It’s Festivus for fed-up flyers as long as they keep their moves PG.
The Orlando International Airport (MCO) set up a comment box with a pen and paper where annoyed travelers could submit “airing of grievances” Saturday alongside a traditional Festivus pole inspired by an episode of “Seinfeld.”
“For those that celebrate today’s date, please join us for the ‘Festivus for the rest of us,’” read the poster set up in the airport on Dec. 23 – the annual day for the unofficial holiday.
“Please use the comment box for the Airing of Grievances,” it stated, in reference to one of the main traditions associated with the non-secular, fictitious holiday.
The bustling Florida terminal only asked patrons to please not bust a move on the unadorned metal pole — the anti-commercial alternative to a Christmas tree in Festivus lore — noting it was not for pole dancing.
“Please do not climb on the Festivus Pole,” the message read. “The Festivus Pole is not a Dancing Pole.”
The Orlando International Airport (MCO) set the comment box for the tradition called the “airing of grievances” inspired by an episode of “Seinfeld.” Orlando International Airport
Festivus has grown in popularity after it was introduced on a Dec. 18, 1997 episode of the sitcom “Seinfeld.” In the episode titled “The Stike,” George Costanza’s (Jason Alexander) father, Frank, (the late Jerry Stiller) created the unusual observance with its own specific set of traditions in a fight against Christmas commercialization.
One tradition is called the “feats of strength” and involves a wrestling match with the head of the household.
The airport requested travelers refrain from that holiday activity in its note.
Jerry Stiller (L), who played Frank Costanza on the hit sitcom, created the unusual observance with its own specific set of traditions in a fight against Christmas commercialization. Orlando International Airport
And MCO insisted travelers not take a swing on the pole that appropriately lacked tinsel because as Frank would say, it’s “distracting.”
“It’s got a very high strength-to-weight ratio and no tinsel!” the airport tweeted in a nod to the metal beam used by the elder Costanza in lieu of a Christmas tree.
Social media users voiced compliments as well as tongue-in-cheek complaints over the single-day fixture.
Festivus has grown in popularity after it was introduced on a Dec. 18, 1997 episode of the sitcom “Seinfeld.” Orlando International Airport
“I got a lot of problems with you people … and you’re gonna hear about it!!.”one user tweeted. “(Not actually you, @MCO).”
“My grievance is that I missed,” another user wrote with the crying face emoji.
In the fine print of a poster, the airport made clear the celebration was a “source of homage, parody, satire, and humor.”
“If you’re still reading this, we hope your day is full of Festivus Miracles!” the signage concluded.
Great American Family may seen to be breaking the mold with a supposedly European male leadin A Royal Christmas Holiday, but don’t worry, they’re still committed to good ol’ American values. This new romance movie features Brittany Underwoodas an American reporter and Jonathan Stoddardas a foreign royal who end up falling for one another despite coming from two very different worlds. Can our plucky female lead’s American ways show her prince the true meaning of Christmas and love? Keep reading to find out.
The Gist: Katie Viana (Brittany Underwood) does community service updates for local news station WYED TV but wants to be regular on-air journalistic talent with her own segment like like the station’s current on-camera star and off-camera diva Carol Jordan (Meredith Thomas). Katie asks her boss, program director Jerrod (William Baldwin), to assign her something more meaningful, and while he initially tells her to just hunker down and work her way up, he ends up assigning her a big new exclusive up for grabs thanks to Carol’s upcoming holiday vacation.
The local military museum is opening a new exhibit dedicated to World War II veterans and one of the sponsors is the European Kingdom of Visaria, which is sending Prince Jonathan Wentworth (Jonathan Stoddard) as their representative. Jerrod promises Katie that if she can land an interview with the notoriously camera-shy prince, then she’ll get her own special news segment. Prepared to dig deep to achieve her career goal, Katie dedicates herself to getting the scoop from Jonathan on his visit to the museum and newly released book about his World War II veteran grandfather, but in the process ends up getting closer to her subject than she ever could have imagined. Will these two star-crossed lovers find something lasting during the holiday season, or will their differences be their ultimate undoing?
Performance Worth Watching: I guess Louie Chapman as Jonathan’s aide, Louis, because he had to say lines like, “‘Tis a tangled web that won’t be easily untangled” and “What’s done is done. It’s water under the bridge, it’s six feet under, it’s kicking up the daisies,” with a straight face.
Memorable Dialogue: “I was deprived so many things growing up. No sports teams. I didn’t even have a bicycle in fear that I might get hurt.” Wow, Jonathan, thank you for opening up about your heart-wrenching childhood. Being a prince sounds very hard.
Honorable mention for “You’re a prince and she’s a television presenter. How could you have possibly made that work?”
A Holiday Tradition: It seems like it’s a tradition for a store in Katie’s hometown to hire someone to play Santa Claus for the local kids. And when this year’s Santa’s car breaks down on the way over, Prince Jonathan volunteers himself to keep the celebration alive by playing a Santa, himself, and he gets weirdly into it.
Photo: GAC Media
Does the Title Make Any Sense?: There’s a character who’s a royal and the action takes place over the holiday season so, sure, in a vague sort of way, it makes sense.
Our Take: Essentially, nothing really happens in A Royal Christmas Holiday. On the surface it kind of seems like it does, but look a little closer and you realize there wasn’t really any significant conflict or climax to raise the stakes or get viewers invested. Katie wants to get her own news special and… she does. Epic.
The only “conflicts” that happen along the way don’t actually happen. Like how Prince Jonathan revealing that a ghost writer wrote his book for him never even airs in Katie’s final story (which is kind of a shame, because instead of doing the mature thing and being vulnerable with the world, he’s just going to live a lie). Or how Katie overhears Jonathan loudly talking to Louis about his fiancée only for him to reveal he doesn’t actually have a fiancée and it’s just some story his mum cooked up for the press. What was the point of any of it if, then? Even Katie’s poor dad breaks his leg falling off a roof as a mere plot device to drive Jonathan and Katie closer together. It all just made the whole thing ring emotionally hollow.
The performances themselves also definitely leave something to be desired. While Brittany Underwood is decent as Katie, her work is undermined by Jonathan Stoddard’s unconvincing accent work, overactive eyebrows, and sometimes uncomfortable attempts at smolder. His performance kept reminding me of a strange cross of Joey Tribbiani from Friends and Homelander from The Boys, and I found it all a bit distracting (especially the eyebrows). To be fair to Stoddard, though, he was tasked with evoking a Great Britain knock-off country that not only doesn’t exist but also is a place and culture we learn almost nothing about beyond it having a monarchy and apparently not allowing royal kids to ride bikes, which definitely doesn’t add much information or backstory for a person’s character.
I know I’ve been pouring on the Jonathan critiques but Katie is also kind of an oddball in her own right. She’s able to creepily figure out the exact suite Jonathan is staying at so she can get close to him for her story in addition to waiting out his initial entrance at the airport so she can get an in with him (which is laughably easy since the prince is apparently a sucker for a pretty face. If he’s royalty, why doesn’t he have a security team?!). With all of that in mind, you’d think they’d make a great couple, but unfortunately there’s very little chemistry between them. Even so, they somehow manage to fall in love in the span of like three days despite being from totally different worlds. I really don’t see this working out longterm, but I guess I wish them luck anyway?
Our Call: SKIP IT. A Royal Christmas Holiday‘s unfortunately lacks enough originality, stakes, or charm to make it stand out from the many other “royal” holiday titles currently out there available for streaming.
Mom of two Abby Ordenana wanted the picture perfect shot for her family Christmas card this year.
But she didn’t want to shuffle off to the mall to have a halfway decent frame snapped by a seasonal department store shutterbug, nor did she feel like setting the timer on her camera phone, sprinting into place and hoping not to look a disheveled, sweaty fright after the flash.
So, Ordenana, 32, Photoshopped herself, her 11-year-old daughter and their dog Zeus into a holiday snap set against a $2,000 all-fabric backdrop, which she purchased earlier in the year for work, alongside her husband Elias and son Ezra, 8, in their living room.
“Photoshopping my Christmas picture was great because [the software] literally allows you to create anything. Sky’s the limit,” Ordenana, a newborn and maternity photographer from Orlando, Fla., explained to The Post.
Abby Ordenana spent over an hour photoshopping herself into her annual family Christmas photo in the hopes of creating the “perfect” shot. Abby Ordenana/BoVice Photography
To stitch together the yuletide visual, she first set each member of her family into position and took their photo on her Canon EOS 6D camera, leaving a space between her kids empty. Then, she had Aria step out of the shot to take a photo of her seated in the vacant spot she created in the initial shot.
And after 30 minutes of picture taking, Ordenana spent another 45 minutes meticulously merging the two shots together, and adding in a previously snapped picture of Zeus, to actualize “the perfect image.” And her nearly seamless edit scored over 227,000 likes on TikTok.
“It’s a complicated process,” she admitted with a laugh. “But I want my kids to one day look back at the photo and say, ‘Wow, mom really outdid herself when it came to getting those Christmas pictures — so much so that she photoshopped herself in there.’”
And Ordenana isn’t the only one to use the image-editing software to create holiday magic this season. In fact, the hashtag #ChristmasPhotoshop has earned over 10,000 TikTok views. However, not everyone is getting a cheery thumbs up for their retouching efforts.
Paula Abdul looked nearly unrecognizable to fans when she shared images of herself at a holiday gathering last week. Getty Images
Fans online noted the stark contrast between Abdul’s blemish-free face compared to others, like Kathy Hilton (R). paulaabdul/Instagram
Social media scrooges recently gave “American Idol” veteran judge Paula Abdul, 60, a virtual lump of coal after she shared a series of presumed photoshopped images of herself at Kathy Hilton’s Christmas party online.
Billionaire trendsetter Kim Kardashian, 42, too, caught jingle bell hell for allegedly photoshopping in her sisters and mother Kris Jenner into a festive family image that she shared on Instagram.
Internet trolls blasted Kim Kardashian with accusations claiming she photoshopped her family into a Christmas frame. kimkardashian/Instagram
Digital detectives pointed out irregularities in their group picture.
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Digital whistleblowers called out the reality stars for their awkward body positioning, strange facials expressions and uneven lighting in the shot. And for posting the peculiar picture, photoshop accusers called the Skims mogul “shallow” and “garbage.”
But Kardashian, who’s previously fallen victim to a number of viral photoshop fails, set the record straight about her controversial Christmas snap Wednesday. On her Instagram Story, the A-lister shared behind-the-scenes footage of her clan posing together for the group shot.
Caitie Corkal has made photoshopping her family Christmas cards an annual tradition. Caitie Corkal Photography
Her cheeky edits have amassed several million views from impressed onlookers on TikTok. Caitie Corkal Photography
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And while Kardashian successfully dodged her most recent string of photoshop charges, professional photographer Caitie Corkal tells The Post that piecing together separate photos to create one cohesive portrait can add a dash of whimsy to an otherwise humdrum holiday novelty.
“Photoshopping our annual Christmas photo allows me to make something fun and lighthearted that makes people laugh,” said Corkal, 31, from Toronto. Each year she transforms individual pictures of herself, her husband Liam and their two dogs and two cats into a wacky season’s greeting card.
“It hard to get us all in one room and posed for a family picture,” Corkal confessed. “So, photoshopping us together gives us something that everyone loves rather than a boring, cookie-cutter shot.”
A woman in California died early Christmas morning in a heartbreaking house fire sparked by an artificial Christmas tree.
Destiny Abdrazack, 22, was celebrating Christmas Eve with her fiancé’s family in their North Highlands home when an electrical short from the tree ignited a roaring fire around 2 a.m. Sunday, local NBC affiliate KCRA3 reported.
Abdrazack yelled that there were flames, awakening the five others in the house, which didn’t have working smoke alarms, according to her fiancé’s father Ernest Isom.
“She was the one who yelled fire, and that’s the sad part,” Isom told KCRA3 of the woman who was to be his future daughter-in-law. “She saved our lives.”
Abdrazack was pulled out of the burning building by firefighters, but later died at an area hospital.
The five others in the house — Isom, his wife and son and two other adults — survived.
Isom said the family had fallen asleep without turning off the Christmas tree lights.
“Unfortunately, they wanted to keep the lights on until the last minute and we all happened to fall asleep and we had an instant, seconds to get out,” he told the station. “It was fast, and that’s how quick it went. I’m talking minutes.”
Two family dogs also died in the fire and the house was destroyed.
Neighbors told the local news station that they woke up to a loud sound and looked out the window to see flames shooting out of the home.
“You could see the flickering light on the tree and that’s kind of like the telltale sign of a fire,” Richard Byers said.
He ran out of his house and grabbed a fire extinguisher while another neighbor used a garden house to try to put out the inferno to no avail.
“The fire just came right back,” Byers said. “It was too intense, moving too fast.”
His wife, Brandy Byers said when they came out of their home three doors down they saw Isom’s family standing outside shouting for help.
“They were screaming, ‘Destiny! There’s someone inside! There’s someone inside!” Brandy Byers told KCRA3. “There [was] nothing any of us could do.”
Firefighters rescued Abdrazack from the living room of the home and she was taken to an area hospital in critical condition.
Her family confirmed her death the next day and set up a GoFundMe to raise money to cover her hospital and funeral expenses.
The 4-year-old royal was snapped tugging on Kate Middleton’s arm in a valiant attempt to get her to stop talking and move it along as his mom greeted well-wishers outside St. Mary Magdalene’s church on Christmas Day.
The outing marked the first time that the Prince and Princess of Wales’ youngest child joined his parents and siblings—Prince George, 9, and Princess Charlotte—for the royal family’s traditional holiday church service.
Although Louis seemingly attended the service last year, COVID-19 precautions prevented the royals from their traditional walk to the service as well as saying hello to members of the public lined up outside.
Louis is quite the family cutup having stolen the show during the late Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations in June.
The youngster memorably pulled a host of silly faces during an appearance on Buckingham Palace’s balcony during the Trooping of the Colour ceremony.
It was the first time Prince Louis walked to the Christmas church service. Samir Hussein/WireImage
It was the first time Prince Louis walked to the Christmas church service. UK Press via Getty Images
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It was the first time Prince Louis walked to the Christmas church service. Samir Hussein/WireImage
In a roundup of Instagram photos from the four days of festivities, they wrote, “We all had an incredible time, especially Louis… 👀.”
Zara and Mike Tindall brought their 4-year-old daughter, Lena.UK Press via Getty Images
Louis wasn’t the only junior royal to make his debut Christmas walk this year.
Zara and Mike Tindall brought along their daughters—Mia and Lena—for the service and walkabout, although their 1-year-old son Lucas stayed home.
Princess Beatrice attended alongside her husband, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi and stepson Christopher Woolf.PA Images via Getty Images
Princess Beatrice attended with her stepson, Christoper Woolf, and husband, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, while their 1-year-old daughter, Sienna, stayed home. Beatrice’s sister, Princess Eugenie, was also there along with her husband Jack Brooksbank. They also left their babym 1-year-old son August, at home.
A Tennessee man – whose heart was perhaps two sizes too small – played the role of holiday villain Sunday when he burned down a family’s Christmas tree and a child’s gifts under it, authorities said.
James Walker, 25, allegedly stole items from an apartment and stuffed them in his car before he heartlessly threw a child’s blanket over the tree and lit it on fire, Dyersburg police said in a Facebook post.
Responding officers saw that a window was opened to vent the fire and the home’s smoke detector was covered up, police said.
James Walker, of Tennessee, is accused of burning down a Christmas tree early Sunday.Dyersburg Police DepartmentThe charred gifts were replaced with new ones. Dyersburg Police Department
The victim wasn’t home at the time of the fire that occurred shortly after midnight, but later told police that the suspect was an acquaintance. The victim also told officers earlier that day that she and her brother got into an altercation with Walker, according to authorities.
Walker was arrested by police officers following a short foot pursuit, authorities said. Among the charges he faces include aggravated burglary, aggravated arson, resisting arrest and public intoxication.
Dyersburg police – through its outreach program – also help the victimized household by replacing the child’s gifts that were destroyed and even contributed a few extra toys ahead of Christmas Day, the department said.
She’s long been famous in Britain as a writer and cookbook author, but Mary Berry broke into international renown with the transatlantic appeal of The Great British Baking Show. While she served as a tough-but-fair judge on the long-running competition, she’s the one making the food on Mary Berry’s Ultimate Christmas, a new holiday special streaming on PBS. Over the course of the hour-long special, Berry prepares a multi-course holiday meal, from pre-dinner canapes on to desserts.
Opening Shot: Mary Berry sits in a tastefully-appointed living room near a roaring fire, consulting a notebook full of ideas. She’s planning out a delicious multi-course Christmas dinner, and you’re going to get to see all of it come together.
The Gist: Christmas is coming, and Mary Berry has advice for the perfect holiday menu and how to make it. Over the course of this hour-long special, Berry makes miniature scones, handmade pasta, a Christmas pudding, a succulent roast turkey, stuffing, vegetables and dessert. The dishes naturally trend toward British traditions, but they’re so expertly made even the most American viewers will be salivating.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Strong Barefoot Contessa vibes are on display here; unapologetically fancy food made by an upper-crust entertaining expert who still makes the hoi polloi like you feel at home.
Photo: PBS
Our Take: If you’re like millions of other viewers here in the States, you’ve become aware of Mary Berry as the stern backbone of The Great British Baking Show. For the first seven seasons of the wildly-popular baking competition, Berry served as one half of the judging panel, a grandmotherly contrast to the brash bullishness of Paul Hollywood. She was the judge you desperately wanted to please; the judge you didn’t want to disappoint.
On Mary Berry’s Ultimate Christmas, a new standalone hour-long holiday special airing through PBS and PBS streaming here in the States, Berry’s putting her own food on the line, and demonstrating exactly how she earned the right to judge so many technical challenges past. She’s cooking a full Christmas dinner, starting with miniature scone canapes, and progressing through a handmade pasta course, a roast turkey and potatoes, stuffing, vegetables, a rich boiled pudding flambeed with brandy, and a decadent sherry-soaked truffle. It’s a menu that’s at once glamorous and homey, showstopping and accessible; these are the kind of things a mildly-ambitious home chef might just find themselves taking on in a few days.
The special has a lovely flow, and the production is as understated as you’d expect of a British show airing through American public television; there’s none of the bombast or silliness of many American-born food shows here, just a lovely menu coming together in a smart, careful and skilled manner. Berry structures the show the way that you’d prepare the courses at home–preparing the dishes that can be prepared ahead first, and progressing to the carefully-timed choreography of the big day. She’s got a plan, a timetable, and a clear picture of how it’s all going to come together, and this is hugely instructive if you want to take on such an endeavor yourself; making a meal like this is possible, you just have to plan ahead.
Berry handles this all with the understated, dignified charm longtime viewers of GBBS will find utterly familiar. In one scene, she convinces an avowed fussy eater who professes not to like Brussels sprouts to try hers, and he’s won over as a convert after tasting her shallot-tinged dish. Mary Berry can convince you to eat your vegetables, and not just because you’re not getting any of that delicious pudding if you don’t.
Sex and Skin: Sorry to disappoint you, but the only sensuality on display here is the buttery scones.
Parting Shot: Mary and her friends–including some of the chefs she’s collaborated with on delicious dishes throughout the special–sit down around the dining table for a warm, celebratory Christmas meal, and raise a cheerful toast; you’ll find yourself wishing you were there, too.
Sleeper Star: For the first course, Mary meets with a friend of Italian heritage who helps her make handmade tortelli that look absolutely spectacular, and even Mary’s in awe of the skill with which the filled pastas are quickly and expertly made.
Most Pilot-y Line: “Opening this bottle here just makes you think of Christmas,” Berry effuses, taking a whiff of a fragrant spice mixture as she pulls together the ingredients for a sweet Christmas pudding. Later, after trying Berry’s potatoes, twice-roasted in goose fat, a friend exclaims “this truly is the miracle of Christmas!”
Our Call: STREAM IT. If you’re pulling together a holiday meal soon, you’re going to need all the help you can get, and Mary Berry’s among the best teachers you can find.
Scott Hines is an architect, blogger and proficient internet user based in Louisville, Kentucky who publishes the widely-beloved Action Cookbook Newsletter.
“It looks like Rockefeller Center coming down the block,” Masone proudly told The Post.
But Masone puts even Rock Center to shame with his nearly half-acre property that’s transformed for the holiday into a dazzling North Pole and interactive amusement park — complete with a Christmas-themed roller coaster and ice skating rink.
On a busy night, lines wrap around the block in his normally quiet Nassau County neighborhood, attracting around 500 people to the over-the-top Christmas castle with fiberglass figurines, 1,000 blow molds, and endless LED lights — all against a backdrop of Christmas tunes tthat would put even the biggest Grinch in a holiday mood.
Masone tracks the crowd based on the number of waivers they sign to skate on his temporary 45×20-foot synthetic “glice” rink, for which he provides free skates in all sizes — and for the exhilarating Santa-helmed Christmas caboose on a 55×20-foot track with four carts holding 16 little elves newly arrived from overseas via cargo ship.
Long Island’s king of Christmas, Michael Masone, used nearly a half-acre to pull off this Christmas attraction.Dennis A. Clark
Masone, a 36-year-old owner of his own masonry company, said he took out a $10 million event insurance policy this year.
On Monday, he’s hosting a block party and fundraiser for St. Jude, complete with Santa riding in on his sleigh, fireworks, face painting, a dessert table and life-sized snow globe made for selfies.
He thinks the thousands of visitors flooding his home discovered him through social media — and suspects it’s a draw for out-of-towners since he’s detected various visitors with foreign tongues.
He won’t discuss cost — but refuses to accept money from guests.
“I don’t take a single dollar for anything,” he said, adding, “It’s not their problem that I want to do this.”
The property has an interactive amusement park, Christmas-themed roller coaster and ice skating rink.Dennis A. Clark
For Masone, the goal is simple and the payoff incalculable.
“We give people something to see that they don’t see anywhere else,” he said, noting that seeing wide-eyed children marvel at the display is the real payoff.
“I don’t pat myself on the back. I don’t compete with anybody but myself,” said Masone.
Well, except maybe Dyker Heights.
“I know Dyker’s beautiful – no two ways about it,” he said. “But this is different. We have the only interactive Christmas display on Long Island.”
One Facebook fan declared, “I think he just won Christmas,” while another summed it up with a verdict of: “You are crazy and I say this in an awesome way.”
Masone’s Christmas display has nearly 500 people drop by to see the holiday attraction.Dennis A. Clark
Masone’s wife tolerates the hordes of visitors and her husband’s boyhood wonder with Christmas.
“She doesn’t like it,” he conceded — but stressed that he doesn’t bother her the rest of the year.
Except, of course, for his fanciful Fourth of July display.
Masone takes his inspiration from Michael Jordan and merrily chalks up his perfectionist spirit as an obsession.
“I have to be the absolute best at everything I do – it’s an obsession,” he said.
He’s already plotting future displays.
“I want live reindeer next year or possibly a ferris wheel,” he said. “I’m one big kid at heart. Christmas is my holiday.”
A woman in Kentucky wound up winning $175,000 in a white elephant gift exchange after her first gift was taken from her during a company holiday party.
Lori Janes, an office manager and treatment coordinator at Harmon Dental Center in Louisville, said she had initially grabbed a $25 TJ Maxx gift card at a party on Wednesday but that a fellow employee decided to take the gift from her, per the game’s rules, according to the Kentucky Lottery.
Janes then got an opportunity to choose another gift and took the gamble on $25 worth of scratch-off tickets.
“Once it got to me, it was done and mine to keep. That’s when everyone was telling me to scratch them off,” Janes recalled to lottery officials, according to FOX 5 Atlanta.
The first of the scratch-off tickets ended up winning her $50, drawing some excitement from her co-workers, she said.
The excitement grew when she scratched a “Hit The Jackpot” ticket and ended up winning the game’s top prize of $175,000.
“Everyone was going insane,” Janes continued in her statement. “People were getting their calculators out and double-checking. A couple of people even scanned the ticket on the lottery’s app, just to make sure.”
As for Janes, she “couldn’t believe it.”
“It was a twenty-five-dollar gift exchange, and I won $175,000!” she said.
The lottery winner said she shared her excitement with her family, calling her husband and children from the party.
They were skeptical at first, she said, but soon joined in the excitement.
“We figured she didn’t look at it right, but then we heard people in the background celebrating, it became real,” said her husband, who was not identified.
Hours later, Lori and the family visited the lottery headquarters where she collected a check for her after-taxes net winnings of $124,250.
“This is so crazy. I’m truly blessed,” Janes said.
Some of the funds will go towards paying off their family vehicles and her daughter‘s student loans, she said.
The shop that sold the winning ticket, the Sunrise Market located in Fisherville, will receive a $1,750 bonus, lottery officials said.
Disney+ brings the spectacle of The Hip Hop Nutcracker to homes across the globe via a brand new holiday special. The legendary Rev Run emcees the event, which remixes Tchaikovsky’s score and features performances from dancers ranging from Mikhail Baryshnikov to Jabbawockeez. But does the magic of the acclaimed live show translate from the stage to the screen, or should you wait for a production to come to your town?
The Gist: It’s the Nutcracker score along with some familiar faces (what’s a Nutcracker without a Mouse King?), but the BPM’s been amped up, the story’s been reframed, and the choreography is a tour of hip hop dance styles of the last 40 years. The plot: The only thing that Maria-Clara (Cache Melvin) wants for Christmas is for her mom (Allison Holker) and dad (Stephen Boss) to get back together. This wish just might come true thanks to the local toy shop owner/wizard Drosselmeyer (Comfort Fedoke), a vendor of nuts (Fik-Shun Stegall), and some midnight magic. But will the Mouse King (Jean Sok) put a stop to Maria-Clara’s plans? I mean, no, but The Nutcracker is about dance, not plot.
What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Am I dating myself if I say Carmen: A Hip Hopera? Maybe it’s more accurate to call this Hamilton — but with an emphasis on dance over lyrics — with a Disney aesthetic (the colors are popping) and set at Christmas. But just to point out: The Hip Hop Nutcracker production predates Hamilton by a few years, even if Hamilton premiered on Disney+ first.
Photo: Disney+
Performance Worth Watching: Comfort Fedoke takes the stage as Drosselmeyer, wearing a red cape and braids with a gold eye accessory. It’s a lot of look — probably the most look of anyone in the cast. Fedoke lives up to the look, though, playing a vogueing wizard who’s captivatingly mysterious. Love to see hand performance on Disney+.
Memorable Dialogue: The majority of The Hip Hop Nutcracker is told through a handful of narrative sentences that appear on screen to guide the story along (although honestly the performers do as good of a job propelling the plot forward just through movement). That being said, Rev Run has a few verses to drop, including this line:
But just about the time love was sprouting up This fool went and left to go sell some nuts
Did I mention that The Hip Hop Nutcracker is fun for the whole family?
Photo: Disney+
A Holiday Tradition: Well, that’s the problem Maria-Clara wants to solve. Her family no longer lights up the dance floor like they used to back in the day! Let’s get that tradition going again!
Two Turtle Doves:TheHip Hop Nutcracker seems to be the only adaptation of the quintessential Christmas ballet slated to be released this year. However, you could always pair this with 2020’s Dance Dreams: Hot Chocolate Nutcracker, the Netflix documentary that goes behind the scenes of the legendary Debbie Allen’s annual production.
Does the Title Make Any Sense?: Yes, there’s really no mistaking what you’re getting with this title.
Photo: Disney+
Our Take: Translating a stage production into a filmed one is a tough trick to pull off. If you’re not careful, it can look like a camera on a tripod at the back of the auditorium. You really don’t want that, and that’s especially not the vibe of The Hip Hop Nutcracker. Fortunately this production of the long-running stage show matches the kinetic energy of the dancing. You never forget you’re watching dancers execute their craft on a stage, but it also never feels like you’re stuck way out in the cheap seats.
This production lends itself well to a filmed format; the sets are impressive, like the recreated row of brownstones that serves as a backdrop for — I kid you not — the Mikhail Baryshnikov and Jabbawockeez number. The sets veer artfully towards expressionism for the more dreamlike sequences, and then there’s the blast of energy that is the combination nightclub / soda shoppe that subs in for the Land of Sweets.
Photo: Disney+
What’s great about The Hip Hop Nutcracker as presented by Disney+, though, is the way it beams in decades of hip hop dance history into the homes of millions. That’s particularly true of the Land of Sweets section, which highlights the moves and fashion of various decades since hip hop’s inception. It’s also remarkable how ballet, traditional ballet, is kept in the mix throughout. It exists right alongside breaking, voguing, turfing, popping, locking — all kinds of dances (including ones I definitely missed and many that I am sure I just mislabeled). I can imagine this being a favorite of any kid, tween, or teen who already loves to dance, and all the ones who will love to dance after watching this special.
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