Week 9

It's Christmas!! Well it's December and that's pretty much Christmas. Historically Christmas has comprised of a few days of feverish festive activity sandwiched between the end of rather a lot of work in December and the start of rather a lot of work in January for both myself and my wife (L). In other words, it's been exhausting and other than Christmas day itself, can, dare I say, be a bit shit. This year is going to be different (probably)! One change is that I've been able to kick things off a bit earlier than usual.

That included getting the tree sorted at the start of December. Whilst visiting the garden centre to choose a tree, I wondered if buying a big tree is a bit like driving a fancy car i.e. it means you're probably a bit of a cock. But then I bought a BMW last year so I thought it best not to dwell too long on that topic. Previous years I would have bought the biggest tree available (hmmm cock...?). And then we would have to chop off the top to fit it into the sitting room (yep cock...). So this year I sized down which had the combined advantage of not costing as much and actually fitting in the sitting room. It also slid a lot more easily into my BMW (still cock...).

I also got started on ordering presents rather than leaving it to the usual panic buying in the last couple of days before Christmas. L suggested I watch an Xmas film at the same time to double up on the Christmasness. I'm not sure if it's an annoying trait but I like to check out ratings of films before I watch them to make sure I'm not about to watch complete rubbish. I can't watch the trailor but I put a lot of stock in its IMDB rating. Anything above a 7 is going to be a good film.

'It's a Wonderful Life' (IMDB rating 8.6 - excellent) seemed to consistently top the rankings of Xmas movies. I stuck that on and then found it was too distracting so I stopped buying presents and just watched the film. Now it's a good film but it's no Scrooged - a Bill Murray classic (IMDB 6.9 - surely it should be higher) that I try to cajole the boys into watching every year. Having watched 'It's a Wonderful Life' for the second year running, I have concluded that there's very little about Christmas in 'It's a Wonderful Life' other than it ending in December but not even on Christmas Day. That makes me think I can potentially include my other favourite 'Christmas film' - Planes, Trains and Automobiles (IMDB 7.6). Admittedly this is about someone (Steve Martin accompanied by John Candy) trying to get home for Thanksgiving which is obviously not even in December but the meal involves a turkey and the sentiment is similar.

I therefore put It's a Wonderful Life's popularity down to the fact it's in black and white, has an angel and a Christmassy message around helping people. Nevertheless, the protagonist's (George Bailey) brother seems to have a great time and George really should have taken that job with his friend (Sam) making millions in plastics for munitions. The downside of war isn't explored and the poor financial controls at the Buildings & Loan were an accident waiting to happen. But I guess spending more time on these would have taken away from the main message of the film.

I then started The Holiday (IMDB 7.0, really...?). How did that ever get in the 'Best Christmas films' ever list? I read a news article describing how Netflix had ruined Christmas films by churning out a lot of poorly acted, scripted Christmas fodder. Netflix's 'Our little secret' (IMDB 5.7) where I'm at risk of giving away the whole plot in a sentence - two exes end up dating siblings with hilarious consequences and a fairly predictable ending, still wipes the floor with The Holiday. So much for IMDB ratings.