As I mentioned in my Christmas post a couple years ago, I love Christmas, and I love Christmas movies and TV specials, both the well- known and the more obscure. For this entry, I'll be looking at a TV special which just came out this year.
I was pretty much raised on Nickelodeon as a kid with all the great shows they had back then, but that network had been on a major nosedive in terms of quality for the last decade or so. However, earlier this year, Nickelodeon debuted a new show which I have found is actually quite enjoyable: It's an animated series called 'The Loud House.'
This series, made by veteran animation writer Chris Savino (Who worked on such well- loved animated shows as 'Dexter's Laboratory' and 'The Powerpuff Girls'), centers around an 11- year- old boy named Lincoln Loud, who lives in a house with his parents and his ten, that's right, TEN highly different sisters. Most of the episodes deal with 'Slice of Life'- type comedy scenarios about Lincoln interacting with his sisters (Whose first names all start with "L," like his does) in various situations.
(Meet Lincoln Loud, his best friend Clyde, and his ten sisters. Credit to Wikipedia and its uploader "Squiddaddy" for this image)
This show is often VERY funny, and in a lot of different ways. There's slapstick humor, word- play humor, breaking the 4th wall humor, etc.. Admittedly, it has a weakness in that it can rely a little too much on bathroom humor at times (i.e. the Louds' baby sister Lily is often used as little more than a living poop- joke), but it's not heavy enough to really hamper most people's enjoyment of the show.
Another great thing about the show is, considering what a large main cast it has (Including not just Lincoln and his giant family, but also supporting characters such as Lincoln's best friend Clyde and the oldest sister Lori's boyfriend Bobby), it manages to give quite good development to each of the characters. While Lincoln's sisters all have their unique quirks and tropes (One's super- athletic, one's a Goth, one's a dumb blonde, etc.), they aren't completely defined by those tropes, and nearly all are extremely likable in their own ways.
My favorite character is Lincoln's fourth- oldest sister Luan (In the picture, she's the girl holding a microphone), who's an aspiring comedienne/ master prankster. While much of her dialogue consists of incredibly cheesy puns, the way she delivers them still gets me chuckling every time, largely due to the great work of her voice actress.
Even the show's opening theme song is a lot of fun. It has an early- 2000s pop- punk feel, like something that Blink- 182 would make.
This, then, brings me to the show's Christmas special, '11 Louds a Leapin'.'
It's Christmas Eve, and everyone in the Loud House is preparing for it in some way, from punk- rocker sister Luna trying to come up with a cool Christmas song but suffering from writer's block, to Luan trying to deliver 12 Christmas- related puns at fitting moments, to girly- girl Lola trying to do lots of good deeds to land on the Nice List (More on that a little later).
Lincoln, though, finds himself in a hard spot as his sled accidentally winds up landing in the lawn of the Louds' curmudgeonly neighbor, the aptly- named Mr. Grouse. He is always ready with a mean insult or grouchy complaint, and firmly adheres to the philosophy of "If it lands in my yard, it's mine!" Lincoln attempts to get it back but fails, with the sled breaking in the process. As he is then forced to clean up the mess he made in this failed attempt, he realizes through a picture on the mantle and overhearing a phone call that Mr. Grouse has a large family too who he cares deeply about, but that he has been unable to see them in quite a while because he can't afford to travel.
Deeply moved by this, Lincoln goes home and tells his sisters about the situation. The sisters realize that they have each been going about preparing for Christmas in shallow and rather selfish ways that overlook the spirits of compassion and true giving that Christmas is supposed to be about, completely ignoring that right next door to them is a man not much different from them who'll be looking at a very sad and lonely Christmas if they don't do something. Even the 4 year old supergenius sister Lisa, upon hearing this, loses her normal stoic exterior and bursts into tears.
So, the Louds decide to pay Mr. Grouse a special visit, and serenade him with a quite catchy song that Luna finally came up with when she got in the proper frame of mind. They then reveal to Mr. Grouse that they chipped in to buy him a bus ticket so he can go see his family on Christmas. We at long last see the the Loud parents' faces (Up to that point in the series, they were always shown either from the shoulders down or with something obscuring their faces), they all spend Christmas Eve with Mr. Grouse, and he is so appreciative of their kindness that he in turn gives back all the Louds' stuff that he had confiscated when it landed in his yard. It all leads to a very merry Christmas for one and all.
I can think of at least a couple Godly lessons that can be taken from '11 Louds a Leapin'.'
The most obvious is on the nature of giving and compassion, especially in this time of year.
It drives home the often- repeated but still VERY relevant point that it's better to give than to receive. At times, giving can be hard when dealing with someone who's less- than- friendly towards you, like Mr. Grouse was towards the Louds earlier in the episode (In fact, through most of the series as a whole up to that point). It's certainly not made any easier by the fact that it seems like Yuletide greed and materialism get worse every year. I can still remember last November hearing a radio commercial by a certain cell phone provider advertising that, not only will their stores be open on Thanksgiving, but they've come up with a cute little new nickname for the day: Thanks- getting. I remember hearing that nearly made me physically ill, as it both completely perverted the whole idea of Thanksgiving being about a day of being grateful for what you have, and further reinforced the idea that the holiday season should just be about getting more stuff. Much as it did for Lincoln and his sisters in the first half of the episode, such an outlook on Christmas can blind us to the needs of others.
This look at greed vs. giving can be shown through Psalm 37:21: "The wicked borrow and do not repay, but the righteous give without sparing." Also, Proverbs 11:25 points out that "A generous person will prosper; Whoever refreshes others will be refreshed." There is also, of course, the well- loved parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25:31- 46, pointing out that when you help someone in need, it's as though you were doing it for God Himself.
We must remember that the reason for Christmas is celebrating God giving us the ultimate gift through allowing Jesus to be born on that silent night to help save us all, and so we should pay it forward through giving to others out of love all year long, but especially on Christmas, and we shouldn't just reserve it for those we care about, but even for those who we're not so fond of. Doing this can often be just what's needed to open their hearts. As Lincoln puts it in the very end of the episode, "Another Christmas has come and gone, but this year, I got the best gift of all: A new friend."
Another Godly lesson can be taken from the subplot involving the sister Lola (In the picture, she's the girl wearing the pink dress). This ultra- girly beauty pageant champion is generally my least favorite character on the show; Most episodes portray her as a rotten, vindictive little brat, the sort of kid who sets the anti- spanking movement back decades. In the Christmas special, Lola has realized that her often- awful behavior may cause Santa to look on her not- so- fondly when giving out presents. So, she sets out to do as many good deeds as possible in one day to ensure she ends up on the Nice List, and often very unenjoyable deeds at that (i.e. diving into the family's pile of sweaty winter boots in order to retrieve Lincoln's boots for him, volunteering to taste- test the foul figgy- pudding that their dad is making as part of their Christmas dinner). Her view on Santa is quite similar to the view that the world in general has in terms of merit, that all good things in life must be earned. While this might be a wise philosophy in a worldly sense, it doesn't help us much at all in a spiritual sense, as we all have sinned and there's no real measure or standard of merit we can use in that regard.
The good news for us as Christians is, God's not like how Lola envisions Santa. While all of us have sinned and done bad things in our lives, We don't need to earn God's love or His forgiveness by piling up a bunch of good deeds or religious works (Though He certainly does appreciate when we put our faith in Him into practice through good and righteous actions). Out of His immense love and grace, He offered us His forgiveness as a free gift through accepting His Son Jesus Christ into our hearts.
Ephesians 2:8-9 says "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- Not by works, so that no one can boast." Furthermore, Titus 3:5 points out that "He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal through the Holy Spirit."
Through following Christ's call to give freely to others and more fully realizing what an amazing gift His salvation is, we can keep the true spirit of Christmas alive in us year round.So, that's it for this edition of the Nightcrawler Experience. Merry Christmas, and may God bless you all!
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