Dug a few Disney holiday stories out of their Storybookland anthologies. They have two versions of "Babes In Toyland." I did the last one in the Fantasyland book that comes a lot closer to the actual movie. We had the Golden Book version of "Mickey Mouse Goes Christmas Shopping" in the 1980's. Mickey and Minnie take Mickey's nephews Morty and Ferdie to the department store. When each assumes that the other will watch Morty and Ferdie, the boys end up playing in the toy department. After they fall asleep on the moon simulator ride, they wake up in a closed store. It takes a familiar holiday helper to lead them back to Mickey and Minnie.
Watched Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales during breakfast. This series of shorts was made to fill out an hour slot with Charlie Brown Christmas, but it has some cute material in its own right. I love Sally writing to "Samantha Claus" and her method of getting a Christmas tree. Snoopy has some good moments as a sidewalk Santa and trying to make peace with the neighbor's cat, too.
Headed out after breakfast to run a few errands. I was half-way down the White Horse Pike passing the sushi restaurant when my cell phone went off. It was Los Amigos Bakery, the Mexican bakery on the White Horse Pike. I put a ticket in for a raffle to win a free cake about three weeks ago. I didn't expect anything to come of it, but it would seem that I was one of the winners. I was shocked. I never win anything. I told the lady I'd swing by to pick it up on my way back from errands.
My first stop was CVS. I was mainly there to get a better wrist wrap. The one I bought at Target wouldn't close anymore. I bought a hand-wrist combo. I'm hoping the velcro on this one will last longer. I also picked up Crest Gum Protection toothpaste on a good sale.
Headed two blocks down and across the street to Dollar General next. Wanted pet toys for Rose's dogs and cats here. Restocked my Tide, too. I never see Dr. Pepper Zero anywhere but here, and they had Cherry Coke Zero. A friend who was wrapping gifts was out of tape.
Los Amigos Bakery is two blocks from Dollar General, so I went there next. Turns out I was one of three winners, and we got to choose which cake in the display we wanted. I picked a lovely white chocolate yule log cake. I never had one before, and though it wasn't large, it was festive. The lady wrapped it up in a pretty black and gold box, and even took a photo of me holding it and grinning. I'll bring the cake to Rose's tomorrow for Christmas dinner.
Put the cake aside and had lunch while watching A Disney Channel Christmas when I got home. This blending of the earlier Disney specials Jiminy Cricket's Christmas and A Disney Christmas Gift was one of the first Disney Channel holiday programs in 1983. It's easy to tell the year from it referring to Mickey's Christmas Carol being "now in theaters." The Jiminy Cricket half is the "Once Upon a Wintertime" segment from Melody Time, the fall and winter fairies dancing to "The Nutcracker Suite" in Fantasia, and the classic shorts "Pluto's Christmas Tree," "The Art of Skiing," and the hilarious "Donald's Snow Fight."
The second half leans more on the feature length cartoons. We get sequences from Bambi, Peter Pan, Cinderella, Pinocchio, and Snow White featuring either parties, gift-giving, winter, dancing, or even just references to faith. The special finishes with the two Santa Silly Symphony shorts, another classic Donald Duck short "The Clock Watcher," my favorite black and white Mickey short "Mickey's Good Deed," and the Past segment from Mickey's Christmas Carol. I always get a lump in my throat watching Jiminy sing "When You Wish Upon a Star" in the finale, surrounded by all the Disney characters at the time.
Did a few Disney winter and Christmas shorts while cleaning up from lunch. "Chip n' Dale" is the first short where the two mischievous chipmunks are named. After Donald cuts down their log home to use in his fireplace, they do everything they can to get it back intact. They're "Toy Tinkers" when they invade Donald's home to get his Christmas nut supply. "Mickey's Orphans" is another black-and-white Mickey short, and the first Mickey short to earn an Oscar nomination. Mickey and Minnie also deal with small holiday invaders, in this case a basket full of overly enthusiastic kittens who literally strip their Christmas bare.
Stayed with Disney, but went with the full Mickey's Christmas Carol. Despite his title status, the real star of this Oscar-nominated featurette is Scrooge McDuck as Ebeneezer Scrooge. Mickey is a wonderful Bob Cratchitt, Donald is Nephew Fred, and Goofy is a very funny Jacob Marley. Pete puts in one of his scariest performances as a frightening Ghost of Christmas Future who sees a very hot time for Scrooge if he doesn't change his ways!
The Disney gang are far from the only classic cartoon stars to appear in Christmas Carol. The first short in Bugs Bunny's Christmas Tales is a spoof of Christmas Carol. Here, Porky is Cratchitt, Yosemite Sam is Scrooge, and Bugs is Nephew Fred who decides to teach his uncle a lesson. Wile E. Coyote tries to get the Road Runner on ice when he chases him across snowy mountains in the second short. Bugs also stars in the third short, as he tries to keep the Tasmanian Devil in a Santa suit from literally eating him out of house and home.
Moved to National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation next. All Clark Grizwald (Chevy Chase) wants is a perfect old-fashioned Christmas with all the relatives gathered around the table, a big beautiful tree, and lots of gifts under it. As usual, what Clark imagines and what actually happens are two entirely different matters. The two sets of grandparents can't agree on anything. His house is covered in so many lights, it shorts out the neighborhood power grid. His miserly boss (Brian Doyle Murphy) is late sending a big bonus Clark needs. Even when Clark gets the lights working, his hillbilly cousin Eddie (Randy Quaid) and his family show up in their rattletrap RV and cause even more chaos. In the end, when the SWAT team is coming through the windows and the tree is on fire, Clark finally realizes that we can't make Christmas perfect, but we can make it memorable.
One of the most popular holiday comedies of the last 30 years or so. Chase and Quaid are hilarious as the very different cousins, but the whole cast is funny as heck. Look for Julia Louis-Dreyfus as the female half of a snooty yuppie couple who wish Clark wouldn't inadvertently get them mixed up in his antics. Scatological humor makes this for pre-teens and teenagers who just started their own Christmas breaks and adults who have probably gone through everything Clark does here at one time or another.
Put on the Christmas episode of Remember WENN after I went online. The first two seasons of WENN are currently on Flex. The cast and crew of radio station WENN hope that Christmas 1940 is going to be a memorable on on "Christmas In the Airwaves." Writer Betty Roberts is hoping to go home to Indiana for the holidays, but she's more worried about the nasty financier Mr. Pruitt who wants to shut them down. He was ordered to by their owner Gloria Redmond, a former singer who lost her husband the Christmas before and doesn't want to be reminded of anything about the holiday. The cast have to figure out how to let the show go on under Pruitt's nose and prove to Gloria that Christmas is a wonderful time for a heart to start healing.
Moved to tonight's Match Game marathon at YouTube after eating dinner. In addition to the hilarious Christmas episode from 1978 with Charles and Brett as Santa and a little girl on his knee, the only Christmas episode of Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour, and the Christmas week episodes of Match Game '90, we had episodes that mentioned Christmas or were filmed around Christmas. Patty Duke sported a luxurious fur coat in one syndicated episode. Betty Kennedy sat in for Brett in another. Everyone teased McLean Stevenson about his black western shirt with the red embroidered roses in another one. Another syndicated show had everyone get so excited over winning, Gene ended up dancing on the desks and grabbed the contestant for a dance.
Join the Match Game panelists for one heck of a Christmas party in these classic episodes!
Finished the night with two more featurettes set on Christmas Eve. I went further into the lovely The Small One, about a little boy who tries to sell his donkey in Bethlehem on a certain December night, last Christmas Eve on my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.
I also discussed the Rankin-Bass special 'Twas the Night Before Christmas on my blog during Christmas Eve 2019.
And here's hoping all of you have a wonderful holiday season, no matter what you celebrate or with whom!
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