12 Days of Christmas Cassettes: 4 The Muppets!

Welcome to the Goodwill Hunting 4 Geeks 12 Days of Christmas celebration extravaganza!!! (Don't send me messages telling me that the 12 days of Christmas actually BEGIN on Christmas and end on January 6th, with the Epiphany. I know. But I'm not celebrating that way... so let us quickly move along.)

Today's cassettes are Muppet themed! This is a topic near and dear to my heart, and if you'd like to hear me TALK a bit more about the Muppets in general, be sure to check out the Muppets discussion between Erik Johnson, Jason Roberts, and myself over at the Geek Fallout podcast! But let's just focus today on these two classic Christmas Muppet music collections, shall we? 

First up we have "The Muppet Christmas Carol" which believe it or not, I just watched in its entirety for the first time just this season. I liked it. I've seen clips, and longer portions of the movie before, and I am a BIG fan of the Muppets, so this film is a perfect fit for me. No idea why I've put it off for so long. The copy I found at Goodwill has never even been opened from its cellophane wrapper. That feels like a shame. I don't plan on opening it for now either, as I still have no way to actually play any of these cassette tapes. 

Here's the track list: 

-Side A- 

1. Overture 

2. Room in Your Heart

3. Good King Wenceslas

4. One More Sleep 'Til Christmas

5. Marley and Marley

6. Christmas Past

7. Chairman of the Board

8. Fozziwig's Party

9. When Love is Gone

-Side B- 

10. It Feels Like Christmas

11. Christmas Scat

12. Bless Us All

13. Christmas Future

14. Christmas Morning

15. Thankful Heart

16. Finale - When Love is Found/It Feels Like Christmas

17. When Love is Gone

"This is scary stuff. Should we be worried about the kids in the audience?"

"It's okay. This is culture."

Next up is the "John Denver & the Muppets: A Christmas Together" soundtrack. I remember seeing this John Denver Muppets special sometime as a child... but for the life of me I have no strong, clear, exact memories of it at all. It's weird. 

-Side A- 

1. Twelve Days of Christmas

2. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

3. The Peace Carol

4. Christmas is Coming

5. A Baby Just Like You

6. Deck the Halls

7. When the River Meets the Sea

-Side B- 

8. Little Saint Nick

9. NOEL: Christmas Eve, 1913

10. The Christmas Wish

11. Medley: Alfie: The Christmas Tree/Carol For a Christmas Tree/It's in Every One of Us

12. Silent Night, Holy Night

13. We Wish You a Merry Christmas

I'll be going right up through Christmas day itself posting, so be sure to join me back here tomorrow for more of the 12 Days of Christmas Cassettes celebration!!! Merry Christmas and Happy Hunting!

Creepmas Day 5: The Ghosts of Christmas

So this year I'm celebrating Creepmas! 

From the 13 Days of Creepmas website: 

"A reaction to the continuing incursion of Christmas into Autumn and Halloween, CREEPMAS is a good-natured chance for Halloween lovers to exact revenge by bringing some spooky good cheer into the holidays or, more appropriately, the Hallowdays..." Read more about the inspirations behind this 13 day celebration HERE. 

Today I thought I'd feature the one awesome toy I own from "Mickey's Christmas Carol" which is a Christmas special I consider to be a classic, and one that I'd love to have the entire set in figurine form for. This figure is from the original Applause run, and unfortunately, they only have a handful of them, that do NOT feature all of the ghosts in the movie. There was a set released by Playing Mantis back in 2002 that looks amazing though. All 4 ghosts, and most of the relevant cast, including two different Scrooges included. But here's what I've got: 

Not too shabby! A little scuffed up maybe, but still a fun figure for my year-round Creepmas shelf. 

Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol" is always a nice reminder that there are ghostly forces involved in Christmas. In this case they watch over the past, the present, and the future. There have been MANY adaptations of the story both in full films and stage plays, and it has been heavily referenced in other media, such as comic book issues, TV episodes, and songs. The story resonates for its themes of redemption and forgiveness at Christmas. But what resonates with me? Ghosts. 

Of course, things usually start with a harbinger. In the tale of a Christmas Carol, things kick off with Jacob Marley or some iteration thereof warning the Scrooge character that to avoid sharing the fate of being bound in chains of greed he must be visited by three spirits and renounce his selfish ways (For each of the following ghosts, I have the versions from Mickey's Christmas Carol, the Jim Carrey CG version, Scrooged, The Real Ghostbusters episode based on the story, and finally a Muppet Christmas Carol) . 

  

  

The Ghost of Christmas Past is usually represented as weaker, or wispier than the other spirits, with the possible exception of the cigar-chomping cabbie of "Scrooged". Even Jiminy Cricket fits the profile, as the smallest of the Disney spirits. 

The Ghost of Christmas Past is usually hale and hearty, a robed giant of varying magnitudes... (again, with the ghost from Scrooged playing slightly against type): 

 

   

And the Ghost of Christmas Future is the specter, the terrifying unknown, usually a Grim Reaper-style character who scares Scrooge into changing his ways (Scrooged only messes with this one a little bit, making the ghost's face a TV screen that changes images to communicate, to help it fit the themes of the movie) although Pete playing the part here I think is mainly just to make the Ghost slightly less pants-messingly-terrifying: 

  

   

Any Christmas tale that manages to rope in a ghostly, supernatural element is just dandy in my book! 

Happy 13 days of Creepmas! I'll be back tomorrow with another entry in the countdown, which may or may not involve a Goodwill Goody! Until then, Happy Hunting!