Christmas 1972 was a lonely time for Kissinger, as well as for his boss, and a period of serious reflection. Kissinger was then a bachelor, enamored of the tall, elegant, but elusive WASP Nancy Maginnes, but still very much a bachelor – Washington’s most sought-after bachelor.
I’ve got my organic veg patch and fruit; we’re very garden-obsessed, my husband and I. He designed a garden for me for Christmas, so beautiful! Alasdhair’s very good at the proportion and ground work, and I come in and do the planting and the color scheme.
‘El Gordo’ is the name given to the oldest lottery jackpot in the world – and the richest. Held every year in Madrid on December 22, the Christmas Lottery culminates with the picking of the El Gordo number, the Fat One, which, for many, has become the true Christmas miracle in Spain.
I always wanted to write for children. When I was growing up, we were really poor. My mother had left, and it was all a mess. So I lived in my head a lot, and I would get lots of books for Christmas – from librarians and teachers – and they just fed my imagination.
For many years, I’ve wanted to do one, and I’ve always mentioned it to the chieftains, and they would say things like, ‘Oh well. Christmas albums don’t sell,’ and things like that. But that’s not the point. Christmas albums are important. The music is important. The season is important.
Sometimes I wonder: What are the children thinking? And sometimes I wonder why the hell I’m not buying a tree like the other neighbors. After all, there is no mention in Christianity of Christmas trees, and even if there were – is there any good reason why I shouldn’t be buying some red stockings?
Seeing the actual ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe’, I absolutely loved it. It became one of my favourite films. It was a real Christmas classic, and it was one of the most popular films ever in British history.
When I was a kid, we would get McDonalds on Christmas Eve, and that was a big deal because the closest one to the south side of Chicago was a 35 minute drive away. I remember opening the bag and smelling those fries, and even now when I smell them, it reminds me of Christmas Eve.
My dad was fairly well-off, so I was raised in a very comfortable environment: the very nice suburbs of Paris. It was a very idyllic life. I also spent nearly all my summers in Britain, and Christmas, too, because my grandparents lived there.
My most memorable meal was with my parents at Joel Robuchon’s Restaurant Jamin in Paris. It was Christmas 1982, and the flavors – from cauliflower and caviar to crab and tomato – astounded me. It was the first time I remember thinking that I would like to really learn how to cook.
I grew up with three little brothers. Every Christmas, we’d have piles of toy trucks and Lincoln Logs and G.I. Joes under the tree. Those were for them. For me? My No. 1 favorite present of all time: books. Two or three tall stacks of wonderful stories that I could lose myself in for weeks.
I can remember being at Sandringham, for the first time, at Christmas. And I was worried what to give the Queen as her Christmas present. I was thinking, ‘Gosh, what should I give her?’. I thought, ‘I’ll make her something.’ Which could have gone horribly wrong. But I decided to make my granny’s recipe of chutney.
For Christmas 1999, my husband surprised me with a trip to Disney World. Along with our boys, we were standing on the roof of the Contemporary Hotel at midnight on New Year’s Eve 2000 watching fireworks explode over every amusement park in Orlando. It was a magical way to celebrate the millennial, and a never-to-be-forgotten Christmas present.
My parents were over the moon when I had some success with Christmas songs because that was the time of the year that meant so much to them. They were able to see their loved ones, and it was great to hear their son’s voice on the radio while they visited.
I had heard some Elvis songs on the radio. During Christmastime, they’d play ‘Blue Christmas,’ and I knew I liked his songs, but I didn’t know who it was singing them. I just knew I liked them… I started reading, watching, and just picking up everything I could about him.
When I was a kid, I really wanted a metal detector for Christmas, convinced I was going to find buried treasure and could retire at 12. Santa Claus brought me one, but sadly, that treasure was never realized. It’s amazing how many bottle caps you have to dig up. But to be honest, that dream is still alive.
I have already done two Christmas films: ‘Elf’ and ‘Four Christmases.’ I guess I really am a sucker for Christmas. Both movies are really about the importance of family. I come from a brood of five kids, and it’s the one time of year we can all get together. It’s hands-down my favorite holiday.
When I first heard ‘A Christmas Story, the musical,’ I thought, Oh, that could be really good. It just felt like it fit. Some films lend themselves well to other formats, some don’t, but there are so many fantasy sequences in the film, and Ralphie’s such a dreamer as a character, I thought they could really lend themselves to being set pieces.
Being a writer in Iceland, you get rewarded all the time: People really do read our books, and they have opinions; they love them, or they hate them. At the average Christmas party, people push politics and the Kardashians aside and discuss literature.
From the time the kids were in upper grade school and middle school, we took trips over the Christmas break to nature-focused places, such as the Okefenokee Swamp and Cumberland Island in Georgia; Costa Rica; Maho Bay campground in St. John, Virgin Islands; the llanos of Venezuela; the southern coast and highlands of Belize.
When you travel on Christmas, for you as the traveler – whether you’re in 1A or 39D – there is a mental state that you have to put yourself in: that you’re traveling at the busiest time of the year, and you’re going to take whatever comes your way.
My father was born on Christmas Day in 1934. He grew up in what is now part of North Korea. When the Korean War began, my father was 16, and he found passage on an American refugee ship,thinking he’d be gone for just a few days, but he never saw his mother or his sister again.
Like with me, like around ‘97, for Christmas my parents bought me an MPC 2000 sampler and a little eight-track cassette recorder. And I started sampling records and, you know, producing hip-hop beats. And it got to the point where I realized – I innately realized that the music I liked the most was made by people that played instruments.
I’m a huge ‘Nightmare before Christmas’ fan, but that was also Henry Selick. I’m a really big fan of ‘Sleepy Hollow.’ I love ‘Big Fish,’ too, which is a bit different. There’s a really cool era of early-Burton stuff like ‘Ed Wood’ that I’m a big fan of.
I did a Christmas movie where I played Mrs. Claus because my children’s favorite movie of all time was a Christmas movie that my father did in which he played Santa, and I was like, ‘How often do they make a movie about Mrs. Claus?’ and, ‘My kids will love this.’
