By Richard Pérez-Feria
Though hardly a scrooge by anyone’s realistic standards, I’ve never been an all-in for Christmas kind of guy. So, yeah, it always annoys me a bit when the official start of the holiday season keeps creeping in earlier and earlier in the calendar culminating last August(!) when I heard Mariah Carey’s ubiquitous (and undeniably terrific ear candy) seasonal classic, “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” while trying on sweaters at Brooks Brothers Factory Store inside the Woodbury Common Premium Outlets mall in Central Valley, NY. It. Was. August. I mean…
As we deliver another terrific issue of your favorite magazine—yes, The Mountains—I find myself leaning in to all things holiday as a necessary balm, a tonic to soothe my troubled, doom-scrolling soul as I try to forget, if only for a few moments, the current state of our great country. Have we ever needed Rudolph and his brethren playing those reindeer games more? I don’t think so.
This perilous, unimaginable governmental environment is but one of the topics we discussed with our cover star, the amazing actor Patricia Clarkson, who’s won multiple Emmys, a Golden Globe and been nominated for an Oscar. In our revelatory convo, the New Orleans native revealed how the abundance of community and humanity she finds in her many encounters with our neighbors in the Berkshires, the Catskills and beyond is precisely what she needs to fuel her soul in these troubled times.
Last Christmas—as I played George Michael’s classic Wham! tune, “Last Christmas”—and a mere month or so after the presidential election and a month or so before the looming inauguration—I did what I vowed I’d never do: I went all-in for the holidays. Cocktail party with friends in Chatham? I was there. Festooning the fireplace mantle with red stockings and decorating the large Christmas tree? Yes, please. Listening to Kelly Clarkson’s and Ariana Grande’s sublime—and vocally perfect—irresistible smash, “Santa, Can’t You Hear Me” on a perpetual loop? You better believe it. And it helped. All of it. The friends, the music, the food, the love. And I felt bad about not vibing with the Christmas spirit for so many years as so, so many of my closest friends always had.
Now, we’re here again. The holidays. And if I needed the sweet distraction that the season provided last year, how badly do you think I’m looking forward to it this time around? Yep, a lot of ho-ho-ho is headed right for my disquieted soul. Just in time.
Even as I write this, there’s a catharsis, a healing that occurs as I share—and thus release—my fears and hopes into the universe. Who knew that Mariah, Kelly, Ariana and Wham! could warm my slightly chilled heart with gorgeous music and good old-fashioned brotherly and sisterly love? So, in the spirit of my way-too-late-to-the-party holiday cheer team captain status, I say to all of us: Love is the answer—it has always been and will always be.
Wishing all of you the happiest of holidays. Enjoy the issue.
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