What are you watching on "Little Christmas" - the 25th of each month (1 Viewer)

[Bob_S.]

A great internet station to listen to during the Holiday season is

www.classicholidayradio.com

They play all the classics. First time i ever heard Jerry Lewis' "I Had A Very Merry Christmas". Hilarious!

 

[davidmatychuk]

I always listen to Christmas radio shows while decorating the tree. Tried to watch Christmas shows while decorating but got distracted too much!

You make a good point, Bob. And there's so much in the way of wonderful Christmas radio show programming to enjoy that you'll probably never need to play the same show twice. There's something about those old radio shows (probably the nostalgia they invoke) that really amplifies the Christmas spirit, for me at least.

 

[davidmatychuk]

More than halfway to Christmas! I had a hectic June "Little Christmas" yesterday, with a friend's art show to go to and some Statistics Canada door-to-door census enumeration to squeeze in, but I still managed to watch "The Night Before" on Blu-Ray (which is mostly enjoyable bad-taste youthful antics, though it goes a bit soft near the end), the Kino Video DVD of "A Christmas Past 1901 - 1925" (which is amazing beyond its Christmas aspect, and Al Kryszak's original score is wonderfully evocative), and the UK DVD of Coronation Street Christmas highlights "Christmas On The Street" (to remind me why I still love England). I also listened to some vintage Christmas radio programming on the "Old Time Radio Christmas" site while I did my computer work for the census. I could feel my body chemistry altering! See you all next month, when I'll be pitting "Krampus" against "A Christmas Horror Story" in a July "Little Christmas" battle of the Christmas monstrosities (which might mean the movies themselves, since I haven't seen them yet).

 

[davidmatychuk]

I took a different approach to July's "Little Christmas"; I opted to watch bonus DVD's from Deluxe Edition Christmas CD's in my collection, as well as listening to a couple of commentary tracks from Christmas Blu-Rays. As it turned out, it functioned as a kind of behind-the-scenes look at Christmas entertainment. Most of the bonus DVD's had lots of footage in recording studios. Some of it was contrived, but a surprising amount of it was very spontaneous. The Blu-Ray commentaries were Rosemary Clooney's for "White Christmas" and Ron Howard's for "Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas"; the bonus DVD's were from Michael Buble's "Christmas", Kylie Minogue's "Kylie Christmas", Sting's "If On A Winter's Night...", Tony Bennett's "A Swingin' Christmas" (featuring the Count Basie Big Band), Yo-Yo Ma & Friends' "Songs Of Joy & Peace", and a various artist compilation called "Comedy Christmas", which had two poor-quality Ozzie & Harriet Christmas episodes (that I have much better versions of on other DVD's) and two Jack Benny Show episodes (including the best-quality version I've ever seen of the classic Christmas shopping episode with Mel Blanc - it even had Jack's post-show plug for Lipton tea). I think I've got time still to sample the four DVD's that came with 4 CD's in a cheapo Christmas collection (packaged in an LP-sized sleeve) simply called "Christmas Combo Pack", which I've never watched in the 13 years I've had it. I'm sure the discs will contain a lot of the usual public domain Christmas items in poor condition that usually show up on these things, but you never know, right? I hope you all had a pleasant "Little Christmas", and I promise to do the Christmas horror movie face-off on August 25th. See you then!

 

[davidmatychuk]

I'm checking in a few days early this month with a relevant post about the movie "The Drop". It's mostly set right after Christmas, and in the Deleted Scenes section of the Blu-Ray there's a scene where Tom Hardy is talking to a barfly lady about "Little Christmas" (!), which they agree is January 6th. They must be referring to what I refer to as Ukrainian Christmas, unless there's some secret Brooklyn meaning I don't know about. On the commentary track, the writer Dennis Lehane says he didn't write the scene and that it was an improv. Uh-huh. Tom Hardy, if you're a reader of this HTF thread, I'm a big fan, and "The Drop" is a terrific movie. See you all on the 25th!

 

[bgart13]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Christmas

Doesn't appear to be strictly Ukranian.

 

[Mike Frezon]

I've always known it--as the wiki link above points out--as the marking of the Feast of the Epiphany (when the magi arrived at the manger and gave their gifts). And the actual date is January 6.

 

[Interdimensional]

Yes, Little Christmas is January 6th, I thought this was quite widely known. I find the idea of revisiting Christmas every month appalling!

 

[davidmatychuk]

It's a good thing I put "Little Christmas" in quotes. Maybe I should have gone with "Lil' Christmas".

I find the idea of revisiting Christmas every month appalling!

Is that you, Santa?

 

[Stephen_J_H]

Since I have the time available, little Christmas this month will be Krampus, along with anything else I can cram into the day.

 

[davidmatychuk]

Since I have the time available, little Christmas this month will be Krampus, along with anything else I can cram into the day.

I watched "Krampus" a week ago, and I'll watch it again on Thursday. I'll be curious to see what you think.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

I saw it in theatres, but I'm looking forward to revisiting it. Michael Dougherty pushed a PG-13 as far as it could go with great results.

 

[Mike Frezon]

And....my mom has always kept her Christmas Tree up until Little Christmas.

 

[davidmatychuk]

My Ukrainian mom would leave the tree up until Ukrainian New Year's Day, but I think she just liked the lights.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Sounds like your mom and my mom would have gotten along just fine...

 

[davidmatychuk]

Yesterday's "Little Christmas" involved me going in and out of my home for most of the day, so I had the 602 songs on my iPod's "Christmas 1" playlist (consisting of all the iTunes exclusive Christmas music I've bought) on "Shuffle" all day. When I had time in the evening, I watched the Blu-Ray of "Krampus", which I wanted to compare to "A Christmas Horror Story" but in Canada it seems to be only in stores on DVD so to hell with that noise. So I somewhat unfairly compared "Krampus" to the classic "Gremlins" (the "Diamond Luxe" Blu-Ray, Disc 1 of which is identical to the earlier Blu-Ray), which it clearly has been modelled after. Guess what? It's not as good. It's also not as assured in tone, to the point that the the ending of "Krampus" is more than a bit obscure (OBSCURE SPOILER WARNING: everyone is redeemed OR it's Evil Christmas Groundhog Day forever, they're arguing about this online I'm sure). As I was in the mood for more dark Christmas amusement, I went with the 1955 "We're No Angels" on DVD. It's VistaVision, and the DVD looks so nice that I wish Paramount would get a Blu-Ray out there before I'm gone to Evil Christmas Groundhog Day myself. The Humphrey Bogart/Peter Ustinov movie is quite wonderful, an old favourite of mine, and it has a body count of two, unlike "Krampus" (arguably). So it's 2/3 of the way through the year to Christmas 2016 (hooray!), and I'll see you here in September unless Evil Christmas Groundhog Day etc..

 

[davidmatychuk]

September's "Little Christmas" was very busy for me, with work obligations at the beginning and end of the day. In the middle, though, I had time to play some Christmas viewing I have saved on my old, second PVR. "Come To The Stable", from a TCM broadcast, was great Catholic fun, even for this total non-Catholic. A Blu-Ray would be nice sometime (Fox?). I also watched the first two of three hour-long "Invasion of the Christmas Lights" programs, about people who are obsessive about creating fabulous home lighting displays. Who would I be to complain about such behaviour? And besides, it's mostly for charity. History Channel's "Christmas Through The Decades" series of specials are nicely done, and I watched the 80's and 90's episodes. These, oddly or not, seem less familiar to me than the 60's and 70's episodes, maybe because the older Christmas stuff feels more traditional to me as it has more of a nostalgic pull. Or something. Throughout the day, I left my iPod docked to play the 1200 or so Christmas songs I've downloaded from iTunes (because I can't get them on CD or LP) on shuffle, largely for the enjoyment of my dog Ozzy who was actually born on December 25. I also enjoyed opening the door on each of my returns home to a smorgasbord of Christmas music. So it was a hectic, scattershot "Little Christmas" but I liked it, and now that it's Fall, I can really feel the momentum towards Christmas itself building. See you next month!

 

[Matt Hough]

I reviewed the DVD-R Fox release of Come to the Stable. The film is a lovely one. I can't remember much about the transfer, but I don't remember hating it. I'll have to do a search later.

 

[davidmatychuk]

I reviewed the DVD-R Fox release of Come to the Stable. The film is a lovely one. I can't remember much about the transfer, but I don't remember hating it. I'll have to do a search later.

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/com...able-three-blind-mice-suez-dvd-review.339771/

It sounds like the same quality source as the one TCM broadcast. Because they usually announce the Blu-Ray right after I get the DVD, I just went ahead and ordered a copy of the DVD-R. Why the hell not? (PUTS DOLLAR IN LORETTA YOUNG'S SWEAR JAR)

 

[Mike Frezon]

There goes Dave...taking one for the team again.