Bada Bing

Covered off Crimbo on the weekend: first party of the season with turkey and all the trimmings on Saturday, and a lovely posh afternoon tea on Sunday followed by a screening of White Christmas starring Mr. Christmas himself, Bing Crosby. The titular is song is featured twice, bookending a collection of other Irving Berlin compositions of varying quality. The sublimely ridiculous plot has Crosby and Danny Kaye as army buddies who become theatrical stars and producers after WWII. Screwball romantic shenanigans cause them to discover their former commanding officer has got himself into trouble running a snow-starved ski lodge in Vermont. They decide the best idea is to bring their entire hit Broadway show back from holidays and stage it at the lodge on Christmas Eve. This, with unerring jukebox musical logic, brings the eponymous white christmas.

I do think it would be a better world if all problems could be solved with the power of stage musicals. How great would be if the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation held a press conference to announce they were tackling the potential cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe by staging a huge new production of Oklahoma in the round? Click here if you're stuck for Christmas gift ideas.