Christmas Movie Marathon, Day 24 — The Santa Clause (1994)

THIS MOVIE is one of my favorite truly Christmas movies, oh man. We watch it every single year on Christmas Eve as a family after we get back from mass. These days, "as a family" means my mom and I, and occasionally my sister and her husband when they are in town. Nowadays we get back from mass, take off our fancy clothes and slip into our pajamas, pour some wine, (or drink Miller Lite, if you're Mom) and settle down to play the movie. Because it's become a tradition in our family, the movie is so familiar and comforting to me. It also seemed to go by really fast because I was probably writing one of these blogs while half-watching it!

This year was an anomaly. We didn't watch it. It freaks me out when we mess with tradition, but Daniel wanted to come over, and my mom had some presents to wrap. So, it just didn't happen. I think things can still be traditions even if you skip a year. At least we didn't force ourselves to watch it begrudgingly, or skip it because we didn't feel like it.

This is a good movie for Tim Allen, and also came out while he was in his prime. The 90s were good to him: Jungle 2 Jungle, Toy Story, and Home Improvement was just taking off. It really is too bad that his run is practically over, but not as bad as Wild Hogs, The Shaggy Dog, or Christmas With The Kranks, let's be real.

I don't know if I've said this yet during this marathon, but I really like movies where Santa is real. I know I've talked multiple times about how these movies are problematic, because when adults don't believe in Santa but still have presents show up every year, how do they not get it? Otherwise, I like to imagine Christmas world where Santa is real and the spirit of Christmas helps people to get along with each other and remember the magic of childhood. It's nice, and always something that people need to hear. I feel like sometimes Christmas is a good excuse to remind people that they should be more kind to one another, give, and be patient with people.

Churches like to pedal the whole "Keep Christ in Christmas" thing around this time of year, and though I totally get it, I think it sounds a little threatening to everyone. Especially when people are like.."It's CHRISTmas" and so on. I much prefer movies full of teaching kindness and loving your neighbor and no religion, to a forward approach that just ends up making people feel guilty about loving to give and get presents. The former is much more Christ-like to me.

Anywho... Tim Allen, woooo!  This movie is too funny and also hurts your heart a bit somewhere in the middle. I won't make a comment about the other 2 movies in the series except that I'm glad they were able to make them, because I think that says something about the popularity of the first movie, but they, to me, are not made to the same standard as the original.

Kisses, all,
Stephanie