You begin to interest me…vaguely
Save the date and get in the Christmas spirit with these vintage designs created by the Herman Miller Company for their 1978 Employee Christmas Party.
Featured image: Jingle Christmas Party Poster, Linda Powell, Herman Miller, Inc. Source: Western Michigan Graphic Design Archives
Featured image: The Bellagio Conservatory.
How else are you going to get to Christmas Island?
A free online talk from the The Royal Museums Greenwich will educate you about 400 years of celebrating Christmas afloat. The Zoom lecture is Tuesday 7 December, 5.15pm – 6.45pm (I presume that’s Greenwich Mean Time, so check your time zone).
Christmas at Sea: 400 Years of the Festive Season Afloat
Focusing largely on British ships, our panel of experts will discuss the experience of spending Christmas at sea from 1600 onwards.
What did sailors and passengers do to mark Christmas? How did eating, drinking, socialising and worshiping differ when done at sea? How did events such as the Interregnum and the Second World War, as well as changing understandings of Christmas, influence the festive season afloat? Was spending Christmas at sea better or worse than spending it on land?
Our panelists include:
Each panelist will give a short presentation on the experience of spending Christmas at sea in a specific era, before taking questions from attendees. Covering Stuart sailing vessels to warships of the 1940s, this seminar will put the tide back in yuletide.
Featured image (which has no relation to the museum talk): Santa Claus and two assistants in Sarasota, Florida. Photo by Joseph Janney Steinmetz, 1965. www.floridamemory.com Florida State Library and Archives.
Coming this Holiday season:
When James Garner passed away, obituaries mentioned not only his movies (The Great Escape, Grand Prix) and TV Shows (Maverick, The Rockford Files), but also commercials he made for Polaroid cameras. Polaroid partnered him with actress Mariette Hartley, who had done mainly guest star appearances on TV shows (Gunsmoke, Star Trek, Mannix) up until then.
The ads were so successful that Garner reportedly made over 300 of them between about 1977 and 1983. He and Hartley had such a winning chemistry in the spots that viewers presumed that the two were actually married to each other. They were not.
Here’s a bunch of the Christmas-themed ads that Garner and Hartley did for Polaroid.
OK, I’m calling it: Sugar and Booze (which presciently came out last Christmas) is the most appropriate song for CFH (Christmas from Home) 2020.
Ana Gasteyer singing it live last year:
Sticking with the theme, the official runner up: Cider and Hennessy by Jordin Sparks:
Bonus: The studio version of Sugar and Booze:
Here’s a Christmas bonus: Darlene Love sings Christmastime for the Jews, a Robert Smigel/Saturday Night Live production from 2005. Possibly more information than you need on the history of this music video at Uproxx.
From 2009, Darlene Love sings Christmas, Baby Please Come Home. Or, if you prefer, listen to her first appearance on David Letterman in 1986.
…after getting shot in the tabloids on Christmas Eve.
