Is It A Christmas Movie? "While Yule Were Sleeping"

The following is an essay I wrote for my Christmas Lit class at North Pole High in the North Pole. My teacher, Mrs. Polar Bear, gave me an A+.

From 1995, While You Were Sleeping stars Sandra Bullock as Lucy, a lonely woman who falls in love with a man in a coma. This charming romantic comedy is set in Chicago, a great place to spend Christmas because they have lots of snow and they make their cocoa with Frango mints!

Before Lucy meets Coma Boy, she's struggling to get the Christmas tree she just bought into her apartment. It's so big, she has to hoist it up through her window on a rope. But it's so heavy, she drops it and it breaks the window of the apartment below her. Won't Coma Boy be lucky to get a girl who puts that much effort into Christmas!

Lucy's other problem is that besides her hunk being in a coma, she's never actually met him. But while he's asleep, she does meet his family. And since it's Christmastime, she gets to experience the warmth and joy of spending the holidays with a loving family, something she's missed since her parents died.

So now, instead of just having a crush on a hot dude in a coma, she's in love with the idea of becoming a part of his family. All because of Christmas. I don't want to spoil anything for you, but I think the message is that Christmas makes everything bright and wonderful. And for that, I hang five shining stars upon While You Were Sleeping!

Click here to watch While You Were Sleeping online.

Click here to buy While You Were Sleeping on DVD.

Click here to buy While You Were Sleeping on Blu-ray.

Soon It Will Be Christmas Day

Lords-a-leaping! We're just one week away from the most wonderful day of the year!

In the air, there's a feeling of Christmas.

Even stoplights blink a bright red and green.

Those lyrics are from the song "Silver Bells," written for the 1951 film The Lemon Drop Kid.

Bob Hope must pay his gambling debts to gangsters by Christmas Eve, or else. He tries to raise the money by dressing as a streetcorner Santa collecting "donations," then opens an illegal casino to scam more loot from little old ladies. That may not sound very wholesome, but he manages to stay off Santa's Naughty List by introducing us to this classic song:

Released during the extended holiday season in March of 1951, the movie co-stars Marilyn Maxwell, who joins Hope in singing about silver bells, Christmas time in the city, and Santa's big scene.

Yes, Virginia, very soon it will be Christmas Day!

Four Months Till Christmas

Have you been counting down the days till Christmas since you opened your last present last Christmas?

Cheer up! You're 2/3 of the way there!

Before you know it, Halloween will be scaring the chocolate out of you.

From there, you'll be able to hear your Thanksgiving turkey gobbling around the corner.

And then, CHRISTMAS!!!!!

Itching to get your ho-ho-hos started early? So am I. And I've got some great news...

Announcing the

GRAND OPENING

of

For all your back-to-school essentials (if you go to North Pole High, that is).

You'll find:

• Christmas books
• Christmas movies
• Christmas music
• Christmas decorations
• and more!

Open 24/7, 365, so you can be jolly ALL YEAR! Come back often to see what new Christmas goodies Candycane Claus has put on the shelves just for you!

Merry August!

Important News: 9 Months from Now...

Lords-a-leaping, not THAT! Nine months from today it will be CHRISTMAS!!!

Merry 25th of March, everyone!

Here's some more great Christmas news to tide you over while you're waiting.
Earlier this year Universal started working on a CG-animated version the Grinch. This month, Sony began working on a super cool origin story of the SANTA CLAUS!!!

Tinseltown just can't get enough of jolly old St. Nick. Winter's Knight will show how my dad ruled the frozen pagan world of Asgard as the Norse god Odin, then started making toys in exchange for cookies. Don't expect it to be historically accurate. This Viking Santa Claus is based, in part, on The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus (which you can read for free on your Kindle) by L. Frank Baum, author of The Wizard of Oz.

Of course, if you want the TRUE origin story of Mr. Kringle, look no further than North Pole High: Beginnings, my prequel to North Pole High: A Rebel Without a Claus, which tells how my mom and dad met amidst a terrifying zombie elf apocalypse.

Now, to re-gift Stephen Colbert's "Tip of the Hat, Wag of the Finger" concept, I tip my Santa cap to the Park Slope area of Brooklyn for keeping Christmas around well into March. Apparently their discarded Christmas trees haven't been picked up by the city's garbage collectors yet.

Unfortunately, I also have to put them on the Naughty List for throwing away their Christmas trees in the first place. Here in the North Pole, we keep our Christmas trees up year-round. Maybe if your halls were still decked in boughs of holly you wouldn't be in such a bah-humbug mood over this. #HoHoHo

Ready for a Spring Christmas treat? How about making very own, super yummy homemade marshmallows?

It's a fun weekend project and you can use them for Easter, s'mores, Rice Krispies Treats, and thousands of other things between now and next Christmas. Now that's hot chocolate!

Have a merry Spring and stay on the Nice List!

#HoHoHo

Candycane xoxo

Merry Jannuerrymas!

It's January 25th. One month down, only 11 more to go!

People always ask me what we do when Christmas is over.

Christmas is NEVER over in the North Pole. But we do lay low in the first month after Christmas. Santa goes into hiding to avoid all the complaints from boys and girls who were naughtier than they realized and didn't get everything they wanted for Christmas.

Like the Google+ team, who sent me this mean letter when I created my profile...

So they're basically saying Google doesn't believe Santa Claus is real, and therefore I am not real. Well! I hope they enjoyed their COAL! Ho Ho Ho!

And speaking of Grinches, look who's coming back....

Universal Pictures has announced they are releasing a new CG-animated feature version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas! on November 17, 2017. Wait a minute, that's like four years away! I can't wait that long. I'll be like a hundred by then!

I know another classic Christmas book that might make a good movie. In fact, Nick Abdo, the producer of one of my mom's favorite movies, Beaches, gave my book a 5-star review on Amazon last month!

"Cool characters and a story that will appeal to older kids and adults alike," said the Big-Time Hollywood Producer! I'm so flattered. :) 

And here's some more Christmas movie news: A movie called Happy Christmas premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this month. The holiday film stars Lena Dunham of HBO's Girls and Anna Kendrick of Twilight.

A review in The Guardian said, "Christmas plays little part in the narrative other than as an excuse to bring everyone together," but called it "undeniably charming." I'm just glad to know that some people can still appreciate the undeniable charm of Christmas even in January. :)

Until Christmas, stay on the Nice List. You can do it. It's only eleven months! xoxo

Top 10 Christmas Movies

A while back, I surveyed my readers on their favorite Christmas movies. Many of you said how much you'd love to see NORTH POLE HIGH turned into a movie (thank you!). But here are your top ten picks of Christmas movies that have already been made:

1. A CHRISTMAS STORY

Based on the book In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash by Jean Shepherd, this Christmas classic from the director of Black Christmas and Porky's runs continuously all Christmas Day on TBS and is also a Broadway musical!

2. MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET

Santa Claus won an Oscar for his appearance in this 1947 classic in which he goes to court to prove, once and for all, that he's real.

3. IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE

Based on a self-published short story, The Greatest Gift, by Philip Van Doren Stern. The author printed 200 copies and sent them out as Christmas cards. One of those landed at RKO and the rest is history.

4. ELF

A baby accidentally stows away in Santa's sleigh and is raised in the North Pole as an elf. As an adult, he realizes he's human and sets off to find his father in New York City. Based on a true story. Really.

5. SCROOGED

Bill Murray is a cynical TV executive in charge of a live Christmas Eve broadcast of A Christmas Carol when he is visited by three ghosts who convince him he should have done The Sound of Music instead.

6. NATIONAL LAMPOON'S CHRISTMAS VACATION

The Griswolds have kind of had it with traveling. Perhaps if they stay home for a quiet family Christmas dinner their luck will change?

7. THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS

This one scares the chocolate out of me because Jack Skellington kidnaps my dad. Skellingtonnnnnn! If you must watch this one, please don't get any ideas.

8. BEAUTY AND THE BEAST: THE ENCHANTED CHRISTMAS

Belle shows the Beast the beauty in Christmas!

9. THE POLAR EXPRESS

Tom Hanks plays Santa Claus, a train conductor, a hobo, a young boy, and the boy's father, and narrates this young boy's magical adventures in the North Pole. Based on the 1985 book by Chris Van Allsburg.

10. EMMET OTTER'S JUG-BAND CHRISTMAS

The Muppets bring to life Russell Hoban's Gift-of-the-Magi-esque 1971 story with songs by Paul Williams, a former elf who later wrote "The Rainbow Connection" for The Muppet Movie and all the songs for The Muppet Christmas Carol.

'Tis the season to enjoy your favorite Christmas movies all over again. With crushed candy canes sprinkled in your popcorn.