Welcome back to third day of the Virtual Advent Tour!

Today, I thought I’d share a short review of Spirited, the new Ryan Reynolds-Will Ferrell film that’s streaming on Apple+ and showing at select movie theaters.

In this musical twist on Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, Will Ferrell plays the Ghost of Christmas Present at an afterlife nonprofit, run by Jacob Marley, dedicated to redeeming a crummy person each year and thereby keeping a sense of good will alive in the world.

While scouting their next target, they stumble across Ryan Reynolds’ character, Clint, a stereotypical p.r. mogul who has made a career out of ruining people. Present sees the potential for broad impact in making Clint their next “star” and pushes Marley to make the decision, even going so far as to threaten to take his retirement — an opportunity to return to the earth as a mortal — if Marley says that Clint’s too far gone to be selected.

After Marley agrees, things quickly devolve, with Clint and Past hooking up and Present having to take a more active role in the haunting. Clint responds by looking to figure out what motivates Present, in order to manipulate him, and mayhem follows.

The show also stars Octavia Spencer as Clint’s number two, but with a conscience; Tracy Morgan as the voice of Christmas Yet to Come; and Sunita Mani as the Ghost of Christmas Past.

Ferrell and Reynolds are both adequate, but not stellar, singers, so if you love really well-done musical theater, go in with reasonable expectations. My dad (normally a huge A Christmas Carol fan) thought it was overly long, my mother suggests that there’s so much going on that it will hold up to multiple viewings, and I thought the song lyrics (a Pasek-Paul production — the team behind The Greatest Showman, La La Land, and Dear Evan Hansen) and choreography (by D.C. native Chloé Arnold) were the highlights of the show.

Watch Spirited if you want a family-friendly holiday musical, if you like solid twists on Dickens’ most famous story, or if you enjoy a fun buddy comedy. If you aren’t a huge Will Ferrell fan, this is the more toned down version of him (think less Ron Burgandy and way more Harold Crick from Stranger Than Fiction), and I would table concerns if that’s the only thing holding you back.

Got a holiday book or movie to review? Include your post in our Virtual Advent Tour. We’d love to send additional traffic your way! Sign up here.

Welcome back to Day 2 of the Virtual Advent Tour!

If you are a return reader of this annual tradition, you will be familiar with today’s writer. Bridget of The Ravell’d Sleave is often kind enough to take on the writing for several dates in December, and today is her first of this year.

If you’d like to join our small, but sincere group of writers bringing this event to you, please leave a comment on the sign-up post. We’d love to have you.

Greetings and welcome to December 1, our first day of the 2022 edition of the Virtual Advent Tour.

Growing up, we had several decorations that got hung on our walls each year.

First, on the back of the front door was a gigantic card that I think my uncle (apologies, Mum and Dad, if I’m misremembering and one of you made it) drew for my parents the Christmas they lived in Oregon.

Second, in the hallway were a series of cardboard elf stands (huts, cottages?) from the North Pole.

And finally, on the wall of Josh’s and my bedroom, was a cardboard cutout of Santa with his sleigh and his reindeer, each pair of which was separated by a yarn ribbon. If I remember correctly, some portion of Santa was slightly fuzzy — maybe the fur of his hat?

Somewhere along the line, I believe all of these decorations were lost. But they remain in my memory.

Nowadays, we hang fairy lights around the perimeter of the living room before we get the tree. That will be one of today’s tasks, so we can get our tree before Sunday afternoon.

And this print, a gift a few years back from my best friend, Karen, will go up on the wall:

It’s a print by the late Carol Spinney, who played Big Bird and Oscar on Sesame Street. He lived in a town near where Karen and I get together when I’m up north, and the toyshop sold prints of his each Christmas. I admired them when we were shopping together and she and her family came back the next weekend to buy it for me.

See you back here tomorrow!

Join us! We are still looking for hosts for many of the days of the Virtual Advent Tour. You don’t have to write anything fancy (see above), and it can focus on any aspect of a winter holiday and your celebration of it. Thank you to everyone who has already volunteered to write posts. I’ve given you the dates you’ve asked for and will circle back to those who volunteered to write additional posts in the next couple days to find dates that work for you.

Welcome to signups for this year’s Virtual Advent Tour. 2022 marks my eighth year as host of this annual event.

A traditional Advent calendar is usually a paper device designed to give kids a way to productively channel their holiday energy by counting down from December 1st until Christmas. Each day, you open a door to find a hidden scene, piece of chocolate, or some other treat. The Virtual Advent Tour is a bloggers’ take on that. In our version, each morning I point you to a post at someone’s blog in which they share something about their holiday season.

Would you be willing to share a holiday post or two in December? You don’t have to declare your topic beforehand, and your post can be as simple or as complex and in any format.

If you’re looking for inspiration, folks have shared new traditions they’ve adopted, old traditions they keep alive, favorite holiday music, charities, recipes, books, events, memories, and more.

If this sounds like your type of fun, leave me a comment below noting what day(s) you’d like. I’ll update this post as people claim days.

A few annual housekeeping notes:

While both the tradition of the Advent calendar and the timing skew Christian, the tour is inclusive and open to anyone who celebrates December holidays of any sort. We love reading about all kinds of celebrations and the traditions you’ve developed around them!

I tend to write my posts shortly after midnight my time (Eastern U.S.) and will schedule them to go live at 6 a.m. If your post is live when I’m writing, I’ll give a little preview and link directly to it. However, if it’s not, no worries. I’ll assume you’ll get it live at some point, and will just embed a song and a link to your blog’s homepage.

Feel free to download and use the 2022 Virtual Advent Tour badge. If you want to share on social media, I use the hashtag #VirtualAdventTour on Twitter.

Thanks in advance for making this one of my fun December traditions! (more…)

How the day began:

Potomac Phil predicted six more weeks of winter and six more months of political gridlock. Neither is surprising, since the spring solstice doesn’t show up for another six weeks and no one gets along anymore anyway.

How the day ended:

Hot chocolate bombs in front of the Christmas tree before undecorating it and putting the ornaments away. (I haven’t actually done that last step since 2019, so getting everything boxed up felt pretty good.)

Remember how I pulled out all my Christmas cards to send them off in mid-December?

Never happened.

Then I took them with me to Connecticut to get them out before Christmas — or, at the very least, before I came back to D.C.

Fail!

Did I at least get them out by the end of 2021?

Nope!

Am I giving up on the idea of sending physical cards this season?

No, I am not!

But I am running out of the twelve days of Christmas, so I’d better buckle down and get them out in the next couple days…