Chestnuts roasting on an open HDTV...

December 23, 2008 10:02 PM

For the past two years, I've come across a TV channel broadcasting a looping video of a fireplace with Christmas music. I have no idea what channel it was on, or how/why it exists. All I want for Christmas is answers.
posted by SamuelF to Media & Arts (17 answers total)

You can buy the DVD in the dollar bin at Target if you should so desire.
posted by phunniemee at 10:07 PM on December 23, 2008

But, hey, it's Christmas. Here's the deluxe version.
posted by phunniemee at 10:09 PM on December 23, 2008

Best answer: Yule Log!
posted by kelseyq at 10:11 PM on December 23, 2008 [3 favorites]

This has been going on since at Least the 70's. In a documentary about him, Milos Forman describes watching in in a New York City hotel, totally alone, during his first Christmas in America. He says something to the effect of, "I sat there on my bed, with cheap champagne and caviar, and I thought, 'THIS, is America!'"

You can buy the dvd on amazon.
posted by piratebowling at 10:12 PM on December 23, 2008 [1 favorite]

Sorry, just to calirfy, that was the DVD or the yule log, not the dvd or the documentary I was talking about.
posted by piratebowling at 10:12 PM on December 23, 2008

This year they're trying something different.
posted by plokent at 10:14 PM on December 23, 2008

Bring a totally delicious version of it to your desktop.
posted by rafter at 10:22 PM on December 23, 2008

NYTimes just did an article on the history, and new directions, of this video art form.
posted by squid patrol at 10:27 PM on December 23, 2008

It also looks like YouTube has "yule log" pretty well covered. Here's what is supposed to be the original WPIX yule log from the 1980s (no music, though).
posted by macguffin at 11:24 PM on December 23, 2008

TV Party has an article about the Yule Log, which first aired on WPIX in New York City in 1966. Here's the original fan site for the original yule log. If you're looking to watch it this year, note that WPIX is airing the regular version of the Yule Log, and only WGN is showing a different version (though they will show 90 minutes of the regular version, as well).
posted by Mael Oui at 11:50 PM on December 23, 2008

My family watches that every year, waiting for the "exciting part" which is when one of the logs rolls down from the top of the fire.
posted by Jacqueline at 1:13 AM on December 24, 2008 [4 favorites]

We watched the documentary last year. It was pretty interesting. The first Yule Log was filmed at the mayor's mansion IIRC.
posted by kimdog at 5:24 AM on December 24, 2008

We always have the Yule Log on during Christmas morning, though we turn the music down. It would be nice if they had a second audio track available. One with just fireplace sounds.

And, does anyone else find those two huge eyeball-like escutcheons staring coldly out at you from the flames more than slightly ominous?
posted by Thorzdad at 5:55 AM on December 24, 2008

Many years ago (1972?) I had a small black and white TV and a small apartment with a non-working fireplace, so on Xmas I put the TV inside the fireplace. It seemed like a good idea at the time. I believe the broadcast came from WPIX in New York in those days.
posted by Guy_Inamonkeysuit at 6:43 AM on December 24, 2008 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: COOL. Thanks everyone! The local public access station is doing their own Yule log from 5PM-ish this evening through tomorrow, so I imagine that'll be our fireplace this year.

Happy holidays!
posted by SamuelF at 10:33 AM on December 24, 2008

Comcast has an entire Yule Log section on their On Demand (channel 1).
posted by 2oh1 at 11:26 AM on December 24, 2008

I have no idea how these people got their cats fireplaces wedged into their scanners television sets, or why.
posted by dhartung at 12:46 PM on December 24, 2008