You can't live your whole life in horror.

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Once you experience a certain amount of horror, it's harder to maintain.

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Some things are just disturbing.

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Life isn't fair.

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Parents will anything for their kids.

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People tend to think of love as a positive thing in the world.

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You have no choice but to live with death.

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Stability is a horrifying thing.

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Some villains are just terrifying.

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Being a hero is horrific.

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We all have a sense of death.

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Fear has a way of making the world very clear.

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Author’s Note: This is usually something that gets watched in the evening on Christmas Day. The idea being that you “kill off” Christmas for the year and go into the New Year fresh. At least that’s the theory. But obviously it’s coming out before Christmas in this series. Still, after this it’s back to regular scheduling in the new year. With one final exception tomorrow.

Christmas is a horrible time.

There's so much anxiety and frustration around the time when you have such terrible weather to deal with. You're forced to buy presents for people you don't like and would prefer to avoid if you could. All because people picked some time of the year to do it. Everyone else is doing it and so you look bad if you don't do it. People look at you with resentment and anger if you don't have happy feelings about Christmas. Which just makes the idea of celebrating it all the more frustrating. It's hard to think of a more annoying time than Christmas for many people. You just wish it would all go away and you could destroy it if you could. After all, why should anyone else feel happy and joyful at Christmas when you can't or don't want to?

People have a lot of reasons for feeling this way at Christmas. Maybe you don't have a family to celebrate with on Christmas. Or maybe you do but your family aren't the nicest people in the world, either to you or other people. It could be that you had a bad experience or multiple bad experiences at Christmas when you were a child. Things like you didn't get the presents you wanted year after year. Either because your family couldn't afford to give them to you or because they didn't want to. They could feel like you don't deserve it for something you did either at Christmas previously or some other time of the year. You could also have a problem with Christmas because of actual trauma you felt because of Christmas. The tree could've fallen on you or your house burned down at Christmas or something like that.

Experiences like that can definitely make you hate Christmas and everything associated with Christmas. Yet because so many other people don't hate Christmas and have such a wonderful time, you're forced to go through it year after year pretty much everywhere you go. Even if you try and avoid it by staying home and not participating, some people will try and cheer you up and make you feel better by attempting to force Christmas on you in one way or another. It's enough to make someone go crazy.

Black Christmas is very much about how absolutely terrible Christmas is for some people. Kelli Presley, as played brilliantly by Katie Cassidy, and her sorority sisters at Delta Alpha Kappa house are not exactly in the Christmas spirit. Most of them don't have anyone to celebrate with beyond each other. Or at the very least they would rather hang out at their sorority house than go home for Christmas. What's worse is that the house they live in used to be the house of Billy Lenz. Someone who doesn't have the happiest memories of Christmas himself. Enough that he's decided that he would rather try and kill as many people as possible at Christmas. Starting with the women of Delta Alpha Kappa to try and ruin what is already a pretty terrible Christmas for everyone.

Because Christmas is a terrible time of year.

Do yourself a favour and explore the horror of Christmas by checking out Black Christmas as soon as you can.

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You can watch Black Christmas on Apple TV as well as Amazon and AMC Plus.

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Christmas does have to end eventually.

Part of what makes Christmas so special is the fact that it's only for a short time and then you go back to your normal life. You can’t live with the Christmas spirit all year round. Otherwise it wouldn't be Christmas, it would just be the way things were. What doesn't have to change however is the things you do at Christmas in order to celebrate it. You don't have to do something new and different every year like you normally do the rest of the time. At Christmas, you can have specific things and specific ideas that happen at just that time of year and just among those people you want it to. For most people, this is your family. They become the people you do these things with and they give you so much joy when you do them.

Eventually, your time of doing them will come to an end though. You will have to either because you can't or because it's time to do something different. If you're lucky though, you can find someone who you can pass these ideas and ways of doing things down to someone else. Someone who has a reason to continue doing them and who loves them as much as you do. Usually the people you want to do this to is your family. You want them to continue what you did so that it doesn't just end with you. There may be changes or different ideas about what to do but as long as the tradition lives on, that's what's important. In order for that to happen though, you need someone in your family who actually wants to keep the tradition going. Someone who feels just as passionately about these things as you do.

Not everyone will see the importance of it though, not even family. From time to time you will have family members who while they like the idea of you doing it, they might not want to do it themselves. Or they don't see the point of it moving forward. So you have to find a way to make them see the value of the tradition and what they mean. Although they can't be your reasons for doing them. That would just end up creating a problem for the new person doing it. They have to be given a reason to love the idea of it themselves. Be able to see what is so great about them and the power that it gives you to keep going with it year after year.

Christmas Inheritance is very much about what it means to pass down the family traditions of Christmas to the next generation. Ellen Langford, as played brilliantly by Eliza Taylor, has grown up seeing her father and his Christmas traditions her whole life. She's seen how much joy and fun he has. The problem is that she doesn't necessarily see the point of it herself. She doesn't see why anyone beyond her father would do it. Which becomes a problem for her father because he's getting to the point in his life where he won't be able to do it anymore. So he gives Ellen a reason to at least try and do what he did. To learn for herself what is so important.

To see the value of the Christmas traditions for herself.

Do yourself a favour and explore the importance of inheriting Christmas traditions for yourself by checking out Christmas Inheritance today.

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You can watch Christmas Inheritance on Netflix.

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Every Christmas is a chance for something new.

It's a chance for old disputes between family members to be resolved and moved on from. When you come together at Christmas, these problems don't seem as big or important as they used to be. The love and hope around a Christmas family get together just makes it feel like what should be the focus of things. After all, if you can sit around a table with someone and laugh and joke with each other, then being angry with them is a lot harder to do. Instead you want to keep that feeling going for as long as possible and maybe even renew your relationship in the new year as well. Come at it with a fresh start and a happy perspective towards people.

Nowhere is this more true than with children. They bring such a happy and excited view of Christmas and the Christmas season in general that it's hard to be resentful and angry towards anyone when they get in that mood. Children don't have the long histories and reasons to be resentful of other people. Mainly because they're brand new to the world and can often only see the good things about it and the holiday season. This is especially true when a new child is about to be brought into the family. So much of the focus of the soon to be parents and the people around them is the baby and the promise that they bring to the world. Babies tend to bring a lot of hope to the world and a baby at Christmas can be extra special for everyone in the family.

With a baby, you create the chance for something completely new to come about. Opportunities that you never thought possible suddenly seem like they could really happen. Potential that would otherwise seem lost begins to feel like it has been found again. Largely because babies have all of these things within them. You will create whole new memories and new possibilities with a baby. Look to make the world better with them and for them in whatever way you can. Most importantly, with the beginning of a new life comes the beginning of a whole new family.

A Christmas Prince: The Royal Baby is on so many levels about this new possibility. Queen Amber Moore, as played brilliantly by Rose McIver, has a new baby on the way with her husband, King Richard. Naturally, she’s excited for the potential and the opportunity that it brings to have a whole new generation coming about. Which isn't to say that she isn't nervous along with her husband about what this baby means and how it's going to change things. But she has hope, particularly at Christmas, that it will ultimately end up being the best thing possible for everyone involved. The whole family is coming together in order to celebrate the potential of this new person being brought into the world.

It's like the baby is a gift.

Do yourself a favour and explore the birth of a new Christmas by checking out A Christmas Prince: The Royal Baby as soon as you can.

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You can watch A Christmas Prince: The Royal Baby on Netflix.

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People fall in love with Christmas all the time.

It starts when you're a kid and it's much easier to fall in love when you're younger. You're showered with presents by the people around you. Other people being generous to you is easy to fall in love with really quickly. As you become a teenager, you have to work harder to fall in love with Christmas. Many people find a way to love it through the time you spend with people at Christmas. The way you all gather together in a group for that one or two days around the holidays. Usually on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. When you feel the amount of love in that room or house or wherever you celebrate Christmas in, it's like a love story. You learn to fall in love with that feeling in all kinds of ways.

Becoming an adult means looking for people to fall in love with both you and your Christmas traditions. Someone who can actually enjoy the things you do and the ideas you have about how to celebrate Christmas. If you're lucky, they don't just want to see you for that one time during Christmas but your whole family more than once. Enough that they want to come back over and over again and celebrate Christmas the rest of your life. Find a way to keep the love going forever if you can manage it. Perhaps the best way to do this is for you to get married. To make a lasting, ongoing commitment to another person and their traditions.

Although when you make a commitment to someone else, it's not just about your traditions and the things that your family does. It's about the other person's traditions as well. The way they do things and how they want to celebrate things. So when you bring two families together, you have to learn to make things work between the two. No matter how much you might want it to be all about you and your family traditions, it can't be anymore. This is extremely hard to do though because you've been doing so many of these things for so long on your own that letting go of some in favour of others is more difficult than you might want it to be.

A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding is very much about the coming together of two traditions of Christmas. Amber Moore, as played brilliantly by Rose McIver, has fallen in love at Christmas. More importantly she has found someone who she wants to spend every Christmas with, King Richard Charlton, as played fantastically by Ben Lamb. They have made a commitment to each other and to each other's Christmas traditions. The problem is that both families have their traditions and their ideas of what coming together as a family means. Especially with regards to actually getting married. So they have to find a way to make it all work together without really hurting each other.

It's very much like a wedding.

Do yourself a favour and explore the romance of Christmas by checking out A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding as soon as you can.

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You can watch A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding on Netflix.

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Christmas can sometimes feel like a fairy tale.

Like there's an adventure out there if only you're willing to go find it. After all, people have so much potential during Christmas. We will sometimes allow other things to happen that wouldn't happen in any other time. Largely because we are so focused on Christmas that sometimes we miss things we otherwise wouldn't. Not to mention we're willing to give people the options you wouldn't during the rest of the year. Christmas is a time when you need other people to handle some things because you're so busy with the holiday that giving other people the time and energy is easier. You also might just accept that the person you see is who they are.

When this happens, you will meet people you otherwise wouldn't and potentially have experiences you otherwise wouldn't. It can almost feel like you've been swept away and let yourself go. Especially if there's some kind of benefit to you. Which is part of what Christmas is about. Something you can do where you give to some other people and your friends and family will give to you as well. At the same time, you can meet a person who you might want to start a family with in the future. Hopefully this person will feel the same way as you. If you're lucky, you'll be swept up together and enjoying the potential of the moment.

Maybe the person you'll find is either a prince or a princess with all the money and power that comes along with finding such a person. This is obviously one of the biggest aspects of fairy tales that people love. The idea of meeting a prince or princess and falling deeply in love until you find a way to have a perfect life where everything is taken care of for you and your life has nothing but joy and beauty. Not just in yourself but in everyone around you. Doing your best to make people who you rule over as a royal family happy. Bringing the idea of Christmas to everyone you know or could know at any point.

A Christmas Prince is very much about how Christmas is like a fairy tale. Amber Eve Moore, as played brilliantly by Rose McIver, is someone who's life doesn't often feel like a fairy tale. She lives a pretty ordinary life working as a journalist. Yet this fact ends up getting her swept up in a real fairy tale story, pretty much entirely because of Christmas. She's assigned to look at what is going on with a prince in a far off land. Not just that, but her own situation gives her chances that she wouldn't otherwise have. People around her simply assume that because it's Christmas and she's here when someone else is supposed to be, that she's the person they're looking for. It goes long enough that she actually meets a prince and they fall in love.

The kind of magical story that can only happen as a fairy tale at Christmas.

Do yourself a favour and explore the fairy tale of Christmas by checking out A Christmas Prince during Christmas if you can.

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A Christmas Prince is available on Netflix.

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People are happier at Christmas.

There's just something about all the beautiful decorations and the excitement about getting together with people you love, some of which you haven't seen in a long time. Not to mention all the presents you're going to hopefully get from these people. It just makes people feel better despite how the weather can be a problem when it gets out of control. They smile at each other more and are nicer to others because of the time of year. So you're willing to open yourself up to them and make others feel as good as you do. You're also willing to consider the possibility of magic in the air and the love it can potentially bring your way. Especially because so many of people's problems feel like they can be solved in the easiest ways possible.

Accidents don't feel like frustrations and reasons to get angry with each other. They feel like happy moments worth exploring with whoever you've bumped into. Like the whole world has come together entirely for the possibility of your meeting. You can love it all so much and it might just change your whole life if you remain open to it. The other person has to be open to it as well and to see it the way you do or something similar. Which is extremely difficult to have happen but that's what magic is for. To make the impossible seem actually possible. Finding love never seems more real and powerful than at Christmas.

The problem is trying to actually maintain these feelings the rest of the year. When you don't have the magic of Christmas and the potential happy feelings that it gives people to keep you going. It's not nearly as easy and you're likely to lose hope in between one Christmas and the next. Maybe you'll even lose the idea that there's any magic in the world at all, even at Christmas. If you can keep it in your heart that the feelings you have at Christmas are real and worth pushing through the rest of the year you’re better off. Hopefully with someone at your side to keep the feelings alive. You just don't know when it's going to happen to you. That's why they call it an accident.

Serendipity is all about the happy accidents that happen at Christmas. Jonathan Trager and Sara Thomas, as played beautifully by John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale, have found themselves part of a happy accident. Through what seems like a random chance meeting, they meet and can't help but be drawn to each other. The magic of the moment gives them a reason to explore it further. Despite the fact that both of them are already with someone and shouldn't want it, they do. Yet at the same time it feels like this isn't the time to get together and so they have to find a way to come to terms with that when it's not Christmas. That is until another accident just might bring them back together.

Almost like it's a Christmas present.

Do yourself a favour and explore the happy accident of Christmas by checking out Serendipity as soon as you can.

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You can watch Serendipity on Hulu as well as Amazon and Apple TV.

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There are so many stories about Christmas.

People love a great Christmas story and they expect certain things out of it. For the most part, they want it to be a beautiful story about family coming together and everything working out in the end. Usually involving a big family dinner with so many happy moments. At the very least, the story has to teach someone the true meaning of Christmas and the importance of family. That's what Christmas is about for so many people. Yet at the same time, there are only so many ways in which you can do this type of story before it becomes repetitive and difficult to watch. Once this happens, most people will fall back on the classics from their childhood. It makes them feel what they used to feel when they were kids. More often than not these involve either Scrooge or It's a Wonderful Life because of how great they are.

Being able to find a way to make something new and different is hard. Although one way you can create something new is by modernizing it. The other way is to find a new way to combine the stories which already exist and make something different out of it. You have to find a way to give people the best of both without hurting what was great about the originals. Naturally, what exactly makes people love the originals can be somewhat subjective. Yet when you do it really well, there's nothing like it in the world. To create a completely new and fascinating way to celebrate Christmas. A new way to feel good over the holidays and to see the whole experience like you were when you were a kid.

What people love most about stories like A Christmas Carol is how Scrooge is shown the error of his ways. He turns his back on greed and selfishness, ultimately embracing the true meaning of Christmas that's a time of giving and togetherness. The thing people love so much about It's a Wonderful Life is the fact that a very giving and honest man like George can finally see that he has value to the people around him. That despite everything he's sacrificed for other people, their lives are actually better with him in it rather than without him. Finding anything new and interesting about them isn't easy.

The Family Man is able to do this beautifully. Jack Campbell, as played brilliantly by Nicholas Cage, is someone who believes he has everything he could ever want. He's a high powered business executive who can buy and sell anything he wants. There's almost nothing which is beyond him... except maybe the love of a good woman and a family. So when a chance encounter gives him the opportunity to see exactly what he's missing, the whole thing is transformative. Until he isn't really sure that his money and power are the most important things in his life.

He's become... a family man.

Do yourself a favour and explore the innovation of Christmas by checking out The Family Man as soon as you can.

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You can watch The Family Man on Apple TV as well as Amazon and Netflix in some places.

Author’s Note: If you’d like to have a little extra Christmas cheer, check out the Christmas Issue of Buckethead that got released today.

It's really hard to improve on a classic.

There's a reason why it's a classic. Largely because there's very little on which to improve about it. People go back to it in order to remember what they love about the story and the different aspects of the story which they might not have noticed the first time. This becomes like a tradition that you return to on a regular basis. Either on your own or with friends and family. Creating this tradition is part of what makes it a classic for you and the people around you. So finding anything to improve upon and change will often cause people to get angry or frustrated that someone tried to change what they love about the classic which means so much to them.

You really have to do something incredible to either improve or replace what is great about the old to make it new again. Maybe the best thing you can do in order to get people to create a new tradition in a modern way is to love the original so much that you are very dedicated to making sure that the core remains the same. Then it's just about giving it the classic feel which everyone has for the original. Hopefully in doing so you integrate the reality of the modern into the original. If it's set in the far past, you give the world the technology of the day and find a way to make it important to the story. As a result, you feel like it is more relatable to who people are at the time.

Balancing these parts of things isn't easy by any means. Almost no one can really do it, which is part of the reason why so many attempts end up not working out. When it does finally work out though, it's very hard to argue about what's so great. Enough that people look back on it and want to make it a whole new tradition for not only them but for their children and grandchildren to come.

Scrooged really embraces this fact about itself. Frank Cross, as played brilliantly by Bill Murray, is a modern day Scrooge. He's as selfish and mean to the people around him as the traditional Ebenezer Scrooge. He couldn't care less about what other people want, focusing more on his own needs and desires to the point that his employees hate him. The whole thing goes as far as he's well aware of the story of A Christmas Carol and wants to share it with as wide an audience as possible. Yet he can't see how much his own life mirrors that of Scrooge himself. He's too wrapped up in himself to learn the important lessons it has for people about the way he lives his life.

That is until he ends up becoming the subject of A Christmas Carol himself. Yet because he knows the story and the lesson, you can't just show him the error of his ways how Scrooge experienced it. There has to be something more to it and push things further than they ever were before.

Which is what makes it a modern classic.

Do yourself a favour and explore the power of modernizing a classic by checking out Scrooged as soon as you can.

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Scrooged is available on Amazon as well as Apple TV.

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