My favorite Christmas movie isn’t a classic. In fact, many of you probably haven’t even heard of it before or cared to watch it. It’s not a favorite of mine for the same reasons your Christmas movie of choice is a favorite.
I’m quite odd, but that’s okay. My favorite holiday movie that ends up on replay during this time of year is This Christmas.
This Christmas stirs something up in me that I have an awfully hard time explaining.
My hubby often asks me during the holidays, “Why are we watching this again?”
He gets the side eye because I often can’t find the words to explain my obsession with this movie. However, today I’m going to try to explain this as best as I can. He betta read this too;)
This movie is about the Whitfield family who hardly sees each other throughout the year. Madere has five children — Quinten (the oldest), Baby (the baby), Lisa, Clyde, and Kelli. The father left the family to pursue his career in music, leaving Madere all alone to tend to the chirens.
The storyline seems quite normal to me. In my family, men leaving seemed like the most natural thing in the world to me and I’m quite matriarchal myself (you know having daddy issues and all).
However, the fact that there are five kids and they all seem to love each other like crazy is appealing to me. See, I’m the oldest kid (with two younger half-siblings) and I’ve always longed for a big family.
Hell, I’m quite convinced that I want a third kid and I wouldn’t be mad if God dropped a set of twins in utero the next go round if he saw fit to do so.
Anywho…I like the movie because they are a big family, they spend quality time with each other during the holidays, and normal (and funny) things happen when they are all together.
Needless to say, all I ever long for is more time with my family.
I don’t care about gifts. I couldn’t about shopping although that’s all folks in my family care about during the holidays. Quite frankly, it sorta pisses me off – the fact that Thanksgiving has turned into a time to go stand in line at stores who open on this holiday.
I want to sit around in a cozy house, tell jokes, laugh about everything, eat all the food, sleep and wake up and do it all over again. However, the most time I spend with my family on any given holiday is about four to five hours.
Yes, four to five hours! Multiply that by a couple of holidays and I spend less than a week in quality time with family for the entire year.
So, while the Whitfields may not see each other that much, the fact that they’ve carved out enough time to get together for multiple feasts, go Christmas tree hunting together, decorate the tree, and get in several arguments with each other — it leaves me feeling quite jealous. I long for all of those things.
Basically, I’m tired of the hoopla that goes on about spending unnecessary amounts of money on gifts not needed. Money that most folks don’t even have. The money that they have to work most holidays to get.
I want some quality time, yo. Let’s act like the Whitfields for a change. Come to my house and spend the week with my family instead of working to pay off last Christmas’s debt.
I promise you it would be a lot better than spending money you don’t have. Time would be well spent. That same money that’s being spent on all of these gifts could be saved so it can afford you the opportunity to give a gift that’s priceless.
Time is priceless and those memories will be all we have to really cherish in the end. So, yep. That’s all I’m asking for this Christmas. I want some quality time with the ones I love.
Do you crave quality time with your family? What do you hope to get this Christmas?