Christmas Spirit Challenge - Week 3 1/2

I'm a little late reporting in for the Christmas Spirit Challenge this week, but my excuse is that I was putting up the rest of my outside decorations on Sunday.

I finished up We Three Dragons, an anthology of 3 holiday stories centered around dragons. I was thrilled to get a hold of this one when I saw it offered up in a Bookcrossing trade box because you just don't see many holiday themed fantasy novels. I enjoyed all three stories, but the last and longest of the three was basically a dragon centered version of A Christmas Carol, where a mean old dragon is re-awakened to the joys of love. I've already passed it along to Bookcrossing friend and hope she enjoys it too!



I've next started reading A Dixie Christmas by Sandra Hill, two novellas packaged together. The first one is very funny so far, the Elvis themed Nativity Scene was a hilarious idea! It's just the kind of light and humorous story I wanted!




I did watch Santa Claus Conquers the Martians from 1964, and it was bad, but fun, honestly a lot more enjoyable than the Santa Claus movie with the devil wandering around. The theme song was pretty catchy too. It definitely had that 60's feel to it! The Martian suits were very silly, and the polar bear was great too, in a cheesy but fun kind of way. The premise is that all the Martian children are watching Earth television and becoming obsessed with the idea of Santa Claus. In order to make their children happy, they go and kidnap and couple of children and Santa Claus and bring them back to Mars, where they intend to keep them forever. Of course there are good Martians and bad Martians, and there is sabotage, but good triumphs, and everyone parts as friends, Santa and the human children going home to Earth, and one of the Martians taking up the reins of the Santa role on Mars. It was fun, and bad, but definitely worth a laugh, even if you don't watch it all the way through.



Believe it or not, I had never seen more than the most famous bank scene of It's a Wonderful Life starring Jimmy Stewart. We watched that this past weekend while visiting friends and playing cards. I have to admit I wasn't watching it closely, but at least I have seen more of it than I did before! I should probably watch it again when I'm actually paying attention!



We also watched a Barry Manilow Christmas special Barry Manilow: Happy Holiday from 2009. It was a smaller audience setting where he was taking requests, and there were definitely some superfans there! He's just got such a wonderful voice, and along with John Denver, he was one of my favorites as a child.




I hope everyone is enjoying their Christmas reading and watching! I need to get around and visit!