AppleTV+ Streaming The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown – Gone From TV Holiday Forever?

Happy Halloween!

If you don’t own the DVD or digital version of It’s The The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown then you’ll have to get an Apple TV+ subscription to watch in 2020. It won’t be airing on a traditional TV network.

In a deal unexpectedly announced last week, AppleTV+ revealed that it has acquired the streaming rights to at least three of the classic Peanuts holiday specials, including Great Pumpkin. It’s still not entirely clear whether the streaming rights to these specials are exclusive to Apple indefinitely, but all signs point to that being the case.

It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown isn’t airing on broadcast TV. It’s on AppleTV+. – Vox

If you don’t have a subscription to AppleTV+, then they are offering a brief free trial from October 30 – Nov 1 so you can subscribe and check it out.

Live TV is dying, no doubt, but hopefully not the tradition of airing holiday specials for free to the masses. Pay streaming channels like AppleTV+ should continue to use these holiday specials as free teasers for their services vs. a reason to subscribe.

Miracle on 34th Street is a tradition in our home. We have the digital version, so won’t have to worry about which streaming channel will be showing it (Disney+, I believe).

Our advice? Buy the family classics either on physical disc (most safe) or digitally (less safe, but more convenient) so you can watch them every year without having to worry who has the streaming rights. But if you do want to search for movies or TV shows, we recommend using JustWatch.com as your “where to find a movie or TV show” search engine. Yes, it’s better than Google and way better than Amazon which seems to want to have you buy something when there are no results.

Answering The Important Christmas Questions + 2019 Holiday Movie Viewing Challenge Results

No better day to answer if a movie is a Christmas movie or not.

Diehard, yes, it’s a Christmas movie. Yippie ki-yay … seriously, people are debating this eternally important question.

For those of you with growling stomachs and no desire to cook or eat leftover turkey, or just want to wander outside the house, CNN shares a list of businesses that are open on Christmas day. St. Nick blesses everyone working on a holiday.

In other news, let’s ponder what makes Christmas movies so popular?

As holiday movies bring viewers into a fictional world, people are able to work through their own fears and desires about self-worth and relationships. Such movies can provide solace, reaffirmation and sometimes even courage to continue working through difficult situations. The movies offer hope in believing it all might turn out alright in the end.

What Makes Christmas Movies So Popular?

So many that one could spend an entire year, one movie a day, watching nothing but Christmas movies. Not sure I could meet that challenge.

I just spent two months trying to watch 25+ Christmas movies. Plenty enough for me to last another year. While I like Santa, his big red bundle of joy, I’m ready to move onto the new year celebrations … the next holiday.

But first, we have to review the holiday movies seen in the viewing challenge.

2019 Holiday Movie Viewing Challenge – SUCCESS!

Goal was to watch 25+ holiday movies from November 1 – December 25, 2019. Films marked with asterisk are on my annual rewatchable list.

1. *Miracle on 34th Street (1947) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
2. *The Christmas Chronicles ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½ 
3. Klaus ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
4. Black Christmas (1974) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
5. Daddy’s Home 2 ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
6. A Very Brady Christmas ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
7. A Country Christmas Story ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
8. Last Christmas ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
9. Dial Code Santa Claus ⭐️⭐️⭐
10. P️rancer ⭐️⭐️⭐️
11. Bad Santa ⭐️⭐️⭐️
12. Black Christmas (2019)⭐️⭐️⭐️
13. Crazy for Christmas ⭐️⭐️½
14. Let It Snow ⭐️⭐️½
15. Christmas Inheritance ⭐️⭐️½
16. The Knight Before Christmas ⭐️⭐️½
17. Noelle ⭐️⭐️
18. Girlfriends of Christmas Past ⭐️⭐️
19. A Holiday Engagement ⭐️⭐️
20. A Christmas Kiss ⭐️⭐️
21. Jack Frost ⭐️⭐️
22. Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 ⭐️½
23. Holiday Rush ⭐️½
24. Christmas Break-In ⭐️½
25. Unaccompanied Minors ⭐️

Will this be an annual blog tradition? Maybe. Even though it’s Christmas morning, I’m feeling very done with Christmas movies. They start to just blend together after you’ve seen a few of them. And after seeing a couple dozen you feel the cinematic equivalent of eating a dozen donuts.

You have plenty of holiday movies to choose from on the streaming service of your choice.

How many Christmas movies have you watched since November 1? Any special recommendations to share? The comments section awaits you.

Real or Fake Christmas Tree?

Every year around Thanksgiving, the tradition is to put up the tree.

For years, we always went with a real tree, sometimes one that we cut down ourselves. And then, perhaps, because of the mess and/or upkeep and the fact that the kids had grown up, we went with fake.

In movies, which type of Christmas tree do you prefer to see? Real ones are my choice. It might seem like what difference does it make, but there is a look to real tree vs. fake tree. When I see characters in movies using fake trees in their homes I think it says something interesting about the character. It’s an easy way for a director to show something in a film without having to say anything.

I learned something about which tree is better for the environment. Good trivia, I guess.

“So if you have an artificial tree at home you would need to reuse it for at least 10 Christmases to keep its environmental impact lower than that of a real tree,” Kazer told the BBC.

Is A Real Or Fake Christmas Tree Better For The Environment?

Let’s check in on this blog’s Holiday Movie Viewing Challenge …

2019 Holiday Movie Viewing Challenge – progress update

Goal is to watch 25+ holiday movies from November 1 – December 25, 2019. Films marked with asterisk are on my annual rewatchable list.

1. Miracle on 34th Street (1947) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
2. *The Christmas Chronicles ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½ 
3. Klaus ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
4. A Country Christmas Story ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
5. Last Christmas ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
6. Bad Santa ⭐️⭐️⭐️
7. Let It Snow ⭐️⭐️½
8. Christmas Inheritance ⭐️⭐️½
9. The Knight Before Christmas ⭐️⭐️½
10. A Holiday Engagement ⭐️⭐️
11. A Christmas Kiss ⭐️⭐️
12. Jack Frost ⭐️⭐️
13. Christmas Break-In ⭐️½

Job Posting from Centurylink: $1,000 to watch Hallmark Christmas movies

If Christmas is your favorite time of year (it’s my favorite holiday anyway), and you enjoy Hallmark Christmas movies, this offer from Centurylink might be of interest.

CenturyLink is paying the ultimate Hallmark Christmas movie lover $1,000 to watch 24 movies in 12 days all while documenting the experience on social media.

Get paid $1,000 to watch Hallmark Christmas movies

Reading through the details, it doesn’t sound like you are compromised for your opinion of the various Hallmark movies you watch every day, but it’s a chance at a semi-professional critic gig for those interested. You can apply for this positions here.

Speaking of holiday films, this is a good time to provide an update to the …

2019 Holiday Movie Viewing Challenge – progress update

Goal is to watch 25+ holiday movies from November 1 – December 25, 2019.

1. Klaus ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
2. A Country Christmas Story ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
3. Last Christmas ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
4. Let It Snow ⭐️⭐️½
5. Christmas Inheritance ⭐️⭐️½
6. A Holiday Engagement ⭐️⭐️
7. A Christmas Kiss ⭐️⭐️
8. Christmas Break-In ⭐️½

Join Our Holiday 2019 Viewing Challenge

There are a ton of holiday-themed movies to watch every Christmas season

Everybody knows Christmas is on December 25th each year.

The October 2019 Horror Movie Challenge went so well that we wanted to try something for November and December. This is the holiday time of year, so it only makes sense to make the challenge involving holiday-oriented movies.

For the final two months of the year, I’d like to try and watch/rewatch and review 25+ Christmas/Holiday-themed movies. Any genre is acceptable, and the movies don’t have to be based only around Christmas/Santa/etc, they can be a movie that happens on/around Christmas with at least one pivotal scene or time during Christmas. The Family Man starring Tea Leoni and Nicolas Cage is a good example of a movie that isn’t about Christmas, but happens during Christmas.

How YOU Can Join The Challenge

Would you like to join us in this challenge? It’s easy and the reward is the satisfaction of watching good movies and if you make it, I’ll be sure and link to you in the post.

If you successfully complete the 2019 Holiday Movie Challenge by watching or rewatching at least 25 holiday-themed movies and then comment here with a link to your successful list. You can also write about entering this challenge on your blog and link with trackback ping (some blogging software like WordPress automatically do this).

All those who are successful in the challenge will be linked in the blog post I do at some point after December 25, 2019. It’s a free link to your website/blog/YouTube/etc as a bonus for watching at least 25+ holiday-oriented movies in almost two months.

It’s like 3-4 movies a week for 8 weeks, so it’s not some insane pace or anything.

Lists of Holiday-themed Movies

Need some ideas for holiday-themed movies to watch? Here’s a few lists that I Googled to help you get started with your watchlist:

• Rotten Tomatoes 36 Fresh Christmas Movies
• Boston.com: 50 Best Holiday Movies of All Time
• 42 Holiday Movies for When It Is Cold Outside
• MyDomaine.com: The 25 Best Holiday Movies

This is all on the honor system, all you have to do is list 25+ movies that you watched/rewatched starting November 1, 2019. This isn’t a list of movies you’ve watched in the past, you need to actually watch new ones and/or rewatch movies you’ve already seen from November 1 – December 25, 2019 (until midnight).

We use Letterboxd to keep track of holiday movies we’ve watched in a list. You can see an example of the list we did for the October 2019 Horror Movie Challenge. We’ll have one for the Holiday 2019 challenge setup soon.