Tuesday, December 15, 2009

12 Muppets Singing

In my opinion, the best Christmas album of all time has got to be John Denver & The Muppets: A Christmas Together from 1979. The album was accompanied by a television special the same year. The TV show has never been released on VHS or DVD. Here's a clip from the rare program featuring John Denver and The Muppets singing The Twelve Days Of Christmas. Even if you're not a Muppets fan, you've heard this song dozens of times on the radio. This TV performance features the Muppets assigned to different lines of the song than the version that appeared on the original LP. No need to worry...Miss Piggy still does Five Golden Rings:

Monday, December 14, 2009

Ernest Plugs Christmas

One of my very favorite Christmas movies is Ernest Saves Christmas from 1989. You usually don't have trouble finding it somewhere on TV every weekend in December. Here's a cool TV ad for the film, which doesn't feature any clips from the movie just Ernest doing what he does best: selling directly to Vern...

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Classic Commercial Sunday - Spicy Christmas

This isn't really a classic but here's a neat advert for a British (I assume) chain of department stores. It stars the reunited Spice Girls, who at the time of this commercial had just gotten back together for a world wide reunion tour. (I went...and it was awesome!)

Friday, December 11, 2009

Letters to Santa

There's not many nice things I can say about the goshforsaken little town that we live in, but one nice thing that they do every year is have a little cabin in the town square where Santa visits with children every night of the holiday season. Sure, you could drive three more blocks up the road and visit Santa in the warm mall but there's something nice and cozy about seeing St. Nick in his own little Christmas cottage. Also, at the mall they don't let you take your own pictures of your own children with Santa (which should be a crime!) and at the cabin, even though you can buy a photo package with them...you can snap as many pictures as you like.

Anywho, the kids get a much bigger kick out of seeing Santa in his cabin than at the mall. This year I was very proud of my boys as they both wrote their own letters to Santa Claus.


Three months ago you couldn't even get Elias to write his name without wanting to put the pencil down immediately. Nowadays he spends half his free time writing words anywhere he can find the space. His favorite thing to do is grab a DVD or Wii game case and copy down the title or description. He did a good job on his letter to Santa...the scanner chopped off the right hand side of his letter.

Tanner is not even learning handwriting in school yet, but he's learned quite a bit from watching his big brother. He doesn't understand any of the structure or formatting of writing but he's got all his letters down pretty nicely. He didn't write out a list for Santa, instead he just wrote the big guy a nice greeting. He was very proud to read it to Santa. Tanner also thought it was funny to spell "We" as "Wii" instead...thanks Nintendo!


Thursday, December 10, 2009

Wii Wish You A Merry Christmas

I've been a little preoccupied lately with my 13 doctors appointments a week, but I wanted to tell ya'll about a great new game that's out for the Wii. Now if you're a hard core gamer or someone who likes a real challenging video game - this is not the title for you, but if you've got kids - especially younger ones - We Wish You A Merry Christmas will probably be a big hit with your family. This fun little title creatively gets everyone in the holiday spirit. It's essentially another mini-game collection tied together by a common theme but there are some nice touches here that separate this game from the pack. There's no ultimate objective in this disc except to have fun and get in a Christmas mood.

When the game starts up you'll find yourself in a warm and cozy living room all decked out for Christmas. There's a roaring fire, a Christmas tree, and even a radio playing Christmas carols. In one section of the room, you'll find the disc's game collection. There are six different games that can be accessed, each one a slight variation on a classic video game. Deck The Halls is a puzzle game where you match 3 ornaments of the same kind on a moving grid. Hot Chocolate has players taking and filling drink orders for thirsty elves. Candy Cane Lanes is almost identical to the bowling game in Wii Sports except with a Christmas overlay and elves instead of bowling pins. In Santa's Sleigh you'll catch and deliver presents to homes on Christmas eve. Present Catch is a clever updated version of Pong and Reindeer Games (my favorite, and pictured below) lets you fly a reindeer high into the sky. The games are all easy but also addictively fun to play and can be enjoyed by even the smallest members of the house.

In addition to the games there are also a few activities. There's a place to write an electronic letter to Santa, a sticker book for creating various Christmas scenes, and Elf Hunt which is a fairly elaborate version of one of those Look and Find Books neatly adapted to the Wii. Back in the living room area of the game you can actually go in and decorate the Christmas tree, throw logs onto the fire and roast marshmallows and tune the radio to your favorite Christmas song.

I think the neatest feature of We Wish You A Merry Christmas, and the one that gives the game it's most value, is the Advent Calendar. Sitting on top of the virtual fireplace is a traditional looking Advent Calendar. Each day between December 1 and December 25 when you turn the game on you can open another door of the advent calendar and you'll get a surprise. My kids LOVE this! Everyday they can't wait to find what they'll unlock next. So far the kids have been treated to extra ornaments for the tree, new pages and stickers for the sticker book, bonus games of Elf Hunt, and even some Magic Sparkles which change the color of the fire in the fireplace. It all sounds so simple and not like something that kids who are used to using the Wii to fight the Joker or destroy the Death Star would even be interested in but when they unlock new ornaments they can't wait to zap on over to the tree and hang them. It's been a fun addition to our holiday season this year!
You should be able to find We Wish You A Merry Christmas tucked away among the more popular video games at your local game slinging establishment for about $20 bucks. It's some wholesome family entertainment and a unique way to get the kids pumped for December 25.

Thursday, December 03, 2009

Rudolph's First Flight

Here's a print ad for the original airing of the classic Christmas special Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer. It was first broadcast on NBC December 6, 1964 as the General Electric Fantasy Hour and has been shown on television every year since! (click to enlarge)

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Happy Turkey Day!

This is a clip from a UK tele program called Family Fortunes. It's their version of Family Feud...