X-Entertainment's Christmas Season & Advent Calendar, 2008.

11/04/2004: Reliving the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parades…

Well, it’s November – transition time for X-E, as I wash off the pumpkins and prepare for a holiday season I’m even more obsessed with. Still deciding what to cover exactly during the big Christmas month, but here’s an early request: if you have any taped-off-television Christmas specials, toy commercials, holiday commercials or anything else that seems X-Eish, shoot me an e-mail. Any old holiday toy catalogs, too. You know the drill by now.

On the way to work I pass the giant Macy’s on 34th, the soul of the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. They’ve begun lining the outside of the store with teaser posters for it. I’m so tempted to go…haven’t been to one live in forever. For those who’ve asked, YES, I’ll be covering at least one more Macy’s Parade this month. The later parades don’t pack as much fun kid stuff as the ones we’ve already looked at, so if you’re mildly new to the site, you should have hours of fun sifting through my reviews of the 1984 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and the combined thunderpunch of the 1985 & 1986 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parades. Loads of shit to lift your spirits in each feature, enjoy.

I’m looking forward to doing some normal X-E articles this month before we head back to holiday land; hopefully, a new one this weekend that I’ve been waiting to cover for years.

Yay, an update! I was going through withdrawals after all those day-to-day updates, then nothing! *sob*

Yes! Updates are always welcome. Does this mean there’s an advent calendar this year? I miss Mare.

Okay, I’ll give that one up: yes, believe it or not, Playmobil’s made a THIRD Advent Calendar. And it will be here.

Hi Matt, I really enjoyed your Halloween lineup this year and last year’s, my favorite entries from this year were definitely the "Ghost with the Most" cartoons! You draw real cute!

Ubu — please! I finished the entire thing last year, including writing an entry on Christmas Eve! Please! PLEASE!

A third Playmobil calendar, eh? Give our fearless, but not beerless, leader the chance to gather his energies to tackle such a feat. Come to think of it, I might have to start my X-Mas shopping now, as much as I hate to think of Decemberwe’en insanity this early in November. But if I get my list filled out early, then when the real bloodshed begins at the stores, I’ll be getting myself a little present and doing color on the battles for Tickle Me Jabba, or My Size HellBoy, whatever the media tells cosumers they can’t afford not to give the kids. But first, I’ll concentrate on decimating a properly-roasted turkey. Or toast and jellybeans. It’s all Thanksgiving to me.

Oh god how could I forget the playmobil calendar. So many laughs. I should go buy one and put it up at work. I dont think they would find the same humor in it though. Cant wait for all the review of holiday crap. I saw christmas tree brownies from little debbies the other day. wow they looked nasty…

Do the 1989 Parade. It’s the only one I’ve ever been at live. Or was it 88? Either way, yeah.

On the subject of Christmas stuff, the Santa Claus Parade is having it’s 100th anniversary this year. Perhaps you could review that after getting a video, or watching it on TV, or something?

Looking forward to your next batch of fun and happy articles…meanwhile, take a break, have a beer and watch some mindless TV…does wonders for acute workitis!

Wow, I was actually shocked to see an update before this weekend. You are the most dedicated, Matt. I’m going to rewatch all of my old tapes and see if we have anything Christmas-like in the mix. Question: does it have to be from the 80’s, or just as long as it’s nostalgic? All three Mini Traj’s are going to my sister’s tomorrow, so Mr. Trajeal and I can have some quality time, watching crackly VHS tapes and laughing embarrassingly at what we actually thought was important enough to tape. Well, maybe it will just be me doing that. Mr. Trajeal will probably be playing Super Power II. Old poop.

Matt, I kept meaning to ask if you had anything to do with the ‘Shriekin Weekend’ spots on Nick. They were inspired, really brilliant, and some of them had a rather X-E flavor…the ‘land shark’ bit in particular. So ‘fess up…was it you?

I can’t wait for the Christmas stuff. One thing I love about the site is how excited it gets me for the holidays. Your enthusiasm is contagious, Matt.

Also, I finally found some of those damn cocoa (Peep) cats we’ve heard so much about. There was only one box, abandoned on a near empty shelf among the Halloween detritus. And yes, they were spectacular.

The Halloween countdown was awesome and I can’t wait for this year’s Advent calendar! I’m so excited about it!

Should distract me from writing papers and what not. I’m really interested to see what this article that’s been waiting years to be covered is. Should be good!

yes i too enjoyed the halloween edition of x-e and wait with baited breath for the thanksgiving and christmas editions to arrive…(sorry i’ve taken two english courses back to back…ugh!)
anyway still sad to say that there was hide nor hair of any real ghostbusters mentioned at all during the halloween season.:(
oh well, the other stuff made up for it, but hopefully we will see them on here soon.!

Oh, yeah. I found some Mare Winninghams at my local thrift store the other day, and it made me wonder - what the heck do you do w/ all of those Mares after Christmas? You should raffle them off to X-E blog readers. I bet you’d make a killing.

Hey Matt, did you ever get that little green monster cereal premium guy? Or not yet? It’s been a while, hasn’t it?

Wow, a third calendar? Can’t wait to see it. Hell, maybe I’ll buy it this year (if it even reaches Canada, that is).

Hmmm…Chistmas stuff, eh? I know of places where I can get VHS tapes like Alvin’s Christmas Carol as well as all sorts of other Christmas crap that I’m sure you haven’t heard of. But if I buy any of them I’ll most likely want to keep them in my own collection. However, if I come across a toy catalog, I’m sure I’d be willing to send it to you (once I’m done looking at it, that is).

Hmmm…I guess the other Nate has disappeared, so I will no longer be calling myself "The REAL Nate." That is unless he shows his face again, that little shit!

In case anyone’s Bizzaro-counterparts show up, I’ll gladly lend the use of my Patented Trans-Dimensional Portal/Soft Serve Ice Cream Maker with Pizza Oven attatchment to deal with them. I’m looking at you, Nate.

Jeez, king, where would we be w/o the Patented Trans-Dimensional Portal/Soft Serve Ice Cream Maker with Pizza Oven attatchment? The world would be an entirely different place.

Maybe Ralphie should invite Pinhead over for Christmas this year. It would only be fair since Pinhead was nice enough to have him over earlier this year. Or perhaps Ralphie could bring his madcap wackiness to Hell this year. Christmas in Hell, I know it sounds kinda like a rip-off of the song from South Park but its totally different, trust me…of course the playmobil gang could tage along and eat Christmas Crunch all day long, especially is it’s from 1988. Maybe they could eat some Chef Boyardee Fettecine(sp?) and wash it down with fruity bubblegum Hi-C. Then they would become super mutant playmobil dudes/dudettes. Sorry, i’ll stop referencing past articles.

/me puts lights, fake snow and strange-looking, red-dressing fat guys all around…

Anyways, I think you should go to the parade, Matt. Some of us can’t go. Some of us live in Minnesota.

i just came across this site today, and i feel like it completes me. i laughed my ass off in the math lab. seriously dope.

Ahh, yes, I’ve been looking forward to the annual X-E Christmas Advent Calendar, since last year’s ended up being one of the highlights of my holiday season. Santa, Reindeer, Baby Jesus, and Mare Winningham. My Christmas is complete now.

The other thing I’m majorly looking forward to is more of the Macy’s parades. Both of your parade reviews last year were classic, and if I get kicked off the family’s TV by overzealeous DVD watchers on Thanksgiving morning again, this may end up being the only Thanksgiving parade I see.

The mention of a holiday catalog above struck a chord with me. I don’t know if you shared this experience, Matt, but when I was little I LOVED the Christmas Wishbook catalog. I’d spend hours looking at it from the first day it arrived in August. A review of some of the classic catalogs of yesteryear might make a nice feature….

Matt can I send you some old Christmas clippings by snail mail? Matt are you going to review that Mc Donalds Christmas special about that girl who wanted a Christmas doll?

Excellent, I can’t wait for the Macy’s article(s). Truly, the 1984 Parade is only eclipsed by the Hungryman All-Day Breakfast as my favorite article. Just thought I would say so.

I accidentally started watcing Halloween 3 last night. What the..? I can’t believe that movie ever even got made. They should have called it something else. That name is tricky. "Eitht more days ’til Halloween, Halloween, Halloween…" Der.

yea, how can you try to grab a hold of a blossoming franchise by removing the key player? by itself, halloween 3 is not terribly bad, but it’s not terribly good either. it should’ve been called mask of death or something.

Yo, Matt! Just wondering if you’ve ever seen em or have any on tape…but for the Xmas season, there’s been numerous Canadian Tire commercials which feature the slogan "Spend Like Santa, Save like Scrooge." These commercials (especially in the early 80s) used to be pretty funny, from what I remember. But then again, I was just a little kid and my Han Solo figure swimming in my bowl of Rocky Road cereal was pretty funny, too. It would make Canadian readers happy!

What we need this year is a investigation into holiday specials where it is obvious that the effort is a attempt to create the next Rudolph or Charlie Brown classic, and failing in spectacular fashion. The Star Wars Holiday Special is a great example. (Now, when you say "special"….) The inspiration is that every year, the Dr. Demento show has a medley of weird songs that somebody thought were good ideas for Christmas. At least two where Santa got stuck in the chimmney. A mystical impossibility, I know, but written anyway.

Matt, please do another review of the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special. Nothing strikes fear in my heart more than a family of wookies. Or at least something featuring Yoda Claus.
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Yeah Matt,review old Christmas catalogs! The ones out nowadays have jack in the way of toys. I guess that’s to be expected,with the rise of Wal-Mart and all.

Well Matt dont know how much of a fan you are of Nightmare Before Christmas…Although If you ever wanted to do a review of it now would be a great time. You know good transition from the halloween to christmas time joys. It just an idea…

LordSorrow: GOOD call on Nightmare Before Christmas! I back that idea. Matt, please review that movie–it’s amazing!

Yay for Canadian Tire Christmas commercials! I have some old ones on tape. Yeah, I guess that’s not too relevant but meh.

I have a question for anyone out there who can answer it, it really has nothing to do with anything being said, I just didn’t know where else to ask. It’s about a movie that I remeber from when I was young. It was scary, and I believe there was a boy who was evil (no not dameon) I know there is a part where his sister is locked in a burning car, there is also a part where he and his sister (babysitter) are ordering pizza, and a pizza cutter gets thrown through the air and goes into the stair case. There is also a radio that gets dropped into a bath tub, and a little girl on a roof trying to get a ball and the windows open and knock her off. The little boy has something to do with all of this, like he makes it happen. I hope I made sense here and if anyone can make sense out of it and knows what I am talking about please post and let me know

Even the ads are better on this site…just thought I’d mention that. I’ve been playing the Bart Simpson thing for a while now. And the Seed of Chucky thing had me laughing for hours. Why can’t other sites use that, instead of "shoot the duck, win an Ipod!"?

If that link doesn’t work, click on my name to go to the IMDB page fo rthe movie.

halloween spectacular was great -stop- ghost with the most cartoons were by far my favorite -stop- looking forward to christmas countdown -stop- wow am i bored at work.

and just to share a little something, i was in nyc last saturday and stumbled across that hersheys smores maker with the expression of the "youth likening the cooking of s’mores to seeing Satan screwing his mother with the top of a broken wine bottle". i nearly peed my pants right in the hershey superstore. thanks for making a trip with my mom actually fun!

this year the sears wishbook normally a phone book sized tome of christmas knowledge has been replaced by a simple compact disc harboring nothing but flash animated magazine pages. damn you technology, damn you straight to hell

Matt, if I had an X-Entertainment wish it would be to read your reviews of old Sears Christmas Wishbooks circa 1985-1995. That would be an instant classic.

Paul, thanx I think that is it, i thought it was older then that, but that looks like it

God I love this site! I totally remember that damn Limon. Gave my parents a good laugh when I asked them if we could get some at the store….I was 16. hahahaha. naw I was like 5 but I remember that damn crazy hybrid. and why cant they make em? They make tangelos for cryin out loud!

Matt, I’d love to see you review the classic pre-Elmo, pre-"adults knowing about Mr. Snuffleupagus" Christmas Eve on Sesame Street special from 1978, which I quite honestly put right up there on the same level as the Rankin-Bass Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, for reasons I gave in my list of the "Top Ten Christmas episodes":

I’m sorry, this is still one of my favourite, grossly underrated, Christmas specials. Ah, the memories… The characters (well, versions of the Muppet characters with slightly oversized heads whose mouths don’t move) skating around that rink with "Feliz Navidad" playing in the background, jumping barrels. Oscar asking Big Bird how Santa Claus, who’s built like a dump truck, can fit down that skinny little chimney, making Big Bird try to stay awake next to the chimney, as well as Oscar’s song "I hate Christmas", the song "Keep Christmas With You (All Through the Year)", and, my favourite bit, a version of O. Henry’s "Gift of the Magi" with Ernie trading his rubber duckie to get a cigar box (back when you could still say "cigar" on Sesame Street) for Bert’s paperclip collection and Bert trading his paperclip collection to get a soap dish for Ernie’s rubber duckie, and then they try not to act sad when they see each other open their presents until Mr. Hooper comes and makes everything alright.

You get to see much of the living cast as they looked when they were young, especially beneficial for those of us in Canada whom can’t watch Classic "Street" on Noggin, and it has Mr. Hooper (Will Lee, whom died in 1982) and David (Northern Calloway, whom was institutionalized for much of the 1980s and whom died of cancer in 1990), well, not to mention the voice of Jim Henson as Ernie and Kermit (he died of "flesh eating disease" in 1990). And no Elmo… well, Elmo wasn’t around until 1984.

‘Night Court’ is rerun on A&E’s Biography Channel for some reason. So for those interested, check it out.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, November 4th, 2004 at 9:54 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.