Hey folks! Welcome to December! We hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving! There was so much food at our house y’all…we made so many sides to go with the turkey and ham, it was nuts!
With December here and Christmas fast approaching we wanted to take a moment to talk about one of our all time favorite Christmas movies and also to let y’all know about a free book we’re sending out to our newsletter subscribers!
Sisters Three is once again writing a Christmas story! This one is a MG Portal Fantasy about Santa, Jack Frost, five naughty kids, and an evil villain who wants to take over the world! Sound interesting?
We also have an EPIC mock cover that Jaidie made! Like guys…this looks so official! Though she said she skipped a few refining steps to get it done in time…but like…it’s EPIC! So here’s that:
You can receive the story a few chapters at a time through our newsletter! We sent out the Prologue and first 3 chapters yesterday, but don’t worry, if you aren’t signed up to our newsletter you can do so now and still receive OCH! We’ll be resending the chapters from the previous weeks each time we send out new chapters!
Oh, and you can add OCH to your tbr and currently reading shelves on Goodreads!
Alright, with that mentioned and out of the way here’s the post!
What Writers can Learn from Fred Claus
Every year on Black Friday our family decorates for Christmas and for the past 7 Christmases we’ve watched Fred Claus to close out the evening. We bought it several years back and then once we started watching it on Black Friday we never stopped so it’s become tradition! Some years we watch it a second time the week of Christmas because it’s our favorite family Christmas movie.
Now we’ve watched it upwards of 20 times over the years and we all have started breaking the story apart as we watch it. Noting lines we like and scenes that crack us up, but overall we marvel at how well the story is told. How pure the theme in the background is and how, even though it’s not a Christian movie, it presents beautiful Christian values.
Why do we say this?
Let’s break it down!
First Fred Claus has a central theme, there are no naughty kids. Now before you shake your head hear us out, this is true. Kids are kids, if they aren’t taught not to be bad, they don’t know they are being bad. It’s up to the parents to teach them, love them, train them, etc. It’s not a kids fault they don’t know how to behave. That is a failing of the parent.
Second theme, love is important. Kids need to know there is someone out there who loves them, sees them, and will always be there for them. This should be their parents, but as we all know we live in a fallen world.
We love this quote from the movie:
“Nick, there’s been one thing that’s been eating at me since I’ve been here. That Naughty-Nice List that you got? There’s no naughty kids, Nick. They’re all good kids. But some of them are scared. And some of them don’t feel listened to. Some of them had some pretty tough breaks too. But every kid deserves a present on Christmas.”
Fred Claus the movie
These are beautiful themes because it’s important to remember that love will get us further than anything else. That God Himself is love and tells us to love our enemies as ourselves. There are times to fight, but we should never write someone off as unworthy of our love, time, or resources because of how they act or how they look. We don’t know their story. We don’t know what walls they’ve hit or how many times they’ve been knocked down. We don’t know what someone else may have done to them that has left a scar.
It is not our job to judge, it is our job to love.
Now, of course we’re not saying go find a bad guy and marry him so he knows he’s loved. We’re saying give people a chance. Love them as a neighbor. Love them by helping them, feeding them, sharing the gospel with them. Too often this is a theme that is skimmed in books. It’s so much easier to blow the bad guys up, to brush aside the bullies, to judge the ugliness of sin in the world but never show a character reaching out.
We need more characters who reach out. More characters who see that no matter who someone is, what they’ve done, they have worth and they are loved by our Heavenly Father.
Another line we love from Fred Claus, which our dad pointed out might be the most accurate line in the movie:
“Sometimes, it’s easier to make a promise than it is to keep it.”
Fred Claus
This is just a packed line. Fred makes a promise when Nick is born…but that promise grows harder and harder as the years go by. Fred never stops loving his brother but he grows increasingly jealous and resentful at the lack of love he receives from his parents because they are enamored with how ‘good’ Nick is and never stop comparing Fred to his younger brother.
How Fred turns out in life isn’t all his fault. His parents get some blame too. Nick even because, as our Dad pointed out, he was so ‘good’ he didn’t take into consideration Fred’s feelings. Nick so wanted to do good selfless things he often didn’t think to consider how that effected his brother who wanted to do the same for Nick. Fred wanted to be the best brother to give Nick things, but that’s hard to do when your brother gives the gifts you give him away without ever even using them.
This storyline is so rich y’all. We could kept dissecting it but instead we’re gonna recommend you watch Fred Claus, maybe watch it a few times, enjoy the humor and the fun and dissect those beautiful themes woven into this Christmas Comedy movie!
Conclusion
What’s your favorite Christmas movie? Do you have one that you watch over and over again? What’s a theme you love? And are we the only ones who break movies down like this? We love doing it! XD
Stories of Hope, Purpose, & Adventure!
Sisters Three Press 
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