Christmas Stories

My favorite Christmas story is the Nutcracker and after that, A Christmas Carol. Among the things I love about The Nutcracker is Tchaikosky's ballet score: it is so enchanting and delightfull, with wonderful, unforgetable melodies and orchestrations that capture the mysterious atmosphere of the story, showing how, for children, Christmas is a time where magic can happen. Besides Tchaikovsky's music, I love the story's setting in Germany around the Romantic era, I think. It must have been so wonderful to celebrate Christmas in a setting like that: a lovely European town arrayed with evergreen garlands, old carols and cheer, filled with elegantly dressed people preparing family feasts, decorating their Tannembaums with candles and ribbons in their warm homes, their children playing with their toys and their friends and relatives arriving in fancy dresses and having cordial conversations. 

One thing I've always thought as curious was the figure of Godfather Drosselmier, the old gentleman wearing an eyepatch who gave the Nutcracker to Marie. I've never understood exactly why does he appear on top of the 
Grandfather Clock when it strikes twelve and the magic spell begins. Was that 

an illusion or was he really there? Did he plan all the events so that Marie could break Nutcracker's spell? That, as well as the backstory about how Nutcraker was actually Drosselmier's nephew, and how he got the curse and earned the hatred of the Mouse King, has always haunted me as something mysterious and 
interesting.


As for Christmas Carol, one of the reasons why I like it is similar to the one I 
had mentioned for the Nutcracker: Christmas in an old European setting, this 
time in England. The other reason is the idea of feeling regret for all the bad 
deeds that one has committed and an honest desire to change, to make up for 
those wrong actions. Every time I'd watch one of the many film adaptations for the novel, I'd enjoy so much the scene where Scrooge wakes up and realizes 
he's alive and it's Christmas morning, and he is brimming with joy, actingcontrarily to his previous behavior! I loved how the joy of that scene was so  palpable, the joy of having been given the chance to set things right, to surprise others with gifts, to help the poor and suffering, to say jokes and cause others 
to laugh and feel merry. Hands down, A Christmas Carol is the most potent 
Christmas story. Charles Dickens: RESPECT!

Lastly, I wanted to mention that my favorite Rankin Bass ABC 25 Days of Christmas special is JACK FROST. It has such a sweet but sad love story!!! A girl 
loves Jack Frost, though she can't see or hear him, and Jack Frost in turn falls in 
love with her, so he decides to become human! BUT as a human he can't tell her that he's Jack Frost! In the end, she gets married to a knight in shining armor 
(literally!!!). When Jack goes to propose to he, he opens the door to see her in 
her bridal gown, arm in arm with her knight. Jack says aside to her father: "I 
thought she loved me!", as he looks down in disappointment. "What?", says her dad, "she told me she loved Jack Frost, but she never told me she loved you." 
This part KILLS ME. I always feel a terrible pang of pity in my heart for poor Jack Frost!! 

Later on, as the newly wed couple steps out of the church, Jack, who returned to his invisible form, lets a snowflake fall on the bride's nose (even though it 
was spring). 
"What was that?", asks the knight.
" An old friend kissed the bride", says the girl as a tear rolls down her cheek. Feels, man.

"You are, Kupla!"