Let's Talk Film: The Muppet Christmas Carol

So I hope by now I've made it pretty clear that I love the holidays. Holiday books, baking and especially holiday movies. I will watch almost anything if it has Christmas in the title. You know all those Hallmark channel, sugary sweet, 60 minutes of pure schlock? Love it. However, just because I don't necessarily have discerning tastes when it comes to this kind of thing, it doesn't mean that I don't have favourites. My particular favourite, a classic really in my mind, is The Muppet Christmas Carol.

There have been so many takes on Charles Dickens' classic story, but the muppet version will always hold a special place in my heart and yes I do re-watch it every year.There's something about having the muppets tell the tale that makes it a little more joyous. Gonzo the Great plays Ebeneezer Scrooge and Kermit the Frog is Bob Cratchit and of course Michael Caine as Scrooge. What more could a child ask for? I feel like I don't need to summarize the story and I'll go out on a limb and assume you all know it and I think for a film aimed at children, this adaptation stays relatively close to the original. You know, with puppets and additional music.

Are there any holiday movies that hold a special place in your heart? Have you seen this one?

I'll leave you now with a clip from the film, or one of the saddest songs ever.

Let it Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson, Lauren Myracle | Book Review

TITLE: Let it Snow
AUTHOR: John Green, Maureen Johnson, Lauren Myracle
PUBLISHER/YEAR: Speak / 2008
SERIES: No
SOURCE: Purchased 

Goodreads 

Summary
An ill-timed storm on Christmas Eve buries the residents of Gracetown under multiple feet of snow and causes quite a bit of chaos. One brave soul ventures out into the storm from her stranded train and sets off a chain of events that will change quite a few lives. Over the next three days one girl takes a risky shortcut with an adorable stranger, three friends set out to win a race to the Waffle House (and the hash brown spoils), and the fate of a teacup pig falls into the hands of a lovesick barista.

A trio of today's bestselling authors - John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle- brings all the magic of the holidays to life in three hilarious and charming interconnected tales of love, romance, and kisses that will steal your breath away.

I love picking up a book around this time of year to help get me in the Christmas spirit. Movies are great, but sometimes I want to be able to sip tea, look at the lights and read. This year's choice was Let it Snow, a trio of short stories by some absolutely fantastic authors. Holidays? Yes. Romance? Yes. That pretty much sums up my criteria for a fun holiday read; I don't want anything too serious. Light and fun will do the trick. I had read a couple reviews of this book last year that weren't overflowing with praise, but it was cheap enough and I haven't met a holiday book I haven't liked to some extent yet. 

Thoughts and Reactions
The streak continues with Let it Snow. It wasn't the perfect, blow me away, reread all the time kind of book, but it was exactly what I was looking for. The book is three interweaving stories connected by setting and secondary characters. Each author has their own take on Christmas romances and I enjoyed each one in it's own way. I find I'm having issues summarizing and reviewing the book as a whole since each story is unique so I'll split up my discussion into three sections. 

The first story is Maureen Johnson's "The Jubilee Express." On Christmas Eve Jubilee's parents are arrested and instead of going to her boyfriend's Christmas Eve Smorgasbord she has to get on a train to get to her grandparents in Florida. The train gets stuck just outside of Gracetown and she must rely on the help of a stranger to have a warm, safe place for the night. The stranger just happens to be Stuart, a boy her age who has recently had his heart broken. 

I really enjoyed "The Jubilee Express" although it took me a little while to warm up to Jubilee herself. She's one of those characters who seemed totally believable and I know people like her in life, but my god she drove me crazy at times. She was so concerned with outward appearances that she rarely saw what was really happening.  I enjoyed the building tension between Stuart and Jubilee and more than anything loved the supporting characters in this story. Stuart's family was so sweet and caring if a little quirky and well I'll leave the reason why Jubilee's parents were arrested out of this since I think you should find that out for yourself if you don't already know. "The Jubilee Express" felt like a cute holiday romance with some fairly believable characters in weird and quirky situations. It kind of just made me go aww, I know, not the most eloquent way of putting it. 

The second story is John Green's "A Cheertastic Christmas Miracle." This was probably my least favourite of the three stories which definitely surprised me. I was honestly expecting to like it more than I did. This one centers on Tobin and Angie, best friends who go, with another friend, on an epic midnight Christmas Eve adventure to the local Waffle House to meet some cheerleaders who were stranded on the same train as Jubilee. 

These characters just seemed to rub me the wrong way. They were incredibly nerdy cool in a way that almost seemed to look down on others or like they were all trying just a little too hard to really pull it off. There's a weird male obsession with hooking up with cheerleaders, but also a certain disdain in the writing towards them. Angie is a cool girl because she's a girl, but totally doesn't act like one (but of course still wants to be seen as one). I think that's the part that really got to me; why does being a cool girl amount to displaying more masculine traits and being one of the guys? I'm all for going your own way; this just seems to be a female stereotype that comes up a lot and kind of bothers me. I know there are others out there who have examined this in much more detail and I'm feeling the need to read up on it now. The other part of it was that I just couldn't get behind the adventure. Driving your car up an icy road in the middle of the night during a blizzard is a really good way to get killed. There was some incredibly poor decision making displayed in this story. 

The final story is Lauren Myracle's "The Patron Saint of Pigs." This one centers on Addie a girl who has just broken up with her boyfriend, who happens to be another passenger stuck on the train. She's absolutely heart broken, but also realizes that what has happened was ultimately her doing.  It's now Boxing Day and she must go to work while dealing with her heartbreak and horrible breakup haircut and remember to pick up the pig she and her friend have purchased for their friend who is absolutely obsessed with pigs. 

I know this wasn't a story loved by many, but I really enjoyed Myracle's take on some classic holiday plot lines. Angels and bells, they just go with Christmas you know? Maybe I've just seen It's a Wonderful Life one too many times. Her characters are probably the least fleshed out of all three, but I was too busy enjoying the talk about angels and self improvement and worth to really care. I could not stand Addie's two friends, Dorrie and Tegan, even her boss ended up getting on my nerves. Dorrie was written as a Jewish stereotype and Tegan basically had no personality of her own. The thing that got to me was everybody telling Addie how selfish she was being and while she did display a lot of selfish behaviour, the reactions to some of the things that happened seemed extreme. Not all, she did do one major thing that I know won't sit well with a lot of readers. However, despite its flaws; I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

Overall, Let it Snow isn't my favourite holiday book of all time, but I know I'll pick it up again next Christmas. It's light, it's a really fast read and all the stories are about people falling in love in the snow. How bad could any of that be; you just have to be in the right mood for it. Which I, perhaps shamefully, always am. 

My Favourite Holiday Read

Do you have books you just have to read every holiday season? I don't know about you, but I'm a huge seasonal reader. September is my new kid at school book, the road trips books are for over the summer and each December I crack open some lifelong favourites, all with a seasonal theme of course.

My absolute favourite one of these books is Christmas with Anne and Other Holiday Stories. I remember I received this book as a Christmas present from my parents when I was about eight years old and have been reading it yearly ever since. Maybe it's just my Canadian childhood talking, but there's something cozy and comforting about L. M. Montgomery's writing. She tells stories that have withstood the test of time and remain beloved years after they were first published. Reading Christmas with Anne immediately takes me back to those childhood memories; reading by the fire, in front of the tree, sharing the stories with my grandparents. There's something so nice about revisiting these stories and the memories that go along with them year after year.

The collection of short stories begins with a chapter from Anne of Green Gables. It's Anne's first Christmas at Green Gables and she desperately wants puffed sleeves which Marilla sees as a waste, but Matthew knows that they're in fashion and desperately important to Anne and sees that she has them on Christmas morning. It's a classic chapter that creates immediate memories with me and so many of my friends. It's just a touching tale.

The rest of the short stories are lesser known, mainly published in magazines, but that doesn't mean their lessons are any less important or sweet. Each story centers on Christmas or New Year's and often features those who have very little, but either share or make do. These are all stories about coming together to celebrate the season as a family and community and they really do just warm the soul.

A personal favourite of mine is entitled The Joseph's Christmas and is about a fairly poor family living on the prairies. They all scheme and create so that they can have the best Christmas possible with their meager resources, making each other gifts out of household items and things found in nature. A benevolent guest spends the night after getting caught in the snow and decides to help the family out. It's the kind of heartwarming story you wished happened more often in life so that nobody would go without.

I'm sure some out their would find these stories saccharine. They are from a different era, where at least the writing was more innocent if not the actual times. These stories give me hope and take me to my own childhood though and I can't help but love them. Does anybody else have any childhood favourites that they revisit each year?