I love looking out my window and being greeted by a winter wonderland. I love curling up in my bed with a book and a cup of hot chocolate. I love making snow angels and flailing around on the quad, hurling snowballs at my friends until our fingers are numb.
That said, my brain is still trying to process the fact that campus is covered in snow in November. The rapid switch from 70 degree weather to freezing makes me wonder what happened to autumn. I’m from New Jersey, and I usually don’t expect this level of snow until at least January. It’s really messing with my perception of time.
Up until the recent snowfall, I was in the camp that Christmas needs to wait its turn. Listening to Christmas music before Thanksgiving was tolerable. Decorating and watching Christmas movies before the holidays was unacceptable.
However, with this much snow on the ground, South Bend weather has kickstarted Christmas for me. My mindset has completely switched. I would not be surprised by the sight of a brightly lit Christmas tree somewhere on campus. I would not bat an eye if the dining hall decided to exclusively play Christmas music from now on. It snowed, so any reservations I have about the Christmas season starting early are out the window.
With that out of the way, my Christmas hot take is that the stop motion puppet movies are better than the live action ones. “Elf” doesn’t do much for me, but I will always be really excited to watch Snow Miser and Heat Miser waddle around insulting each other. This discussion is, of course, excluding “The Polar Express,” which is an absolute classic and my favorite Christmas movie of all time. I didn’t like it when I first watched it, but my siblings made me watch it with them at least 20 times, which according to them is the only way to get the full “Polar Express” experience. I would not recommend watching it unless you are able to take in its complete beauty, which may or may not be by watching it over and over again. The story is great, the animation is amazing and the music is just perfect.
Mariah Carey has defrosted. “All I Want For Christmas is You” is a masterpiece for the next month or so and should be treated as such. “O Holy Night,” specifically the cover by Jungkook of K-pop band BTS, will be listed about five times on my study playlist until January 1. With the change in the weather, I suddenly have a renewed interest in playing the piano — Farley Hall may have to tolerate an unfortunate rendition of “Jingle Bells” on the chapel piano at least a few times before the semester ends.
I am so excited to celebrate Christmas! Thank you South Bend weather for making it start early.
You can contact Caitlin Brannigan at cbrannig@nd.edu.
The views expressed in this Inside Column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.