Syntaxtual Healing

Something that I've learned this year is that no matter how hard you try and no matter how well you plan, there remain some things in life that you just can't control. My goal was to watch a Christmas movie every night up until and including Christmas Day. Fate, however, had another plan for me, and that was to put in a late night at work. While Kristin was kind enough to take on the task of watching and writing about a Christmas movie by herself tonight, I needed to continue this goal I had put forward. I wasn't about to let a late night at work sour my mood and ruin a good thing I had going.

I also wasn't going to let the fact that the Blogger app lost a post I had spent a half hour putting together get me down either. While this post won't be as long or as good as that one, I'll certainly try my best (while saving often).

Through the miracle of technology and 3G, I was able to still get in a Christmas classic on my ride home. I picked something that I have watched countless times and could picture in my head as I listened to the audio through my car stereo: "A Garfield Christmas."

Nothing made me happier when I was a kid to see that spinning "Special" logo on CBS. Kids would wait days and weeks to see that logo because it actually was something special. This was a cartoon that WASN'T being shown on a Saturday morning. This was a cartoon in PRIME TIME! It also meant that the holidays were just around the corner.

Some people hate Garfield, and I can't honestly understand why. Along with comics like The Far Side and Calvin and Hobbes, these comics were a huge part of the 1980s and 1990s. I can understand not enjoying particular strips, but the pure hatred some people have for Garfield baffles me, especially when a special like "A Garfield Christmas" was produced as a result of it.

In short, the special begins with Garfield coveting the material side of Christmas. Against his wishes, his owner forces him to spend a simpler Christmas at the family farm. Even though there are many references to getting presents, he learns that the most important thing is spending time with family.

One thing in particular really stuck out as I was listening to this special. After dinner on Christmas Eve, the Arbuckle family gets together to trim the tree, something that is still done in most European countries. Now I love getting a real Christmas tree every year, and nothing makes me happier than seeing it completely decorated and lit up throughout the holiday season, but I just couldn't ever decorate it on Christmas Eve. I find decorating to be a tedious and dangerous process. Inevitably, I get cranky because something isn't going right, and then I get snippy. Luckily we're far enough away from Christmas that my mood won't jeopardize the holiday. I can't even imagine taking on that task on Christmas Eve. Seems like a recipe for disaster.

Most of the Christmas specials have an important moral lesson at the end to remind kids that Christmas isn't all about presents and money. "A Garfield Christmas" isn't much different in this regard. Garfield has his moment in the spotlight at the end where he delivers a short message about the holiday. But there's one moment very early in the episode that caught my attention and sums up my feelings about this time of year. On the way to the family farm,  Jon says the following:

"There's no doubt about it, Christmas is my favorite holiday. The air's crisp, homes are brightly decorated, and everybody's walking around with big smiles on their faces."

It's this kind of feeling that restores your faith in humanity after a year of neglect and abuse. Plus, the lights are really pretty.