If you’re a longtime fan of A. A. Milne’s delightful creation, Winnie the Pooh, and well outside of the intended demographic (by a considerable margin), you may initially look at My Friends Tigger & Pooh: Super Sleuth Christmas Movie and wonder where all the British wit and whimsy went. But Continue Reading
Christmas 2020
On 8th day of Christmas … I read In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren
Life, it has oft been noted, does not come with do-overs. It would be nice if it did since, despite our best intentions, we seem to keep doing things poorly that require a better, more improved iteration and we are, quite simply stuck with the consequences of our annoyingly flawed Continue Reading
Christmas movie review: Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square
Among the many constants of Christmas storytelling is the undeniably appealing idea that transformation isn’t just possible, it is all but inevitable. Such is the power of a season that celebrates love, hope, dreams and starry-eyed possibility that even the darkest of developments can be triumphed over if you just Continue Reading
On 7th day of Christmas … I rewatched a retro TV episode – Warehouse 13’s “Secret Santa”
Described by scifi.com as “part The X-Files, part Raiders of the Lost Ark and part Moonlighting“, Warehouse 13 was a show that loved to have some fun, okay lots of fun, with its premise. Based on the idea that the world is full of artefacts of all kinds, from Studio 54’s Disco ball toLewis Carroll’s looking Continue Reading
#Christmas book review: The Christmas Surprise by Jenny Colgan
One of the loveliest things about the Christmas novel genre is how they often feel like a great warm, festive hug just when you need it the most. While Christmas is for many people the most wonderful time of the year, it does arrive hot on the heels of 12 Continue Reading
On 6th day of Christmas … I listened to Put Up Your Lights by The Bird and the Bee
If anyone can make something beautiful out of something chaotic and terrible, it is the mesmerisingly good duo that is The Bird and the Bee, made up of singer Inara George and producer Greg Kurstin. Their latest collaboration, Put Your Lights Up was put together during a year when a Continue Reading
On 5th day of Christmas … I watched Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey
Biting off more than you chew is pretty much a non-negotiable requirement of Christmas celebrations which, if they aren’t doing everything from food to togetherness to presents and, hopefully, joyous bonhomie to excess, simply aren’t trying hard enough. One of the latest festive offerings from Netflix, Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Continue Reading
Shaun the Sheep: We Wish Ewe a Merry #Christmas (review)
If you have watched any episodes of Shaun the Sheep, and yes, while the program is ostensibly aimed at kids, many adults will get a kick out of it too, furnished as it is with Aardman’ trademark silly wit and whimsy, you will have noticed the show’s protagonist is a Continue Reading
#Christmas movie review: LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special
Debuting 42 years exactly since the much-loved but slightly infamous 1978 Holiday Special, the LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special is a delightful throwback to the Christmas TV specials of old like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964) and A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965), combining iconic characters, a cheekily seditious sense of Continue Reading
On 4th day of Christmas … I read Christmas: A Biography by Judith Flanders #BookReview
You might ask yourself if Christmas actually needs a biography – aren’t all its many secrets and stories already well known to us? It turns out, as you dive deep into the highly readable Christmas: A Biography by Judith Flanders, that they really, really aren’t. All those stories we know Continue Reading