The first movie I saw on Christmas Day was To Kill A Mockingbird in 1962. Since I suffered from an endless holiday hangover, little of the story stuck in my saturated brain. As a high school freshman, when I was still afraid to fail, I’d read and reported on To Kill A Mockingbird. Until Mockingbird, I hadn’t seen a movie created from a book I’d read. Fortunately, the film is still so popular it’s come and gone enough times on TV for me to watch it again. And again.

A Christmas Day movie-going tradition began, sometimes with friends, sometimes alone. At first December 25th movie releases offered an escape from uncomfortable family time. Before I got sober in 1976, mandatory holiday gatherings handed out one big gift-wrapped box of shame. Movie people count on family escapees, I suppose. Some of the best movies have been released on Christmas Day: The Sting, Catch Me If You Can, Broadcast News, Sherlock Holmes, and Tombstone. 

Every Sunday when my son was a toddler, he’d nap as his father studied, and I’d go to the movies. When he was old enough, we went to the movies together, especially on Christmas Day after the divorces, when it was just the two of us. When he was seventeen, he convinced me to see Talking Heads’ 1984 concert film, “Stop Making Sense.”  

“I don’t like punk rock,” I said.

“It’s not punk. It’s different. You’ll like it,” he convinced me.

He had his own band at the time and knew his music, so I trusted him. He was right. I blasted the “Stop Making Sense” cassette on my car radio until the tape wore thin.

When movie buddy Marca Bristo was alive and in town, we couldn’t wait to get to the first showing of the Christmas Day releases before she returned home to her family dinner. We’d usually discuss the movie over after-theater coffee, but on Christmas Day, coffee shops closed, so we’d sit in the quiet theater afterward, mulling the pros and cons. Marca died in September 2019. The Christmas releases that year included Little Women, 1917, and It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. I chose Just Mercy, which tells the true story of defense attorney Bryan Stevenson and his client, a black man falsely accused of murder. A powerful advocate for people with disabilities, Marca would have chosen the same. 

Movie theaters closed for a while at the beginning of the Covid pandemic in 2020. I’m so wary of catching Covid and all manner of infectious diseases that I’ve not been in a movie theater since Christmas 2019. It’s tempting to see the re-make of The Color Purple, which will open this year on December 25. But every time I’m in a coffee shop or at a public event and someone sneezes or blows their nose, low-level panic attacks. Reclining in a multi-plex next to strangers for two or three hours’ worth of entertainment is out of the question. 

I’ll wait for Netflix. 

Regan Burke's book, "In That Number" was a finalist for Chicago Writers Association non-fiction Book of the Year. Her brief memoirs and personal essays appear in the Christian Science Monitor, Sun Magazine, Chicago History Museum "In This Together" Project, City Creatures, Safe 'n Sound, Easter Seals Blog. Chaleur, Rise Up Review, Bird Garden's Murder of Writers and Writing Out Loud. She lives on Potawatomi land in downtown Chicago. Her main activity is reducing the weight of the here and now.

12 thoughts on “Forsaken Christmas”

  1. Before my grandchildren I loved Christmas Day movies by myself but I was ashamed to admit it to my Monmouth County friends! They would feel sorry for me, lol! Let’s go see The Color Purple next week, I always sit in the handicap seats where it’s less populated!

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  2. Regan:  we’ve been to the movies lots of times since Covid,  if the show is poorly attended it’s the safest place to be.  Most of your films won’t be crowded because the majority of peop

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  3. Hi, I was told or read it or both that on Christmas Day in NYC the Jewish people go to lunch at one of the Chinese restauranst which are open on Christmas and then go to a movie. I always thought that was a fun thing to do. I think I have been to a movie theater once, maybe 3 or so months ago. I was a bit nervous but the theatre was only 20% full(we went in afternoon during the week) and no one was seated near us. But, we have been to theaters(TimeLine, and Symphony concerts and something at Chicago Opera. For some reason I was not worried. I have no idea why not! KJ

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  5. I love seeing movies on the big screen. I would go to see the Color Purple with you but not on Christmas Day. I go after the movie is out for a while. My Favorite is seating with only 10-15 people present.

    Christmas blessings and New Year’s wishes of Peace, hope, healing, joy and love, Donna

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  6. Wear some masks!!!   A group of us, including Dee, went to  a matinee @ landmark theater & watched MAESTRO – the film of Leonard Bernstein. Some folks had

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  11. Regan

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    JudiChapnick 

    judichapnick@gmail.com 

    1-314-503-8008…( WhatsApp )

    900 N Lake Shore 

    Chicago, Illinois 60611 

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