I don’t know how many people are like me but for some reason, I always feel more productive when there’s background noise. Music (with lyrics) works, but bad television is better. Of course, it can’t be anything too intriguing—if I actually want to watch and pay attention to it, I will get sucked in and nothing will be completed. Still, if the plot is fairly easy to follow (think Disney Channel movies) or I’ve seen it a million times (any of John Hughes’ teenage 80’s classics), then it actually helps me get work done.
With finals coming up, I’m constantly vacillating between needing TV shows to watch to de-stress (a twenty-minute episode of New Girl is a perfect, comedic study break) and something light to watch in the background while I work on my papers/attempt to remember everything we’ve done in the last semester. Luckily for me, the end of fall semester coincides with the most wonderful time of the year. That is, the holiday/Christmas season we are all looking forward to fully celebrating when we finally finish all of our finals and head back home for winter break.
Holiday movies are great. They are almost always light, a little bit cheesy and end with a happily-ever-after (or at least, a happy holiday season).
Back in high school, my December study movies almost always consisted of whatever was being played on ABC Family’s 25 Days of Christmas. My favorites were always the most classic videos (Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, and, of course, A Year Without A Santa Claus). Now, though, with the arrival of holiday movies on Netflix, I’ve decided to skip the commercials and use Netflix to my advantage.
Netflix has classics like White Christmas, The Muppet Christmas Carol, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Love Actually and even Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas (which I have a strange, unapologetic passion for). There’s even some newer movies—Holiday in Handcuffs and Anna Kendrick’s and Lena Dunham’s Happy Christmas (which is a little darker than your average Christmas flick but still a fun watch).
As I prepare for finals, I’ve used my movie watching time/background noise to start to get into the Christmas spirit. When I need to be more serious or spend some serious time in the library, Spotify and Christmas music playlists are my best friends (but only for a short time—my tolerance for Christmas music doesn’t last nearly as long as it should).
I suppose the entire point of this article is that even though we all have to get through finals and there’s a lot of stressed involved, we can use our study time to get into the holiday spirit. Whether you can watch movies while studying or not, there are ways to access what December should be, even as we cram for tests and write papers.
There’s music, Christmas cookies and all the Netflix movies we could want. It’s a short glimpse into what life will be like after we finally leave campus next week, which is exactly what I, at least, need to push myself through these final moments.
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