Christmas was always a stressful time in our lives. 

My mother made it stressful.

She'd invite the whole family over for Christmas dinner, then complain that she always has to do the Christmas-do every year. She'd also complain that her family would eat and leave, leaving us with the dishes - which to my knowledge IS the second reason to eat at someone else's house (the first one is so you don't have to cook). But you know... I could be wrong about that.

Our white plastic Christmas tree was literally three branches + the trunk positioned just right for our cat to sleep in and survey his realm. It had taken years of conditioning on his part for us to finally 'get it' and stop putting bulbs near his nest. Eventually, we stopped replacing the bulbs.

I don't remember when we got rid of the tree. May have been in my late teens, early twenties, when my uncle moved in and built his room. The closet where it was likely stored had been repurposed, but we had stopped putting up the tree long before that.

Fast forward to December 2022, while dad and I are so sick we can barely move from the couch. It's a year after my mother has passed away, and this is our second Christmas without her. Last year, we made terrible cookies - a whole variety of burnt cookies. We did better with the cake.

2022, as I said, we're very sick. I decide that despite the improvements we've made to the house, the living room is too gloomy in the Winter. We needed a Christmas tree.

Too sick to argue, dad does not argue with me. A few days later we have a tree, and admittedly, it significantly improved the gloominess of the room.

I decide to take it a step further. I want to watch Christmas shows. Not just any show (like Bad Santa), because dad's tolerance for the crude and the inane is limited. After scrolling through our streaming services for acceptable options, I end up typing in 'History of Christmas' into YouTube.

Sort of related, October 2023, I did a festive binge of scary shows. I like supernatural horror, and I'm less into slasher flicks and body horror. I'm mostly looking for a good story line or an interesting angle to the old tropes.

It's much the same for Christmas. It's time I start my festive watching, one part to see what's out there, the other part to bask in the wholesome feels that about the real (non-commercial) side of the Holidays.

• Guardians of The Galaxy Christmas Special (Disney +)

• Die Hard 1 (I agree with my husband, this is a Christmas movie)

• Die Hard 2

• Miracle on 34th Street

• Home Alone 1

• Home Alone 2

• Fatman

• Elf

• History of Christmas (Youtube)

• How The Grinch Stole Christmas

• The Santa Clause

• White Christmas

• Violent Night

• Harry Potter Series

• More as recommended