(via Shutterstock) Yes, yes, I know, I know, Christmas os commercialised, we’ve lost the true spirit of the season etc etc blahedy-blah-blah and on and on … But honestly? I love Christmas ads. The good ones anyway. Sure, they’re trying to get you to buy something but they are often Continue Reading
Christmas 2024
Festive movie review: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
(courtesy IMP Awards) As a child of the Church (thought failed, ultimately, to stick in childhood), it’s always fascinated this reviewer how something as pure as belief in the goodness of a higher power, which should always elevate and enliven can somehow become a tool for oppressive, punitive religious expression. Continue Reading
Book review: A Recipe for Christmas by Jo Thomas
(courtesy Penguins Books Australia) Life is full of “It seemed like a good idea at the time” moments. We can, we believe anyway, have all the wisdom of Solomon and the insight of a god, in one crystal moment of absolute clarity and act accordingly, only to find not that Continue Reading
Festive movie review: Hot Frosty
Having your festive viewing expectations subverted is a rare and precious thing indeed. Much of the time in Christmas viewing land, what you see is what you get, and that is usually a good thing since you want fun, escapist entertainment with a heartwarming moral core, and that is precisely Continue Reading
Something big and loud this way comes: Sneak peek at the Doctor Who 2024 Christmas special, “Joy to the World”
(courtesy BBC/Disney+ via The Gallifreyan Newsroom) SNAPSHOTBridgerton‘s Nicola Coughlan will be starring in the title role of “Joy to the World” as a traveler checking into a London hotel over the festive period. Before long, Joy’s quiet holiday is interrupted by a Silurian wandering into her hotel room and the sudden arrival of The Continue Reading
Movie review: Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point
(courtesy IMDb) In popular culture at large, Christmas is often seen in very distinct, sharply-realised ways. It is variously a season of miracles or healing or wondrous discovery, and there is always some sort of point to proceedings whether it’s saving Christmas itself by helping Santa or doing a life-changing Continue Reading
Festive book review: The Christmas Cottage by Sarah Morgan
(courtesy Harper Collins Publishers Australia) If you have always felt like you belong, like you have an undeniable, fixed and unquestionably certain place in this world, then you are a very lucky and blessed individual. We all want and need that, with an animal need for community running hard, deep Continue Reading
Festive movie review: Meet Me Next Christmas
(courtesy IMP Awards) Have you ever fired up a promising movie on a streaming platform, especially a festive one, only to find that it disappoints at every turn? Of course you have – it’s what watching most Netflix movies feels like alas, and while hope springs to eternal and all Continue Reading
Festive preview: The Night Before Christmas in Wonderland
(courtesy IMDb) SNAPSHOTIn the film, St Nick (voiced by Gerard Butler) receives a delayed letter on Christmas Eve from the Princess of Hearts. He and his dedicated team of reindeer set off to Wonderland, where they’re greeted by the mean and miserable Queen of Hearts, who hates all things Christmas… Continue Reading
It’s Christmas! The most wonderful time of the year … or is it the Breakup Season?
(courtesy IMP Awards) SNAPSHOTUnemployed yet ambitious 24-year-old Ben Russell (Chandler Riggs) brings his girlfriend named Cassie ( Samantha Isler ) to his rural Oregon hometown to meet his family and celebrate Christmas. The arrival is bumpy. The family’s dynamic unearths internal conflict Cassie is having with Ben. The night they Continue Reading