Cultural itinerary: the holidays

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It’s happening. Can you feel it? Whether or not you love this time of year (as I do), stretching from Halloween through Thanksgiving and the winter solstice holiday of your choice all the way until New Year’s, it is here. How to survive, or enjoy it even? My suggestions below.

Read it.

  1. Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections. Odds are you’re spending the holidays with your family – or perhaps avoiding them. Watch and cringe as the Lambert family tries to come together for Christmas. If you need a caustic, vibrant, intense dose of perspective regarding your own nearest and dearest, Jonathan Franzen’s epic 2001 novel is it.
  2. Philip Pullman, The Golden Compass. What will you do now that you are at your childhood home? Go through and revisit all your childhood literary favorites. At this point I could suggest Tolkien or L’Engle or Lewis or Rowling, but I am partial to Pullman’s fantastic Oxford epic about a girl named Lyra who gets in the middle of a metaphysical battle very powerful forces (that I won’t spoil here).
  3. Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol. There’s a reason that the Victorian design sensibility comes out during the holidays: the whole season becomes heavy with its own excess. Dickens’ 1843 novel does not disappoint, with figgy pudding and Noel balls and ghosts of Christmas past. And it’s also a true story of redemption, affording us to hate, pity and grow with one Ebenezer Scrooge (a contender for best-named character ever).

See it.

  1. The Nightmare before Christmas, Tim Burton (1993). Burton’s creepy claymation film nicely bridges the period from Halloween until Christmas. Jack Skellington rules over Halloweentown but cannot rest once he discovers the delights of Christmas Town. The songs (“This is Halloween”), the characters (Sandy Claws!), the Burtonesque world touches makes it a modern, if slightly offputting, holiday classic.
  2. When Harry Met Sally, Rob Reiner (1989). If any time of year excuses sentimentality, late October through early January would be it. So this classic romantic comedy verges on the schmaltzy side, but as you follow friends Harry and Sally (Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan shining as the unlikely duo) through their eras of friendship and eventual dating. There’s even a New Year’s Eve countdown! Impossible not to let your heart be tugged.
  3.  Un conte de Noël (A Christmas Tale), Arnaud Desplechin (2008). Sometimes the beauty of the holidays can get swept away by anger or sorrow or dispair. As I wrote about before, Desplechin’s French film is a gorgeously shot trainwreck of a family. Watch when you are feeling strong.

Hear it. 

  1. Vince Guaraldi Trio, “A Charlie Brown Christmas” (1965). Classic. If you’ve heard the soundtrack to the 1965 tv special once, you’ve heard it one hundred times. And yet it still best captures the melancholy as well as the joy that springs up this time of year.
  2. Sufjan Steves, “Songs for Christmas” (2006). If you’re a fan of the singer-songwriter, you’ll love the melodic, sweet songs, including some classics and some original compositions (“That was the worst Christmas ever!”). And if you don’t know him, you’ll be charmed – and pleased you can listen to something without be reminded of the mall.
  3. Bob Dylan’s Theme Time Radio Hour, “Thanksgiving.” Never checked out the great man’s radio show? You are in for a treat. Each show comes with a theme, full of old classics among anecdotes and history. The Thanksgiving show is perfect to play while you’re prepping – or even during the hallowed meal itself.