DECK

Almost December, and ET along with Gizmo are getting festive...

KNEEL

"The sleigh was all packed, the reindeer were fed

but Santa still knelt by the side of his bed

'Dear Father,' he prayed, "Be with me tonight,
There's much work to do and my schedule is tight.

My sack will hold toys to grant all kid's wishes.
The supply will be endless like the loaves and the fishes.

I can do all these things, Lord, only through you.
I just need your blessing ,then it's easy to do.

I do this only to honor the birth of the one,
that was sent to redeem us, Your most Holy Son.

So to all of my friends, lest your glory I rob,
please, Lord, remind them who gave me this job." - Grace

CHRISTMASTIDE

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Christmas Is HERE!!!

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to all around the world!

Make sure you make the most of the next 12 Days!

SNOWMAN

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Raymond Briggs’ The Snowman

Awesome festive animation I grew up watching.

A timeless classic that has aged well!

VAN

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The A Team Van

The iconic Black and red van driven by BA Baracas. It has survived dangerous stunts throughout 5 seasons of the A-Team, made a cameo in Santa Claus The Movie and played a mobile base of operations for the soldiers of fortune!

I am yet to own a toy based on this awesome 80’s vehicle!

ALBUM

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Christmas In The Stars

The awesome Star Wars Christmas Album that was released in the early 80’s featuring hit numbers from the Star Wars cast and also the signing debut of a one Jon Bon Jovi!

LAMP

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Leg Lamp

This item of ‘electric sex’ is iconic to the awesome A Christmas Story (1983). It is a great award of achievement (apparently!) and looks great lit up in the front window so the whole street can marvel at its wonder!

Leg Lamps can actually be purchased via the web alongside other film replicas and merchandise from A Christmas Story. Red Ryder Leg Lamps is exclusively a webstore dedicated the film and worth checking out. The store even has Leg Lamps in keychain form as well as ‘Old Blue’.

RALPHIE

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Ralphie

The spectacle wearing protagonist from one of the worlds (especially America) most celebrated Christmas movies – A Christmas Story (1983).

Ralphie wants a Range Ryder carbine action bb rifle for Christmas, but the grown ups are dismissive of him having one – even Santa!

Oh Fudge!

CATAPULT

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A Slingshot

This is often called a ‘catapult’ on my side of the world, but I think that title belongs to the weapons mounted on the side of castles.

A trademark plaything from my youth for which I had a lot of fun with

SIBLING

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Ken, Helen and Mike

I am one of 3 siblings and the eldest.

This is a snapshot from Christmas 1987…

QUATRO

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Can of Quatro

Pretty cool fruity soft drink from the early 80’s that’s now sadly non-existent. My last memory of this was taking a can to school and accidentally spilling it to the floor. The spill itself created a giant fizz in the air and I got busted by the dinner ladies. This was just before cans were banned at my school.

The TV advert for Quatro was pretty cool. The cyberpunk style vending machine featured was pure class!

CASTLE

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Blaise Castle

Some of my old childhood stomping grounds are on the Blaise Estate where I played in the park, visited the museum, played hookie from school and built dens.

There’s also a pretty awesome castle there too!

EMERALD

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Oliver Queen aka The Green Arrow

A latter day Robin Hood with a bank account as big as Batman and an array of cool gadgets to mix. With Smallville retiring next year, a glimmer of hope is shining for Green Arrow to have his own spin-off show.

Any kind of arrow imaginable, this emerald archer has them in his arsenal to help bring all sorts of crooks to justice.

TENSHI

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Angel Wars

Going against the grain of angels being depicted as white glowing feminine entities, this animated series is a cooler interpretation of them.

HAT

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The Hat of the Mad Hatter

One of the coolest fantasy fashion accessories of all time is the Mad Hatters personal top hat!

For its Tardis-like capabilities can contain a whole tea party and whatnot.

Such subspace attributes have only been copied by Santa Claus’ sack, Combat Colin’s trousers, and various 80’s style Transformers!

Aside from that, the hat looks cool!

GNOME

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The Little Troll Prince

This is one of my favourite festive animation specials from the past 23 years – a tale about a Prince of the Trolls who discovered Christmas, the love of Christ and oddly enough became a gnome. I last blogged about this some 2 years ago in TROLL where a youtube’d copy of the film is available to view.

BLANKET

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Linus & Blanket

Linus van Pelt and his blanket are possibly the most inseparable partnership in the world of comics…

POINSETTIA

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The Poinsettia

I have never owned one of these before. I’ve seen plenty of these around Tesco with a guaranteed shelf life until January 6th. Good timing that!

PERKIN

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Pic 6: The Flumps

The Flumps are a lovely short-lived 70's animated series about a family of beanie cap wearing coconut people.

Only 13 episodes were made, but the show alongside other stop-motion goodness (like Chorlton and the Wheelies and Parsley) is fondly remembered fun.

PRODUCE

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Vegetales

What I could describe as post-modern Munch Bunch in Christian CG animation.

Vegetales re-enact bible stories and perform their own adventures with a splendid mix of morality, fun and edutainment.

If you don’t mind high-pitch voice acting, enjoyed the Munch Bunch before they disappeared Vegatales is a great watch. The St Nick feature film from 2009 is the best of the bunch and its got a load of pop-culture references in it.