Is it Christmastime Already? (Quarantine Christmas -- Part I)

Can you believe it?  I sure can't!  But major props go out to S who, despite his general dislike for this particular holiday, knows that I love it.  He got out my Christmas decorations, encouraged me to decorate, and picked out some Christmas movies for us to watch already.  Here's what we've got so far:

Holidate was a Netflix find.  It's not exactly a Christmas movie, although it starts and ends there.  It is intended as a rom-com, and there are some cute and funny moments.  But it is utterly predictable and only moderately good.  If you want something to put on in the background while you make cookies, this could be it, because you won't miss anything if you miss a few scenes.

A Christmas Story, to quote S, "isn't just a classic Christmas movie, it's a classic movie."  I could hardly believe my ears!  Though it is a classic (either Christmas or otherwise), I don't think I had seen it since I was in high school?  You remember how your teachers would just put on a movie on the last day of the semester rather than teach a class?  That's when I watched this last.  A worthwhile film to return to periodically!

Have you ever seen Fred Clause?  I hadn't.  And in a lot of ways, it's every bit as terrible and predictable as most modern Christmas movies.  But in its own way it is reasonably witty and amusing.  Fred is the older brother of Nicholas Clause, and resents (but also takes advantage of) his brother's endlessly positive nature.  When Fred gets into legal trouble one too many times, the only person left to bail him out is his little brother, St. Nick.

I am not, generally speaking, a Will Farrell fan.  He seems to be one of those people you either think is hilarious or you really don't get.  I'm in the "really don't get" category -- aside from Stranger than Fiction (which K encouraged me to watch), but that's not typical of his oeuvre.  I had seen Elf once before, several years ago.  S doesn't like It's A Wonderful Life because, as he says, it's just 90 minutes of Jimmy Stewart yelling at you.  That's a bit how I feel about Elf.  There were some chuckles, but my eardrums feel somewhat assaulted by Will Farrell shouting at me through the duration of the movie.