Monday, November 15, 2010

Final Blog and Holiday Media

This week is the last blog of the semester. I hope you've enjoyed this opportunity to share your opinions with your classmates on these various media topics. So here's the last post.

With the holidays approaching, i'd like you to share with the group any media related traditions you have. Does your family all get together to watch something on TV? Is there any particular show you love to watch every Christmas/Thanksgiving? Why is that show/s so important to you. I know i have some favorites dating back to when i was a kid but i wonder if there are any new shows that have come on recently that will one day be a favorite for my children?

32 comments:

Taylor Lang said...

My family definitely has some media related traditions for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Every Thanksgiving my family watches what has been dubbed as the “turkey bowl” NFL football games. This years Thanksgiving Day games are the Detroit Lions vs. the New England Patriots, the Dallas Cowboys vs. New Orleans Saints, and finally the New York Jets vs. the Cincinnati Bengals. It doesn’t even matter what teams are playing or if there is any interest in the games. The tradition holds strong that my family will eat turkey dinner then proceed to watch football for the rest of the day while having a few drinks.

For Christmas, at some point, the whole family will get together and watch “A Christmas Story.” I remember watching it as a child, and still now as an adult. TBS is going on its 13th year hosting the “A Christmas Story” Marathon, which begins every Christmas Eve at 8pm and runs until 8pm on Christmas Day. Although I’ve seen that movie countless times, many parts still make me laugh, especially when the dad received the leg shaped lamp as a prize. In recent years, I’ve also watched the Steven Colbert Christmas Special. He makes the special both entertaining and funny as he usually does with his show.

Unknown said...

I do not have any family TV traditions for Thanksgiving or Christmas. On most Thanksgivings, I will watch some football, but I am neither a Lions nor Cowboys fan, so this is often a struggle - in no way would I call this a tradition. Due to the poor programming on these Holidays, I typically have thought that very few people are watching TV; otherwise, the networks would have a better program schedule.
On a positive note... as much as I dislike Holiday television, I am a huge fan of Holiday radio. As of today, radio stations are switching to playing Holiday songs 24 hours a day.

Robert
(rap201)

Daniel said...

Thanksgiving morning always consists of my wife, two children, and myself getting up and watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. As long as I have known my wife, she has always liked the parade. At one time I could have cared less for it, but now I look forward to it every year.

Around Christmas we always seem to end up watching A Christmas Story. This is one of the dumbest movies available at that time of year, but it just seems to capture our attention. We always say we are not going to watch it, but every year at some point we do. I hope this year we will actually not watch it, I really do not like this movie.

Daniel Ray

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

My family and I do have both Thanksgiving and Christmas media- related traditions. For Thanksgiving, if we're not at the Egg Bowl in Starkville or Oxford, we're definitely watching it on TV. My immediate family, as well as cousins and relatives gather together to watch the Egg Bowl if it's in Oxford. This has been something we have done for as long as I can remember, and I think we will continue this tradition.

Christmas is my absolute favorite time of the year. My sister and I have a tradition of watching "I'll be Home For Christmas." This tradition started out when we were kids because we loved Johnathan Taylor Thomas, and he's the main character in this movie. Aside from my sister and I having that tradition, my family and I don't have a specific Christmas movie we watch every year, but we all pick out a movie and go see it together in theatres.

I believe my family has these traditions because we started out doing them one year, and it was so much fun so we continued this special tradition to keep everyone together and to keep making memories.

Skw98

jessimpson said...

When I was a child, I would wake up on Thanksgiving Day to watch Macy's Thanksgiving Parade. This happened every year. After my mother died when I was 17, that stopped. Then, after I was married, we became close with my inlaws. We would watch reruns of Spongebob on the holidays because of the kids.

Now, we spend the holidays talking with each other and cooking and opening presents. We try to cut the television off as much as possible. This year, though, every college football game (especially State, Ole Miss, South Carolina, and some of the "underdogs") we watch. So, any that are featured from now until New Year's, you can definitely contact me to ask the score. GO DAWGS!
Jessica Simpson

LHipp said...

Being from Dallas, my Thanksgivings have all involved watching the Cowboys on TV. It’s just not Thanksgiving without watching them play and eventually listening to someone lament the way Tom Landry was treated, as true Texans will eventually do when discussing the Cowboys. It brings up memories of Thanksgiving at my grandmother’s house. I know that even if I’m watching them here in Jackson, my relatives in Texas will be watching them too.

For Christmas, we will watch Christmas movies – but not one specific one. It seems it’s usually “A Christmas Story,” “Scrooged,” “It’s a Wonderful Life,” or a black-and-white version of “A Christmas Carol.” It’s nice just sitting there in a post-Christmas dinner fog with relatives, zoning out and watching TV.

bkp36 said...

Thanksgiving morning always begins with the Macy's parade and it kicks off the holiday season for me and my family. The smells of the day feel the air and sprinkle the Christmas spirit upon me. I can’t wait!

I have many old favorite Christmas movies but in recent years "Lifetime" has a host of new holiday family movies that I've added to my favorites. Of course, I always begin holiday movie watching with "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens, normally airing Sunday following Thanksgiving on TBS.

bpaganelli

Melissa said...

For Thanksgiving there are a couple of things we watch as a family. We, of course, watch football games. We watch a lot of bowl games. We normally watch The Egg Bowl during Thanksgiving with my father's side of the family. On Thanksgiving morning me, my mom and my two sisters get up early and watch the Thanksgiving Macy's Parade. When I was in 8th grade my older sister and my high school band marched in the parade. We were so excited and have watched it ever since.

During Christmas we love to sit around the house and wathc all the little movies on Fox Family. The movies about the Raindeer, Santa, and Peter Frost. Those shows are so funny. We used to watch them all the time and sometimes we watch them now. We also just like to watch movies, any movies. We love to just lay around and spend time with each other and watch movies.

Melissa said...

This is Melissa Laster

emdaco said...

Finally it is the holiday season, and I love it! Every year for as long as I can remember we have watched A Christmas Story, to the point I practically know every line. My sisters and I although not too proud of it bust out Jessica Simpson's christmas sound track and sing our hearts out. A little less traditional movie my husband is sure to make us always watch is Bad Santa, after what five years or so of being out he cracks up. Every Thanksgiving day we also watch The Big Lebowski, another one of his favorities. When I was younger and more New Year Eve's were spent at home we would always watch the Dick Clark special and the bowl drop. And finally with our nephew we have followed the tradition with him of watching the Charlie Brown Christmas. Happy Holidays!!!

Emily Conroy

Cperkins said...

We always watch the ball drop on television. My mom loves making sure we are watching it together. Since she has lung cancer and isn't expected to make it much longer, this year's ball dropping will be that much more special as long as she makes it to see it.

Paula said...

My family and I always enjoy watching movies on "Lifetime". Then of course it has always been a tradition to watch the Macy Day parade on Thanksgiving Day, followed by football games in the afternoon and evening followed by pulling names on Thansgiving so that we could all get up and go out to the catch the sales on the day after Thanksgiving(biggest day of the shopping).

My favorite movies to watch during Christmas holidays are Rudolph, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, A Christmas Story, Prancer, and the list could go on and on. Also, there's this movie called "Holiday" that just breaks my heart because of the little girl losing her mother due to drugs and the only thing that she wanted was for her mother to be off of drugs. Any movie that deals with the holiday season I'm game for it.

Last year, My mother passed away and now the holidays just aren't the same without her being here, so I will just take one day at a time and try to make the best of things with the help of the Lord.

I've truly enjoyed thaking this class and reading everyone's opinion about the various topics of discussion. May all of you be "Blessed".

Paula G.

Nick said...

I would say that it is tradition for my family to watch the football games on Thanksgiving. But then I really think it’s more of an opportunity for me to be lazy and kick back after stuffing myself full of food.

But the real holiday media tradition that my family has to watch “National Lampoon’s: Christmas Vacation”. Probably a dozen years ago, my immediate family and my mom’s sister immediate family wanted to get together for Christmas Eve but neither my mom or my aunt wanted to cook, so we decided to go to a local Italian place. Much to our demise, they were closed when we got there. So we went back to my aunt’s house and made a bunch of spaghetti. So we’re all cracking up that were eating the most basic of meals on Christmas Eve together. Then my cousin put in Christmas Vacation. Although all of us had probably seen it half a dozen times already, you would’ve thought it was the first time any of us watched the funniest movie ever made – which it might be! And ever since the tradition, as it were, was set… spaghetti and Christmas Vacation on Christmas Eve.

Nick Abernathy

Megan said...

For years, my Thanksgiving Day tradition was watching Ole Miss and State play. Now, it's watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade with my two little girls. Joeleigh my youngest loves all the lights and characters. Although Thanksgiving morning is usually hectic because of getting ready to go to my Grandparents, the TV is always on with the parade going.

For Christmas, we really have no particular show that we watch. Dora the Explorer and Hannah Montana usually have Christmas episodes that I am usually watching with my girls.

Unknown said...

My family and I watch good movies on Lifetime in the morning and sit around and talk about old times. But later on we gather around for the big game to see who going to win.

This Christmas ins not going to be the same because my only child left and went the Air force to better herself. So am very proud of her for who she is but most for what she have done. So that make me be on the computer to see my baby face and hear her voice.

Ebb said...

My family has the tradition around Thanksgiving we all pitch in togTher and cook a big Thanksgiving Dinner with many different dishes and normally we sit an watch the game on t.v. It's like we have a big feast and people in the neighhood would come over.

On Christmas the my family and I would open presents and go around to different houses passing out gifts amongst other family and friends. This has been tradition for years and I enjoy it every year, it's like I look forward to it.

scacapit said...

My family doesnt have many "traditions" but I like to watch the grench that stole christmas and charlie brown. We sometimes watch the macys christmas parade and stuff like that .

This year I think im going to start a new tradition. A boxing tournament with the new xbox connect game. That's media so I thought Id include that.

lhw55 said...

Christmas season is not official at my house until the day after Thanksgiving and we have our annual "movie day".
We all sleep late and then make our way to the kitchen to eat thanksgiving dinner leftovers and then we head to the living room to watch the same movies as we have since I was a child. We start the series with Home Alone 1 then 2 then 3. we watch all of these movies in order and laugh just as hard as we did the first time. We then  finish off the day watching my favorite move of all time CHRISTMAS VACATION!! It is the best day of the year and I want to do this with my family when I'm older. This day is followed by a Saturday full of watching football and decorating our house- we then know Christmas is finally here!!

Brandon said...

Unfortunately my family is not very tradition-laden. We are always quite informal when it come to this set of holidays. I remember various media programs throughout the years, but never anything really in a traditional sense of watching regularly.

I am familiar with the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and have seen it on occasion, but it is usually just on for background noise as much cooking is in progress. Later there are the traditional football games...for some reason I feel like the Cowboys and Lions always play. These games are more stared at that watched, because at this point of the day my belly is so full that my focus is lost and the Triptopan is begging my body for a nap.

Getting closer to Christmas, the only real program I can remember watching multiple times, or on multiple years is Frosty the Snowman. There are probably others but I am drawing a blank.

Ok...Happy Holidays to all!

Henry and Susanne said...

My family definitely has a holiday "media" tradition. That would be the annual screening of Christmas Vacation with Chevy Chase. While this movie does not represent the best in cinema, there are far too many similarities between Clark Griswold's and my mothers' quest for the perfect Christmas.

Beyond that, there are the usual college football games during the holidays. It is tradition for us to eat as much as possible, and then to watch every game...even it's Southwest Missouri School for the blind versus Sister Mary's Sacred Sorrow Girls School!

Hunter Boerner said...

On Thanksgiving morning I usually sleep late and wake up with an hour left of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. We also watch whatever college football game is on throughout the day.

During Christmas I always seem to watch Home Alone. I love this movie, and it just has a good message and is based around the holiday season. I also like to watch shows with carols and dancing.

Can't wait for the festivities to begin!

john ray said...

The only tradition that I have is to watch "A Chrismtas Story" about 10 times over the christmas holiday. I have watched this movie since I was a kid and still love it.

The only other tradition is to watch as much football as humanly possible over both holidays!

Rebecca G. said...

My family doesn't really have any media related traditions for the holidays. The only thing I can think of is when the Iron Bowl isn't the Friday/Saturday after Thanksgiving, occasionally my mom and I watch the Macy's parade from the kitchen as she finishes up the cooking.

When the Iron Bowl is Thanksgiving weekend, we all tend to eat brunch at the country club and head to Auburn/Tuscaloosa for the game and watch football outside the RVs (live or old Bama games from years past).

Rebecca G.

Jeremy D. said...

During the holidays my family and I like to sit around and enjoy the traditional holiday movies. Movies such as Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, and The Christmas Story, just to name a few. We have also incorporated some non-traditional movies into the mix. Bad Santa and This Christmas are two of our favorites. I think the first set of movies is so important to us because they represent a tradition that my family has been carrying on for some time now.

My family used to participate in an assortment of assignments while enjoying these movies. My older sister and mother would be in the kitchen cooking dinner. My younger sister, older brother, and I would be in the living room decorating the Christmas tree. My father would be outside with my uncles probably partaking in a toast of eggnog or whiskey. These were all great times. I loved every minute of it.

David said...

We have several family traditions. First on my side of the family we watch the Lions on Thanksgiving followed by all the rivalry games in College Football. This would include the Egg Bowl, the Iron Bowl, and the Michigan/Ohio State game. My wife's family always watch's the parades on Thanksgiving day.

During Christmas, my wife loves to watch It's a Wonderful Life. This reminds her of her grandparents and watching the movie with them while enjoying family company. My side of the family enjoys the college football bowl season and the various takes of scrooge. Scrooge ranges from the original black and white to the Bill Murray remake to the Vanessa Wiliams remake. All are enjoyable except the music from Vanessa Williams surpasses them all although the acting is the least impressive.

Most importantly during the holiday season, our family practices taking special time to be thankful and remember the reason for the season, our savior Jesus Christ was born. I know today most shy away from this, but I feel it is vitally important to share my beliefs. It is when Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior, was born!

God Bless and Remember why this time is so important and don't forget to start new traditions!!

David dlt174

clp said...

Every Thanksgiving I delight in watching It’s a Wonderful Life over and over while I prepare my family’s Thanksgiving Day feast. I cry as George delves into the icy water to save his brother Harry. My heart weeps as Mr. Gower slaps George’s bad ear for not delivering the medicine, but George explains that it was poison, promising to never tell a soul. I dream that one day someone will lasso the moon for me. This movie embodies all human emotions that we experience throughout life and portrays how wonderful life really is. This movie is timeless and captivates my soul. This movie reminds me that even if I never travel the world or have the job of my dreams that I have a lot to be thankful for. This movie depicts how as humans we touch each other’s lives and that our greatest accomplishments at times is not what we have done in our lives, but what we have sacrificed for others. I just couldn’t have Thanksgiving without George Bailey.

Closer to Christmas, my mom and I enjoy staying up late and watching all the different versions of A Christmas Carol. We eat chocolates near a roaring fire as the three spirits visit Ebenezer Scrooge. There is no other movie that reminds me of Christmas more than the classics. Don’t get me wrong I love the made for TV holiday movies where everything ends up as it should, but my heart will always belong to the silver screen cinema of days gone by.

Codi Phillips

Unknown said...

Now that all the children are grown we do not have any organized media related traditions in our family. When we were little, I can remember my father and his brother getting together and watch a lot of football games during the holidays. This never interested me much, so I spent my time playing with my cousins. I do remember my mother purchasing a Christmas movie for all the young children in our family. The Flintstones Christmas movie quickly became a tradition for our family. Even my though he would much rather watch something else, even my daddy would sit down and watch with us once during Christmas. Usually on Christmas Eve, my sister, brothers, and I would watch this movie every year. This movie was before DVD’s. We had a VCR back then. We would watch it over and over again. To this day we can repeat all the lines by heart! My mother has somehow managed to keep that old VCR around and we still have the movie, but now it is being enjoyed mostly by the grandchildren. I must admit I still like to watch it, even thought I know most of the lines in the movies. I must say this movie is probably my all time favorite and still will find myself watching it sometime during the holidays. I must admit sometime I feel a little funny sitting with my brothers and sister and watching the Flintstone Christmas movie, now that we are all over twenty one years old. Christmas just wouldn’t be the same without Fred and Wilma!

Elizabeth Wade

Yureka Lawrence said...

My family are big time holiday people. For the last couple of years we have not been in the same place on the holidays but we always some how seem to be in the front of the television at the same time. However weird it may sound we always watch charlie brown thanksgiving and christmas. This is one of my favorites as well as the macy's thanksgiving parade.
We used to watch" Its a Wonderful Life but we have slowly come out of watching this every xmas. Something I have noticed recently is that we watch the Home Alone movies every year to. It is becoming a tradition as well.

Renita Moore said...

During Thanksgiving dinner, my family members tell what they are thankful for. We are teary eyed and soaked during dinner but it is a family tradition.
During XMAS eve, my mother and father come over and read Twas the night before XMAS to my girls@10 pm.They did this when me and my brother were children so it is a tradition.

Unknown said...

My family’s favorite television viewing during Thanksgiving and Christmas is football, particularly college football. This is always an important event for us as a family. We are looking forward to the Saint’ game. We also enjoy watching “A Christmas Story” during the Christmas season.

Our favorite Christmas song is, “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.” This song has a special meaning for the entire family, but especially for my Dad since this was his Dad’s favorite Christmas song. We never get tired of hearing it.

Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas. This has been a great class.

drm198 said...

I would say that my family has more media related traditions for Thanksgiving than we do for Christmas. At Thanksgiving being as how most members of my family are huge football fans, that is how we spend a good part of our Thanksgiving is in front of the television in the living room watching football.

I also will spend a good amount of times between Christmas and New Years watching most of the college bowl games as well. Other members of my family will spend part of Christmas watching some of the classic and not so classic holiday movies.

drm198