 New video, so, if you know me, you all know I love Christmas. I love it, I love it, and it gives me that buzz. Christmas is one of my favourite times of the year, so I actually can't contain my excitement. I am so excited for December and all the Christmas content, let it be known, I have got so many videos planned for December, I'm actually going to try and upload four videos a week throughout the whole vlog mess, book mess, whatever you want to call it, so that's what I'm going to be doing in December for content, and yeah, I just can't contain myself, so we're going to start with some Christmas content today, basically, and I'm going to be giving recommendations, book recommendations, based off of Christmas movies, and I've got six Christmas movies I'm going to be giving recommendations based off of, and they are my six top favourite Christmas movies. The best, maybe, the best Christmas movies in the entire world. I couldn't really think of any other Christmas movies I would class as my favourite, and I wanted, like, this video to be me chatting about my favourite Christmas movies as well as these book recommendations, so that's what we're going with. I'm not going to be recommending Christmas books, because I don't really read Christmas books, I haven't got many books I would class as, like, Christmas-y books, I don't really do that. I'm kind of going to be, like, if you enjoy the themes and the plot of this Christmas movie, if you like this Christmas movie, read this book, essentially, is the idea. So let's just get into it, I don't know what to start with. Okay, this is one of my best recommendations, probably my second favourite Christmas movie of all time, is Love Actually. I love Love Actually. I just think it's such, like, a gorgeous story, and I love, I love films that have all those little different stories throughout. I feel like, though, no film has done it as well as this. Like, there was that New Year's Eve one, there's been, like, Valentine's Day, like, they try, they try to replicate Love Actually, and they just can't. It took me a while to realise that, that you wanted to be me. My love, Colin Firth, is in it, who I just love so dearly, like, I just love him, like, I just love, oh, listen, his storyline is a bit dodgy. We'll just ignore that, we'll just ignore it. Emma Thompson's storyline, and Alan Rickman, never sees his story, we cry. I just think it's such a good Christmas movie that has joy, but has, like, you know, some more serious elements and more, like, sad elements to it as well. I think it's got a good, kind of, up and down flow to it. So I absolutely love Love Actually. My recommendation for this is Spot On. It's fucking Spot On. No one can touch me. If you like Love Actually, you need to read Blackout by Donnel Clayton, Nick Stone, Tiffy D Jackson, Ashley Woodfolk, and Thomas Nicolayoune. It follows, like, a very similar premise, where each of these authors have written individual stories of these individual love stories that happen during a Blackout in New York. So it's very similar, where you've got all these different love stories, but that kind of join up to one another, like, you know, in Love Actually, like, some of the characters are related to other characters or no other characters. That happens in this as well. Like, there's little links between all the different stories, even though some of the characters may not know each other. Maybe this person knows this person's dad or this person's brother, and they're all kind of, like, meshed together. I really, really love this. It's not very long. It's only about 250 pages, so it's a really quick read. And I really loved getting introduced to all of these characters. I thought each of the stories had such different elements. You know, there were such different love stories throughout it, you know, like, such different representations for different kinds of love. It's just, like, a beautiful little love story, but it's literally the same format as Love Actually. I've connected the two dots. You didn't connect shit, but I've connected them. Most of the authors have written, like, one short story, but Tiffany D. Jackson's story is called The Long Walk. That's told in, I think, about four or five parts. And what's really clever is, like, at the end of that part of The Long Walk, which is these two characters having to walk kind of a long walk across New York to get home because, like, the subways aren't working and stuff, they will spot a character from the next story and then it will go into that story. So that's how it's all linked, and I really, really loved it. Next film I want to recommend based off of is Nativity, which is a very British Christmas film. I don't know if it's, like, had any success abroad, but basically it's this film with Martin Freeman in it. Wait, Love Actually has Martin Freeman in it as well. He must really like Christmas films, iconic Christmas films. Martin Freeman has an iconic Christmas film touch. It's basically the story where he's like this kind of grumpy teacher and he ends up putting on a Nativity show, musical show, and it's, like, really fun. Like, it's just these kids singing, like, Nativity songs and it's just, like, so, like, feel good and so, so cute. So a book I want to recommend based off of this is Me, My Dad and the End of the Rainbow by Benjamin Dean. So this doesn't have a show in it. I feel like the plot isn't, like, super similar. But for me, when I think of Nativity, I don't necessarily think of the plot, but I think of the joy that our film has. Like, it's one of the happiest, most joyful, most fun, the most, like, enthusiastic films. And that's how I feel about this book. This book is just filled with so much joy and love and acceptance and happiness that I just feel like they're very similar in my mind. Our main character Archie's parents have just split up and he doesn't really understand why until one day he sees a pride leaflet fall out of his dad's pocket and it's for, like, the pride parade in London. And he and his friends decide to go and, like, figure out what is happening and try to understand his dad better through going to this. And listen, on the back, it says, are you ready for a rainbow-colored, joy-filled adventure? And that's literally what this book is. Like, it's so happy and such a beautiful book for kids to read. I just, oh, I just love it so, so much. So if you haven't picked this up, and this is, like, a release that came out at the start of the year, I would definitely recommend trying to pick this up in, like, the end of the year because it's just so beautiful and joyful and lovely. Next, another one of my all-time favorite Christmas movies is The Santa Claus. I love The Santa Claus. I just think it's such a good film. It's, like, my favorite representation of Santa in the Christmas films and, like, the elves workshop. I remember being, as a kid, being, like, obsessed. Oh, my God, just talking about this is making me so fucking excited for Christmas. I actually can't wait. I actually can't wait. Well, guess what, people? I get excited about small things. But, like, I remember being so obsessed with, like, the elves workshop and how it all looked and, like, how it worked and thinking, oh, my God, this is so cool. So I absolutely love The Santa Claus. I love all The Santa Claus films. I'm gonna have to watch all of them. Oh, my God. I'm gonna watch so many Christmas films. And I feel, like, with the first Santa Claus, the appeal is kind of him being thrown into this situation, which he has, like, no idea how it works, being pretty clueless, having no knowledge, and having to figure it out as he goes along. That's the kind of, like, plot arc. That's what we follow the character doing. Him trying to figure out how to be Santa, how to do this, how to not let the world down. And so my pick for this is Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. If you think about it, it's spot on. It is fucking spot on. You're so clever. Oh, my God, you're so clever. In this, our main character wakes up and he has no memory of who he is, or why he's there. He is on a spaceship in space, and his two crewmates are both dead. And he, like, literally does not understand. He's like, what the heck? Who am I? I don't know. And his memory starts coming back to him, and he realizes he is on a one-man mission to save the human race. There is an extinction-level threat to the world, and he has been sent to figure out how to solve that. So I think it's very similar in that we follow this character who starts off with no knowledge, trying to just figure it out as they go along, trying to figure out what is happening. And I absolutely loved this. I thought it was incredible. Like, it's such, and weird just how it's incredible science fiction. It makes it so easy to follow, but like, it's talking about complex science, but it talks about it in a way that you're like, huh, like, huh, okay, like, huh, okay. I feel like I know what's going on. I feel like I'm very clever. Another new release this year that I would just, oh, my God, you just need to read it if you haven't already, because it was so good. Like, even if you don't read sci-fi, pick it up, because like, it's not the kind of sci-fi to be scared of. Okay, so next, I can't control myself any longer. I thought about leaving this to last, but I can't control myself. My all-time favorite Christmas film is Die Hard. Huh? What? Okay. I love Die Hard. Here's the thing. In terms of like, my usual film choices, action films are not it, right? But Die Hard, I would say, is my second favorite film of all time. I love bad 80s, 90s action films. My two favorite films of all time, Die Hard, favorite Christmas film of all time, second favorite film of all time, and Con Air with Nicholas Cage is my favorite film of all time. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. But like, none of my other favorite films are like in that genre, just those two. And then my top two, because here's the thing, modern action films suck, because it's all CGI. I don't give a fuck. I want to see someone up against it. Con Air and Die Hard, are just like realistic. I just want realistic action if I'm going to read that. So anyway, I'm sure you all know the plot of Die Hard, but basically our guy, he is traveling to see his kind of wife for Christmas at this like Christmas party that her company are throwing and he gets there and a terrorist like takes over the Christmas party and is like killing people. He is on a one man mission to save everyone. It is him up against everything else. Him just trying to figure out how to stay alive, trying to do everything he can to just survive another hour to get these people down. And my recommendation for this is no exit by Taylor Adams. Now, let it be known, this actually takes place on December 23rd. So this is technically a Christmas book. Our main character is traveling home to see her mother for Christmas. Her mother is dying and so she's like trying to get there in time, but she is snowed in and she has to stop at this service station where there's like a few people there. There's like, I think four people at this service station and she finds out that in one of the vans in the parking lot, a girl is caged up in a cage. And the thing with this book is not like a who done it. We find out very early on who we can't trust just like die hard. And then the rest of the book is Derby just trying to do anything she can to stay alive and save this girl for another hour, for another two hours till maybe someone can get help, maybe survive the night. You know what I mean? It is so good. I say this often. This is probably one of my favorite thrillers of all time. Never have I felt so fucking sick reading a book. This is disgusting. I like it though. I felt like I was gonna throw up. I've never had as visceral as physical a reaction to a book, to a thriller as I have this. My heart was pounding. I actually don't know if I'm ever gonna be able to reread this. It's so tense. You're always onto the next thing, always onto the next threat, trying to survive, trying to think about how to do it. It's literally die hard. Like it's literally the same and that's why they're both impeccable, one of the best things ever. Many of you know how much I love this book. It was one of my favorite books that I read last year and it was just amazing. Like it was so good. I haven't really gotten over how good it is. Like it's so tense and horrible and insidious and oh, it's just, I hate it, but I love it. Next film is Home Alone, another classic. I feel like Home Alone is most people's like one of their favorite Christmas films. I feel like it's so, so good. Obviously everyone knows he's Home Alone. He's stuck at Home on Christmas. His family left it out to him. He's trying to like, it's like having fun, but he's also trying to take down these villains that are like encroaching on him. And my recommendation for this is gonna be Pages and Co, Tilly and the Book Wanderers by Anna James. So in there, she's not alone, but she has figured out how to travel, how to book wander into her favorite novels, basically. Her grandparents own a bookshop and she can like travel into these books as well as characters can kind of travel out of them and meet her. So when she goes into these worlds, she is kind of like on her own trying to figure out what to do. This is just such a magical, fun middle grade. It's just filled with adventure and like, I can just imagine reading this as a kid and just being absolutely obsessed with how fun and silly and joyful it is. I will also say at the end, there's a really good kind of face-off and battle between her and the villain. And it reminds me a lot of Home Alone, how she's kind of able to like out-trick them and fool them. It's such a joyful series, but I haven't continued on with it. I do own the second one and I haven't continued on. So I do need to do that at some point. As we know, series are a problem. I've only started new ones since I filmed my series video instead of finishing them. That's really shit. That's really shit. Yeah, it's not what we'd all hoped for. And then my final favourite Christmas movie is Elf. I love Elf. Another classic, I feel like Elf is always up there as one of people's favourites. Now what I love about Elf is we're following this character who feels like they don't fit in. He's kind of reached a crossroads in his life, and now he's looking for something else. In Elf, he's looking to find out who his dad is and he travels to this kind of unknown world to kind of meet his dad and figure out who he is. Yeah, I feel like that kind of element of not fitting in and not being happy where you're at that point in life and doing something to shake it up is what I'm recommending this next book based off of. And that is Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers. So in this, our main character has just finished her PhD. She goes out to kind of drunkenly celebrate this in Vegas and she ends up getting married to this woman. Throughout part of the book, they're kind of getting to know one another. Like they're like, holy shit, we're married. We should kind of figure out if we like each other. She flees her life trying to find a job, all of that, to go and live in New York with her wife. It's pitched as a romance, but it's more of a romance. We're really following this character as she's at this crossroads in her life and she doesn't really know what to do or where she wants to go or who she wants to be. And it's so heartfelt and it's so poignant. And I feel like a lot of people can relate to the burnout that Grace is suffering in this book. And it was just another release this year that I really, really loved. Okay, so that is all of my book recommendations based off of my favorite Christmas movies. I think I actually was spot on for some of them. I think I was actually spot on. Let me know down below what your favorite Christmas movies are and recommend me a book based off of that Christmas movie in the comments if you can think of one Also, if you've gotten to the end, comment the Christmas tree emoji because I am just so excited for Christmas. Like I said, I have got so many good videos and series lined up for Christmas that I am just so, so excited for. I am so excited to get started on filming some of that. I'm hopefully going to get started this week on some of it. And yeah, thank you so much for all your support. As always, I love you so much and I will see you very soon in another video. Bye!