Christmas is usually the time of year that is focused around magic. The magic of the holidays! The magic of Santa! The magic of unbuttoning your pants after Christmas dinner! But Thanksgiving has some magic too. The delicious food, the wonderful family, maybe not all the questions that come with said family, but they do bring more food. This holiday also brings my yearly Harry Potter marathon.
In 2013, I came to the realization that my two best friends had gone their whole lives without reading or watching anything within the Harry Potter franchise. As someone who is an avid fan, this just would not do. Now, as hard as I tried, they refused to read the books, so the second best option was to get them to watch the movies. Thanksgiving six years ago was the first of our tradition.
Watching Harry Potter every year always gives me something to look forward to. It gives me a chance to spend long hours watching and explaining movies I love to people that have grown to do the same. The first year we watched it I spent a lot of time answering questions and telling them to get off their phones, but once they settled into the plot and found their footing, I no longer had to prompt them to watch. They would ask to put on whichever film we were on over pancake breakfast, or tell me to bring the next few over while it was snowing outside. From smiling at the romantic moments, to relating to the Golden Trio, and crying together over the tragic death of our favorite character (spoiler free for all the readers who still haven’t conquered the series in any capacity), it provided us with something else to bond over. Plus, they made me watch all their favorite movies, so it was about time they watched some of mine.
This year, the first year that all of us have been away from each other, is the year that the tradition will mean the most. I’ve gone from seeing them almost every night to once a month if I’m lucky. This year we get to continue our tradition in a new phase of our lives, and while a lot of things have changed, our tradition has stayed the same. Maybe next year I’ll actually get them to read the books.