Ode to Christmas Movies on TV: A Poem

Adjust the tracking on the VCR
To get rid of those staticky lines
There are two different speeds
For fast forward and rewind
You can skip the commercials
From when this movie was taped off TV
In December of 1993
I'll sit through them; I want to see
What the world looked like
In the analog age
Of the early '90s

I remember it well
Feeling like I was under a spell
For the holidays
In the soft focus
On the television screen
Who would have ever thought
We would later record in HD?
I don't like the actors looking so real
There's a comforting appeal
To the idea they never age
Like characters frozen on a book's page

I get a little weepy
But I promise I'm not sad
To watch these old local ads
For my hometown left behind
A place I've rebuilt in my mind
I cling to my half-formed memories
A touch of fantasy
Jazzing up my youthful reality
TV was how I slowly became aware
That there were other poeple
Living their own lives out there
And many of them were not like me
And things weren't always how they seemed

But let's not get heavy
And philosophical now
I just want to talk about how
I watched Home Alone on repeat
A version taped off TV
With even the minor swear words bleeped
Or edited so the lips didn't match the sound
I know the movie's natural pauses
When unrelated Santa Clauses 
Would interrupt with commercials
For things to make the holidays cheerful

And every year A Christmas Story
Played for 24 hours in all its glory
And like a strange dream
I would turn it on to the same scene
Ralphie appearing in the bunny outfit
It was many years before I saw it
All the way through from the start
Though it's a Christmas work of art

On YouTube I've found a few
Made-for-TV movies I watched when they were new
Though I've looked, they can't be bought
On DVD, it's like they're gone
Some details have stuck in my mind
Even after all this time
I have a copy saved on a VHS tape
But when I watch them these days
It's not quite the same