Holiday Sneer
I'm not one to celebrate the holidays; so the only time I have ever really been immersed in holiday-based stories has been with soaps. Soaps have been the one place where I have seen every type of way of celebrating the holidays. The miracle cure, the snowbound delivery, the ignited romance, the happy ending to the tragic suffering for one family, and on and on, I've seen it all. And it always makes you smile to see it, no matter how much of a scrooge you may be. It's nice to see families sitting around happily at a dinner table, for once having reason to smile. It's nice to see a happy ending with a sugarcoated contrivance like snow falling at that exact moment. It's probably the one time of year I'm okay with that kind of stuff, I've come to accept it, people love the holidays, they love happy moments. Those joyous occasions make all the strife the characters (and sometimes the viewers) suffered through during the year almost worth it. For all of the celebrating I don't do in real life, I cherish like an old friend when it comes to soaps.
For the past few years, however, soaps have been rather hit and run when it has come to the holiday cheer. Oh sure, they were celebrating, going through many of the traditions, running through the motions, but the heart of celebrating and the purpose was clearly missing. I know that not every soap throughout history should have every character happy, having no angst, with every soap stopping their tales of woe so every one can be jolly, I get that. But clearly the atmosphere is missing, clearly the warmth, honesty, togetherness, friendliness, and sense of family has been destroyed so severely, mowed over, there is nothing left. Last year I talked about how pervasive coldness and misery had taken away what viewers looked forward to during the holiday season, but it seems each year even more of the holiday spirit is missing. We've gone from soaps occasionally botching a holiday, to being incredibly negative during the holidays to practically skipping over the holidays in some cases.
Once again, in an attempt to resuscitate soaps' ability to keep viewers' glued their seats, anticipating the next twist in each story, writers' focus on suspense for the first ten months of the year. That lack of balance cripples the holiday season. Now more often than not, when a family sits down to Thanksgiving dinner, what is being served is a bunch of lies. Gone are the miracles of those hanging by a thread in comas waking up on Christmas Eve; now people going into comas on Christmas day. It's not that soaps aren't trying, they are, really they are, and sometimes they hit the right note. Last year's Thanksgiving on All My Children had Maureen's memory of her life with Edmund being sparked (far better news when you don't know what was coming later). As the World Turns' has kept at least the tradition of Bob's holiday speeches no matter how dire the holiday is otherwise. One Life to Live for the past few years have kept the mood light with holiday fantasies. This year, Guiding Light in a rather odd twist consider their poor state of affairs, actually made the biggest effort to have elements of family, happiness, and hope. And of course Days' has the perennial favorites of reading to the children at the hospital and the Horton ornaments. But these days writers aren't taking seriously the importance of setting up stories with the holidays in mind.
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