Welcome to the Kitschmas Advent Calendar 2025 !!!

 

     Welcome to the Kitschmas Advent Calendar 2025 !!! T - 24 Days ... and Counting !!! Our 134th year, if we had started when the Christmas Number of LIFE magazine to our left was published in 1891 - well, we've not been doing this QUITE that long. No, we begin Year 17 with our 24-day countdown of the weirder side of Christmas - oddball ornaments, curious cards, frightful food and all the other out-of-left-field items that can make this holiday TRULY memorable, and not in a good way! :)

     Speaking of the LIFE issue at left, I'm struck not only by the artwork for the Christmas Creed, but also by the less than subtle message being sent here for young tykes sitting on Mom or Dad's lap as they read instructions on 'hereby being enjoined to be obsequiously obedient and subservient to those placed in authority over them'; the old fancy version of 'BE GOOD if you want Santa to stop by'! 

     We've been doing a yearly timetable look back at years past and ended last year at 1998, so let's pick up that candy cane baton and finish off the decade with what was going on in 1999.

     The year had a certain hush worldwide, not brought about by snow or the merriment of the season; brought about by the possibility of ALL computers and programs going kaput thanks to the dreaded Y2K virus as '99 turned over to 2000. Thankfully it was all a massive false alarm, but there was still trouble afoot that year, such as:  

     Exhibit A: Two letters that parents and others came to curse - TY - as in the makers of Beanie Babies. The tiny stuffed animals of all kinds (teddy bears, dogs, cats, etc.) were introduced in 1993 and the craze for them grew larger and larger, leading to this, as quoted from Tobias Carroll's article 'The Beanie Baby Craze Was Far Worse Than You Remember': "Thursday, June 3, 1999, was a weird day for commuting Atlantans. Coca-Cola and Delta Air Lines workers returning to their suburban Atlanta homes after a day at the office were in for a surprise. A truck carrying mini Beanie Babies spilled merchandise across five lanes of Interstate 285 during rush hour. Because the Beanies were so momentarily valuable, motorists risked their lives to nab them off the interstate." 

      And that's just the beginning. To read the entire article of just HOW out of control things got, click here: 

     https://www.insidehook.com/books/beanie-baby-craze-1999-ross-benes-book 

 

          Turning to the past (WAY past), if you're looking for some holiday reading of a different nature this year, may we recommend Sarah Clegg's The Dead of Winter, featuring the historical and folkloric traditions, from ancient times to today, of our mascot Krampus, as well as the 'post-equine' charmer Mari Lwyd (who's been featured in our past blogs) and more!

     It's a fascinating read AND (you knew there would be an 'and', right?) it just so happens Dr. Clegg will be having an online Zoom event three days from now, on December 4th, to tell tales of tracking them down and more. As the site says: 

      'This talk will examine both the origins of these dark Christmas customs, and how they’ve changed and shifted down through the centuries

The Ghosts of Christmas Past

Christmas might seem like a time of jollity and cheer, but underneath all the tinsel and fairy lights there’s a far darker mood – one we see expressed in our modern custom of telling ghost stories at Christmas, in monsters like the Krampus, which roam the streets of European towns and cities across the Christmas season, and the horrible horse-skulled monster the Mari Lwyd who appears across Wales in the darkest nights of the year.

This talk will examine both the origins of these dark Christmas customs, and how they’ve changed and shifted down through the centuries – following everything from the hierarchy shredding Roman festival of Saturnalia to the custom of dressing as a monster and going house-to-house demanding drinks, food and money (the origins of modern Halloween trick-or-treating), and even the Christmas witches, who were said to riot through the skies with bands of the dead over the midwinter.'

Tickets are still available (I've got mine!), but you'll need to hurry - link below: 

      https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-ghosts-of-christmas-past-sarah-clegg-zoom-tickets-1850635122469?aff=ebemoffollowpublishemail&ref=eemail&utm_campaign=following_published_event&utm_content=follow_notification&utm_medium=email&utm_source=eventbrite 

 

     Moving up to the present (AND should you still be LOOKING for a present), consider the item on the right. We have a long-standing tradition in our house of every Christmas Eve watching a different version of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. We've seen the good, the bad, the middlin', the insufferable and more. This year, we have a new option - why just WATCH the story unfold when you can be part of it and send Scrooge on his way via the 'cooperative card game' called Spirits of Christmas? You take turns playing the different Spirits, making Ebenezer's Dark Night of the Soul that much more dark! Fun for the whole family (unless your name is Scrooge, then not so much ...) Intrigued? Click below!

 

     https://thehumblebard.com/pages/spirits-of-christmas  

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      And with that, we're up and running. Join us tomorrow for more, as we see what the year 2000 had for us in store (and stores)!