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If you watch Arrested Development, then you know there’s always money in the Banana Stand, which is why this is such a great gift for any fan of the show.
This great picture of Lucas Arts’ holiday card from this year made me wish I was on their Christmas card list. This particular card was sent to Bonnie Burton, the editor of The Official Star Wars Blog.
Image Via Laughing Squid
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This Christmas, give you fellow priests a present they won’t soon forget: a smack to the face with brooms!
That’s what about some priests did while preparing Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity for Orthodox Christmas on January 7:
The outburst, broken up by baton and shield-wielding Palestinian police, came to head as the Greek Orthodox and Armenian clerics, who each control a portion of the church along with Roman Catholics got into the scuffle over a ‘turf war.’ The Church of Nativity is believed to be built over the cave that marks the birthplace of Jesus.
Bethlehem police Lt-Col Khaled al-Tamimi was quoted in Reuters as saying that no one was arrested “because all those involved were men of God” while the BBC reported that the 1,700-year-old church is in bad shape because priests can’t agree on who should be footing the bill for its repair.
What a wonderful Christmas morning tradition! Every year for the past 25 years, writer Nick Confalone's father taped him and his sister coming down the stairs:
Every year, our dad would tape us coming down the stairs. This is a compilation of all the videos I could find. Relatives and pets grow up and disappear, and new extended family members appear in their place. [...]
For the record, the new guy who "appears" is my sister's husband, a Nashville singer/songwriter
Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] - via Oddity Central
John already shared a Portal Christmas tree with you guys, but this Portal wrapping job is equally amazing. While this is a really cool way to wrap a present, it seems weird to buy two copies of the same game just to wrap something more creatively.
Link Via Geeks Are Sexy
Man, Christmas seems to come and go faster each year! These ads harken back to a simpler time, a time when cowboys were all the rage, and gun ads were allowed to appeal to kids during the holidays.
It’s a nice bit of nostalgia, and a few of the pics in this gallery are definitely chuckle worthy. Just don’t shoot your eye out!
Link –via BoingBoing
Why do we take a parasitic weed, one that is rather difficult to gather, and hang it in the house so people can kiss underneath? That’s a rather weird tradition when you think abut it. Smithsonian tells several old tales of why we do this, but the real story of how mistletoe evolved from sandalwood into what it is now is the more interesting tale.
Before there were forests, wispy plants fell on each other in their struggle to reach the sun, like clumsy teenagers unsure of their growing bodies. Then one plant evolved a simple woody stem. It could grow taller than the other plants, and it stole light from them. It poisoned them with shade. Wars ensued that have lasted hundreds of millions of years. Trees of many kinds arose and struggled with each other to be taller. Any species that does not participate in battle loses out in the darkness of the understory—any species except a few. Those in the clan of the sandalwood evolved a way out of the darkness. They survived by stealing from the trees what they had spent their tall stems fighting for.
Sandalwood discovered deceit. Its roots kissed the roots of trees and slipped inside them to steal. But sandalwood still needed to grow up a little and put out a few green leaves to have enough sugar to thrive. And then came mistletoes. Mistletoe is a common name for several independent lineages descended from sandalwood. Like their ancestors, mistletoe species sink their roots into trees. Unlike those ancestors, they do so in the sky.
The story continues to explain how mistletoe developed its way of reproducing in the treetops. Link
(Image credit: Flickr user Darwin Bell)
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In a rare column, Santa Claus shares some correspondence containing some of the more difficult questions he’s received. His answers will make you think. For example, Darnell asked why he didn’t get the Atari he asked for in 1981.
No question, Atari would have been a great gift for you in 1981. I did get you a skateboard. As you skated around your neighborhood that spring you met your best friend for life, Victor. You ran over the girl you’d eventually bring to your senior prom, Dominique. If you’d spent all that time indoors playing Atari, maybe your life wouldn’t have taken these turns. Sometimes I’m not able to give children the gift they want, but I can give them a gift they’ll use and enjoy that is maybe the perfect gift for them at that moment. Part of believing in the spirit of the Holidays is trusting in that spirit.
Read more at The Hairpin. Link
Comments Off Zach Braff and Donald Faison from the TV show Scrubs recorded a Christmas song and uploaded it to YouTube this morning as a Christmas greeting. -via reddit
Four-year-old Dominic McCracken-Bruce and his 2-year-old brother Tyson only asked for one thing for Christmas -their Mommy. Army Reserve Capt. Dawn McCracken-Bruce was deployed to Iraq and Kuwait for the past nine months. When she came home for the holidays, she and her husband decided to surprise the boys during their visit with Santa Claus at the Mall at Robinson in Pittsburgh. See the video at WTAE. Link -via Fark
Yesterday, I posted Anthony Bordain’s great Krampus Carol and now for those of you who want a terrifying reminder of the evil Christmas character inside your own home, you can always look to this great doll from Shove Mink of Croshame. While the link doesn’t have any directions to make your own, the pictures can still provide you with a good starting point if you’re already a skilled crocheter.
Link Via Laughing Squid
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If you love Christmas animations, but start to feel like they’re a little too old and cliched, here’s the real reason why intrepid animators never update them to fit in with modern times.
Link Via Laughing Squid
If you’re one of the many people who has become obsessed with Skyrim, but your wife keeps insisting that you put up the Christmas lights, what do you do? Why make Skyrim-themed lights of course!
Via BuzzFeed
In honor of all of the great action movies that take place on Christmas, 39 Degrees brings you Gundog, the greatest action movie animal of all time.
Via BuzzFeed
Image: Donna Stolz/University of Pittsburgh/Nikon Small World
What better way to say Merry Christmas than with this fantastic wreath made from collage images of mammalian cells by biologist Donna Beer Stolz (what wonderful middle name!) of University of Pittsburgh? She won 19th place at the 2011 Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition.
Previously on Neatorama: Lives Within a Drop of Water and Making the Ordinary, Extraordinary (images from the Nikon Small World)
Mike Maihack of Cow Shell Graphics drew this fabulous Christmas comic featuring Batgirl and Supergirl's plan to bring holiday festivities to crime fighting. Love the pom-poms on Batgirls' ears! Link - via Nerd Approved
So that’s how the big guy in the red suit delivers all those toys in one night! I wonder if he happens to be friends with a Time Lord, and what other tricks does he have up his sleeve, say for those on his naughty list? The world may never know…
Here’s a silly little animated short for all you Team Fortress fans out there, starring everyone’s favorite firebug Rudolph! Watch as he tries to burn the competition, and sing along as he is admonished for being such a useless class! Merry multiplayer mayhem to all, and to all a good fight!
–via Ology
Comments Off Ben Lean recorded these scenes in Toronto December 16-18 and presents the shopping frenzy in time-lapse for your enjoyment. Aren’t you glad you’re through with Christmas shopping? What -you aren’t? Ha! -via Nag on the Lake
Comments Off The flagpole scene from the movie A Christmas Story is recreated by hotdogs! Don’t miss the surprise ending. -via The Daily What
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Technically Festivus was yesterday, but in case you couldn’t get the day off work and will be celebrating today, the link has more information on America’s favorite television-inspired Christmas alternative.
Link Via Geekosystem
Comments Off You may recall Teddy’s earlier video where he eats corn, but here he is getting into the holiday spirit with a delicious Christmas cookie.
While Christmas would certainly be a lot more simple with a Santa Dalek, I don’t know that I’d consider it “saving” the holiday when they’ve exterminated everyone.
Link Via Geeks Are Sexy
Did you know that Swedes love to watch Donald Duck on Christmas Eve or that Icelandic children are raised under the threat of a cruel Christmas cat? Mental Floss has a great article about Christmas traditions around the world, my favorite of which is the Gävle goat of Sweden:
In the Swedish town of Gävle, the goat became an effigy made of straw, built in the town square every year since 1966. At 13 meters tall, the Gävle Goat towers over the townspeople. The very first straw goat in 1966 was mysteriously set on fire at midnight on New Year’s Eve. Since then, the goat has been erected every year, and burned by unknown individuals about half of those years. Locals take sides, with some protecting the goat with schemes like soaking it in water, while others plot its demise.
I don’t know about you guys, but I want to be on a goat protection or destruction team next year!
Cats get a bad rap for not getting in to the the holiday spirit, but plenty of felines do have a soft spot for the holiday. In fact, BuzzFeed has a great collection of pictures of kitties celebrating Christmas. From cats climbing Christmas trees to kittens playing with presents, the pictures are all simply adorable.
Comments Off The holidays are in full swing, and everyone wants to share good tidings with one another in their own unique way via the interwebs. The animators in this group are no different, and they have a particularly endearing way of showing their love for the holidays.
Enjoy this adorable short by Muckpuddy Animation of New Zealand, and head to the link to check out the other three shorts that are as stylishly diverse as they are charming.
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The Addis family loves Legos…a lot. As in, this 100,000 brick Santa Dalek isn’t their only massive Christmas creation. Every year they make an equally impressive creation ranging from giant nutcrackers to mail boxes to angels. This year’s Dalek is certainly my personal favorite, but the rest are definitely worth a look.
Comments Off I’m not sure how many No Reservations fans we have here at Neatorama, but if you caught Bordain’s Christmas special, you’ll not that this animation was lacking from the final cut. That’s because executives found it a bit too creepy. Personally, I found the Samantha Brown scene to be far, far more terrifying than this animation, but she gives me the creeps anyway.
Via Laughing Squid
To be fair, not all of these adorable treats are all that Christmasy, but those that are will certainly put a holiday smile on your face.
I would love having one of these in my house except that I couldn’t help but feel like I was counting down the days to my own EXTERMINATion rather than Christmas.
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