Christmas, New Year’s, and the days in between are a time for gathering—around tables and decorated trees and also mostly televisions. It’s a time to check in with loved ones and with the National Basketball Association. To remember the love that we share and the variety of businesses that can afford to sponsor Bowl Games.*
As I reach the end of a delightful and extremely sedentary two weeks at my parents’ house, here are my top twelve content recommendations:
12. The NFL. We mostly used it as a backup to switch to when whatever else we were watching went to commercials. Bizarrely, there were games streamed live on Netflix on Christmas Day but the best of the worst was a long 6-3 battle between the Seahawks and the Bears the day after. SportsCenter, to my chagrin, managed to find all of their weekly Top Ten Plays from the NFL despite there being, you know, other sports that exist. I mean, it’s fine.
11. White Christmas. For the last ten or so years I’ve had it on while making a double batch of Chex Mix on Christmas Eve. Different members of the family float in and out of the family room with growing interest. My brother makes fun of the “Sisters” number but is ultimately mesmerized by the moves in “The Best Things Happen While You’re Dancing.” As my favorite Christmas movie and one of my favorite movies of all time, most years this would be higher on the list—I still love the film but just wasn’t as eager for it as some years.
10. My cousins’ favorite SNL sketches. Once the aunts and uncles return to their Airbnbs for the night and my parents go to bed, it’s time to swap content with the cousins. This year we took to lamenting the status of SNL these days like the old timers we are (”Back in my day,” “The writers the last few seasons,” etc. etc.). Highlights included “Career Day” with Adam Driver and “Joker Wedding.”
9. My extended family relearning how to play charades. Technically not recorded content, but surely theatrical performances of this quality ought to count. (Although it took me longer than I’d like to admit to count out syllables).
8. Premier League soccer. Soccer is a great sport to have on while doing a puzzle. Because of the time difference the games are on during the late morning to early afternoon, so you can settle in with your tea or coffee to enjoy the quiet commentary and complete lack of commercials. You can even read a book while watching a soccer game if you want. I’ve been slowly working on getting the rest of my family into the EPL the last few years (not hard to do because we will watch any and every sport), and I enjoyed seeing them apply the viewing endurance usually devoted to basketball and football to six hours of Premier League. The most entertaining game of the last few weeks would have to be the 6-3 Liverpool victory over Tottenham. (As much as I wish to promote my beloved Brighton & Hove Albion Seagulls, I can’t in good conscience recommend their 0-0 effort against Brentford on the 27th.)
7. Twisters. Is anyone in my family particularly interested in meteorology, natural disaster movies, or Glen Powell? No. Did we want to watch a movie? Yes. And this sure was a movie. (Honestly though, I had a blast)
6. The NBA on Christmas Day. A longstanding tradition in our family: after the presents and a second round of cinnamon rolls, we enjoy some afternoon basketball. This year included the special treat of the young French phenom, Victor Wembanyama, in a game that was also being broadcast in cartoon form: Disney’s Dunk the Halls. I cannot begin to describe what this was; you’ll just have to watch the highlights. I was surprisingly delighted by Mickey sauntering down the court and Donald taking some nasty drives to the rim. (Brutal to be the guy they picked to be Goofy though.) Other highlights included LeBron James still being elite mere days away from his fortieth birthday and enjoying my brother’s party trick of knowing where every player in the league went to college.
5. College Football Bowl games. There are always loads and there is always chaos. Some highlights included the Transperfect Music City Bowl (Iowa v. Missouri) and the Reliaquest Bowl (Michigan v. Alabama). These amped-up twenty-something guys and their often-angry, often-doughy coaches always put on a show. Also a great option to do a puzzle to. Bowl season is also nice compared to March Madness in that lots more teams get to end the season on a win. Fingers crossed for Virginia Tech to come out on top during the Duke’s Mayo Bowl this Friday.
4. The last twenty minutes and the first ten minutes of It’s a Wonderful Life. On Christmas Day on AMC, I was pleased to discover a marathon of this classic film. I had it on while we finished getting ready for company, so we saw the end of one showing and the start of the next. I watched this many times growing up but haven’t in recent years so it was a delight to get a fresh dose of Jimmy Stewart’s frantic disbelief. Crossing my fingers that next year I’ll catch the middle bit.
3. Family videos. My dad had gone through some old footage recently and pulled up highlights of us siblings as very little ones dancing to the Beach Boys, playing with balloons, hammering a nail into a random piece of wood, and spitting up (just me). There were also a few including his parents, which prompted some fun reminiscing about my grandma’s clown era (long story).
2. Wicked. I’m about to go see this and I’m assuming it’s gonna be good based on the internet.
1. Dad’s playlist of formative moments in sport. For his birthday on the 23rd, after breaking in his wooden bat hitting fungos with us kids at the local park, Dad took us through a tour of his most memorable moments as a sports fan. I’d heard some of these stories before, like that NC State’s miraculous March Madness win over Houston in 1983 gave him the adrenaline boost he needed to ask my mom on a date. Some we had enjoyed with him, like the 2016 Cubs World Series win or Michael Phelps’s crazy comeback in the 100m Butterfly at the 2008 Olympics. The pathos. The humanity. The perfect blend of sports and personal history for our family.
Whatever it is, it’s always better watching together. The joy comes not from the quality of the content but the people you’re with—I could watch local car commercial compilations with these people and have a blast.
Here’s to another year of great-to-mid content made better by the company (and snacks) we keep.
* Personal favorite bowl games this year include the Scooter’s Coffee Frisco Bowl, Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl (not to be confused with the Bad Boy Mowers Battle 4 Atlantis, the Thanksgiving-time college basketball tournament), and the Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl Presented By Gin & Juice By Dre and Snoop.
Christina Ribbens (’19) studied history, studio art, and data science at Calvin and public humanities at Georgetown. She now lives in the part of Virginia that’s almost Washington, DC where she helps award grants to arts nonprofits. She takes a lot of walks to admire the landscaping in peoples’ front yards, mostly listens to British comedians’ podcasts, and likes to make friends via sports.
