Every Christmas, I dig out my favorite Christmas movies and watch them.

At first, it was just on Christmas Eve night and on Christmas Day — now I have so many DVDs I can watch one (or two) every night for a week.

So here we go!

But first, we need some snacks…

In a gold tray I got from Target last year, we have popcorn, homemade onion dip (recipe to follow); Old Bay hot wings from Safeway; Terra vegetable chips, and Motto green tea soda. Oh, and a Ghirardelli chocolate peppermint square.

The partridge bowl holding the chips came from Home Goods last year, as did the gold stemmed pear (but from the year before that.)

My desk is the only flat surface big enough to hold all this – you can just see a framed black and white card, some chibi The Walking Dead figures, my Script Frenzy car mug, and my “A Goal is Just a Dream With a Deadline” sign.

The first movie is Batman Returns, aka the One with Catwoman and Penguin.

I got this DVD for $5.99 at Safeway, and I bought it because I haven’t seen it in at least 10 years. Seriously!

It’s actually better than I remembered. I thought it was okay when it first came out, but I liked it much better this time. STILL not my favorite Batman movie (that would be Batman Begins), but I am definitely watching this again next Christmas.

I mean, what  can you say about a film where Batman meets the love of his life; fights her; fights the Penguin and his minions; and loses the love of his life, in a one week period? 

Just another holiday for the Batman.

The next movie is really an episode of the series Space: Above and Beyond, “The River of Stars”.

And if you know nothing about this show, then stop reading this and go watch all the epidodes. Right now — I’ll wait.

Greatest military science fiction drama ever made. If John Scalzi’s book, Old Man’s War ever gets made into a TV show, this the show it has to beat. Yeah, I said it; I meant it; I’m here to represent it. 

The Wildcards squadron get stuck behind enemy lines at Christmas. There’s references galore in the episode to the The Christmas Truce of 1914 — heck, the opening narration tells the whole story! And to Dr. Seuss, when Vansen says, in the greatest Christmas speech since Scrooge’s:

Just pretend we’re all someplace safe and warm, and the Whos are in Whoville, singing “Da-who-door-ray”,  “Da-who-door-ray”, okay?

And I totally forgot that there are two Batman connections in this episode!

First, they pick up a signal with the Batman ’66 theme; second, Shirley Walker, who composed the music for Batman The Animated Series, composes the music in this episode, for which she was nominated for an Emmy. She also composed the SAAB theme music, as well as the music for the entire series run.

But the ending is the best for me — with a title card that says

From the cast and crew of Space Above and Beyond
— PEACE

Just find this episode and watch it, okay?

(Part Two coming soon!)

Homemade Onion Dip
Chop green onions, leeks and chives as fine as possible. Stir into a single serve container of plain yogurt. Add a little vinegar for that sour cream taste. Stir. Add a teaspoon of EEVO; stir into mixture. Salt and pepper to taste. Stir. Best if chilled over night, or four solid hours at the least. Serve with veggie chips or potato chips. Makes enough for two days of movie marathons for one person; or, for one day if you decide to eat the whole bag of chips.