That's a Wrap on Our First Decade

This wraps up ten seasons of Mainlining Christmas. Yup, a full decade down, and we've got nightmares brimming with sugarplums to prove it. In theory, this probably should have been our biggest year, the one we went all out to celebrate. But, frankly, we've had way bigger things occupying our attention than holiday movies and songs. I hope this doesn't dispel the magic too much, but the vast majority of content we reviewed this year was watched and written up prior to the birth of our daughter over the summer. Since then, we've been busy. And tired. Also sick.

Turns out, having a kid is hard.

But it's also all kinds of incredible. I won't rehash all the cliches: I think everyone knows this is life-changing in more ways than one. If you've got the inclination and ability to bring a small human into your life, I recommend it.

This Christmas... it's been weird so far. I wasn't joking about the sick part: all three of us have had one virus or another over the past week. And while Christmas might be magical to older kids, to a six-month-old everything is equally magical or boring, depending on how she's feeling. Honestly, this Christmas has been exhausting. My guess is the next one will be, too.

It's the ones after that I'm really looking forward to, as she gets a little older and can begin understanding what trees, ornaments, gifts, and candy are. When this season starts becoming special to her and I can share some of what makes it special to me.

What that means for the blog is anyone's guess. We're planning on keeping this going in some fashion or another, but going forward I can't promise even the paltry post-a-day you got this year. We're going to have to play this by ear.

But, since this is the end of our first decade, I should probably take a moment and reflect on what we've accomplished, and - frankly - it's a lot. Thirty-six short stories, eight episodes of our podcast, dozens of articles, and well over 700 reviews of movies, specials, episodes, and more.

To be honest, we're not proud of everything on this site. Some of our reviews - particularly the early ones - are little more than a few paragraphs saying whether we liked or disliked a movie. Likewise, in our rush to give ourselves a comedic tone, some things we've written have been too cynical or dismissive. I think we've gotten far better over the years, but there's clearly room for us to revisit some things.

I'd like to see this blog continue growing. It's gone from (let's be honest) a joke about holiday over-saturation to a study of the different ways Christmas can be used to enhance media and entertainment. I look at our review archive as a resource to anyone trying to rediscover a forgotten favorite or even make sense of the bizarre trends and tropes that have evolved over the years.

If you've read this far, you've probably been following along for a while and have thoughts about this site. Any feedback is appreciated - let us know if there are things you love or hate about this blog, if there are things you'd like to see more or less of, or if you have a question.

As always, thanks for joining us on this yuletide experiment, and have a Merry Christmas!

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