Christmas movies

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

I thought him and Santa were both real and living in the North Pole when I was 5.

So did I when I was that age, and so does any little kid that believes in the magic of Christmas, and that's perfectly normal, as a active imagination is a healthy and important part of early childhood development.

[Murfreesboro]

Oh, I thought Santa was real, too, until I was about 8. I loved the magic of those Santa years. Happily for me, that feeling has been replaced by awe at the religious mystery of the incarnation. That didn't happen for me for a long time, though. Maybe late middle age. But I have this sense that believing in the magic of Santa somehow prepped me for that.

[Murfreesboro]

I heard the song Rudolph on the radio this afternoon, and I was thinking that the song itself wouldn't mean much to me if it didn't evoke associations with that delightful TV special. We are so familiar with it that it's hard to recapture how imaginative it really was when it premiered. My mother was so amused by grouchy Santa.That was inspired. It was so funny to see the Christmas tree forest, with the ornaments growing on the trees. And all the characters were so well delineated. I believe they went back to the guy who'd written the Rudolph song (Johnny Marks?) to write the score, and it was a very good score. I was 9 years old, but I knew the second I heard it that Holly Jolly Christmas was going to be a hit. And of course, Burl Ives, who voiced the snowman, was an Academy Award winning actor. So they got top tier talent.

Eta: just looked up Johnny Marks on Wiki. He did indeed write Rudolph, and all the songs for the TV special. Funny thing is, Johnny Marks was Jewish, yet he is remembered for his Christmas songs.

[Andybev01]

The best contemporary Christmas songs were written by Jews.

White Christmas, the Christmas song, Winter Wonderland, Let it Snow, Santa Baby, It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year, Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree...and I'm grateful for everyone of them.

[Murfreesboro]

I agree.

Rockin' around the Christmas Tree was also by Johnny Marks.

I guess it's not entirely a new phenomenon. Adolphe Adam, the man who wrote the music for O Holy Night, was also Jewish (he did not write the lyrics, of course).

Eta: well, maybe I'm wrong about that. I looked him up to confirm it, and the source I found said that it has been asserted Adam was Jewish, but he received a Roman Catholic funeral. Perhaps he converted? His being Jewish is a common assertion about him.

The man who wrote the original French lyrics, Placide Capeau, started out Catholic but became anti-clerical and socialist in later life, so O Holy Night was actually banned from church performance in France for a while.

[Andybev01]

It's chilly and foggy tonight, perfect for Elf.

[Murfreesboro]

Beautiful photo!

We've had a misty night and morning, too.

[Andybev01]

Thanks, it's my brother's livingroom .

For reference the big tree is 9' and the TV is 85".

[Murfreesboro]

I knew the tree was a big one, hadn't processed the size of the TV. A beautiful room.

[Andybev01]

Thank you.

It is a lot of work getting it ready for Christmas but it's a labor of love.

[Murfreesboro]

Looking at older threads, I am reminded that you used to decorate your office at work, too. I bet your colleagues miss that.

[MauEvig]

Wait, only children have imaginations?

Where's all my ideas for the stories I plan to write then?

I suppose the difference is that despite the fact that I have an active imagination, and I'm not ashamed to say that as a 38 year old woman, is that I know it's not real.

Although my brain would like to pretend it is sometimes.

I remember reading something about many famous Christmas songs being written by Jews and I find that interesting.

The ONLY Hannukah songs I know of are the Dreidel song and Adam Sandler's Hannukah Song. They're good songs, but I don't think anywhere near as moving as a good Christmas song.

Fun fact though is that the Jews don't even view Hannukah as that big of a holiday. Commercialism, and this pressure to conform to the PC "Happy Holidays" standard seems to have put Hannukah forefront as a major holiday. So Christmas itself popularized Hannukah in mainstream media.
But I'm sure if you ask most Jews, they'll tell you it's Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur or Passover that are the most important holidays, though it's debatable which is seen as most important. I'm actually not sure which holiday is the most important on the Jewish Calendar, but I know for sure it's not Hannukah. It's great that Hannukah has gained the popularity that it has, but it's mainly because most view it as a replacement for Christmas if you're Jewish. But most Jews aren't like Kyle from South Park (forgive me for using that reference! But I'm sure most of you know what I'm talking about) and actually don't feel all that bad about missing out on Christmas. They have some other great holidays and traditions that are just as enjoyable to the Jewish faith. Sure I was raised Christian, but it's nice to take the time to understand where the Jewish people are coming from. Though I've often wondered why Christians don't celebrate some of these Jewish holidays. If they serve the same God, why wouldn't they celebrate the same holidays? I suppose that's a more philosophical question than anything. Still, I'm grateful to celebrate Christmas and I can't imagine not celebrating it. But had I been raised differently, I might think differently about it.

[Murfreesboro]

You're right about Hannukah (never sure how to spell that). It was considered a minor holiday until Christmas began to be so big with the middle classes, maybe in the 19th century. My mother (born in 1914) used to tell a funny story about her Jewish neighbors in a small Arkansas city. The children were begging for a Christmas tree, and their parents firmly told them no. Then one December night, the grandfather of the family showed up with a small tree in his hand. He announced to the family, "This is a Hannukah bush." The children were delighted and happily decorated their Hannukah bush.

My daughter, who is fascinated with Messianic Judaism, has asked me why we don't celebrate Hannukah. I've told her we absolutely could, since Jesus did (in the New Testament it's referred to as the Feast of the Dedication, and Jesus went to Jerusalem at least once in the winter on that occasion). But for me, it would compete with lighting the Advent candles for four weeks. Also, I've tried to make latkes before, and they were a disaster. The grated potatoes all turned black before I could cook them. I don't know how the Jewish ladies do it.

Decades ago, when I taught at Mary Baldwin, a prof in the religion department told me that the high holy days for Jewish people are in the fall, Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah, etc. That's when they go to the synagogues the most. Passover, in the spring, is celebrated more in the home. I believe when Israel was attacked by Hamas on Oct 7, it coincided somehow with their high holy days. That was deliberate, I'm sure.

Of course, Easter is connected by both date and theology with Passover. You could call Easter Christian Passover. In fact, I believe in many romance languages, that's exactly what they do. In French, for example, it's called Paques, which comes from Passover. Our strange word comes from some Germanic goddess of the spring, in the same way Scandinavians still call Christmas Yule.

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

Wait, only children have imaginations?

Actually, a active imagination is important at any age, as without it we wouldn't have writing, art, music, dance, movies, and many other ways to express ourselves creatively in our society.

I was talking specifically about little kids that believe in Santa, and that it's important to encourage young kids to let their imagination grow and not be suffocated. I have seen some parents that flat out tell their young kids that Santa isn't real, and I'm not talking about families of a different religious faith, but Catholic and Christian families that tell their kids that and take a part of their childhood from them. I'm sure they have their reasons, but I don't know why anyone would do that to a kid.

My oldest is 9, and she still believes in Santa, I'm sure that by now some of her friends and other people have told her that Santa isn't real, but for now, she still chooses to believe, and I won't ever take that from her, she will, as most kids do, accept that fact when she is ready to. Of course it will probably be around the time she starts noticing boys, and that is another hill I'm really not looking forward to.

I was 7 when my older sister Katherine, who was 13 at the time, ruined Santa for us. I remember my younger sister refused to believe it, and she called Katherine a stupid poopy fart face, yes, she actually called her that, and then she ran to our mother, where she reassured her that Santa was real. My younger sister continued to believe in Santa until she was 8 when was ready to accept that he wasn't real.

[Murfreesboro]

My husband's family didn't teach their kids about Santa. It was my MIL's choice, I think. She had been devastated to learn the truth as a child and seemed to react as if her parents had lied to her. Also, though she was a very sweet and generous lady, she had a puritanical streak, I think. She maybe thought belief in Santa encouraged commercialism and wrong values. She and her husband were depression-era kids, as was my own mother, and they were all extremely frugal. Christmas gifts in my husband's family were mostly pragmatic, and not too many of them. Gifts were opened on Christmas Eve, and, because she was the church organist, the family was always in church on Christmas morning.

I'll give her credit, though. She never once interfered in my teaching our kids about Santa and the Easter Bunny, though I do think she regarded both as unnecessary frivolities.