickey’s Christmas Carol
My first rendezvous with Charles Dickens came in the form of Mickey’s Christmas Carol, and as such it is probably my favorite version of A Christmas Carol.
Scrooge McDuck is Ebenezer Scrooge and for a long time I thought the book was about the duck and not some old miser from the 19th century. That’s a little telling of our sad education system, but eventually I read the book and got my shit straight. The point is Mickey’s Christmas Carol is a testament to the genius of Disney. It’s not a rote retelling of a Dicken’s classic, and it doesn’t try too hard to break a mold either. In general, the best things about Christmas don’t have to try too hard. They just have to get the feeling right and this does just that.