That little girl knows we shouldn't be gathering. HAPPIEST SEASON. Having made no secret of my childlike but abiding love of Christmas movies and despite our conventional notions of time and meaningful dates of demarcation having slipped away in 2020, I feel compelled to watch them. Maybe it's a passive version of the denial that has led swaths of the populace to wantonly infect each other, maybe a minor act of nostalgia — hard to say. But the tree is trimmed, stockings by the chimney (not far from a similar display of masks), the door is bolted and I'm watching holiday movies.