Little Drummer Boy: Bing Crosby and David Bowie

Bing Crosby and David Bowie sing a lovely duet of Little Drummer Boy.

Christmas Toy Shop

I have trouble figuring out if the correct title for this one is "Christmas Toy Shop" or "Christmas Toyshop" but I like it:



The above video is titled: Christmas Toyshop (1945) a.k.a. Ye Olde Toy Shop (1935), so it seems it's a combination.

This sweet little film from Castle Films is a mix of live action and animation. The mom in this film needs a rocking chair. I loved the Sandman appearance.

(12/25/2008: I removed my incorrect date when the correct year was offered in a comment below.)

12/1/2009: Weird Wild Realm dates the film 1945, saying:

The cartoon that takes up the middle of the film is obviously of older vintage than the live action frame. The distributor, Official Films, was known to buy up old films to reissue as one-reel home-view movies on 8 mm & 16 mm reels. When they obtained the Terrytoon Ye Olde Toy Shop (1935), they produced the anonymously directed live action portions to frame the original cartoon & stretch it out to a full-reel ten minute reel.

Joyeux Noel

Joyeux Noel is a movie about the 1914 Christmas truce between soldiers in the trenches during World War 1.

The New York Times has a review. Roger Ebert's review is here. The BBC has a short description. There is a review at Slant Magazine. Films de France has a review comparing it unfavorably with La Grande Illusion but says,

Whilst it is easy to pick up on its defects, it cannot be denied that Joyeux Noël is still a moving and rewarding piece of cinema.

trailer:

Moominvalley in November

I love the Moomin books by Tove Jannson. Moominvalley in November is the last in the series and is the only which doesn't feature the Moomin family. These are all wonderful books, worth re-reading.

There is a Facebook fan page for the author and several related fan pages for various characters.

Christmas Canon

This is Christmas Canon from Trans-Siberian Orchestra's album The Christmas Attic.

The Captain's Christmas

The Captain's Christmas (1938) is one of the Captain and the Kids cartoon series. A synopsis is here. Ahoy there, matey! Thar's a pirate villain in this one.

via youtube:



This is what the world needs: more films where Santa says, "Avast there, me hearties!"

Nat King Cole's A Christmas Song

This is Nat King Cole's (maybe early 1950's?) version of Mel Torme's hit song.

A Christmas Carol (1971)

This A Christmas Carol is an animated short film from 1971. Alistair Sim (Scrooge -1951) provides Scrooge's voice, and Michael Hordern voices Marley's Ghost. It won an Academy Award for best animated short. It's narrated by Michael Redgrave and produced by Chuck Jones.

via youtube:

This was apparently never available on DVD and is out of print on VHS. There's a copy at amazon.com for $168.98! Yikes! Sad.

12/19/2015: Prices have gone down. You can get a used VHS tape of this for under $40 now. I wish they'd make a DVD available.

Carol of the Old Ones

They will return: mankind will learn
New kinds of fear when they are here.

Now that's a far cry from the "Fear not!" in the Christmas story.

Cthulhu is one of the Old Ones and seems to be more active in the world now than when I was young. I see signs of this activity off and on. For example, Cthulhu had a presidential campaign again this year, though I was busy supporting Obama and didn't track it this time around. Cthulhu has supporters among the humans, and they are adapting some Christian evangelism materials in their quest to show others what lies ahead. You can be eaten first. Read the tract here or here or here to find out how. Cthulhu even has a page at How Stuff Works giving historical information and helpful hints on how to pronounce the name. You can read about Cthulhu in the works of H.P. Lovecraft. Try The Call of Cthulhu, which can be read online here.

The H.P. Lovecraft Society has a site where you can buy CDs of holiday music that's a bit out of the ordinary.

Twas the Night Before Christmas

Twas the Night Before Christmas is a 1974 animated Rankin Bass TV special about a town whose mouse and human families have their letters returned unopened by Santa because he is offended by a letter to the town newspaper. The town seeks a way to appease Santa by offering him a special singing clock, trying to get him to come to their town anyway. Santa accepts the bribe and brings presents as the rest of the Clement poem is read.



Poor kids! Santa seems a petty and vindictive figure here. I had not seen this one before but don't like the portrayal of Santa at all. Not exactly Jolly Old Saint Nicholas.

7/2/2009: DarkSider's Realm reviews this.

A Cosmic Christmas

A Cosmic Christmas is a 1977 animated short film telling the story of aliens who discover the true meaning of Christmas with the help of a little boy and his pet goose.

part 1/3:



part 2/3:



part 3/3:



I think it's interesting that the aliens look like 3 wise men, their first words are "Do not be afraid" and they come to search for the meaning of "The Bethlehem Star" that shone 2000 years ago. I found it preachy. It was also slow and had too much slapstick-style "physical" comedy to suit me. Maybe if I'd seen it as a child...

Tom Waits' Silent Night

Faith and Theology has a link to an audio of "Silent Night". As best as I can tell, this is from the first Tom Waits "Tales from The Underground" CD, which appears to be out of print. Online music sellers have the series listed as "unavailable".

Listen to it here. I like this version.

Christmas Comes But Once a Year

Christmas Comes But Once a Year is a Fleischer cartoon short from 1936.

The early scene where the orphans get broken toys in their stockings and end up crying in their beds is so sad, but Grampy -from the Betty Boop cartoons- makes sure Christmas comes to the orphanage. I love the umbrella tree.

Christmas Night

Christmas Night, or Pals, is a 1933 Van Beuren Studios cartoon short based on The Little King comic strip.

via youtube:

A Christmas Carol -1910

This version of "A Christmas Carol" is a 1910 short film directed by Searle Dawley (Snow White, Rescued from an Eagle's Nest, Frankenstein).

via youtube:

It's amazing to me how well the story is told in so short a film and how much they could do with the resources available that long ago.

We have this in a collection on VHS. We plan on getting the DVD this year.

Advent Wreath 1

There is an Advent devotion for today here at the United Methodist Church General Board of Discipleship site. EWTN has an Advent wreath at their site where you can use a virtual match to light the candle online.

We use 4 blue candles in our Advent wreath, both at home and at church.

Advent Gospel

Mark 13:24-37

24 But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light,

25 And the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken.

26 And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory.

27 And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven.

28 Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When her branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is near:

29 So ye in like manner, when ye shall see these things come to pass, know that it is nigh, even at the doors.

30 Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done.

31 Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.

32 But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.

33 Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is.

34 For the Son of Man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch.

35 Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning:

36 Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping.

37 And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.

KJV

10 Best Apocalyptic Novels

before the Golden Age, that is. io9 has an annotated list, including links to full texts online for most of them. Here are the 10 with ones I've read in bold print:

1. Olaf Stapledon, Last and First Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future (1930)
2. William Hope Hodgson, The Night Land: A Love Tale (1912)
3. M.P. Shiel, The Purple Cloud (1901...)
4. Karel Čapek, The Absolute at Large (1922 as Továrna na absolutno; in English in 1927)
5. Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Moon Maid (1926)
6. Philip Gordon Wylie & Edwin Balmer, When Worlds Collide (1933)
7. Arthur Conan Doyle, The Poison Belt: Being an account of another adventure of Prof. George E. Challenger, Lord John Roxton, Prof. Summerlee, and Mr. E.D. Malone, the discoverers of "The Lost World" (1913)
8. Jack London, The Scarlet Plague (1915)
9. Edward Shanks, People of the Ruins (1920)
10. H.G. Wells, The World Set Free (1914)

I've got my reading cut out for me if I want to make any headway with this list. 2/10 stinks!

Warning from Space

Warning from Space is an American dubbed 1956 Japanese science fiction film. I loved the aliens in this one.

1000 Misspent Hours gives it a negative review. Wild Realm Reviews sees it in a more positive light:

This is a remarkable film when compared to standard schlock sci-fi from the USA in the same year. It was the first full color Japanese science fiction film, not just a B film, & while it certainly is a camp treasure for today's viewers, it was a serious film in its day

6/15/2009: Classic Sci-Fi Movies has a review that says it

is historically significant as the first Japanese sci-fi movie shot in color -- just months before Toho's Radon was released. Unlike Rodan, however, the english dubbed version was not a re-edit, but the original Japanese director's cut.

Quatermass 2

I enjoyed The Quatermass Xperiment because of the ending if nothing else, so I was pleased to see Quatermass 2. I can't even find a trailer to embed here. Odd.

It has the same team behind it that the previous film had, with Donlevy playing Quatermass as the same strong-willed controlling power-house he was in the first in this trilogy. I just love that rough exterior that covers a heart of self-serving pragmatism. I'll be looking for the 3rd one now, I guess.

1000 Misspent Hours has a review. Images Journal has a review that says this movie "is arguably the best British science fiction movie in this realistic mold" and closes with this:

a powerful, nerve-wrenching movie. For audiences enamored with the digital effects of recent years, the movie's climactic scenes might come as a disappointment, but the ideas that propel the movie are imminently plausible. This is the kind of stuff that has fueled The X-Files for the past several years. Quatermass 2 is a near classic.