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| Image from SavvySugar |
I also don't remember the last time I tried watching a new animated or musical Christmas special. Last year's A Michael Buble Christmas would have been more watchable if it weren't for a. the horribly unfunny sketch Buble did sporting a mustache and Christmas sweater, b. Michael Buble wasn't such a douchebag in real life, and c. Justin Bieber hadn't been invited to this lame holiday party. Thank goodness for YouTube, where I can find solace in Christmas specials by Andy Williams, Sonny & Cher, and Carol Burnett. And how about those sitcoms? The Sanford and Son episode entitled "Ebenezer Sanford", where Fred gets even grumpier and stingy than usual during Christmas, is funnier than any holiday themed comedy today. "You don't upset me, Fred Sanford" says Aunt Esther. "I have the feeling of Christmas." "And the face of Halloween!" zings back Fred.
And the animated specials? I don't think I'll ever get tired of A Charlie Brown Christmas, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, or Frosty the Snowman. Sure, the newer animations are slick and computer generated, but they'll never have the charm or the slightly herky-jerky awkwardness of the Rankin-Bass stop motion TV specials.
On my last post, a few people commented about a fairly newer song called "The Christmas Shoes." Having never heard it before, I looked it up and tried to give it a whirl--dreadful! I think holiday music should be happy and fun, not something that should be played at a funeral. Even the socially conscious "Do They Know It's Christmas?" wasn't this depressing! Right up through the 80s, we had classic Christmas staples being created such as Paul McCartney's "Wonderful Christmastime" and The Waitresses' "Christmas Wrapping." (One exception: I love Bob Dylan's "It Must Be Santa" from his 2009 Christmas album.) Nowadays it seems like only the country folks are writing newer Christmas music, and the older crooners like Rod Stewart are covering the same old songs.
I guess it goes hand-in-hand with the complaints about Hollywood that we've been hearing for a while now: lack of imagination.
And it isn't that I'm being an old-fashioned fuddy-duddy on purpose...I really have given the newer Christmas movies, music and specials a try...they just aren't for me, and I don't think any of them are on schedule to go down in history as pop culture classics. If anyone thinks that there are exceptions worth checking out, I'm open to hearing about them.
