What do we do when we at last come together [at Christmas]? We watch TV.  To some, this sounds awfully tragic. Shouldn’t we be gathered around the piano instead of the Wii? … All that Christmas idealism is sustained by television. Everything we know about how Christmas should appear and feel, we learned from watching Christmas happen on TV to people who don’t exist. Have a look at the pretty, pretty trees in all those living rooms and in all those diamond necklace ads and in Hallmark specials. What’s the one thing missing from these people’s homes? Correct: No TVs are on. The people we see on television at Christmastime have chosen to put their tree up in a formal living room, safely away from the television. (more)

It may be reasonable to be skeptical of stories, preferring to live a real life with real friends, problems, careers, etc. And it may be reasonable to enjoy stories, to embrace the ideals they embody, and to find life-lessons in their exaggerations. But if you approve of your habit of spending time and energy admiring story heroes and exemplars, then consistency suggests that your heroes and exemplars should also devote their own time and energy to stories, admiring their own heroes. If your heroes don’t waste much time with stories, why should you?

So make up your mind. If you think it good for your family to spend holidays together watching inspirational stories, well then the families in those stories should also think it good to spend holidays together being inspired by other stories.  And if you can’t really admire heroes who much time watching TV, well if your want to admire yourself maybe you shouldn’t spend much time watching TV either.

Here’s a related post by Katja.