TV Moment - December 18

This one isn't really a moment as much as traditions. And I'm going to talk about two different shows.

The first is Days of Our Lives which was the first soap I ever watched with any sort of regularity. I pretty much quit watching after the whole Marlena gets possessed debacle (a storyline that will go down in infamy) but I think they still do this. For their Christmas episode every year they would show people decorating the Horton Christmas tree and all the Hortons had their own ornament. I'm not sure why, but I always love that and I still occasionally tune in on that last episode before Christmas just so I can see it.

The second is from General Hospital. I no longer watch soap operas as I'm never at home during the day, but on the odd weekday that I find myself at home I still turn on GH to see what the denizens of Port Charles are up to. Usually I don't know who half the characters are but that's okay because there are enough familiar faces to keep me in the loop. Every year on their last episode before Christmas all the upright citizens would gather at the hospital and listen to Steve Hardy read "'Twas the Night Before Christmas". Since the actor has passed on the reader is now Alan Quartermaine, I believe, but the tradition remains the same. And I like that this has happened every Christmas for 40 years. There's something comforting in knowing that no matter what other wild and crazy stories might be going on something this simple and sweet will live on year after year.