* TV Movies
A Christmas Mystery (2014 Amazon Prime)
Tepid holiday mystery / romance. Emphasis on the romance. I don't know if Secret Past was the original title and they re branded to make it seasonal ,where the bar for such things is so much lower, or if they re-christened it so folks wouldn't be put off the other eleven months of the year.
Holiday Road Trip (2013 Amazon Prime)
The name Fred Olen Ray in a film's credits fills me with the same brand of dread as David DeCoteau (Santas Summer House) . So imagine my shock when I sorta liked Holiday Road Trip.
A pair of feuding pet supply company execs take a last minute road trip with the firm's canine mascot. It's sitcom level stuff but that's better than a lot of these things. Perhaps not surprisingly the supporting cast is festooned with sentimental favorites like Shelly Long, Susan Olsen, Donna Pescow, Mindy Cohn and George Hamilton, among others.
Yeah, it's a bit long and, despite the plethora of decorations and non stop mediocre Christmas tunes in the soundtrack it never really felt all that Christmassy.
* Kid's Stuff
We Wish You a Merry Christmas (1999 )
The town of harmony is too busy to have music… but they do love Christmas… and there’s an orphanage run by a clean freak… and the kids are so used to being given presents by the townsfolk that giving something back is an alien concept to them… and this leads to the invention of Christmas carols?
A human couldn't have written this nonsense, had to be some alpha version of a cheap holiday cartoon algorithm. Not absolutely terrible but totally unnecessary.
* Christmas Books
Christmas with Jinny Beyer (1996)
A terrific resource for a crafty Christmas, but as the only thing I’m remotely crafty about is hiding Christmas presents that I’ve bought for myself (and others),this will be thumbed through by my wife far more than me. I can look at all the pretty pictures though.
Thrift store find. Not a bad deal for a buck.
The Spirit of Christmas Four
Another thrift.
Before lifestyle blogs, Pinterest boards and socially media food and style influencers annual book series like this, from Leisure Arts in this case, was where, in concert with seasonal issues of your favorite magazines, where one might find all sorts of holiday inspiration back in the day. Crafts, projects recipes, it’s all here.
