Holidays,
People!
RETRORATING: 13
CONTEST WINNER!
OFFICIAL
- HOME
- YOUTUBE
- ARTICLES
- VIDEOS
- THEATER
- CLASSIFIEDS
- VHS COVERS
- CEREAL BOXES
- GAME BOX ART
- READ ALONGS
- PODCASTS
- FORUM
- FAQ
- POINTS STORE
Don't mess
with the bull.
JOIN!!!
Retro Christmas Wonderland Part 2
Welcome to the second installment of this exciting look back at a ridiculously jam packed neighborhood Christmas display from 1993. Count yourself lucky that as an 11 year old I decided to take pictures of my walk through one man's demented take on the Christmas season. Although the demented part may actually be my contribution to the affair. Either way, enjoy part 2 of this journey and if you haven't read part one, be sure to go back and check it out for more goofy fun.
There’s something about Raggedy-Ann and Andy that feels like
Christmas, though I don’t know that their origins have any direct tie to the holiday.
It may have something to do with the animated special by Chuck Jones that I
covered in this article last year, but either way the pair were a welcome
sight. It’s such a Norman Rockwell, Americana kind of feel when they are around
and the inclusion of an old school Snoopy doll adds one more familiar face to
this dreamlike affair. But the eagle-eyed observer will notice a nightmare inducing image hiding behind the stitched-face siblings, in the form of a lamp jammed into the head of a mini rag doll. I can’t back this up, but I have a hunch that
“Raggedy Randy” back there was infringing on the copyright of the yarn-haired icons
and they decided to make an example of him. You better watch your back
Lalaloopsy or you’re gonna get RAGGE-DEAD!
Now this little Christmas Bear was kind of sad looking.
Taking a long, endless ride on the Santa Express will do that to a cub. The
cool thing was that he was riding an actual working train on a circular track,
going round and round all by himself. What was not cool, was that the organizer
of this Christmas carnival was not letting kids ride the thing. It was
obviously made for toddlers to enjoy, yelling “Choo-Choo” all the while.
Instead this ungrateful Teddy Bear is hogging all the fun for himself. He’s not
even having a good time, give someone else a chance! What actually would have been more fun was to ride in the train cars behind him and scream at the bear to go, "Faster! Faster!". Kids love being annoying like that, especially when their hopped up on Candy Canes and Hot Cocoa.
Now here are the real stars of the show, The Simpsons. Now you
might say Springfield’s most notorious residents have no direct tie to holiday
season, but you would be wrong. The Simpsons TV show started as a Christmas
Special before expanding to a full series, so the very origins of the world’s
favorite dysfunctional family are steeped in Christmas lore. Plus, their dog is named Santa’s Little Helper, what more evidence do you need?
If you look closely you’ll see that Bart is very appropriately
riding a skateboard, but it’s his cocked head which really reveals his
personality. You just know he would be like, “Hey, I got you a present, Merry
Christmas.”, then yank it away at the last second. This would repeat several
times until you were red with rage, to which the little scoundrel would
respond, “Don’t have a cow, Man.” Spotting these two was definitely the
highlight of the tour.
There really was a whole lot more to this thing and I wish I could give you the full scope, but alas, 20 year old photographs can only tell part of the tale. Though I do have an extra surprise for you. You see, when the night was over I remember looking out of a second story
window and getting an another unexpected bit of Christmas entertainment. Painted on the roof
of one of the display shelters was a little message for Steven Spielberg’s Reese’s Pieces loving alien friend. A good E.T., the Extraterrestrial pun was like a stocking
stuffer for my heart.
So tell me all about your favorite over the top Christmas displays?
Are your family members the culprits or is it just the neighborhood loudmouth
making a spectacle of himself again?
mickyarber Posted on Dec 22, 2015 at 06:30 PM
I wish those people were my neighbors.
Vaporman87 Posted on Dec 21, 2015 at 05:31 PM
Those people should be brought up on charges of Teddy Bear cruelty... making him sit alone on an endless train ride. Clearly they have no soul.
When I was a kid, the idea of cable television was mostly foreign to me, as I was mostly able to see it whenever I visited my grandparents twice a y...
So, I had just recently written an article about my retrospective on Rabbit Ears Productions, which explains about what that company is all about an...
Missing Summer break and dreading the next school year was one of the many recurring moments of my childhood, but where the grass is greener on the ot...
In the 80s, Rosanna Arquette had roles in Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), Silverado (1985), Nobody’s Fool (1986) and New York Stories (1...
As far back as 1992, I used to be so envious of my older sister owning a Game Boy. Of course she only had three games, Tetris (which was bundled with ...