Category: Blogmas 2020

5 Favorite Fashion Books to Give as Gifts for Christmas 2020

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For many years, I collect fashion books. Some of them are for specific collections or fashion houses, others are about fashion styles from specific time periods. Some are coffee table books while others are actually textbooks that are used by colleges and professional costume designers to create historically accurate books. And, like anyone who has a large library of books on a specific subject, I have books I love more than others.

Recently, I started to go through my library of fashion books and realized some of the books in my collection would make great gifts for anyone who wants to give one to a friend or family member for Christmas. I narrowed down the group of books to five of my favorite fashion books that would make great gifts for Christmas. As of December 2020, all the books on this list are still in print and are in my own personal collection. Some may be more expensive than others, but I’m capping the price point of under $100 USD. All the books are currently available on Amazon as of December 2020. Continue reading “5 Favorite Fashion Books to Give as Gifts for Christmas 2020” →

Movie Review- Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town (1970)

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On Friday, November 27, 2020, ABC stations aired the Christmas classic movie/TV show Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town. 2020 marks the 50th Anniversary of the movie so it was very special and important for me to see it. Since I’m focusing on reviewing Christmas movies this Blogmas, I decided to write a review of the TV broadcast version of the movie. Continue reading “Movie Review- Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town (1970)” →

Movie Review- Mrs. Santa Claus (1996)

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Way back in July, Walmart had Christmas movies for sale for Christmas in July. After browsing the movies, I found a few that I wanted, but the one I wanted to see the most is Mrs. Santa Claus.

Mrs. Santa Claus is a made for TV musical movie staring Angela Lansbury, Michael Jeter, Terence Mann, and Charles During. The music is by Jerry Herman, costume design by Bob Mackie, and choreography by Rob Marshall.

The movie is about Mrs. Claus, the wife of Santa Claus, who helps run the workshop and . Frustrated by her husband’s lack of insert about her help and the lack of acknowledgement for what she does, she decides to take matters into her own hands and sets out to test a new flight plan she developed for her husband’s Christmas Eve run using the sleigh and reindeer. While flying, she runs into bad weather and lands in New York City. There, she stays in a boarding house until after the reindeer have time to rest. She encounters people who have different ideas, religions, and feelings about Christmas.

The movie is well done and is in the style of a Jerry Herman musical, such as Hello Dolly. The pacing of the story is very smooth and would make a great stage musical as it does for a movie musical. The music, written by Jerry Herman, is catchy and well written, but, in my opinion, isn’t as catchy as the music he wrote for Hello Dolly and Mame. The costumes are beautiful and the musical numbers are well choreographed. Angela Lansbury is wonderful as Mrs. Claus and, as a fan of Angela Lansbury, I’m happy to see her in this movie again. Musical theater actor Terence Mann (Known for playing Inspector Javer in the original Broadway cast of Les Miserables and the Beast in the original Broadway cast of Beauty and the Beast) is also in it, as is Charles Durning (The Sting) and Michel Jeter (Evening Shade), two stage and screen actors that also stared in Broadway shows. Continue reading “Movie Review- Mrs. Santa Claus (1996)” →

Movie Review: Holiday Inn (Broadway 2016 Pro Shot Version)

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In a previous Blogmas post, I reviewed the 1942 movie Holiday Inn. In 2016, a theater musical version of the movie premiered on Broadway. In the 75th Anniversary edition DVD set I purchased of Holiday Inn, a pro shot version of the Broadway musical production was included as well as the 1942 movie.

Since it was included in the DVD set, I decided to watch the Broadway musical version and review it as well. Continue reading “Movie Review: Holiday Inn (Broadway 2016 Pro Shot Version)” →

Movie Review: Holiday Inn (1942)

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When I began preparing for this year’s Blogmas, I decided to focus on reviewing movies in order to have post already prepared and scheduled without worrying about writing a new post every day. One of the movies I debated if I should review is the 1942 movie of Holiday Inn. 2020 is not a great year and, after the social unrest and Black Lives Matter movement gaining more attention and traction than ever before, I didn’t like the idea of reviewing Holiday Inn. Out of all the Christmas movies in my movie collection, Holiday Inn is one of the most controversial because of a blackface routine in the movie. Although I, a white woman, felt hesitant to review this movie, I still felt like I wanted to talk about it in a movie review.

Continue reading “Movie Review: Holiday Inn (1942)” →

Movie Review: Hallmark Channel’s Christmas at Dollywood (2019)

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Last year, while on a visit to one of my friend’s home, we talked about Hallmark Channel Christmas movies. We talked about how silly and ridiculous many of them are as well as some of our favorites. One of my friends suggested I watch Christmas at Dollywood whenever it comes out on DVD. It sounded like a movie I would enjoy watching, especially since Dolly Parton is in the movie, so I made sure to keep an eye out for a DVD of it. After searching, I finally found one at my closest Walmart in October. I bought it and, after watching it, I can finally say what think of the movie. Continue reading “Movie Review: Hallmark Channel’s Christmas at Dollywood (2019)” →

Movie Review- Hallmark Hall of Fame’s The Love Letter

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In the 1990’s, before the Hallmark Channel was the Hallmark Channel, there was the Hallmark Hall of Fame on CBS. I remember watching the Hallmark Hall of Fame movies on Sundays during holiday season, specifically Christmas time. Although there are some movies I really didn’t like, there was a few that stood out to me as my favorites. One of those movies is called The Love Letter.

Although I plan to review Hallmark Channel Christmas movies this year for Blogmas, I wanted to review this movie first because it was the first Hallmark movie I ever saw and is to this day one of my favorite Hallmark movies ever. Continue reading “Movie Review- Hallmark Hall of Fame’s The Love Letter” →

Top 5 Weirdest Christmas Presents I Ever Asked For

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In November, while talking to my friends, they began to joke about all the weird things they asked for as presents over the years. I, of course, am no exception. In fact, the reason why this conversation started was because I asked for something odd for Christmas to make my life easier. As our joking continued, I began to realize all the weird things I asked for over the years for Christmas, specifically dealing with my main hobbies of sewing, knitting, crafting, and art.

After remembering all the weird, odd, or unusual presents I asked for over the years, I thought it would make a great post for Blogmas. So, here are five of the weirdest Christmas present requests I ever made, which are more functional and needed than people may think. Continue reading “Top 5 Weirdest Christmas Presents I Ever Asked For” →

Sephora 2020 Wild Wishes Advent Calendar

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For my birthday last month, I decided to buy myself a Sephora advent calendar. I really wanted to get an advent calendar for a few year, but I never did. Sephora’s advent calendars are known on social media as not as good as other advent calendars from beauty brands, but, after looking at Sephora’s 2020 calendar, I decided to give it a try.

Now that it’s December, I decided to open the calendar every day for 24 days because that’s what an advent calendar is supposed to be for. Before I start opening the calendar, I wanted to show what it looks like and what it contains. Continue reading “Sephora 2020 Wild Wishes Advent Calendar” →

Favorite Walmart Christmas Tree Ornaments for 2020

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After shopping at Walmart’s Christmas section for the past few weeks, I found a few Christmas tree ornaments that stood out to me and quickly became my favorites. Although it’s still November, I wanted to share some photographs of my favorite ornaments. The ornaments in this post are sold individually, not in a set, and do not include any Hallmark ornaments or officially licensed ornaments. I did find many Hallmark ornaments and ornament sets I really liked, but I decided not to share them in this post. Continue reading “Favorite Walmart Christmas Tree Ornaments for 2020” →