Well, the Thanksgiving holiday is over, the only turkey left is that weird slab of half-fat and half-dark meat, the recycling can is overflowing with empty beer and wine bottles (seriously, somebody better take that out), and it’s time to start thinking about Christmas — specifically, Christmas viewing. It’s little wonder that the “holiday movie” has become such a venerable moviemaking standby; whether the resultant picture is good (A Christmas Story) or not so good (Fred Claus), there’s a pretty good chance that studios can count on perennial DVD sales and TV bookings as a revenue stream.
There are plenty of memorable holiday films, and yes, there’s a pretty good chance you’ll see a list or two centered on them in the upcoming weeks. But as the season gets underway, we thought we’d keep it simple, and ask you the basic question: What are your essential holiday movies? What do you always watch once the Christmas season is in full swing? Read More »
Super Furry Animals frontman Gruff Rhys clearly has a chip on his shoulder about the holiday season. He’s releasing his Atheist Xmas EP on December 19, featuring three tracks that you certainly won’t find in your family’s well-thumbed book of sing-along standards: “Post Apocalypse Christmas,” “At the End of the Line,” and “Slashed Wrists This Christmas.” The latter is now available for streaming, which means we can confirm that it is, in fact, about a seasonal suicide attempt (and bipolar disorder!). For non-believers and those for whom “holiday cheer” is an oxymoron, it’s an enjoyably dark antidote to the turkey and tinsel.
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Christmas may be six months away, but there’s no wrong time of year to celebrate J.R.R. Tolkien’s Yuletide letters to his four children. As Letters of Note describes, Tolkien wrote a note in festive, quivering handwriting (Santa was 1925 years old, after all), full of tales from the North Pole, and signed it “Father Christmas.” And, perhaps because Lord of the Rings fans have pretty much ensured the publication of everything Tolkien ever jotted down, the entire collection, spanning 20 years, in a book called Letters to Father Chistmas. See one of the missives, featuring a charming comedy of polar-bear errors and some lovely illustrations, after the jump.
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Juggalos, you may have been feeling a bit neglected in this yuletide season. We’ve covered holiday festivities for metalhead and rap nerds, but, as usual, the obsessive Insane Clown Posse fan stands alone. Well, don’t worry your clown-painted heads, Juggalos, -ettes, and -inis. Grab a bottle of Faygo and learn how to celebrate Christmas the ICP way.
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We’re all familiar with classic Christmas tales of outcast mutant reindeer, hallucinating old men, and thieving green goblin cartoons, but there are plenty of other holiday parables and stories that spin a more unconventional twist on the year-end holiday. Whether you celebrate or not, here are ten alternative Christmas accounts whose offbeat weirdness will add any needed merriment to this holiday weekend.
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On the metal-o-meter, Christmas ranks pretty low. Yes, there’s the possibility of dark and icy nights, but then there’s the whole Bing Crosby crooning thing that is fairly incompatible with metal. Sweetness and light is all well and good, but there’s not a lot of thrashing to be done in a rendition of “Hark the Herald Angels Sing.” Luckily, the inventive minds behind metal bands both popular and obscure have combined Christmas cheer with some bonkers guitar shredding, to populate our list of twisted metal holiday anthems. Have yourself a totally sick Christmas, why don’t you?
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We’ll admit it. Our excitement for the Season 4 premiere of Mad Men has been a little out of control of late. It’s almost reminiscent of the times when we would anxiously wait for weeks in advance of Christmas. While the thought of Don Draper sneaking down the chimney late at night makes us want to hide our sisters, it would be a fun idea to treat the Mad Men premiere like the gift-giving holiday. Click through for a few of our suggestions for Mad Men-themed presents to give to your fellow Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce enthusiasts — or even yourself!
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Out of all of the best parts about the holiday season — eggnog, 24 hours of A Christmas Story, debaucherous holiday media parties — our favorite has to be the slew of very special Christmas episodes. From Urkel to The Office, here are some of our favorite storylines featuring the magic of Christmas, proving year after year that sitcoms may come and go, but cliche-ridden holiday plots last a lifetime.
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As Jezebel noted in their roundup of the 10 Cheesiest Christmas Music Videos, holidays songs are inherently corny, especially when a sexy Santa or washed-up child star is the one doing the crooning. But does the cheese factor translate around the world? To investigate, we’ve gathered Christmas music videos from a handful of other countries. They are all very, very strange, and there is an inexplicable preponderance of “Jingle Bells.”
Tell us which one is your favorite in the comments.
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We’ve been before and now it was time to go again. This past Saturday, the holidays received their annual R-rated makeover at SantaCon, a grownups-only event. From Tokyo to Los Angeles, Average Joes appeared as various incarnations of Saint Nick (spotted: an S & M Santa) and participated in what amounted to a glorified bar crawl, bringing cheer and an insatiable thirst for booze to their cities’ streets.
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