Welcome To December, Merry Bummer Christmas

Plus: NPR's Books Concierge, Mank, and The Sound of Metal

by Linda Holmes Welcome! It was the week when we learned that the entire Warner Brothers slate for 2021 would go straight to HBO MAX at the same time as theaters. It was the week when Spotify started telling people what they listened to this year. And it was the week when we learned Superstore would come to an end. Let's get to it. Opening Argument: Welcome To December, Merry Bummer Christmas I've struggled with how to handle Christmas this year. I love Christmas, usually: I love the music, I love the corny movies, I love the cookies. But of course, I rarely undertake the enjoyment of those things by myself as I am doing this year. I am not shopping, I am not attending my friends' holiday parties, I am not traveling to see my family, and I am certainly not attending any concerts. (Have you ever been to a sing-in of Handel's Messiah? They're great. They're also probably the most efficient events to spread germs that one could invent.)  Thus, I have made for myself a new holiday, which I am happy to invite all Christmas celebrants to enjoy: Bummer Christmas. It's still Christmas, it's admittedly not the Christmas I wish I were having, and I will be celebrating it anyway.  What, you may ask, is the nexus between Bummer Christmas and pop culture? Well, it is that as soon as I realized I wanted to work on developing a Bummer Christmas strategy, I started to notice that many of the things I love are already built for Bummer Christmas. People talk about this a lot with the song "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas," which is about trying to enjoy the holiday even when everything is terrible, hoping that the next one will be better. Resisting this fact is why people replace "until then we'll have to muddle through somehow" with "hang a shining star upon the highest bough." The original? Is Bummer Christmas.  It's true of "I'll Be Home For Christmas," too, though. You can listen to the whole thing, about how I will be home for Christmas, and you can plan on me, and you should decorate the house because I will definitely be there, and then you get to that last line: "...if only in my dreams." Ah, I see. BUMMER CHRISTMAS.    Charlie Brown? Strong tones of Bummer Christmas. George Bailey? The king of Bummer Christmas. (They never did get the money back.) A Christmas Carol? That guy is haunted by a chained ghost. It's nice to buy a family a goose and to make amends with the neighborhood, but you're haunted now, fella.  Don't get me wrong: If you are someone who celebrates Christmas normally and you choose to observe Bummer Christmas, it's not like you have to decorate your tree with coal. I actually got a tree for the first time this year -- I've never bothered before. But since I'm looking at that corner of the room all the time anyway, why not put a tree there with a bunch of lights on it? Provided the dog doesn't start to chew on the branches, it's all upside, really.  I support all approaches, to be clear: I support people who ignore Christmas, who never celebrated it at all, who go all-out to create the most normal Christmas they safely can -- holidays are a hugely personal thing. It's almost paradoxical to decide to invent your own "traditions" that you hope to never use again; that's what I did when I roasted a chicken for myself a couple of days after Thanksgiving.  But here we are, where we are. We're figuring it out, holidays included. For me, Bummer Christmas is my personal recognition that it both is and is not the holiday I know. Much of the music I love is right there for me anyway.  Newsletter continues after sponsor message We Recommend: We probably don't have to tell you how much we love the Book Concierge at NPR, which can help you find just the right read at the right time. Go exploring! There's a new holiday round of The Great British Baking Show on Netflix if that's your thing, and some of my favorite bakers came back for it.  I'm currently listening to the audiobook of the Christmas romance In A Holidaze, by Christina Lauren (read by Broadway's Patti Murin!), and I'm enjoying it a lot.  What We Did This Week: Noam Galai/Getty Images On Monday's show, we revisited our conversation about The Mandalorian. On Tuesday's show, Petra Mayer visited to bring us some of the fantasy and science fiction books in this year's book concierge. On Wednesday's show, our long-awaited BTS episode finally arrived, with Youngdae Kim and Lenika Cruz joining Stephen for the discussion. On Thursday's show, we rounded up some of the holiday movies and specials making the rounds. And on Friday's show, we explored the new movie Mank.  Glen wrote about the film Sound of Metal, starring Riz Ahmed. Aisha wrote about the HBO show Industry, which she says features at least one fascinating character. And she also wrote about Mank, which she calls "a lushly rendered cinematic landscape."  Over at NPR Music, Stephen reviewed the music of President-elect Joe Biden's choice for Secretary of State, Antony Blinken. He also participated in their roundup of their favorite music of November. What's Making Us Happy: Every week on the show, we talk about some other things out in the world that have been giving us joy lately. Here they are: What's making Aisha happy: The Decoder Ring podcast's two-part series on Jane Fonda's workout What's making Monica happy: Bad Bunny's new album, El Último Tour Del Mundo What's making Bilal happy: Two concert films — Tripping with Nils Frahm and Dua Lipa's Studio 2054 What's making Stephen happy: NPR's Books Concierge and NPR Music's end-of-year coverage Stream your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to find your local station stream. What do you think of today's email? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: pchh@npr.org Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! They can sign up here. Looking for more great content? Check out all of our newsletter offerings — including Music, Books, Daily News and more! You received this message because you're subscribed to Pop Culture Happy Hour emails. This email was sent by National Public Radio, Inc., 1111 North Capitol Street NE, Washington, DC 20002 Unsubscribe  |  Privacy Policy