Christmas on YouTube
Tomorrow is my last day of class for the semester, and I don't feel motivated to accomplish much of anything. So I'm finding some of my favorite Christmas stuff on YouTube! At the Gazette, I wrote silly articles every year for the holiday supplement about Christmas things that I like -- one year it was movies and TV specials, one year it was songs, etc. For the most part, I hadn't seen or heard any of the things I was writing about for a while, so it was based on memory. That, of course, was pre-YouTube -- now all of it is online, which rules. Enjoy!
* Charlie Brown, the Grinch and Rudolph are great, but for my money, there's no topping A Muppet Family Christmas from 1987. The Muppet Show characters, the Sesame Street gang, the Fraggles and even Jim Henson get together for Christmas Eve at Fozzie's mom's house. It's funny to see the characters interact for the first time...for instance, the Swedish Chef is looking for a turkey and meets Big Bird. They never ever show this on TV any more, but some thoughtful person has posted the whole thing on YouTube in several parts. Huzzah! Part one is at the link above, you can find the others from that page.
* Best dancing in a Christmas special: The Peanuts kids, of course.
* I love that "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" has kind of become an unofficial Christmas song. There aren't enough carols that talk about unwashed socks and sauerkraut and toadstool sandwiches. I couldn't find a clip from the show, but here's the song synced to someone's light display. If you don't like it, the three words that best describe you are as follows (and I quote) "stink, stank, stunk."
* (The lights in that video aren't that good, but luckily there's also this guy's video: the craziest, awesomest light display ever. You've probably already seen it all over the internet or in a beer commercial last year, but it's worth seeing again. The true story of the guy who made it is here.)
* On the subject of the Grinch, here are some other bad-guy characters who steal a holiday special, the "Riverbottom Nightmare Band!" from Emmett Otter's Jugband Christmas. They certainly even out the schmaltz (and make up for the amazingly cheapo Muppeteering) from the rest of the show, and you gotta love the snake guitarist.
* MTV hasn't played any videos since 1997, but thankfully YouTube has all the best Christmas pop songs. Like All I Want For Christmas is You, by Mariah Carey -- I wouldn't consider myself a much of a Mariah fan, but I absolutely love this song. I don't know why exactly, since it's totally syrupy and silly, but it's just so overwhelmingly cheerful and spirited I can't resist.
* Christmas in Hollis, by Run DMC: In the very limited subgenre of Christmas rap songs, Rev. Run and company take the cake hands down. Also it's the only holiday song to mention macaroni and cheese.
* Here's something pretty cool -- an album of Christmas song played by hard-rock guitarist Gary Hoey. Who would have thought you could rip it up on "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlement"? The Amazon page for the album has samples of all the songs (which is probably enough).
* And finally, Bruce Springsteen playing Santa Claus is Comin' to Town. Great stuff.
Wow, that wasted some time. Anything I missed?
* Charlie Brown, the Grinch and Rudolph are great, but for my money, there's no topping A Muppet Family Christmas from 1987. The Muppet Show characters, the Sesame Street gang, the Fraggles and even Jim Henson get together for Christmas Eve at Fozzie's mom's house. It's funny to see the characters interact for the first time...for instance, the Swedish Chef is looking for a turkey and meets Big Bird. They never ever show this on TV any more, but some thoughtful person has posted the whole thing on YouTube in several parts. Huzzah! Part one is at the link above, you can find the others from that page.
* Best dancing in a Christmas special: The Peanuts kids, of course.
* I love that "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" has kind of become an unofficial Christmas song. There aren't enough carols that talk about unwashed socks and sauerkraut and toadstool sandwiches. I couldn't find a clip from the show, but here's the song synced to someone's light display. If you don't like it, the three words that best describe you are as follows (and I quote) "stink, stank, stunk."
* (The lights in that video aren't that good, but luckily there's also this guy's video: the craziest, awesomest light display ever. You've probably already seen it all over the internet or in a beer commercial last year, but it's worth seeing again. The true story of the guy who made it is here.)
* On the subject of the Grinch, here are some other bad-guy characters who steal a holiday special, the "Riverbottom Nightmare Band!" from Emmett Otter's Jugband Christmas. They certainly even out the schmaltz (and make up for the amazingly cheapo Muppeteering) from the rest of the show, and you gotta love the snake guitarist.
* MTV hasn't played any videos since 1997, but thankfully YouTube has all the best Christmas pop songs. Like All I Want For Christmas is You, by Mariah Carey -- I wouldn't consider myself a much of a Mariah fan, but I absolutely love this song. I don't know why exactly, since it's totally syrupy and silly, but it's just so overwhelmingly cheerful and spirited I can't resist.
* Christmas in Hollis, by Run DMC: In the very limited subgenre of Christmas rap songs, Rev. Run and company take the cake hands down. Also it's the only holiday song to mention macaroni and cheese.
* Here's something pretty cool -- an album of Christmas song played by hard-rock guitarist Gary Hoey. Who would have thought you could rip it up on "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlement"? The Amazon page for the album has samples of all the songs (which is probably enough).
* And finally, Bruce Springsteen playing Santa Claus is Comin' to Town. Great stuff.
Wow, that wasted some time. Anything I missed?
posted by Ryan Davis | 6:41 PM
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