Tag: holidays
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The best sci-fi movies, books and shows to consume over the holidays
If you need a break from the hustle and cheer of the holidays, there’s nothing better than the ultimate escapist genre: sci-fi. This year has been a good one for those who like their entertainment off-planet or otherwise removed from our reality. We finally got a Predator sequel that isn’t silly; the author of Station Eleven released her highly anticipated new book; Star Wars proved it’s ready to grow up; and the production company A24 brought us one of the most exhilarating movies in years. There are even a number of sci-fi podcasts that can keep you company while you wrap presents or decorate your home with tinsel and lights. Here are some of the best sci-fi movies, books and shows as of late that you can binge over the holidays.
TV
Resident Alien
If you still miss Northern Exposure 27 years after its finale aired and thought Wash was the best part of Firefly, you’ll find something to appreciate in Syfy’s Resident Alien. Now in its second season on the Syfy app and Peacock, the show follows a doctor, new to a small, snowy town, who’s actually an alien that came to Earth to exterminate humanity – except he’s misplaced his world-killer device. The extraterrestrial, played with gusto by Alan Tudyk, pretends to be Harry the human while getting into plenty of sitcom-style hijinks with a roster of quirky characters.
Two subplots expand the fish-out-of-water story: one about the recent murder of the former town physician, the other involving a secret government organization that’s hunting down the alien and his ship. It’s spit-your-drink-out funny and expertly plays with the small-town TV tropes we know and love. It’s also occasionally touching, particularly in moments between Harry and Max, a 10-year-old boy who happens to be the only person who can see past Harry’s human disguise.
Severance
In my personal accounting, Apple TV+ wins the streaming war this year, and Severance is among the best of their offerings. That’s saying a lot, considering Slow Horses, Afterparty, Pachinko and Black Bird all debuted on the streaming service in 2022. Not to mention the intelligent and pitch-dark time traveling serial killer thriller, Shining Girls. Where that show was awash in visceral, back-alley terror, Severance occupies a cleaner, tech-washed version of reality, but one that’s no less nightmarish.
Weaponizing the ideals of modern working life against us – the minimalist, high-design office, a strict work-life balance – Severance tells the story of employees at Lumon. While we’re not sure what they do, we do know they’ve all undergone a surgical procedure to separate their work brains from their personal brains, effectively creating two different people. The delight lies in figuring out who these people really are (and what that even means), and sussing out what’s actually going on at Lumon. Gorgeous in a sterile, Apple Store kind of way, Severance is anchored by exacting performances from Adam Scott, Patricia Arquette, Christopher Walken and John Turturro. And yes, to keep us from rioting in the streets after season one’s cliffhanger, there will be a season two.
The Peripheral
With a William Gibson novel as source material and Westworld creators as producers, The Peripheral has a strong sci-fi pedigree. The assured performance by Chloë Grace Moretz and a particularly lush set design make Amazon Studios’ new production a treat for the eyes and ears – it gives your brain something to chew on, too.
Set both 10 years in the future in North Carolina and 77 years in the future in a post-apocalyptic, hologram-clad London, the show centers on Moretz’s Flynne, a woman trying to make enough money to care for her ailing mother by working her job at the local 3D print shop and by helping rich folks level up in VR games. When her brother lands a gig to try out a new headset, Flynne, being the better player, heads into the sim. Turns out, it’s not a sim, but a quantum tunnel into the future in which she controls perfectly rendered robots – the first one modeled after her brother, then one based on herself. Of course, putting on the headset ignites a world of troubles, some of which show up on Flynne’s doorstep.
There’s plenty of Gibson’s characteristic techno-cool terminology, and metaphysical and temporal intricacies that you’ll have to watch closely to figure out – you’ll get little hand-holding here – but the head-scratching opaqueness that obscured Westworld’s later seasons don’t really apply. Look for answers and you’ll find them, plus you’ll have a lot of cyberpunk-fueled fun along the way.
Andor
The scads of people who are calling Andor the best product in the Star Wars franchise aren’t wrong. Turning the camera away from the galaxy’s royal Skywalker family, the new Disney+ series follows Cassian Andor, who you may remember from Rogue One as the relative nobody in a band of nobodies who made sure the Death Star plans got into the hands of the Rebel Alliance so Luke could do his thing.
The series takes place five years before the events of Rogue One and replaces the melodrama of the saga and grandiosity of the Force with a human story on a human scale. It’s about a man who makes his own journey towards rebellion, instead of that rebellion being a predestined fact. Faced with an Empire that’s disturbingly bureaucratic in its repression, Cassian assists with a heist that prods the Empire to bring down its fist across the galaxy. Watching it gives you a detailed sense of the universe where Star Wars takes place, with fully realized worlds, mature storylines, and characters that don’t feel far, far away.
Movies
Prey
The 1987 sci-fi action classic Predator pits a band of heavily armed and macho soldiers against an extraterrestrial who likes to occasionally drop by Earth to hunt humans. Peak-form Arnold Schwarzenegger is the last man standing, and honestly looks pretty ragged in that final chopper ride out of the jungle. So how would a young Comanche woman in the early 1700s fare against a similar alien encounter? Pretty damn well, as it turns out.
Easily the best sequel in the Predator franchise, Hulu’s Prey takes place on the Great Plains where Naru, played with steel by Amber Midthunder, dreams of proving herself as a hunter and warrior. With her dog by her side and a throwing axe in hand, Naru gets a chance to do just that as she faces off against predators of the animal kind (bears and mountain lions), the human variety (French fur trappers) and ultimately, one from another planet. Special attention was paid to historical fidelity with on-set Indiginous advisors and a largely Indigenous cast playing the Comanche tribe members, proving that when Hollywood makes an effort to get things right, everything only gets better.
Everything Everywhere All at Once
We need films like Everything Everywhere All at Once to remind us of the pure joy movies can make us feel. Picture a mashup of multiverse tropes, Kung Fu action, family drama and absurdist comedy, and you’ll get a sense of what to expect from EEAAO. Michelle Yeoh plays Evelyn, a Chinese-American immigrant living in Simi Valley with her husband and daughter. The laundromat they run is being audited by an IRS examiner played by an uncharacteristically dowdy Jamie Lee Curtis. But before Evelyn makes it to her IRS appointment, she’s told she’s an important player in an inter-dimensional battle against a chaos-loving force known as Jobu Tupaki. Eveyln flits through parallel universes, gaining skills and perspectives as she does, ultimately braiding threads together to figure out what existence “means.”
The film comes from A24, a production and distribution company with an uncanny knack for fostering wholly original movies in a world awash in reboots and franchises. EEAAO is already racking up awards and nominations to match its overwhelming public acclaim. If you haven’t done so already, watch it and never see hot dogs, rocks or Ratatouille in the same way again.
Nope
After the psychological terror of Get Out and grisly horror of Us, director Jordan Peele made Nope to prove he’s not out of ideas. Daniel Kaluuya plays the lead, as he did in Get Out, this time as a laconic cowboy in a trucker hat. Kaluuya’s OJ and Keke Palmer’s Emerald are a brother and sister team running a struggling ranch outside of Hollywood where they train horses for the movies. When nickels and house keys fall from the sky and the horses start running off, they see there’s something parked above the ranch, hiding in an immovable cloud – something that’s not from here, and definitely not friendly.
Like everything Peele makes, Nope has plenty of humor to shoot through the tension, and there’s a dose of abounding weirdness – particularly in a side plot about a sitcom chimpanzee. You also sense a clear love of movies coloring the film, with nods to classics like Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Alien. In fact, the idea of movie making itself drives the team that comes together against the UFO. The need to get the shot, to document the alien, is just as, if not more, important than self-preservation.
Books
Sea of Tranquility
If you caught the dreamy, post-apocalyptic miniseries Station Eleven on HBO last December and wondered if there were any more ideas where that came from, check out Emily St. John Mandel’s latest novel, Sea of Tranquility. St. John Mandel wrote the book upon which the HBO series was based, and this time around, she’s exploring what life on a colonized moon would look like while also considering the effects of a space-time anomaly that links together a British Columbian forest, an airship terminal in Oklahoma City and four points in time running from 1912 to 2195. A time traveling agent is sent back from 2401 to investigate, tying together the narrative threads.
As in Station Eleven, St. John Mandel pairs wondrous speculation about our future with deeply human stories. Even minor characters are layered and complex, and her philosophical explorations feel important without coming across as dry academic exercises. Also, her sentences are beautiful. Read it now and you’ll be ahead of the game when the adaptation, which is currently in development at HBO Max, comes out.
The Candy House
Jennifer Egan won a Pulitzer Prize for her essentially perfect 2010 work, A Visit from the Goon Squad and this year’s The Candy House is the sequel. Like Goon Squad, this is a novel told in stories and shifting perspectives. But where the first book focused on music and Gen X aimlessness, this time we’re looking at the technology we willingly give all parts of ourselves to. It’s not hard science fiction, but it does what the genre does best: speculating on a probable future and seeing how we humans react.
In the near future, a tech giant named Bix (a fleetingly minor character in Goon Squad) creates the next big thing in social media, called the cube, into which you can upload your unconsciousness and share it. Needless to say, there are repercussions. But the effects of the cube aren’t the focus. Instead, technology slips into the lives of the characters, just like all the previously impossible-seeming tech we live with today. Egan is one of the most assured writers I’ve ever read, and the prose is top-form literary stuff. It’s never ever boring, and, like the teeming memories of the cube, impossible to look away from.
Dead Silence
Pulitzer Prize-level literature is great. But sometimes you just want a gripping sci-fi story with a missing luxury cruise-liner spaceship in which all the people inside have violently died. Written by S.A. Barnes, who previously wrote under a pen name in the YA space, Dead Silence is part shipwreck hunter, part Event Horizon horror, and part Newt from Aliens’ epilogue.
Taking us to the year 2149, the novel centers on Claire, the team lead on a repair crew responsible for maintaining communication beacons at the edge of the solar system. The team gets a faint distress signal from a Titanic-esque spaceship that disappeared decades ago, halfway into its maiden voyage. Naturally they investigate, and things get disturbing when they discover bodies upon bodies inside the ship. Claire also happens to be the sole survivor of a viral outbreak on a Mars outpost when she was eleven, an experience that has left her with PTSD and more than a little unreliability in the narration department. The book is creepy and scary and mind-trippy and reminds me of the twitchy gratification of reading Stephen King as a teenager (with the lights on).
Podcasts
Celeritas
The creators of Celeritas (available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and others) bill it as a “cinematic podcast,” which doesn’t mean it’s about movies, but rather that listening to it feels as immersive as experiencing something with both sound and picture. And that description is correct. The narrative centers on an astronaut who pilots the first light-speed space flight, and ends up deep in the future after things go awry.
From episode one, Celeritas expands the possibilities of the aural medium, which you first notice in the thrilling and densely layered sound design. Then there’s the storytelling, which ditches the audiobook “once upon a time” formula for an approach that takes full advantage of radio-play dynamics. Instead of an astronaut on a space walk delivering exposition or narration to us, we instead hear him intersperse his communication with mission control with a message he records for his daughter as he takes care of mundane EVA procedures. The eighth of 12 planned episodes dropped in late November, and new episodes are released roughly every two months.
Flash Forward
Initially called Meanwhile in the Future when it was launched back in 2015, Flash Forward (available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and others) isn’t usually a sci-fi podcast but rather, one that takes a speculative notion – say, what if all the world’s volcanoes erupted at the same time? – and then talks with experts to try and answer the question.
It’s a fascinating show in its own right, but then in October of this year, 27 three- to six-minute episodes dropped all at once. They tell the story of Vanguard Estates, an AI-automated retirement home where “you” are deciding whether or not to leave your father. It’s a choose your own adventure podcast that cleverly brings up the increasingly entwined issues of aging, healthcare and robots. Afterwards, creator Rose Eveleth explores those issues in the usual Flash Forward style.
Escape Pod
Throw a dart at any one of the 865 (and counting) episodes of Escape Pod (available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, their website and more) and you’ll be transported elsewhere. Each weekly episode tells a new short sci-fi story, written by a roster of different writers and narrated by talented voice actors. The episodes range from around 20 minutes to an hour long and cover every sci-fi angle possible: cyberpunk, space exploration, time travel, post-apocalypse, AI and far more. It has amassed numerous awards for podcasting and short fiction and, while I wish each episode included a brief description to make it a little easier to pick and choose, grabbing an episode at random will rarely let you down.
High Strangeness For The Holidays
A vintage Christmas tree ornament, a St. Bernard dog, suddenly disappears after a night of strange, unexplained activity. 2 previously missing ornaments are, however, returned to the tree.
I received the following account from a reader several years ago:
“Mr. Strickler – I wanted to tell you about a few strange incidents I experienced several years ago during the holiday season.
I am a collector of vintage Christmas ornaments and have done so for over 30 years. The day after Thanksgiving, I received a telephone call from a local auctioneer who had just received a consignment that included several rare handmade ornaments. The next week, I attended the auction and was delighted after obtaining several of these fine pieces at very reasonable prices. One ornament, in particular, stood out from the rest. It was a porcelain figure of a St. Bernard dog, hand-crafted in pre-WWII Poland
Each Christmas, I select my favorite ornaments from my collection to display on my tree. I was very proud of the recently obtained St. Bernard dog ornament and wanted to show it off to my friends and family.
One morning last week, I noticed that the ornament had fallen from the tree and was laying on the carpet. The string that attached it to the tree branch was not torn and I felt fortunate that it had not broken. I just placed it back on the tree.
That evening, I was sitting in the living room reading a magazine when I started to hear a ‘ringing’ sound coming from the tree. It was like a sound of a porcelain bell. The sound lasted for a few seconds then suddenly stopped. About an hour later, the ringing sound started again but this time it was a bit louder and lasted for almost a minute. I looked at the tree but could not tell where the sound was coming from. I just assumed it was coming from outside the house.
That night, I was laying in bed asleep (around 11:45 pm) when I thought I heard heavy footsteps coming down my upstairs hallways towards my bedroom. I got up, looked around the house, and rechecked the intruder alarm. I was in the kitchen checking the outside door when I heard footsteps rapidly going up the stairs to the second floor. I live alone, so I was very concerned. I called 911 just to be safe.
The police looked around the property to make sure it was safe. I live in a small community where everyone knows everybody else’s business, so anything out of the ordinary is common knowledge the next day. The police assured me that they would not make a report. They soon left and told me to call back if I noticed anything unusual. I thought that was an odd statement but I appreciated their concern.
I walked up the stairs and turned towards my bedroom. As soon as I got to the bedroom door I noticed it. The St. Bernard ornament was on my nightstand. Now I was freaked out. I have never experienced any paranormal activity though I love to read about these things. Now it was happening to me.
I picked up the ornament, walked downstairs, and placed it back on the tree. I looked at it for a minute or two and then noticed that two other ornaments were missing. I looked on the carpet but nothing was there. After looking around for several minutes I decided to go back to bed and look again in the morning.
The next morning, I woke and walked downstairs. I entered the living room and immediately noticed that the St. Bernard ornament was missing from the tree – but the two ornaments that were missing the night before were back on the tree. I looked all over the house, but the ornament was gone.
It has been almost a week and the St. Bernard ornament is still missing, but there has been no further activity since it disappeared. I cannot explain any of this. Are you familiar with this type of activity? I hesitate to speculate what is going on and really don’t want anybody coming into my house to investigate.
If the ornament returns, I will notify you. Please feel free to publish my story if you like but I would appreciate anonymity. Thank you.”
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13 Holidays Films That Are Streaming For You This Christmas
The Twelve Films To Watch On Christmas (Plus One)
There are tons of great Christmas movies out there. The trouble these days is that there are literally hundreds and hundreds of Christmas movies across streaming services thanks to the proliferation of Hallmark Channel-style holiday films. It’s like looking for a pine tree needle in a haystack. Of course, that didn’t stop us from wading into the pool to pick out some of the absolute best Christmas movies that are streaming right now so that you don’t have to. This list features solid offerings from Disney+ and HBO Max, and Peacock even has a few. Netflix, Prime Video, and Hulu are all surprisingly unimpressive when it comes to holiday-themed movies that you’ll actually recognize.
Another thing that raises the difficulty in finding good Christmas movies is that when you get to the kids section–where some of the very best movies in this category reside–it’s filled less with kids’ holiday movies and more with movies to make the kids watch while you’re trying to keep them sane until it’s time to open presents. These sections are jam-packed with Christmasless offerings like Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Minions, and things like that.
Of course, there’s an audience for every movie. If you’re over all the classics because you’ve seen them so many times, there are countless options available on nearly every streaming service with titles like “Love at the Christmas Contest” and “Single Bells.” Peacock even has a Hallmark-specific channel if you want the authentic Hallmark Christmas experience.
But we want the classics. We want the ultimates. You’ll certainly know at least some of these movies, but you might not know where to find them, so read on for our favorite holiday-themed movies and where you can watch them right now.
1. Nightmare Before Christmas (Disney+)
Is Nightmare Before Christmas a Halloween movie, or a Christmas movie? The answer is yes. It’s both. This stop-motion animated movie, directed by Henry Selick and produced by Tim Burton, somehow captures all the spooky fun of Halloween while highlighting the specific magic of Christmas. It has gorgeous animation, legendary character designs, and a classic soundtrack by composer Danny Elfman. You’d be a fool to miss it.
2. Elf (HBO Max)
Is magic real? Is Santa real? Buddy the Elf sure thinks so, and he’s traveled all the way from the North Pole to tell his long-lost father about it. Elf is everything you’d expect from a Will Ferrell comedy, but it brings all the themes of family, togetherness, and Christmas spirit with it.
3. The Muppet Christmas Carol (Disney+)
With so many versions of A Christmas Carol out there, how can you pick just one? The Muppets took care of that question 30 years ago with The Muppet Christmas Carol, the undisputed champ of Christmas Carol adaptations. Michael Caine plays Ebenezer Scrooge, and is surrounded by Kermit and Miss Piggy as the Cratchit family, Gonzo as the narrator, and Muppet ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future, all ready to teach the crotchety old banker how to appreciate life.
4. How the Grinch Stole Christmas – (Peacock)
He’s a mean one, Mr. Grinch. But at least he’s not charging this year. If you’re looking for a free holiday film fix, Peacock has a few offerings this year, topped off by the classic 1966 animated version of the Dr. Seuss story. It’s still as enchanting as you remember.
5. Jack Frost – (Peacock and HBO Max)
The ice can be pretty thin in December, and you need to walk carefully. The same goes if you’re going to put on a snowman-themed movie called Jack Frost and leave your kids alone to watch it. If you pick the one on HBO Max, you’ll get the 1998 Michael Keaton movie about a man who, after being killed in a car accident, comes back as a snowman to make things right with his son. If you choose the one on Peacock, you’ll get the 1997 movie about a snowman inhabited by the spirit of a murderous psychopath. Traumatize your children wisely, parents.
6. Home Alone – (Disney+)
8-year-old Kevin McCallister finds himself alone in his family’s massive suburban home when they accidentally leave him home as they look to travel for a Christmas holiday away from home. Kevin thinks he’s in heaven until a couple of bungling burglars decide to break into his home. Instead of hiding in a closet, Kevin draws up plans to defend his home and most likely cripple the burglars in the process. After you watch this movie, make sure to check out the Home Alone episode of Movies That Made Us on Netflix for all the strange details of how this movie got made, and then look up all the YouTube videos of doctors explaining why the Wet Bandits would’ve died after just a couple of Kevin’s devious traps.
7. A Christmas Story – (HBO Max)
Home Alone isn’t the only holiday flick with some wincingly painful moments. A Christmas Story is the simple story of a boy who wants to convince his parents to get him the ultimate Christmas present–a Red Ryder Range 200-Shot BB gun. A Christmas Story is filled with all of the awkward childhood Christmas moments adults will remember, and someone gets their tongue stuck to a metal pole. And when you’re done watching it, make sure to check out the just-released sequel A Christmas Story Christmas, with most of the original cast returning.
8. Krampus – (Peacock)
If you grow up in secular America, your parents probably told you that Santa was watching to get you to behave. In more recent years, they may even have introduced one of the officers from the Santa Clause surveillance state secret police, Elf on a Shelf. What they didn’t warn you about, though, is Krampus, a devilish horned figure who will punish you for your misbehavior rather than rewarding you for being good. When a young boy accidentally summons Krampus to his home on Christmas, his whole family is going to suffer the consequences.
9. A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas – (HBO Max)
Sometimes you don’t want to deal with family on Christmas–you just want to get high and chill out. That’s what A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas is for. Don’t worry about the warm fuzzy feelings that come with holiday spirit, just the warm fuzzy feelings that come from your local dispensary.
10. The Santa Clause – (Disney+)
Everyone knows the classic Christmas rule, “if you kill Santa, you have to take his place.” Tim Allen’s 1994 family comedy puts the Home Improvement star in the big man’s red suit via some suspect legalese and over the course of the next year he grows into the role, quite literally, helping restore his family’s Christmas spirit. The movie spawned a pair of sequels and a new series, all of which you can also watch on Disney+.
11. Miracle on 34th Street – (Disney+)
Much like with Jack Frost, you have two choices here. Unlike Jack Frost, neither of them will traumatize any children. Disney Plus offers both the 1947 original film and the 1994 remake starring Richard Attenborough. Is he Santa Claus, or is he crazy? Unlike so many Christmas movies, Miracle on 34th Street leaves this question more or less up to the viewer to answer.
12. Polar Express – (HBO Max)
CGI is so good these days that we can often mistake it for the real thing–the uncanny valley isn’t nearly as deep or wide as it used to be. When Polar Express came out in 2004, though, things were different. We were only up to the PlayStation 2 and the first Toy Story, and making convincing humans was still pretty much impossible. Polar Express is a fun movie, but it hasn’t aged terribly well–be prepared for lots of dead eyes if you watch this one. Or you could just watch Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers on Disney Plus and let them make fun of it for you.
13. Love Actually – (Peacock)
This 1993 film was once thought of as a romance, but more recent years have reframed it in a very different light. Whichever way you want to watch it, you can have fun! From one perspective it’s a story about an ensemble cast’s romantic lives around Christmas time, which sounds nice. From the other perspective, it’s about a bunch of guys making inappropriate advances toward women they shouldn’t be pursuing and a woman telling a grieving widower to get over his wife the day after her funeral. It’s that or romance.
RPS is hibernating for the holidays, see you in 2023!
Merrrrry holidays, folks! The RPS Treehouse is now officially shutting up shop for the year as the team enters its annual hiberation phase. While we settle down into our mountain of games, sweet wrappers and warm blankets for a couple of weeks, we wish you a merry Christmas, a happy holiday and a general Festivus to all who celebrate. The site won’t be completely silent during the break – we’ve got a couple of fun things planned for you over the next week and a bit – but we’ll be back in full bright and early on Tuesday, January 3rd 2023.
How to cope with heartbreak during the holidays
It was Christmas Day night and I couldn’t sleep. Not through excitement for continued Twixmas celebrations, but because I knew I had a difficult and almost certainly heartbreaking conversation ahead of me.
My self-esteem was at an all time low and a situationship of mine had developed into an emotionally torturous interaction. Sex with a good friend meant catching unreciprocated feelings. Despite the friendship, he’d gone quiet and ghosted me during a winter lockdown. It felt terrible. Rotating all possibilities, my mind searched for answers during this period of silence. My inner critic used the situation as a stick to beat me with, evidence of all my shortcomings, proof that I was deficient in other people’s eyes (not just my own).
When he got back in touch to search for guilt absolution, to make sure his reputation remained unscathed in our friendship group, I was confused by his intentions and, I’ll admit, I hoped he’d had a change of heart. Things came to a long overdue head as I sat next to my parents’ Christmas tree sipping a gin and tonic — I knew I needed to end my misery and ask him what he wanted from me. Deep down, I realised the answer possibly wasn’t going to be what my heart wanted, but I needed to be set free from this waiting room of sorrow. My anxiety was mounting to unbearable levels and I knew I couldn’t put off the conversation any longer. So, on Boxing Day morning, I rolled over in bed and awoke to a message from him, apologising yet again for his behaviour. I sighed in recognition of what I needed to do.
After I’d sent the dreaded message, I sat in silence waiting for the inevitable. When his message arrived, the contents weren’t surprising to me — but that didn’t make it any less painful. And though I was free from the turmoil, that’s when anxiety gave way to heartbreak, a feeling that wasn’t exactly what I’d hoped to be dealing with over Christmas, a time of year I usually love. A neverending stream of tears rolled down my face as I sat watching my favourite films with my family. My mum looked at me with pity and concern, as I muffled tragic sniffs on the sofa. It was, as you can imagine, not a great time. And no amount of pigs in blankets or Terry’s Chocolate Oranges would make me feel better (though you can’t say I didn’t try!).
Heartbreak, sadly, doesn’t take a day off when it’s a special occasion.
Heartbreak, sadly, doesn’t take a day off when it’s a special occasion. And the holidays can be particularly difficult when you’re in the throes of a breakup, or the ending of a situationship. As writer Annie Lord, author of Notes On Heartbreak, tells me, “It’s pretty horrible because everyone’s so loved up during Christmas.”
“There are couples everywhere, holding hands at the Christmas markets, looking for rings in shops, and when you turn on the TV they’re still there, kissing in cozy cottages in The Holiday, declaring their love in Love Actually. I think the coldness makes people want to cozy up with someone they love,” she says.
Just because it’s hard doesn’t mean you have to put up with it, though. Mashable spoke to psychotherapists for tips on coping with heartbreak during the holidays.
Limit your time on social media
If there’s anything guaranteed to make you want to throw your phone at the wall, it’s seeing endless pics of engagement rings with the caption “so, this happened!” You simply don’t need to see it right now.
Fiona Yassin, family psychotherapist and founder and clinical director of The Wave Clinic, says it’s a good idea to limit your social media use so you’re not bombarded with what your friends and internet pals are up to during this period. “When we see others having fun on social media and we feel we are not, it can trigger negative emotions like loneliness and isolation,” says Yassin.
Here are some tips on how to limit your Instagram usage and TikTok usage.
Give yourself time to grieve
The holidays are a time that champions joy. And that can be particularly challenging when you feel, well, pretty rotten. Giving yourself permission to feel sad is important in validating the difficult emotions you’ll be (understandably!) feeling during this time.
“Don’t feel like you’re ruining other people’s good time.”
Dr. Elena Touroni, a consultant psychologist and co-founder of The Chelsea Psychology Clinic, says, “A big break up is comparable to grief, particularly if that person was very embedded in your life. Instead of rushing out to date again and trying to ‘get over it,’ be gentle with yourself and give yourself time and space to process the loss.”
Also, don’t feel bad for feeling sad. “Don’t feel like you’re ruining other people’s good time,” author Lord says. “You are not a burden. It’s an honour to be able to be there for people when they need it.”
If you’ve been ghosted, Mashable has some tips on how to move on.
Surround yourself with people you love
Heartbreak is a universal emotion and chances are, everyone around you right now will have gone through it at some point in their life. Opening up to others about what you’re going through can make you feel less alone.
“Speak to your parents or any older members of your family. Most of the time they have been through this before and they survived, knowing this can give you hope,” says Lord. “Christmas means you’re often surrounded by your family and friends. Celebrate the love you get from them, a love that is often less intense or glamorous, but a lot more enduring than romantic love.”
Going home or to safe spaces can sometimes give you an opportunity to reconnect with your younger self. “Going home can be quite grounding,” she adds. “You’re surrounded by all this stuff from when you were younger which can put things into perspective. I remember finding an old diary of mine where I was crying over a guy and though I was now upset about another one, I could still see that I was dealing with it in a much better way.”
Not everyone has access to a support network at this time of year. If your heartbreak is impacting your mental health or if you’re experiencing a mental health crisis, please talk to somebody.
You can reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988; the Trans Lifeline at 877-565-8860; or the Trevor Project at 866-488-7386. Text “START” to Crisis Text Line at 741-741. Contact the NAMI HelpLine at 1-800-950-NAMI, Monday through Friday from 10:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m. ET, or email info@nami.org. If you’re based in the UK, contact the Samaritans (116 123). If you don’t like the phone, consider using the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline Chat at crisischat.org. Here is a list of international resources.
Try some grounding techniques
As a practical daily means to cope with heartbreak, Yassin recommends equipping yourself with some grounding techniques, which can be helpful for people to manage and work through emotions they wish they weren’t feeling. Grounding techniques are exercises or activities that help you refocus on what’s happening in the present moment, distracting yourself from triggers, anxious feelings, or difficult emotions.
“By using grounding techniques, we are not saying that we will not deal with or process the emotions and sensations, but we are saying that right now, at this moment, this is not going to intrude in what I’m doing,” says Yassin. “Walking can be really good to bring you back into the moment. When we walk and put one foot in front of the other we are actually stimulating both sides of the brain in a process called Bilateral Stimulation (BLS) which can feel soothing for some.” Here are six free grounding meditations to help you get started.
Repetitive activities like cross-stitch or crochet can have a soothing effect for some, while others like to keep themselves in motion. “Journaling or watching a good movie can also be effective grounding techniques,” says Yassin. Touroni also recommends journaling as it “helps get difficult thoughts and feelings down on paper so you can gain greater clarity and a new perspective.” Check out Mashable’s non-intimidating guide to journaling to get started.
Look after your physical needs
When you’re feeling low, it can be difficult to muster the energy to look after ourselves. Taking care of your immediate physical needs can be a way of making yourself feel a little better, despite not being able to shift the difficult emotions that come with heartbreak. Make sure you’re hydrated, eating, and getting plenty of rest.
“Make sure you’re doing activities that keep you both physically and mentally healthy e.g. regular exercise, eating healthy, nutritious meals etc.,” Touroni says. “Avoid turning to substances to numb any difficult thoughts and feelings. They might provide relief in the short-term but are likely to make things harder in the long run.”
Can’t sleep? Here are some tips on tangible things you can do to help you drift off.
Don’t rush into another relationship
Heartbreak can also be accompanied with feelings of panic, especially if you have been contending with anxious thoughts about “running out of time.” If you can resist some of these feelings and try to reassure that anxious voice in your head, know that you are allowed to take time to heal, and that you are enough on your own.
Yassir advises against rushing into another relationship straight away— often referred to as a “rebound”. “People that rebound tend to be those who are already struggling around interpersonal relations and relationships. Build a relationship with yourself before having a relationship with someone else. It’s unlikely a rebound relationship will be healthy if you don’t give yourself the time and space to be able to work out what you’re feeling.”
Don’t read into their texts
As the queen of reading-into-text-messages, I feel highly qualified in saying that it’s completely natural to want to search for signs of hope in any contact you might have had from the heartbreak-inflicter. But this habit can also prolong your agony and make it difficult to accept what’s really happening.
“If they message you ‘Happy Christmas’ don’t start thinking it signals anything.”
“If they message you ‘Happy Christmas’ don’t start thinking it signals anything,” says Lord. “They’re probably just trying to be polite. At the same time if you’re the one who ended the relationship don’t send a text, it will confuse your ex.”
A good rule of thumb is to assume that there is never a hidden meaning to their messages. If a person wants something badly enough, they’ll find a way to make sure their meaning and intention are fully understood. Tell yourself that if they want to communicate something important, they will likely do so in an explicit manner.
Cut yourself some slack
When you’re feeling sad, the last thing you need is another voice inside your head telling you what a misery you are. Your inner critic can rear their annoying head during this time to convince you that you’re bringing down the vibe, but most people understand that heartbreak truly is the worst.
“Be really kind to yourself,” advises Lord. “Don’t get annoyed if you don’t get off the sofa for the entire day, that’s what Christmas is for and everyone’s doing it too. It might feel like in doing these things you’re going backward, but you’re not you’re getting somewhere because stewing and feeling miserable is all part of the process.”
Talk to someone
If you’re really struggling, don’t suffer in silence. Speak to a mental health professional if you can. Shout is a 24/7 free mental health service in the UK (Text SHOUT to 85258). If you’re in the U.S., text “START” to Crisis Text Line at 741-741.
“If you find yourself stuck in the same recurring relationship patterns, it could be a sign to dig a little deeper,” Touroni advises. “Negative early life experiences can sometimes impact the types of relationships we form — and choose —in later life. If you suspect there are things in your past that you haven’t dealt with, therapy is a great place to start this process.”
Lean on your support network and don’t bottle up your feelings. “If you’re struggling, reach out to friends and family,” Touroni adds. “These are the moments when we need their support the most, and the right people will want to be there for you.”
If you’re nursing a bruised or shattered heart this Christmas, know that you’re not alone. And know that it won’t be forever. Take care of yourself.
The best shows to binge watch over the holidays in 2022
This year was a bit of a reset for the entertainment industry, with more people returning to theaters and more must-watch TV shows hitting streaming networks. That’s a fairly major change from 2021, when many movies hit services like HBO Max on the same day as theaters. But if you’ve gotten used to catching up on everything on your couch, don’t worry — there’s still plenty to watch over the holidays. (And be sure to check out our recommendations from last year, which are still good, I swear!)
HBO Max
Station Eleven
Perhaps the best piece of media I’ve seen this year, Station Eleven is an adaptation of Emily St. John’s novel about a society-collapsing swine flu epidemic. Wait, don’t run away! While the series may evoke the worst of our COVID experience at first, it also transforms into a hopeful tale about the power of stories (and pop culture!) and human connection. It delivers something we could all use right now: Hope.
Tuca and Bertie Season 3
After being unceremoniously canceled by Netflix in 2020, the cartoon duo of Tuca and Bertie found a new home on Cartoon Network last year. The third and (unfortunately) final season of the series aired this year, and it remains a delight. Created by Lisa Hanawalt and executive produced by Raphael Bob-Waksberg (BoJack Horseman), it follows a pair of friends as they deal with life, love and simply existing in their ’30s.
Also on HBO Max:
The White Lotus (Season 2): Mike White’s series on the exploits of privileged resort guests, this time in Sicily instead of Hawaii, remains a delight.
Harley Quinn (Season 3): This show remains one of the best DC series currently airing. Tune in for a comedic and more adult spin on your Batman faves.
Disney+
Andor
Yes, it’s another Star Wars show, but Andor ended up being one of the biggest surprises of the year. Created by Tony Gilroy (who helped transform Rogue One into a stellar film), it centers on Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), a small-time thief with a healthy distrust for the Empire. The show follows his journey towards becoming a member of the rebels, and in doing so it also serves as a blueprint for taking down authoritarian systems.
Fire of Love
Katia and Maurice Krafft were a rare couple, two expert volcanologists who were also madly in love. They dedicated their lives to documenting active volcanoes, often by directly confronting lava flows, rock explosions and acid lakes. Fire of Love unearths their original footage to show just how far they went in the name of science. But it also paints a portrait of a truly rare couple, one whose contributions we still owe much to.
Also on Disney+:
Tales of the Jedi: A short animated series that gives us a bit more backstory on Ahsoka Tano and… Count Dooku? If you’ve been interested in the Star Wars cartoons, but don’t want to slog through tons of old episodes, this is a good start.
Bluey: This remains the best kids show on TV. Bluey’s latest season is as funny and poignant as ever. It’s the rare show that can teach both kids and their parents.
Netflix
Cyberpunk: Edgeunners
Cyberpunk 2077 had a notoriously rocky game launch, but the setting of Night CIty was always compelling. Edgerunners is an anime spin on that universe, centering on a plucky street kid who finds himself equipped with a military-grade spine implant. You know, typical teenage stuff. Will his newfound power keep him on the wrong side of the law? And will he ever get revenge against the people who ruined his life? The show doesn’t do much new, but it features genuinely compelling characters and some of the best animation in recent years.
The Midnight Club
Mike Flanagan can do no wrong. The talent behind Midnight Mass, Doctor Sleep, and the excellent “Haunting of…” horror shows on Netflix has now set his sights on a Christopher Pike adaptation, and the results are glorious. The show, co-created by Leah Fong, follows a group of terminally ill teenagers as they tell spooky stories and explore the supernatural mysteries of their hospice mansion. It’s a meditation on the power of storytelling, but also yet another Flanagan exploration of the value of life.
Also on Netflix:
Wednesday: Come to see Tim Burton finally get his shot at The Addams Family, stay for Jenna Ortega’s perfectly deadpan performance.
Hulu
The Bear
Can an award-winning chef truly come back home and save his family’s beleaguered sandwich shop? Or is he just trying to work through the death of his brother the only way he knows? The Bear captures the energy and madness of kitchen life better than any TV show — forget all the glossy stuff you’ve seen on Chef’s Table. But amid the insanity, it’s the story of a found family banding together to mourn and save the place they all love.
The Dropout
What makes Elizabeth Holmes tick? This series, which stars Amanda Seyfried as the notorious Theranos founder, paints a more complete picture of Holmes than the 2019 HBO documentary The Inventor. We see Holmes’ early life, as well as her initial connection with Sunny Balwani (Naveen Andrews, perhaps the best TV adaptation glow-up any South Asian man can hope for). After proving her smarts in college, she sets off to build the world’s best blood testing machine with Theranos. We all know how that went. When the hype around Theranos starts to fall apart, The Dropout turns into a fascinating portrait of self-deception.
Also on Hulu:
Fleishman is in Trouble: Toby Fleishman is going through a divorce. But as he starts to rebuild his own identity, he also needs to deal with the wreckage of his marriage (and find his missing ex-wife).
Apple TV+
Severance
Taking the idea of work/life balance a step too far, Severance follows a group of people who’ve received a procedure that completely splits their memories between home and office life. The result is two completely separate personalities within the same body, both trapped in their respective cages. Severance is a bit of a slow burn, but it’s a fascinating exploration of corporate control akin to Terry Gilliam’s Brazil. (Be sure to check out our interview with the creator of the show, Dan Erickson, on the Engadget Podcast.)
Pachinko
An adaptation of Min Jin Lee’s 2017 novel, Pachinko follows a Korean family across several generations starting in 1917 and reaching into the late ‘80s. We see a young fish seller fall in love and make her way to Japan as an outsider, while her grandson struggles to maintain his identity in the pressure-filled business world. Pachinko has almost everything you’d want in a family epic: Children struggling to live up to their parents’ standards, forbidden love and the constant threat of generational trauma. Also, it has one of the best opening sequences of the year.
Other things to watch
The Good Fight (Paramount+): Over its six-season span, The Good Fight tackled the insanity of our current social and political environment better than any other TV show. It’s first and foremost a legal procedural, but coming from the minds of Michelle and Robert King, it ends up being so much more.
Gangs of London (AMC+): Now on its second season, Gangs of London is one of the most brutal crime shows on TV. It’s part gangster epic, part martial arts smackdown (it comes from Gareth Evans, director of The Raid films). While the plot becomes increasingly ludicrous, it’s worth a watch just for the sheer ambition of its action sequences, many of which go far harder than anything we’ve seen in American films lately.
Welcome a rainbow of quacking ducks to your keyboard these holidays
Extreme polar cold is about to pummel the U.S. over the holidays
This holiday season, the Arctic is gifting big parts of the U.S. extremely frigid temperatures.
The National Weather Service expects that giant swathes of the nation will experience freezing or dangerous conditions over the coming week, with some places seeing their coldest temperatures in decades. Overall, cold polar air will drop south into the Central U.S. on Wednesday, Dec. 21 and continue driving into the Eastern U.S. on Friday and Saturday. What’s more, a major blizzard will slam the Midwest between Dec. 21-25.
Expect wild drops in temperature. For example, the NWS predicts the high temperature in Denver on Wednesday will be 46 degrees Fahrenheit. That will drop to around minus 1 F on Thursday. Meanwhile, temperatures in the New York City area will be in the 40s and 50s Friday morning, but will plummet to around 20 degrees or colder later that day. In some places, wind chill temperatures (the air temperature as it would feel blown on skin) are just bonkers: In Wyoming on Wednesday night through Thursday many temperatures will be well below minus 50 F.
“It’s tremendous temperature changes across a 24-hour period,” Bob Oravec, a lead forecaster with the National Weather Service in College Park, Maryland, told Mashable. “Really cold air will displace relatively mild air.”
Check your local NWS office for more region-specific weather updates. National and local NWS updates on Twitter are still valuable, easily-digestible sources of information, even as Twitter itself struggles with incoherence and absurdity.
You’ll probably want to take a hard look at your holiday travel plans, too. Some areas will have blizzards; others high, cold winds. “Dangerous cold will continue through the holiday weekend,” tweeted the National Weather Service office in Chicago.
“Very impactful weather is coming up over the next several days,” noted Oravec. “I imagine there will be a lot of airline delays.”
“It’s tremendous temperature changes across a 24-hour period.”
On the NWS weather map below, you can see the cold air moving south and east across the U.S. this week, through December 24. The colors show temperature departures from normal (meaning climatic averages over the last 30 years). Blue is a dominant shade on these maps, meaning temperatures some 20 to 40 degrees below normal (depending on the shade).
What’s driving the extreme polar cold
During some winters, Arctic air spills southward into the U.S. That’s what’s happening here.
You’ve probably heard of the jet stream: It’s an extremely influential band of powerful winds that separates colder northern air from warmer southern air, somewhat like a barrier, up near where commercial planes fly. It travels west to east. But sometimes, large scale weather events perturb this stream of air, causing it to meander wildly north or south. When it falls south, it opens the Arctic’s refrigerator door, allowing unusually cold Arctic air to spill southward.
Credit: NOAA
Some years, the Arctic’s polar vortex — strong winds that circle westward around the pole during winter — can play a role in nudging or destabilizing the jet stream, letting cold air move south. In the current case, as the jet stream bent downwards, parts of the polar vortex lower in the atmosphere are moving and reforming farther south, explained Oravec. This allows “a big chunk of cold” to move over parts of the U.S., he added.
Importantly, intense winter freezes will still happen in a heating world. Earth is heating relentlessly, and winter is the fastest-warming season, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data compiled by Climate Central, an independent organization that researches climate change. But dynamic weather moving through our profoundly chaotic atmosphere will frequently still have opportunities to spill Arctic air into the Lower 48.
Extreme cold spells won’t disappear. “A warming world is still one where we have many types of weather events. We’ll still have cold snaps,” climate scientist Zeke Hausfather told Mashable last year following the extreme freezes in Texas.
“A warming world is still one where we have many types of weather events. We’ll still have cold snaps.”
A hot area of continued atmospheric research, however, is if climate change is making Arctic cold air outbursts more likely. As Mashable previously reported: Some research has suggested the possibility that as the Arctic rapidly warms, it can make weather extremes more likely: Specifically, the heating Arctic might make the jet stream more prone to meandering north or south, kind of like a loose, droopy rope. This could, for example, allow polar air to more easily swoop down from the Arctic. But other research hasn’t found such a link.
What’s certain, however, is Arctic air is on its way to impact much of the country this holiday season. Take it seriously (nearly a quarter of U.S. car crashes happen on snowy, wintery roads). Be ready.