Tag Archives: A Christmas Carol

End of The Year Nuggets

No, they didn’t move up New Year’s Eve. But with Christmas and New Year’s Day both falling on a Monday when I traditionally post my latest blog, that takes out the next two weeks. So, see you again in 2024–but, until then, just tying up some loose ends with one of my Topic Salads.

INCIDENT AT THE POST OFFICE

I’ve learned over the years that the smart move during the holiday season is to pop into the post office at odd hours and use the automated machine. It saves a ton of time and helps you avoid those long lines. Sunday morning, 7pm on a weeknight, I just walk in, hit the machine, take care of biz and leave.

The other day I boldly went around 11am on a Sunday. Not as early as I like to go and there was the chance it could be busy, but fortunately there was only one guy using the machine. I think I startled him at first, but when he realized I was safe, he apologized for having to print out 30 different postage amounts. I said, “No worries” which he quickly followed with a question about the upcoming Seahawks game. After all, I was wearing my Hawks jersey and the game was less than two hours away. As his postage was printing, he asked, “How do you think they’re going to do today?” I went into sports radio mode and made some neutral comments, fully embracing the team’s flaws, but expressing hopeful optimism.

By the time I was done rambling, his postage had printed and he turned over the machine to me. After putting his envelopes into the mail slot, he walked towards the door. I figured I’d give him a spirited send-off and yelled out, “Go Hawks!” He turned, looked, and said slyly, “Go ‘9ers!”

I had been conversing with the enemy.

MY ASTUTE OBSERVATION

Something happened to me recently that inspired this theory.

I went to Costco to fill up my car with the lowest priced gas in our area, just like everybody else. My gas tank is on the right side of my car, so I got in line in one of the lanes on the left side of the pump. As I watched the assortment of people pulling up, getting out, filling up and driving away, I couldn’t help but notice that people who pulled in on the left side of the pump were much slower than the people on the right. The next time you’re filling up at Costco or any gas station, see if that theory holds true. Or, it could be just whatever line Tim gets in, THAT will be the slow one.

If true, that would tie in nicely with my tradition at the Brown Bear Car Wash where–no matter which of the two lanes I choose–I always get behind the guy who has trouble paying and then, figuring out how to get into the car wash without the attendant having to shut things down.

THE ANNUAL CHRISTMAS PARODY SONG

I’ve mentioned before about my list of December things I like to do: Get the annual family Christmas letter written and get the cards out by the 15th; Assemble my annual Christmas CD (you can listen to that here) which I successfully pulled off for the 23rd consecutive holiday season; And, as part of that CD collection, an annual Christmas parody song about something topical with singer Alana Baxter. The entire collection is right here on my YouTube Channel, but I really want to brag about this year’s project.

Most people I know spend the month of November focused on Thanksgiving. However, my mind is busy thinking about this year’s song and rounding up some fresh holiday tunes for my HO HO BROTHER collection, as well as writing up some comedy bits to toss in.

In this year’s case, I was wondering what the heck we could possibly do that we haven’t done before. I attempted to come up with lyrics for a rewrite of “Last Christmas”, but it just didn’t flow. I thought, “So, what’s been in the news lately?” and there he was: George Santos.

Santos. That’s close to Santa. Hmmmmm….

The result was “Santos Baby” and I probably wrote the song in around 20 minutes. I fine-tuned a couple of lines later, but the big trick was going to be getting my singer, Alana Baxter to record it. After all, she had worked in Japan the bulk of this year and was scheduled to come home, but then she had another job offer in Japan that was too good to pass up. She was still planning a quick Seattle visit, but not until right before Christmas.

We’ve cut it close in some of those years, not getting the video out until right before Christmas. You see, this is a challenging process:

  1. First, getting her into my studio to record the song. Then,
  2. Mixing down a final audio version.
  3. We then put that final version on her phone and have her sing along with some of the lines while shooting video at various holiday locations around the area.
  4. Then, take the song, the video I shot and some holiday b-roll and mix it all together into a video.

This year, Alana did her parts in Japan with the help of a friend who held the phone for her. I created a music bed for her to sing along with, which she did, I went to YouTube to download a bunch of video with George Santos and somehow, it just all came together.

If you haven’t seen it yet, here is “Santos Baby” by Alana Baxter.

https://youtu.be/qk8GbidYmug?si=i85JZ1Pf6dJs3VqC

With Alana scheduled to also be in Japan next year as well, we’re conspiring to record and shoot video now for the 2024 video. I just have to write it over the next week or so.  Wish me luck!

SOME HOLIDAY TREATS

There are lots of versions of “A Christmas Carol.” While my favorite is the 1951 version with Alistair Sim, the 1938 treatment with Reginald Owen is fun in a different way. Scrooge’s ex-fiancé never even gets mentioned! In this version, it’s Bob Cratchit’s wife that toasts Scrooge, which in the ’51 edition, she at first, refuses! But here’s some 1938 Christmas Carol trivia: the little boy who played Tiny Tim those many years ago, Terry Kilburn, is still alive and well and celebrating the holidays with us at the age of 97. But the best part: the actor who played Bob Cratchit in the 1938 “Christmas Carol” was Gene Lockhart, who you’ll recognize as a much younger version of Judge Harper in the 1947 classic, “Miracle on 34th Street.”

And this was just too cute not to share. To prove I didn’t just make this up, I’m going to show you the text message I received over the weekend from daughter-in-law Samantha, about grand-daughter, Evelyn (best known as Evie) and what she had to say:

On that high note, I need to say “Ta-Ta” until next year and wish you a very Merry Christmas and all the best the holiday season has to offer.

Oh, and one other thing I like to do each December–create a special holiday video greeting from my company, Tim Hunter Creative Services.

https://youtu.be/Eg3S8aFHg_k

Cherish the ones you love. And peace.

Tim Hunter

A Visit From #1

christmas-tim

For as long as I can remember, watching “A Christmas Carol” has become a mandatory experience every December.

Last night, we watched the George C. Scott version. Christmas cannot arrive without experience my favorite version with Alistair Sim. The Jim Carrey animated one was better than I thought it would be.  There’s also the original 1938 rendition with Reginald Owen. Patrick Stewart, there’s a Mickey Mouse version, even “Scrooged” with Bill Murray dances around the plotline: a jaded person is changed by being visited by three spirits. (four, if you don’t include the messenger, Jacob Marley)

Spirit #2 was sent to make Scrooge more aware of the world around him in the present day. Spirit #3 had the job of showing him what would happen if he didn’t change his ways. The best job of the trio–Spirit #1. In the days before home movies, he showed Mr. Grumpy Pants those special moments of his life that he had pushed away.

I like to imagine the stories that Spirit #1 would show me, if he ever pays me a visit:

The year of the train set.  When my parents decided I was old enough, they went to Sears and bought a scale model train set. I don’t remember if it came on the board, but my dad took a sheet of plywood, mounted the tracks and painted grass and a lake in the middle so that I could watch it go ’round and ’round.

The year of the bike. I was old enough to ride, so the Sears replica of a Schwinn Sting Ray (can you tell, we were a Sears family) showed up one year, compliments of Santa. It’s a stretch, but I can remember using the planter out in the front of our house to gain my balance and launch off down the street.

The year of the no hockey set. I remember clearly asking Santa in my letter for a hockey set. You know, those table-top things that you played by sliding rods and twisting them. It looked so fun on TV. The kids were smiling and laughing. But Christmas morning, no hockey set. Thinking about it, that could have been one of my uber-naughty years. Never mind.

Going to church. Yeah, we spent a lot of time there. Every Sunday. Every Advent service. Christmas Eve. Christmas Day. New Year’s Eve. New Year’s Day. I have to say, there’s nothing more torturous than waking up to see what Santa brought you, seeing a pile of presents under a tree and then having to wait until after church to open them. It did make the gift-giving last longer, I suppose.

The Snow Man Family. We lived in southern California. I’d bet that we spent most of our Christmas Days in 70-degree weather. But one year, my dad bought some designs (kind of like McCall’s for men) that you glued on to plywood and then mounted in your front yard.  He made a snowman, snow woman, two snow kids and a snow dog. And to make it even cooler, he bought fiberglass snow.  You’d roll it out on your lawn and it would look like snow. Well, it did the first year. You couldn’t walk on it, or it would get the snow dirty. And even then, after a couple of seasons, it looked more like old snow and we eventually tossed it out and just planted the family in our grass.

I’m excited because a couple of decades ago, I bought the same pattern, but never got around to making my own Mr. & Mrs. Snowman. In between all the madness this year, I’m attempting to bring them to life by this weekend. I’ll let you know if I succeed next week with pictures.

The Holiday Food. OK, we ate well as kids, especially in the Christmas cookie department. My mom made some incredible treats, and I’ll try to remember as many as I can:

  • Chow Mein Noodles. Sounds weird, but imagine chocolate or butterscotch-covered chow mein noodles with Spanish peanuts thrown in. Pretty tasty.
  • Coconut Balls. Chocolate-covered shredded coconut and I seem to remember an edible wax being put in the chocolate to help it firm up. No wonder I can put a wick in my mouth and it’ll burn for a week.
  • Peanut Butter Rolls. Taking a break for a moment from covering everything in chocolate, these were made with powdered sugar and mashed potatoes. Then, once you have that rolled out, you spread peanut butter on it, roll it and then slice it. The peanuts gave it protein, so it was a healthy snack.
  • Pfeffernusse. I think that’s the name. Kind of a ginger-bread cookie, apparently German-style, covered in powdered sugar. They weren’t my favorite, but I believe it was my grandmother’s recipe, so I had to honor the tradition. I should be thankful I wasn’t Norwegian. It could have been chocolate-covered lutefisk.

As for the main course in Christmas dinners, it was either a turkey or some kind of special Yugoslavian ham that dad was able to get through his work connections at United Airlines.

After growing up and having a family of my own, I did experiment one year when I was going through a serious Dickens phase, and actually prepared a Christmas goose along with oyster stuffing. It became known as the year nobody ate except me.

The Doll House.  Now, I’m one of the parents. The Great Idea Department thought it would be a wonderful surprise for our daughter, Christina, to wake up to a spectacular new doll house. I mean, on the box, it was beautiful. But to aid in the surprise, we waited until the kids went to bed before opening the box to assemble it.  That’s when we realized it was more of a model, than a toy. I’m talking individual shingles that each needed to be glued to the roof. I believe we went to bed that year around 3am.

OK, the ghosts of Christmas Present and Future got tired of waiting and left. But actually, who needs ’em?  If you live in the present, that puts Ghost #2 out of work and really, Ghost #3 is just trying to scare you from a worst-case syndrome. If you’re living in the present, as you should, you’re in control of your life and the future will happen as it should.

Thanks for letting me drag you along through these holiday home movies and may I encourage you to set up a meeting with Ghost #1. I’ve already nabbed him for another appointment next week. Grab him before he gets too busy.

Merry Christmas.

Tim Hunter