Christmas in July 2019: Travis Van Hauen

Christmas in July 2019: Travis Van Hauen

1. What is your favorite Saturday Night Live Christmas/Hanukkah/New Year's sketch?

2. Do you most look forward to watching holiday episodes from series? Specials? Movies? Animation? or, all of it?

Pretty much all of it.


3. What's your favorite soundtrack from a holiday program? (it doesn't have to have been officially released as an album--just what program features your favorite collection of music?)

TV- Our family will sing along to Phineas & Ferb Christmas because we have seen it so many times. Not sure about movies. So many to go from. Christmas Vacation, Polar Express, Elf and Die Hard had excellent music choices. White Christmas is a great soundtrack.


4. What one program are you patiently (or impatiently) waiting for me to review on this blog?

I am not sure what has been covered so I am just gonna throw a few out there.

*Coach: "Christmas of the Van Damned." After finding fellow Van Dams in Minnesota, Luther attends a family reunion/Christmas party where everything goes haywire. Luthor (Jerry Van Dyke) walks through the party and sees a family member (Dick Van Dyke) and they just shrug an walk pass each other as if they don't know each other.

 *Chuck season 2 "Chuck Vs Santa Claus." The Buy More is held hostage. As it becomes apparent the incident is not a random act brought on by holiday madness, and Chuck and the Intersect are at risk, Sarah takes action. (it is a funny tribute to Die Hard)

*Justice League: "Comfort And Joy." I thought this was great episode of introducing the viewers to how some DC characters and how they celebrate the holidays.

*Syfy series Eureka had a episode that transported them through several types of Christmas Special effects in "Do you see what I see?"

Rankin and Bass's Festival of Family Classics - Episode 11: A Christmas Tree ( I saw it as a kid and don't remember seeing it since).

5. What change in Christmas entertainment have you noticed over the years? Do you like the trend? 

Seems Hollywood in the past ten years is going through the Dirty Santa phase. Having a dirty old Santa with filthy humor followed by bad story lines in order to try to get a edgy or young audience. I guess the jokes are humorous but they are definitely not timeless.