Movies are all magical when you’re a kid. Things are on screen, and they’re moving, and a lot of times they have jokes that you think are absolutely hilarious and repeat thousands of times a day for weeks after seeing the movie. At least that’s what the kids I babysit do. But that’s beside the point.

When I was a kid, my parents took me to see Apollo 13 at the movie theater. Of course, being a kid and not caring at all about things like family dynamics and relationships, I fell asleep. Now, as a super mature college student, I kind of enjoy that movie. Mostly because I love Tom Hanks, but whatever. Point of that story is–there are definitely a few movies that you loved as a kid that would be pretty disappointing to watch now. Times change (and technology advances a whole lot) and when you look back on movies you loved as a kid, sometimes you wonder how you even sat through it.

Here’s a select few of the movies that it’s not too hard to grow out of.

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Any childhood favorites you realize now are complete trash?

The holiday season, I’ve come to realize, is all about the traditions. Baking cookies. Listening to festive music. Wrapping presents. Eating way too much in a way too short amount of time. Shopping for days. Decorating. It wouldn’t be Christmas without all of it.

But really, probably my favorite Christmas tradition is the endless Christmas movies. It starts on Thanksgiving day with March of the Wooden Soldiers and continues through the New Year. The perfect excuse for movie marathons and munching on sweets, all I really want to do is grab some hot chocolate and those sugar cookies I bought baked, and settle down with one of my favorite Christmas movies.  Any of these will do. Read More »

Ah, Thanksgiving traditions.

Some of them are sweet; sitting around a table surrounded by people you love, giving thanks for all the things you’ve been given. Some of them are funny; deep frying an entire turkey or playing board games with a bunch of drunk family members. And some of them, well, some of them we’d really like to never go through again; dodging the inevitable “why are you still single / what are you studying / what are you going to do with a liberal arts degree?” question or watching your uncle’s face turn red as he realizes your politics in no way represent his.

My family has a lot of traditions (many of which include alcohol and loud Italian yelling matches), but one of my favorite things to do every year as a kid was sit down in front of the TV with my aunt and uncle and watch Mystery Science Theater 3000. Read More »