Spread the Joy Advent 2025, Day 18

Today's charity is one that I became aware of thanks to my goats. Well, the farm in which my goats are housed actually. It's called Ornaments 4 Orphans. For Christmas, the gift shop at Spring Haven Farm are selling felt ornaments of chickens, pigs, doggies and of course, goats. They are a part of O4O's Nepal collection.

Ornaments 4 Orphans 'collaborate with global artisans to create jobs, fight poverty, strengthen families, empower communities, and ultimately prevent vulnerable children from becoming orphans.'

You can also purchase ornaments made in Uganda, Peru and Kenya. The ornaments reflect the art and culture of the region in which they are made; along with the animals. For example, the Kenya collection contains ornaments depicting elephants whereas the Peru selection contains a llama decoration for your tree. 

Don't need any more ornaments for your tree, O4O also sells hand crafted bookmarks, key chains and nativity scenes that reflect the rich artistry of the country in which they are made. 

As they support fair trade and wages, it's important to note that this is a for-profit organization. However, the profits are used to buy more supplies, educate, train and empower families and to help keep orphaned children in their communities and with extended families. 

And yes, I did post a link to Spring Haven Farm in this post even though they are not a charity. My goats are my babies and I support and volunteer there like a parent might support their human child's PTA. Plus, the farm has taken in injured, abandoned and elderly animals, like everyone's favorite, Annie Donk(ey). So if their supporting a charity, I will support it as well. 

If Ornaments 4 Orphans sounds like the answer to your Christmas shopping list dilemmas, check out their website and store here...

Adventures in Advent: Advent 2024, Day 17

If you've got $1,200, then today's featured Advent calendar is for you. It's the Swarovski Advent Calendar 2024 edition. An annual offering, this year's theme is a snowy journey on a holiday train; all in shining clear crystal. 

Boxed in a luxurious red Swarovski box with gold lettering and a red bow, the box opens like a book with windows numbered 1-25. Unlike a majority of the Advents I've researched for my posts, this Calendar has a present for you on Christmas Day. Based on the price, you ought to get enough prizes to cover the 12 days of Christmas that come about after December 25th! 

Recipients of this Advent are basically collecting 2 things: a 7 piece crystal choo-choo and a number of miniature ornaments complete with tiny ribbons for hanging. Not everything is just clear and colorless. Some of the ornaments have accents of green, red and brown. Items like the reindeer have black dots for eyes. The connectors on the train pieces have finishes of gold. 

Being made of crystal, this Advent is pretty hefty. It weighs over 7 pounds! Some of you can debate the price of this Advent being a negative. To me, the biggest disappointment is that the surprise of this Advent is ruined by a cheat sheet on the back of the box. So if you don't want to know what's in store, avoid the back of this Advent!

Adventures in Advent: Advent, Day 8

Not every Advent Calendar has to give you a present. And if you think that a Countdown to Christmas item doesn't count as an Advent Calendar, well then I invite you to create your own list of interesting, odd, quirky and fun Advents.

Today's Advent is found on Amazon. Made or sold by Aladayquinquit, this Countdown to Christmas calendar doubles as a Christmas ornament. I don't know when the old ol' timey red pickup truck carrying a Christmas tree in the back became a holiday icon. But I like it. It's rustic. It's country. And it reminds me of my grandmama for some reason. Maybe it's the old red Ford pickup she and my grandpa would drive all the time.

The design is simple. There's a small dial with the numbers 1-24 on it. Next to the dial is a little switch that looks like the kind you would find on a View Master. Flip the switch and the numbers count down closer to Christmas. 

The one caveat, if you flip too many times, you either have to stick with the mistake or you have to keep spinning the dial until you get back to the correct date. Going backwards doesn't seem to be an option.

Simple and efficient. My kind of countdown to Christmas. Speaking of countdowns, let's see what I received in today's Batman Advent calendar...

Adventures in Advent: Advent 2024, Day 1

 I start off Advent 2024 with a very special Advent calendar.  Made by Larry Warren, this early 1980s felt Advent calendar was the first such countdown to Christmas I ever had. 

Made of red felt, there was a naked green felt Christmas tree in the middle of the calendar. Down below in white appliques was the month of December from the 1st all the way to the 25th. Also included were 25 ornaments that stuck to the calendar with Velcro. 

There was essentially 2 ways you could use the Advent calendar. First, you could decorate the tree with the ornaments. Then each day you removed an ornament and placed it over each corresponding day of the month you got closer to Christmas. Or you put an ornament over each day and every day closer to Christmas, you added an ornament to the tree. That was how I did it. I loved getting to customize the tree to my liking and I always made sure Santa was the last ornament to adorns the tree. I think I had his sleigh representing Christmas Eve. 

As long as you kept the Velcro clean, the ornaments would stick to the tree really well. Unfortunately no matter what you did to keep the calendar clean, eventually the appliques would get so slick that you couldn't put the ornaments over the numbers. Eventually I would have to put the ornaments to the side where there was a little felt poking through. But even then, that was no guarantee.

Yes. I still have my calendar. It's packed away with other holiday decorations that will probably never see the light of day again due to our cats. But at least I still have it. Though maybe not for long. I see people trying to sell their versions on eBay for almost $200 bucks. So I might be posting mine for sale sometime soon...

The 25 Baubles of Pop Culture! Advent 2022 Day 25

Well, we made it again through another Advent to another Christmas. If you were good this year, then you experienced a visit from Santa. Based on the weather this year, it's more than likely that the Jolly Old Fat Man needed to use the services of a certain ruby schnoz caribou. In honor of that possibility, let's wrap things up with a look at ornaments based on the Rankin-Bass 1964 stop-motion special, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer!

First up in this 1987 ornament from Kurt Adler. This ornament is made of wood and that just really seems out of place since most of the baubles made from the manufacturer are of glass. There's a pull string that when pulled raises Rudolph's ears. I've owned one of these ornaments since I was 10. Sadly, one of the ears is broken. But if I can ever figure out how to fix it, you can be assured I will!

Next up is the Hallmark ornament of misfit elf Hermie astride good ole' Rudolph. There's an interesting fan theory about Hermie going around and I think it's got quite a bit of merit. See, Hermie doesn't have pointed ears like the other elves. I think he's really Santa's son and he hates having to follow in dad's footsteps. Thus in order to rebel, Hermie dreams of becoming a dentist. 

Speaking of Hermie's possible pop, I really like the Jim Shore ornament of Santa taking some of the Misfit Toys on to their new homes. As for favorite Misfit Toy ornaments, I like this one of the cowboy riding an ostrich. I don't understand why this one is a Misfit. I've read that some cowboys in Australia ride ostriches. So I just think that this toy was accidentally shipped to the States instead of where he belonged: store shelves in Brisbane.

In honor of Rudolph and Hermie's partner, Yukon Cornelius, I like this felt ornament found on Etsy. I've heard that in a now deleted scene, the reason Yukon keeps licking his pick axe isn't because he's got some sure fire way to locate gold. The prospector is actually searching for a vein of peppermint! 

Then we've got this 2016 Hallmark ornament of the Bumble. From the looks of things, he's taken to his new job as official Christmas Tree Topper of the North Pole. But he still needs some training on putting up the lights! There's just one problem though- I thought Hermie had pulled out all of the Bumble's teeth. What is he doing with chompers on this decoration?

Finally, I pay tribute to the great Burl Ives with this Sam the Snowman ornament. I like that the body is a bell. Pretty clever and adds to the festive charm.

We've got just enough time for one last DIY ornament. Although, you might have to go to the beach to do this one. You will need 2 medium size clam shells. 6 small pistachio shells, paint of the colors brown, light blonde, black, white, pink and red, 2 paperclips, string and hot glue. 

First of all, hot glue 2 pistachio shells on each clam shell to represent ears. Then take another shell, turned sideways and positioned on the clam shell to represent a snoot, hot glue. On the back of the clam shell, hot glue a paperclip in which a small loop shows from atop the head. Once dry, use the picture below as a painting template. Once dried, tie a piece of string through the paperclip loop and form a loop in order to hang through a branch on your tree.

The 25 Baubles of Pop Culture! Advent 2022 Day 24

It's Christmas Eve. Thus I think it's only fitting that I am devoting today's Advent to the world of Peanuts. Charles Schulz' Peanuts is a pop culture franchise that has the rare distinction of being something that my Grandmama, Grandmother and Mom had at least 1 ornament of which on their trees. 

My Grandmama had this satin ball ornament from Hallmark. It's dated 1979 and is for a grandson. That was me! I still own this ornament and treasure it very much. My Grandmother loved to paint wooden ornaments and she had at least 2 of the ornaments displayed here. She had ornaments of both Snoopy and Woodstock in stockings. I think she also had one of Snoopy sitting on his doghouse. But I don't see that ornament. Maybe I imagined it. As for my Mom, I remember this PVC ornament of Snoopy using his food dish as a sled hanging from our tree. It's something we picked up in the late 80s or early 90s. I think it came included with a specially marked box of Whitman's chocolates.

Then we've got an ornament that I vaguely recall somebody in my family owning. I just can't put my finger on who. It's this late 1970s rubber ornament of Linus and Snoopy. I seem to recall Linus' hair being fuzzy. And the fact that Linus is sitting on Snoopy when usually it's the beagle giving the youngster fits as Snoopy really wants that blanket is just so hysterical to me.

Looking at ornaments not owned by my family, first up is this adorable 3-D ornament depicting the final scene of A Charlie Brown Christmas. Watching A Charlie Brown Christmas had up until this year been an annual tradition in my family. But Tim Cook and Apple decided to become Scrooges and made it to where you can only watch the special on AppleTV. Supposedly tonight and tomorrow, families can watch the show for free. But I haven't a clue how to do that and I really don't feel like creating an account with AppleTV and having to share my personal information. So the next best thing will be this ornament I found on Pintrest, I guess.

Fun Fact- though they are depicted in this ornament, Franklin, Marcy and Peppermint Patty were not in the holiday special as none of them had been created by Charles Schulz just yet.

Another annual holiday tradition is getting to hear 1967's Snoopy's Christmas by The Royal Guardsmen. This holiday follow up to Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron is just such a fun story mixed into a catchy little ditty. Thankfully, Apple doesn't own the rights to this song and I got to hear it the other day in my car. The song is based on Snoopy's pretend play that he's a World War I flying ace in the comic strip. In honor of all this, I share this 2016 ornament that technically isn't Christmas. Instead, it's a Hallmark Halloween ornament as this scene is based on the 1966 Peanuts special It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. Hey, nothing says you can't hang Halloween stuff on your Christmas tree...

I wanna go back to looking at a vintage Peanuts ornament for a moment. When I was looking for that Grandson ornament, I ran across several globe ornaments from Hallmark's early days at producing tree decorations. My favorite is this early 1980s globe made of glass. It shows Snoopy acting as Santa with Woodstock and several of his bird friends leading the sleigh over Charlie Brown's neighborhood.

I'm also a big fan of this late 90s ornament. I just can't determine who the manufacturer is. It depicts Charlie Brown going to Lucy for gift ideas instead of psychiatric help for the price of 1 nickel. You can be sure that all the gift ideas Lucy is giving Charlie Brown are all things she wants!

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On the craft made front, my favorite is this ceramic ornament of Snoopy, Woodstock and Charlie Brown in festive attire. I wonder if the Christmas tree behind them is that magical fir from the holiday special. 

And now for the DIY ornament. For this one, you will need yellow paint, a black puffy paint pen, a wooden disc ornament and some type of ribbon. First up, paint the disc yellow. When it dries, use the puffy paint pen and create a zig-zag pattern like on Charlie Brown's shirt. Unlike in the image above, I recommend making the zig-zag a little bit more thicker but don't be afraid to be a little sloppy as that was Schulz's style. When the black paint is dry, tie a ribbon loop through the hole of the ornament and hang on your tree to give it a touch of Peanuts class!

The 25 Baubles of Pop Culture! Advent 2022 Day 23

I made a change on my Advent. Game Day decision I guess you could call it. I just felt that I was omitting a pop culture franchise that really represents Christmas to me- Scooby-Doo! I'm going to do things opposite today and give you my Advent present first. 

See when I was little, I used to have this really cool Christmas record that I would listen to religiously as a tyke every year. Titled Scooby-Doo and Friends: Exciting Christmas Stories, this LP from 1978 had 2 full-length mysteries. On the A side, the gang had to solve the mystery of the missing Santa as the guy hired to play Kris Kringle for a bunch of orphans is nowhere to be found. Then on the B side, the Mystery Inc. gang head to the North Pole to help Santa as someone has stolen all the presents and kidnapped all of the elves! Add in some holiday tunes and the original cast voices of Frank Welker and Casey Kasem, I really thought that this album was the soundtrack to an animated Scooby-Doo special. It wasn't until I was an adult that I learned that wasn't the case. 

The first story was my favorite of the two. So as my gift for Day 23, I am sharing with you 'The Mystery of the Missing Santa' in its entirety. It runs about 15 minutes. Be sure to turn the lights down low and snuggle it to set the mood for this festive mystery.

Enjoy!

The 25 Baubles of Pop Culture! Advent 2022 Day 22

Just to be clear, Muppets from The Muppets Show are different from those Muppets from Sesame Street. Thus, it's perfectly fine day I've got a day devoted to those more mature Muppets after having spent some time with the gang from Sesame Street on Day 20. 

Of the Muppets from both shows, only Kermit the Frog has regularly appeared on both shows. When on Sesame Street, for the most part, Kermit is an intrepid reporter who often gets into sticky situations. On The Muppet Show, Kermit is the stage manager of the vaudevillian type review. Naturally, I've got to start my look at Muppet ornaments with Kermit. I chose this glass ornament from Target. It's got Kermit wearing a festive Santa hat. But what I love the most about this ornament is how amazing those points on his frock looks. 

My favorite incarnation of the Muppets were when they were toddlers. The animated Muppet Babies cartoon series aired on CBS from 1984-1991 for an impressive 107 episodes. I'm also a big fan of the Star Comics adaptation of the show. Trying to get all 26 issues of the Marvel imprint series is on my massive comic book wish list. To honor the Muppet Babies, I selected this 7 piece rubber foam set available on Amazon. There's a purple penguin included in the set. I don't remember her. She must be from the 2018 reboot that aired on Disney Junior.

I love the oddball characters of The Muppet Show. I feel terrible that nobody thinks Fozzie is all that funny and I just love how weird Gonzo is. For Fozzie, I chose another rubberized foam style ornament. This one has the comedian hopefully holding his hat, just begging that people find him hilarious- which I do. For Gonzo, I selected a 2008 Gold Crown exclusive magic ornament. It has Gonzo about be shot out of his signature cannon and if you press a hidden button, you hear Gonzo's spiel that he does getting ready for his stunt. 

Next up is the Swedish Chef. As a Chef myself, I'm awfully fond of the character. I love how nothing ever seems to go right for him, like when he tried to cook some lobsters and they held him hostage! Hilarious and captured forever in this 2014 ornament from Hallmark. 

Speaking on Hallmark, time to go back in time. I remembered that my Grandmama had a couple of Muppets ornaments on her tree. So I went hunting. I found several vintage editions. But this 1982 satin ball ornament was the only one I remembered. The plastic sleeve around the globe shows the Muppets having their annual holiday party. With just about every character imaginable including Miss Piggy and Kermit's nephew Robin, I spent hours studying this scene. Wish I had one to call my own.

I'm sharing this ornament of Sam the Eagle from Tagotee in honor of my wife. When she gets indignant, she furrows her brow and it reminds me so much of the patriotic Muppet. I love it when she gets madder that I'll egg her on to exclaim Sam's catch phrase, 'What Is Wrong With America?', as she looks even more like him when I do!

On the Etsy front, I really like this painted wooden ornament. The seller has several ornaments using the same medium boasting scenes from 1992's A Muppet Christmas Carol. My favorite of the bunch is this one in which someone accidentally set Rizzo the Rat's tail on fire. I think the goof was made by Gonzo. Can't remember. But it was a great memory made into an ornament. Honorable Mention- this adorable ornament during the opening song Scrooge depicting this family of poor hungry Meeses... Don't worry- Scrooge gave them some cheese after his Christmas night transformation!

And no look at Muppet ornaments would be complete without a one starring those ornery elderly hecklers Statler and Waldorf. In this 2014 Hallmark ornament, the pair are seated in their balcony chairs. With the push of a hidden button, some of the duos best insults are issued. 

We've got a DIY ornament today for you. To make your owner Beaker (Dr. Honeydew's clumsy lab assistant), you will need 1 toilet paper tube, 3 Styrofoam balls, pink paint, black sharpie marker, orange yarn, scissors, hot glue and some white and silver duct tape.

To make this ornament, paint the tube and 1 ball pink. Use the marker to make eyeballs on the remaining 2 balls. When dry, hot glue the eyes and nose on to the tube. Also, draw a sad frown underneath the nose with the marker. Using the white duct tape, wrap about 1 inch of it to the bottom of the tube. Try to fold some ends to look like a lab coat. Then using silver duct tape, fashion the top of a neck tie in the middle. Lastly, hot glue the yarn coming from the top of Beaker's head wildly. With a couple of pieces, don't forget to make a loop in order to hang this creative trinket from the limb of your holiday tree.

The 25 Baubles of Pop Culture! Advent 2022 Day 21

Yesterday was the last day that I referred to that random pop culture generator to help with my Advent. Days 22-25 will be devoted to individual franchises of my choosing. But before we approach those personal favorites, I wanted to spend today looking at ornaments devoted to some classic TV shows that might have been overlooked.

When I think of Classic TV, my mind first goes to I Love Lucy. I think there were several Christmas themed episodes to the 1950s sitcom. But perhaps the most beloved episode is the one where all the adults dress up as Santa to give Little Ricky a Christmas to remember only for the real McCoy to be hiding among the group the whole time. This resin ornament from Charlton Cards has Lucy as Santa along with the title and original air date of the classic episode that has aired as a colorized holiday special on CBS for the past several years.

After I Love Lucy, when I think of classic TV, I immediately go to Leave It To Beaver. The kid-centric sitcom was the TV show that wouldn't die with most of the original cast returning to TV for a LITB reboot that at one point in time aired on TBS. This ornament found on Etsy is a double-sided clear globe decoration that bears the TV's original logo and a little bit of fake snow, garland and a ribbon.

Another classic series that I just couldn't get enough of as a kid was The Andy Griffith Show. Being from North Carolina, to have a popular TV show set in your home state, especially when everything else was in California or New York, was really cool. Even if most of the characters in this show were made up of hicks, hillbillies and boobs. Esty has several eye-appealing aluminum ornaments that bear stills taken from the series. To me, the one of star Andy Griffith playing a guitar is the most festive of the bunch and I love the flowing shape too.

Jumping ahead some, I'm spending this part of the Advent with the grooviest family in all of TV history. Yes, I am talking about The Brady Bunch. This isn't just 1 ornament by 4 in total. From Charlton Cards, this 2001 ornament is of a metal lunch box, the required thermos and a sandwich and shiny red apple. Unfortunately, the whole family isn't represented here. Instead of Dad, Mike Brady, Alice has been slid down to his spot and the Brady Bunch logo is placed in the center square. I'm wondering if the estate of late actor Robert Reed prohibited his likeness from being on the ornament...

My wife's favorite TV show is the 1970s medical drama, Emergency! Though an officially licensed ornament has never been released in honor of that show, there are a few craft made ornaments. I selected this bright red star available on Teeshirtplace.com. With its shape, this almost looks like a badge that you might expect paramedics Gage or DeSoto wearing.

Personally, it's not Christmas without watching several holiday themed episodes of the medical dramedy, MASH. Running an impressive 11 years, about 8 years longer than the actual war in which the series is set, MASH showed the horrors of war while also being funny. Of my all-time favorite episodes, 2 of them are set during the holidays. 'A War For All Seasons' takes place throughout all of 1951 starting and ending on bookending New Years while 'The Day After Christmas' has the 4077th taking a page out of the British soldiers book by with enlisted men and officers switching places during Boxing Day. 

To honor one of my all-time favorite TV shows, I am sharing this really cool ornament from Etsy. It's of all the signs posts that tell where some of the medical staff are originally from. As the Christmas episodes focus on Hawkeye, BJ and the rest of the 4077 having to spend the holidays away from their loved ones, I really thought this ornament was the perfect representation of the series. 

Another classic from the 70s was the long-running Garry Marshall venture, Happy Days. Set during the 50s and going into the 60s, it originally focused on the Cunninghams, a typical nuclear family. However, it was the greaser biker Fonzie, played by Henry Winkler, who stole the show and later took over after Ron Howard left in order to focus on his directing career. To honor that series, I chose this 2006 American Greetings ornament that represents a juke box with the image of several of the stars of the show.  A spinning record on a juke box was what started each episode as the theme song played. When a button is pushed, the machine lights up and a snippet of the theme plays. 

Another Garry Marshall created sitcom was the Happy Days spin-off Mork and Mindy. Running from 1978-82, it starred up-and-coming comedian Robin Williams as the off-the-wall alien Mork from the planet Ork. This 2013 Hallmark ornament has Mork in his spaceman costume sitting in the remains of his spaceship, a giant egg. With his hand up to his ear, Mork is more than likely talking to his superior, Orson. 

1978 also introduced American families to a powerful and ruthless family from the Great State of Texas. The Ewings were a wealthy family that got it's wealth thanks to oil and the TV show they existed on was called Dallas. The show gave birth to the opulence of TV dramas such as Dynasty and Beverly Hills 90210. The star of the show was clearly JR Ewing, played deftly by Larry Hagman. Known as the man you love to hate, the whole world seemed to stop when JR was shot by an unknown assailant in the show's third season finale in 1980. As I remember seeing that classic moment in TV history live when it happened from my grandmother's house, I'm including this awesome craft made ornament found on Etsy. (And in case you are wondering, JR lived!)

In the 80s, action and adventure ruled the airwaves. The most action packed series in this decade was NBC's The A-Team. This amazing acrylic snowflake ornament bears the images of the A-Team: team leader Hannibal, muscle man B.A., wildman pilot Howling Mad Murdock and the pretty boy of the group, Face. And yes- you are not dreaming. This ornament lights up in green and a couple of other flashing colors when you flip a switch. 

Let's wrap things up with the longest running series on TV- The Simpsons. Though only the first 11 seasons are considered classic right now, the prime-time cartoon is instantly iconic. For that show, I choose this awesome ornament based on the meme that shows Homer disappearing into a giant hedge. The bauble has chunks cut out helping to add to the illusion of Homer becoming one with your Christmas tree. I think the design of this metal ornament is just brilliant!