I’m not feeling well today. The rain isn’t helping either.

I need to get out because I have a horrible case of cabin fever, and I need to buy food for lunch – and I don’t feel up to it.

My sinueses are hurting due to the warm weather and pollen.

Either that, or I’m catching a cold.

Anyway. I’m not feeling great.

So today, it’s Campbell’s Homestyle Chicken Noodle soup for breakfast:

And some tea.

Today it’s Tazo’s Awake English Breakfast Tea.  Normally, when I don’t feel well, it’s Twinings Lemon Ginger.

Maybe I’ll have the lemon ginger tea later.

And this morning’s movie needs to be something special. I was thinking about the one of the three versions of A Christmas Carol I own; but no.

I need something to make me feel better – and I have a feeling that my sickness is partly psychological.

I swear, next year, I’m taking off the week after Christmas at work. There is nothing more depressing than going back to work the day after Christmas and having some rude as shit bitch customer yell at you. It doesn’t matter that everyone else was wonderful; your mind – at least mine does – goes back to that one person who was a total asshole jerk.

So yeah;  I’m probably a little down as well.

I decided to pick a Chirstmas movie that makes me feel better when the world gets me down:

The 1947 edition, with Edmund Gwenn as Santa Claus, and Natalie Wood as the world’s most precocious six year old. Except no substitutes!

What’s not to love about a movie where Santa gets locked up and put on trial to determine whether or not he’s sane?

Because seriously; that’s what this movie is about.

Now, people might convince you to believe that this is just a slightly balmy store Santa who thinks he’s the real thing; but those people are crazy.

Watch this movie and tell me this isn’t the real Santa by the end of it! I dare you!

And just because he rapped that store psychologist with his cane — when said psychologist was attempting to make Alfred, the young janitor, believe he “had a guilt complex” for wanting to play Santa for the kids at his neightborhood rec center — well, the guy had it coming. Seriously!

If Krampus gets hardcore; then so does his brother.

(Actually, the dude’s lucky Krampus didn’t show up and bust a cap in his ass for trying to lock his brother up. But I digress.)

Kris (Kringle, dont’cha know) puts it best himself:

There’s Mr. Sawyer. [Note: Mr. Sawyer is the store psychologist who’s had it out for Kris and Alfred.] He’s contemptible; dishonest; selfish; deceitful; vicious. Yet he’s out there; and I’m in here. He’s called normal; and I’m not. If that’s normal; then I don’t want it.

But who manages to save Kris from said fate?  In a stroke of brilliance, it’s the most cynical characters in the movie who help save the good, noble Kris.

Roll call!

– The judge up for re-election, and his cigar chomping manager. (Hello, Fred Mertz!) He bends over backwards makes certain that it looks like he’s giving Kris a fair trial, so that no one can say that he put away Santa Claus “with undue haste”. His manager also makes certain that the judge doesn’t rule that Santa Claus doesn’t exist when pushed by the prosecution.

– Mr. Macy; who realizes NO ONE will ever shop at his store again, if he says that Kris isn’t Santa Claus on the witness stand. (Complete with Spinning Newspaper, and the Headline reading “Macy Admits His Santa Claus A Fraud”.)

– The dudes down at the Post Office who just want to get rid of the huge stacks of Santa letters in the Dead Letter Office. They get the bright idea to send them over to the courthouse; thereby giving the defense AUTHORITATIVE PROOF, from THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT, recognizing Kris as THE ONE, THE ONLY, SANTA CLAUS.

May all of us have folks like these when our backs are up against the wall.

Seriously – if it weren’t for these guys, Santa would have been committed.

(Again, this is not a spoiler. Movie’s only played on TV every single year since dirt was invented. How have you not seen it?)

These characters – along with some very witty dialogue, and fine character actors – make this movie a treat, saving it from the kind of sappiness that plagues most Christmas movies.

Okay; there’s a little sappiness, with said cynical characters coming to believe in Kris’ being Santa. As Susie says:

But he’s so kind and nice and jolly! He’s not like anyone else – he must be Santa!

And also, the fact that Santa is also kinda badass – sticking up for a teenager – who just wants to play Santa to the neighborhood – well, we all could use a Santa like that in our lives.
***

P.S.

I did have a couple of people come over to me at work – tell me how rude they thought that manky bitch woman was – the one who yelled at me – well, maybe those people were my “cynical helpers”.

Thanks, folks – whoever you are.