Working On Christmas

Memories of not making memories

Each week, a menu of sorts, around a revolving theme. This week: It’s Christmas, so it’s a Christmas newsletter, what did you expect?

If you haven’t yet, please subscribe to Suppertime! I promise to feed you only once a week, and never after midnight.

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AI Disclaimer

For this publication, I pledge to never use AI for the purposes of brainstorming, organizing, reorganizing, editing, cleaning up, rewording, writing, or generating anything other than what comes out of my own head and hands. Because of that, you will likely find plenty of errors and redundancies and grammatical mistakes.

Now onto dinner service.

Course 1

A Word of Gratitude: Milk Crates and Smoke Breaks

I’ve been lucky enough in life that, over the past decade, I’ve been able to stack Christmas and holiday memories enough to establish a sense of tradition, or nostalgia, or both. Living in a city, there are plenty of things to do during the holidays, things that happen every year, enough that they become ritual. For some, it’s the beautiful displays of holiday cheer within the cathedral-like structure of the B&O Railroad Museum. For others, it’s the lighting of the Washington Monument in Mt. Vernon (the original one, by the way).

For us as a family, it’s the train garden at the Highlandtown fire station with its handmade replica of Baltimore landmarks, including a street robbery on a miniature scale. Marveling at the lights cover the houses on 34th Street, one block’s Christmas present to our local electric company. Seeing a Christmas movie at the Meyerhoff with the full Baltimore Symphony Orchestra playing the soundtrack. Or, just me, inviting people over just so I can show them the inner workings of my Home Alone Lego house (“Right there’s the tarantula … and would you believe it, Kevin can actually go down the zipline!”). That tour is free, folks.

Those newer traditions and memories are bookended by childhood memories of Christmas. My grandma and grandpa stopping by the night before with a basket of food and candy and a small present for us. Christmas morning, of course, with presents that were previously on layaway, now under the tree. My dad telling me to check behind the couch to make sure we didn’t miss anything, and– lo and behold– there lay a Crosman Pumpmaster air rifle. We’ve all seen “A Christmas Story” during one of the 24 hours straight it’s on TNT– it was pretty much like that. Ice skating on my grandparents’ pond when it was cold enough, the smell of seafood sauteeing and frying on New Year’s Eve.

Then there were the in-between years, which was most of my twenties. I lost a lot of traditions and memories during that time, because the holidays were just another day that I had to work. Bear in mind, this was a choice that I made– to join a band and be broke. I waited tables at a Holiday Inn when I was home from tour, and while Hershey tourist tips made up the bulk of my salary in the summer months, it was the holiday brunches that pulled us through during the off season. A whole week’s worth of tips could be made on those days, as tables for the prime rib buffet brunch were always booked up months in advance. It was a long 12 hours, and by the time we got home, the holiday was pretty much over.

Eventually, my family just moved Christmas to a weekend before or after, because someone was always working in a restaurant somewhere.

If I wasn’t waiting tables leading up to Christmas, I was likely on the road. We typically played shows in other people’s hometowns, places where they had their own traditions. Since we bounced around and often stayed with strangers, we didn’t really have a sense of the season. It was just cold, we were staying warm by drinking whiskey, and when we did encounter snow, it was mostly just us praying our van and trailer wouldn’t jackknife on I-70.

I do, however, remember one evening that I can still feel when I write this. It was an abnormally cold night in Mobile, Alabama, enough that I believe it snowed (or came close to it). A family took us in for the night, and I know it was good because it was a rare occasion where we decided to stay sober and relax. We all rolled our sleeping bags out on the floor of their entertainment room, which was warm and seemed to have a fire, though I could be making it up. I do remember that we watched “Holiday Inn,” the 1942 Christmas musical featuring Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire, the plot of which was pretty much copied a decade later in “White Christmas.” I don’t remember it being the best movie ever, and it didn’t help that I worked in an actual Holiday Inn on actual holidays (and wasn’t able to tap dance on the ballroom floor as I waited tables, unlike Fred Astaire). But there was something about it that locked into my mind as one of those nice Christmas memories. It was probably the generosity of the family that took us in and fed us, it was probably the friends that surrounded me, it was probably being warm and cozy on a winter night. Whatever it was, it was one of the few Christmas memories I have during that time, and it’s one that I cherish.

The rest of my Christmas memories from those years consist of endless ice tea refills, one-minute smoke breaks sitting on a milk crate beside the dumpster out back, separating silverware at the end of the day, and coming home exhausted to heat up some leftovers and unwrap the presents my parents had waiting for me, even as an adult just out of college.

Because of that, I have a great appreciation for the people that have to work holidays. The checkout person at Royal Farms, the servers working in restaurants, the McDonald’s drive-thru attendant. Not saying I’ll see any of them on Christmas Day, but you never know when the fry cravings will hit. We did eat out on Christmas Eve this year before going to a candlelight service and we made sure to go above and beyond when the check came.

They’re out they’re working, for whatever reason, but probably for survival. They don’t get to make the memories we do; in fact, they’ll probably be haunted by stress dreams, the ghosts of Christmas past forcing them to relive rush nightmares of being in the weeds while the cooks forget to start the steaks.

I’m so lucky I don’t have to that anymore. I’m able to be home with my wife and kids and make some memories while they’re there to be made.

I’m not going to force them to watch Holiday Inn, but I will force them to listen to the Home Alone theme song every time I light up my Lego set. That’s non-negotiable if you’re expecting presents under the tree.

And for that, I am grateful.

Course 2

The Main: A Simple Movie Menu

By no means is this an official list, or even a proper list by any standard. This is just my own go-to list when the holiday season rolls around.

(Does not include television specials like Charlie Brown’s Christmas or Rudolph)

My Top 10 Christmas Movies at This Time in My Life

1. It’s a Wonderful Life // I see a lot of myself in George Bailey (and in Uncle Billy losing things), and while I got out of Bedford to see the world, I sometimes forget that I really do have a wonderful life. This movie helps me remember that.

2. Just Friends // Legitimately one of the best films of the 2000s (imo), when Ryan Reynolds was at his best as a smartass and sarcastic jerk. Anna Faris is iconic as a psycho Britney Spears clone and the soundtrack is OC level with mixtape-worthy songs like “Eyes” by Rogue Wave and “Hackensack” by Fountains of Wayne

3. Home Alone // Just a fantastic movie from front to back, even if the product placements are way too in your face

4. Home Alone 2 // Better plot than the original, New York looks absolutely amazing, but fight sequence is way too over the top

5. Elf // This is peak Will Ferrell and Jon Favreau proving his best as a director, just the right amount of comedy and Christmas cheer

6. Joyeux Noel // A beautiful film based on the Christmas Truce of 1914 during World War I, doesn’t get the recognition it deserves

7. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation // Pretty self explanatory. Plenty of corny/goofy parts but I do just love this movie.

8. The Muppets Christmas Carol // I have a phobia of street urchin Muppets, so for those reasons it’s low on the list, but this was one of a few VHS movies we had as kids so I watched it about 50 times. Rizzo is excellent and Michael Caine talking to Ms. Piggy with all the seriousness of a method actor trying to win his first Oscar is wild to behold.

9. A Christmas Story // Didn’t like this movie as a kid, but my own kids love it. Definitely has grown on me as an adult.

10. The Family Man // Not gonna lie, I’ve always been a huge Nicolas Cage fan, and I saw this movie in the theaters when it came out. Somewhat of a Freaky Friday premise, but overall a heartwarming movie without being too cheesy.

Course 3

Dessert: A Few Other Christmas Things

I’d first like to give a shout-out to a couple very special people who sent some very special presents my way.

First is Alex Kehm, who I told you was my favorite artist at the moment. I found them by way of their dad (who listens to our podcast and watches our videos and subscribes to this newsletter). I wrote an encouraging message to Alex via Instagram about pursuing music and sticking with it and a few days later, a CD of their new EP and a handwritten card showed up in my mailbox. Can’t tell you how much that meant to me.

Second, paid subscriber Christina sent a super nice Christmas card and this outstanding Japanese crab model. As one of the guests who came to the inaugural Suppertime crab feast this past summer, I appreciated the gesture and can’t wait to put it together.

I mentioned the book “The Running Ground” last week, by author Nicholas Thompson (who is also the CEO of The Atlantic). I was able to interview him for our podcast this past week and it was genuinely a great discussion. I hope you’ll listen to it here.

I also contribute to The Drop email, a weekly missive from Believe in the Run, where I round up running news and stories in a generally sarcastic (and sometimes heartfelt) manner. You can subscribe here.

I’m also the co-host of The Drop running podcast, one of the top running podcasts in the country, where we mostly talk about things other than running that thousands of people seem to find entertaining. You can listen to past and current episodes anywhere you get your podcasts.

Ingredients List

A couple more Christmas things

“Christmas and Commerce,” This American Life E47 // An all-time classic episode of TAL, this episode features David Sedaris’s “Santaland Diaries,” his now-legendary account of two seasons spent working as an elf at Macy’s, as told by the man himself.

“Secrets of the Christmas Tree Trade” by Owen Long for Curbed // This isn’t just the best Christmas story I’ve ever read– it’s one of the best stories of any kind I’ve ever read, period. Which is remarkable because I’m pretty sure this was the writer’s first feature in a major publication. The subhed for this story is “Turf wars. Protection money. Scientology. And my boss, a man who’s half-convinced he really is Santa.” And that’s really all you need to know. Buckle up your fat jolly stomach, because this one is quite the sleigh ride.

END OF MENU

Thank you for dining with me this evening, I hope the service was acceptable. Tips (whether monetary or recommendations to others) are appreciated, but not expected.