Author: Dan Gregson

A Christmas Todo List

Note: I shared this with my family in 2023, while on my train trip to Washington, DC. I remember thinking of it as a blog post, but never posted it.

Every Christmas, I have a list of constants or activities that revolve around Christmas and the holidays that I do. They’re not complicated. They just remind me of the spirit of Christmas, even though I’m an Athiest (in some cases because I’m an Athiest).  

Books

I complete several books each Christmas. I started with one and added some books as they found me. I don’t say I “read” them anymore, mainly because I enjoy them in audio form. 

Here is the list of books:

  • A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens – There is no better story to better explain the spirit of the Christmas season. It’s good for believers and non-believers alike. It’s not like Scrooge gets a visit from Jesus or angels. He’s visited by ghosts that allow him to see how he’d moved away from the Christmas spirit that he had when he was younger, “remind him” about what it was like, and show him the opportunities in his life to return to that spirit.
  • The Atheist’s Guide to Christmas by Richard Dawkins, Simon Le Bon, and Ariane Shrine – Last year, my daughter expressed to me that Christmas is meaningless to us because we’re Atheists. This book is a collection of essays about how other Atheists embrace the Christmas season, enjoying the parts of it that are not religious in nature.
  • A Very Scalzi Christmas by John Scalzi – This book is very imaginative and very comical. My first time through it, I giggled all the way. It is not religious, perhaps bordering on blasphemy. At times, it does make a case for the spirit of Christmas.

Movies

There are movies that I watch each Christmas, mainly with the intention of feeling close to the spirit of the season.

  • A Christmas Carol (the Patrick Stewart one) – See my notes about the book. I’m not sure why, but this one seems more authentic to me than the others.
  • Scrooged – Bill Murray has always said he hated this movie. I like it. The actors make it great all on their own. The story and creative elements also strike a tone with me, especially changing Bob Cratchette into a poor single mom. 
  • It’s A Wonderful Life – This is one that captures Christmas time, but also stands as a reminder that, no matter how you feel about your life, you’re more significant than you think. It also has a stroke of karma at the end when all of the people that the main character had helped through his lifetime show up to help him. 
  • Elf – My wife likes it. As such, I wind up watching it. Now, I watch it because it reminds me of her.
  • Trapped in Paradise – Three criminals decide to rob a small town in Pennsylvania during a blizzard that traps them in town. Through many attempts to leave the town, they fall in love with the town and its people, redeeming them in the process.  

Songs 

There are many songs that I like at Christmastime. There are many traditional songs that I find appealing. However, in this section, I’d like to talk about more recent tunes. I keep these, along with some others, in an Amazon Music playlist called “Dan’s Christmas”.

  • Father Christmas by The Kinks – This song gives a portrait of what it is like at Christmastime from the point of a Salvation Army Santa Claus getting robbed by poor children. 
  • Happy Christmas (War is Over) by The Alarm – A song wishing everyone a merry Christmas.
  • Nothing for Christmas by Newfound Glory – A song that values the interaction between people at Christmas over the gifts we give each other.
  • Merry Xmas Everybody by Slade – Christmas memories and lore.

Here We Go Again

Well, when I took a train trip to Washington two years ago, I identified some trains I’d like to ride. One of those trains was the City of New Orleans that runs from Chicago to New Orleans. I’ve also never been to New Orleans. I’ve reserved a few days to go see things once I get there, which isn’t enough time to see it all. But it’s a start.

The first leg was Seattle to Chicago. I did this same leg on my trip to Washington, DC, two years ago. I saw some things that I remembered and some that I didn’t. The ride seems to go faster when you’ve done it before. At this point, we just left Winona Minnesota (which sounds like a show on the Disney Channel. We’ll  get to Chicago Union Station at 4:45 pm. At 8:05 pm I’ll pull out of Chicago on the City of New Orleans. That will be all new stuff

The view from my cabin on Saturday evening.

Trying a New eBook Reader

I recently read an article about an ePaper tablet that is a book reader and more. It  is and Android device with the Google PlayStore installed so that I can add applications that I usually run on my tablet (like WordPress, which I’m using to type this post). It natively reads ePub documents, which is great since most of my books that I buy from Humble Bundle come in ePub form. Having to convert all of my purchases to mobi files was a tedious step in purchasing books from a 3rd party vendor with my old reader.

Is it a replacement for my tablet? I don’t know yet. I do like having an ePaper device with a keyboard though. As I try more things I’ll know what it can do and what it can’t. I expect that video playback would be difficult. I’ll post an update when I know more.