Christmas in July 2016: David Hofstede

Christmas in July 2016: David Hofstede of Comfort TV

1) What Christmas episode/special/or movie always puts you in the holiday spirit?

Actually, it's not a show or movie at all - it's the classic animated Toys-R-Us Christmas commercial from the 1980s. The music, the vibrant colors, the snowfall and the roaring fireplace - it always puts me in a happy holiday mood, no matter what time of the year I watch it.

2) What Christmas program or scene brings you to tears?

There are two:

1. When Aaron plays his drum for the baby Jesus in The Little Drummer Boy (1968), and his beloved lamb is restored to health.

2. Near the end of The Partridge Family episode "Don't Bring Your Guns to Town, Santa" when the family returns to the ghost town to serenade the old prospector so well-played by Dean Jagger. We see his eyes fill with tears and it has the same effect on me.

3) What's your favorite quote of dialogue, song lyric, or sentiment from a Christmas program?

Linus: "That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown." (A Charlie Brown Christmas, of course)

4) Is there a Christmas program that unintentionally frightens you--or turns you off?

However old I was the first time I watched Santa Claus is Comin' to Town, the first appearance of the Winter Warlock frightened me. More recently, as far as a turn-off, it's not a particular program but the gradual progression (perhaps 'regression' is more accurate) from sincerity to snark in holiday episodes. Why is everyone so afraid of honest emotion in modern sitcoms? That's why I stick with the classics.

from the 1971 TV movie The Homecoming: A Christmas Story.

5) Name one character from Christmas entertainment with whom you closely identify? and explain why.

I'd say John-Boy Walton in The Homecoming, because at that age I knew I wanted to be a writer too.