Our Favorite Books and Movies For The Holidays!

Holiday Recommendations

by Sacred Chickens Staff 

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Julie  - I’m going to start with the most embarrassing stuff and work my way up. I rewatch Love Actually and Christmas Vacation every year. There. I said it. Does that make me feel like a person of intellect…no. But both movies make me laugh and even cry a little.  I feel slightly better about indulging in my favorite  TV Christmas specials.  There’s the Father Brown Christmas episode, The Star of Jacob, and, of course, the Black Adder Christmas Carol.  As for books, I LOVE cozy mysteries at Christmas. There are plenty that take place at Christmas. Martha Grimes, Jerusalem Inn, is a favorite and now I’m old enough to forget the endings so I can read it again.  Mysteries have atmosphere going for them and the fact that no matter what kind of bad things happen, they’re all wrapped up by the end. I’m also going to read The Christmas Stories of George MacDonald. If there’s anyone who always understood that Christmas is an invitation to a wider universe of love, and not a cudgel to force others to partake of your particular version of religion, it’s him.

​Jarad- I’ve never been a big Christmas person; Halloween is more my style. I like to decorate the tree, but I don’t go all out (overdoing it, in my opinion) like a lot of people do. I enjoy coming together and spending time with friends and family and reflecting on another year gone by, and I look forward to the solstice, so I can hope for longer days and spring. I don’t really read Christmas-y books, but during the winter I turn toward the darker and more fantasy books. You should be reading year- around anyway! However, there are some movies that I enjoy around this time of the year. Like Julie, I enjoy Love Actually. Anything with Emma Thompson is always a treat. Harry Potter always has Christmas scenes in it, and since it was a very big part of my childhood, I always come back to it around this time of year. I also tend to watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and although that has nothing to do with Christmas, those are some of my favorite movies and have been for a long time, and now is the only time I have to watch them. So, after years of that, I associate them with the holiday times. Maybe I’ll get Legolas for Christmas!
 
Morty – You might not think so, but your Uncle Morty does like to get into the Christmas spirit.  Every year, I watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas, find a nice plush heart, stick it in my empty rib cage and feel the warmth. I also just listened to The Last Podcast on the Left, The Detective Popcorn Christmas Special and their Dark Side of Santa Claus episode. I will say that I’ve been thinking about the commercial aspects of Christmas more than usual this year, perhaps because I’ve watched Knives Out and Parasite, this holiday season, both movies that aren’t Christmas-y at all, I suppose, but that made me think about the capitalistic aspects of the season with a somewhat more critical eye.