Wednesday, December 04, 2013

Displaying the Holidays

I slept in a little bit this morning. I've gotten up early and have been on the run almost every day for the last three weeks or so. I was dead tired after Amanda's visit last night. After I finally did get up, I had breakfast, then put up the remaining Christmas items. While I've been trying to clear out a lot of my Christmas decorations over the years, I still have quite a few "display" items, like the greenery and Mom-made calico gingerbread people and stars who went around the TV, or the big resin Santa who stands on the adult fiction shelves in my bedroom. The mini-tree is on my printer this year. There was no room for it on the children's fiction shelves! My Winter Cinderella fashion-style doll in the elaborate cream-and-gold gown joined the Disney Animation Collection Toddler dolls. A wide bright red and green striped ribbon from a present went around the narrow shelf between the windows in my bedroom.

I pretty much had time for the rest of that Chicken-Avocado wrap from yesterday and not a whole lot else before I headed off to work. Work was a pain all day. We're still in the beginning of the month, and there were a lot of grouchy, grumpy, or just plain rude people today. I was still pretty tired, and very tired of dealing with them. It was steady for most of the afternoon; thankfully, it slowed down enough by 6 that I was able to leave without a relief.

When I got home, I settled down with a spinach "pancake" (spinach, mushrooms, cheese, and eggs whisked together and fried pancake-style, then with cheese added on top) for dinner and some Disney specials. Disney's two most famous holiday animated programs came out in the late 70s and early 80s. The Small One from 1978 is the touching story of a little boy who has to sell his beloved donkey. Small One is old and tiny, and the local merchants refuse to take either the boy or his pet seriously. But there is one kind man with a pregnant wife who thinks Small One might be perfect to take her for a ride to Bethlehem...

Mickey's Christmas Carol is Disney's take on the famous Charles Dickens story. Here, Uncle Scrooge is, naturally, Ebeneezer Scrooge, Donald is Nephew Fred, Mickey is Bob Cratchet, Minnie is his wife, their nephews and nieces are the Cratchet kids, Daisy is Belle, and Goofy, Jiminy Cricket, Willie the Giant, and Big Pete are the ghosts. I've read that the animators had a hard time with Goofy as Jacob Marley - they couldn't see him as menacing. The part with Goofy as Marley is my favorite! They did a great job with making him still funny, but a bit scary, too.

These are really the only Disney holiday specials you need. They're available together in two different DVD sets, one released in 2002, the other in 2009. (For the record, I have the "Walt Disney Animation Collection" version from 2009.) Christmas Carol can be found separately in the Walt Disney Treasures: Mickey Mouse In Living Color Vol. 2 set, Snowed In at the House of Mouse, and on a recently-released Blu-Ray. Alas, at press time, the only solo release for Small One was on video.

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