It’s that time of year again! The air is crisp, the hot chocolate is—er—hot, and all around there’s excitement and anticipation for the holidays to come! Snuggling with our little ones around a roaring fire at Christmastime sounds like the perfect thing to do—but as city dwellers, the vast majority of us don’t have fireplaces in our living rooms, much less a chimney for Santa to slide down. But oh those TV geniuses thought of everything, even our deepest comfy cozy holiday desires! As you may or may not know, each year on Christmas morning, PIX 11 airs a program called the Yule Log, which is basically raw footage of a picturesque, cracking fireplace, burning for four hours with soothing Christmas music playing in the background. It’s a gift to us city folk who want that full on quaint and charming holiday morning experience. So gather around the TV kiddies, and you better not pout, you better not cry, you better not miss the Yule Log...read on to find out why!
1. Although the TV does not actually emit heat from the Yule Log fire, your heart will, in fact, be warm with happiness when you watch it.
2. The special Yule Log you’ve been watching all these years was reshot in 1970, because the original 1966 footage was lost for the last 50 years—until now! For one hour on Christmas Eve, and one hour on Christmas morning, PIX 11 will air the original footage from 1966!
3. Since this lost footage is included in the comfy line up, for the first time EVER, Yule Log will air for 5 hours instead of 4! That’s five full hours of feeling like you live in a snow covered cabin up in the woods somewhere instead of just four hours of feeling that way.
4. You can turn the sound down on your TV and play your own music in the background to give that flaming log any vibe you desire.
5. If you’ve never listened to holiday music from the 1930s and 1940s, get ready to be transported.
6. You can turn the Yule log on in every TV in the house and feel like you’re ballin’ out of control in a mansion full of fireplaces.
7. If you watch carefully, every now and then you will catch a glimpse of the reflection of the camera in the decorative brass globes on the fireplace grate. Got 'em!
8. Although the Yule Log is, for the most part, footage of a cozy burning log, about one time every hour, if you’re lucky enough to catch it, the camera pans back to reveal a glimpse of the room the fireplace is in, complete with Christmas decorations and stockings on the mantle, lending an almost voyeuristic, reality show feel to the whole decadent experience.
9. Your kids will love that they suddenly have a fireplace in the house to gather around, and pretend to warm their hands in front of. You can even pretend to roast marshmallows.
10. Having the Yule log playing in the background as your family opens their presents is more conducive to the imperative task of jumping up and down screaming "Thank you!" and "I love it!" than the noisy background banter of cartoons.
11. There’s no messy clean up or soot or worry about the toddlers toppling the fireplace screen. Woohoo!
Watch the Yule Log on PIX 11 on Christmas morning from 7am–12pm. For more Christmas fun, check out our favorite Christmas events for kids and Christmas books for kids.