Christmas will come early to our house this year. In fact it will begin Oct. 22 when the W Channel begins showing Christmas movies, mostly in the traditional Hallmark genre.
Housemate is not thrilled with this news, especially when I pointed out there would be 40 brand new Christmas movies to watch once, and even more than once, between Oct. 22 and Dec. 31 when the Christmas theme gives over to Valentine’s Day romance.
He is not a fan of the movies that appear on the W channel, scoffing at what he says are predictable story lines and the chaste kiss that comes at the end of the movie. My late friend Margaret shared Housemate’s feelings and they would try their best to belittle my movie choices while mimicking the repartee between the leading characters. I staunchly ignored them.
Housemate, attempting in advance to take back the television remote, has tried to make a rule: he will pick our TV choices on one Saturday and I will pick on the next Saturday, and so on. I did ask who made him boss, but agreed to consider that compromise, not telling him that as Christmas draws closer, the Christmas movies are not limited to weekend viewing. He will have to discover that for himself as I engross myself in the movies of cheer and goodwill.
On a recent Sunday I convinced him we simply could not miss watching a movie on the W channel. The selling point was the Moose Jaw connection to “Love Strikes Twice.” Moose Jaw’s own Jeff Beesley was the movie’s director and therefore we had an immediate obligation to support Beesley’s talent and movie expertise.
Although he now lives in Winnipeg, we in Moose Jaw still consider him one of ours and always applaud when his name appears on the credit lines.
The movie was a fun two hours and it was during the commercials that I dropped the bomb about Christmas coming early, thinking that if Housemate were captivated by Love Strikes Twice, he might be amenable to watching at least 39 of the 40 new productions.
As much as he enjoyed Jeff’s production, he did not commit to watching Kiss Before Christmas, another Beesley movie that is one of those 40 new shows coming to our Channel 26.
I still have another Beesley movie to pitch: To Catch a Spy, a movie that has already aired but hopefully will be repeated in W channel tradition. So as not to miss it, we will simply have to stay glued to Channel 26!!!!
But in the true spirit of co-operation and compromise, and to include Housemate in the celebration of the season, I will find him a program on PBS that will make him forget that in just an hour or two, it will be back to the channel that he loves to hate.
Joyce Walter can be reached at ronjoy@sasktel.net
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
