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Between Patreon and Alabama, this has been a great week for schadenfreude!

Not a great week for YT wordcount, though. (Not when I could be reloading Twitter to see who's yelling at Patreon now.) Also, I of course came down with a bad cold THE DAY AFTER THE DEFAULT DEADLINE. It's okay to call out of work to write yuletide if the only reason you need the extra time to write is that you're actually sick, right? (I might have called out already, but two of my coworkers came down with the exact same thing the exact same day, so it's too late to worry about spreading it, and if we all call out we're stuck, and I'm the one with no extra coverage for my midweek shifts. :/ )

But! Before I got sick, I made kleinur! The texture was sort of weird, way more layer-y than the real ones - either I overworked the dough, added too much flour, or substituting something easier for both the baker's ammonia and the lemon zest went too far. Also, apparently "roll the dough out thinly" means "2-3cm thick". (The ones that I ACTUALLY rolled thinly are also pretty good, but they are crispy, not donut-y.) But they tasted just right! And the people at the holiday party ate them ALL, so they must have come out okay.

Now I just need to come up with one more buttermilk recipe to use the rest of it up.

Also, we watched Gremlins at the party, which I had never seen. That movie is... that movie is a mess. Also it is a much different movie in a post-Furby world.

But that inspired me to do a Christmas movie display at work, limiting it to movies that don't have Christmas referenced anywhere in the title, and that aren't closely associated enough with Christmas that they have long waitlists already. (which means no Die Hard or Love Actually.)

So far, with some help from internet lists, I have:
Brazil
Edward Scissorhands
Fanny & Alexander
Gremlins
In Bruges
Iron Man 3
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
L. A. Confidential
The Apartment
The Nice Guys
The Thin Man
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

(and as extra credit because I keep confusing it with The Polar Express, Snowpiercer.)

What else goes on that list?

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I assume the various Home Alone movies (Homes Alone?) are on the long wait list list? *tries to think of other movies that are around christmas* This is one of those wriggly-things in my head where I feel like I know a lot of them but can't remember any.

Edited 2017-12-13 19:29 (UTC)

The first one was, at least. I'll admit I didn't check all the way down the long tail on those.

oh, right, You've Got Mail!

(also Hogfather, which I haven't actually ever watched)

Ooh, I didn't even think of Hogfather! ..which the library of course does not have. No You've Got Mail either.

The Lion in Winter is a perfect family Christmas movie.

oooh good one

Everything else Shane Black has ever done, and The Ref.

I think I got all the Shane Black the library has in - anything not on the list already isn't available. And sadly we don't seem to have The Ref, that looks really fun.

I can 2nd The Ref - fun movie.

Ooh, did you have horse fat to fry the kleinur in? (I'm assuming not. But if you do I want to know your source.)

No, the recipe I used (from a book we bought in Iceland) specifically called for vegetable fat :P ( I actually used canola oil instead 'cause it's what we had.) They were also shallow-fried, not deep fried, because I don't mess with deep frying.

I've never actually used animal fat to fry anything, unless you count butter! I wouldn't know where to start.

Harry Potter 1?

Is that really a Christmas movie or just a movie-we-associate-with-Christmas though?

Well it explicitly has Christmas in it, there's a whole soundtrack song called Christmas at Hogwarts. So it depends on whether you want movies that take place only at Christmastide, or movies that have Christmas in them!

That seems like a unfortunate mix-up between Polar Express and Snowpiercer.

However in the fullness of time perhaps Chris Evans will play the Conductor on Thomas the Tank Engine.

I mean, they're both about trains in the snow, right? I'm sure Gramma will enjoy either one.

Only once she's gotten the kids out of the room with one of them.

I can't even imagine what watching Gremlins must be like if you haven't seen it before, but I saw it when I came out when all movies were weird and messy like that, so I basically just accepted everything about it.

It was... an experience. That we all experienced together. In about Hour 21 of a Christmas party. The hostess fell asleep right before Stripe fell into the fountain and asked what she missed and we were like "well... did you see the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark? Basically that, but campier."

They definitely had a lot of fun with the Gremlin puppets, though. That came through clear!

* Batman Returns may have a waitlist.
* Scrooged is probably too officially Christmas-y, although if you're just avoiding the word "Christmas," it works just fine.
* City of Lost Children may be too close to horror; otoh, if you have Brazil, this also fits.
* Lady and the Tramp
* Trading Places

Those are all good ideas but either waitlisted or not available, alas.

The Ref was already mentioned.

The Holiday maybe? it doesn't explicitly state 'Christmas', so might fit?

Rise of the Guardians starts off just after-ish Christmas, tho is slightly more centered at Easter.

There's a list here: http://www.vh1.com/news/294443/these-christmas-movies-are-guaranteed-to-not-quite-put-you-in-the-holiday-spirit/ (some of which you already have)

Heck - wikipedia's got a pretty great list that you can sift out the explicitly Christmas titles: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Christmas_films

Edited 2017-12-14 05:06 (UTC)

The old The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe movie perhaps?

I have seen 'Carol' mentioned as a Christmas film.

'Little Shop around the Corner' is much better than 'You've Got Mail'.