Christmas Commercials that Ate Our Brains.

Mmmm... brains.

Hershey's Kisses "Bells"

Simple and sweet. I know it's Christmastime when I hear this song.





Fruity Pebbles "Seasons Greetings"

Anyone who watched Saturday morning commercials in the 1980s still has this song in their head. Still to be answered: why are the Flintstones celebrating Christmas?





Coca-Cola "Northern Lights"

I'd be remiss if I forgot this one (this being an arts/animation blog and all). This was one of the first really awesome pieces of CGI. Some of the later Coke Bears commercials are prettier, but the simplicity of the very first one still holds up.





McDonalds "Star Wish"

Now, there's obviously going to be another McD's commercial in this entry, but this is the one I remember more vividly. I like the animation on the star. Not shown: Grimace and Birdie suffering severe radiation burns after handling an extraterrestrial object.





McDonalds "Skating"

Is there some way we could digitally replace Ronald McDonald with Morgan Spurlock so I don't feel so torn on enjoying this?




Bonus: Waiterbot's over-analysis of "Skating":



And the Onion AV Club's fabulous essay on "A Christmas Story".

How I spent my Arbor Day

Short answer: I worked my butt off.

And here are the new plants I planted. They were all just too unusual to leave at the Giant Hardware Store. I've never experimented with Primula Primroses before and these were the last two they had. The Species Tulips (Tulipa tarda) were just too cool, and they now reside out front. And the little tiny tree is a Redtwig Dogwood (Red Osier to our friends out west, Cornus sericea to everyone else). Technically, it's a shrub. But it'll flower, and it'll fruit, and it may get to be around three times as tall as it is now. (I don't know if there are any hard and fast rules as to what gets to be called a tree and what gets to be called a shrub.)

How about an Arbor day song sung by a Cardinal with an odd-looking beak who can apparently alter his size at will? I can assure you that when I am very old, when I forget everything important in life, I will be singing the line about how "that's where squirrels spend their time!"