The 25 Videos of Christmas: Peace on Earth

"Peace on Earth" is an MGM animated short (fancy talk for "cartoon") from 1939. It's fairly dark for a Christmas cartoon but 1939 was a dark time for this planet. Little did the animators know how bad things would actually get in the next few years, and how close this cartoon came to being an actual portrayal of what might have happened.

The 25 Videos of Christmas: Happy Repeal Day!

Today is Repeal Day. On this great day in 1933 the 21st Amendment was ratified, thereby returning to Americans the God given right to get falling down drunk. That's right, one of the greatest evils foisted on American citizens, the constitutional amendment known as Prohibition, was done away with. Prohibition made no one happy, except for the lily-livered busy bodies who tried to force us to stop drinking, and the Mafia, who became wealthier and more powerful than they could ever have imagined by illegally importing alcohol, or making it themselves, and selling it to a grateful public. Anyway, in celebration, here is Bob Rivers and "Carol of the Bartenders."

The 25 Videos of Christmas: Batman Meets Santa Claus

As Batman and his girlfriend Robin are climbing the Batrope up the side of a skyscraper, who would they chance to encounter but good old Santy Claus. Gotta admit, this Santa looks a little creepy and sounds a little like Andy Devine (an actor in many a cowboy movie and TV show, to those of you not in the know).

The 25 Videos of Christmas: Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

And now, a musical interlude from Jewel. I have to ask though, why is Ossie Davis in this? Not that I mind, but how did he get roped into doing a video with Jewel and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra?

The 25 Videos of Christmas: I Am Santa Claus

The 25 Videos of Christmas: It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Christmas spirit? One person trampled to death, others wounded in a stampede of early morning shoppers at a Long Island Wal-Mart the day after Thanksgiving. Two men shoot each other to death at a California Toys-R-Us. Why, yes, it is indeed beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

December

Here's the deal: I'm going to take December off, sort of, from sharing the Voices in my Head. I need to re-think, recalibrate, reconfigure what I do with this blog and then I'll be back in January renewed and rejuvenated, able to use words that don't begin with the prefix -re and better than ever. Or I'll still suck. Or I won't come back at all. We'll see. Whatever it will be, it will hopefully be something better thought out than it has been. Perhaps fewer, more thoughtful pieces. Or perhaps thoughtful will be thrown out the window and replaced by an hilarious and sarcastic cynicism.

However, December is far from a total loss. It is, you may know, the most wonderful time of the year, and to get in the mood for the holidays I offer: The 25 Videos of Christmas. Yes, a holiday video each and every day right through Christmas Day. Between these videos and the 24-hour Christmas music on the radio and the Christmas music in all the stores and everywhere else you go, you will be sick, sick, sick of Christmas by the time it actually gets here.

Just kidding. Who could get sick of Christmas? Don't answer that, it was a rhetorical question.

I'll be back with deep thoughts in January. In the meantime, check out the videos; if you want to see my football picks and the occasional sports rant, go to my Training Days blog; and don't forget about Other Voices for poetry, fiction, etc.