It’s that time again.
No, not Christmas (though I suppose it is), but full report on this year’s Christmas list. Christmas schedule, actually, not list. “List” is the people I send cards to. “Schedule” is the things one must do between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Here’s the official schedule for 2023, culminating with this year’s addenda. (We’re now up to 94.)
Done.
Things to do between Thanksgiving and Christmas, 2023 edition.
First two:
1. Listen to Frank Sinatra’s A Jolly Christmas from Frank Sinatra. Recorded in 1957, it set the bar high for holiday albums. Preferably listened to on long-playing record, where one can easily note the change in mood from contemporary (side one) to traditional (side two), I like to listen to this album in its entirety late on Thanksgiving evening.
2. Put up Christmas lights in the den. Nothing looks better than the glow of your television backlit by multi-colored bulbs.
Speaking of your TV… watch these Christmas specials.
3. A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)
4. It’s Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown (1992)
5. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)
6. How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966)
7. Frosty the Snowman (1969)
8. Frosty Returns (1992)
9. A Garfield Christmas (1987)
10. “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire” (first full episode of TheSimpsons; original airdate: December 17, 1989)
11. “The Strike” (the “Festivus” episode of Seinfeld; original airdate: December 18, 1997)
12. “Classy Christmas” episode of The Office (original airdate: December 9, 2010)
13. “The Night of the Meek” episode of The Twilight Zone (original airdate: December 23, 1960)
14. “Road to the North Pole” episode of Family Guy, original airdate: December 12, 2010
15. “Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo” episode of South Park (original airdate: December 17, 1997)
16-19. Four episodes of The Wonder Years, Christmas-themed episodes from Seasons 2 and Seasons 4-6 (1988 and 1990-92)
20. The BBC broadcast of Raymond Briggs’ The Snowman. (One of those rare circumstances in which the movie is better than the book.) Double bonus if you watch the American version with an intro from that famous American, David Bowie!
21. Mickey’s Christmas Carol (1983). Dickens got nothin’ on this one.
22. Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas (1999). Without credits this one’s only an hour, so I moved it this year from the full-length movie list to the shorty list.
And now the aforementioned full-length movies one must watch.
23. Home Alone (1990)
24. A Christmas Story (1983)
25. Elf (2003)
26. Christmas Vacation (1989)
27. Holiday Inn (1942)
28. White Christmas (1954)
29. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
30. Bad Santa (2003).
31. 8-bit Christmas (2021) This one’s going to make Top 365 too.
32. Single All the Way (2021) Possible 365 addition.
33. Happiest Season (2020) Further proof that the new ones are growing on me.
34. Vegas Vacation (1997) It really has nothing to do with Christmas, but I watched it one year at Christmas time and it just made sense.
35. Hook (1991) Sort of a Christmas movie.
36. A Christmas Story Christmas (2022) Another possible 365 addition.
Certain things you’ll want to eat or drink…
37. Coca-Cola (the beverage of Christmas)
38. an old-school regular peppermint candy cane
39. those white nougat candies with the tree image in the center
40. those cheap shortbread cookies that are dyed pink or green and are surprisingly delicious, not to be confused with the ones that come in the blue tins
41. those cookies that come in the blue tins
42. a chocolate orange (why do they not sell these all year?!)
43. chocolate bar wrapped to look like a hundred-dollar bill (same question as above)
44. Martinelli’s sparkling cider
45. cinnamon rolls for breakfast (Christmas Eve or Christmas Day)
46. crescent rolls for dinner (same)
47. S’mores. Homemade. Preferably prepared outside, but inside if you must.
48. one of those Reece’s peanut butter “trees”
49. Stovetop popcorn. Strung up, eaten, or both.
50. hot chocolate
51. Chips and dip. My only childhood memory of my father’s parents house is eating potato chips and sour cream and onion dip on Christmas Eve from a garish ’70s-era green chip-and-dip bowl set. In your recreation any bowl will do.
52. Peppermint stick ice cream (I used to insist upon Perry’s as the brand but Trader Joe’s makes a mean one now too.)
53. Wendy’s Peppermint Frosty (tell Wendy to bring this back every year)
54. egg nog
55. Grown-up egg nog
56. Peppermint Bark
57. One (or more) of those “holiday” pies from McDonald’s. Yeah, “holiday.” They can’t even say what kind of fruit or cream or whatever it is. It’s just holiday deliciousness.
Things to hear…
Other than Sinatra’s album (see #1) there are four that must be listened to in their entirety.
58. Vince Guaraldi Trio’s A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)
59. Tony Bennett’s A Swingin’ Christmas. Recorded with the Count Basie Big Band in 2008, proof that at 82, the man could still swing.
60. Ella Fitzgerald’s Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas. Recorded in 1960, it took nearly a half century for another Christmas album to swing as hard.
61. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, full album that accompanied the movie including instrumental bonus tracks.
62. My own Christmas playlists on Spotify, now totaling nearly six hours of holiday music.
Other things to see, hear, taste, read, do, or experience.
63. Check out the red lights lining Georgetown Parkway at Krop’s Crops in Great Falls. Which they did bring back this year.
64. But still get your tree from Krop’s. (I did, but admittedly I’m changing this one for next year. Krop’s got great lights but their trees are pretty beat.)
65. Red stripes on my front porch pillars? Nope, don’t have pillars any more. But I do have a giant tree out front… which has been wrapped like a 20-foot-tall candy cane. I get to do it because I was the one in my neighborhood who thought of it first.
66. Take a journey out to the Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Vienna (Virginia, not Austria) and walk through the “Winter Walk of Lights.” Worth the walk.
67. Drive through the Bull Run Festival of Lights (Centreville, Va.), amazingly even better than the walk-through at Meadowlark, seen from the comfort of your car.
68. See a performance of The Nutcracker, or at least listen to the “soundtrack” in its entirety.
69. Enjoy an evening at home watching that yule log image on your television.
70. Find a Christmas party at someone’s house (preferably way nicer than your own house) and go there. Bonus points if you’re playing the piano and getting paid to be there.
71. Donate toys to charity.
72. Get one of those fancy cheese calendars from Aldi and enjoy delicious foreign cheese every day in December.
73. Deposit money in one of those Salvation Army red kettles.
74. Read Truman Capote’s “One Christmas.”
75. Read Truman Capote’s “A Christmas Memory.” Double bonus points if you pair it with #76.
76. Have Jack Daniel’s on Sinatra’s birthday (December 12). This really has nothing to do with Christmas but it does fall in the season. You should have Jack Daniel’s from time to time anyway just to be reminded of what a real drink tastes like, before the world was overrun by girly cocktails and macchiatos with skim milk.
Places to go…
78. The mall. Every community has a place simply referred to as “the mall.” Go there and experience the true meaning of Christmas.
79. A giant decorated tree in a shopping plaza (again, everyone has one… or in Loudoun County we have about a dozen).
80. Big Lots… trust me, weird off-brand Christmas stuff.
81. Dunkin’ Donuts… best Christmas displays of your standard commercial food operations.
82. Visit “the intersection” in Great Falls, Virginia. This is where Georgetown Parkway meets Walker Road, basically the only intersection in town. Highlighted by the Village Centre shopping mall (classy enough to warrant the British spelling of centre), this corner is pretty much 360 degrees of holiday cheer. Drink in the holiday awesomeness.
83. Read Mercer Mayer’s Merry Christmas Mom and Dad.
84. Watch one of your old home movies filmed at Christmastime. Double bonus points if it’s on VHS.
85. Make a new home movie. Triple a million bonus points if you’re recording it on VHS. Minus a million points if you’re recording on your phone.
And finally, everyone has his or her own unique Christmas toys or games that have special meaning. Make these your last three. For me I have two from my childhood and one from adulthood.
86. The mouse Advent calendar. Back before Advent calendars were ubiquitous (and could set you back 20, 50, or 100 bucks depending how adult you wanted them to be), I had a simple cloth calendar that hung on my bedroom door. There were 24 pockets, and each day a little toy mouse moved from pouch to pouch, producing a toy, money, or treat each day. I’ve now given Franklin the calendar and he’s brought the tradition into the 21st century. I’m also on the third generation of cats who like to steal that little mouse.
87. The dancing Coca-Cola bear. Purchased in about 1993, this item always makes me smile. It’s a stuffed bear, about a foot tall, holding an upright bass and wearing sunglasses. It sits on a pedestal adorned with the Coca-Cola label, and dances to a medley of “Jingle Bells” and “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing.”
88. Also from the world of Coke memorabilia… a Holiday 2005 glass bottle which sits on my bookshelf 12 months a year. The beverage was consumed more than a dozen years ago but the bottle looks like it just came off the factory line. It was the last thing my father ever gave me. (Well, last physical thing.)
New ones…
89. Little Debbie’s Christmas Trees. Oh, snack of my youth… where ya been the last few years? Thanks, Debbie, for bringing this one back.
90. I paid for this Christmas party! Listened to in its entirety.
91. “Phineas and Ferb Christmas Vacation.” First airing in December 2009, this is the first of two Phineas and Ferb Christmas specials. This is the one you want to watch, as Phineas and Ferb save Christmas as only they can.
92. Dr. Suess’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas studio album. Yeah, it’s really just the audio track of the TV special, but worth 25 minutes of your time. Radio theater at its finest.
93. Recite Clement Clarke Moore’s “A Visit from St. Nicholas.” You know it as “The Night Before Christmas.” First appearing in a Troy, New York, newspaper in December of 1823, this year marks the 200th anniversary of the classic tale.
94. Home Alone 2. Yeah, it’s not the first one, but damned if it hasn’t grown on me the last few years. Watching it with my son has helped, and I think it’s going to make the second edition of 365 Movies. My highest praise.
