22: Holidays In Genreland
“Giles, this is bad, isn’t it? A new kind of bad.”
“Just in time for Christmas.”
“You know, I didn’t even realize it was December. Maybe when we get home we should decorate the rubble.”
Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Bring On The Night
So, we have Christmas as a set of subgenres, and Christmas visiting other genres and affecting them, either directly or ironically. But there are also genres where it doesn’t have much of an impact, except perhaps as a backdrop.
Like the normal emergency services, superheroes may have to be on call.
Maybe helping Santa save Christmas is too weird or out of genre for your specific series, but consider hijackers taking over the giant container ship that delivers basically the entire festive season to our retailers, months in advance of the big day?
Spies can’t rely on getting the holidays off either. The MI6 office Christmas party is a plot point in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, but also serves to point out the down-to-earth drudgery of spying in John le Carré’s world.
If the jollity of the season adds an ironic counterpoint to a grimmer setting, go for it. Downbeat Christmas carols and all.
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