Christmas in Soapland 2009

This is a write up about the holiday episodes that aired the week of December 21 for All My Children, As the World Turns (December 24 & 25 only), Days of Our Lives, General Hospital and One Life to Live. For many of the characters, Christmas wasn't merry or bright and nary a mention was made of other winter holidays like Hanukah and Kwanza. If more holiday celebrations took place the following week it is not included in this blog entry and if any character is not included or there are any typos the blame should be placed upon spell check or me. I have listed my comments on each of the shows in alphabetical order.

All My Children's holidays focused upon Zach and Kendall's return to Pine Valley. The duo ran into Father Clarence, had a shared dream where none of their horrid issues existed, but they ignored one another. Upon waking up they were back in a snowed over rental car, and were a few miles away from home. They were reunited with Spike and Ian, and the family enjoyed their holiday forgetting for a time Kendall being held hostage by Aidan or how she nearly spent the rest of her life on the run or in prison. Emma had Ryan place the green butterfly on the tree, but it fell off and broke. Ryan saw a recording of Greenlee, decided to move on with Erica, whilst David checked on Greenlee's vitals realizing she may become healthy again. Since David left town, Amanda and Jake didn't have to deal with his interference, though he did interrupt their time together. Jake thought he would spend the holiday alone, so he only had a miniature tree with beer can lights. Of course, neither of them knows that David is not the father of Amanda's son Trevor, or that he is faking his illness. JR finally told Marissa that his cancer had returned and they couldn't go on the honeymoon she had planned. Liza was still lamenting the loss of baby Stuart to his biological mother, Colby wanted to get the Chandlers back together, but still had to deal with her father Adam’s marriage to Annie. Little A saw his grandpa Adam, but not his grandpa David.

As the World Turns had two holiday themed episodes that I watched. The first, which aired on Christmas Eve) focused on the Christmas miracle of the dead Brad being able to say goodbye to his loved ones. As someone who has seen less than 20 ATWT episodes with Austin Peck as Brad (whose casting confused me as Brad was Jack's older brother when I watched the program regularly), and having little emotional attachment to the character, I felt the show was well done. Brad visited the daughter he only found as a teen Liberty, and convinced her to finish high school, while she mourned her miscarriage. Brad said goodbye to Liberty's mother, and they danced to the song played from their prom night Heaven by Bryan Adams, (when Liberty had been conceived). Brad gave Jack forgiveness for shooting him, and Jack spent the holiday with Carly and the kids. Brad then had the tough job of saying goodbye to Katie, who has to raise their child alone. They spent a few precious moments together and with their son. He pleaded with her to find someone else to love some day, and that he would always love her. Brad left, as the star on their Christmas tree glowed, Henry was glad to not longer be haunted by Brad, who said bye with a See Ya on the pizza, as the episode closed. If one has to see a character they care about die, I'd like to say goodbye in such a fashion.

The ATWT Christmas Day show was narrated by Bob, and focused Lily, Holden and their children as they are now divorced. By watching this episode, I could tell, I hadn't been paying close attention to ATWT for years, as I had no idea who Natalie and Ethan were. 2009 was tough for the kids, as they are more worried about each other than their own problems. Their grandmothers Emma and Lucinda teamed up so the children would have both their parents together at Christmas even if Lily was married to Damian and Holden was seeing Molly (who appeared at the Snyder farm at the end of the episode). Noah came back for a visit, even if he was unsure he could reunite with Luke, due to his becoming blind. Luke's gifts were thoughtful, coffee for smell, music for sound, socks for touch, and cookies for taste. It was discovered that Faith wants to go to the same boarding school as JJ, and it was agreed that she could, after realizing she wants it for the right reasons and not just to run away from her family. The group takes a family photo and Holden and Lily look at each other, like nothing has changed, though it most certainly has. At the end, we hear Bob's voice again and he talks about how the story isn't over, which of course is ironic and sad due to the cancellation.

This past week on Days of Our Lives, Anna still had the cute baby Sydney underfoot and spoke to a photo of her beloved deceased husband Tony. Meanwhile, many in Salem gathered to have a vigil for the missing girl at the pier. There was a public plea for news on Sydney, but nothing had panned out, though Anna left a note for EJ at the Dimera mansion. Sami wished that Rafe had found her daughter, and part of her believed things would have been different if Sydney and Grace hadn’t been switched at birth, as perhaps both little girls would be alive and Sami could have raised her daughter away from the Dimera clan. Philip and Melanie had planned to spend the holiday alone, but instead of going away to a tropical island went to a local inn. He proposed, she wasn’t ready; the ring was stuck, so she decided to say yes. Melanie was called into work at the hospital, so Philip went to his father’s home to share his engagement news. Awkward was the best way to describe the gathering of Victor, Vivian, Kate, Stefano, Chloe, Daniel, Philip, and Brady. Philip having to deal with his dueling “mothers”, the man who arranged a hit on him, and his high school girlfriend. Chloe had to deal with Vivian disrespecting her due to her past marriage failure with Brady, which in part caused his drug addition.

Even the Horton Christmas Ornament hanging, which has been a mainstay was a sad time, as Bo and Hope are estranged, Alice (for obvious reasons) and Mickey weren’t on screen, and many of the family are no longer living in Salem, though it was the first Horton family Christmas Nathan had in many years. Bo saw Carly at the pier, while a jealous Hope looked on, prior to the vigil Carly and Rafe finally caught up with on another as they had met after Carly saved his life. Abe, as Salem’s mayor, gave a speech about what was going on at the vigil. Brady and Ari talked and then went back to her place for some alone time. The other main tradition in Salem at Christmas is the reading of the Christmas story at University Hospital. The tradition, which was began by Dr. Tom Horton, continues to this day. Nathan being a doctor at the hospital and Tom’s great-grandchild was given the task of telling the story to the assembled children. Days gave us a quick flashback of Dr. Tom reading the kids, and then flashed back to Nathan sharing with the children currently staying as patients in the hospital. After the story was read, a song was sung, we saw the kids and the hospital staff interacting, and Melanie and her surrogate mother Maggie singing with their arms around each other.

General Hospital's official holiday show gave us kids, kids and more kids. We saw Michael, Morgan, Josslyn, Kristina, Molly, Spencer, Cameron, Jake and Emma. We didn’t get a Quartermaine Christmas, as Rebecca has left Port Charles, Monica and Edward weren’t shown and Tracy spent the day with Luke’s family. We didn't get a hospital episode, where everyone was in the children’s ward (and the real life kids of people at GH were shown on camera) where the holiday story was read and Christmas carols were sung. Carly sneaking around for her holiday gift and then falling off the roof, provided a little bit of comic relief, but it didn’t seem like a joyful day. Earlier in the week, Sonny tried to spend some time with Michael, Morgan and Kristina, but they all had other plans. He ended up having his big Christmas celebration with Olivia and Dante, whom he knows and Dominic. The three discussed the Yankees, and games they had seen. I understood the references growing up in the New York area, but if one doesn’t have a passing familiarity with baseball or is below a certain age they would have no idea what on earth they were talking about as they reference former players like Dave Righetti and Dwight Gooden. Of course, those who have been watching GH for many years, remember how the characters from the neighborhood in Brooklyn that Sonny and Olivia grew up in were Mets fans, so the Yankee talk comes off as strange.

Going back to the December 23rd episode, Diane and Max were with Alexis and her girls including Sam. Spinelli and Maxie were in pain over her infidelity. Spinelli wouldn’t cheat on her, and Maxie wasn’t going to let him just forgive her. To show how different they are, we saw Spinelli bring her a Charlie Brown style Christmas tree of branches, while the apartment she shares with Lulu had a fancy tree that was taken from their job. Lulu was happy to get out of the apartment and spent the day with her family and new boyfriend Dominic, even if Lulu won’t exactly say the two are dating. While Laura wasn’t at the holiday party, her three children Lucky, Nik and Lulu spent the day together. Nik came to the house with his son Spencer. Ethan didn’t get into an argument with anyone. Lucky was with Elizabeth and her boys Cameron and Jake. Luke was even convinced to spend the holiday with his family and Tracy. Of course, the Spencer household wasn’t all sunshine as Nik is sleeping with Elizabeth, who will not break up with her fiancé Lucky, even though he was nice enough to give her an out of the relationship. Luke knows how Nik and Elizabeth are betraying Lucky but has kept his mouth shut. Robin and Patrick wanted a quiet Christmas at home with Emma and their tree. Mac made a quick visit, and Lisa and Matt came by and stayed.

The theme of One Life to Live’s holiday episode was Joy to the World, or at least that was the song that was played during the montage that ended the December 23rd episode. Some denizens of Llanview were happy, while others were low. Jessica spent some time with her daughter Bree and her boyfriend Brody. He gave her a gift, of a mother’s necklace and the hope of a future together perhaps having another child, as Jessica dealt with the loss of a child in 2009. Natalie, who wasn’t on the episode that aired on the 23rd said goodbye again to Jared. They spoke, she took a pregnancy test, and there would be no miracle baby for them.

OLTL also had Mitch threatening Dorian, to fire Bo from his job as police commissioner or else one of her family would be hurt. He called about the eggnog, so Dorian tossed it out before anyone could be poisoned by it. The Cramer women Christmas Eve lacked, Cassie, Kelly and Adriana who are all living out of town, but they were all mentioned as being missed. Charlie continued to go around town stinking with alcohol. Brody tried to help him, as they ran into each other at Mitch’s hospital room and Charlie eventually went home. Earlier in that episode, Viki tried to spread some holiday cheer, by visiting her former husband Clint. Clint shared how his marriage to Nora was now over, telling Viki about how he couldn’t understand how Matthew’s paralysis made Nora and Bo horny. Viki sent Jessica and Bree over to the Buchanan mansion to cheer Clint up, and told Bo that Clint would eventually forgive his younger brother. Due to Nora and Bo’s reunion, Clint threw Matthew and Rachel out of the mansion. All of them and Dani moved into the Palace hotel for the time being. Nora and Bo shared the holiday and planned to go fishing and take ballroom dancing classes together. Having Dani live in the Palace was good news to her mother Tea, but Dani was not happy with her mother or Todd Manning. Finding out Rachel was homeless, Greg asked her to move in with him temporarily, and their first time together was underscored by Joy to the World. Of anyone shown, Matthew had the best Christmas of all, he took his first steps since after the accident. With Dani’s help and wearing the sneakers Destiny bought for him, Matthew walked. Everyone that saw how Matthew was finally mobile was thrilled by his progress.

Christmas in Soapland 2009 had relationships, which were lost and found, family and friends and togetherness. Nods to history were made and life continued on, during the holiday season.