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Holidays in the Movies: Christmas in July

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We don’t celebrate Christmas in July because we have an all encompassing love of Christmas and we just have to have it more than once a year. Our mini holiday is more because we need a little imagined cooler weather; would never turn down the opportunity for another present and some some mulled cider; and could use a reminder that the yuletide feeling of love and hope for humanity doesn’t need to only happen once a year. However, while we spend weeks immersing ourselves in media for Christmas, Christmas in July gets a couple days at most. We make a selection of absolute favorites, White Christmas, and select a smattering of other features. This year that list includes:

  • Rudolph and Frosty’s Christmas in July (1979) – I have probably talked about Rankin and Bass before. Theirs are the holiday specials of my childhood, along with Charlie Brown. And, the title says it: Christmas in July.
  • Silent Night Bloody Night (1972) – I now believe that all mansions were once used as asylums or clinics of some kind.
  • White Christmas (1954) – This may be my favorite Christmas movie of all time, so of course, we watch it in July.
  • A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965) – Yes, Charlie Brown again.

Check out the other Holidays in the Movies posts.

Holidays in Movies: 4th of July

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US Post Office, Public Domain

I play the same record on every patriotic holiday: Timbuk 3’s Edge of Allegiance, because it starts with National Holiday. If we entertain guests, then perhaps I’ll bust out the Sousa, but Sousa takes a level of picnic commitment that is hard to rustle up in the heat of a Florida summer. Of course, like with many other holidays at my house, we get in the mood and stay in the mood with some carefully chosen movies.

Halloween and Christmas are extensive enough to warrant their own zines, but you can check out my previous posts on Thanksgiving, New Year, and Easter if you want more of this holiday moodiness, or check out all the other Holidays in the Movies posts.

4th of July

  • Music Man (1962): honestly, before checking the date on this, I had forgotten their was a 2003 version. I think I’m going to forget it again, because I love the 1963 film so much, no interlopers could infiltrate this relationship.
  • This is America Charlie Brown (1988-89): have I said this before: Charlie Brown means the holidays, any holiday, every holiday.
  • I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997): This even has a parade it is so 4th of July. There are flags and pageants and fishermen and floats and everything patriotic.
  • Silver Bullet (1985): Yes, it is a werewolf movie; yes, it happens on the 4th of July.
  • Martha’s Summer Favorites (2006): Martha Stewart specials on DVD are featured in our house every Halloween season, they help us prep for Thanksgiving and celebrate for Christmas. So, of course, they’re going to help us prep for the 4th of July too. This set could be watched at the start of summer except for an extended sequence on celebrating America, so here it is.
  • Jaws (1975): How could we miss it?

Holidays in the Movies: Summer Solstice

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Sleepaway Camp (1983)

Summer tends to feel terribly devoid of holidays, but there are some important dates to celebrate. The summer solstice is the longest day of the year. Like sun lovers who celebrate the winter solstice as a lengthening of days from then on out, I welcome the summer solstice as a herald of shorter days to come. The sun in Florida is blinding and relentless, so the thought of it receding just a bit is a comfort by this time of year. At the same time the hottest and brightest days of summer are still to come. These are the movies we are watching to get in the mood and learn to love summer again:

  • Race for Your Life Charlie Brown (1977) – I’ve said it before, Charlie Brown is every holiday
  • Summer School (1987) – for everyone who no longer has summer breaks with no commitment, the feeling of being cooped up in class when you want to be out on vacation is real and familiar
  • Lost Boys (1987) – except for the fashion, this feels as though it is as hot and blinding as summers where we are
  • The Burbs (1989) – there is nothing that says summer so much as sitting around the house and indulging in conspiracy theories and paranoia
  • Sleepaway Camp (1983) – camp isn’t a break from school, its just more of the cliques, awkwardness, and bullying of school without the distraction of class work
  • Friday the 13th part VII: the new blood (1988) – as described by Richard, “Carrie vs. Jason,” but really, any Friday the 13th movie is appropriate as summer celebration watching
  • Hausu (1977) – A summer trip to the country complete with watermelon
  • Hiruko the Goblin (1991) – incredibly strange Japanese horror film with great summer vibes and plenty of school drama
  • One Crazy Summer (1986) – a silly slapstick comedy with some clever jokes, but not one we watch every year
  • Summer of Fear (1978) – also known as Stranger in Our House, this TV movie is full of witches and occult intrigue
  • Cheerleader Camp (1988) – more proof that all summer camps set in the woods are plagued by knife wielding killers

Don’t forget to check out all the other Holidays in the Movies posts.

*Holidays in the Movies posts will be treated like living posts and updated routinely. Last updated 6/28/2022

Holidays in Movies: Easter

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We are a movie watching household, so there is never anything quite so satisfying as being able to gear-up for and celebrate a holiday with some evening viewing. This is the second in a series where I pull out the movies we watch for those holidays that aren’t Halloween and Christmas. The first were Thanksgiving and New Year if you are in to this holiday thing.

Easter

  • Kiss Me Deadly (1955): heavy on the noir, maybe light on the Easter, but it’s there.
  • The Being (1983): monsters, murder, green slime, and nuclear waste, what more can one ask for on Easter?
  • It’s the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown (1974): Charlie Brown = holidays, again and again and again.
  • The First Easter Rabbit (1976): I love Rankin and Bass productions. I love the animation and I love the clay-mation. Most of the specials I have collected are Christmas, of course, but Rankin and Bass hit all the holidays, or almost all.
  • Easter Parade (1948): I grew up with musicals, so of course they are prime for inclusion in holiday themed viewing.
  • Chocolat (2000): I think this movie gets over looked a bunch, and I over looked it too, even though the entire film is building towards Easter.

Holidays in the Movies: St. Patrick’s Day

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Some holidays are harder to curate watching for than others. St. Patrick’s Day is one such challenge. According to Wikipedia’s ‘list of films set around St. Patrick’s day’ there are plenty of titles to choose from – some I’ve seen, many I haven’t. But there aren’t too many that I would want to make part of my yearly celebration. Clearly, this list is going to have to evolve, but for now we will be enjoying:

Movie poster for Darby O’Gill and the Little People
  • Maniac Cop (1988): When you’re scared on the city streets at night, you’re in luck when you see a cop, right?
  • The Fugitive (1993): I am now wondering how many cop thrillers have a St. Patrick’s day parade in the middle of them.
  • Leprechaun (1993): I’d never thought I’d want to see it again, but hey, for St. Patrick’s day, let’s do this.

    Now on revisit, I can’t say the above were all repeaters. But we are hurting for a selection of movies to celebrate with instead.

    • Darby O’Gill and the Little People (1959): Where there is a lack of holiday-centric movies, there are thematic options with pooka, shillelagh, leprechauns and more
    • Leprechaun 3 (1995): this series gives plenty of selection and the bonkers Las Vegas sequel is just right.
    • God Told Me To (1976): which of course, since the main character is with the NYPD has a St. Patrick’s Day parade.

    Check out the other Holidays in the Movies posts.

    Holidays in the Movies: Valentines

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    My goal this year is to celebrate more holidays instead of just having them pass me by. Valentines hasn’t been very prominent in my life since school, but it can be with just a little dedicated watching and some special foods.

    Valentines

    • My Bloody Valentine (1981): nothing says valentines quite like a coal mine.
    • Be My Valentine Charlie Brown (1975): I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Charlie Brown brings every holiday.
    • Hospital Massacre aka X-Ray (1982): old Valentine’s sins will ruin your holiday
    • Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975): Australia, mystery, disappearance, possible historically inaccurate corset lacing. Yes, this is Valentines.
    • Lover’s Lane (2000): a man with a hook terrorizing teenagers at the local make-out point, just like that urban legend.

    Check out the other Holidays in the Movies posts.

    Holidays in the Movies: New Year

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    Terror Train movie poster

    We may be reeling from our Christmas watching and happy to finally be free to watch anything we want, but there are movies and specials that make the New Year at our house. Just like Thanksgiving, the pickings may be slimmer for this holiday, but it is more than enough to put us in the mood.

    New Year

    • Terror Train (1980): I was never part of the fraternity and sorority scene in college so the idea of renting a train for a New Year’s party is both plausible and completely unbelievable to me. Hi David Copperfield!
    • New Year’s Evil (1980): A punk rock Pinky Tuscadero (wiki) terrorized during her TV special by a killer-stalker. The New Year’s countdown happens three times in this movie! What can be more celebratory?
    • Bloody New Year (1987): This is all kinds of holiday – kids running from thugs get caught in a time travel loop where a whole New Year’s eve party vanished decades ago? Still dressed up for Christmas because it is British.
    • Get Crazy (1983): Planning for a new year’s party by way of a massive concert overshadows the threat that a much loved theater will be bought out by sleep, punk developers. Hilarious hi-jinks included.
    • The Fifth Cord (1971): One of the finest examples of the giallo genre with an excellent cast, a great director, and a super cool soundtrack by the great Ennio Morricone. The entire opening sequence and a pivotal part of the plot both take place at a New Year’s Eve Party.
    • Martha’s New Year’s Celebration (2005): from the Martha’s Holidays collection again. We usually just curl up on the sofa and watch movies for New Year, but we can dream of throwing a fancy party.

    Rock’n J&B or Profondo Christmas

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    While making my yearly Rock ‘n Rye infusion, I got the idea that a similar process would work to make J&B more enjoyable in my house (we find it very difficult). I cut out the horehound, but kept most everything else the same as I would for Rock ‘n Rye. The effect is much more cinnamon forward, and definitely improves the J&B flavor. I gave rough measurements, but you can put in as many or as few infusing agents as you like.

    Ingredients:

    • J&B (one 750 ml bottle)
    • 1 string Rock candy or about a 1/4 cup loose rock candy
    • 1/2 to 1 full orange peel (dried)
    • 2-3 dried apricots, sliced
    • 3-4 dried cherries
    • 3-4 dried mandarin slices
    • 1 whole clove
    • 1 cinnamon stick

    Instructions:

    1. In an empty wide mouth glass container (could be anything, jar, pitcher, etc with a lid) add J&B, dried fruit, dried peel, and cinnamon stick
    2. Allow mixture to infuse in a cool dry place for 3 or 4 days
    3. Add rock candy and clove
    4. Allow mixture to infuse one or two more days based on taste
    5. Strain mixture and pour into a clean bottle
    6. Enjoy!

    The Card

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    Christmas Tree Elf

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    When fruit cake grew on trees, or in furniture stores

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    newspaper clipping of add

    A fruit cake with every furniture purchase

    From a Christian Howard’s Furniture add in the Henderson daily dispatch. (Henderson, N.C.), 16 Dec. 1937. <https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn91068401/1937-12-16/ed-1/seq-3/>

    You can find amazing and terrible things in old newspapers. You can find old newspapers on Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. at the Library of Congress. Join me there. Whole days will pass before you know it.

    Holidays in Movies: Thanksgiving

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    Celebrating holidays in my house means media saturation. That is, leading up to Halloween we watch all the Halloween movies, and leading up to Christmas, we watch all the Christmas movies, specials, and television shows. But Halloween and Christmas aren’t the only holidays around which you can structure your movie viewing.

    Garfield’s Thanksgiving

    Thanksgiving

    • Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982): immensely enjoyable take on the legend of the Chicken Ranch. If Dolly Parton and Burt Reynolds aren’t enough to sell it to you, then the in depth study in eighties lingerie should do it.
    • Madman (1982): horror film taking place in a strange alternate reality where kids are sent off to a woodland camp for Thanksgiving break.
    • Turkey Hollow (2015): broken family forcing themselves on a grudgingly hospitable distant relative? check. Sibling discord healed by adventure and danger? check. Monsters in the woods? check. Turkeys? check check check check check.
    • Adams Family Values (1993): “Eat Me! Hey! It’s Thanksgiving day!”
    • Blood Rage (1987): “That’s not cranberry sauce.” And, bonus, this horror movie is located in good old Florida.
    • A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (1973): Charlie Brown is the holidays; any holiday.
    • Charlie Brown Mayflower Voyagers (1988): part of the ‘This is America, Charlie Brown” series, but tacked on to the ‘Peanuts Holiday Collection’ without any other episodes.
    • Garfield’s Thanksgiving (1989): I grew up on Garfield; I had merch; this is home for me.
    • Martha Stewart’s Classic Thanksgiving (2005): from the Martha’s Holidays collection, because it is necessary to have a couple of hours worth of instruction on making that turkey.

    A growing obsession

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    I may have told a fair few people already, but I have a growing obsession with fruit cake. It all started when I went looking for my mother’s recipe for fruit cake and did not find anything that sounded right in all of the papers she left me. So, I started trying out different recipes to see if I could get close to what I remember. I made two different types of fruitcake last year. I have made two different types already this year, and plan to make one more because, of course, I have found/altered a recipe I now call ‘my’ fruitcake. Then I got an inspired idea to make a zine all about fruitcake: its history, its variations, etc. It is a rabbit hole I may never dig myself out of.

    While I continue work on this zine that may end up becoming a full fledged book by volume of material alone, I thought I’d share this choice variation from the Brer Rabbit’s Modern Recipes for the Modern Cook (1940 Brer Rabbit Molasses).

    page from the Brer Rabbit Modern Recipes for the Modern Cook showing a recipe for Farm Fruit Cake.

    This is far from the only recipe I found relying on salt pork. I also found a few mince meat recipes with salt pork. One with ground beef. I know the salt pork fat is standing in for shortening and is why the fruit cake can be made with so few eggs. But….I really don’t know what else to say.

    Trick or Treat

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    Ono & Penelope on Halloween

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