| | | Just as our major corporations dictate what we buy for our loved ones on Valentine's Day, so too have our cultural gatekeepers—namely, basic cable companies, critics, discerning mommies and | | If you have trouble reading this email, go to the online version |  | |  | | | | | |  | | | | November 30, 2018 | | Towards an Expansion of the Modern Christmas Movie Canon
Nine Movies to Add to Your Classic Holiday Season Rotation | |  | | | | | | | Just as our major corporations dictate what we buy for our loved ones on Valentine's Day, so too have our cultural gatekeepers—namely, basic cable companies, critics, discerning mommies and daddies—determined the movies we watch again and again come Christmastime.
More exclusive than any literary canon, the modern Christmas movie canon is nearly impossible to penetrate. But it has become stodgy, stale, relatively out-of-touch. And it persists because we let it persist, content to forgo new additions for the comfort and familiarity of the old hits, during a season when we willfully revert to our childhood selves. Shielded from the abrasive bustle of "real life," we're all too happy to relinquish our critical faculties in favor of watching Home Alone or It's a Wonderful Life for the billionth time.
Which is fine. Really, it is. I love those movies as much as any human being with a pulse and a modicum of holiday spirit. But Christmas break is long—and it can feel longer when you're having circuitous conversations about your love life with Mom instead of quietly watching movies on your couch.
That's why I'm proposing an expansion of the Christmas movie canon.
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