We’ve all seen the stereotypical Hollywood Christmas movie where disaster threatens Christmas for the protagonists. You know the tropes, I mean, plots. A family gets pulled apart by the disaster and must fight back to make Christmas meaningful. These movies always seem to resolve in the middle of a small town with Holiday lights, snow, rousing music, and hugs all around.
I couldn’t help thinking of what problems the pandemic era Christmas movies would have: The Elves (cough Amazon) have to shut down the North Pole factory due to Covid-19. Or perhaps Santa has to quarantine after passing through a particular country’s airspace. Or maybe Rudolph can’t guide the sleigh through the fog per OSHA regulations as his mask casts a shadow over his nose. The final hugs are replaced with a correctly socially distanced elbow bump…
More likely, movie life will continue to be depicted as the quasi-utopian world that we are used to seeing in these warm-hearted movies. I mean, who wants to watch a film that resembles reality?
The towns always, to me, seem too clichéd. I mean, whoever lived in a real Mayberry? Christmas in a modern city takes place in malls and online. Santa has a fake beard and belly and charges you an astronomical amount for your child to quickly sit on, or near, his knee and fake smile for a photo. The holidays have become a commercial endeavour. A tally of gifts becomes a mental estimate of the expected return on investment of the presents and guilt one may receive. Work get-togethers become a social requirement where one makes a guesstimate of how long one must stay before it is acceptable to leave before someone gets drunk and does something they will regret.
I know that sounds a little jaded, but sometimes commercialism kicks the meaning of Christmas in the jingle bells, which is why we have to have movies to feel good.
Except that Christmas seems to have retained that innocent spirit that I grew up with for some places, including my new town. The town centre, including the aptly named Main Street, is beautifully decorated. Snow is on the ground (and occasionally comes from the sky). The local stores are open and decorated - but as largely independent small businesses, these are times to celebrate and welcome their clientele rather than push sales and discounts.
Above the coffee shop at the end of Main Street is a life-sized display of Baby Jesus in a manger along with his entourage. Glowing from thousands of watts of Christmas lights illuminating the display. Truth be told, I’ve seen three of these Baby-Jesus-In-A-Manger displays around town this year, even though I can’t recall seeing one on any street in Vancouver in the last 20 years.
It’s not just the businesses and the local municipality that festively celebrate Christmas. The community has a map and tour of the houses that decorate their homes for Christmas. For a few hours each night during weekends in December, homeowners stand outside of their beautifully decorated homes and pass out candies and chocolate, play music, and wave at the steady stream of families enjoying the sites.
I loaded up the family into my truck on a cold and snowy December evening, even including Coco - the Princess Puppy, and cruised the residential neighbourhoods of town, Christmas music playing. It was lovely and kept us occupied for a couple of hours.
It’s odd, in some ways. I come from a diverse, multicultural city. Christmas has largely been replaced with the more generic and less offensive Holiday Season. This town seems like a set of a made-for-tv Christmas movie. And with everything going on in my life this year, that’s a warm and welcoming feeling.
Does anyone want a hug?