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Parents buy certain presents for their kids, and other presents for their kids and themselves. Sometimes "I'll help you get it set up" actually means "I get to play with it first." The important part, though, is to not fight over the toys with your kids, because then you give away the secret that not only did you actually buy it for yourself, but you are actually still a kid.
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Gordo was a groundbreaking comic strip created by Gus Arriola, which started in 1941. Arriola got his start as an animator at Screen Gems and MGM, and during his time at MGM he began developing a comic strip. He had been a huge fan of the Sunday comics growing up, especially Krazy Kat, and had even been able to work on the Krazy Kat animated shorts while he was at Screen Gems. He used his Mexican heritage as an inspiration for the strip, but in trying to give it a wide appeal, he used quite a few degrading and offensive Mexican stereotypes. This was pointed out by critics of the strip, and it caused Arriola to take it in a new direction. Gordo, the titular character, was originally a bean farmer, but lost the farm and had to get a job as a tour guide. Arriola used Gordo's new profession not only to take characters in the strip on tours of Mexico, but to take the readers on those tours as well. Instead of making fun of Mexican culture as it had before, the strip now celebrated every aspect of it, and is credited with introducing many Spanish words and Mexican traditions to American audiences for the first time.
Arriola was very fond of sharing holiday traditions with readers, especially those surrounding Christmas. In this set of strips, we see a couple of ants looking on at Mexican Christmas and New Year celebrations. One of them, Marv, details the Christmas tradition of Las Posadas, which is a re-enactment of Mary and Joseph's search for an inn. Participants stop at designated locations and at each one sing the next part of the pidiendo posada song, which Marv sings here. It's significant that Arriola chose to create a set of strips that would run over several days, as Las Posadas celebrations are generally done over several days as well, typically nine. Each night is celebrated at a different house, and each night includes its own feast and pinata.
I love this set of strips, not only for the way that it presents this lovely tradition, but the way it's so beautifully illustrated. If you want to read more about it, here's some links:
About Gus Arriola:
National Museum of American History
About Las Posadas:
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If we are to take the stories of Santa and his reindeer at face value, then I imagine this would happen quite often. So often, in fact, that it would probably be quite a professional hazard for Santa on Christmas Eve. I also would assume there would be far more stories around the world about mysterious holes in the ceiling appearing overnight. I think it's more likely, then, that the sleigh doesn't actually land on the roof, but that the reindeer just hover slightly above the roof and Santa jumps down through the chimney. This would help him to avoid roof damage, as well as save the time it would have taken to land and take off.
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This is just a reminder to please be safe during the holiday. Make the holiday about peace and goodwill and don't let Walt Kelly's cynicism be borne out.
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As an introvert, while I think the idea of carolers going door to door and singing is charming, I wouldn't really be happy to have them come to my door. My ideal interaction with carolers would involve just listening to them sing, saying thank you and merry Christmas, and then letting them go on to the next place, but these kinds of things always have to be more complicated than that. I would probably have to talk to them for far longer than seems necessary, and maybe give them something, and I'd probably end up donating money to somewhere because they made me feel guilty. I don't imagine it would be like in that song where they demand a figgy pudding and won't leave until they get some (at least I don't think that happens anymore), but you never know.
Sending them away and telling them you have their recording from last year does seem rude, but it would be effective.
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When I was growing up, we always had a real Christmas tree, so I never had to deal with putting a tree together. Getting the tree and putting it up was always an adventure though. We went out to a Christmas tree farm, looked for the right one, got it cut down, brought it home, shoved it through the door, put it on the Christmas tree stand and secured it, which always took longer than it seemed like it should. Thinking back on it, having to assemble a Christmas tree might actually have been simpler. It wouldn't look as good, though.
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Ever since it was first published, Robert Ripley's Believe It Or Not! has had an enormous amount of imitators and rip-offs. Some of them were commissioned by large syndicates (and some small syndicates, like the one Jack Kirby worked for), and others were created by staff cartoonists for their local newspapers. One such strip with a local flavor was Our Own Oddities, created by Ralph Graczak, which appeared in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch starting in 1940 and ended in 1991. The oddities covered were most often related to St. Louis, but quite a few were from elsewhere in Missouri or other midwestern states. All of them were submitted by local readers. There was quite a bit of space given to local produce that looked like various people and animals, or was just abnormally large. Readers generally mailed this produce directly to the newspaper offices, I imagine so that they could verify the truthfulness of the claim (though stretching the truth never seemed to bother Ripley much).
Here we have a selection of Christmas oddities, the strangest of which is the man who had received decorated coconuts from an anonymous source for 18 years, and one of which doesn't seem like an oddity at all, but is just a dog dressed up in a Santa costume. Perhaps that was more odd in 1966 than it is now.
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Jiggs has found a clever way of disguising things he doesn't want his wife to know he's sneaking into the house. What he must realize, though, is that he better make sure to get her a good Christmas present, otherwise his ruse will be quickly discovered.
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Some ways of hiding presents work better than others. I was never able to find where my parents hid our Christmas presents when I was a kid. I think my dad probably hid them in plain sight, in a storage room among other boxes with boring stuff in them, so we never thought to look there. If you wait until the last minute to buy your presents, then you can avoid the whole issue. Of course, you can also do that if you wrap them immediately after buying them, but I'm too much of a procrastinator to do that.
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The older I get, the more I appreciate the kind of practical presents that were originally on Baby's list. Sure, as a kid I would have loved to get a toy, but I probably wouldn't play with it for very long before forgetting about it. Something I can actually use and do something with, and continue to use regularly, is much more valuable to me now. That said, I'm sure that all of Baby's friends and family will be delighted by whatever they receive and appreciate the gesture.