The last couple of days, I’ve been looking for something new to watch. I could, if I chose, turn this into your standard rant about how, really, we should have more movies on streaming and how the Death of Physical Media is not as eminent as predicted and so forth. On the other hand, I was looking through the streaming services to which, shall we say, I have access, and made a discovery. Namely that the Christmas movies are out already.

I am a dyed-in-the-wool One Holiday At A Time person. Halloween is over, and I suppose in many countries that means Christmas is at hand. Here in the US, though, we’ve got Thanksgiving as a buffer, and having the Christmas stuff out November 1 is a little disheartening. At least the people around here mostly take time taking down their decorations, and I suspect the twelve-foot skeleton across the street is going to be there a while. But Hulu’s already suggesting that I watch movies about big-city women going to small towns and so forth, and I can’t even.

Oh, part of it is that I’m also a bit of a Christmas movie snob. I don’t do the Hallmark variety, particularly; there’s only so many Big-City Women Learning The True Meaning Of Christmas And Also How To Bone A Diner Owner movies that I can stand. And that number is not high. I’d much rather watch The Bishop’s Wife again, or maybe A Lion in Winter. I find the Christmas Prince Cinematic Universe fun to watch with friends, but I’d rather watch the same handful of movies over and over than most of the ones from my own lifetime. Or, let’s be clear, even most of the older Christmas movies.

I’m just looking out my window right now at a gorgeous blue sky. Yes, the leaves on my cherry tree have all fallen off, but in the distance I can see oranges and golds. (And greens, because Washington State, but never mind.) It’s cold, but nowhere near freezing. I’m aware that where Christmas falls in winter varies based on your stance, and of course winters when I was a kid looked this bright regardless because LA is like that. But it just doesn’t feel like Christmas out there, not when the leaves haven’t finished falling on the deciduous trees.

I also wish there was a little more variety in our Christmas movies. Families sharing Christmases. Friends sharing Christmases. Couples. Historical Christmas and futuristic Christmas. (Yes, I watched the Guardians of the Galaxy special, but I’m talking features, here.) Not to mention all sorts of other non-Christmas holidays of course. And I wish they’d all wait until December 7, which happens to be the day after my birthday.

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