Holidays for Collinsport

Why don't they have and/or celebrate holidays at Collinsport?

It seems to me they could take an hour or two to celebrate.  The 4th, Halloween, Easter and the big one....Christmas.

I know they have alot on their minds, but come on Barnabas honey, lets celebrate something......anything.

I've always wondered that, too.  From my recollections, the holidays were only mentioned twice:  I think once during the Laura Collins storyline, and at the beginning of the Leviathan story, when Julia asked Carolyn if she was doing some early Christmas shopping.  Beyond that, they must've all been pilgrims (heck, not even that - they never even once mentioned Thanksgiving).

Gerard

Would the absence of any holidays being celebrated in Collinwood possibly be a part of the Collins curse?
not only dealing with the supernatural but not being able to celebrate any of the holidays as others do?

 I wonder...   

  Sarah's

Why don't they have and/or celebrate holidays at Collinsport?

It seems to me they could take an hour or two to celebrate.  The 4th, Halloween,

I think they celebrate "Halloween" every day at Collinwood!!

It would be nice to see some sort of celebrating the holidays on the show but they always seem to have had so many problems to deal with that I guess they had no time for them.
 
Deb

Would the absence of any holidays being celebrated in Collinwood possibly be a part of the Collins curse?
not only dealing with the supernatural but not being able to celebrate any of the holidays as others do?

 I wonder...   

  Sarah's

No carved jack-o-lanterns?  No turkey basting in the oven?  No dreidels?  No chestnuts roasting on an open fire next to a glimmering star-topped tree?  No exchange of Valentine's cards?  No luscious lamb dinner with scrumptious matzah soup?  No baskets filled with chocolate and jelly beans?  No honoring America's military departed with parades, wolfing down hamburgers and swilling beer?  No sparklers sizzling in the night with the sound of popping fire-crackers?

Oh, I'd be able to tolerate having a vampire around.  I'd get use to the ghosts trying to snatch the living away to their world.  I'd leave a bowl of kibble out for the werewolf.  But the curse of having no celebrations of the holidays?  Why, I would just end it all by entering that cursed room in PT1841, locking the door, and throwing away the key.

Gerard

The timing never seemed to be right to stop the story and do some Christmas episodes or work the holidays in the background with Trees and lights as other shows do.

1966 would actually have been the best time as the Bill Malloy murder story had just ended and the Laura story was just slowly getting started, so they could have had some holiday shows or scenic design.

1967 was too busy with 1795 and the leading up to Barnabas marrying Angelique.  It was not a good storyline to incorporate Christmas into.

1968 is the same as 1966 in that the Adam/Nicholas/Angelique story was over and Quentin's haunting had begun.  But it was also a transitional time as some cast members were leaving and they had to use episodes to write them out.

1969 is the Leviathan story and at least we got in one Christmas reference in the first Leviathan episode.  Though this is not a plot to incorporate Christmas so easy into.

1970 saw the 1840 story approaching it's end as well as 1841 Parallel Time on the horizion.  Things were going so fast, there was no way to place the holidays in the plot.

I wonder if it was thought that the merriment and gaeity of the holidays would detract from the somber, Gothic goings-ons ... or interject an unwanted shot of reality into the supernatural world DS created.

But I wish they had had Christmas, at least ... 

Christmas at Collinwood could have been amazing - can't you just see the foyer with a massive tree and decorations everywhere!  What a sight that would have been...

Far from detracting, I think the juxtaposition of the festive ambience with the usual DS horrors could have been extremely memorable.  There are so many opportunities it presents to delve into the macabre - I can just picture Satan - no, that's not a typo - leaving a gift under the tree, or some ribbon-festooned present oozing blood or whatever

With the exception of 1795, one could easily have incorporated the holidays any other year and still kept business as usual.  I don't know about the US soaps, but UK ones like "EastEnders" never seem compromised by the festive season - indeed you can usually count on their Christmas installments to deliver death, misery and backstabbing aplenty...  Nothing makes a better backdrop for something grisly than a bunch of people forced to enjoy one another's company, usually

The timing never seemed to be right to stop the story and do some Christmas episodes or work the holidays in the background with Trees and lights as other shows do.

1967 was too busy with 1795 and the leading up to Barnabas marrying Angelique.  It was not a good storyline to incorporate Christmas into.

It woulda been kinda neat if, during the 1795/96 storyline, they did somehow work the holidays in, just for observing the historical perception of the writers as to how the Christmas season was observed in post-colonial New England.  Of course, they could've had the characters saying that they weren't in much of a yuletide mood (what, with one family member having his face blown off, and another marrying a servant girl who turns out to be a witch, and the governess on trial for being a witch, and other sundry things getting in the way of making a good punch to toast the season), but just to hear one word or have one toast in honor of the festivities would've been interesting.

Gerard

Christmas would not have been celebrated in New England in 1795.  It was actually well into the first quarter of the 19th century before the deeply held Puritan horror of medieval feasting and merriment was tossed aside. (See "Inventing Christmas" by Jock Elliott)

In the 1897 storyline, however, celebrating Christmas with Victorian-era excess would have been completely appropriate and historically correct.

Hey these people never went on vacation or did anything FUN!no swimming pools,or tennis courts

also it never snowed in Maine and i know Maine gets a ton of snow! i would have loved to see Nicolas Blair dressed up as Santa and Willie as his elf helper!

jennifer

The timing never seemed to be right to stop the story and do some Christmas episodes or work the holidays in the background with Trees and lights as other shows do.

I don't think it's a question of the timing never being right. If you're a writer, you take the situation and you make it fit. You don't have to go the conventional route and make it a Hallmark card. Lots of other ways to treat it.

Same thing with weddings. Those are a ratings bonanza for most soaps and viewers, even those who don't usually watch a program will tune in to catch a wedding episode. On DS, those were usually meager little shotgun affairs.

I think the budget had a lot to do with that lack of celebrating.  The other thing was probably that they wanted what happened on the show to be in this bubble that was outside of any real time or place, despite occasional references to reality, such as people dropping in from NYC, Boston, or Augusta (or London!). Jonathan Frid mentioned in an interview once that he thought this timelessness was one of the show's strengths.  And it helped keep you from wondering why their Xmas decorations were so tawdry and cheap looking... just think of that "glamorous" gold lame bag Liz was wielding when she was thinking of shooting Julia!

I personally like it that nothing was ever celebrated on DS, but I am an odd duck, to understate things.  It just gives the show a quality that sets it apart from other TV series.

It is very sad about the weddings, though, especially Carolyn's.

Gothick

Jonathan Frid mentioned in an interview once that he thought this timelessness was one of the show's strengths. ... I personally like it that nothing was ever celebrated on DS

I agree.

And while I do think it might have been nice had they actually showed a flake or two of snow (but then, most characters even seemed to be able to brave violent thunderstorms without so much as a hair out of place or even the slightest indication of dampness on their coats ), at the same time I think the lack of snow also helps to place DS outside the realm of the usual reality.

It is very sad about the weddings, though, especially Carolyn's.

Also agreed. But as Luciaphil rightly points out, what wedding on DS was actually a cause for celebration? Characters were generally forced into them, marrying for all the wrong reasons, and/or making the biggest mistakes of their lives. Not much happiness there.

Also agreed. But as Luciaphil rightly points out, what wedding on DS was actually a cause for celebration? Characters were generally forced into them, marrying for all the wrong reasons, and/or making the biggest mistakes of their lives. Not much happiness there.

     That's not very different than any other soap.  I remember the Luke and Laura wedding was a big deal and she was getting married to her rapist.