Holiday flicks

I’ve been having fun the last couple of days, fun sorting through our holiday DVD and tape collection. There are some real gems. “Pee Wee’s Playhouse Christmas,” “The Wonder Years” Christmas shows, the famous “I Love Lucy” Santa episode, and some two-hour movies that you can’t find on DVD today, like “I’ll be Home for Christmas,” with Hal Holbrook, Eva Marie Saint, Peter Gallagher, and a young Courtney Cox. Then there are the series episodes—Northern Exposure’s “Seoul Mates” and My So-Called Life “So-Called Angels” as favorites. Both series, incredibly, are more than 10 years old. There’s also a “Buffy” holiday episode—I haven’t seen it yet but just moved it to the top of my Netflix queue.

Sappy as it is, watching these makes me happy, and it’s part of my holiday ritual. Every year I seem to add one or two things to the collection. This year, I found a DVD of “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.” Also, “Christmas in Connecticut” finally came out on DVD this year, which means I don’t have to worry about wearing out my old VHS version.

Favorites? I love “White Christmas,” and also “The Christmas Story,” a.k.a., “The Tongue Show” (so-named by my kids years ago for its scene where a kid sticks his tongue to a frozen metal pole in the school yard). Also “A Christmas Without Snow” and the holiday “Little House” shows. And “Muppet Family Christmas.” And “The Snowman.” Okay, I’ll stop.

Your turn now. What are your favorite holiday shows? Do share, please.

The Solstice approaches—winter begins tomorrow morning at 10:35 a.m. here on the Pacific coast. The Grey School’s solstice newspaper published today, and it’s full of solstice lore and interesting goodies. If you’re interested in checking out a copy, you can download it from this page.