Another update: Santa Claus has arrived to save the land of Playmobil! I'm outta here, have fun everyone!
UPDATE: I'm going to keep this blog entry up top and active, since there's so many great Christmas stories in the comments section. Feel free to read 'em and add your own. I particularly liked the one about using a car remote to fuck with the neighborhood's Christmas lights...hopefully will have time to read the rest before tonight. I'll make a new entry tomorrow so everyone can compare their holiday loot haul.
Meantime, the Calendar's just about up to date. I've gotta do today's entry before I get going, and we'll wrap it up on Christmas morning. December 22nd's entry includes "Holiday Rice Krispies," an old Christmastime Saturday morning commercial, and a magic wand for two very special animals. For December 23rd, we've got an assortment of holiday sweets from Hostess, "A Charlie Brown Christmas" promo spot, and the beginning of the end for Mare Winningham. I'll make another update when the 24th's entry is up, but if any of you are on your way to wherever you spend the holidays, have a good one!
We're alllmost there! I kept these last two entries pretty short, as the last few and especially the last two are going to be fairly long. December 20th's entry features more Christmas candy, plus that classic CBS "special presentation" bumper that I'm sure some of you will remember. For December 21st, we've got "Winter Lucky Charms" and an old Kodak holiday ad. Of course, both entries include the continuing adventures of our friends from Playmobil. Four more entries to go! I'm doing two more today so we'll be all caught up. Fortunately, I don't have to be at my sister's house for the Christmas Eve Celebrate Good Times Come On till 6 PM tomorrow, and that should give me enough time to complete the saga.
I also wanted to take this time to thank you guys for your continued support of the site -- especially those of you who continually participate in the comments section here on the blog. I don't think it's any secret to longtime readers that I've changed quite a bit in regard to the Internet -- I do what I do, and that's pretty much it. The combination of having done this for so many years mixed with a marked distaste a lot of the time towards "web culture" has made me kinda like a virtual hermit, so this little corner of the site means more to me than it would seem. Frankly, it's been a breath of fresh air to see people willing to participate without a zillion ulterior motives, just for the sake of or enjoyment of it. With the holidays out of the way, it's back to the usual crunch of writing articles again. You know, lots of 'em. That means less playtime, but I'd like to think this part of the site will only grow in the next year. I'm toying with the idea of making comments limited to registered users (or making it an option), if only because it'd let those with an account quickly access their past comments and whatnot. Anyway, that wasn't the point of this paragraph -- I just wanted to wish all you guys a MARY CARSTMARSH, or whatever it is y'all celebrate.
Speaking of articles, I'm very excited about January. Not because of any major projects planned, but because there aren't any projects planned. October was spent on the Halloween Countdown, November was mainly taken up with those massive parade reviews, and you know what I've been doing for December. I'm looking forward to getting back to what the site was built on -- a hodge podge of kiddie culture crap that I and many others share love for. I've got around five or six articles in my head waiting to be written with all the materials right here in front of me, so next month should be fun.
Hey, let's do something interesting with the comments section for this entry. If you've got a Christmas memory, share it with the masses! Whether it's a story about your past celebrations, best or worst presents, or whatever else, feel free to drop a comment. Gimme something to read in-between finishing the calendar, wrapping gifts, and doing the ten trillion other things I gotta do before the 45,000 members of my family congregate to eat calamari and drink themselves stupid tomorrow night.
Posted by Matt on 12/23/2003. E-mail me!
Chestnuts roasted by 
I was convinced I heard Santa and his sleigh so I ran to get the rest of my family and my brother laughed and said it’s impossible because Santa doesn’t exist. Bad thing was, I was only 7 at the time. I only had 7 short years of setting out cookies and milk for Santa.
There’s several different Christmas stories stirring in my head right now. Not sure how well they’ll sound when I type ‘em up but here goes:
One of my earliest Christmas memories is from when I was about 5 years old. The way Christmas usually worked in my family was go to church on Xmas eve, and then come home and open presents. It was always cool to open presents the night before the big day. On that particular night, I was told (again) how I missed seeing Santa in our house, and that he left something outside. So, we turned on the light to the patio, and there were 3 of the biggest orange plastic garbage bags I had ever seen all filled to the top with presents. I’d have to guess that my portion (I have 4 older siblings) probably took up a whole bag’s worth. I have no idea what I specifically got that year, but I definitely got a huge quantity of toys.
One of my favorite Christmas presents of all time was my Optimus Prime (must have been Christmas of ’84). It was so memorable that I collect them today (seeing boxed optimus primes on ebay rekindled my love of transformers about 4 years ago). I was later told some more information about that optimus prime for Christmas. It turns out that he was quite the big seller that year, and that my mother was having difficulty finding one. She apparently ran into another woman who had bought up a huge amount of optimus primes, and sold one to my mom. I was told that the woman’s car trunk was filled with them.
I’d like to share more, but I see that it’s time to leave work. Not sure how Christmas has changed for other people over the years, but I sure miss being a kid during Christmas. On a sadder note, my wife has to work for Christmas Eve, so I’ll be stuck at home alone for a while tomorrow, while my family is celebrating before we get there.
Merry Christmas everyone, safe travels to all, and thanks for reading.