5 recent American Christmas traditions
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- Опубліковано 16 жов 2024
- Inventing new ideas to add to the American Christmas cultural canon.
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I think the family dressing up in matching Christmas pajamas is another tradition that has taken off in recent years. This year it was everywhere in clothing retailers .
That also feels like a parody of something a GenXer might remember seeing in a 1970s Sears catalog.
I think matching Christmas pajamas will be a short lived fad maybe lasting a few years. Once everyone starts doing it, it won't be special anymore.
That's one that never made sense to me. Maybe it's b/c my family thought it was a dumb thing to do, but I will never understand it tbh.
I've been doing this with my family since I was a child and I love it. This year, my girlfriend even got included in it ❤️
@@heisensaul5538 Most every family I know that does it started it so their kids would have a present to open on Christmas Eve. But I agree. If you know the gift you'll be opening is PJs, then it's not a huge deal to open a gift early...
I'd also like to add in that I think the idea of a "secret Santa" exchange is a pretty massive addition to the cultural canon of christmas traditions. If I were to guess, I imagine it arose initially as a way for workplaces to do gift exchanges without everyone needing to buy gifts for everyone else. It has branched out though, with people starting to do them with large groups of friends as well.
Either that or White Elephant
Yeah it's gotten to the point where it's common between high schoolers (am a high schooler) and families. I feel like the way kids engage with it to give gifts to each other in school when we're older and don't have official Christmas parties is gonna stick around. At least between clubs and small friend groups who want to celebrate but won't see each other over the holiday break.
I feel like the specific niche and need it fulfills for work and school will make it stick around for a while.
I think another contributor is that many people are starting to second-guess the necessity of the sheer amount of stuff we acquire at Christmas every year, the waste produced, as well as just how expensive and stressful Christmas can get because of it. Doing a Secret Santa can make Christmas something that doesn't break the bank and allows to spend that time focusing on the people one celebrates it with, instead.
@@skelenton92 Yeah the adults in my family do this in order to cut down on spending and pressure. It makes a huge difference and people get more genuine gifts.
secret santa actually originates from scandinavia where it's known as "julklapp" and has spread to pretty much all christian/christmas celebrating countries and cultures under many different names. i would hardly call it a recent tradition
I would say decorative inflatables have earned a spot in the American Christmas Canon. They came on the scene in the 2000s and now there are houses that fill their lawn and/or front windows with them.
And if people are still willing to run them 24/7 from Thanksgiving to New Years at 25¢/kWh in the crazy weather much of the US has been having, then they have certainly earned a spot.
Didn’t realize that wasn’t a thing before the 2000s. Born in 2001 and it seems timeless.
@@PASH3227 Also born in 2001. I just assumed it started around the 70s, when the synthetic fabric stuff that they are usually made of started to become wide spread.
25c/kwh...
In germany we have up to 61c/ kWh
The inflatables were my first thought too and before JJ mentioned Elf on the Shelf, I thought he was going to say the inflatable Santa. Born in the dinosaur year of 1962, the inflatables seem very new and I keep hoping they'll go away. 😀
I just assumed the Christmas inflatables is connected to the middle class mid-20th century Christmas: In the young 20th century, there was always that one house that overdid it with Christmas decorations and brought joy to families as they drove past, the kids grew up, THEY want to be that one house...inflatables get power from that.
The various themed Advent calendars (from wine for grown-ups to bathtub toys for toddlers) coupled with the "12 ___ of Christmas" gift sets (socks, wine again, neck ties etc).
Yes!! I was so confused when I heard about kids getting chocolate in their Advent calendars now. When I was a kid it was just seeing what the picture was going to be.
Yeah advent calendars seemed HUGE this year. I always had them because my German family had them but I never saw them be so popular
@Kimberly Bega how old are you? I'm 26, been chocolate my whole life. This is new?
@@Nakia11798 when I was a kid (I'm 54), we had a paper one with little windows and you opened each day to reveal... a picture image! 😲 We also had a very fancy felt one with pockets for each day that we read a bit of Christmas story each night and pinned an ornament on the felt tree. Very fancy.
The Advent (pardon the pun) of the nightly bottle of wine or pair of socks in the lead-up to Christmas is very new and kinda weird.
I’m a millennial, and I don’t remember those ever not existing. Are they really that recent?
It's been over a decade since the internet has made the take that "Die Hard is a Christmas movie" and has put it in playlists for holiday films and specials to watch each year.
That’s a good one. I’ve even seen Die Hard ornaments and things
The argument of whether it’s a Christmas movie or not has sorta become a tradition in itself
Some are also noting that by the same standards, Batman Returns is also a Christmas movie.
@@Sorcerers_Apprentice It's a better choice for a Christmas movie than Die Hard is.
I would say Die hard isn't a Christmas movie b/c I don't feel strange watching it in the August as opposed to the Christmas season. and I would also argue that a movie set around Christmas isn't the same thing as a Christmas movie. Personally making an argument out of something like that is people just wanting to be contrarian assholes for no reason.
I feel that the first two "Home Alone" movies are also pretty iconic, like there is now a Lego set of the McCallister's house (wich i say has also become fairly iconic itself). Oh, and of course the fact that the four other "non-Kevin" sequels were even made, meaning that the premise of a kid defending their home from bumbling burglars, when left home alone on Christmas, has become somewhat of a mini sub-genre of Christmas films.
Wasn’t a kid in the 90s but still know home alone. It’s iconic!!
I absolutely agree I think they’re more culturally important than elf though I love that movie too, but I guess elf is more notable in the context of this video because its more recent
Home Alone is definitely my favorite Christmas movie.
There's a 'Home Alone' without Xmas, it's called 'Skyfall'.
Home alone is far more widely known than the weird elf movie
I would also like to point out how the song "Last Christmas" by Wham! is increasingly popular and a "rival" to All I want for Christmas is You. This extends to the point where there is an entire internet game around the holidays where the goal is to avoid hearing Last Christmas until after Christmas (but it is hard because the song is great and way too popular).
Here in Europe Last Christmas is THE Christmas song. Nothing comes close to it.
Good Lord it's a horrible song too. I hate All I Want For Christmas but even its lyrics are better than Last Christmas
Oh ya, 100 percent. That's a really popular one.
Last Cristmas is from 1984 and I remember listening to it in the 90's, so it's not new enough for this list, IMO.
The idea of making a big deal out of avoiding particular things that are seen as overexposed a la whamageddon and mariapocalypse seems like a very 21st century cultural thing.
Note for JJ - I believe one of the reasons your channel's comment section is so rich and nice is that even with all the deep research you do for your videos, you still ask everyone to contribute their opinions and what is going on in their part of the world.
An important part of Christmas culture I think you missed is advertising, particularly the Hershey's bell commercial, the M&M meeting Santa commercial, and perhaps to a lesser extent, the coca cola bear commercial series. All of which are *fairly* recent but have been a staple of the holiday season for as long as I can remember.
They supplanted earlier ones that you might see replayed occasionally today: the Coca-Cola ad with the jingle "I'd like to teach the world to sing" (I think this did not start as a Christmas ad, but the special Christmas variant of it had greater longevity), the Budweiser Clydesdales one, the Norelco/Philips one with a Rankin-Bass-esque Santa riding on an electric shaver head with the company identified as "Noëlco" at the end.
They still show the M&Ms Santa ad in its original aspect ratio. It's mad.
But yeah they have redone the Kisses commercial once.
It's kind of funny and sad that I remember a huge commercial for either Kmart or Walmart was where they synced Carol of the Bells to their cash register lights. Now with a ton of the registers being self-serving the song would be much shorter. lmao
i havent seen the polar bears in a while😢
"Want a Sprite Cranberry?"
Orwellian is a good term to describe elf on the shelf. I'm old enough that they weren't part of my childhood. But, I saw it being used with younger relatives, and I've always found the idea to be pretty creepy. If I were a small child, I think it would be unnerving to believe that I'm being spied on by some sort of possessed doll.
When I first heard of them, I thought snitches get stiches
All we have to do is change the story from "elf spies on kids and tattles on santa" to "the elf decides to help out with Christmas preparations but sometimes hyjinks ensues" or make it like a scavenger hunt where the elf provides the family gift, and each day they provide a clue on what it is.
It seems more plausible since I have seen moms write notes for the elves to show to the kids, and the scavenger hunt also seems plausible since I know my high-school did something like this where they hid the doll around the school, and whoever found it and shared a picture on social media won a prize or something.
Where I live they call them naughty elves and they simply do new hijinks every day. The spying thing is completely gone. I think it’s because nobody tries to make children believe in santa, so they wouldn’t believe it anyway.
This comment made me chuckle because they were becoming popular just about right after my own childhood and I always thought the same thing.
You dont have to emphasize the spying that much it's pretty fun to move it around each day and see the kids reactions
The stereotypical Hallmark Christmas romcom is a pretty huge trope nowadays. I think we could even add “Commentary UA-camr makes fun of Hallmark Christmas romcom” as a Christmas tradition too
True, but I'd counter-argue that this is a *genre* of movie. I can't name one specific Hallmark movie that has entered the canon.
@@benjaminrobinson3842 Exactly, just like how there’s not one notable ugly Christmas sweater. The year’s batch of Hallmark romcoms are the holiday staple, not any specific movie
@@SuperMustache555 Leave it to Halmark, the greeting card company, to make movies so mass produced and generic as to be completely unoriginal and totally forgettable.
I am totally on board with watching UA-cam commentators roast terrible Hallmark romcoms 😂🤣😂
The Home Alone movies, The Polar Express, Hallmark movies, ABC Family's 25 Days of Christmas, those light-up plastic baubles you can wear, deep-frying turkeys, winter wonderland carnivals (when I was a kid, I remember carnivals being strictly a summer thing), peppermint-flavored EVERYTHING not just candy canes.
I was expecting all of these to be massive leaps, cynically convinced that there have been no new Christmas traditions recently aside from ad campaigns and limited editions of everyday products. But I was pleasantly surprised! The sweater thing especially is a really nice observation, it's something that's obvious now that it was pointed out to me, but I totally didn't recognise before!
I like the growing joke that Mariah defrosts each year to usher in Christmas music in malls and we all fail to stop her. She’s entering urban monster levels lmao
But this year _is_ bucking that trend.
Mariah, after having defrosted, is now hospitalized after the first verse, while the band plays on.
Even the SCP foundation got in on that one
That's the biggest head-scratcher for me, it's like people think there was no Christmas music before her! LOL Bing Crosby, Dolly Parton, and Elvis Presley should be so offended!
Watching JJ should be a Christmas tradition. It's something that unites us all together in the Christmas spirit.
I second this
I third this
💀
i fourth this
It already is one for me
Buddy, the name of the main character from Elf, is quickly becoming this kind of stock name for elf assistants to Santa Claus. I've seen a couple mall Santa events now with Buddy the Elf assistants. Different households that I know have also named their Elf On A Shelf doll Buddy because of the similar clothing. Perhaps the two new traditions will merge into one stock character named Buddy the Elf?
Also, I feel as though a lot of malls have started doing this new thing where they have both a Mall Santa and a Mall Grinch (sometimes called the grouch to avoid copyright). He's kind of becoming the sarcastic and rude American Krampus.
@@harsimaja9517 The reindeer have had names since the story "The Night Before Christmas." He calls them all by name in one verse. But yeah, Rudolph is a later addition, first as a song, then the TV special.
The White Elephant gift exchange, perhaps? I guess I wouldn't be surprised if that was an older tradition, but I never heard of it before The Office. Or maybe portrait Christmas cards? I feel as though it's now super easy to make a picture of your family into a hundred cards with a little write-up on the back of what's been going on throughout the year. I get a few of them every year.
Second this. White Elephant is just everywhere now and tbh not a fan but that's a personal choice I guess
White Elephant has been around for many decades. In fact one year in the late 90s my oldest sister insisted we all have a White Elephant present exchange on x-mas eve. Everyone absolutely hated it! But yes, I think The Office episode just popularized it in the mid-2000s.
Does anyone know how long Americans have been playing any version of secret Santa? I’m not 40 and I can remember a time when having to explain how it was played was common. Now it’s “which rules will we use?” It definitely seems to have exploded in popularity.
The Yankee swap is over 120 years old.
@@ianmaclarke1 It certainly feels quite recent in the UK - like maybe the last ten years.
As LEDs are getting cheaper and are much more energy efficient than previous types of lighting, I believe that over-the-top Christmas lighting is getting more popular.
I think one thing worth mentioning is the Sprite Cranberry meme. I have seen that every Christmas since it was first a thing, albeit much less than the first year. It's probably as close to a meme that comes around every holiday as we've got and with how important meme culture is, it's worth mentioning
Honestly, the fact that a meme can regularly come back from the dead like that is incredible in itself.
christmas is just a week away
nice
@higbort another strong contender
If we go with classic Christmas commercials, the Hershey's kisses playing Jingle Bells or M&Ms meeting Santa would also be classics that go unchanged every year
One thing i would consider a part of the christmas food canon is Starbucks seasonal drinks. You can find imitations of peppermint mocha in nearly every cafe in the country and beverage section in corner stores. You definitely should have done a food segment in the video
Peppermint hot cocoa has been a thing for ages, they just made it mocha. Not a huge jump
@@Nakia11798I agree with OP, though. In the same way that getting a pumpkin spice latte (despite not even liking it all that much) feels like the beginning of fall, a staple of the Christmas season, for me, is going to a cafe (not explicitly Starbucks) and enjoying the various Christmas offerings (I enjoy the chestnut flavors more than the peppermint mocha!) I don’t think it matters that the flavors, or even the concept of a hot drink being common in the winter, is not fully new or original. It’s the whole of it together- the coffee shop, the Christmas cup, the special flavors.
Not to mention that whole red cup debacle from a few years ago
As a Canadian, I'm shocked you didn't mention moms getting out the Michael Bublé CDs as a recent trend.
That's super popular in England too
I think that's kind of an interesting one, because he's covering all of the old "post war" songs, but obviously he is a modern artist.
That one is starting to feel old already
Bublé is popular here in the US as well
Australia as well.
Looking at the origins of these traditions give new meaning to the line “In the new old fashioned way” from “Rockin’ around the Christmas Tree.”
Hahaha, yeah. You could argue that the main appeal of Christmas comes from nostalgia and the idea of sticking to your roots no matter what.
Australia has different Christmas traditions, and I imagine the rest of the southern hemisphere does too because it's summer during December. There's still a lot of snowy wintery imagery though, but it might not be uncommon to see picture of santa at the beach or playing backyard cricket in some less warm clothing.
Backyard cricket?
@@JJMcCullough backyard cricket it a strong Aussie christmas tradition.
Summer is cricket season and all members of the family csn play.
There is also a very popular game of cricket called the boxing day test which starts the day after Christmas and lasts up to 5 days.
The Sydney to Hobart yatch race is also a bit of a tradition in Australia.
In the southern US the imagery of Santa in Bermuda shorts and flip-flops along with light-decorated palm trees is also common.
It’s often in the upper 20°sC (low 80°sF) where I live on Christmas and New Years, so the tropical Santa or snowmen made of sand and seashells are definitely common.
My family even has a tradition of having a water balloon fight on Christmas. This’ll be the first year my 13-year-old can remember that it’ll be too cold to do it, lol (the high for us on Christmas is supposed to be 7°C/45°F).
NZer here. Can confirm Aussie traditions across the ditch
@@JJMcCullough Do ya'll have Cricket in Canada? We do here in parts of the US where there are large Caribbean and South Asian communities. The largest complex of Cricket grounds in the US is in Prairie View, Texas, an exurb of Houston. There's a big India v. Pakistan v. Jamaica showdown every Thanksgiving.
Christmas Vacation and Home Alone are both getting old now, but both surely (cult?) classics at this point
Home Alone was definitely successful when it came out, so I’m not sure about it being a cult classic. But I agree that ever since the early 2010s, both of those movies have gained a lot of attention.
It's kind of amazing that Home Alone has become a sort of international Christmas classic, even after 30 years from its release. Even here in Latin America people keep making references to the movie every Christmas on social media
A Christmas Story came out in 1983, but it started becoming a cult classic in the late 1990’s, and that process really exploded in the early 2000s as the Christmas Story marathons really took off, along with all of the merchandise. I’d say that fits in reasonably well with your timeline, and very well with your self-aware irony theme.
I always assumed it was much older even as a youngster at the time. They did a great job capturing the time period it took place in. I thought it was already old at that point.
@@tigernotwoods914 The Jean Shepherd stories that it was based on were older, and some elements of "A Christmas Story" (like the plot thread about the Nehi lamp) had already appeared in TV adaptations of his writing on PBS. I remember my junior-high English teacher reading the whole bit about the Red Ryder BB gun ("You'll shoot your eye out, kid! HO HO HO!") to us in class about 3 years before the movie came out. I don't even think I saw the whole movie until much later, but I felt like it was already familiar because I knew most of the story.
We have Ted Turner, former owner of TBS Network, to thank for the Christmas Story marathon. It was his favorite Christmas movie, and to give his employees a break on Christmas, he decided to put it on an a loop for 24 hours.
Sergio Pablos’ Klaus (on Netflix) is destined to be the next Christmas classic. It came out as recently as 2019 but I feel like I’m going to be watching it every December for the rest of my life. In my opinion it's the perfect interpretation of the Santa Claus myth.
yes! i feel like it's severely underrated and i hope it gets the recognition it deserves soon.
Here in Ireland we have a tradition called the 12 Pubs of Christmas, where you drink a pint in 12 different pubs, usually whilst wearing a Christmas jumper. This is relatively new thing that came up in the heady boom times of the 2000s. It typically happens the Saturday before Christmas day. I'd estimate that at least 500,000 people do this as it's very popular and people spend a lot of time planning their exact route and their list of the 12 venues they intend to hit only to completely deviate from the plan around halfway through for obvious reasons.
Sounds lame
Sounds cool
Sounds drunk
I honestly can't remember whether it was lame, cool or drunk
@@JJMcCullough bruh
There's gotta be something to say about how online shopping, namely Amazon, has entirely changed the tradition of gift giving. It's taken both the stress and fun out of it.
Who knew we’d miss marching through Sears the weekend before Christmas and hanging by the gift wrap counter.
I love Christmas shopping on Amazon. Mostly because I hate wrapping gifts. Amazon wraps them for me, and then the gift recipient can use the little bag to wrap next year’s gift.
I think The Nightmare Before Christmas isn't exactly something that _everyone_ watches around Christmas time, but due to its nature of being a pretty thoroughly blended movie about both Christmas and Halloween, I think it's notable for the culture surrounding Christmas. I know plenty of people who watch the film during either both holidays, or just during Christmas, for some reason. Maybe I just have some weird friends. But I do think that Nightmare Before Christmas is still relevant to "Christmas Culture," and I believe it came out in the mid 1990's. So that's fairly recent. At least, as far as the US goes - the movie definitely has a lot of merchandise even in 2022.
This is so true!! I feel Jack Skellington has become a new mascot for Christmas as well, probably going into the Grinch route
@@twilighthairball It's actually a very interesting character comparison now that I think about it. Both characters start out not fully understanding the holiday, but respond very differently to it, and in the end both gain a new perspective and understanding of what Christmas is.
I think I just never thought to compare them because Jack seems a lot nicer from the start. Jack wants to do something good, but doesn't fully understand Christmas, whereas The Grinch actively goes out of his way to destroy Christmas.
Fun fact: on the DVD/Blu-Ray commentary, Tim Burton states that he got the inspiration for his story when he saw both Halloween and Christmas decorations at the mall simultaneously, and how it fascinated him to see a blending of aesthetics and traditions that many consider mutually exclusive.
For me It is the perfect late November movie! Perfectly bridging the gap between the two holidays in a month where we (in Canada) don't have any. Of course you can do war movies in early November, but that feels wholly different than watching Halloween or Christmas Movies.
no same
Christmas culture in Korean and Japan are quite fascinating as well. Since both countries were heavily influenced by the U.S., Christmas is also a holiday widely celebrated in both countries. One thing that I find interesting is that both countries regard the occasion as a day to spend with your lover rather than your family. There is even a saying in Korea in which disillusioned bachelors will lament their singlehood by saying "올해도 솔크" meaning "this year I'm single in Christmas again."
I had no idea Christmas was popular in those countries! That’s actually very interesting considering that Christianity isn’t nearly as prevalent there.
Nothing will ever top Japanese families placing their orders for KFC for Christmas well in advance, to enjoy their Christmas dinners "as the Americans do." The story of how that particular lie was successfully sold to the Japanese public should be taught in master classes on advertising.
@@wifflesports6638 Korea is surprisingly very Christian -(around 50% I think)- (edit: it's actually closer to 30%, 50% are irreligious) and there are quite a number of Korean novels, manhwas, series and movies that feature some form of Korean Christianity as background or an important plot point. So, unlike Buddhism or Hinduism in Europe and the Americas, Christianity is an intergrated part of modern Korean culture, rather than a recent foreign import.
But Japanese kurismasu is just weird. Like the idea of Europeans celebrating the 4th of July or American Thanksgiving...
@@pawel198812 Interesting. I had no idea Korea had so many Christians.
Thanks for explaining "Elf on the Shelf". I left the US in 2005 and so missed the integration of this thing into the culture. But I've kept hearing it mentioned in American media and have wondered where it came from, how I missed it, and if it had always existed but I'd somehow missed it. So you solved that little mystery for me - thanks 🙂
I think our reluctance to embrace more recent Christmas traditions is rooted in on our love of nostalgia. In turbulent times, people tend to hold a tighter grip on nostalgia. I'd argue the last 20 years or so have been somewhat more turbulent than the previous 20 years.
Hey JJ, really nice video! For an ultra-modern addition to the Christmas cultural canon, I propose the recent semi-serious consideration that Die Hard is actually a Christmas movie. It's kind of a subversion of usual Christmas movie tropes, in that classical Christmas themes are in the background of an ultraviolent foreground, implying that the true meaning of the holidays is fighting for your loved ones. Not sure this is mainstream enough but it's what I first thought of.
I was thinking of that while watching this video, but for me it's too much of a stretch to call it a Christmas movie. 99% of this film could just as easily have taken place on Valentine's Day or Groundhog Day or really any other day that had somewhat cold weather. I had completely forgotten that it took place around Christmas until people semi-ironically started calling it one of the best Christmas films ever.
@@benjaminrobinson3842 Yeah I feel like this "arguement" got started with some wise ass saying to his buddies: "In A Way (and by that I mean In No Way Whatsoever) Die Hard is really a Xmas movie. b/c blah blah blah" and everyone missed the sarcasm.
@@benjaminrobinson3842 I would argue Die Hard 2 is more Christmasy than the first one
@@1313stjimmy Honestly that wouldn't shock me if that was the case.
@@benjaminrobinson3842 It's *arguing about it* that's the tradition.
My mother had elves like that in the early 1960s. They hadn’t yet acquired the backstory about reporting back to Santa Claus, but they definitely sat on a shelf.
My family had one of those older elves too when I was growing up. When Elf on the Shelf first became a big thing I remember thinking it was odd that everyone was acting like the elf itself was some kind of new thing when we had one of them for years, just minus the creepy spying part.
I think they were referred to as Japanese elves back then. I know my aunt had them on her trees.
for me the most striking Christmas film to have been released recently is clearly "Polar express"
This is what I thought too!
You mean most frighteningly animated. I despise that movie solely because of its animation. I feel uneasy the entire time I'm watching and not in the fun, horror sense either.
It fits, the book it’s based on was published in 1985. Outside the initial post Second World War surge.
What? I have to respectfully disagree haha. I always was a fan of the book as a child but the movie’s animation is terrible. Thankfully digital animation has since re-embraced the cartoon style.
I was thinking about this as well as most people my age seem to have nostalgic fondness for it that is usually only reserved for older movies
Something that interests me about the Elf on the Shelf is how well it blends in with traditions from the two main influential eras of Christmas, both in the Rankin/Bass-esque style of the doll and book illustrations as well as the whimsically quaint, almost creepy tradition of tricking children into behaving with a doll that feels distinctly Victorian. I can't remember seeing it before the early 2010s but was still surprised to learn that it hadn't been around decades before I was born.
Seeing numerous comments now mentioning that the elf doll was a mass produced toy dating back to the postwar era so it WAS already an established piece of American Christmas iconography in 2005
But I thought the elf on the shelf is real, not a trick.
A recent tradition I that I think has become quite popular is "freestyle gift wrapping", for lack of better term haha. Examples include wrapping gifts to look like something else, sticking non gift objects under wrapping paper to obscure what the gift might be, wrapping a gift to intentionally be extremely difficult to unwrap, or using unusual paper products like Sunday comics or a grocery bag as wrapping paper.
My family within the last few years has started a non-wrapping tradition where the kids are blindfolded, handed their gifts, and they have to race to guess what it is. This is good by bringing some friendly competition to an otherwise pretty boring part of the day on the adults perspective. Obviously it’s nice seeing your kids or cousins or whoever happy, but this adds a little something. And it saves on time and money which is a big thing for us who are careful what we spend our money on. I will certainly be continuing it into the future with my own kids.
This year I wrapped most of my gifts in aluminum foil...
LOL- Using a grocery bag as wrapping paper is what people did back in the 70s & 80s when they ran out of regular Christmas paper.
I like using duck tape, preferably directly on the gift itself already removed from its packaging, like an Xbox or a bicycle.
I don’t think that’s new, it’s something people who didn’t have much have done for a long time. Now it’s quirky. I remember my HS boyfriend wrapping my present with sunday comics
Personally, Klaus (2019) has become *the* staple movie in my family's Christmas movie list. The amount of love and effort put into it's creation , compared to many other modern Christmas movies/specials, is astronomical and I think that that might provide it the staying power that all those other things lack.
Peak film
I was born in 1995 and ugly sweaters and elf on the shelf have always felt like timeless Christmas traditions. Our parents really did an amazing job
It's odd. Both my partner and I were born in 1995 and I've never heard of Elf on the Shelf.
I was born 91, and Elf on the Shelf and ugly sweaters were not a thing at all when I was young. Though this is in Britain…
also born in 95, and i feel like the ugly christmas jumper trend wasn't really a thing until the late 00s - early 10s, and elf on the shelf wasn't a thing until a few years ago. but i do also live in the uk so that could be the difference
I was born in 96, elf on the shelf wasn't around for your childhood or mine. It was literally late 00's before it existed, let alone got popularized. I didn't hear about it myself until 2012.
My grandma had similar old elf decorations like the modern Elf on The Shelf. They were just decorations. There was no folklore attached to them. They looked similar to the modern one and were from the 50s.
I always love JJs comment section on these cultural canon videos. Just as informative, thought provoking, and enjoyable as the videos themselves. One of the few channels I'll probably never tire of
White Elephant and Secret Santa are getting more and more popular, Secret Santa seems to have a lot of staying power as an idea. Also the idea of Peppermint Bark as a seasonal Christmas dessert has been growing as well, I just recently saw a peppermint bark flavor of ice cream at a haggen daz store, but I don’t think that the tradition of making peppermint bark itself has a lot of staying power but rather the selling of peppermint bark (or just chocolate with peppermint and marshmallows in it) will prove to be more of a lasting piece of culture
As an Aussie, It's the name Secret Santa that is new, as a kid it was called Kris Kangle which I haven't heard for a few years.
My family does Secret Santa. With so many of us it just makes sense for each of us to shop for one other person rather than everyone trying to buy gifts for everyone else. Way less stressful and no chance of two people buying someone the same gift. Plus you can afford to get them something really nice rather than looking for inexpensive gifts in an effort to stay within your budget.
The heck is white elephant?
@@Nakia11798a group gift exchange often done at offices. Everyone brings a wrapped gift, either quality or a joke gift, an people go in order choosing either wrapped gifts at random or stealing a revealed gift. Also known as a Yankee Swap.
In my old office, the recipient of the “Babe,” a caricature 8” statue of a middle aged divorcée on a moped, was obligated to display her for the next 12 months on their desk.
It wasn't that recent, in 1992... but The Muppet Christmas Carol became probably the most famous film version of Dickens's story around the time I was a child and has remained so I would say. Before that there were several film versions but none stuck in the public consciousness or could appeal to kids with short attention spans. At least here in the UK it is still repeated in TV or in cinemas every Christmas.
That film is a simply gorgeous piece of cinema.
Pure art as a character study and full of heart.
I'm amazed how well it actually holds up to the original book. I just rewatched it yesterday. 😊 My first exposure to it was in 7th grade when we read the book in school and then our teacher showed us the Muppet movie after we finished the book.
I've noticed a lot of people lately ditching the traditional family get-together in favor of "Friendsmas", particularly among childless adults. This is my prediction for the one trend that's going to stay and continue to grow in popularity in the years to come.
I think this is true for most holidays, actually. Friendsgiving and Gal-entines Day are other examples of single/childless adults gathering and celebrating together (especially those who live far away from family).
I feel like I just heard the term Friendmas for the first time this year. I had to fight the need to vomit. Yet it seems to have gone almost full speed normal conversation since my first encounter.
Less and less people are forming families, so I can see this trend continuing as long as that one does
@Safwaan I thought we were all agreeing that Christmas was corny and kind of cringe in the first place... I don't think everyone needs to try so hard to be cool all the time
@@shorewall Exactly. Here in Sweden its not uncommon for people to open up their house to complete strangers (who would be alone otherwise) on Christmas and celebrate together. Ofc usually there is some background check lol, but it could be groups created via Facebook etc.
I know it’s not new but the many renditions of “a Christmas carol” I swear there is a new version every year it’s insane and just sort of expected every year.
I can imagine myself as an old man telling my kids "back in my day, there was no elf on the shelf".
Last Christmas by Wham is definitely a bit older, but playing Whamageddon is a newer Christmas tradition. (In fact, I delayed watching this video until Christmas morning for fear it included the song!) Whamageddon isn’t mainstream yet, but google it if you want to have a bit of fun.
As a Brit, I have suddenly realised that we have our entire own Christmas canon that Americans barely know about. Like I was sure that the "early 2000s Christmas movie with staying power" was going to be Love Actually, until you mentioned Elf and I suddenly realised that no, nobody cares about that film outside the UK.
(Love Actually is so big in Britain that not only is watching the film annually a solid British tradition, but we have also developed a secondary tradition of arguing over whether or not it holds up - is it a harmless feelgood ensemble piece with a cast so familiar and relatable they feel like personal friends, or is it a problematic study in which so-called love is expressed primarily through male sexual arousal?)
You guys have a connection to Epiphany that we don't as well- _"Twelfth Night"_ by none other than the Bard himself.
@@normanclatcher Twelfth Night has absolutely nothing to do with Twelfth Night except that it was first performed on that date
Love Actually is pretty popular in America. I find it extremely cringe
The secondary tradition observed only by perpetually offended dullards looking for attention, of course
I actually came here to see if anyone was talking about Love Actually. That is the main modern movie that I associate with Christmas. That may just be because of my wife though.
I know it's a bit old now, but Home Alone has certainly become part of the cultural canon
Maybe just because it's my favorite, but I think Polar Express is up there too. The animation in it was amazing at the time, Tom Hanks voiced half the the people and it has some of the catchiest songs in it too.
Love the new back drop! I feel it represents a "new start" and "new era" for the channel. It's been very cool watching you for years just to see the evolution. Keep being you JJ! Merry Christmas!
I’m from Australia, and the Elf on the Shelf has only really been seen here over the last three years or so, and due to his vintage-esque appearance, I assumed he’d been around for decades in America.
Technically true. 1.7 decades so far.
Having grown up in Australia, I assumed the opposite - that he was *more* recent than he actually is.
@@ARCtheCartoonMaster Did you ever read the Diary of a Wimpy Kid book that referenced him?
what a festive start to the new apartment! wishing everyone who sees this happy holidays!
Wow! A Czech mushroom related warning sign? Yeah, mushrooming is an intersting little tid-bit from Bohemia. Moc se těšim na tvojí novou kolekci kulturních věciček! I really adore your channel, thanks for posting videos.
I remember when the elf-on-a-shelf used to be a meme, everybody only liked it because they thought the elves were unintentionally creepy.
But now I feel like elf-on-a-shelf has become a sort of post-ironic thing where everybody just forgot that it used to be a joke and it's been embraced unironically.
I remember I pointed out the school elf on the shelf and touched it to show another kid and was hated for a while because I “removed the elf’s powers” Teach just put it back and said it was a new elf and the old elf was healing in the north pole
I think the elf on the shelf is creepy. Not only do they have Santa watching them 24/7, now they have this creepy little trouble maker telling Santa about anything he may have missed.
I like how JJ put the elf in his background diorama and moved it around during the "Elf on the Shelf" segment.
I honestly thought elf on the shelf was older, I was born before that thing came out, and it confused the hell out of me lol
I don't know if it will have any staying power but synchronizing Christmas lights to a song seems like something at least one person does in every city now. Particularly to Trans-Siberian Orchestra's Christmas Eve which I would say itself has become a modern Christmas classic.
Merry Christmas JJ! 🎅🎄🎁
I remember watching your first video to ever make it to the trending section on UA-cam (the video about how to draw presidents) almost five years ago today. I’m so glad you still make amazing videos about all sorts of topics half a decade later.
Haha that is also how I found JJ!
“Elf” being incomprehensible without familiarity with the American Christmas Canon finally made me realize how it can be so massive in the US while being mostly unknown in Scandinavia where I’m from. Our exposure to that canon is spotty in random places, and particularly the Rankin Bass specials are completely unknown to the general public (not to mention our Santa mythology is somewhat different, influenced by local media) so “Elf” was doomed to fall flat.
Home Alone, however, has entered the Imported Christmas Canon.
I’ve heard the Home Alone has become a really big staple in parts of Eastern Europe. Has it spread to Scandinavia, too?
@@Beavis-ej3nyI'd say Home Alone, and its first sequel to an extent, has become a Christmas staple in Latin America, even in countries where they celebrate Christmas in summer. You can find plenty of posts on social media sharing memes and references to the movie and its most iconic lines from the dubbed version
The 2000 live-action version of the Grinch has also become very popular in Latin America as well, I think it helps that the book and the Chuck Jones version (despite it being dubbed back in the 70s) aren't very well known so people have more nostalgic attachments to the Jim Carrey version, and maybe the Illumination version to younger kids as well
Though a tad creepy Elf on the shelfs will forever hold a special place in my heart every Christmas. Idk why but just waking up excited to see something move every morning was a highlight for me every December
Hey JJ, Merry Christmas! For me, I would say that a new type of addition to the modern day Christmas canon, are video games embracing and going all out for Christmas events and cosmetics. In fact, when it comes to modern multiplayer games, its basically expected for games to have some sort of winter/Christmas update. Great video!
In the former USSR countries (🇧🇾🇺🇦🇰🇿🇷🇺🇬🇪 etc), the relatively recent tradition they've added to their New Year (which actually is celebrated as Christmas there, with a Christmas tree and a Santa Claus) is to watch the movie "The Irony Of Fate" every New Year, which is a funny comedy from the 70s!
Is the tradition actually all that recent though? Like, obviously it can't be older than the movie itself, but now I'm legitimately wondering how much time passed between the movie's release and it starting to get aired yearly without fail. In fact I'm even more curious about two other movies always aired on New Year's eve (at least in Russia), Gentlemen of Fortune and Ivan Vasilievich, the latter of which doesn't even take place in winter!
@@vonPeterhof yeah it's not that recent but for me even the 70s are relatively recent tbh, maybe because I don't live there and my parents made me connect to the culture through 70s and 80s thing. I don't know what's specifically a more recent tradition, I guess for us it was to watch stand-up comedians like KVN, Comedy Club or Kvartal 95 where Zelensky used to play. But unfortunately because of the war there wouldn't be new cultural events, at least not in all of the post Soviet states because Ukraine and all the other countries would hate Russia and try to disconnect from Russian culture.
So to be honest, this topic is a very sensitive and sad one for me.
Every neighborhood now seems to a have a house with a Christmas lights show. A display timed to music, sometimes with projections and even drones. My family has made it a tradition to visit our neighborhood’s show house at least once a season.
The Muppets Christmas movie is my favourite.
Mariah has copyrighted or tried to protect he title as “queen of Christmas” or something like that.
That song also recently went to number one on the charts knocking Taylor swift off her long standing (possibly record breaking) time in the top spot 😳
She tried to trademark Queen of Christmas, but she was denied, the judge or trademark people or whatever said “nah girl, you can’t own and monopolise Christmas”
Not as well known as Mariah Carey’s song, “Christmas Wrapping” by The Waitresses is a surprising 80s new wave one-off song that has entered the canon as a B-tier Christmas song. Todd in the Shadows did a great mini-doc on the band & how they became a double one-hit wonder.
Agreed, I hear this one more and more each year
The only big new thing to join my family's Christmas canon is the Christmas special Klaus. It's a fantastic piece of 2D animation, and rightfully deserves its place as a modern classic.
it's a beautiful movie that deserves to be seen more, but i'd say it's proably too niche still to be considered "another classic" although it should be in the cannon not enpugh people know of this master piece
My little brother once dropped a glass and swept it up without my parents noticing. To prevent the Elf on the Shelf from telling Santa, he cut the elf’s head off.
Happy Christmas and I’m glad you made it into your new place safe and sound.
I’m looking forward to seeing the evolution of your new space.
🙂🐿🌈❤️
Elf on the Shelf is truly fascinating to me. It was well after my Santa time, but by the time I had first heard of it, it had already felt like something that had casually always been there; there's a timelessness to it despite its newness.
I see it evolving into a stock character, but by way of a new nostalgia. In 20 years kids who grew up with it will be in their ironic but genuine enjoyment phase and the cycle will continue.
My daughter is a teenager and already has this ironic/affectionate attitude toward it based in childhood memories.
These are great observations! There has been so much cultural change in the last 20 years, especially when it comes to Christmas traditions
Maybe a stretch, but novelty ornaments is something I've started to notice much more frequently in recent years. When I was a little girl, ornaments were a lot more generic and typical I feel, but nowadays people put whacky and weird stuff on trees.
That's not a stretch. That's one of the only really legitimate new Christmas traditions mentioned. Everyone else is just mentioning their favorite movie or song. Absolutely correct. Fandom Christmas ornaments that have nothing to do with Christmas is a new trend. I've got a few Star Trek ships myself.
I have recently heard a lot more about themed Christmas trees. Not in the sense of a general vibe or colour scheme, but rather all the ornaments are Disney, or star wars, or sports, so on. The vast array of cring inducing ornaments and the availability to collect them easily, gives the perfect ability to preform low skill craft that induces something similar to ugly sweater.
@@ianmaclarke1 the idea of a marvel or star wars themed christmas tree makes me cringe so hard. Keep telling the world your personality revolves around mass media.
I'm a big fan of Netflix's Klaus, has plenty of recognizable voices & is a really heartwarming story I feel. The new set looks like a nice place to start.
Merry Christmas, JJ!!
🦓💚
Klaus is such a beautiful film. ❤
Klaus is amazing!
Just watched it for the first time, and it already feels like a timeless movie. I can definitely see it still being shown 20 years from now.
@@Mobium I'm happy that Norm MacDonald has a recurring role in my yearly Christmas movie watchings.
May he rest in peace. 🌹
"Fairytale of New York" by the Pogues is one of my favorite "recent" songs despite coming out the year before I was born. lol
I have noticed "Christmas Wrapping" by the Waitresses seems to have a resurgance on Christmas playlists in the past few years despite being from 1981. I worked in retail for most of my adult life and the song was rarely played until like maybe 2016 or so and now I hear it constantly.
This one maybe more of a New Years thing but I've noticed sparkling grape juice is something I tend to see a lot around the holidays especially when we were too young to drink actual champaign. I still see it heavily displayed in grocery stores this time of year.
Todd in the Shadows made a great video on The Waitresses. They were a one-off new wave band that became a one-hit wonder w/ a totally different song before Christmas Wrapping slowly became a recent Christmas standard
I don’t know if it’s a rural New England thing but I see a common decoration on Christmas cards, ornament including one on my tree, and other merch is a red vintage pickup truck with a tree in the bed sometimes it’s an SUV like a Jeep. There’s even an antique store near my house that does a life size version of it with a Chevy truck from the 1960s. I don’t remember it really being a thing until maybe 10 or 15 years ago
Agreed!
Oh I know it!
gnomes. no idea where they came from but everywhere there are christmas decorations stylized gnomes are always there too. I definitely think that they’re something newer that people are starting to associate with christmas time
Nisse. 😙
I think Home Alone has become a Christmas movie classic. There is still a substantial amount of merchandising based around this movie including board games, toys, etc.
Home Alone is a weird one. When I was a kid, I loved this movie and would watch it at any chance. Being an adult, I feel this is a Christmas movie and I would feel a little awkward watching it when it wasn't Christmas.
"Macaulay Culkin was in Home Alone."
-Rich Cronin, 'Summer Girls' (1999)
@@normanclatcher riveting lyrics!
@@heisensaul5538 I will love that song forever.
Do you have any plans to cover the "birthday canon". Stuff like birthday cakes with candles, cone shaped hats, goodie bags.
Maybe some other birthday traditions across the world like pinatas and longevity noodles.
A more recent tradition I've been part of is the Christmas village Lego sets. Although I suppose that's more an extension of the tradition of putting up a vaguely Victorian Christmas themed villages made out of clay that seemed to be more popular in the 1970s. I just think the LEGO ones are fun because they can feel a lot more interactive and modern.
That being said, the Christmas Village ceramic pieces that a relative had were quite fun because some were music boxes or had moving parts and fun lights. There seems to be a sort of resurgence in them, as I saw quite a few people in stores rushing to get fake snow (quilt batting) and new pieces to set up their own mini towns. The LEGO versions started in 2009 and have been a great way for families to have fun putting something together that's a bit more interesting than a traditional 2D puzzle, and not nearly as fragile as the ceramic ones. It's also fun to get creative and add other sets and pieces into a big display that can still be played with, featuring vehicles, animals, and people that can be posed and moved.
I feel like there is far more Christmas tradition that I can think of that was thought up just in the 80s and 90s especially in the form of movies like Home Alone which I think has certainly entered the Christmas canon.
I think the Elf on the Shelf will be subject to subversion similarly to other traditions as the kids who grew up with this little Stasi official become adults capable of describing how horribly anxious it made them.
As for more recent developments, maybe the influence of American Christmas on other cultures counts…? Here in Israel complaining about the increased presence (or perceived presence) of Christmas in the public sphere has achieved meme status this year, and a few years ago there was the _Aggretsuko_ Christmas special in which some characters complain that Japanese people should reject that foreign stuff and make do with ‘obon and New Year’s’ because they’re frustrated over not having a Christmas date (Christmas is considered to be romantic there, as opposed to New Year’s, which is the family-oriented holiday instead). I wonder if Icelanders have similar disguise about having Santa replace their traditional Yule Lads, and English people talk about how ‘it’s Father Christmas here’ or something.
I think 'Father Christmas' and 'Santa Claus' get used interchangeably in the UK, although they aren't originally the same figure.
As a gen-z viewer, I think there is a different perspective about a lot of these things. I absolutely hate the movie Elf because when I was a kid in school, it was the only movie we ever watched on the PTA-sponsored ugly sweater day, which was the last day before the holidays (and the last day with the classroom elf on the shelf).
Growing up in the early 2000s, I think a lot of these “new Christmas traditions” were overdone and exhausted in my childhood years. They always really overwhelmed me as a child, and it seemed like they were forced and inescapable. As I’ve now entered adulthood, every year that Christmas comes around I just feel exhausted by the mere memory of these early-2000s tropes. Some of them I can still feel sentimental about, but it feels more numb each passing year. I still like Christmas, but I find myself drawn to the Victorian Christmas because it feels newer to me (if you can believe it), and it’s fascinating, with a lot more of the spirit that I feel the traditions of my childhood lack
Fellow older Gen Z here, I completely agree with liking the victorian christmas aesthetic. The most magical holiday memories were not the ugly sweater parties or white elephant gift exchanges with classmates, but going to the european grocery store with my dad and buying a yule log, or walking around looking at the twinkling lights. There’s a yearning for a more simple Christmas where you appreciate the small things.
When Elf came out, I was a freshmen in High School. I didn't notice it and I was just able to kind of ignore it. However I think my disdain for the movie came when it grew in popularity over the years and I think I tried to watch it once and I found Will Ferrell to be the most obnoxious protagonist in a movie I've ever seen. I was done with it in about 10 minutes. Honestly I think the idea of a traditional Victorian Christmas could be a lot of fun.
At first I thought I disagreed, but I think actually I feel quite similarly as well. In my Christmas celebrations, I've tried to push my family towards a more traditional Christmas, but like, pre-Victorian. This has taken the form of wanting to celebrate on the solstice, and implementing Scandinavian traditions (some of which may be modern themselves, but it make me feel good) like Norway's baking of seven different Christmas cookies. I hate that ugly sweaters are a thing, because to me the term is a mean way to refer to any vaguely Christmas sweater, and I like some of them! Most of my family hates Christmas music, so I've taken up the mantle of trying to show that actually there's a lot of modern, original Christmas music which is quite good.
I think the connecting thread from my end is a feeling that Christmas is good, and getting ironic or meta about it takes away from the spriti of Christmas that we'd actually like to strive towards.
Agreed. I was always very frustrated with my family’s modern Christmases. I want post-war Christmas. Victorian Christmas also sounds intriguing though
Late millennial, ('92) and yeah the stuff from the aughts-2010 were just there and I'm confused still that they're considered classics. Never saw Elf because I wasn't a Will Ferrell fan and we didn't really do Santa, and that means any elf stuff just is lost on me.
Of traditions that are recent in the last few decades I would say the "it toy" like Tickle Me Elmo in 1996 and the bigger tradition of Black Friday shopping rose and then fell with the rise of the internet. It's referenced by things like the Simpsons and the film Jingle All the Way.
That is an absolutely brilliant observation sir.
Though your new backdrop may not be finished, it looks like it'll be a lot more organised. I love that you're hanging things in the background such as the headphones, as opposed to shoving everything on a shelf. Don't get me wrong, the old backdrop was cool and all, but I have a good feeling about this one.
This is interesting to me because I’d never actually heard of elf on a shelf until those memes started a few years ago. I’ve never seen one for sale, and I’m American. My family does tend to do things a little differently than many other people though - most notably in that our main celebration is on Christmas Eve. We also don’t tend to make the same kinds of foods except for mashed potatoes. Idk why we do things like we do
Sounds like continental European Christmas. Did your parents migrate from or have other major influence from there?
@@wernerlindorfer3693
My family has been in the US since the 1600-1700s. We’ve always just celebrated on Christmas Eve for generations, and no one really remembers why. If anything, I wouldn’t be surprised if we just did it for convenience and it stuck as a tradition. We have a lot of random traditions that only seem to exist in our family
Bing Crosby is undeniably the most influential entertainer on the American Christmas season. At least in my family, he is a voice that everyone enjoys to listen to and makes the fondest memories of the season.
Yes, always love playing his Christmas songs.
This has been around for some time, but in Norway we have something called "julebord" which is basically having a hastily made version of a christmas dinner with friends/colleagues and more alcohol than the more family-oriented occasion on Christmas eve. Think a more dinner-oriented Christmas party.
Niche novelty ornaments. The classics are still there - balls, stars, angels - but now I've got Marvel characters, sushi, a coffee cup, and a bento box on my tree. It's older than 20 years, but it's really taken off the last few.
The only other tradition that I can think of that has become popular since the 2000s is giving gifts in decorative gift bags with the colored tissue paper as packing. I'm old enough to remember before that, in the 70s & 80s, when all Christmas gifts had to be wrapped in holiday wrapping paper no matter how large or small the present.
Oh that's a really good one!
This is a consequence of the green shift in culture. You can reuse both the tissue paper and the bags for another gift.
I don't feel like that's a "tradition" as much as people not wanting to wrap gifts and taking the easy way out.
@@DJVexillum If a trend started were people began to serve McDonald's for Christmas dinner each year instead of Turkey or Ham, because they didn't want to cook, would that be a new tradition? or just laziness?
I think it's interesting that even newer things are so routed in the 1950s/60s. Elf on the shelf certainly has that Rankin Bass look.
You would make a good college professor. You make the subject interesting instead of putting people to sleep. Most of my college professors were dull.
I feel like Elf on the shelf is one of the most popular American Christmas icons, and I think that every December, you should keep one on your set. Just a fun little idea
Side note but after watching all of JJ’s shelf trinkets breakdown video, I can't help but really look in his background in this video and see what objects I recognize and remember the story behind or notice any new additions to the new space
Impressive!
@@JJMcCullough Dude, seriously, are you going to change the title of the video? As several commenters have pointed out already, you've talked about 4 traditions only, not 5.
I always like imagine the girl from All I want For Christmas is You is singing last Christmas I gave you my heart the very next year.
The South Park episode "Woodland Critter Christmas" is by far the best anti-traditional Christmas media done in the past 20 years..
I’m delighted to see a new JJ video on Christmas. Very interesting and thought provoking as always.
I’m surprised elf on a shelf is so new. I thought it was an old timey tradition, though I’m sure that’s how it’s intended to appear.
What about the 'War on Christmas'? It has definitely become my most favorite xmas tradition over the last few decades.
I think that dates to the 1980s
@@JJMcCullough The 1920's actually. Henry Ford had a whole thing about it where he said the Jews were trying to discredit Christmas.
I feel like Christmas cards, not the post cards with art on them but the ones with family photos, being sent to different home and having a pile of them displayed on a shelf is a new one. At least to me
One thing you're really missing out on in America is the Danish phenomenon of the "Christmas Calender", a 24 episode tv-show released one episode a day in december before Christmas. There's usually a new one produced every year. They often get a Danish pop-star to write the theme song, which can be a fast-track to the Danish Christmas music canon. Highlights include "The Julekalender" where in all the dialogue is mashup of Danish and English, which includes the hit single "It's Hard to be a Nissemand", and "Jul på Vesterbro" a show about Christmas in a traditionally working class neighborhood in Copenhagen, where every character is played by the same guy.
I had no idea about this. Sounds neat tho.
Can't wait to see how this background develops! Awesome video, JJ, and a merry Christmas to you ❤️
The willingness to have Zoom & virtual Christmas events since the pandemic is a real shift culturally in the USA to me. A few years ago I’d have associated it with only a small % of the population. This year we had people Zoom in for both Thanksgiving & Hanukkah/Christmas celebrations and most of my friends had some kind of virtual component to their holiday festivities.
A Christmas Story (1983) is a big tradition in some places. Some channels even run nothing but A Christmas Story over and over again, all Christmas day long. The famous quotes from the movie are a running joke in my family, and you're bound to hear "You'll shoot your eye out!" or some other famous line inserted into a conversation at one point or another while the movie runs in the background. Personally, the movie always seemed weird and liminal to me, but it's a fine enough watch once a year.
My Christmas traditions are all very VHS era stuff. Very much trying to relive the 1980s and 1990s as much as possible.