Friday 23 December 2011

Why watch Christmas classics year after year?

Okay. It's that time of year again, time to stare at a televised fire place filled with blazing logs and pretend to experience a Christmas past, to sit in big cushy chairs, grab a turkey leg, put our feet up, and start channel surfing.

What would we do without television over the holidays? Think of all the sentimental movies we watch. Not to mention animated features: A Charlie Brown Christmas, anyone?

Those wanting something more cerebral relish year-end reviews with foreign reporters and fun quizzes for political junkies, like the CBC's 'At Issue' year end quiz.

But we still put on the popcorn and settle in for a family fest viewing the Christmas classics. What amazes me is how folks watch the same Christmas movies year after year. It's even possible that some watch the same movie more than once during the holidays, depending how often it appears on the networks. Over a lifetime we could view classics like "It's a Wonderful Life" or "A Christmas Story" or "A Christmas Carol" 50 times or more. Yet we are never bored. Why?

I think these films are similar to stories read to us as children. Most of us loved hearing the same story night after night, a monotony that drove parents to distraction. As kids, the familiar was and is comforting, e.g.,a classic like Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter.

Seems there is some of that at play with re-watching Christmas movies. We all want comforting, a little reminder of Christmases past.

Perhaps Christmas classics fulfill the same need that stories of childhood did - a cocoon of safety where nothing bad happens and the love of parents penetrates our very marrow? I reckon it's "A Wonderful Life" after all, if only via the movies.

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