12/15/2003 Entry: "Advent Updatesss."

EDIT: December 13th is up. What do we got? Another old 7 UP commercial, this time featuring a bunch of elves who laugh and cackle and destroy Santa's will to live. Also: a look at a page of newspaper I found while unwrapping our old X-Mas stuff...from 1985. Also x2: Mare and pals finally get some friggin' food.

I'll give you another update as I have 'em, but for now, December 12th's entry is up and activateddd. Within, you'll learn all about the Trix Rabbit's run in with Santa Claus. It's one of the more famous holiday commercials from my childhood, and I'm guessing that anyone remotely close to me in age will remember it well. You can download the commercial too, of course. There's also a look at Nestle's "Wonder Ball" Christmas ornaments, and as for Playmobil....well, green benches are a great Christmas present.

By the way, I couldn't help looking back at last year's calendar. I hadn't realized how close I was to finishing it -- I thought I had a good week left to go. Since there's so few entries left to do, I don't think it's out of the question for me to finish it, so long as I can find all the old pieces. If you saw my apartment, you'd understand why this could be a problem.

Chestnuts roasted by Steve Brandon @ 12/15/2003 04:05 AM EST

My dad has intentionaly saving TV guides since 1984. Just some not all of them.

Chestnuts roasted by pikachulover @ 12/15/2003 04:57 AM EST

Mista Snowman stole the helmet!! Is this the beggining of an uprising? An what happened to the animals? AND THE FENCE!?! Something big is about to happen...I can feel it!

Chestnuts roasted by heeloyd @ 12/15/2003 05:14 AM EST

Best line from the advent calendar to date: "They shared food. Did they share bodies?"

I spit my pepsi everywhere when I read that line.

Chestnuts roasted by wack0 @ 12/15/2003 05:54 AM EST

Word of advice about last year's advent calendar: you said that Toys R Us was selling TWO calendars, this year's one and last year's as well.

Methinks it's time for another trip to Geoffrey's big house, Matt...

Chestnuts roasted by Paul @ 12/15/2003 06:13 AM EST

I for one would love to see the Multiple Mare conflict from last year come to an end. The whole donkey worshipping was the greatest cliffhanger EVER.

Chestnuts roasted by Roddy @ 12/15/2003 06:16 AM EST

I'm not against companies cashing in on the holidays, especially during december. My heart jumps when I see all the christmas-themed junk.
What I do object to, however, is companies claiming to have captured the feeling of christmas...
IN SODA

Those bastards, totally crushing my christmas spirit with psych(ot)ic midget santa's.
If you're gonna be a christmassy soda, at least do it right, like coca cola. They didn't think having little people show their asses would inspire that christmas feeling.
And they didn't promote their product as liquid cheer.

Having santa wink at you, from the back of a magical christmas truck lighting up everything it passes, while holding a bottle of coke, is sheer brilliance...

Having a psychic midget who dresses funny wink at a refridgerator in some scary dark dungeon, before summoning a can of 7up, is sheer stupidity...

I don't know, maybe it's just me, or maybe it's just the sound.
Coca cola's score is in my top ten christmas songs of all time (okay, not that hard, I only know like 7 christmas songs), but the 7up clip has no sound. Maybe for the best though, if just watching it pains my soul like this, there's no telling what also hearing it might do.

Matt, please review coke's ad one of these days. There's not much to make fun of, and it may not have that 80's feel, but it's definitely a classic.

Chestnuts roasted by David @ 12/15/2003 06:42 AM EST

Not to spoil, but I *do* have the Coke commercial you mentioned, and I'll be reviewing it later in the month. It's one of my faves, too. I'm incorporate the glass Coke bottles -- a true Christmas staple -- in the review. Already got the six-pack. I get them every year around Christmas. :)

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 12/15/2003 06:51 AM EST

I met the lady behind For Better Or For Worse, fittingly enough, at a Christmas party back in, oh, '88 maybe? I was a little kid back then, but it was still cool. She drew comics, man. How could you not love that when you were young?

Hah, that was the same party that I got my charicature done by the guy who started CARtoons. Me in a car. What else would you expect?

Chestnuts roasted by Evin @ 12/15/2003 07:36 AM EST

5 more days left of school until i get off for christmas break.the entries are good.

Chestnuts roasted by Romo @ 12/15/2003 09:20 AM EST

Damn, Steve, I was wondering if I was the only one who remembered that Sesame Street! Of course, they'd never show it now because it has no frigging Elmo, but it was the one holiday show I looked for as a kid. Ernie gives up his rubber duckie to get a gift for Bert, Bert gives up his...was it his bottle cap collection? Big Bird goes to the roof of 123 Sesame St to wait for Santa until some of the non-puppets go get him. My favorite line EVER is when Big Bird tells how he was "freezing [his] giblets." The special was called "Christmas Eve on Sesame Street." I don't think it's been on since the early 80's. :(
Yesterday I watched The Simpson's. They showed an XMas episode, I think it was new, and I cliched myself. After it was over I yelled, "Worst episode ever," at the screen. It wasn't as bad as some of the bad shows on these days but for The Simpsons, it was BAD. :(

Chestnuts roasted by Killer Duck @ 12/15/2003 11:07 AM EST

I do remember the Trix commercial, but not the one for 7-Up. Must have blocked it from my memory. It looks like Bill Murry got his weird Christmas Carol special after all.

The Tale From Playmobil heats up, and not just from the fact that it finally got a bit warmer at the South Jersey shore. Baby, it's definately NOT cold on that bench! ; 0 )

Chestnuts roasted by starwenn @ 12/15/2003 11:32 AM EST

Hey, man, I love the old Sesame Street special. It has one of my most favorite endings of any holiday special, Cookie Monster belching while the credits roll. I put it right up there with the Joker rolling around on the floor in a straitjacket singing christmas carols. I wondered if any one else thought there was some crossed circuits in those so-called elves. Or were they failed Santa clones?

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 12/15/2003 11:49 AM EST

My family has that special on VHS. It's freaking awesome.

Chestnuts roasted by Behonkiss @ 12/15/2003 03:24 PM EST

Thanks, Matt! you finally put up at least SOME of the advent calendar days you missed. Oh, and if anyone has seen somebody named Santa, tell him... I'm going to kill him... Muahahahahaha!

Chestnuts roasted by Tommy @ 12/15/2003 05:30 PM EST

I remember that when I was a kid, the local Tv station's newscast on Dec. 24 always had the "Santa update." They'd give a forecast for Santa's travels, have like "air traffic" reports of Santa's sleigh...sometimes I wish I could rewind my life a little.
My dog has figured out how to open pizza boxes. I know that has nothing to do with Santa but he just ate our dinner leftovers...

Chestnuts roasted by Killer Duck @ 12/15/2003 05:45 PM EST

I went searching for some of the various Christmas goodies that Matt has shown us so far and I am coming up quite empty. I dread going to Wal-Mart and I'd hate to suffer through a visit there only to find its Christmas selection as sparce as the rest of the stores I've hit up. Anyone else have any luck? Walgreens, maybe?

Chestnuts roasted by kentdog @ 12/15/2003 06:09 PM EST

Give the hot cocoa to the Snowman!

HA HA HA HA HaHHHHH!

Now who's the bitch Snowman? With your innarads all melted and stuff? Still hungry now that your digestive tract is evaporating??

Chestnuts roasted by srghsfh @ 12/15/2003 06:10 PM EST

They do the Santa watch thing out here in the heartland. Because of our advanced Doppler radar technology, they claim that Santa shows up very clear like a tornado. So, not only did Gary England save that chick in Twister, he wastes time tracking someone who is bending space and time to eat Trix and Oreos, and washes it down with 7up.

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 12/15/2003 06:13 PM EST

Hey killer duck they still have those updates. just go to there website. there was a thing on AOL last year i saw at my friends house. i dunno if its for AOL only or somin but its worth checking out.

Chestnuts roasted by Jared @ 12/15/2003 06:38 PM EST

Matt... I can't believe your old newspaper page called it "Calvin and Hobbies"! I mean, what the heck? I wonder how long they ran it like that before fixing it...

Chestnuts roasted by Amanda Swiftgold @ 12/15/2003 06:53 PM EST

I think the main problem with updating the advent calendar on time is that Christmas is so late in the month. It can be pretty tiring to have update a site every day of the month until Christmas. It was probably even more tiring with the Halloween Countdown because its even later in the month.

With this in mind, I have a suggestion for another holiday-oriented thingy; an April Fool's Day Advent Calendar. Maky it just like the Christmas one. Every day in April until April Fool's day you do a special on an April Fool's Day-themed commercial, an April Fool's Day-themed toy or candy or something like that, and a story about the toys that come from the official Playmobil April Fool's Day Advent Calendar. If there is no official Playmobil April Fool's Day Advent Calendar, you can make something up.

This way we can all get a nice dose of April Fool's Day holiday cheer, but you won't have to overwork yourself quite so much.

Chestnuts roasted by gmfbrown @ 12/15/2003 07:11 PM EST

XD

April fools would be a nice article though!

Chestnuts roasted by heeloyd @ 12/15/2003 07:24 PM EST

Kentdog - Stay away from Wal-Mal, I was at one tonight and there selection of Christmas candy was pathetic (Maybe a Wal-Mart Supercenter will have more, I don't know) I was looking for more Frosty Nerds and got nothin'. The best selection I've found was at Target.

If anyone wants to find the more exotic of Christmas candies head to CostPlus World Market if you have one near by, I have a foot and half long candy cane I got there and I have no idea how to I'm going to eat and keep it fresh.

Chestnuts roasted by Emperor_Zorak @ 12/15/2003 07:35 PM EST

I can't get the sound on either commercial; just me?

MOVIE GEEK ALERT!
Jeff DANIELS fought the tarantula.
Jeff Bridges got to meet Tron.
Both deserve my respect then, I suppose.

Chestnuts roasted by inkmage @ 12/15/2003 09:29 PM EST

But we forgive you Matt. It's an easy mistake to make. What's not forgivable was when I flunked sex ed. in 7th grade. I'll never live that one down.

Chestnuts roasted by inkmage @ 12/15/2003 09:31 PM EST

about the Wonder Balls (i care fuck-all about whether this is the right post to post it on or not. i'm tired. feel my wraaaaath!), they used to have little toys in them. then some Child Of Stupid Parents choked on one. or a few did, so they changed it to nasty candies. who the hell gives their kid a giant chocolate testicle to eat and doesnt tune in to a) tell them not to shove the whole thing in their mouth or b) read the box that says "toy inside"???? hence the WONDER YA FUCKNUT.
anyways, just thought you should know.

Chestnuts roasted by meep @ 12/15/2003 09:49 PM EST

Not to go too Christian or uptight or anything, but Advent is hardly ever 25 days long. Doesn't it vary somehow based on some feast day in November, and generally runs 4 Sundays?

Chestnuts roasted by TOP1214 @ 12/15/2003 11:15 PM EST

I'm no theologian, but the "season" of advent is the four weeks before Christmas. There are four advent candles, one for eace Sunday before Christmas. I don't think it is based on any feast day, though I may be wrong

Chestnuts roasted by Cameron @ 12/15/2003 11:49 PM EST

I first read the title "christmas newspapers" at six in the morning this morning and my sleep addled brain read it as "christmas spiders" I read the whole article thinking -what does this have to do with spiders?

Chestnuts roasted by allicat @ 12/16/2003 12:57 AM EST

One thing about the original For Better or For Worse Christmas special I never liked was that Elizabeth gets lost and goes to the house of the crazy singing magic lady. That sort of shit never happens in the strip. The most supernatural thing which has happened in the strip is that the ghost of Farley the dog (whom no one can see, so there's no uncomfortable necromancy situations) showed up a couple of times to run with the Pattersons "in spirit", both figurative and literal.

Killer Duck: The original Christmas Eve on Sesame Street special from 1978 still gets played occasionally on some PBS stations, just not nearly as often as Elmo Saves Christmas. I know I've caught it at least once over the past two years on either the Boston or the Seattle PBS affiliate (we get both of those on Bell ExpressVu in Canada). Check your local listings or, if it's not being shown this year, put in a request with your local PBS station. (Everything for December would be scheduled by now, but they could take it into consideration for next year.)

Chestnuts roasted by Steve Brandon @ 12/16/2003 01:09 AM EST

For those of you who crave the original ball-shaped Trix cereal, it has been re-released by General Mills in the guise of Looney Tunes cereal.

Chestnuts roasted by Luap @ 12/16/2003 01:32 AM EST

Steve...you ROCK! thanks for the link!...I dunno why I never thought to look for it. I hate that little bratty Elmo. Who the heck wants to see him do the frigging chicken dance? When I was little we had Ernie and Bert puppets with hard plastic heads and hands- you could put someone's eye out with that shit but it was ALL GOOD! Those were the days, damnit! Shit I'm sounding like an old person.
For Better or Worse may not be much of a comic but I have to say this much- at least the characters get older. Heck I can even remember when the littlest was born- I think they named her April because she was born in April.
Kentdog, look at Walgreens, dude. They have some sort of deal to sell the Santa Claus is Coming to Town stuff. I got lolipops, jelly pops, stupid candy canes...they have a lot of just useless crap. But don't buy the candy filled pens. They break too easily, sending the candy skittering to the far reaches of nowhere.

Chestnuts roasted by Killer Duck @ 12/16/2003 02:42 AM EST

I forgot the biggest reason I wanted to post- the Advent Update thing in the upper right corner says Dec. 15 but the calendar is only up to the 13th. Why must fate mock me?

Chestnuts roasted by Killer Duck @ 12/16/2003 02:45 AM EST

15 days remaining until Atkins takes over my life. Time to get rid of mah belleh!! >:O

Chestnuts roasted by heeloyd @ 12/16/2003 04:25 AM EST

What TOP1214 and Cameron suggest about advent is probably correct, but all of the calendars I've seen, including both X-E advent calendars, just count the days in December until Christmas. I guess we're all right in our own special way. Or not. I'm not really sure.

Chestnuts roasted by gmfbrown @ 12/16/2003 06:01 AM EST