Who Wants To Make A Christmas Movie?

There has been a fair amount of studio interest in Real Santa my story of a man who becomes Santa Claus to keep his daughters belief in Santa alive. Lets face it since Elf there has not been any great family movies so maybe the studios think Real Santa  might be the answer. I started thinking about what makes a great Christmas movie and I settled on some basics.

One a Christmas myth in danger of being shattered. Miracle On 34th Street takes on the concept that Santa Claus could be real if someone said they really were Santa Claus. Who is to say they are not Santa Claus. And John Gailey the lawyer attempts to prove Kris Kringles authenticity in court and his bailed out by the United States Post office giving him proof that Santa does indeed exist. The myth of Santa Claus remains intact.

Or the moral allegory. Its a Wonderful Life. George has thrown away his life and now he has a chance to find what he has missed. All this of course done by an angel Clarence. Same with the Cary Grant movie The Bishops Wife. The path not chosen by David Niven is pointed out by the antics of the angel Dudley. The moral is that we may be redeemed through the miracle of Christmas

Of course there are the movies that are just entertainment Christmas fodder. White Christmas, Holiday Inn, National Lampoons Christmas Vacation. Feel good films celebrating the nuttiness of Christmas. Where Real Santa fits in probably somewhere between a moral allegory and the nuttiness of Christmas.

We will see if there is room for one more Xmas movie.

www.williamhazelgrove.com
Real Santa...how far would you go for your children?

The High Point of the Day

Driving my daughter to school is the highpoint. After that it is all downhill. Maybe it would seem strange that taking a second grader to school in the morning should bring such joy but then we are still children. Do you have your lunch? Your backpack? Do you have your boots, your coat, your gloves, your hat? Yes dad Yes dad Yes dad. Alright lets go.

And then of course the inevitable question. So...what's today? Wednesday. And what happens on Wednesday? Hmmm...well daily five. Math. Library. Science.PE...and lunch. And what  is for lunch? Peanut butter and jelly and an apple an chips. All this while driving the same route day after day behind the same minivans of parents in pajamas and in coats and mothers and fathers dropping off their charge in the circular drive.

And what does it do? It takes us back right? I remember sitting with my father at the end of the drive waiting for a bus in the darkness. Or he would drop me off on the way to work. And the questions were the same. So what happens today? What's for lunch? These are the brilliant little nuggets of parenthood. These moments that are way too short and end way too quickly.

And now we are rounding the drive and it is time of the drop off. Ok. Have everything. Yeah dad. Alright...have a great day and have some extra ketchup with your fries. And she turns and smiles. Dad. We aren't having fries. But the joke is there and we do it everyday and then you watch her turn and walk into that school and with her goes a little bit of your heart.

Rocket Man...the funniest novel since Russo's Straight Man...Chicago Sun Times


 

Summer Has Ended

Our kids are going back to school now. They have all collected at their bus stops and marched off leaving their turtles and dogs and cats and chalk and bikes and tricycles and bathing suits and goggles behind. They have left their friendly garages scrawled with stick men and names on the cool cement that smells of gas and bikes and grass. They no longer go barefoot in the yard and listen to the crickets and run after the fireflies and catch bugs in a jar. They are no longer roasting marshmallows and getting chocolate on their hands and tracking in dirt or letting the wet dog in for the hundredth time.

We are no longer lighting charcoal and eating with them on our patios or decks or on that broken picnic table. They are not inside on the hot days watching television for hours. They aren't taking that sweaty bike ride with their parents that ends up at the ice cream store. Their paper plates are no where to be found. Their cups of Kool Aide are empty. They aren't siting around a  table at the Dairy Queen on a warm summer night with ice cream dripping all over their hands. Their rooms are not perpetually a wreck with wet suits and clothes stacked up from the week. They are not coming back from summer camp with mosquito bites and warm brows. Their books and their IPODS and their computers and their dolls and their basketballs, baseballs, footballs, lacrosse sticks, mitts, all lay dormant now.

For summer has ended even though it is still August. They have lined up for their yellow buses and waved goodbye to parents who snapped pictures and waved and shouted and then tried to catch a glimpse of them as they rode away in disel exhaust for eight hours. We return to our homes, our work. It is quiet. We go through our days. We make our money and work out and run through the TO DO lists of our lives. But in the unguarded moment we are heartbroken.

Summer has ended and our children have gone away.

http://www.billhazelgrove.com/

Rocket Man Kindle The story of a one mans search for the American Dream