The Stars of Stage and Screen: Song #47/250: The Christmas Song by The Raveonettes from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack to the Film Christmas With the Kranks

Approximately twenty-thirty minutes west of where I live sits the town of Bowmanville, Ontario. About five minutes north of the town is a residential area on a street that runs parallel to the main highway called Old Scugog Rd. Many of the homes on Old Scugog Rd. are large and fancy, well beyond the financial means of someone like me to afford. Every property seems to be landscaped immaculately. There are no potholes in the pavement nor public bus routes in this part of town. Old Scugog Rd. is actually one of the most famous neighbourhoods anywhere near where I live. But its fame doesn’t come from the manicured lawns and well-kept gardens. Old Scugog Rd. is famous because of Christmas. You see, once the holiday season rolls around, Old Scugog Rd. undergoes a magical transformation. Just about every family on both sides of the road decorate their homes with lights and candles and lasers and video screen displays, turning staid and stately Old Scugog Rd. into something the locals call Candy Cane Lane. For a period of four-six weeks starting near the first of December, hundreds and even thousands of cars per night descend on this two-three kilometre stretch of country road. The lineup of vehicles stretches as far as the eye can see, but because of the holiday spectacle that exists all around, it is the one time of the year that you don’t mind being stuck in a traffic jam. For many locals, a trip to Candy Cane Lane has become part of their family’s holiday traditions. For us, living just far enough away as we do, we have only taken our girls there three or four times in their lifetime. When we do visit Candy Cane Lane, we marvel at the sheer enormity of the effort that these homeowners put into decorating their homes. Just about every square inch of their homes and properties is decorated in one way, shape or form. My wife and I have both agreed that if we were to ever move into the Old Scugog Rd. neighbourhood it would bring with it a sense of obligation and an awfully great amount of personal pressure to decorate to the standard set by the folks who would be our neighbours. That line of thinking makes me wonder what the reaction would be if a family moved into Old Scugog Rd. and didn’t celebrate Christmas or simply decided that Christmas was about something more and that the decorating mania had gotten out of hand and they weren’t going to submit to the peer pressure any longer! I don’t know exactly what the reaction would be because I can’t afford to buy into that neighbourhood and find out for myself. But I imagine those who already live there wouldn’t be too happy, to put it mildly.

It is this type of scenario that fuels the plotline of the Christmas movie Christmas With the Kranks.  This movie was based upon a short story by famed author John Grisham called Skipping Christmas. The film was directed by Chris Columbus who also directed the Home Alone movies *(you can read a previous post about music from Home Alone here), Adventures in Babysitting (which both of my girls really enjoyed), as well as several of the Harry Potter movies. Christmas With the Kranks stars Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis as the Kranks. The story begins with the news that their only daughter (who is eighteen) is leaving for a stint with the Peace Corps and won’t be home for Christmas. In the past, the Kranks had gone all out for Christmas and had spent oodles of money on gifts, decorating and neighbourhood parties. The rest of the neighbours on their street were like-minded, which resulted in the street where the Kranks lived being one of the most highly decorated streets in their town. However, once the Kranks realize that their only child won’t be there for Christmas, the spirit of the season leaves them. They decide that, instead of going all out for the holidays as usual, they would take the money they were planning on spending and use it to take a Caribbean cruise to get completely away from their home and the emptiness that they feel in their house. The decision is a logical one in all aspects except for the reaction of their neighbours. To say that the neighbours are upset that there will be a darkened house in the middle of their lighted ones is an understatement. Led by a neighbour played by Dan Aykroyd, there is much acrimony and upset that transpires in slapstick comedic fashion. Despite the tension on the street, the Kranks proceed with their trip plans until it comes to December 23rd. This is when their daughter calls to inform her parents that she has fallen in love and wants to bring her new fiancé home to experience a Krank Family Christmas. Just like that, the Kranks abandon their cruise ship plans and engage in a desperate last-minute scramble to decorate the house, stock the cupboards and prepare for their annual Christmas Eve neighbourhood holiday bash, all on twenty-four hours’ notice. Needless to say, the neighbours put their differences aside and pitch in to help. The party is so successful that the new boyfriend thinks the large welcome is specifically for him and is very touched by it all. Everyone is happy in the end. That sense of family and community comes to the fore. The Kranks even take their cruise tickets and gift them to a family on their street that was going through a hard time. It all works out for everyone. The film’s message being that the true spirit of Christmas is not the dazzling lights and decorative baubles. Instead it is friendship, familial love and acts of kindness and community that make the day so special.

When John Grisham wrote his short story, he did so with the intent of lampooning the growing emphasis of spectacle and commercialization at Christmas time. He felt that the nation needed a reminder of the true meaning of Christmas and of getting back to its spiritual roots. When Chris Columbus decided to take the helm of this film, one of the decisions that he made was to take the music used throughout the film back to its roots as well. To help with this task he hired veteran musician Steven Van Zandt. You may know Van Zandt as guitarist for Bruce Springsteen as part of his E Street Band, or perhaps for his role on the TV show The Sopranos, or his efforts to spearhead the anti-apartheid movement that aimed to inflict financial punishment on the apartheid government in South Africa at the time by boycotting their resort known as Sun City. But what you may not know is that Steven Van Zandt is also a music historian of some note. He has done a lot of work creating radio shows that showcase the work of musical originators such as Ronnie Spector, Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes and so on. Director Chris Columbus felt that Van Zandt was the perfect choice to use music to reinforce the message that Christmas values were askew and that a reminder of the deeper meaning of the season was needed. In many ways, Christmas With the Kranks was inspired by the animated classic A Charlie Brown Christmas. As you may know from that cartoon *(which you can read more about here), music played a great role in shaping the atmosphere which made the speech by Linus about the true meaning of Christmas possible. The soft, gentle jazz-influenced soundtrack created a sense of warmth and camaraderie simply by the nature of its sound. Thus, Steven Van Zandt wished to do the same for his film Christmas With the Kranks. The first indication of his magical musical touch can be seen in the opening scene of the movie with the track “The Christmas Song” by Danish duo The Raveonettes playing as everyone decorates their homes in an over-the-top orgy of lights, bells and figurines.

The Raveonettes have been together for about fifteen years. They hail from Denmark and consist of singers Sune Rose Wagner and Sharin Foo. Many who have heard their music say it borrows a lot from acts such as The Everly Brothers. In fact, one of the things that Steven Van Zandt did when creating the soundtrack for this movie was to hire indie bands such as The Raveonettes due to their ability to channel the sound of famous singers and bands from long ago. Many of the songs that make up this soundtrack are Christmas classics, but all songs are performed by indie bands with direct ties to the roots of rock n’ roll. “The Christmas Song” by The Raveonettes is a song that speaks to the idea of home and what that means for each of us. For many, like me, home means warmth and love and safety and good food and happiness. For many others, the idea of home is less idyllic. Regardless of which side of the issue you come down on, the idea of coming home for Christmas is affected by your emotional view of what home means to you.This is what “The Christmas Song” by The Raveonettes explores with their dreamy vocal and restrained instrumentation. It was felt that without having the actors say anything, the simple placement of this song in the opening scene of the film would help to create a sense that something was amiss with the way these folks were looking at Christmas and that, perhaps, change was coming and that this change would be the real gift of Christmas for everyone on this street.

As far as critics go, Christmas With the Kranks received fairly poor ratings. Most of these critics complained that the humour was juvenile and that the plotline was predictable. However, a funny thing happened on the way to those many one- and two-star reviews. Church groups and other Christian-leaning organizations leapt to the film’s defense. They stated that a movie such as Christmas With the Kranks, although filled with threats between neighbours and much physical, slapstick comedy, was one that ultimately delivered on its message that Christmas means more than the superficial gaudiness of overly decorated houses and the amount of credit card debt you can ring up buying gift after gift after gift. These groups claimed that the importance of love and family and helping your neighbour and empathy and friendship all shone through in the end, leaving a warm feeling with audiences and viewers on TV. I will leave it up to you to see if Christmas With the Kranks is your kind of movie. All that I do know is that I have always believed in the importance of family, and I have always maintained that there is nothing more powerful nor important in the world than love. When my family and I find ourselves gazing through our car windows at the lights that abound all around us on Candy Cane Lane, I often find myself hoping that the people inside of those homes find happiness in what they have become involved with. The scale of it all is overwhelming to me. At our home, we are minimalist decorators when it comes to our yard. We have a small pink flying pig that lights up (because the girls and I find it funny), a couple of wreaths and garlands and not much else. We do it this way because we know that what is important for us at Christmas has more to do with the people who live inside our house and the warmth of the feelings that exist there. There is no steady stream of cars slowly driving by our home to gawk at our decorations. However, there are a few cars that every once in a while stop in our driveway. If one of those cars happens to belong to you, feel free to knock upon our door. The beauty of our Christmas will be found inside of our home. You are always welcome to stop by and say hello. After all, being with friends and family is a large part of what Christmas With the MacInneses is all about. 🙂   

The link to the video for the trailer for the movie Christmas With the Kranks can be found here.

The link to the video for the song “The Christmas Song” as sung by The Raveonettes from the original Motion Picture Soundtrack to the film Christmas With the Kranks can be found here. ***The lyrics version is here.

The link to the official website for Steven Van Zandt can be found here.

The link to a video of what it is like to drive along Old Scugog Rd. during the holidays can be found here.

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