by Ashley McGee |

My lack of movie knowledge is never more apparent than during the holiday season. Movie references seem to be in the air as immense as the spirit of giving. While everyone else laughs heartily at these jokes, I instead look upon them with a blank stare.
Having endured the bewilderment that is bound to follow most my life, one might be led to believe that I should have had these jokes explained to me more than enough times to have the plots down for myself. But between elves that don’t fit in, a magic train that goes to the North Pole and the struggles a family faces in trying to have the perfect Christmas, I can never can seem to keep all of them straight.
Maybe my problem is that even through they may arrive there through very different ways, at least to me, they all have the same basic meaning – the power of believing in the hope and wonder of the season. They’re the kind of movies where you know everything will get tied up in a pretty, little bow by the time the credits roll.
But where’s the wonder of the season in such a simple happy ending? Part of the essence of Christmas is the surprises that come with it. Imagine waking up Christmas morning and already knowing everything that will be waiting under the Christmas tree. There would be none of the eagerness or excitement that usually surrounds holiday.
So, call me the Scrooge of holiday movies, but I’m just not interested in spending my days in front of a television screen watching movie after movie with the same old cheesy ending when I could be outside enjoying the snow and making memories of my own.