An Inklings Christmas (”Inklings Variety Hour Christmas Spectacular Extravaganza”)

Enjoy an off-season holiday bonus episode!  Merry Christmas!  Season 3 is coming in February, but in the meantime, please feel free to email us at inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com

For this bonus episode, Chris is joined by Logan, Kora, and Eric to talk about Christmas and the Inklings.

We'll talk a bit about Christmas memories and rituals that involve the Inklings. We'll delve into holiday poetry, fiction, and satire by Williams, Tolkien, and Lewis. And finally, we'll try our hand at creating an Inklings-related Hallmark-style Christmas movie, ending with a trailer put together by none other than Logan Huggins.

Works discussed include:

• "Christmas," by Charles Williams
• The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, by C.S. Lewis
• Smith of Wootton Major, by J.R.R. Tolkien 
• Letters from Father Christmas, by J.R.R. Tolkien
• “Xmas and Christmas: A Lost Chapter from Herodotus,” by C.S. Lewis

Topics discussed include: 

• Coming to Inklings Variety Hour Season 3
• What makes a Christmas movie a Christmas movie?
• Who best embodies the spirit of Christmas in Lord of the Rings?
• Lewis' reverential rejuvenation of flat secular characters (such as Father Christmas); nature of solemnity
• Two (reconcilable? irreconcilable?) aspects of Christmas
• Barbie in the Nutcracker and "Faerie"
• Yuletide in Middle Earth

Thanks as always to Logan Huggins for making me sound a lot less awkward than I would in real life! And for adding the great music! And for maintaining the Youtube Channel!  (Note: At the end of the show, I thank "both Kora and Eric," because Logan had to step off slightly early.)

If you want to find a new way to celebrate Christmas as a season rather than a day-long binge, please check out the site Chris does with his wife, Glencora: www.12tide.com

And as always, please do not hesitate to email us at Inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com with ideas for what you'd like to see in Season 3!

Merry Christmas!