Yes, I realize that Halloween is still over two weeks away so I shouldn’t be talking about Christmas movies yet, but I can’t help myself because they’ve finally made my Christmas movie. It’s a comedy starring Mathew Broderick and Danny DeVito called Deck the Halls which is all about one of my favorite parts of the holiday: Decorating your home for Christmas.
As a kid not only did I spend hours staring at the toy section of the annual Sears Christmas Wish Book catalog*, but I devoted an equal amount of time to the Christmas decoration section dreaming about how I planned to deck my future home out with the most awesome Christmas display ever seen before. I was going to take it beyond just buying a bunch of decorations to coming up with my own rigs to do things like run a wire around the house from various trees in the yard from which I’d suspend a (full size) sleigh and reindeer that would be motorized so they’d fly in a continuous circle until midnight on Christmas Eve when a switch would divert them to a different track that would enable them to land on the rooftop!
As you can see, I focused on the important aspects of the Christmas holiday.
So it probably goes without saying that a movie about two guys competing to have the most decked out Christmas display immediately has its hooks into me because I can so relate to that sort of ambition. They are my people and this is my movie. For all I know it’ll probably suck, but I found myself giggling at the trailer in part because what I saw looked funny and in part because it gave me all sorts of new ideas for the day that I eventually manage to own a home of my own.
* This link goes to a Flick’r gallery where someone took the time to scan an entire Sears Christmas Wish Book circa 1979. I was 12 years old that year and, man, does looking at that catalog bring back the memories!
My favorite recent christmas movie was “Surviving Christmas”, mostly because we got to see James Gandolfini hit Ben Affleck in the head with a shovel.
That sounds like a movie I could laugh with BUT I know from experience they only put the best bits in the trailer.
I hope there’s some other good stuff too.
I love Christmas… Especially the Movies. This will be a MUST SEE.. I still miss the one with Marlo Thomas, Can’t find it anywhere…Looked for years.
Les, When I was reading your post, I usually picture a deep ( maybe biker type ) voice. But your post voice this time sounded in my head like the guy that spoke at the end of the show on ” The Waltons ” hehe
Les, what/where was that post where you had a small sample of your voice (suffering from a cold) in the Anime movie?
Oh man… thanks for that Sears catalog link, Les. I was born in 1979 and I giggled as I looked through it. I remember much of that stuff as hand me downs since my mom couldn’t afford much when I got a little older.
Oh, and I am looking forward to Deck the Halls myself. 😀
Paul, my voice tends to vary depending on how tired I am and it’s not as deep as some people imagine it to be unless I’m really tired. I’ve had a number of people write to me and ask me to do a recording of my voice. I’ve been trying to think of something that might be fun to do as a podcast or something. Perhaps interview someone like DOF, but I’d have to come up with interesting questions.
LJ, that was: My small claim to fame as an anime voice actor.
I remember the wish book. Wes you mark what you would like to have with a star. Les you use an X for yours then I can tell them apart. I can’t remember what we told Cindy to use! But it was a well used book before Christmas!
Bah, Humbug!
I followed your wish list link and found a 1947 Sears catalogue with the sled I got for Christmas that year. I use it one day and forgot it on the street where a car ran over it. Since then, I’ve had a difficult time investing much emotion in an inanimate object. I do love my car, though. I believe that is required of the masculine set?
On my 15th birthday I got a new 3 speed racing bike and rode it thru the tracks in the park where we often rode and hit a fallen tree on the pathway. Broke the neck (of the bike) and got all the ‘you should be more careful’ lectures and felt like shit. The tree wasn’t there a few days before.