Christmas in July 2016: Recap

Did you check out all the responses by our Christmas in July participants?  In case you were late to the party this summer, here's your chance to catch up.  Below is a complete list of links to each of our guests who participated in July. It goes by quickly, doesn't it?

This past month has been an exciting one for me too. Galleys for my new book project The Triple Dog Dare: Watching--and Surviving--the 24 Hour Marathon of A Christmas Story are going out soon. Look for the new book this upcoming holiday season.

Thanks to everyone who participated in Christmas in July and to all who left comments.  I was entertained and amused all month long by everyone's replies--I hope you were too!

Introduction to Christmas in July 2016, and Joanna Wilson's responses

Drew Flowers of Christmas Movies & Music

Brian Arnold of Me and You and a Blog Named Boo

Page

Rob Martinez of The Nights Before Christmas

Linda M. Young of Flying Dreams

Do You Hear What I Hear

Jim Inman of Christmas Movies & Music

Cathie Kahle of Christmas Movies & Music

S.W. of Ho! Ho! Holiday Viewing

Jennifer Davis of smARTStudio

Kevin Bowman

John

Mitchell Hadley of It's About TV!

Jeff Fox of NameThatChristmasSpecial.com

Melissa Olson of Gilmore Girls Soundtrack

Randall Buie

Donna Bock

D.X. Ferris of 6623 Press

David Branch

Net of It's a Wonderful Movie

Ed South of Wonderful World of Blog

Jakki of Christmas Movies & Music

J.A. Morris of Holiday Film Reviews

Daniel Budnik of Some Polish American Guy Reviews Things website, and Eventually Supertrain podcast

Dominic Caruso of 1701 Press

Laura Rachel of What-to-watch.com

David Hofstede of Comfort TV

Jonathan Sowers

Jim Fanning of Tulgey Wood

If you're interested, below are a few more links.  These are the recaps from Christmas TV History's previous Christmas in July parties.  

Christmas TV Party 2015: Recap

Christmas TV Party 2014 Summary

2013's Christmas in July: Animation Celebration

2012's Sci-Fi Christmas in July

2011's 1990s Christmas in July

2010's Christmas in July guest bloggers and Fan Photos

MERRY CHRISTMAS IN JULY!

Christmas in July 2016: Jonathan Sowers

 
Christmas in July 2016: Jonathan Sowers

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

It's not Christmas without seeing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer one more time. The opening scenes are all I need to see. Just the credits whisk me back to the 1960s when these shows came on every Christmas and you had to be there in front of the TV or you missed
it. The music in that special is so timeless and good. Watching that show was one of the highlights of my Christmas when I was a child. I remember the GE commercials too, with the elves. We always had lots of GE appliances--fridge, stove, washer, dishwasher, radios and TVs. Mom's GE stove is 63 years old.



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

For me it's a song. Glen Campbell singing There's No Place Like Home. He sang it on his 1970 Christmas special, but I remember it more from his Capitol recording. It's a beautiful song and Glen sang it better than anyone else.

When I was growing up, my dad's family always celebrated Christmas Eve at Granny's next door and that song brings back memories of Christmas Eves past when I helped Granny decorate for Christmas and get the kitchen ready for the family to come that evening. And especially the one year when mom and I were walking home and she heard the bells on Santa's sleigh. That memory is so vivid that I
still remember the spot I was standing when she said it. I think I was about three or four. That same night I also remember watching Mary Martin as Peter Pan after I got home, on our old Philco black and white TV. I guess Santa had to circle the landing area while I looked at TV.

We didn't get a color TV until 1969 and I remember watching Glen Campbell on that TV. A GE 21" table model. I still have that TV in my living room.



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

I only get to see the song now in recordings I made back in the 1980s and 90s or on YouTube--the opening to Christmas in Washington in its early years when they had the Naval Academy Glee Club singing was one of the classiest and best performed TV show openings ever done. "Christmas is the perfect time to beeeeee, in Washington, Deeee Ceeee!" They just got everything right when they made that introduction--the scenes of snow in the city--it's just magical. I was very sad when they changed it and now they don't even have the show on any more.

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

The scene in Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol with the door knocker that turned into Marley's Ghost frightened me as a child and I never forgot it. Also the bony finger of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come was equally scary. I probably saw it about 1963 when I was in kindergarten and that memory lasted for years until I bought the DVD and saw it again. That particular show wasn't repeated as often as some of the others, but it was one of the first and I never forgot it. I also bought the book on the making of that show. I enjoy that show even more after learning the back story.

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

Hermey the Elf on the Rudolph special is one character I identify with. I haven't always fit in, especially in school. I never went along with the crowd, so to speak.

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.

Christmas in July 2016: Laura Rachel

Christmas in July 2016: Laura Rachel of What-to-watch.com

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

I used to say It's a Wonderful Life, it's the quintessential story of how our lives are important to the ones around us and to not take it for granted. Than I watched It Happened on Fifth Avenue which is very reminiscent of It's a Wonderful Life but puts in perspective the needs of other people during the holiday. I fell in love at first viewing.

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

I'm a huge fan of Hallmark's Christmas films, what can I say, I'm a girl who likes romantic movies so I really enjoyed the skating scene in ABCFamily's Holiday in Handcuffs in which Trudie, Melissa Joan Hart's character, talks about her dreams, what she wants in life, and how it always just eludes her.




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

That would be the song, "That's What Christmas Means to Me" from It Happened on Fifth Avenue.

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

I'm sorry to say, it's the movie A Christmas Story. That movie has just never tickled my funny bone nor has it made me sentimental for my own childhood. I just never connected with that film.

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

I don't identify the film Bridget Jones' Diary as a Christmas film but I know it is on a lot of Christmas movie lists. It's one of my all time favorite films and I really do  identify with Bridget. As a single girl just trying to find a nice guy while you know there are all these flaws with you and your family that you wish weren't there. Love that film and I'm excited to see the new one out this fall.

Christmas in July 2016: Dominic Caruso

 
Christmas in July 2016: Dominic Caruso at 1701 Press

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

I enjoy some of the old(ish) variety / music shows. If I watch a Christmas episode of the Lawrence Welk Show from the 70s, that’ll put me in the holiday spirit. It reminds me of the old people in my family (and community), and growing up with them around. What they wore, what they liked, what the decor of the time was like.

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


The recitation of the gospel that Linus does in A Charlie Brown Christmas actually makes me tear up. It’s a very poetic moment, expressed in an extraordinarily genuine, unpolished way by young Christopher Shea. It’s a transcendent moment in a kids’ cartoon.




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

The song “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” performed by U2 in 1987 or 88 for A Very Special Christmas. There was a special about U2 or A Very Special Christmas that aired on MTV that year (I don’t remember which), and I was a big U2 fan, and I remember waiting for the song to be broadcast. Of course, Darlene Love owns the song, and I love her performances of it too, but I think the U2 version was my first introduction to it, and there’s a lot of youthful longing in it!

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

Many Santas are unintentionally creepy. But mainly, I’m not crazy about most reality TV Christmas episodes. They tend to be about how the people on the show are ridiculous or awful, more than anything interesting or suggestive of meaning.

from the 1966 Christmas episode of Green Acres.

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

I like Oliver Douglas (from Green Acres). I don’t exactly identify with his frustration at the absurdity of his life in Hooterville—but I do enjoy the humor of his situation, and the humor in the absurdity he faces. Maybe I’m more of an Eb Dawson than an Oliver Douglas.

Christmas in July 2016: Daniel Budnik

from the 1947 movie The Bishop's Wife.

 
Christmas in July 2016: Daniel Budnik of Some Polish American Guy Reviews Things website and Eventually Supertrain podcast.

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

I try to start the season with either The Bishop’s Wife or Black Christmas (the original). I love the atmosphere of both of those films. By the end of The Bishop’s Wife, I’m glad to be alive at Christmastime. By the end of Black Christmas, I’m simply glad to be alive. Usually the one I watch first depends upon whether or not I’m watching them with my wife or alone. She’ll join me for Cary Grant but will usually pass on the movie with all the murdering and such.

from the 1974 Christmas episode of Happy Days.

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

I can always tell how sentimental a Christmas I’m going to have by how much I weep at three things:
1) The Happy Days episode “Guess Who’s Coming To Christmas”
2) Episode 4 of the Doctor Who audio The Chimes of Midnight
3) The opening of It’s A Wonderful Life when everyone is praying for George. (If I’m totally a mess before the stars start talking and we’re not even, like, 5 minutes into the film, it’s going to be a weepy Christmas.)

from 1988's Christmas episode of The Wonder Years.

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

“For me, that year Christmas stopped being about tinsel and wrapping paper, and started being about memory. At first I was disappointed. Until I learned that memory is a way of holding on to the things you love, the things you are, the things you wish to never lose. And I learned from Winnie, that in a world that changed too fast, the best we can do is wish each other Merry Christmas and good luck.” – The Wonder Years “Christmas”

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

I’ve been scouring my brain trying to come up with an answer for this one. I don’t have a specific program. However, there is something that, when it occurs in shows or movies, can make me stop paying attention…  that’s when the Christmas special doesn’t have any visible signs of winter in it. No snow, no cold, no Dan. Although, that’s not completely true. I have to make myself ignore the lack of what I consider to be such a big part of the holiday and enjoy the special for what it is.

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

Alice from A Very Brady Christmas. Alice loves the Bradys. Alice loves Christmas. (We will not discuss Sleazy Sam from this movie.) And, she, like me, spends much of the holiday cleaning, cooking and making sure that everyone she’s with is having a good time…  and she’s not getting paid to work for the Bradys that year! I imagine, also, that when all the work is done Alice rests and relaxes really well. I do the same, Alice. Just make sure your sister doesn’t show up. She’s too much for me.

Christmas in July 2016: J.A. Morris

 
Christmas in July 2016: J.A. Morris at Holiday Film Reviews



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

A Charlie Brown Christmas,  I usually watch it early in December and once more closer to Christmas.  The music, the animation, the children's voices and the story still make me feel very Christmas-y and remind me of holiday seasons of my childhood.

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

Emmet Otter’s Jug Band Christmas never fails to bring at least one tear to my eye every time I watch it.  The relationship between Emmet and his mother Alice is very sweet.  It's my favorite adaptation of The Gift Of The Magi.



brothers from 1974's The Year Without a Santa Claus.

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

I've always been fond of the song performed by Snow Miser and Heat Miser in The Year Without A Santa Claus.  When I was a kid, I remember humming the tune well into the new year.  



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

Love Actually.  While the cast contains some of my favorite actors, I find most of the characters and storylines annoying and not very romantic.  I thought Mark (Andrew Lincoln) was creepy.





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


I've always identified with underdogs, so I'll go with Charlie Brown because he's the ultimate underdog and I think he also buys the tiny tree because he sees the tree as the underdog of the tree lot.  Like Chuck, I could easily see myself buying a Christmas Tree because I felt sorry for it.