If you find any time between studying, classes, and sleeping in these next few weeks of school, you will be able to find plenty of Christmas movies playing almost non-stop on TV. Starting December 1, Freeform, aka ABC Family’s strange new name, shows Christmas and holiday movies until Christmas in their beloved 25 Days of Christmas.
If you are not aware, the holiday TV-movie marathon mixes classic Christmas movies with contemporary holiday movies. It ranges from the old Rudolph and Jack Frost movies to Elf and Polar Express. Movies start as early as 7 a.m., and different movies play all day.
However, after learning of the movies which will be showed on primetime — the peak broadcasting period during the day — my friends and I came to the realization that this year’s lineup is just plain bad. Not only is there an immense amount of non-christmas movies making the list, these movies are repeatedly played during the 25 days.
Imagine this, you are snuggled up on the couch in your favorite ugly holiday sweater, your evergreen and peppermint candles are lit, the lights are dimmed, and you turn on the TV. You are expecting a Christmas classic, but instead you get Frozen.
Frozen is not the only malplaced holiday movie. Apparently a movie having snow now qualifies it as a Christmas movie worthy of the most coveted of TV time. Other movies that don’t quite fit the theme are, but not limited to, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Toy Story (1,2, and 3) and Happy Feet (1 and 2). Obviously, these are all great movies, but are they deserving of a slot in 25 Days of Christmas? I think not.
Moreover, the movies we really want to watch are only played at weird hours of the morning, which are obviously reserved for sleeping. For example, this sunday, December 11, the amazing short movie, The Little Drummer Boy, will be shown in the half-hour slot between 7 and 7:30 a.m. If I want to catch any movies during the day, I get to choose from an array for Toy Story movies, taking up nearly 7 hours of time that could be devoted to real holiday classics.
At this point, I would even settle for a yule log video on repeat for 7 hours.
I guess I will have to fish out my old stack of Christmas classics and find a DVD player. Maybe next year, Freeform.