Christmastime

When Garfield speaks about joy, the memories that rise to the surface also offer a childlike vision of domestic bliss: visiting Disneyland with his family, playing basketball, sledding at Christmastime, his mother’s cooking.

At Christmastime in 2016, a Medfly appeared in Panorama City, and 101 square miles of the San Fernando Valley were briefly quarantined.

“For the last couple of years at Christmastime, my family and I would talk about how the fall chores at the lake house were getting too much for me to handle by myself,” he said.

“It’s fun to collect Christmas things when it’s not Christmastime,” she says.

The Alexander Payne offering “The Holdovers” is set at Christmastime, but its themes of loneliness and belonging resonate well beyond the holiday, wrapped in a comedic package.