4 replies to this topic

[ChickenStu]

For me growing up - Bond has always been a Christmas thing. As a kid, the movies were always on Christmas Day - and when I became a bit of a bigger fan - it was with Goldeneye - the first of the movies to be released in the festive period and not during the usual summer slot. 

 

Since then, I noticed that (almost) every Christmas I seemed to get something Bond related, starting with my parents getting me a Nintendo 64 with the Goldeneye 007 game. When I first bought the first 18 movies on VHS - it was October or something and Christmas decorations were up in the shop where I bought them.  For the last fifteen years (with the odd exception here and there) I'd get something Bond related as a gift. One year my parents got me the first DVD boxed set, other years a videogame... other family members would get me a book about Bond girls or movie posters or something. Last Christmas my wife's Aunt got me a Bond mug (which I'm actually drinking tea from as I type!)

 

Bond is something I very heavily associate with Christmas, aswell as the original Star Wars movies. 

 

It wouldn't feel right for me to watch the movies at any other time. I'm not one of those guys who can just pick one I fancy and stick it on (there are far too many of them to choose from for a start). So every year - usually in mid November - I embark on an epic Bond marathon. I start with Dr. No and end on Skyfall. I always love getting to Goldeneye cause Pierce Brosnan is MY Bond. That's when it all gets really spine tingly. 

 

Straight after that I usually go into the original Star Wars trilogy (the prequels I watch early in the year to get them out of the way, lol) 

 

I can read the books any old time of year though (I'm about to embark on the Gardner books) but other than that - Bond just means Christmas to me.

 

Even though it's not even mid February yet - I'm thinking ahead to my Bond marathon this year - and I had an idea. On top of the yearly marathon that usually begins in November - I might pick one to watch again on Christmas Eve with the kids.  Every Christmas Eve when the kids are in bed waiting for Santa, the wife and I ALWAYS watch Die Hard so I might expand the tradition to watch something with the kids before they go to bed. So during the day me and the kids can sit down and watch Moonraker followed by The Empire Strikes Back. I'm trying to get them to associate Bond and Star Wars with Christmas too.

 

So what about you guys? Do you have a certain tradition when it comes to watching the movies? 

Edited by ChickenStu, 11 February 2014 - 06:25 PM.

[AMC Hornet]

I've posted about this elsewhere, but here goes:

 

007 means Christmas to me too, since first seeing DAF in Dec 71.

In Dec 74 came TMWTGG and paperback copies of FYEO and YOLT in my stocking.

It was a treat to have NSNA still in theatres so late in 83. Now, however, Bond films premiering in November have become something to take for granted, just like the summer releases used to be.

For years I would make time to read CR, MR, OHMSS, YOLT, TMWTGG and Icebreaker in December. I gave that up when I finally got a VCR.

 

Now, the Christmas season begins with champagne & caviar while watching OHMSS. Less formally, but no less avidly, I then watch DAF, TMWTGG, NSNA and DAD. The release of DAD coincided with some major improvements in my life, so I have a very soft spot for it.

One of my favorite Christmas playlists is a compilation of the background music playing in all the night club and Casino scenes in the series.

 

Now, as I anticipate the arrival of spring, I have another mini-marathon to look forward to: TB, LALD, TSWLM & OP - the films that motivate me to get off my hibernatin' butt and outdoors for a little exercise.

[ChickenStu]

Goldeneye and Skyfall in particular I have very soft spots for. The former came out when I was 17 and was the first of these films for a few years. That Christmas was quite magical in a way. I was at college, had my first ever girlfriend, my Dad was still alive.... wonderful memories of that year. I always preferred the club mix of Tina Turner's title song and whenever I hear that it transports me back to that magical time long ago (although it wasn't really until just before The World Is Not Enough came out that I became the fan I am now)

 

The latter as we know came about fairly more recently but it captured that magic again in a way the ones in between hadn't. Maybe because there was another stretch of a few years inbetween it and its previous installment. I saw it twice. The first time I took the day off work and went and saw it on my own and liked it. However, I ended up seeing it AGAIN the following night cause I was out with a few friends celebrating a birthday. Two of those friends (one of which who's birthday it was - the other one is his brother) have been my best friends for over 20 years. I love them like brothers (saw them last saturday actually) - so there was something really special about seeing it with them. 

 

Moonraker is another one I have a soft spot for simply because it was the one I remembered most from being a kid before I got into them properly. 

[glidrose]

For years I would make time to read CR, MR, OHMSS, YOLT, TMWTGG and Icebreaker in December. I gave that up when I finally got a VCR.

Icebreaker came out in 1983. You didn't have a VCR by then?

[AMC Hornet]

 

For years I would make time to read CR, MR, OHMSS, YOLT, TMWTGG and Icebreaker in December. I gave that up when I finally got a VCR.

Icebreaker came out in 1983. You didn't have a VCR by then?

 

Summer '89 - a University graduation present from my parents.

They included a VHS copy of FYEO. I immediately began collecting my favorites (mentioned above). Within a year I had 'em all - even AVTAK.

It sure freed up a lot of time - being borderline OC, I would watch a Bond film whenever one was on, no matter what. Suddenly I wasn't a slave to the TV schedule anymore!