25GoC: E. Van Lowe

Tradition
By: E. Van Lowe

I have a favorite Christmas movie.  When I tell people it's my favorite they invariably say: "That's not a Christmas movie."  Sometimes people laugh when I tell them.  "You're a comedy writer.  That's funny," they say.  And I'm thinking I didn't mean it to be funny.  It's true!

After I grew up and moved out of my parents home, I realized I had no Christmas tradition--like decorating the tree, or baking cookies with the family, or caroling, or pulling out the old yule log...  By the way, what is a yule log?  Anyone?  I'm from the Bronx.  We don't even have trees.  But I digress.  I wanted/needed a tradition--something I could look forward to doing every year.  Necessity being the mother of invention, I decided to create one.  I decided to create a family tradition of gathering around the TV on Christmas Eve night and watching Die Hard.  Yes, Die Hard. 

It's my favorite Christmas movie.  Well, why not?  It's got some great Christmas songs--like the classic "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" It has a great romance between Bruce Willis and Bonnie Bedelia, two people who only see each other at the beginning and end of the movie, and yet grow more in love with each passing moment.  It's got a villain even more unforgiving than Ebenezer Scrooge--played to perfection by Alan Rickman... and lots and lots of bullets.  I'm a boy, and boys like things that blow up.  I chose Die Hard because I wanted to pick a movie that my father and son would also enjoy, and wouldn't mind watching year after year.  A boy Christmas movie.

I've watched it on video tape and now on DVD, and I guess pretty soon I'll be watching on Blue Ray.  I've watched it with my father, my son, my wife, my friends, and in the lean years I have had to watch it alone.  But the lean years don't seem so lean when I pull it out of the jewel case and pop it into the DVD player.  Watching Die Hard is my one Christmas tradition, and I love Christmas.  Merry Christmas... now, let's go blow something up!

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Visit E's Blog at http://vanlowe.blogspot.com/

Also be sure to check out his new E-Book available December 23^rd, I Want You Back!

Find out more about it at http://evanlowe.com/iwantyouback.html

Thanks

Jill