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12/04/2007: Christmas Crunch Cereal: The 2007 Edition!

I was really proud of the Christmas Crunch cereal tribute I wrote back in 2002, mainly because of the enormous lengths it took to procure a sealed, ancient box of the heavenly holiday cereal. At the time, I was convinced that my cereal box was among the last remaining of its kind. Of course, no more than an hour after the article went up did my inbox fill with letters from people crying foul. Evidently, owning a box of Christmas Crunch was no big deal. As it turned out, Cap'n Crunch never stopped donning the Santa cap…he just stopped doing it around where I live.

It wasn't the first time that something I'd claimed to be extinct was actually alive and well, but it was definitely one of the few times that I was happy to be wrong. Indeed, Christmas Crunch lives. It's really tough to find in NY, but I finally stumbled upon the all new 2007 edition late this evening.

Only thing is…it's not really "all new." In fact, it was just a year and a day ago that I wrote about the 2006 edition, which was nearly identical to this year's version in every way save for the box design. I guess there's no sense in tweaking once you've reached perfection.

Still, this year's box design is way different from last year's, and let's face it: Cereal box design accounts for at least 50% of the appeal. I think this year's might be the best ever. Forgoing the usual green with red trim, Cap'n Crunch has instead opted for a high class gold color. I'm having trouble deciding on which barometer would be best for rating its beauty: Stars? Thumbs up? Some number out of ten? Perhaps the proof of the prettiness lies in something more tangible: The box looked so good, I couldn't stop myself from buying two of them.

The cereal is, as usual, an amazing force that makes me believe in God. With regular Cap'n Crunch cereal bits mixed in with various red and green holiday-shaped goodies, there's been a slight modification to last year's shapes. The green "snowman" pieces have been replaced with green "ornament" pieces. Sounds like a step down, but it really isn't. The new pieces look less like ornaments and more like the traditional Crunchberries of yesteryear, which were the standard in the Christmas Crunch cereals that I grew up on more than fifteen years ago.

Quick note: Am I like 400 times bigger than I was as a child? I don't remember the yellow, barrel-shaped Cap'n Crunch pieces being so tiny. They're practically tooth-sized now.

As I've written about before, cereal mascots have taken a real hit in light of the scarily nicknamed "obesity epidemic" currently panicking our fair nation. Since Cap'n Crunch is so synonymous with the cereal he promotes, I can't help but worry that both he and his cereal-of-choice are on borrowed time. That's so fucked. This is a guy who has given the world a Christmas-themed cereal annually for nearly twenty years. If there are villains in this world in need of annihilation, I just can't believe that they include someone who did something as wonderful as that.

Cereal boxbacks are really important pieces of reading material, as they are the generally the focus of any cereal-eater's attention while he or she is…well, eating cereal. And boy, this boxback is freakin' fantastic. It's just a big, jumbled, joyous mess of holiday insanity, with everything from a maze to a matching game to a find-and-seek activity and beyond. There's even a cut-out ornament, and a damned coupon for Christmas cartoon DVDs. I didn't set an egg timer to see how long it took me to soak it all in, but I'll tell you this: I definitely could've eaten a bowl of cereal faster, and that's all that counts.

A+ for 2007's Christmas Crunch. I've been almost too busy to just kick back and enjoy my favorite time of year, but stuff like this helps. Heck, just having the box in my line of sight makes me feel like I'm celebrating something or another.

And now, a few quick and totally unrelated notes!

1) Did you know that the X-E Blog has an RSS feed? Neither did I, but it does! Use it if you're into that sort of thing.

2) Shameless reminder: If you're buying anything from Amazon this season, please do so through this link, so I can swipe a little referral fee. This helps me buy and write about stupid shit without having to feel guilty.

3) I kind of want to do another one of those big "party threads," like we did for Friday the 13th a while back. Maybe this Saturday night? Any interest? Anyone willing to scour the TV listings for a good background show/movie/special we can all watch and comment on together? I know this sounds incredibly lame, but I figure, if you're going to be a shut-in, you may as well put it to good use, y'know?

This is why the terrorist hate us, nah just kidding I love captain crunch, the only cereal that bites back by shredding your mouth.

Anonymous: Okay, I went back and looked at the box and I laughed hard. Well played.

Cool, I was just looking for an RSS feed the other day. This will certainly give my poor F5 key a rest.

Matt, doesn't seem like a great selection on basic cable this Saturday, but fun could still be had:

8pm How the Grinch Stole Christmas (ABC)
8pm Blazing Saddles (AMC)
ABC Family has Polar Express and Santa Clause 2 in rotation tht night….I'll keep looking; anything in particular, like what kind of movie, you're looking for?

Eh, Polar Express made me wince (I hate how I can't fully enjoy an animated movie w/o wondering why something looks weird because I'm in an animation major). Is this the animated Grinch or the non-animated one?

I love Cap'n Crunch. I could eat that dry, but I end up in cutting my mouth up. XD Never did like the crunch berries tho (and now I'm gonna get pelted w/ crunch berries until I'm berried to death XD).

I've been without the good Cap'n and his Christmas flavored cereal for two years now, but not this year! No matter what I get this year, it'll be 2084 times as awesome w/a bowl of Christmas Crunch to go with it.

I can't remember the last time I had a bowl of Christmas Crunch. I remember getting a box the first year it came out and not having any since. I've had plenty of the regular version but none with the Christmasy goodness. Funny thing is I still have the cutout ornament from that first box, it's gone up on the tree every year since I first got it.

I will do the rest of my Christmas shopping through that amazon link. As well as all book purchasing for next semester.

I actually bought a box of Christmas last week. I always thought all the crunch berries were shaped to be something else, but this year, the box had both decorative crunch berries and regular ones. Unless the regular ones were supposed to be light bulbs.

I'm not sure how many people give gag gifts as part of Christmas presents to people, but I recently found Steven Seagal's Lightning Bolt (which I had been looking for since its inception) in the deli section at Wal-Mart. Trust me when I say it's the most disgusting thing that you could ever drink that's not expired or toxic waste. However, it'd make the perfect gift for people who find humor in a Steven Seagal energy drink, which is presumably everybody.

I know this will sound weird…but i have never had capn crunch in any form… i feel like i just went to confession.

Rich: Hasn't Matt established that the Jones Soda Holiday packs are liquid hell? XD Lightning Bolt sounds like Dante's inferno liquified and injected into you with rusty syringes, though.

mortalwind, definantly on the same page w/ you in regards to Captain Crunch's mouth shredding capacity. The most addictive cereals are always the most painful… What would the official bevarage be for an X-E blog party?

Leigha: Cap'N Crunch has a peculiar stigma attached to it because it's the cereal most remembered for tearing up the roofs of people's mouths — so, texturally, it's not the most pleasant stuff in the world.

I love the gold box. I also don't remember the last time I had a box of CC, as I rarely eat cereal or even breakfast.

What exactly is an RSS Feed and why does every website I go to act like it's one of the best things ever invented since Toaster Struedels?

Gotta say, I've been into the 23 now for a little bit and I'm pretty pumped. Damn, I can tell this shit is gonna explode. I really needed something else to look forward to after all the SHIT I've been going through.

Can't speak for everyone else, and I haven't even tried it myself, but the obvious choice (to me at least) for an official X-E blog party (during this month) would be Sierra Mist Cranberry Splash.

Did anyone see Halloween Crunch this year? It was pretty amazing and turned your milk neon green. It's stuff like this that really bummed me out about the lack of a Halloween Countdown. Check it out:
Halloween Crunch front
Halloween Crunch back

Speaking of SMCS I had one of the Slurpees tonight and all I can say is Matt you were right they are awesome!

I second the Cranberry Splash nomination for official Saturday Night Slackathon beverage.

Matt: You're very right–cereal boxes do contain very important reading material. That's why cereal bags (cheap, generic rice krispies for example) disappoint me and make me want to cry.

Eddie: Had I found Halloween Crunch, there would've been at least one more Countdown entry.

I've…I've never had a bowl of Christmas Crunch. Or Regular Capt 'n Crunch. Does that make me a bad person?

As for the movie, I vote for Polar Express and Santa Clause 2. Because I love seeing that big Berkshire driving around, and I've never seen the latter.

Useless trivia: They scanned a REAL Berkshire locomotive for use in the Movie. The number of the loco? 1225. Pretty cool coincidence, huh?

Crunchberries always tasted bad to me… I like the normal cereal just fine, but the berries… Ehhh… Also, I eat my cereal dry. =P

In a related note, I've been a good little X-E helper bunny of sorts. Helper bunny or mindless addict. Your pick. Anyway, I went to Wal-Mart not too long ago and got some Gingerbread Pop-Tarts (delicious!) and a Chia Pet. Not a rabbit like Matt, or a hippo like I wanted, but a kitten. I've decided to name him/her Neem Seal. While at Wal-Mart, I went so far as putting pomegranate 7-Up in my cart, but then put it back when I realized I had no idea what pomegranates taste like. =P

Oh, Ben, while I am very happy to hear that you're Chia-ing, I can't believe you put back the P-7! Honestly, it tastes like a "darker" Cranberry Splash…there isn't a world of difference, but it just feels so holiday sophisto.

I've never cut the roof of my mouth on Cap'n Crunch. At least I've never done it and realized it.

I'm eating a wreath-looking cookie that smells mysteriously like a pine tree… and a gingerbread spice.

Definitely time for an XE Christmas party. Grinch is cool. Too bad NL Christmas Vacation isn't on then.

Mjgrass: as much as I like the Cap'n, I gotta vote for Boo-berry too. It's great, and I can never find it, even at Halloween.

Hey, maybe some type of "final four" bracketing of breakfast cereals. Who would win?

2) Add Weird Al's "The Night Santa Went Crazy" to compliment "Christmas at Ground Zero"
3) Put the Big Bad Voodoo Daddy cover of the Snowmiser/Heatmiser songs earlier in the jukebox. That one's awesome.
4) Add a song or 2 from "Santa Claus is Comin To Town"
5) Add a few more songs by Trans Siberian Orchestra

Rudolph…I missed it again, I was at work again. Damn writer's strike, it's not on a Saturday this year! And its one of 3 Rankin-Bass specials the ABC Family doesn't run during its Xmas Eve Marathon (Frosty The Snowan & Legend of Frosty are the other 2).

Hey, how about finding some Christmas Special and rag on that? Santa Claus is Comin' To Town is on ABC tomorrow, but that just seems too soon.

Speaking of Jones Soda…I've yet to find either Christmas or Channukah pack yet. It's insane that they're gone by now…before the actual freaking holidays! And my Kingdom for 20oz Carnberry Splash! And speaking of which, Target has Cranberry Splash slushees as well, so those of you without a 7-11 can look there.

(I hate how I can't fully enjoy an animated movie w/o wondering why something looks weird because I'm in an animation major)

I never liked Motion Capture, it just creates more animation limitations. And I hate that there's too much realism in cartoons these days. Bound by physics and reality, there's no freedom for cartoons to be as elastic & wild as they once were. And people wonder why I've never been interested in watching Happy Feet…

I've never cut the roof of my mouth on Cap'n Crunch either. Cap'n Crunch was always one of my top-3 cereals growing up and thankfully never caused injury.

I did happen to cut the roof of my mouth fairly seriously one time. I had been at a silly petting zoo with my parents and had gotten a cheap little wooden faux Indian peace pipe from the gift shop. A silly little thing with a few gaudy feathers glued onto it. Well as we were going to leave I had the pipe clenched firmly in my teeth as I was climbing into the backseat of my parent's 2-door Chevy Blazer. Before I could shift my weight all the way into the rear seat my mother tossed the front passenger seat back causing it to hit the front of the peace pipe and therefore (nearly completely) shaving off a layer of tissue off the top of my mouth. Funny that as it happened the scariest thing for me was trying to collect the blood in my hands and not let any get on the rear seat of my parent's new SUV.

After a few minutes at one of the zoo's water fountains, spitting much blood, my parents drove me home. I spent the next 24 hours with a damn wash cloth in my mouth so the layer of skin would not dangle down. It has been quite a while, so I don't remember if the chunk of tissue eventually fell off, I just know that I freaked out a lot of little kids at the zoo that day. Mouth (and head injuries overall) really do bleed a lot. Also the roof of my mouth feels really smooth where it scraped me.

Party thread sounds like a good idea. Not sure what's on TV this weekend, but you could probably find one of those awesome specials from the 70's. Like Rudolph, that was on today. Or the original Grinch. Yum/.

Capt'n Crunch is not a hero to the world Matt. Most people in Australia have never heard of him let alone tasted his wares.

After going through the rabbit hole of links throughout that Christmas Crunch article, I came across your Hi-C Fruity Bubble Gum article in which you called Ecto-Cooler "certifiably disgusting". Now if memory serves (which it probably doesn't, my first forays into X-E were in a marijuana haze and I spent a good two hours reading about Kool-Aid), I thought you liked Ecto-Cooler? I thought you enjoyed the Slimer stuff. Or is this another one of your "I don't actually like the taste but I am willing to sacrifice everything for it" kind of things?

Gregor: I've introduced the s'more to a good portion of the population in northern beaches of Sydney and Canberra uni students.

All because I told my girl I wanted to make s'mores and she didn't understand my ooey-gooey sticky sandwich intentions.

Planning seems to be going well for the party. I'm in, provided finals are ending soon. Gotta vote for Pomegranate 7 Up as the official…wife and I bought P7 and CSSM. Dug both, but lets just say we're on bottle 3 of P7, and CSSM is not making a comeback. Tomorrow I finish off my Christmas Crunch box 1 and proceed to box 2. Last year I ran out close to Xmas and had to save the last bowl for Xmas day. Bummer. This year I have planned better. Anyone know if Santa Claus the Movie's gonna be on anytime? That'd make a GREAT party thread starter. Made in the 80's loved by 30 year olds (ok, me), and it makes me crave Coke and McDonalds. Once a year I watch the movie, and invariably must have a can (not a 2 liter) to drink while watching it, then go to McDonalds to eat. Product placement from 85 still works.

I looked for Christmas Crunch a couple of weeks ago but had no luck. Can anyone recommend a store to try? Where have you found it?

Terror, dude, you're not the only 30 year old. Just don't tell anyone I am a year off! But damn, McDonalds sounds great right now. Like… a Big Mac.

If you're in to the raped and pillaged, then there are 2 christmas movies on Liftime from about 5-11.

THEN there is the special stuff which is Santa Clause 2, Polar Express and Prancer on ABC family from 8-1ish.

Oooh yeah. Big Mac. Mmmm. Agreed.
Magic Toy-
You seek Wal-Mart. But DON'T BE FOOLED by their stupid normal cereal section. The good stuff (Xmas Crunch) is hidden away on the "Mega Xmas Aisle" of candies and promotional stuff. I found a crapload of the stuff there, and NOT in the normal aisle. Sacriledge!

Magic toy, I had the same shit happen, but for me it was a pole from a gijoe tent, when the bungee line broke I used the poles as dart guns, which worked out preatty well till I fell forward on one, it scraped out a chunck of flesh on the roof of my mouth, not unlike a icecream scoop. I ended up taking a pair of scisors to the flap and alls well that ends well. and the only other think do damage the roof of my mouth since is captn crunch.

BenS in Matt's own words last time this was brought up "A-Wel, that's an old article, meaning I couldn't describe anything without saying that it sucked.".

Wal-Mart…I always see large families sporting mullets and wearing deer hunting coats and Dale Earnhardt hats at the Wal-Mart near me. :S

I'm all for a party thread! Not sure if they sell Cranberry Splash or Pomegranate 7-UP here, though.

Is it wrong that I really feel like watching a cheesy horror movie right now? I'd love to watch Army of Darkness, but I haven't seen it before and want to save it so that I can see it with a friend. We watched the other two (Evil Dead 1 and 2) a couple weeks ago, and haven't been able to get together again to watch numba three.

Oh, and I saw Rudolph tonight. F'in awesome, except the end got cut off, since we recorded it on PVR and the timing wasn't perfect. Also had the pleasure of introducing our Japanese homestay to it.

Oh, forgot to mention: we bought a Christmas Story leg lamp nightlight the other day. It has a very proud position in our living room and everyone's been treating it as if it's the Holy Freakin' Grail.

That is my favorite explanation for a continuity goof EVER.
I think I need a break from art history. I just got out of class, and the first thing I thought of when I saw the gold background was that the Cap'n is rocking a little bit of the Byzantine style.
I'm with Shaun, pickings are a little slim on Saturday. I found a few things. Not all seasonal, but suitable for background noise:
Like Shuan mentioned, Santa Clause 2 is on at 7. Food Network's got a night of holiday programming, and SciFi is running a bunch of creature features. Comedy Central's playing Dennis Leary's Merry Fucking Christmas special at 2 am. TV Land is marathoning the 100 Most Unexpected TV moments and following it up with Thelma and Louise, and Discovery is playing a bunch of Planet Earth. I saw the Lifetime movies too, but they didn't look interesting. I was planning to record Santa Clause, myself, but Planet Earth is always a good way to kill a few hours too.

I've already seen that 100 Most Unexpected TV moments. It would give variety of topics but nothing christmasy.

i'd like to throw my vote to the p-7 as well (and thank the site for introducing it to me). They had the two liter bottles on sale at the store by my house for a buck each and I brought eight with me to my six day thanksgiving vacation to northern wisconsin ( you would never find it up there- i doubt many people up there can even spell pomegranate much less know what it was). anyway there's not much to do up there so p-7 and vodka made it a very happy thanksgiving for me and the rest of the group.

and it's nice to know i'm not the only one who's never had captain crunch either.

After wasting half the bottle of the first 7up pomegrante, I'm not allowed to have it anymore.

Well, now I need to go look for the Pommegranate 7-Up (missed some entries a while back, or else I'd be more in the loop) and try to get Christmas Crunch. And Terror Claws Cole thanks for the heads up about the holiday aisle. Maybe I'll have better luck there.

What exactly is an RSS Feed and why does every website I go to act like it's one of the best things ever invented since Toaster Struedels?

Rudolph came on tonight….a few years back, CBS restored a few lost scenes, then a couple years later cut them again. "We're A Couple of Misfits" suffered the worst; to fit the edited scene they cut some things mid-lyric and pasted other things as they were being said; it's very painful to watch. Maybe I should think about the DVD of this thing, but I'd miss the broadcast feel.

earlier tonight i was reading this article and my fiancee came up and kept saying that waiterbot and waiter better are krang. i yelled at him and explained who waiterbot was, and how waiterbetty is a slut. he laughed, but i think it was one of those "man, i am going to marry a fucking loon" laughs….not a "oh man, i totally get that and its hilarious" laugh. i am making sad face

I just got Capt'n Crunch for the first time in years a little over a month ago. Unfortunately I am sick of it now and definitely won't be getting a box of Christmas Crunch. I like this box better then last years because it looks classy. It looks like they want you to pour champagne into your cereal and eat it with a gold spoon. But I like the lights that decorated the words though, they should of saved that. Maybe just white lights, oh yeah that would of been neat

I like all white lights instead of colored lights anyway it looks nicer. I hate the tacky Wal Mart decorations people like yuck wtf is that about seriously.

I got Sierra Mist Cranberry splash Slurpees! 2 of them, one tonight and one last night. Good stuff. I actually made a video of my best friend drinking out of his and me drinking out of mine. I am not sharing the link though you have to go through my blog link.

Wait, Matt , you DONT like ecto cooler? i am so sad now….although i still have slimer-mas marked off on my calendar from earlier this year when i first read that article.

I never trusted the captain. And I trust him less now that he's randomly abducting kids into his cartoon world of crunchy doooooooooooom.

Oh yeah I also think the pieces look smaller too! Like the size of nerds almost! I mean what's the point of that? It's not like they lose money or anything it goes in the same sized box!

I found my Pomegranate 7-Up at Dominick's. It is a chain of grocery stores in the Chicago area (maybe a lot of other areas too, no idea). I need to go back and get another bottle or two since I really enjoyed the one I picked up last weekend. I would also recommend P7UP as the official beverage of X-E's Holiday season, I just suggested SMCS earlier since it seemed to be so universally adored here. I still do need to try it though.

Cool, thanks for the tip. I have to admit that I didn't even check the "seasonal" section at Target when I looked for it last week. I stupidly only checked the regular cereal aisle. I'll definitely investigate further, and Wal-Mart may have to get a visit as I haven't had a sampling of the Cap'n's wares in quite a while and I can't think of a better time to do it.

I feel your pain brother, I do. I don't remember taking a pair of scissors to my "flap", but I can't imagine I would have had the balls to do that by myself at that age. Hell, I was nervous when I pierced my own ear with a sewing needle, bar of soap, bottle of isopropyl alcohol, and a few ice cubes when I was a sophomore in high school. I'll have to ask my Mom what she remembers about the incident the next time I am home.

Oh, and regarding Saturday night… I am in. Hopefully we can figure out something good to watch. So far the pickings appear to be slimmer than Tracey Gold's inner thighs (circa 1988), but I'll be here. The lady and I are hosting a family party that night so I might not be around until midnight. Really though… isn't that just when things will be getting started?

Here's an idea- how about you make a megaparty about 1980s era toy show christmas episodes? Optimus Prime in a santa hat?

Matt- thanks for the rss feed link. Lovely.
squee- I can sympathize with you on the art history class I took two years of it only to decide I stink at art and change majors

Matt, I've been subscribed to your RSS feed since August. I figured that if there was one for comments (seen as a link in the text after the comments boxes), then there must be one for the blog articles. It was fortunate that the URL (x-entertainment.com/updates/feed) was so simple that I found it immediately.

It's great to have your blog content delivered to me through my feed reader, instead of the alternative of clicking your link in my favorites menu several times a day. Especially because you're so on-and-off about posting. Thanks to your RSS feed, I always know when you've posted.

squee4242: Is that Planet Earth the DVD boxed set that looks better on HD? I was thinking about getting that for my dad for Christmas since he just got a huge HDTV. Is it worth the $50?

SNT Christmas Party? Count me in… that is if I can weasel out of a Halloween Convention Committee Christmas party that sounds like it's going to completely suck. The theme is Nightmare Before Christmas, which is my favorite movie ever (I just got my first tattoo tribute to it, in fact), but it's at some guy's itty bitty house and he's inviting, like, 10 people. Blah.

Anyway, I'm voting for a movie as opposed to a Christmas special because I had a blast with the F13 party and a Christmas special is too short for that.

Has anyone seen the Rudolph sequel called Rudolph and the Island of Misfit Toys? Matt should really review it, it's so horrible and dreadful you just have to laugh, and it's full of continuity errors and computer animation that defines, well, bad animation!

If you've ever wanted to see a disturbingly pink Hippo sing about her fabulous toys, this is a special YOU HAVE TO SEE!

if anyone lives in mass and happens to stumble on some of this stuff, let me know… please.

As with Gregor, unfortunately the UK has yet to have the Cap'n grace our shores!

Matt, if you are looking for a Christmas tune, I heartily recommend Arrogant Worms and "Santa's Gonna Kick Your Ass", South Park's "Carol of the Bells" or anything from the Tales from the Crypt Christmas.

By the weekend, huh? Sounds like a plan. Since grandpa's really not doing well, we've decided early Christmas is go. We're having it this weekend. We're not opening ALL our presents. We're gonna keep some around for the 24th, just in case. And if he's still with us then, Second Christmas will occur. So yeah, a few new tunes will make for a much-needed pick-me-up by the time the week's over, I reckon. Cheers, kids!

Matt, you need to add a link tag to the rss feed in the header of your site template. For example:

That will cause the little orange RSS icon to appear next to the site address in the browser.

Andrew, RSS allows you to see the updates to a site without actually having to visit to see if the site has been updated. You basically set up the Feed and view that instead, new items go straight to the top (usually).

Guise! - thank you!! anyone else as tired as i am? i have a feeling its going to be a long day..

Andrew I'm totally with you on the long day thing. I over-slept this morning and it's hump day. Bleh. However, I have my coffee, x-e, and it's snowing here in Maryland, so things could turn out for the better.

Great idea on the 'party' this Saturday… I don't know what to recommend for background, mostly becuase I'm in Canada and have the lamest cable package imagineable… I'd be up for Christmas Vacation though… I'm sure everyone owns it and we could all start it when the clock strikes 9 - kind of like when you watch Wizard of Oz while listening to Darkside of the Moon.
Also, I have no idea what an RSS0-thingy is… should I be into that sort of thing?

Doesn't matter how many years go by since I've been in school, School Closings still excite me some reason.

Oh man, it's only 10:00 and I'm already having a terrible day. I was supposed to go to a First Aid/CPR class that I need for work. I got totally boned by traffic and didn't make it on time. They won't let you in if you're late. Sooo now I get to pay the $60 fee AGAIN and do it another day.

I'm thrilled at the promise of a blog party

My vote is for Santa Clause 2 and Polar Express, with the Denis Leary special later on.

Nizz: I actually do NOT own Christmas Vacation and I'm sure plenty of people here don't. I doubt there's any movie we can just assume EVERYONE has.

I have a feeling different little pockets of us may end up watching different things, though.

Guise: Thanks for explaining what an RSS feed is! I've been wondering that for years.

ABC family is having a pretty kick ass christmas classics marathon on saturday-day (leading up to the polar express/santa clause 2/polar express again marathon). It's mostly Rankin-Bass left overs. Also, one I haven't actually seen for years- but I listen to the record every christmas - 'Twas the Night Before Christmas with the little rat family and the nerdy rat kid that almost KILLS CHRISTMAS by not believing in Santa (I mean, does Santa really care if some nerdy rat kid doesn't take him seriously?)
Anyway, it all culminates with Prancer at 11:30pm.
http://abcfamily.go.com/abcfamily/path/section_Specials+25-D...

Velouria- i have an old "christmas" tape with several christmas specials (including old commercials from the 80's) that includes "twas the night before christmas" - its a great special.

So, I will check Wal Mart for this elusive pomegrante 7 up. Walgreens doesnt have it, target does not have it and neither does Kmart.

And lets pick something to watch saturday that can be easily acessed via you tube or another movie download site…I have'nt had tv in like 4 months now. I have a tv just not cable service, since comcast dicked me over and they are the only only only cable provider besides direct tv and then direct tv charges an insane amount for a deposit.

Yeah my name says it all. also I got some kind of foreign candy bar this morning called Bubble Chocolate. Sounds good, I have'nt eaten it yet tho…And oh yeah I bought them star mint peeps…they are awesome!

oooo, commercials…
oooo, mint…
I ate way too many of these yesterday.
http://www.traderjoesfan.com/Trader_Joes/Products/Desserts,_...
Peppermint is a weird thing, I know not everyone likes it. I love it. And these are awesome. They have little chunks of peppermint candy in their delicious peppermint flavored oreo-like filling.

Whoa. The RSS feed is titilating.
As for the Crunch, try it on plain mashed potatoes. I'm serious. Sprinkle some on a dollop and you'll see….

Lauren, I don't doubt the effect but…just how does somebody discover that combination?

Speaking of Denis Leary, I suggest adding his "Marry Fucking Christmas" song to the Jukebox. I love it so much.

And speaking of the Jukebox, any chance of adding the actual California Raisins cover of "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer" from The Claymation Christmas Special? I appreciate the effort last year by adding their Rudolph Rap, but it's just not the same

Possibly, but on that note, unfortunately, I've temporarily taken the juke offline. Need to see how it affects the site's resources over the course of today. (Because the blog is still not running smoothly.)

Don't worry: If I end up needing to sacrifice the juke for the blog, it will still be active, but by invitation only. Invitation meaning anyone who wants it. I have a feeling I'm dealing with hotlinks.

Yeah, sadly, from what I'm looking at now, it seems as though the jukes were eating a ridiculous amount of the site's usage. Temporarily moving them has cut the file requests down by 75%. We're going to examine and figure out a good solution today.

Working on it now. They take a while.

But not terribly much longer. In the midst of server mayhem, but probably around 1:30.

Couldn't you host the jukebox on one of new sites you recently created for the riddle thing. Or are you hosting them on the same server as X-E?

And like you said, possibly not link the jukebox from the site, but have it on a hidden URL which is available upon request. That would eliminate the hotlinking and leeching that may be going on.

It would be the same issue. Say you got a hundred songs, and say 200 people have it open at once, and say those 200 people leave it on for an hour. That's a pretty high volume of requests and bandwidth. Still weighing the options. (You guys would be safe either way…it would just be a matter of tempering the traffic level.)

Matt, can I suggest an alternative method to the jukebox. Set up an online radio with a set playlist that randomises tracklist, so people aren't loading an individual track direct from you.

The negative side is people can't pick and choose, but I think some of the software lets you run requests.

You reduce bandwidth, because it's just one streaming file not multiple requests.

Guise, I'm gonna e-mail you now. Tell me more of these beautiful words of yours.

Yes, you are right that the Planet Earth set will look better in HD. My cable package has Discovery Channel HD and I went through a phase last summer where that was all I wanted to watch on TV.

Regarding your Dad's new HDTV, make sure he also has an HD-DVD player (or Blu-Ray) if you buy one of the HD versions of the Planet Earth Box Set, instead of the regular DVD version. Having an HDTV doesn't mean you can use HD-DVD or Blu-Ray discs, you will also need the appropriate player.

Also the HD-DVD (or Blu-Ray) versions will cost a little bit more than the DVD versions too. Amazon's prices are $67 vs. $55.

Guise, The beauty of Crunch and Mashed Potatoes came to me in the 80s when I was a wee child. I honestly don't remember. I think it was a "hey, look what weird combos of food I like" - like potato chips with peanut butter. But it was fateful combination that I still think holds up to this day at the ripe ol' age of 28.

On DEC 12, VH1 Classic is doing a "Merry Kissmas" which is 24 hours of all KISS programming.

Yea, I don't need an RSS FEED. I like coming here, so I don't need a constant warning on updates.

See what you've done, Matt? Now I am checking X-E at work. Soon I will have no willpower left at all and will be checking it on my phone when I'm not at a computer.

Matt - I don't know anything about these things, but I've noticed that when you do a search for either "Christmas" or "Santa Claus" on one of those search engines that lets you filter through open directories, X-Entertainment ranks among the top entries. Like I said, I don't know anything about this stuff, but I could imagine that there are a lot of people looking for free Christmas mp3s out there all through December, and these people have easy access to your jukebox.

I don't know why I have a website. Every time someone explains anything to me, all I want to do is suck my thumb in a corner with a pinwheel cap and a yellow t-shirt on.

ugh, i need to find something else to do. - oh! i know.. how about i actually do some work? hahaha…

omg i wish i could find christmas crunch! but i live in new york as well and it is hard to find.

and oh man am i jealous of that halloween crunch. i woulda bought 18 boxes. blerg!

once again, if anyone lives in mass and happens to find some christmas crunch. let me know, please. i've been desperately trying to get ahold of a box for a couple years now ..

Nice try Matt trying to make it sound like server issues are behind the delay when really you are posting the advent update at "2:3"0 to mess with all the box 23 ad-ventueres

Matt - I'm not the savvy-est of web-sters (Heehee. Webster.) but i stole the hell out your Halloween music from its index page. I'm not sure if that was kosher in hindsight, but damnit! Nobody else fueled my need for Halloween related tunes the way you did!

This years advent is like a movie I am going to have to watch three times before I fully get. What the heck with the bunnies?

So here i am, awaiting today's advent thing, and was just looking at the rockefeller tree live on webcam

and i hear christmas songs and someone chanting "MERRY CHRISTMAS HO HO HO!" outside

Magic Toy: Excellent advice, thanks! I didn't know most of that and I'm not sure if my dad does or not, so I'll pass it along to him. I have no idea what kind of DVD player he bought, but I know he got a new one when he got the new TV. The guy at Best Buy probably explained all that to him. Either way, looks like I will definately be buying the Planet Earth DVDs for him (the plus side of that is I'll get to watch them, too!).

And don't worry, Matt, I'll go through your link to buy it.

By the way, that's kind of how I feel about website design. I can manage a website all day long, and my designs are clean and crisp, but no frills at all. When people suggest to me cool ways of animating stuff, I'm clueless and kind of want to crawl into a corner myself. But no propeller hat… don't wanna mess up muh hairs.

Guise: Where does the RSS feed go? Like does it sit on your desktop and update you or does it pop up somewhere? I've used it before, but I guess I didn't know what I was doing because it didn't work like that for me.

And velouria_78, next year I'll have you covered on the Halloween music in more ways than you can imagine… I'm leaving it at that for now. hehe

I was kind of hoping James Lipton would take over the Lego calendar. That would have been roarmarkablous! But I'll take Box and Legotron.

What is with those morally ambiguous bunnies? Maybe there are more than one faction of bunnies?

lol I love how Waiterbot just doesn't give a shit about his job, sitting up against the box while Mista Snowman does all the work.

To all of you looking for Christmas Crunch, Wal Mart Supercenter would be a great place to look. If you find nothing there, have you checked any online grocers?

Matt
Just curious on what percentage you get from the Amazon.com referral link?

My wife and I do all of our Christmas shopping on Amazon and I'd like to brag about how much money we made for you

can i just say that i really really really hope that the "did you know we had an RSS feed? Either did I!" was a blatant referance to knakcs verbal bumblings on day one of this years AC? am i the only one who saw this? or just the only one lame enough to feel the need to point it out?

vwarb - At the potential cost of completely sounding like the English teacher I am, yes, I saw it too.

Guise: Wait, what? Bananas and potato chips/crisps????? Like regular potato flavors or what? I am one of those people who thinks sweet things and savory things (mostly meat) DO NOT mix. Orange/Lemon Chicken/Pork from chinese food places don't count for some reason.

Since I post from work only, can I make a supplementary suggestion to the upcoming party thread? Kind of a gang-review sort of thing. "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians" is plentiful and available in the dollar DVDs at most stores, and at a reasonible price for the better copies. As many posters as possible could go and buy it, watch it, then on a designated day, talk about it. It is a holiday staple for X-E'ers, MSTies, and anybody who enjoys seeing Santa laugh like a psycho in the face of Death.

Special K, if he didn't get a HD-DVD player, get him one. They have seriously dropped the price on them for Christmas this year (an HD-A3 model goes for around $200 instead of the usual $300-$400. I bought one from Amazon a couple weeks ago and I freakin' love it. Watching Polar Express on HD-DVD on a HDTV can leave a person drooling. I have been a zombie in front of the thing since I bought it.

Special K, most web browsers these days include an ability to bookmark and read RSS feeds. For example, Microsoft stores them under Favourites, Firefox uses Live Bookmarks, Avant has them as Feeds stored in Favourites.

When you open the link to them, they just display the updates and the contents, not the whole site - so no need to navigate to find entries.

Dio, well, Salt and Vinegar flavour with Banana isn't so good, but there's so many flavours. Smoky BBQ, Roast Chicken, Cheese and Onion, Prawn Cocktail, Cheese and Pickle, Ready Salted, Pickled Onion, Worcester Sauce, so many…

Name link is to a Wiki about Christmas specials. If it's been linked previously, sorry…but just in case I wanted to share.

Guise, you all have some crazy sounding flavors of chips…though some of them sound quite tasty.

Ragnarok, heh, we take our sliced potato savoury snack foods very seriously here.

Guise: Yeah, I checked it out and I'm not diggin' it. I refresh every five minutes at the most and the feed refreshes every 15 minutes at the least. Bummer for me.

freudguy: First of all, psychology major?

And second, my mom informs me that, yes, they bought an HD DVD player. Thank goodness, because I don't have that kind of money to shell out on a Christmas present! haha

I adore sweet and salty combinations : Chips and chocolate go well. Although I have never dipped a French Fry into a Frosty as some other people around here do…

Damn, excellent entry today, Matt! The links made it feel like a very dramatic flashback episode.

Sesame-seed Bunnies, but that is the most Fru-fru Mare I have ever seen. I do not use "Fru-fru" with impunity, either. Or even often.

Wait, the bunnies were around last year!?! I know I never scrolled down through that whole thing last year. Or I don't remember if I did. I have been avoiding the 23rd discussion so as to stay on track with my finals as I spend enough time here already. Now I may have to read through all 1000 or so posts. Darn you Matt.

Can I post again? Or is the blog eating my posts? I had something insightful about the bunnies, but the moment is gone. Tried to post it twice hours ago.

I was really shocked that the bunnies were around last year too. I figured that Matt must have just added them to tease us, but looking back over last Christmas Eve's blog comments (linked from my name), it seems that they must have been there all the time. People commented on their oddness back then.

Anyone besides me miss Oops All Berries? I haven't seen it in a couple of years and it was my absolute favorite. *sigh*

If anyone hasn't been following the "Advent-urers" thread about box 23, go check it out. It's getting crazy over there. Now I wanna stay up till Midnight to see the next days entry…

Can I just digress for a moment and say how awesome the X-Ers, both new and old, are lately? It's been so awesome to read all the different stuff going on and how everyone freely roams from topic to topic…just like the old days; a super great sense of togetherness!

And I want to also add that I can NOT get a way from rabbits; just started a kid show where they refer to rabbits as a joke all the time, then I came here and….well, you know….

I think I'm gonna go to K-Mart and look for a Chia; something I always wanted to try. And P-7UP; that shit is hard to find around here. The old ladies around here, at least accroding to the store guy, aparently buy 7-UP by the crapload.

"Fuck this, I'm getting some fucking coffee and then I'm gonna fucking drink it."

Man, I don't want to start ranting on how the powers that be are taking away all the fun in life. Look, if you're feeding your kids cereal, I don't think they're going to get fat. It's nothing but damn sugar! Sugar has no fat! Anyhoo, the Captain looks slimmer, so perhaps he got hold of some Adderall or meth.

And *gasp!* The new Mare! Or is it…Mare II, just with a different outfit? (they're both pink) Either way, I'm seriously waiting for Tomorrow. And if James Lipton becomes more awesome.

I've had many people rave about the Fries/Frostee combo in recent days. For potato chip combos, I'll suggest Plain Ruffles and Ketchup. That was a good combo.

and I wish I was able to zoom in on that longly-worded posted on the wall of Knack's office. I saw Dannon yogurt mentioned on there.

Anyone else catch part of "The First Christmas Snow" on ABC Family Channel? Is this a Rankin/Bass production, and if so, how have I never seen it before??

Sorry for the double-post, but I just got in a few minutes ago and I caught up on what was posted recently, and thought I'd weigh in on the whole sweet-n-salty topic: By an interesting coincidence (or synergy, depending on your worldview), I just bought a bag of sweet-n-salty Chex® mix. It's yummy. That is all.

I bet those bunnies had something to do with the Jukebox going down. Until it gets back up, let's see if we can find other sources of Christmas-themed audio online…

The bad news is that the jukes were being misused by thousands of people who have probably never read a word here. I can't believe what I've seen today. Nearly every song was being requested by the truckload from people who weren't hitting any html/php pages.

The good news is that, with some tweaking, I may be able to still do the jukes. This assumes I can do them in such a way that blocks out people from downloading the files rather than streaming like they're supposed to.

It'll take some time to figure it out. Bummer, but as the jukes were evidently eating something in the realm of 110 gigs of bandwidth daily, it's not going to work in its current form.

I'm 12 minutes late, but Food Network, Alton Brown, Good Eats, "School of Hard Nogs" is on.

"Santa Claus is Coming to Town" is on ABC. I guess the writer's strike==more time for old specials?

Just changing the name of the m3u file will probably put pay to their evil schemes, temporarily at least. Someone probably linked to it somewhere. Bastards. Now how am I going to fill my room with Christmas cheer? Face the wrath of the King of Spain, bandwidth thieves!

For anyone who might die of withdrawal from streaming Christmas music in the Jukebox-less interim, there's a site called Pandora that lets you add artists or songs to a station and customize it and stuff. It's great for making Christmas stations because "holiday" songs (and artists - try making a station with Mannheim Steamroller or TSO) are tagged as such, and the station will only play other holiday-tagged songs. Click my name.

For some reason I suddenly have this urge to make Christmas cookies, but I have no cookie dough, and I'm sick so it would be a bad idea to mold food in my filthy germ-laden hands anyway. Maybe I'll just throw on a DVD and wrap some gifts instead.

Hey, that gives me an idea for a poll: What are the cookies everyone here associates the most with Christmas? For me it's sugar cookies, cut into shapes and slathered with unholy amounts of frosting and M&Ms and god knows what else. As a kid it was those big sugar cookies you used to be able to get from Hardees, where you could choose red or green sugar sprinkles on top. I was convinced the two different colors tasted different.

I've read this site for years and years, but I've never posted on the blog. The jukeboxes going away was distressing enough to get me to finally stop lurking. I understand that there are problems with them, but I love them so much that it would really suck if they were gone forever.

The store where I work has sold Christmas Crunch for about two or three weeks now. (That's pretty late for them. Last year, I first saw Christmas Crunch the week after Halloween.) There's a display right up front, near the registers. Yes, that box is a thing of beauty. I think I've read the back three times now.

The more I look around, the more I think that they won't have to go away forever. They just need to be better protected so that people can only use them in the manner I intended them for.

As of this second, hundreds of songs are still being requested individually by random people…those people are requesting them through their directories, NOT the jukebox m3u file. This may sound a bit techy, but what it means is that the site can probably handle its readers casually listening to the juke…what it can't handle is people who have more intuitiveness with search engines going through the back door and downloading/hotlinking individual mp3s.

So, after figuring out how to protect everything better, I'm going to give it another whack and see how the site's usage holds up. I can't make any promises, but I think we'll be okay. I love the jukes, too. I don't want to get rid of them.

Criminy! Good luck resolving the whole jukebox mess. We all appreciate it!

I enjoy the fact that Waiterbot subscribes to the "it ain't no fun if the homies can't have none" school of thinking. I also reeeeeeally feel the "Are you fucking kidding me? You need it WHEN?!?" pain. The coffee at my office is undrinkable, though.

Jazzy
I'm with you, frosted sugar cookies just scream Christmas tome. Especially with the sprinkles and red hots on them.

Ohhh, I could write an ode to my Mom's Christmas cookies - over the years, she has developed a repertoire of between 20 and 30 tried-and-true cookie recipes that she has gotten from relatives, cookbooks, newspaper clippings and magazines. Some perennial favorites are honey lebkugen, cream cheese spritz, hazelnut crescents and the classic sugar cookies and butter cookies. I think if she didn't turn up at the annual Christmas clan gathering with a plate of cookies for each cousin as well as one for each aunt-and-uncle pair, there would be a revolt or something. I always tell her she is taking too much on herself, and she should pass on the recipes to me,my brothers and my sisters-in-law so we can split the labor, but I think she secretly enjoys the hecticness of making so many different cookies in a short time. I actually did take digital photos of a plate of each variety of cookie that she made that year, with the intent of putting together a cookie cookbook that we could e-mail to all the cousins so they would be able to bake their own; but she never gave me the recipes to transcribe, and I didn't push the issue - I think she prefers the monopoly…

Christmas sugar cookies at my house were never allowed to have icing on them, only colored sugar. Unless my grandma made them, then it was only white sugar and cinnamon. Gingerbread cookies had icing, consequently I liked them better.

The worst cookies were the ones made by the Italian side of my family. No offense, but what kid wants to eat some hard doughy thing full of raisins or flavored with anise? Even as an adult, I don't want to eat them.

Matt - I would just say rename the mp3 files to some totally misleading names, if that wouldn't mess up your web links too much… like renaming "jingle bells.mp3" to "elgnij slleb.mp3" or something like that… I'd like to see someone search for a file with that name!

Oh! I forgot all about these, but also those butter cookies that come in those old-timey blue tins. For some reason we always had those around Christmas.

Matt: I've noticed that if I've had the jukebox open, the next time I open Media Player, my playlist still shows the jukebox and it streams that as the default playlist unless I change it. Could this sort of thing be accounting for some of the "played by someone without their visiting the site" stuff?

Jazzy: I'm not sure if that's a factor, but I don't think so. I've seen a whole new world today…a world where supposedly hidden X-E file directories were wide open (and apparently popular, considering their page rankings) for pillaging. That sucks, but in a way, it doesn't: It means that the site's readers weren't causing all of the damage.

Christmas Cookies: Got to be horrible, bland, tasteless "sugar" cookies COVERED with frosting. Horrible, gooey, wonderful frosting…

I still have my box of Halloween Crunch. There's still some in there, too, carefully measured out into exactly single size servings and sealed in snack bags. I guess that's my way of helping the "obesity epidemic" — decreasing the size of my own fat ass. The food diary helps, too. Logging every last Christmas cookie I eat. *groan*

I'm in agreement with the needing a party thread. Any airings of A Christmas Story coming up?

The jukes open the same for me in ITunes; I'd click on it to play, then it would appear in my ITunes. The track lists are still there, like I actually downloaded the songs, but you can't move them from ITunes (like to an IPod); there just there….

Not one, but 2 boxes of holiday Cap'n Crunch. One for now, one for Christmas, like someone else said earlier…

Not just a Chia, but the Chia cat grass thing too. I did get the boring Chia, though- I bought the Chia tree- it seemed the less 'odd' of the bunch. I was almost swayed by the corcodile, though. It's soaking and the cat grass is planted. According the the box the stuff grows like crazy. We'll see how fast it really is. My free Chai gift was a really ugly Chia watch, that I proudly wear as I type this

I also, for good measure, somehow found the last tub of Moon Sand in the store. It's….odd…to say the least. Really funky texture.

Ugh…I think I'm at least partially responsible fro the bandwidth issues. I liked the playlist so much, I wanted to share it with others…I I linked directly to it at the Snopes.com forum. I apologize. I should've forseen something like thia.

No worries. Trust me, no one person could do as much damage as I was seeing. It was simply a matter of files that had been in the same place for 1-3 years getting plucked up by directories and sharing sites.

I think I've found a solution, and it makes me think that things like this happen for a reason. It'll take some getting used to, but what I think I have here is a much cooler jukebox.

I have to say that I was pretty bummed that there was no Halloween Crunch article this year. I found it at the grocery store in early October and thought "this will be on XE in a week or so." Oh well, maybe next year.

Found CHRISTMAS CRUNCH! Well, actually my girl found it. We did our grocery shopping earlier today and I couldn't find any. She had to bake 10 dozen cookies tonight (yes 120 cookies) so she was pretty ticked off at herself when she realized that she didn't buy baking soda. She ran back out to a different (closer) store to correct that mistake. Being the great gal that she is she checked to see if they had any Christmas Crunch since she was already there.

It's weird though. I have a Mac and the first time I clicked on the juke the entire play list was loaded to my iTunes software. Mind you, I couldn't really "do" anything with these songs (like move them to iMovie, or even burn them to CD - but maybe I'm just a tech moron), but I could listen to them in iTunes. Now that they been disabled on the site, the songs no longer play, but are still in my directories. Weird.

Like I said, I'm pretty much a computer boob, so this all may be what is suppose to happen when you click on the jukebox. Although, I will say that at work (on a PC) the jukebox just plays without putting anything on the machines directories.

Man, I have no idea how to do anything dealing with technology. We're with you, Matt; good luck.

As for the Saturday night idea, at the risk of sounding like Dr. Zoidberg: Sure, I'm up for whatever. That F13 thread was hilarious.

Jazzy, how approriate: We are watching a CHRISTMAS STORY right now and we just had some choc. chip cookies…

Finally, I remember the bunnies last year but I had forgotten about them (big suprise, huh).

its so sad reading all these comments because i have no control over what i eat, my mom shops and only buys diet soda (but not often) and some diet cereal like kashi, i've only had crunch like 3 times in my life, and its my favorite (well, next to golden grahams, but thats obvious)

Yeah, A Christmas Story would be just about the ultimate movie for Saturday night. It would only be improved if it were a double feature with Christmas Vacation or Scrooged.

Matt, start your own TV network, X-E TV. That way we won't be at the mercy of these clueless TV execs. I'll subscribe!

Graham, that's a serious tragedy. Deprived of Crunch is no way to go through life. Get someone to buy you a box as a Christmas present.

Anyone feel like giving something a test run? Go here. Click the juke graphic. Let me know your thoughts, and if it works properly. I believe something like this will help eradicate many of the issues.

Thumbs up so far. I've tried playing a few songs and it is perfect so far, and easy on the eyes as well.

I can customize the player itself for a little more of an X-Eish feel. Basically, this solves the issue of having people attack files directly without going to the playlist itself. Whether it's enough to lower the loads to a reasonable level remains to be seen…but it's worth a shot.

I would advise Kuse NOT TO DRINK THAT COFFEE. Can we trust those bunnies? Or maybe they're actually the good guys? Hmmmm… Oh wait, they kidnapped Mrs. Snowman. That can't be good.

Yeah, I remembered those bunnies from last year, and kinda thought we'd be seeing them again. I didn't expect them to have such an eerie, secretive presence.