favourite unconventional holiday media?

[fablefound]

good afternoon/evening/whatever, melonland! over the years, i've been kinda hoarding holiday media i like to revisit around this time of year, and kinda wanted to share some and see what other favourites people have (and, honestly, just have all my favourite weird holiday stuff in one place).


alongside more typical holiday classics (e.g. scrooged, the muppets christmas carol, tokyo godfathers, and klaus) and the stuff my relatives will insist upon watching every year (elf and the polar express), i really have a fondness for the carpenters christmas special, from 1977. it's also responsible for maybe my favourite letterboxd review of all time, so go read that if you want to get emotional. it literally starts with "I believe that when we die we go to heaven and we can stay there for as long as we want. If we are hurt, we will heal."


i'm also quite fond of the adaptation of terry pratchett's hogfather. bit of an acquired taste and probably nonsensical to folks not in the know, but whatever, i love discworld!!


and this isn't a full movie, but i really love revisiting the nutcracker suite sequences in 1940's fantasia this time of year. besides it literally being the nutcracker, it's just so pretty and really captures the shifting seasons. also i just love anything with fairies on it.

also, a "so bad it's good" christmas movie is always welcome. i tend towards the cheap animated ones (the christmas tree, the christmas light, and grandma got run over by a reindeer come to mind) to watch with friends.

besides movies, i pride myself on having a very unconventional holiday playlist. some highlights include...
- six covers of last christmas, including carly rae jepsen, lucy dacus, ashley tisdale, and more
- some highlights from the "a very special christmas" collections from the 80s for hiv fundraising. bon jovi, stevie nicks, aretha franklin, and more come to mind
- total wildcards that i didn't even know had christmas songs, like devo and cher
- LOTS of wintery pokemon soundtracks
- christmas music i played in concert band
- and more!
i'm hoping to move off spotify someday soon considering how cartoonishly evil it is (my mp3 conversion journey is slow but steady!), but here's the playlist in full as it exists now.

i love collecting weird christmas movies and music, so feel free to share your own! :)

[di]

The Carpenters Christmas Special feels like an obscure yet amazing choice and I love that you linked that review - (god this forum is so cool, y'all truly link to the coolest corners of the internet and share such neat ideas). I need to make The Carpenters part of my Christmas this year, they're wonderful.

Speaking of the year 1977, oddly enough the original Star Wars movies feel kinda Christmas-y to me because they remind me of my brother's love for Star Wars growing up. We also had a Princess Leia ornament on our Christmas tree.

[WaybackGuy]

My personal favorites are Billy Wilder's film The Apartment, a quirky romcom starring Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, and Fred MacMurray.
And Jim Henson's Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas.


The Apartment (1960)

Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas

I'll second the The Star Wars Holiday Special which is a truly special treat.

My favorite "under the radar" songs:

Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis by Tom Waits

If We Make It Through December by Phoebe Bridgers (cover of Merle Haggard's song)

And a lovely new album released this year, all original tracks:
A Very Carper Christmas by Melissa Carper

[MrsMoe]

Have any of you guys seen Carol (2015)? It's a lesbian romance film about a woman cheating on her husband with another woman who's a department store clerk. I can't stress enough that it's an excellent film and I recommend it if you want something more slower paced, solemn and dramatic to watch around this time.

[fablefound]

Have any of you guys seen Carol (2015)? It's a lesbian romance film about a woman cheating on her husband with another woman who's a department store clerk. I can't stress enough that it's an excellent film and I recommend it if you want something more slower paced, solemn and dramatic to watch around this time.

carol has been on my to-watch list for a while! and my girlfriend's lol. i'm not the biggest fan of the Gay Affair trope, but i've heard great things--as long as it doesn't end in bury your gays, i can't complain too much!

[lakes]

Tokyo Godfathers
It's an anime that has a special place in my heart. It's about 3 homeless people who find a baby in a dumpster on Christmas and try to find the mother.