Is it Already Time to Talk Christmas?

 The M&S Christmas food ad is on UK TV now.

Is it too early to be talking about Christmas?

When does it really start?

What do you think readers?

TWELFTH NIGHT

 As another Christmas sadly fades from our memory and the last candles of of the season are lit today on Twelfth Night or Old Christmas Day, here's a small gallery of images from my own Christmas spent with family in a lovely rented old farmhouse in North Yorkshire, together with a visit to the seaside town of Filey.

Enjoy.

Your Christmas pictures welcomed readers.

CHRISTMAS TELLY: BAH HUMBUG!

Despite purchasing a Radio Times I've yet to catch-up on Christmas spooks on the wireless, which I'll do in January when everything's calmed down.

I have though been watching TV and keeping an eye on the mainstream scheduling. I have to say its been a bit disappointing so far.

For me and possibly I'm mistaken, the yardstick for top class UK TV listings between Xmas and New Year is a screening of Jason and the Argonauts or at least one of the Harryhausen monster epics.

Nada.

Nichts.

Yes, there's been Alistair Sim's Christmas Carol, Bill Murray's Scrooged and the classic Its a Wonderful Life to jingle our nostalgic bells .... but C'mon!

The high point for the Grandson was the new Aardman Wallace and Gromet movie shown on Christmas Day. Alas, I was close to the soft glow of the Christmas tree on a corner sofa and fell asleep!

I still love 'normal' telly here in Blighty - the Beeb, ITV and the like - but I cant help thinking the glory days of Christmas are over for them. 

The glut of cheapo Freeview channels churning out the same stuff they do every day, endless re-runs of Man V. Food, Wives with Knives etc etc - no change for Christmas! - doesn't lift the festive doldrums on the small screen either.

The exceptions are of course those UK freeview channels - Rewind, TalkingPicturesTV - that cater for aging boomer babies like us showing the delights of the Sixties and Seventies like Thriller, Space Patrol, Department S, Stingray and more.

Maybe all of this is academic in the days of streaming, Smart TV's, Sky, Netflix, Prime, Disney+, You Tube and millions of online videos. It must be a worry for 'normal TV' bosses.

Young people probably don't even watch the Beeb, ITV or any of those old dinosaurs. Not just the young either, a not-so-young friend of ours only watches You Tube videos for her entertainment. Nothing else. My 80 year old Sister is transfixed by TikTok, so what do I know!

I wonder what will be left of terrestrial telly in ten years when I'm 74?

What did you watch this holiday readers in your neck of the world? Is online TV taking over? Was Christmas represented on your telly schedules?

My Christmas Presents

My Birthday and Christmas presents this year were both very welcome and really brill.

Here they are grouped on an armchair as they would have been back when I was a kid.

A fleece, a handful of great books, fine modelling brushes and plastic glue, vintage toy stun gun (thanks Bill), toy rings including the Flash and an older Superman Kryptonite ring, a bundle of small vintage toys, a beautiful Ugly card (thanks Arto), a gorgeous wooden picture, spiced soap, Reece's peanut chocolates, a special home-made Hot Wheels box from my Grandson and a big uber-cool box of Micronauts parts from my daughter [I cant say Son-in-Law too as this year we did Secret Santa for adults for the first time with a budget of £50 each. My daughter got me as it turned out!]

Whilst mooching in Malton, I also treated myself a bottle of Southern Comfort on offer at Morrisons and to a Christmas Radio Times, a sort of tradition I have and the only time I buy one, At £5.99 its a gift in itself but its not the beautiful tome of woodcut illustrations it once was. Still, there's lots of Xmas ghosties, ghoulies and some sci-fi in the TV and radio listings., which I'll ring and watch/ listen to sometime. They're about the only things worth a festive hoot in there too IMHO!

Do you still get a Radio or TV Times UK readers or a TV magazine where you live in the world?

My friend Paul Vreede kindly sent me a fantastic box of Hot Wheels Rrrrumblers and a gaggle of original Star Wars toy figures customised by Paul in the 1980's. More on these later! 

Pics of your prezzies welcomed readers! 

DEAD OF NIGHT: A WOMAN SOBBING

 

More shivers from the haunted BBC back in 1972.

Perfect for Christmas!

The Candlemaker

A seasonal nostalgic cartoon for Christmas.

DEAD OF NIGHT: RETURN FLIGHT

 

Old fashioned goosebumps for Boxing Day.

From the Beeb in 1972.

HOW'S CHRISTMAS GOING READERS?

How's it going at your end this Christmas readers?

🎄

HAPPY CHRISTMAS READERS!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS READERS!

HAVE A GREAT FESTIVE TIME! 🎅

MERRY CHRISTMAS

TO ALL OUR READERS!

THANKS FOR ALL YOUR SUPPORT THIS YEAR

AND SEE YOU IN 2025,

IT'LL BE FABTASTIC!

BBC'S LATE NIGHT HORROR SERIES REMEMBERED: the Corpse That Can't Play

A scary one for Christmas Eve, I think I remember this series shown in 1968, particularly the creepy black and white 'twisting faces' introduction.

More or less a lost TV series, this is a rare BBC episode on You Tube.

Is it one you remember?

DEAD OF NIGHT: THE EXORCISM

 

What would Christmas be without a few old school scares!

From the haunted 1970's and perfect for my birthday chills!

On the BBC 1972.

You don't know Jek...

A Happy Christmas Moonbasers!

I had a great laff at the home- made Xmas card my pal Arnum Endean sent me. As it's pretty SF oriented, so I asked if he minded me sharing it with everyone and he essentially said "Damn the Proton Torpedoes!"

I found his "Bounced Cheque/Jek" pun a little too tortured, but that's my pal Arnum!

Season's Greetings Everyone! 

 Looey

OZ Base

CHRISTMAS TELLY

I've just been browsing the TV listings for Christmas here in the UK. A few of my own personal highlights of what's on are:

1. Mighty Joe Young [1949]: the black and white original - I adored the lion cage scene as a kid!
2. Inside No.9; Sardines - a re-run of episode 1, which I don't think I've seen
3. Clash of the Titans [2010]: I'd prefer the original - but Greek mythology is always good.
4. The Haunting - one of the scariest old flicks ever relying almost entirely on sound effects for its shocks.
5. Wallace and Gromet Murder Most Fowl - the new one from the Lancastrian superstars
6. The Woman of Stone: BBC Ghost Story for Christmas - Mark Gatiss at it again; can't wait!
7. Close Encounters of the Third Kind; Speilberg's masterpiece and the he Grandon's favourite!
8. Kong; Skull Island; one of the modern King Kongers
9. A Christmas Carol [Alistair Sim] - the black and white ghost story that is as much Christmas as Santa himself.

I'm still looking for Jason and the Argonauts somewhere over the 14 day listings or indeed ANY Harryhausen. Its just not Christmas without a stop-motion monster!

I'll be checking the radio listings next. Ghosts and Ghoulies is what I want!

What are your TV and radio highlights around the world readers?

It's Not Just Cricket in Headingley

 The Missus and me went on our annual pilgrimage to Headingley last week. 

Not for the cricket but for the charity shops along the high street and the student eateries.

Originally it was on my birthday decades ago, a festive drive to the studenty Leeds suburb to browse and eat a cooked breakfast in Dare, a cafe I assumed was named after Dan, given their rocket logo outside.

Always great fun. I bet we've been going twenty years and I've bought vintage monster magazines, action man clothes, old baubles, horror story cassette tapes, gifts, books and much more over the last two decades.

Dare's gone now, replaced in the Pandemic by a Turkish restaurant, which we've eaten in too. Nowadays we've finished our shopping with a meal at the fab Zaap Thai.

This year it was very slim pickings in the charities. Very little vintage stuff and hardly any toys of any age at all. There were fewer charity shops too, two down since last year, leaving just five now, two of which are Oxfam.

Another thing is that we are buying less and less since our Autumn return from Germany with a carload of stuff. It has meant less Charity shopping in general and much less car booting. I have collected more than enough stock for ebaying next year and the same for the Missus and her craft materials.

So this time we came away with a single second hand paperback, which I bought in Oxfam books: The Road by Cormac McCarthy.

I seem to recall Viggo Mortenson starring in a film adaptation of The Road that I've yet to see, but I do get it mixed up in my head with a Denzel Washington flick called the Book of Eli for some reason, which I've seen.

Do you know The Road? 

The discussion driving home on our road was of this being our final trip to Headingley, a long Christmas tradition sadly drawing to a close.

It has been a year of  tying things off in general, but hopefully in some way leaving us new space for fresh beginnings in 2025.

Is anything old finishing for you readers or perhaps something new starting up? 

I will miss our festive mooches round Headingley though.

THAT CHRISTMAS

Visiting the Grandkids yesterday I caught ten minutes of the Grandson's new festive flick That Christmas.

It appeared to be an animated tale about families with a boy at the centre of it all. It seemed like a cartoon version of a soap or a schmlalzy film from the 90's. I thought of About a Boy with Hugh Grant.

The son-in-law informed me it was a Richard Curtis film, he of Love Actually. So its Love Actually done as a cartoon for kids?

The Grandson loved it!

Not my cup of tea at all [sorry if you're a fan] and I really hope the Grandson chooses Jason and Argonauts  or the new Wallace and Gromet for us to watch together over the holidays!

Have you seen That Christmas?

STILL SOME LEFT: THE GRAND MOONBASE CHRISTMAS QUIZ

So here it is, Merry Christmas, everybody needs a quiz! Go for it Moonbasers! Maybe answer TWO each to start with! DON'T GOOGLE! Some are easy, some not!

1. Which King last looked out?
2. Which big toy rifle had seven things going for it Christmas 1967?
3. What is Action Man known as in Spain?
4. Who is in charge of the Bavarian Naughty List?
5. What is the German Gift-bringer called on Christmas Eve?
6. Can you name Santa's Reindeers?
7. Can you name Snow White's dwarves?
8. When is Old Christmas Day?
9. What is Twelfth Cake?
10. What is it that we wont go until we get some?
11. In what order do the spirits visit Scrooge?
12. What are Cadeaux in France and Geschenke in Germany?
13. Finish Scrooge's Line: "There is more of gravy than ....."
14. What was the name of Buddy's girlfriend in Elf?
15. What did Clarence get after helping George Bailey in the famous American movie?
16. What is the name of the town in the film A Christmas Horror Story with William Shatner?
17. Who sang Walking in the Air?
18. Which old author wrote many of the stories the BBC used for their Ghost Stories for Christmas on TV?
19. Who delivers gifts to Italian kids on January 5th?
20. Can you name the Magi?
21. From which Sinatra song is "I've brought some corn for popping" ?
22. What are there five of in the 12 Days of Christmas?
23. Which is the odd one out? Bethlehem, Manger, Crib, Calvary, the Magi
24. What is wrong with this: I was visited by Christingle on Christmas Eve.
25. When is Japan's version of Valentines Day?

Seasonal Greetings from Terranova47

Wishing you a Healthy Happy Holiday Season!

THE IRON TREE IS UP

 With the Grandkids not coming to Moonbase this Christmas we've opted for low- key decorating in just a few household spots. No fuss and no need to get everything down from the attic this year!

The iron tree is really just an garden standee adorned with baubles from an Xmas box we brought back from my Wife's late parents' German home this Autumn, together with a couple of necklaces to fill out the middle!

The kitchen sill scene is courtesy of more German heirlooms.

I love this little singer. I cant decide if he's belting out a carol or trying to blow the candle out!

German nutcrackers, from the box, ready for some cracking or knacken [ker-nacken] as they say over there.

This cute pot Nazarene family had to come out.

as did this beautiful wooden nativity.

Unusually some of the old baubles are metal like this golden ball.

Finally, a shot of my morning's boiled eggs guarded by a quaint little pixie!

I may set out the crib we brought back, a family piece one hundred years old now.

Your pictures of decorations and trees welcomed readers! Just email me.