The Care Bears Thanksgiving Special?
Over the past few days, I’ve seen a number of people profess guilt over wanting to celebrate the holiday season right now. Basically, they’ve heard “NO WAY, TOO EARLY” so many times that they feel like they’re doing something wrong by embracing the season’s fun trivialities in early November.
Dude, no!
The idea that any rational person would really care when strangers watch Linus wax religious is absurd. 95% of the time, it’s just jokes and idle chatter. Try not to take it too personally.
But yeah, okay, there are a few who voice these opinions more viciously, and may even take your decision to start early as some weird personal offense. These really aren’t the sorts of people you should be listening to. It’s like when people try to make others feel bad for liking a movie that is popularly disliked, or vice versa. Differences in opinions are wonderful, but shaming people over their harmless hobbies or passions is one of my biggest pet peeves. Just an utter waste of energy from every angle.
Don’t mistake my meaning, here. This isn’t a call for everyone to start celebrating Thanksgiving or Christmas or whatever else RIGHT NOW. Some of you prefer to wait, whether to reserve your spirit for when it really counts, or because you don’t feel very festive just yet. Some of you may not celebrate at all, whether because of your beliefs, or simply because you don’t like this season. That’s totally fine! Of course it is! I’m just saying, I hate to see people spite themselves for the sake of some abstract sense of form or procedure.
Just do whatever feels right for you. If it’s nothing, a little or a lot, so be it! The beauty of this season (and I’m counting Halloween in this, so we’re covering a four month spread) is the increased number of opportunities to lose ourselves in silly, happy things that hurt nobody. It drives me bonkers to see people navigating this like it’s a minefield. Have your fun, however you want it!
ANYWAY.
Here’s the Care Bears Thanksgiving special, which really is a thing that exists!
Grams Bear’s Thanksgiving Surprise came out in 1986. Go on, try it.
Christmas Evil!
To help ease your transition from Halloween into the holiday season, what could be better than a Christmas-themed horror movie?
Christmas Evil, from 1980, is a longtime favorite of mine. I first saw it back in high school, when it was one of the “elite” cult films that all of us freaks passed around. (IIRC, I watched it directly after Army of Darkness — another of our high school must-sees.)
Quick and dirty summary: A kid sees “Santa Claus” (his dad in the fat suit) going down on his mother, and is so severely damaged by the experience that he grows up to be a Christmas-obsessed freak with a dangerously black-and-white perspective about good and evil. (Or “naughty and nice,” as he might put it.)
Eventually, the dude snaps and sees himself as Santa Claus… albeit one who kills.
Christmas Evil is kinda slow and admittedly gets a little dopey, but I still think it’s effective. One of those movies that doesn’t seem like it has what it takes to grab you, but does. Your attention will be rewarded, too, because this movie has an absolutely bonkers ending. (Though probably less bonkers that you might think… listen closely to those final sound effects to figure out what’s really happening, there!)
Enjoy!
Other random notes:
1) Now that Halloween is over, can I come out and admit that I think I’m having a Christmas year? (And by “Christmas year” I mean a “Thanksgiving and Christmas year.” For me, November and December just blend into one big sugary ball.)
Don’t get me wrong, I love both seasons, and neither would mean nearly as much without the other. Still, every year, I kinda “feel” one of them more. In 2015, Halloween definitely got the nod. (I was still so out of sorts about losing Grey Cat that I barely celebrated Christmas at all, beyond whatever I put on the site. No music, no movies, no decorating. Italians know how to mourn, mofo.)
Tl; dr: There are around a dozen things that I only get to do in November and December, and I cannot wait to do them. 🙂
2) Halloween nuts, keep an eye out: Lots of stores are doing their spooky clearance sales RIGHT NOW, and if what I saw at Target earlier is any indication, there are some killer deals out there.
3) I’m starting to sort out what I’ll be covering on Dino Drac between now and Christmas, and found some pretty kickass things. Stay tuned! (And on that note, I’m actively hunting for Christmassy videotapes… meaning the taped-off-television stuff. ‘80s and ‘90s specials, especially with commercials, are a huge help. If you have anything like this that you’re willing to let me borrow, shoot me an email!)
Happy Halloween! (Also, Halloween is over.)
Halloween may be over, technically, but it’s still Halloween night, baby!
Hope everyone had a great season ending with a great day. My season was hit-or-miss for reasons beyond Halloween’s control, but I’m not too upset about it. This season, I got to eat an official Ghostbusters cheeseburger, bought a vintage My Pet Monster doll, and finally got to retell my old ALF costume story. Those are some big plusses!
So, question for you:
What was the #1 highlight of YOUR Halloween season? Tell everyone, in the comments!
Tonight’s movie is Don’t Go To Sleep, from 1982. I don’t know much about it, but an old coworker used to rave (well, rant and rave) about it, and she actually emailed me the YouTube link just a few days ago. Spooky old TV movies are never all bad, even when they’re 100% bad. (I don’t know how that math works. It just does.)
As a reminder, we’re gonna see if Dino Drac After Dark has enough steam to survive without the Halloween crutch, so you can keep coming back here every night for more of God knows what. We’ll see how that goes, but if nothing else, it certainly was a nice addition to the Countdown! 🙂
Ice Cream Man!
Happy Halloween, everybody!
The fact that it’s happening on a Monday kinda sucks, but we can make the most of it, right?
Here’s Ice Cream Man, from 1995, starring Clint Howard as a… psychotic ice cream man. Seriously! It’s goofy fun, and the filmmakers knew exactly how to treat it.
Fun fact: I once had a phone conversation with Clint Howard that lasted for the better part of two hours. This was during the very early 2000s. He was looking to build an online presence, and a mutual friend put us in touch, thinking I could offer him some assistance. I couldn’t, really, but he sure was fun to talk to. Nice guy, too.
I’m not sure what shocked me more: Talking to Clint Howard for that long, or finding out that me and Clint Howard had a mutual friend.
