Mountain City Girls
Hunker down with the music-clan memoir Mountain City Girls, because what is the holiday season about, if not harmony? The subtitle (The McGarrigle Family Album) is a hint that this isn't a chronicle of the music of Kate & Anna McGarrigle, but a fireside, red-wine read about the bloodlines and domestic appreciations of the folk-singing Montreal sisters and older sibling Jane. Written by Anna and Jane – the luminous Kate died in 2010 – the scrapbook history is told frankly and warmly, with phrases turned well.
A Christmas Horror Story
Ring up A Christmas Horror Story (available on DVD or Video on Demand), because there's a time for nice – and then there's a time for naughty. On the night before Christmas, four small-town storylines go bump in the night, loosely framed by William Shatner as a drink-y, dulcet-toned disc jockey whose attempt to keep things cheery is hampered by a troubling development down at the local mall. Bloody and elf-impaling, the campy fun ends with an excellent twist.
Carol
Hit the theatres for Carol, because a Christmas-set, same-sex romance from director Todd Haynes is progressive holiday entertainment. Cate Blanchett, playing an older woman going through an especially trying divorce, co-stars with Rooney Mara as a doe-eyed young photographer. A tale of forbidden love in the fifties, the film comes out in the same year the U.S. Supreme Court finally okayed gay marriage. To Carol, on screen on Dec. 11, say I do.
The Nutcracker
Witness The Nutcracker, because the National Ballet of Canada knows how to raise the barre on a holiday classic. The stage at Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts is to be transformed into its annual Russian winter wonderland, complete with a twinkly Tchaikovsky score, a Fabergé egg and a fairy of the sugar-plum kind. The sumptuous internationally renowned ballet, choreographed by James Kudelka, runs to Jan. 3.
Jessica Jones
Binge on the new Netflix series Jessica Jones, because every holiday needs more kick-ass female heroes. In a small-screen series with a big-screen punch, Krysten Ritter stars as a former superheroine who opens up a detective agency. She's caustic and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder; the drama and humour is dark and harshly honest. Not your cup of tea? Jessica Jones doesn't give a damn.
Fifteen Dogs
Dog-ear the pages of Fifteen Dogs by André Alexis, because there's no better time to catch up with the Giller-winning novel. With his thoughtful, big-hearted new book, the author Alexis attempts to answers a question that has been dogging mankind for years: Who lives happier, the hound or the human? We won't give you the answer, but we will say that reading Fifteen Dogs will make you wish you had a tail to wag.
Art Angels
Be amazed by Grimes's new album Art Angels, because every time you listen to this brilliant weirdo masterpiece, an angel gets her wings. Pop music shifts and transforms (except when it comes to Adele), and now we seem to be moving into an age in which pop music is cool again. Look no further than the Montreal electro-pop pixie Claire Elise Boucher (a.k.a. Grimes), whose latest effort represents an artful move from indie-world darling to a mainstream lane.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Force yourself to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens, because J.J. Abrams's space-opera epic will go galactic on Dec. 18, and you don't want to be the Obi-Wan who doesn't see the thing. The seventh instalment of the Star Wars series (and first in a sequel trilogy) is set some three decades after the star-crossed happenings of 1983's Return of the Jedi. Speaking of which, welcome back Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher.
F is for Family
Check out F is for Family, because F can also stand for "funny." On Dec. 18, Netflix will drop the six episodes of the new animated series from acerbic American comedian Bill Burr. The show is set in the politically incorrect 1970s, an era, according to a network press release, "when you could smack your kid, smoke inside and bring a gun to the airport." Ah, sweet nostalgia.
Trans-Siberian Orchestra's The Ghosts of Christmas Eve
Brave the Trans-Siberian Orchestra's The Ghosts of Christmas Eve tour, because some carols need the rock-opera touch. And you don't need to wait until Christmas Eve to actually take in the pyrotechnic spectacle, because the storm-subtle prog rockers play Ottawa's Canadian Tire Centre on Dec. 22 and Toronto's Air Canada Centre one day later.
Killing and Dying
Buy Adrian Tomine's Killing and Dying, because the misanthropic teen in your life will secretly thank you for the gesture. Tomine, the Brooklyn, N.Y.-based cartoonist known for his New Yorker magazine covers, this year released the newest collection of his comic-book series Optic Nerve, which he began self-publishing long ago as a 16-year-old. Now in his early 40s, Tomine continues to impassion the moody teenage doodlers.
Paddington
Stuff a stocking with a DVD of Paddington, because everyone needs a bear hug now and then. This is not only a dandy, playful movie about a talking bear in London, but one that gives pause for thought, too. Nicole Kidman (in snakeskin body suit) plays a villain equipped with looks that kill and blowgun that is just as deadly, but she meets her match in an adorable (if highly disruptive) marmalade-obsessed cub.
Related: