For Your Holiday Viewing Pleasure

True Confessions

My husband, Mike, is in a networking group, and one week someone threw out the following ice-breaker:

Finish this sentence:  “I am a closet _______________.”

An interesting question, for sure, as I would think that if someone wanted everyone to know their, um, idiosyncrasies, they probably wouldn’t be enjoying them in the closet. Nonetheless, it made for some interesting and eye-opening answers, not the least of which was Mike’s:

“I am a closet Christmas movie fan.”

You might be thinking, sure, Stalag 17, Die Hard, Lethal Weapon — those all took place at Christmas. Yeah, but that’s not what he meant (although he does like those films).

He meant the variety that have been running non-stop since the day after Halloween on the Hallmark Channel, and which, in the next 10 days, will infiltrate the rest of the airwaves in a valiant attempt to put the entire television-watching public into one giant diabetic coma without so much as a single lick of a candy cane.

Your keen powers of deduction have no doubt made you realize that I do not share Mike’s enthusiasm.  It’s strange, because I love Christmas and movies – but not “Christmas movies.” Kind of like how I don’t like honey or mustard, but I kind of like honey mustard. Go figure.

And before you start calling me a Grinch or worse, I do appreciate the classics:  White Christmas, It’s a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Story and others of that caliber.

A Christmas Truce

Now, if you’re worrying that we can’t find any common ground during the holidays, fear not, for I bring you tidings of great joy! For there is one Christmas movie which both of us give an unqualified “thumbs up.”

That movie is Stockholm Santa.

This is the delightful short film written and directed by our very talented daughter, Sammi Stephans two years ago. I had the thrill of watching my show business fantasies play out in real life as I was able to be there during auditions as well as during the two days of location filming.

In fact, if you check out the full cast and crew on the Stockholm Santa imdb.com page, you’ll see that both Mike and I are Executive Producers! (OK, that means we shelled out a little money in the fine tradition of supportive parents everywhere, but it still counts!)  Of course, I hope someday to have credits on imdb as a writer, but even if my own page is filled with countless credits and awards, this will always be the one that launched my presence there!

And it was the thrill of a lifetime to watch this film for the first time at Columbia College, when it was part of the Chicago International Reel Shorts Film Festival! Just the first of many such exciting premiers, I’m sure!

 

Merry Christmas to you!

So, here’s my first gift to all of you. Take a seven-minute break and enjoy the delightful holiday short, Stockholm Santa!