Holiday Highlight Reel: Ghosts of A.V. Club past
Because we know your lives are too busy to read every single word we publish, and because now is the time of year for giving, we’ve decided to send you back into A.V. Club days of yore with some holiday-related links. These are stories from years past that pertain to the holidays, and that we think you’ll enjoy—whether for the first time, or as a holiday refresher.
So join us please for this 2006 Crosstalk titled “Does Christmas music suck?” We fail to find an answer, but it’s a lively discussion nonetheless.
We actually sort of answer that question with a resounding “maybe” in this Inventory from 2008: 42 holiday entertainments that don’t make us want to claw our eyes out with rage. Because, as you know, holidays can be the most treacly, annoying time of the year in addition to the most joyous ones.
The holidays tend to bring out the Inventory in us, don’t they? We did “15 mostly forgotten holiday artifacts” in 2007, then “23 TV episodes based on ‘A Christmas Carol’” in 2010, and the fabulously funny “10 movies that use violence to enforce the holiday spirit” in 2007. If you’re interested in “morally dubious holiday entertainments,” you can find the text version and the video version.
If you’re looking for an atheist’s perspective on the holiday, there’s the ever-reliable Christopher Hitchens, who spoke to us in 2007.
We also invited bands into our little round room to play holiday songs for us in both 2010 and 2011; some highlights include Andrew W.K. and our mailman Rodney duetting on “Silent Night,” Office Of Future Plans rocking “Holiday In Cambodia,” and Electric Six doing “You’re A Mean One, Mr. Grinch.”
Just recently we released a Primer on TV Christmas Specials, and don’t even get us started on our TV Club Advent Calendar. It’s a monster!
Here’s an old Taste Test on those ridiculous Jones Soda holiday flavors, including ham soda. Remember Sean O’Neals Friday Buzzkills? Here’s the Christmas edition from 2007. Ah, memories.
Remember Bob Dylan’s Christmas album? We don’t remember it that well, either. But it came out in 2009, and we gave it a B-.
What about the execrable How The Grinch Stole Christmas movie starring Jim Carrey and directed by Opie Cunningham? Nathan Rabin’s review came out before we were assigning grades, but let’s retroactively give it an F-minus, shall we?
And how about this gem from last year, “Father Christmas F****d My P***y”? Fun for the whole family, but not safe for work, people. Great job, Internet! “Father Christmas, lover boy! Come over here, give me your dick!”
Finally, do you miss The Hater as much as we do? Here’s a piece Amelie Gillette wrote in 2009 called “How To Subtly Keep The Christ In Christmas.” Happy holidays Amelie, and happy holidays to all of y’all as well.