FROM THE ARCHIVES: BLUE STEEL BEAUTY:

Yule Log, Christmas Tradition on New York TV, Is Going National (Bloomberg, 12/22/05)

This is the year Kevin Tietjen, a New York City native living in Connecticut, plans to introduce his 5-year-old son to a Christmas tradition from his childhood: opening presents in the glow of a crackling fire beamed into homes by television station WPIX.

``You turned this thing on, they had Christmas carols playing in the background,'' remembers Tietjen, 38, a risk consultant at Deloitte Consulting LLP in New York. ``And because we didn't have a fireplace, the whole concept of the Yule Log was pretty cool.'' [...]

Last year's four-hour broadcast drew a bigger audience than WNBC's Christmas mass at Washington National Cathedral, according to New York-based Nielsen Media Research.

Success has spawned knock-offs. More than half a dozen DVD imitators, such as ``The Happy Holiday Hearth,'' are sold on Amazon.com. In Demand Networks, a high-definition cable broadcaster owned by Cox Enterprises Inc., Comcast Corp. and Time Warner Inc., will air an eight-hour broadcast of a digitally enhanced fireplace on its INHD2 network.

WPIX also has a high-definition version of its log that will air in the New York area on Cablevision System Corp.'s channel 711 and on Comcast's channel 235. Local stations in Dallas and New Orleans will broadcast the original as will Tribune's Superstation WGN, which reaches more than 66 million U.S. homes through cable and satellite services.

Christmas classics (LA Times, December 25, 2005)

BIOLOGISTS USE THE WORD "zeitgeber" to describe a physical stimulus that kicks the biological clock into gear. For example, light streaming through the window in the morning and birdsong are zeitgebers signaling that it's time to wake up.

Scientists haven't devoted a lot of attention to the role of zeitgebers in stimulating holiday cheer, gift buying and goodwill toward men. In some climes, it's probably connected to frosty windowpanes and snowy rooftops. In L.A., it may be the first appearance of Santas in shopping malls, or those giant, flashy decorations they string across Hollywood Boulevard every year. But for people across the nation, a prime signal that the holidays are approaching is the reappearance of classic Christmas movies and TV shows, many of which we've enjoyed since childhood and have seen so many times we can recite the dialogue by heart.

Here are a few of our favorite snippets. May they stimulate peace, comfort, joy and a very Merry Christmas to all.

Nothing can top It's a Wonderful Life and The Yule Log, but a newer and already beloved tradition is Turner's 24 hours of A Christmas Story.

(Originally posted: 12/25/05)

Posted by oj at December 24, 2011 12:46 AM
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