I never tire of writing about television, especially at Christmas. We are light years away now from where we were with Christmas when we got our first television set back in 1960. Television burst into Newfoundland homes when CJON went on the air. The television set really replaced the stove or fireplace as the central family gathering point in the homes of Newfoundland. That’s not an original thought but it is true, and I have said it before. Things fundamentally changed when CJON started up in the 1950s. It changed us as a people. Our expectations changed. CJON had this marvellous promotional slogan: “CJON Television: Your Window on the World”.
Truer words were never spoken. Ed Sullivan and Whipper Billy Watson moved into our living rooms and occupied prominent places. They were our new heroes and television drew us in. Evenings and whole seasons were measured by television. In my own childhood on Sunday nights; December Bride; Walt Disney; Ed Sullivan; and Bonanzachimed the evening hours. I had to go to bed not at 9:30 p.m. y but rather “after Bonanza”. Now television took on a particular importance during the Christmas season. CJON presented special movies that became part of the holidays. You may remember Heidi or It’s a Wonderful Life or the Alistair Simm version of A Christmas Carol. Simm was a wonderful stage actor who was able to do whole sections of dialogue without edits. (The section on the stairs on Christmas morning springs to mind).
Just last night I watched another old Christmas movie. It was The Bells of St. Mary’s with Bing Crosby. The classic “feel good” movie and like many Christmas movies, a story of redemption and faith. Those are the keys to Christmas. Spirituality AND redemption. It was great and it still is. It is very Christian in a sly kind of way.
There was as well in the early days of television, which means CJON in Newfoundland, a tradition of the season which was Don Jamieson reading The Night Before Christmas to his young family as part of CJON’s Christmas schedule. It became part of our Christmas in a way. I think of it every time I pass the old Jamieson house on Carpasian Road. That’s the power of television. That annual broadcast became part of the feeling of “family” at Christmas.
Now in this year of our Lord 2024 things have changed much but, in many ways, as I think it through, they have not. Is TV still important? You bet it is! There isn’t just a single TV in the modern home anymore. There are TV’s all over the place. I saw a fridge at a box store that had a TV in the door. Go figure. How badly do you need TV you have to have one in your fridge door. I asked the salesperson about it, and he said it was a little trick to get you to stop and drop in and look at the merchandise. That salesperson reminded me that I had done just that. He was right.
We still have our movies of Christmas to watch. It is part of Christmas. We have National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation which I can almost recite. Our whole family watch it every year. We have also; Home Alone and How the Grinch Stole Christmas (which I have never seen) and we have my all-time favourite which is Bill Murray’s Scrooged which gets bad reviews for being “mean of spirit”. On the list will be the very well-acted version of A Christmas Carol with George C. Scott as Ebenezer Scrooge. I also have a soft spot for The Trailer Park Boys Christmas Special although I don’t like to admit it. The central theme in all of those movies is redemption and a redemption brought on by Christmas season and the triumph of humanities “better angels”.
I love it. I will go to Mass, and I will say prayers. There will be a large family dinner, and we will give thanks over our food. I will also exchange gifts with people, and I will wish them a Merry Christmas and I will mean it. That’s the odd thing about saying Merry Christmas. I believe people mean it. I will still watch the movies. Those movies will entertain us and make us feel good and they will even bring us together. That is the way things are supposed to be at Christmas. It is not far away in spirit from the manger in Bethlehem.
You can contact Jim Furlong at [email protected]