I wondering if this is the new Christmas tradition for my family during the holidays?
My Mom and Dad still have a working VCR. For the kids born after 2000, this was the most popular way to watch movies back in the 90’s. Blockbuster was Netflix. The corner store was Disney+. It’s an era that will most likely never come back (but who knows, vinyl records are popular again).
My Mom asked me to hook up the VCR last night. They said it wouldn’t work on Chanel 3 or 4…which was the way to watch movies if it was connected through the coaxial cable. I got it working with the RCA cables (white,yellow and red). She wanted to watch the legendary Christmas movie “Ernest Saves Christmas”
The copy we have is a taped version from 2002. It was being shown on the Family Channel…and recording a show or movie now is MUCH easier. With that, the first few minutes are missing on the tape. Mom says that the VCR programming screwed up, so she had to do it manually.
My parents have about 3 giant boxes full of VHS tapes. They have a lot of Christmas movies too. Christmas Vacation, A Christmas Carol and the legendary Merry Christmas Mr. Bean. , just to name a few!
There’s some sort of charm with watching these movies “the old fashioned way”. Yeah, most of these movies are on the streaming services, but there’s just something about the low quality of the picture that brings me back to a time where has to make sure the VCR was set to tape at 6:55PM, just in case the show started early.
Fun fact as well; I can’t find Ernest Saves Christmas on ANY streaming service. So, it’s a good thing Mom kept the big ol’ box of tapes!
