My Gift is My Blog and This Post's For You

The holidays. Time to sniff the pine in the air and hope your family members like the presents you gave them enough to hold back their disappointment in how you treated them the rest of the year. In the Parkman household, Christmas always meant movie time. The best Christmas movies are always made for tv.

When I was a kid, I loved "To Grandmother's House We Go" featuring the Olsen Twins. I waited every year just for that movie and those were the days when I didn't have a tv guide right on my tv or the ability to view the entire thing on YouTube. I would anxiously wait for the Sunday before Christmas when the newspaper would deliver the paper guide and I would scan every channel for this particular movie. Mary-Kate and Ashley play twins who run away from their single workaholic mother to their Grandmother's house. Along the way, they meet up with the delivery man who just so happens to be in love with their mother. I won't give away the ending but let's just say that there is a rousing rendition of the old "I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream" song. I really liked the fact that girls my age (7 at the time) were able to have an adventure by themselves and not get in huge trouble. I think I like holiday movies because no matter what crazy things someone does or says, by the end of movie everyone is drinking eggnog and too drunk to be mad at each other. That's exactly what happens to the Olsen twins, by the way. MK and Ash get too drunk to be mad at each other for eating too much ice cream and not being able to fit into their own brand of pants.

My brother and I really loved "Santa Claus is Comin' To Town." We wanted to rent the movie year-round but were told that we couldn't watch Christmas movies in July. I especially loved movies in general about orphans and adopted children that overcome their humble upbringings to accept their rightful destiny so it was a perfect Christmas movie. The main character, Kris, is orphaned and taken by animals to Tanta Kringle where he because an expert toymaker. He leaves for the big city where toys are outlawed by the nefarious Burgermeister Meisterburger. Of course, Kris meets Jessica, falls in love, helps a wizard walk again, and becomes Santa Claus. It's perfect. It explains the origins of Santa so well that I never questioned the guy. Oh why does Santa bring toys? Cause his family was toymakers to the king and children would write letters to him asking for toys. He was so nice that he couldn't say no. Why do reindeer fly? Because the Winter Warlock was running out of magic and the only way to save Kris from jail was to feed reindeer magic feed corn that enable them to fly and break him out of jail. Duh. Only troubling thing about Santa. That red amish beard.