Neatorama » Christmas

Robot Christmas Dance

Miss Cellania — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:41:03 +0000

These festive robots were built from RoboBuilder kits and synchronized to some classic holiday tunes. OK, just pretend that those little squeaks and servo motor noises are jingle bells. -via Geeks Are Sexy

Mysterio Predicts What You'll Get For Christmas

Alex — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:24:31 +0000

Our pal Dave Sopp of Wry Baby has come up with a free fun service that lets you find out in advance what you’ll be getting for Christmas. Wry Baby’s resident Infant Mentalist Mysterio predicted that my wife will get me "some really quality plywood."

Can’t wait. What will you get? Link – Thanks Dave!

Minimalist Nativity Set

Miss Cellania — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 04:32:04 +0000

Less is more with this Christmas nativity set by artist Oliver Fabel, available in German and in English. Link -via Swiss Miss

Snowing Nightly in Florida

Queuebot — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 21:33:34 +0000

Celebration, Florida is a planned community near Orlando that was developed by the Disney Company in the 1990s with early 20th c. architecture.

Every night during December the palm-lined main street in the town center is filled Christmas music and artificial snow (tiny soap bubbles) is pumped out of the streetlights.

Link

Caption Monkey 54: Mr. T and Nancy Reagan

Alex — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 12:47:34 +0000

Photo: Mary Anne Fackelman/The White House – via The Sly Oyster

Hooray! It’s time for the Neatorama and Hobotopia Caption Monkey game.

Yes, your eyes aren’t deceiving you. That’s Nancy Reagan sitting on Mr. T’s lap (Santa T?), giving him a smooch, at a White House Christmas party in 1983. The First Lady actually requested Mr. T come to the party dressed as Santa Claus. This photo was printed in countless newspapers and magazines around the world.

Your job is to come up with the funniest caption for this photo. I pity the fool that couldn’t come up with at least one. Funniest caption will win an original Laugh Out Loud Cat comic by our favorite artist Adam "Ape Lad" Koford.

For inspiration, don’t forget to check out Adam’s blog.

Update 1/7/09 – Adam has picked the winner! Congratulations to jonathan who won with this gem: “I see it in the stars: your career will last forever.”

Abandoned London

Alex — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 19:51:38 +0000

Photo: IanVisits [Flickr]

Inspired by a scene of abandoned London in the zombie horror flick 28 Days Later, Ian Mansfield of IanVisits blog decided to bike down to London early Christmas morning and snap a few photos. This one above is of Piccadilly Circus, in London’s West End, completely devoid of humans.

Link | More at Ian’s Flickr photoset

Snail Sweater: Adorable & Cuddly

Jill Harness — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 04:23:39 +0000

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

World's Largest Santa Snow Sculpture

Alex — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 19:04:19 +0000

Christmas has come and gone and if you’re going through Santa Claus withdrawal syndrome, here’s a post for you: the world’s largest Santa Claus snow sculpture in Harbin, China.

China’s freezing northern city of Harbin is building what organizers say is the world’s largest Santa Claus ice sculpture.

The giant Father Christmas, 160 meters (525 ft) long and 24 meters (79 ft) high, centers on an enormous face of Father Christmas, complete with flowing beard and hat.

Its huge size and unseasonably warm temperatures have made the job especially challenging, said Tang Guangjun, one of the sculptors.

"It is even bigger and higher than last year’s, and more difficult. The weather swings between warm and cold, so it becomes very wet and slippery on the ice. It is very dangerous for us," he told Reuters Television.

Link (Photo: Sheng Li/Reuters) – via Weird Asia News (who has the video clip)

How Animals Celebrate Christmas

Jill Harness — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 05:02:01 +0000

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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.

Link Via Zooborns

Christmas Eve Greetings From Space

Ali S. — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 03:20:22 +0000

Video Link – [Here]

Back on December 24, 1968 the crew of the Apollo 8 space mission were to make history for two things. They were the first human beings to circle another celestial body in space and they were also to take one of the most iconic pictures of the Earth rising behind the Moon on Christmas Eve which can be seen here on the post Alex had put up: The First Earthrise. Here you’ll hear them wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and Peace to everyone.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and any other holidays out there! Have a Happy New Year!

via – Wired

Merry Christmas, Neatoramanauts!

Alex — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 05:40:38 +0000

I’d like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! Have a fun and safe Christmas (or Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa or Festivus or whatever), guys!

John Henry Faulk's Christmas Story

Miss Cellania — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 02:49:40 +0000

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)

A Garfield Christmas Special

Stacy — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 15:18:08 +0000

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:

Part 2
Part 3

Kitty Poses for a Calendar

Ali S. — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 05:27:47 +0000

[YouTube - Link]

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

Merry Credit Crunch Christmas!

Alex — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 20:27:40 +0000

To counter Stacy’s Christmas Special posts, here’s a (funny) little Christmas downer for you, from Tarquin Britten and the City Boyz. Have a Merry Credit Crunch Christmas, everyone!

Hit play or go to Link [YouTube], spotted at the Neatorama Forum, original post by mci209.

Santa CrabBot

jstruan — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 14:14:17 +0000

Lego Santa CrabBot by Andrew Colunga. His Flickr gallery is full of terrific Lego creations.

A Johnny Cash Christmas

Stacy — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 14:04:46 +0000

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.

Link

Christmas in Hollis Light Display

Stacy — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 17:57:09 +0000

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.

A He-Man and She-Ra Christmas

Stacy — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 14:29:35 +0000

By the power of Greyskull, I wish you all Happy Holidays!

Link

It's a Wonderful Post

Stacy — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 01:48:16 +0000

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.

Light Up the Christmas Tree Puzzle

Stacy — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 23:18:30 +0000

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!!

Link

Manly Christmas Decor

Alex — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 19:57:20 +0000

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.

Link

Strange Christmas Trees

Alex — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 19:21:25 +0000

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?

A Fat Albert Christmas Special

Stacy — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 14:33:00 +0000

I wish present-day Christmas specials were this awesome.

The Star Wars Holiday Special

Stacy — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 14:12:45 +0000

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.

Video 1 Link
Video 2 Link

Christmas with the Bills

Stacy — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 14:25:55 +0000

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!

Link

Make Your Own Gift Bows

Stacy — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 02:44:17 +0000

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.

Bing Crosby and David Bowie Sing Little Drummer Boy

Stacy — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 14:27:49 +0000

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.

It's Christmas in the Playhouse

Stacy — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 15:42:47 +0000

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).

Awesome Gingerbread Houses

Stacy — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 19:05:55 +0000

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.