Mainlining Christmas

In 1985, I was six years old, Family Ties was my favorite show on television, mostly because of Michael J. Fox's Alex Keaton. Re-watching a few episodes three decades later, I can't really tell why I liked the show all that much, though Fox's deliveries seem to be the highlight. The show's premise revolved around a couple of liberal ex-hippies raising kids who were more in tune with 80's materialism and conservative politics. As a meditation on the power of the instinct to rebel, even when that means rebelling against the very concept of rebellion, I'd expect them to have enough material to fill two or three hours. The fact this show lasted seven seasons (including the three holiday episodes below) plus a made-for-TV movie doesn't bode well for its watchability. A Christmas Story (1982) : This episode starts on Christmas Eve while the Keatons are getting ready to drive to a ski lodge for the holiday. A blizzard forces them to change those plans, and

We picked up this special tea blend at 'An Afternoon to Remember', a cute tea shop in Bothell, WA. It smells just like Christmas. It's a loose tea, so you need an infuser of some kind. The mix smells amazing even before you steep it, it's full of spices. When you make the tea, it smells, as I said, like Christmas. You can tease out apple, vanilla, cinnamon, and cloves. It tastes lovely as well, of tea and spice and just enough of a hint of fruit. Happily, although this is a local shop, the magic of the internet means that you can buy your own amazing Christmas tea. Enjoy!

Silent Nights Edited by Martin Edwards, ebook release 2015 New Release! I received an electronic copy of this book from NetGalley for the purpose of review. Premise: Another collection of Christmas Mystery stories, this one from the British Library Crime Classics series. Fifteen tales of murder and thievery at the holidays. I know, you'd think I would be sick of short mysteries after last year's lengthy read of the Big Book of Christmas Mysteries. However, in this book I discovered a well-balanced selection that was enjoyable overall . I think I may be giving extra credit for being of a manageable length, though. Here's what you'll find, with stories that I've read previously noted: The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle (repeat) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle A classic, I would never fault anyone for adding this to a Christmas compilation. It remains charming on whatever number re-read this is. Parlour Tricks by Ralph Plummer A cute, simple story of

Last January, I found myself in a Toys R Us, which isn't all that unusual for me (that's where you find all the toys, after all). I came across a bin of discounted merchandise, including a handful of Christmas items. One of them was a bizarre looking game called "Rooftop Drop" branded as part of Hallmark's Northpole line. It had a sticker reading $9.99 on it, but I was skeptical - it was too long past the holiday, and things have a tendency of getting marked down in the system without being updated on the packaging. So I took it over to a price-check machine to see how much it was actually going for. It was $0.03. Assuming the $10 price tag was accurate, that means this was approximately 99.7% off. There's some flavor text on the box to make this more appealing. The game rules are spelled out in their entirety on the back of the packaging: there are no rules beyond the scoring guidelines. I'm not saying that means it's legal to bludgeon an op

It's a competitive race, but "Last Christmas" has at least got to be in the running as the least rational, most bizarre episode of Doctor Who produced since the show was restarted in 2005. It's essentially a mashup of Aliens, Inception, and The Thing. With Santa Claus. The Jolly Old Elf is played by Nick Frost, who might be the single best named actor to ever take on the role. He does a fantastic job with it, too, embracing the absurdity of a fantasy character showing up on a science fiction show. The opening focuses on Clara, still grieving, rushing to her roof to investigate a loud crash. She discovers Santa Claus and two elves trying to corral their flying reindeer. The TARDIS shows up in the middle of this, and The Doctor appears to trade barbs with Santa before taking Clara away. They soon arrive at the North Pole, where they discover a group of scientists dealing with an alien outbreak. The aliens, called Dream Crabs, are drawn to people who are thinking

The first thing to know about this television special from New Zealand is that it is poorly punctuated. As there are multiple monsters whose Christmas is at stake, it should properly be The Monsters' Christmas. Well, perhaps that's really the second thing. Perhaps the first thing to know about it is that not a single member of the cast has enough of a resume to have a photo next to their name on IMDB. Or perhaps it is that, according to the production/distribution company, the film was "written and planned as a location film." Or that it features most of its actors in full body monster costumes that are... really not that bad for television in the 80's, I guess? But really, the main thing you need to know is that this might be, minute-for-minute, the weirdest thing I've ever seen. It opens with a scene that implies a level of horror and suspense that the movie never reaches again. A little girl is reading a picture book to her teddy bear while SO

Lindsay and I stumbled across this during a recent trip to the Disney Store. It's a relatively new addition to an old line of plastic figurine sets. They've produced these for dozens of different properties: everything from classic movies, Pixar films,  Phineas and Ferb , Marvel, and Star Wars has been produced. Obviously, this one is based on the  classic Disney Christmas special  of the same name. It's one of the best nontraditional Scrooge adaptations out there. Actually, it's better than most traditional ones, too. The packaging is nicely decorated in bright, holiday colors. The candy-cane lane backdrop certainly wasn't in the special, but it does a nice job showcasing the toys. This set comes with six figurines (seven if you count the Scrooge/Tiny Tim display as two). Their heights vary a little from figure to figure, but they're about three inches tall. The poses selected are uniformly good, capturing the essence of characters and moments from the