K.A.C. 2025 - T - 19 Days ... [2003]

 

     Yesterday we featured our buddy Krampus, who would be bad enough for a Mall Santa - now add a dyslexic holiday Mall Santa organizer, a certain someone who invented those DAMNED fax machines, and it's easy to admit you may have made a mistake here. Take a hilarious gander at this clip from Wellington Paranormal to see who you WON'T be seeing this year!

     https://www.facebook.com/watch?v=32605942462353694 

           

      2003 was another year without much of note, Christmas-wise. As a matter of fact, as I've been researching these articles over the years, I found quite a few strange 'vintage' items from years past, but as we get closer and closer to the present, the items get fewer and fewer. It's interesting to see the shift and there are plenty of theories why. I believe the main reason is that the post-9/11 world was a very different creature in America and a great deal of the innocence and joy of the season had taken a massive hit and never fully recovered. Also, the economy and job market worsened and people were cutting back and saving wherever they could and this included the holidays ... or as I once heard someone say, "Nostalgia ain't what it used to be." Sad, but true. To have seen almost seven decades of Christmases come and go and to reflect upon their ups and downs is a rather sobering experience. 

 That being said, we're not Debbie Downers here, so let's offer you instead a Retro 2003 Christmas double feature you can spring upon your unsuspecting family and friends that May of May NOT go well together! This was the year of both BAD SANTA and ELF. Get them in the cheerful mood with Will Ferrell first, then send the kids out to play and drop Billy Bob Thornton's 'Wonderful Life' on unsuspecting folks who've never seen it!

       Switching gears (again), we've written before in these pages about Thomas Nast (September 27, 1840 – December 7, 1902), who was a prolific political cartoonist who gave Americans their earliest visual version of Santa Claus, which was changed and adapted over the years to the Jolly Old Elf we know today. Here's my original write-up about him and Mr. C from a 2013 CC article:

     http://www.conjurecinema.com/2013/12/kac-2013-t-16.html 

     I mention this because with all of his voluminous artwork for Harper's Weekly and the like, Santa Claus is what Nast is best remembered for now. A link I was following recently showed what he was actually known for by his peers, as his art was powerful and hard hitting, getting his point vividly across in just one incredibly detailed picture, showing future political cartoonists how it should be done. Case in point: 'Why He Cannot Sleep' from 1866, which, as Julia A. Baller relates "depicts Jefferson Davis being haunted by ghosts of Union soldiers, symbolizing the former Confederate president's guilt and the consequences of his actions during the Civil War. The sleepless figure is tormented by skeletal apparitions pointing to his skull and a gallows, while a tattered flag and fresh graves in the background represent the cost of the war and his failed leadership." Click on the picture to see it in amazing detail. In its own grim way, it gives off Scrooge-like ghostly visitation vibes, with (unfortunately) no redemption at the end.

     

     It happens every time. I try to find something to bring holiday cheer to these pages, but as soon as my writing muses get a sniff of things turning dark, they're ALL IN! :) So we're going to let them have their way today and will end this entry with some lovely (well, 'Love-Craft-y') holiday poetry written by HPL and first published in the December 1926 issue of Weird Tales. Break this out with the eggnog (mind the tentacles!) and give it a rousing rendition at YOUR office party to boggle the mind ... and clear the room!

     Back tomorrow with more!