In addition to the annual tree lighting at my local parish, setting up the Nativity and repeat listens of Casting Crowns’ “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day,” nothing gets me ready for the season like Christmas movies.
“It’s a Wonderful Life.” “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” “Gremlins.” These are all staples of the season for me.
Add another gem that I recently rediscovered on cable, the Arnold Schwarzenegger 1996 classic “Jingle All the Way.”
Made during the “Terminator” and “Predator” star’s 1990s family comedy run – along with “Twins,” on the good list, and “Batman and Robin,” on the bad list – Arnold plays Howard Langston, a family man with an all-too-common problem: what to get their loved ones for Christmas.
Or, more accurately, not “what” but “how,” as his six-year-old son Jamie wants what every child his age wants, the hottest child’s toy of the season. In this case, it’s a Turbo Man action figure with, as Jamie tells his father, “arms and legs that move and the boomerang shooter and his rock’n roller jet pack and the realistic voice activator that says five different phrases including, ‘It’s Turbo time!’”
Throughout the course of the movie, eager not to disappoint his beloved son, Howard and his muscles tussle with a postal worker, radio jockey, a Santa gang and even the cops in the quest for the toy that isn’t to be found anywhere.
It isn’t until a circumstance he literally runs into, that the film gets a little deeper and holds a message for this season beyond its overt themes of toxic commercialization.
Running from the police after his encounter with the radio show host, Howard realizes the dangerous and destructive lengths he’s gone to in order to get his son the perfect gift; he wonders if he’ll ever become the man his son needs him to be.
Soon after, though – and still on the run – Howard unwittingly stumbles into a warehouse, where a man grabs him, shoves him into some sort of costume and throws Howard onto a platform.
As the platform begins to move, Howard is propelled from the darkness of the warehouse into the light of the city streets, with cheering masses all around him. He is on a float, and Howard now realizes he is dressed as Turbo Man, complete with shiny red-and-gold armor and a jet pack. The hapless and harried everyman has become the main attraction for his town’s Christmas parade, and the primary focus of the adoring crowd.
At first, he is confused by this impromptu change in appearance, but as he witnesses the cheers of the little children as his float makes its way down the main street – including that of his own son – Howard embraces the role, flexing, smiling and waving to all.
Soon, though, the return of the evil postal worker puts Jamie’s life into jeopardy, forcing Howard to utilize his new skills, which includes the (inexplicably) working jet pack, to save his son. After emerging victorious, Howard reveals himself to his son and wife.
As Howard expresses to Jamie his disappointment that he wasn’t successful in procuring a Turbo Man, Jamie tells his father he doesn’t mind now that he’s got his own real-life hero. Now, after recognizing his faults and, literally, falling into heroism, Howard has become a role model for his son.
Through Howard’s tribulations, can’t we see a bit of our own lives and how grace works?
Like Howard, we can have good intentions, but end up acting in ways that aren’t so admirable. At the moment of repentance, though, like Howard did with the Turbo Man armor, we can stumble into grace, and be clothed with “the full armor of God … strong in the Lord and in His mighty power,” as Saint Paul writes.
As the Catechism of the Catholic Church states, “Grace is favor, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and eternal life. Grace is a participation in the life of God.” (CCC #1996-1997).
In our weaknesses and failings, God eternally offers us the gift of grace, showing his unconditional love for us, and desiring that we return this love to Him – and bring it to others.
We might not feel worthy at first, but in realizing the love of God, and His being born in a manger to save us, we can accept and own it, and move confidently in the world.
In realizing that, as Saint Therese of Lisieux said, “Everything is grace,” we can see God’s guiding hand in all things and know that nothing is impossible; we can defeat our worries, cares, and fears, because we know there is someone to help us carry our burdens.
As well, in living a life of joy, faith, hope and confidence in God’s promises, we, like Howard, can be a light and source of hope for all we encounter in this, and every, season.
Now, excuse me as I go re-watch “Kindergarten Cop.”
Peter G. Sánchez is staff writer and social media coordinator at the Catholic Star Herald.
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