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I also highly appreciate Walt Kelly's Pogo. As someone who prefers to draw cartoon animals to cartoon people, I think Pogo is the best example of a large, diverse cast of fun animal characters. While there are some well-known politically satirical episodes in Pogo, during Christmastime Kelly tended to stay light and silly. He often would come up with new versions of Christmas carols, such as the one featured in the first strip here, "Deck Us All With Boston Charlie, Walla Walla Wash and Kalamazoo."

In these three strips, we see Porky Pine, a sad porcupine orphan, being shown the true spirit of Christmas by being included in the festivities even though he thought he wasn't. Warms my heart.

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Again, I love Krazy Kat, mainly because of strips such as this, with the slightly overwrought narration, Krazy's dialect, and the ridiculous idea Krazy has that Ignatz Mouse throwing a brick at him is a sign of affection.

I also enjoy the implication that people who don't believe in Santa are heretical sinners, and therefore are evil, selfish brick-throwers.

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While I love Winsor McCay and all he did, another one of my favorite early 20th century cartoonists is George Herriman, who most famously drew the strip Krazy Kat. He didn't do too much in the way of Christmas comics, but he did a couple. This one shows how generous Krazy Kat is to a dog family. He gives them some "brickwets" to make a fire and keep them warm, even though he has to sleep outside in the winter cold as well.

Krazy Kat has long been one of my favorites, because of the fun drawings, the clever dialogue, the interesting dialect that always comes out of Krazy's mouth, and the incomprehensible love triangle between Krazy, Ignatz, and Officer Pup.

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Dream of the Rarebit Fiend was another comic strip that Winsor McCay drew prior to Little Nemo. There is a long tradition of cartoonists reusing ideas, and here is an early example of that. You may notice that this one bears a striking resemblance to the Little Nemo strip from December 13, 1908. Of course, instead of Nemo hanging from the roof and freezing, it was originally Santa Claus (or at least John dreaming that he is Santa Claus).

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In June of 1911, when it moved from the New York Herald to the New York American, Little Nemo's strip was renamed "In the Land of Wonderful Dreams," but it still had the same basic premise. Doctor Pill here gives Flip a magical chair, which appears to wrap its arms around whoever sits in it and run around. Many of Nemo's dreams seem to involve living furniture. I wonder why.

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This is continuing a story where Nemo, Flip, and the Owl are flying various places (including a jail) in their own blimp. This year, Santa apparently has a sleigh-plane, and no reindeer. In Nemo's dreams, Santa has many vehicles, and isn't too good at his job, because he is often losing toys. I would think Nemo would have a higher opinion of him. Thankfully, Nemo and friends help him out, kind of. I mean, wouldn't the toys get all dirty and sooty?

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Here we see the remains of Santa's crashed airship. But apparently he has yet another mode of travel, an airplane of some kind. Of course, King Morpheus has the largest Christmas tree imaginable.

Also, I continue to be amazed by McCay's architecture drawings. I think they're the best part of any of his strips.

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Santa has not yet learned to just stick with the reindeer and the sleigh. He now has another airship, which looks different from the one he had in the last strip. I really like that penultimate panel with the falling toys, though.

And... the princess of Slumberland is asking Santa for Nemo for Christmas?

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Santa has ditched his reindeer once again for an airship. Also, he apparently never uses the door, but always the chimney. I do wonder, though, why it is that King Morpheus and Santa Claus look so similar, and therefore if they're related somehow.

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Nemo's dream (or nightmare, really) demonstrates why children should go to sleep instead of staying up to see Santa Claus: One, because you'll become covered in frozen icicles, and two, because apparently even if he knows you live there, if he doesn't see you he won't leave you any gifts.

Please disregard the turn of the century racist stereotype in the penultimate panel. I love Winsor McCay, but he was a product of his time.