Archive Category: Christmas
North Pole Mail Program Discontinued
The 2,100 citizens of North Pole, Alaska take Christmas very seriously. Since 1954, they’ve volunteered for Operation Santa, a program of the US Postal Service which answers letters to Santa Claus. The program has volunteers all over the country, and many letters are routed through Alaska to get the special North Pole postmark. However, the USPS is discontinuing the practice of sending letters to the town of North Pole.
Anchorage-based agency spokeswoman Pamela Moody said dealing with the tighter restrictions is not feasible in Alaska.
“It’s always been a good program, but we’re in different times and concerned for the privacy of the information,” she said.
Moody stressed that kids around the world can still send letters to Santa Claus. The Postal Service still runs the giant Operation Santa Program in which children around the world can have their letters to Santa answered, and the restrictions do not affect private organizations running their own letter efforts.
But what will change are the generically addressed letters to “Santa Claus, North Pole” that for years have been forwarded to volunteers in the Alaska town. That program will stop, unless changes are made before Christmas.
North Pole residents are upset over the changes, and also unhappy that North Pole cancellations will now be stamped in Anchorage instead of Fairbanks, which is only 15 miles from North Pole. Link -via Consumerist
(image credit: AP/Sam Harrel)
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Minimalist Nativity Set
Less is more with this Christmas nativity set by artist Oliver Fabel, available in German and in English. Link -via Swiss Miss
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Cute Kitty Loves Presents
Who needs a present when you have an awesome box wrapped in paper to hide in? That’s certainly how this cute kitty thinks. I wish my life were so easily filled.
Link Via Giggle Sugar
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Snail Sweater: Adorable & Cuddly
If your snails are getting too cold this winter, just get them a cute little sweater like this guy has. I can’t begin to say how strangely cute I think this is.
Link Via Cute Overload
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How Animals Celebrate Christmas
The critters out in the Taronga Park Zoo in Sydney, Australia got a special treat for Christmas this year. I know it starts with an ad, but the video is totally worth the wait.
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John Henry Faulk's Christmas Story
John Henry Faulk told this Christmas story on NPR in 1974. They published it on the web in 2005. It’s still a wonderful story.
The day after Christmas a number of years ago, I was driving down a country road in Texas. And it was a bitter cold, cold morning. And walking ahead of me on the gravel road was a little bare-footed boy with non-descript ragged overalls and a makeshift sleeved sweater tied around his little ears. I stopped and picked him up. Looked like he was about 12 years old and his little feet were blue with the cold. He was carrying an orange.
Read the rest at NPR. Link (via Metafilter)
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A Garfield Christmas Special
This one is for Gauldar, who commented on the Fat Albert post that Garfield was always the best. I enjoyed the Garfield specials, too… I was really partial to the Halloween show, myself. I even liked U.S. Acres, which I know some people thought was a total abomination. Anyway. I think Jon’s elf costume makes this one a winner.
And here’s the rest:
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Kitty Poses for a Calendar
This has to be one of the most serene/patient feline I have ever seen. Dressed in ridonkulous costumes this cat gets its picture taken for a calendar in Japan and wishes you all a Merry Christmas. What a thoughtful kitty. 
via – Tokyo Mango
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54 Odd-ball Christmas Ornaments
Looking for the perfect ornament to truly express yourself this Christmas? You may still have time to grab one of these 54 seriously weird ornaments. You gotta love the sexy snowmen.
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Penguins in Santa Suits
What could be cuter? Penguins at Everland Park in South Korea aren’t used to snow, so their keepers outfitted them with suits to wear the first time they used their new snow run. Link (embedded video) -via Metafilter
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Dogs Love Christmas
Watch a super-cute video of a gang of dogs decorating a Christmas tree. The site is in Hungarian, but don’t let that stop you from enjoying the fun! Link -Thanks, Johnny Cat!
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Santa CrabBot
Lego Santa CrabBot by Andrew Colunga. His Flickr gallery is full of terrific Lego creations.
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A Johnny Cash Christmas
I had no idea that June Carter Cash and Johnny Cash did Christmas Specials every year! I got way too entrenched in watching clips from various years, but I liked this one the best.
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Santa's Reindeer
Can you name all nine of Santa’s reindeer? Can you do it (and spell them correctly) in two minutes or less? That’s the challenge today in the mental_floss Lunchtime Quiz! Yes, I know one of them has a controversial spelling, but you can find the one that works. I got them in 30 seconds, and I would’ve done better if I could type. Link
PS: Of course, we know Santa really has a whole herd of reindeer.
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Christmas in Hollis Light Display
Can you tell I’m in the holiday spirit? I’ll try to work in some non-holiday-related posts sometime today… promise. Anyway, this holiday display is set to the Run-DMC holiday classic, and here’s a link to the actual Run-DMC video. This should take you back, especially if you were of the MTV-viewing age in 1987.
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A He-Man and She-Ra Christmas
By the power of Greyskull, I wish you all Happy Holidays!
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It's a Wonderful Post
I know, It’s a Wonderful Life is one of those movies you either adore or hate. And it’s definitely what Snopes calls “glurge,” but I love it anyway. So, in the spirit of the Halloween Horror movie posts, I thought I’d deliver a little inside information about this Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed classic.
• You’ll never hear him referenced by name in the movie, but the script for IAWL says the head angel (not Clarence’s boss Joseph, but his superior) is named Franklin. Why Franklin? Well, originally, the head angel was going to be Benjamin Franklin. He was going to be shown up in heaven, tinkering away at one of his many inventions.
• The movie started as The Greatest Gift, a short story by Philip Van Doren Stern. RKO Pictures bought the rights to the story and started to rewrite some of it, but it was going nowhere fast. Ideas including Uncle Billy committing suicide and a “Good George” battling “Bad George”. Frank Capra loved the story, though, and used his own cash to buy the story from RKO. Although a few of the RKO scenes were kept, including the scene at the dance, Capra and his writers (including Dorothy Parker, who was never credited) rescued It’s a Wonderful Life and made it the classic it is today
• When you see the boys sledding near the beginning of the movie, there’s a lot going on here. First of all, all of them are wearing caps with skull and crossbones. That’s because they all belong to a secret club (boys only, I’m sure). And among the boys there are Ernie and Sam Wainwright. Ernie isn’t ever referenced in the movie, but you know it’s Sam because he gives his “hee haw” sign. Also, if you look close, you’ll see that they are trespassing on old man Potter’s territory. In an earlier version of the script, Potter let his attack dogs loose (”Smithers, release the hounds.”) on the boys, and when they started running, Harry fell through the ice.
• Donna Reed grew up just outside of Denison, Iowa (not too far from Des Moines) and won a bet with Lionel Barrymore, the actor who played Mr. Potter, when he bet her that she couldn’t milk a cow. Apparently she was also an accomplished baker – her rolls won a coveted blue ribbon at the Iowa State Fair when she was just 13.
• Sure, the movie looks like it takes place in a snowy December setting. But it was actually filmed during a heat wave in California (that gym with the swimming pool under the floor is Beverly Hills High School). It got so unbearable that Frank Capra actually gave everyone a day off to recover from a hard, hot day of shooting.
• The FBI kept a file on Frank Capra because they felt that It’s a Wonderful Life was nothing more than Communist propaganda. Comments included the observation that the Mr. Potter character was obviously an attempt to discredit bankers.
• Zuzu’s name comes from ZuZu gingersnaps. Jimmy Stewart cleverly calls her a little ginger snap near the end of the movie, alluding to the origins of her name. Also, there used to be an all-girl band called Zuzu’s Petals – the lead singer of the band, Laurie Lindeen, is married to former Replacements frontman Paul Westerberg.
• Since Sesame Street first introduced our favorite Muppet odd couple, there has been speculation that they were named after Bert the cop and Ernie the cab driver from It’s a Wonderful Life. Not true, says longtime Muppet writer and puppeteer Jerry Juhl. It’s just a coincidence.
• And, finally, a bit of thievery from my mental_floss post on National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation – The Capra family must have Christmas in their genes. The assistant director of Christmas Vacation, Frank Capra III, is the grandson of the legendary Frank Capra, who directed It’s a Wonderful Life. The part where Clark “fixes” the newel post by sawing it off with a chainsaw is an homage to It’s a Wonderful Life – the newel post at the Bailey’s house was also loose. Also, Russ is watching It’s a Wonderful Life on TV when his grandparents arrive.
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Light Up the Christmas Tree Puzzle
This is an interesting logic puzzle – it kind of reminds me of that old game Pipe Dream. You have to rotate the “wiring” pieces and connect each bulb to light up the tree. It’s harder than it sounds!!
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Manly Christmas Decor
Decorating your house for Christmas doesn’t necessarily mean giving up on the bachelor-chic theme for your macho home. Just take a look at these Manly Christmas Decor
ideas from AskMen.
This one to the left is the Frontgate 33" Summit Wreath, which unfortunately doesn’t come with the deer head, though at $199 apiece you’d think it would.
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Strange Christmas Trees
It’s less than a week to go to Christmas, so it’s time to trot out last year’s fruitcake (hey, it’s still good! Fruitcakes last forever) and this Neatorama’s post: World’s Most Unusual Christmas Trees.
Are you ready for Christmas? What are you doing this year that’s different from last year?
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A Fat Albert Christmas Special
I wish present-day Christmas specials were this awesome.
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The Star Wars Holiday Special
My favorite part? “With special guest star… Beatrice Arthur!” After that it’s like six minutes of Chewie’s family grunting at one another. At that point, feel free to skip to the second video, which is the part that Bea Arthur is actually in. Of course, that’s my own personal preference.
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Christmas with the Bills
Mr. Bill and his fam celebrate the holidays, too… as you can imagine, his holidays are slightly more violent than ours. With special guest appearance by Father Guido Sarducci!
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Make Your Own Gift Bows
I can’t sit still. Like, pretty much ever. I can sit still in a movie theater if I have to, but if I’m sitting at home watching TV or something, I can’t just sit. Which is probably why I blog. Anyway, my point is, making these bows is a fabulous thing to do if you need something to cure idle hands. They’re very, very addicting. And you’re recycling at the same time! Plus, they’re so much more original and different than anything you’ll find in a store. That’s one of my bows in the picture, but here’s the original post on Craftster that will show you how to make your own.
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Christmas Greetings from AKQA
(YouTube link)
What are all those microwave ovens for? Watch and find out! From digital agency AKQA. -via Viral Video Chart
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CrapWrap
A woman can usually tell if her husband, boyfriend, or son wrapped a Christmas gift himself or had the store do it. Not anymore! A British shop will specially wrap a gift badly, so it appears the buyer attempted to give it the personal touch.
Firebox.com is paying 20 of its male forklift truck drivers and warehouse assistants to wrap presents as quickly as possible, using ugly brown duct tape and very little care.
And the $9 service, cheekily called CrapWrap, has attracted more than 500 customers since it launched last week.
Whether it’s a book, DVD or something trickier such as a kitchen utensil, the team guarantees to make a mess of it.
I still don’t know any man who would pay $9 rather than having the pros (or Mom) wrap a gift for him. Link -Thanks, Bill!
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Bing Crosby and David Bowie Sing Little Drummer Boy
Everyone seems to be enjoying the Christmas Special posts, so I thought I’d try to make it a daily thing until the big day. Here’s David Bowie and Bing Crosby dueting on Little Drummer Boy. It’s a surprisingly good mix, I think.
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It's Christmas in the Playhouse
I know, Pee Wee got weird, but I really loved it when it was on (and really loved it when Adult Swim started showing old episodes in the past year or so). So Pee Wee’s Christmas Special really entertained me, especially the lineup of guest stars. I forgot some of those people even existed (specifically, the Del Rubio triplets).
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Button Ring Of the Month Club
Looking for a slightly weird, very crafty and kinda cute present? Enroll someone you love in the Button Ring of the Month Club. Best of all, the rings are somewhat customized to your personal preferences. Only $55 for a 6 month membership full of accessories galore!
“Around the 1st of each month, for the next 6 consecutive months, you’ll receive a vintage button ring packaged inside an adorable little paper box–ready for gift giving or keeping for yourself!
Your likes & dislikes will be considered as I am crafting up your fabulous jewelry. If you have certain color combos you adore, let me know. Or, if you are daring & desire to be completely surprised, I can do that too!!”
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Awesome Gingerbread Houses
One of our first years together, my husband and I decided to make a gingerbread house during the holidays, thinking it would become one of our new traditions. We didn’t buy a kit, because I thought it wouldn’t really be too difficult to cut some rectangles out of dough. Big mistake. It was terrible – really terrible. The walls wouldn’t stick together, so to compensate, I kept piling up the frosting (didn’t work). We’d get one side up and another would fall down, decorations were dripping off, some of the cookie pieces baked down to different sizes than others… it was truly awful and hilarious. We’re going to try again this year, I think, but we will definitely be using a kit. No matter what we do, I’m quite sure none of ours will look as cool as these, but at least it gives me something to aspire to.
CBGB’s might not be a brick-and-mortar building any more, but you can always revive it in cookie-and-icing. Photo by Flickr user Honey Bunches of Trouble.
Loving the Gingerbread prison yard from Gingerbread Ghetto. It has a lot of good ones – Gingerbread Serial Killer House, Gingerbread Peep Show, Gingerbread Check Cashing Place. It’s highly entertaining.
We’ve kind of started a tradition of doing to Disney every Halloween, but I really would like to go for Christmas sometime. Then I could see this amazing gingerbread house in person – the Grand Floridian resort makes one every year. Photo by Flickr user Emily Gracey.
Pirates + Gingerbread = Perfection. It’s called “Pirates of the Jelly Bean” and was part of the annual George Eastman gingerbread house display. Photo by Flickr user Zeus_the_Ferret.
Flickr user heath_bar posted this one and the one below. His office had a gingerbread competition and this is what one of the groups came up with. I’m insanely impressed. I work with a creative bunch of people, but I’m not seeing any of them coming up with gingerbread Mt. Rainier.
This one is a display in a Seattle hotel. From Flickr user Sweet Tortilla.
Of course there’s a gingerbread replica of the White House as well. Created by the executive pastry chef, the cookie Executive Mansion can be seen in the State Dining room during the holiday season. Check out close ups and shots of the whole process here.
I’ve always wanted to go to the Winchester Mystery House … I never thought of making my own while I wait until I get the chance to visit.
Photo by Flickr user ehoyer.
Have you seen any good ones? Have you created any good ones? Let us know in the comments.
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