Christmas Day!

Queen Elizabeth's first-televised Christmas message, 1957

I saw this morning that Queen Elizabeth's Christmas message will be airing on YouTube this year, as it did last year. This year marks the 50th Christmas that the Queen's greetings have been broadcast.

Let's jump back in time 50 years (five years before I was born) and have a look at the Queen's first televised Christmas message, from the land that gave us Victorian Santas and figgy pudding

Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer, 1948

Directed by Max Fleischer who brought us Popeye, and the first animated incarnation of "Superman," among other delights--

Classic Christmas Cartoon: Little Audrey in "Santa's Surprise"

A Classic Disney Silly Symphony: "The Night Before Christmas" (1936)

Classic Christmas Cartoon: "Hector's Hectic Life"

Tom and Jerry: "The Night Before Christmas"

"Christmas Comes But Once a Year," 1936

A Max and Dave Fleischer cartoon, in which "Grampy" (a Betty Boop character) saves Christmas for a group of orphans.

Christmas Eve!

Name that Christmas Tune

These are riddles, of a sort. Based on the description given of a song, you must guess its real title.

For the answers, click on "read more" at the bottom of this post.

Can you name these Christmas songs?

1. Oh member of the Round Table with circular missing areas.

2. Boulder of the tinkling metal spheres.

3. Wanted in December: a pair of upper, forward incisors.

4. A psychiatrist's luxury apartment.

5. The lad is a diminutive percussionist.

6. Sir Lancelot afflicted with laryngitis.

7. Decorate the anterooms.

8. Cup-shaped instruments fashioned of a whitish metallic element.

9. Oh small Israeli urban center.

10. Distant in a haybin.

11. We are Kong, Lear, and Nat Cole.

12. Duodecimal enumeration of the passage of diurnal intervals in the Yuletide festival, terminating in Epiphany.

13. Depart and vocally transmit information upon an orographic locale.

14. Our fervent hope is that you thoroughly enjoy the Yuletide season.

15. Listen, the Cherubim and Seraphim are proclaiming tunefully.

16. As the agrarian guardians of the woolly ruminants protected their charges in the nocturnal period.

17. I perceived a triad of buoyant conveyance platforms.

18. Jubilation to the totality of the terrestrial sphere.

19. Do you perceive the longitudinal waves which stimulate my auditory sense organs?

20. A joyful song of reverence relating to hollow metallic vessels which vibrate and produce tintinnabulation when struck or shaken.

21. Parent was observed osculating a hoary, unshaven teamster.

22. May the Deity bestow an absence of fatigue upon cheerful and refined human males.

Practically Perfect, like Poppins

Martha Stewart's Holiday To-Do List

December 1

Blanch carcass from Thanksgiving turkey. Spray paint gold, turn upside down and use as a sleigh to hold Christmas cards.

December 2
Christmas season kickoff party with King's College Boy's Choir.

December 3
Using candlewick and hand-gilded miniature pine cones, fashion a
cat-o-nine-tails. Flog gardener.

December 4
Bake a pallet of festive cinammon rolls.

December 5
Get new eyeglasses. Grind lenses myself with jeweler's rouge and cornmeal.

December 6
Fax family Christmas newsletter to Pulitzer committee for consideration.

December 7
Send Christmas cards to sisters in prison.

December 10
Align carpets to adjust for curvature of Earth.

December 11
Lay Faberge egg.

Tinsel Toons, #5

Bing Crosby and Marjorie Reynolds Sing "White Christmas"

From Paramount Pictures 1942 hit, Holiday Inn. This marked the motion picture debut of the now immortal "White Christmas."

 

CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW VIDEO

 

Don't Drink and Drive

Don't do it. Not on Christmas, not on New Year's, not EVER. You know better. If you don't know better, or if you think you can handle it, you're an idiot. Chain yourself to some heavy object and enjoy a bowl of wax fruit this Christmas.

A Cup of Christmas Cheer #1

I'm not much of a drinker, myself, social or otherwise. But, for some reason, mixology fascinates me (as you've probably gathered, if you follow this blog). I'm not sure what it is - there is just something unspeakably arcane and alchemical about combining various spirits and powders and spices, and coming up with the proverbial "cup of cheer."

Of course, there's a flip side to this. Like the guy who came up with Long Island Iced Tea (or Homer Simpson and the "Flaming Moe"). Rather than being a kind of artistry, this seems to be a recipe for getting sloppy/pasty. A kind of nefarious bartender hack, its popularity nothwithstanding. In fact, that is the basis of its popularity, because getting sloppy/pasty/making street pizza has always been popular in certain circles.

So, if you're looking to get sloppy drunk this Christmas, rather than enjoying a "cup of Christmas cheer," or three, this site might be more to your liking.

For the rest of you merry gents and gentlewomen, here are some positively magical drink recipes for a cup of Christmas cheer--

Peppermint Stick

• Creme de Cacao, white 1 1/2 oz.

• Schnapps, peppermint 1 oz.

• Cream 1 oz. (light)

Shake with ice; strain into a champagne glass. Garnish with a candy cane.

Hot Russian Christmas

• Vodka 1 shot

• Kahlua 1 shot
  

• Eggnog 1 shot

• Hot Chocolate

Prepare hot chocolate separately. To a mug add the shots of eggnog, vodka, and Kahlua. Fill to the top of the mug with hot chocolate, and stir well. Heat in the microwave for thirty seconds if hot chocolate has gone tepid. To make it festive looking, you may top it with whip cream and some colored sugar or a dash of nutmeg, or with a marshmallow, to make it foamy.

Ambassador's Punch

• Brandy 5 oz.

• Creme de Cacao, dark 3 oz.

• Rum, dark 4 oz.

• Eggnog 1 qt. (cold)

• 4 dashes of nutmeg

In a punch bowl, pour in everything except the nutmeg. Use a whisk or a wooden spoon to mix, then add ice to keep the punch cold. Serve immediately.

Brandy Alexander (an old classic)

• Brandy 1 oz.

• White Creme de Cacao 1 oz.

• Cream 1 oz.

• Pinch nutmeg

Stir ingredients in a cocktail shaker with crushed ice. Strain into a cocktail glass and sprinkle with a pinch of nutmeg.

Decent, affordable, real brandy: E&J or Christian Brothers. Not the flavored crap, and NOT Potter's.

Cheech and Chong: "Santa Claus and his Old Lady"

The First day of Winter

I'm an outspoken person, so by all means, take the following with a grain of salt...

It will officially be winter in a few hours. I had to go out on this near-winter's day, because I needed a few groceries and a pair of pants. I expected it would be bad out there, and my expectations were, in fact, exceeded. It was horrible out there. The traffic was horrible, the stores were packed, and there seemed to be an inordinate number of cranky people around. My brother (who went with me) said, "I have a feeling it's going to be one of those days...."

People blowing through the roundabouts and cutting others off like the bold "yield" warning on the pavement had been erased. Others punching the accelerator to make it through the yellow light at intersections. Cutting others off, when perhaps on another day, they might have taken their foot off the gas and given someone an opening. A line of cars, stretching from Bakerview all the way to Bennett Road. Parking lots packed and the stores crowded with masses of complete strangers, shoulder to shoulder, each "safe" inside his/her insulated little world. Frowning. Yessir, I took an inventory. A lot of frowning and furrowed brows out there.

But maybe it's always that way. I'll have to do a post-Xmas comparison.

I'm glad I've backed off from this sort of thing, this"surfing the fray," for the most part. Because anyone who's out in that on a daily basis...well, I can understand why y'all feel like crap at Christmastime.

Not that I endorse simulated cheer*. But there's an old Vietnamese saying: "Ornament is for joy." Why are you doing it, if there's no joy in it? But more importantly, what is life for, if not to enjoy?

One thing is certain: I'll not go near a retail establishment, save maybe Starbucks for a cup of coffee, from now until Christmas is over. It's a jungle out there.

P.S. - You erratic drivers - take a chill pill. You're a danger to yourself and others.

*Actually, I do endorse simulated cheer, for its therapeutic value, but not when it's employed simply as a "veneer."

Christmas Greeting

Traditional

Sing hey! Sing hey!
For Christmas Day;
Twine mistletoe and holly,
For friendship glows
In winter snows,
And so let's all be jolly.

Beggar's Rhyme

Traditional

Christmas is coming, the geese are getting fat,
Please to put a penny in the old man's hat;
If you haven't got a penny, a ha'penny will do,
If you haven't got a ha'penny, God bless you.

Chocolate Christmas Punch

A non-alcohol punch great for the kids - but an adult might want to add a splash of Bailey's Irish Cream in their cup--

Chocolate Punch

INGREDIENTS:

• (4) 1-oz. sq semisweet chocolate

• 1/2 cup sugar

• 2 cups hot water

• 2 qts. milk

• 1-1/2 t. vanilla extract

• 1 qt. vanilla ice cream

• 1 qt. club soda

• 1/2 pint heavy cream, whipped

• Ground cinnamon

PREPARATION:

In a large saucepan combine chocolate and sugar with the hot water. Bring to a boil, stirring for 2 minutes. Reduce heat and add milk. Beat in vanilla with a rotary egg beater or whisker. Remove from heat.

Chill, then pour into a punch bowl over the ice cream, and add the club soda.

Top with whipped cream and dust with cinnamon.

Yield: 12 servings.