The 12 Best Episodes of Christmas on Television

Christmastime is hands down my favorite time of the year.  I always do everything I possibly can to enjoy each moment of the holiday season before it ends and I'm forced to wait until next year to celebrate again.  Some of my favorite traditions include helping my mom bake Christmas cookies (this year we baked gingerbread cookies, raspberry thumbprint cookies, pecan danties, almond crescents, butter cookies, and rainbow cookies in Christmas colors), driving around aimlessly to admire all of the festive lights, watching some of my favorite movies (The Nightmare Before Christmas, Elf, A Charlie Brown Christmas, The Santa Clause, Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, It's a Wonderful Life, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Home Alone, Love Actually), enjoying way too many of Starbucks' gingerbread lattes while visiting all of the holiday shops and Christmas trees set up around New York City, reading some of my favorite stories (Nicholas Was... a short story by Neil Gaiman, Batman Noel [which Jen & I just did a Super Villains Comic Book Club episode about], Polar Express, Tim Seeley's Hack/Slash Christmas issue and Christmas Trees by Robert Frost), decorating everything in sight from my house to my desk and even my car, and loudly singing along to the Christmas music I grew up listening to (as Buddy the Elf says, "The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear).  Well this post has turned into a list of all of the Christmas entertainment I love, but the purpose was to focus on television episodes.  Below are my 25 favorite Christmas themed television episodes in no particular order!

1) Buffy the Vampire Slayer - 'Amends' (Season 3, Episode 10) - Amends is the only Christmas episode of Buffy that was made in all eight seasons.  In this episode Angel is haunted by his past by the forces of the The First Evil, and Buffy struggles to get rid of the Bringers.  The episode ends with a beautiful snowfall in Sunnydale.  

2) Batman: The Animated Series - 'Christmas with the Joker' (Season 1, Episode 2) - The Joker escapes from Arkham Asylum on Christmas Eve on a Christmas tree and begins to wreak havoc in Gotham.  He kidnaps Commissioner Gordon, Barbara Gordon, and Harvey Bullock, and the gives Batman and Robin until midnight to save them.  

Weekend in Review!

Q: What do a Doctor Who bar, Looper, a Zombie Walk, Mean Girls, and Left 4 Dead all have in common? A: They were all contributing elements to my fabulous weekend!  And what's even better is that 1) it's not yet over, and 2) NEW YORK COMIC CON STARTS THIS WEEK!  After a stressful day at work on Friday, I was forced to employ my Speed Racette driving techniques to ensure I made my train into Manhattan.  Seriously, I need to move there ASAP so I can avoid these types of close calls!  First on the agenda was to see the movie Looper, staring Joseph Gordon Levitt and Bruce Willis.    I had been wanting to see it since the movie trailer was released because besides the obvious reason (JGL), time travel is my absolute favorite sci-fi subject to explore in movies, novels, television, and *crosses fingers* hopefully IRL one day.  After a brief mishap with the ticket machine (aka Melissa [@mechamelissa] & I's first blonde moment of the weekend), we purchased our movie snacks and headed into the theater.  It's no secret that I have a sweet tooth and thankfully the concession stand at the theater was able to satisfy my major Sour Patch Kids craving.  Overall I really enjoyed Looper.  I'm thinking about writing a full review of it for On Wednesdays We Wear Pink sometime this week if I can find the time between all of my NYCC planning. I was excited to see that Paul Dano had a small part in the film.  I've loved him since I saw him in Little Miss Sunshine, and I've been following his film career ever since.  Immediately following the movie, we were planning on going to the Bottleneck Gallery for their Zombie Art Gallery opening, but since we have all month to view it, we opted instead to head over to The Way Station.