03 December 2007

Christmas in the Single Digits

I'm having a lazy Sunday at home - with a lot of emphasis on the lazy. I was flipping through the cable guide and didn't see anything, so I started channel surfing. I saw a snow explosion filmed with the color-tint of TV of the 80's and immediately recognized it as The Night They Saved Christmas.

1984 was the first time I saw this movie. Mom and Dad had to tape it for me. I'd watch it every day from Thanksgiving till Christmas from that year until much later. Mom probably still has the tape that finally dried up and died of overplaying (the only video I ever watched that often).

I've been in flashback land yesterday and today with the familial tragedy that occurred and the snow in Seattle; this just is more reminders of being a tiny lil' ragamuffin watching tv in the back bedroom and playing this movie over and over again.

So now I'm sitting here with a glass of wine watching the movie I grew up on. I'd fall asleep every night before Christmas wishing I could be one of the kids in this movie saving Santa and Christmas. And on Christmas Eve, even the years when I snooped and found the presents "Santa" gave me, I still went to sleep hoping there really was a Santa. I guess there's something to be said for good TV making you believe - this made me believe even when the Nintendo hidden in the back of Mom's closet should've told me there was no Santa.

It's a good night in my apartment remembering how nice it was to believe in Santa and how I later learned I made Mom sick of carrots (apparently they realized I was too smart to put them back or throw them out and knew I was a snoop, so Dad did the cookies and Mom ate the carrots - and I left a few cookies, but one carrot for every reindeer - EVERY reindeer).

Bittersweet memories of The Night They Saved Christmas.