The Christmas dilemma

The biggest dilemma in our house (our first Christmas as a married couple!) revolves around the movie ‘A Christmas Story.’ This movie is one of the most polarizing Christmas movies out there. You either love it or hate it– there is zero middle ground. Perhaps this is a topic for all pre-marriage counseling. You know, right after you talk about finances and sex the pastor should ask, “now what are your views on A Christmas Story?”

Well, I love it. I think it is silly and funny. Obviously not a cinematic tour-de-force, but a fun way to spend some time during the Christmas season… Katie hates it. HATES IT. She finds it terrible, annoying, and not worth her time. We watched it together once. I turned it off a few minutes into it because Katie was just scoffing through the entire thing…

My brother Mike has always been the same way. He hates the movie. Cody, my younger brother, loves it. Similar fights would break out as Cody and I would turn on ’24-hours of a Christmas Story’ starting on Christmas Eve.

So here we are… Christmas Eve. We have watched plenty of Christmas movies this season… White Christmas, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (my personal favorite), the original Grinch, Charlie Brown Christmas, Love Actually (Katie’s favorite), Frosty the Snowman, and who knows what else… Missing is ‘A Christmas Story.’ I offered to watch the movie by myself. Katie was all "I want to watch it together!" Yet Christmas Eve is here, and she is trying to talk me into watching Jack Black in ‘The Holiday." She kept pushing the movie back… and now that it is game time, she is balking. No good. I wonder how many marriages have failed due to this same issue? Thousands? Millions?

Being married is amazing. I totally recommend it. I love my wife more than I ever thought possible. I suppose if figuring out when to watch "A Christmas Story" is the worst part of being married that we will be OK.