The Monsters Christmas (1981), 30th Anniversary

Forgot to mention that this year (almost gone) marks the 30th anniversary of this Christmas classic!

The Monsters Christmas (1981)

Watch and enjoy.

First Ever Eggnog

For the first time ever yesterday I made and tried Eggnog!

I have seen and heard this festive tipple name-dropped and product placed in numerous American specials and movies so much I wanted to try this. This year I finally got round to making my own batch up. Bear in mind I've not had any basis for comparison.  

Here is what I followed:
Easy Eggnog Recipe: Ingredients - 6 eggs, 3 cups milk (a Pint) 8 tablespoons sugar, 3 teaspoon vanilla essence, 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg.

Easy Eggnog Recipe Directions In a large bowl, beat the eggs using an electric beater (if available). By turn, add milk & sugar. Continue beating until mixture thickens slightly. Add in the vanilla essence & ground nutmeg. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until chilled (at least 3 hours).

Mr Bean Nativity Scene

Nativity Scenes can be silly and inaccurate, but that is part of the charm - as Mr Bean demonstates

Santa's Workshop (1933)

A little gem of a cartoon featuring the antics of Santa and co getting ready for Christmas Eve. Good old-fashioned festive fun.

Christmas Merchandise Coverage

Been blogging regularly on Figured Out with reports on various items of Christmas tat.


The first 3 have been:

Playmobil Santa & Pals
Jolly St Nick is here in Playmobil form, but he's appeared to have shed a few pounds! An imposter maybe? A rubbery-nosed Snowman and other pals have also joined in the venture.

Charlie Brown and Snoopy Blocks
Its the 60th anniversary of Peanuts with Charlie Brown and buds on display in Christmas clobber. 

Hero Turtles Christmas Tree Ornaments
At one stage the Ninja Turtles received some censoring before hitting the UK shores. This article covers an amazing find of some Turtles merchandise from that era. Marvel the awesome foursome as they are dumbed down to look as cute and cuddly as possible for the holiday season.

Decorations Up!

Click to enlarge

Finally got to show these off today.

Mario and Luigi Christmas-themed plushies. Both are very hard to get hold of, so they are in indeed a fantastic and triumphant acquisition. 

More of my display to follow.

Hamleys announce Top Toys For Christmas!

As part of thier Christmas in June promotion, Hamleys have announced thier Top Toys For Christmas and have also included a Free Prize-Draw!

The page is a mini-catlougue of products featuring stuff for kids and collectors of all ages. Pudding the Bear will take you on a tour of what's on the horizon as snowflakes tumble down your screen  

Some of the fun stuff on the way include: a remote control shark, a Disney Princess ULTIMATE castle, Cars II Lego and a ride-in Dalek!

It is never too early to think about Christmas... Be sure to check the site out and see what may take your fancy. Some of the unique items on show are quite costly, so perhaps this halfway point of the year is a good time to start saving for cool pressies.

Hallmark 2011 Christmas Ornaments

A pal showed me today that Hallmark have released some of the 2011 Christmas keepsake ornaments already. I was pointed not to Hallmark's site but a third party retailer called Keepsake Caboose...

I have my eye on the Gizmo and Green Lantern ornaments although they are a little pricey. The Tron ornaments also look cool, but I already have an idea in mind for some custom ones, since the toyline and models have hit the £1 mark in places. I will show that one off in a later post. I need to blog here more, even though Christmas is still far flung away.

Thornton returns for Bad Santa 2

Christmas news happens through the year. Most of the festive flicks themselves are shot well into the Springtime. Just check out the lighting on some of these movies :)

Anyway. News has recentley surfaced that R-Rated Christmas feature Bad Santa (2003) is set to have a sequel called *drum roll* Bad Santa 2. Billy Bob Thornton is set to return in the lead role.

Thornton let the cat out of the bag during a panel at this year's SXSW festival where he was promoting his Willie Nelson documentary "The King of Luck." The actor has made no secret of his desire to play the alcoholic, safe-cracking department store Claus again, but it seems that a deal will now happen sooner rather than later.

Source: The Wrap

Santa Claus Conquers The Martians,

Christmas movies are great, even though a lot of them are cheesy, badly produced and have all manner of weird cliches. However those elements are but the charm of festive films and in some cases the worsts ones are the best ones.

A personal favourite of mine which can be found in bargain bins, pound shops, dollar stores and roaming for free on Youtube is the 1964 cult-classic Santa Claus Conquers The Martians.

INTRODUCTION

I could say off the top of my head that I setup this blog as an outlet.

I enjoy Christmas! Maybe I enjoy it a little too much... I preserve the 12 Days, I keep my decorations up long past Epiphany and even use Christmas wrapping on my birthday presents to people.

From Santa Claus to the Nativity and the imagery in no set order I am very big on Christmas.

I got the name The Christmas Room from an old Facebook group I setup a couple of years ago in order to create a little pocket of social networking for people to enjoy and share lingering snippets of Christmas throughout the year.

January has to be my least favourite month of the year. Christmas is packed away and there's seemingly an emptiness in place of the festivities and joy.

In any case, I've branched out The Christmas Room to Blogger to continue my on off urge to get Christmas out of my system and do something constructive..