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Carnival, created by George Clark but drawn and written for most of its lifetime by Dick Turner, is a difficult strip to find information on. This is odd, because it had a fairly long run, from 1937 to 1982. It ran on Sundays for the entirety of that period, and daily from 1945 to 1976. It seems the strip just failed to make an impact on people. Given some of the examples of this that I've seen, I'm guessing said impact would be difficult to make with such dull writing. The artwork is wonderful, though, and it's likely why the strip lasted so long.

I may have written about this before, but when I was growing up I always remember that on Christmas morning my parents would make me and my siblings eat breakfast before opening any of the presents. It was the only day of the year that we ate Pop-Tarts, which I believe is because they could be prepared and eaten quickly, therefore allowing us to get to the present opening sooner. The parents in this comic strip clearly have no such rule, but the father's train lure tactic is quite clever. It also seems to be quite effective, though it may backfire as soon as the track loops around.

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Cranberry Boggs, created by Don Dean, was a blatant ripoff of Li'l Abner that did not seem to even attempt to hide its ripoff status. The art work is clearly meant to be Al Capp-esque, the main character was a charming yokel who lived in a backwards town, and everyone speaks in dialect. The main difference, of course, is that Cranberry Boggs takes place in some kind of New England seaside town rather than in the South in the Appalachian hills. Allan Holtz seems to have a very low opinion of the strip, holding up Al Capp's creation as far superior. However, as someone who has never been a fan of Li'l Abner, I must disagree.

Cranberry Boggs may not be great, but the gag in today's strip is solid. The solution to the problem facing Woodchuck is clever, and the silent final panel is just funny on its own. Plus, the dialect is easier to parse than whatever it was that Capp was trying to write. To be fair, this is one of very few Cranberry Boggs strips I have read, but I think if a cartoonist can make a good strip once, he's got a least a few others in him as well.

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Before Bil Keane began the more well known panel The Family Circus in 1960, he had already been working as a cartoonist on his first syndicated comic strip, called Channel Chuckles, which had launched in 1954. As its name may suggest, the gags were mainly centered around television, either the appliance itself, television shows, or commercials. Televisions were becoming more and more common in American homes, making a television themed comic panel an easy sell. Ger Apeldoorn notes that the theme as well as the format likely also led many newspapers to run it on the TV listings page. The daily strips were just single panels, much like The Family Circus, but the Sundays, as we see here, consisted of several of the dailies collected together. The strip ran for a surprisingly long time, until 1976, meaning Keane was drawing both this and Family Circus for the majority of this strip's lifetime.

Not all of the gags in this particular "strip" are Christmas themed, but I really enjoy the ones that are. My favorite is the one at the bottom. I think more appliances should come with repair people. Sure, you can get the warranty or the protection plan or whatever, but that still means you have to take it somewhere to get it fixed. Just having a repair person in your house, on call, for when you know it will eventually break, would be so much more convenient.

Also, note the pre-Family Circus era Billy and Dolly in the center panel.

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Sometimes subtlety is not the best approach. Of course Candy can't directly tell Ted what she wants him to get her for Christmas, but rather than drop hints, the best approach is always to start a rumor mill. That way, Ted will find out what Candy wants by overhearing gossip and can pretend that he was being really thoughtful, and Candy can pretend she didn't start the rumor mill in order to steer him towards getting her this very specific item. This is how relationships are built!

In all seriousness, though, at least he tried. A lot of guys might think getting a girl a yoyo for Christmas is silly and would look for something else to get. Ted, however, doesn't judge Candy for what he incorrectly thinks she enjoys, but goes to buy it because he believes it will make her happy. And that's sweet.

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Candy was a comic strip and a comic book, originally created by Henry Sahle and Ed Goggins. It's unclear which came first, as the comic book and the comic strip debuted at around the same time, and it's possible they debuted simultaneously. Sahle and Goggins appear to have worked on both of them, at least at the beginning. Sahle eventually began focusing only on the comic book, allowing other writers and artists to take over on the comic strip. Both of them seem to have lasted from 1944 to some time in 1956. The strip involves a group of high schoolers who were extremely "hip" and utilized every slang word that was available in those days. As I wasn't alive then I don't know if teenagers actually spoke like this, or if this is just how adults imagined they spoke, and the words being used had already gone out of style by the time they appeared in the newspaper. Either way, it's a fun time capsule of the kind of language that may have been in use at that time.

This particular strip takes place after the kids have successfully renovated an old building and turned it into their clubhouse. They have each decided to take turns cleaning it, and it seems it was Ted's turn. I'm not sure why Ted couldn't tell Trish that he had gotten a job and just not tell her it was to save money for a Christmas present, but then again Ted doesn't seem like the brightest of bulbs. I hope he gets Candy a good present with that money he earns. Perhaps tomorrow we'll find out what it is...

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Invisible Scarlet O'Neil, created by Russell Stamm, was one of the first female superheroes, if not the very first. As her name suggests, she had the power to turn herself invisible, and she used this power to help her solve crimes. In the early days, the invisibility gimmick was quite prominent, and a small panel explaining it could be seen at the beginning of each strip (as seen here). However, over time it mattered less and was used less, and eventually the strip was renamed "Scarlet O'Neil". Perhaps she was so competent at bagging criminals normally that she no longer needed invisibility powers. Or perhaps super powered heroes and heroines had just gone out of style by that point. Or perhaps both.

Action and adventure strips such as this tend not to have Christmas related strips, but we have one here. The bad guys have utilized a community Christmas tree to send signals to each other, which Scarlet just happens to notice while sitting on a park bench. This would seem like a fairly normal thing to do, if it weren't for the fact that she's invisible while doing it, which it doesn't seem like she should need to be. But, I guess sometimes you just want to get away and enjoy some Christmas lights on your own without being bothered, which I can fully understand.

I'm not sure who these bad guys are supposed to be. The use of "comrade" suggests Soviets, but the name "Iltz" doesn't sound Russian, so maybe they're Nazis. I guess really they're just generic European-esque baddies.

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There Oughta Be A Law (sometimes written "There Ought To Be A Law" or shortened to TOBAL) was created by Harry Shorten and Al Fagaly as an imitation of Jimmy Hatlo's They'll Do It Every Time. As its title suggests, it featured unfortunate situations that people may feel there should be laws against. After Fagaly died in 1963, Warren Whipple began illustrating the strip, as he does in this particular strip.

In this case, these men obviously believe there should either be a law against not getting Christmas bonuses when the company is doing well, or a law against telling stockholders that the company is doing well when it really isn't, or most likely both. Sometimes it's hard to know which one is happening. The trophy and plaque in the boss's office seem to suggest that it's the former, however. I'm glad I don't work for a boss like that, though I don't get a Christmas bonus either.

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Thimble Theater, created by E.C. Segar, is better known as the place where Popeye the Sailor first appeared. However, not only was Popeye not the main star of the strip when his first appearance took place, but the strip had been running for a full 10 years by that point. As I have posted about previously, the original main character, and original boyfriend of Olive Oyl, was a man named Harold Hamgravy, and he was about as interesting as his name suggests. He was fairly dull as well as dimwitted. It's not really a wonder that Popeye eventually vastly exceeded him in popularity and that Olive Oyl decided to get a new boyfriend.

The situation in this strip is understandable, though, even for those of sharper wits. If what you really want was some heat, and you got it, you aren't immediately going to look at why exactly it's happening. Still, given the amount of heat increase, one would think you would notice the smoke at some point, and most likely before the fire brigade burst into your window.

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The great thing about having an icebox cake outside in the middle of December in a cold snowstorm is that it will stay cold. The bad thing is that so will you. I guess we know why the baker was willing to part with it at a discounted price.

When I look at this strip, perhaps it's just my bias as someone who has made comics before, but I'm extremely impressed by the depiction of the snow and wind here. I can't imagine enjoying drawing all the individual snow flakes in each panel, and having to do it more than you normally would because it's a Sunday. The depiction is very effective, though. You can certainly feel the oppressive nature of the snow as it continues to come down in each panel.

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While it's obviously wrong for kids to pick on a homeless person by throwing snowballs at him, Pete was also obviously wrong to angrily pelt the kids with snowballs in retaliation. The upside to him breaking a window and alerting a local policeman, however, is that he doesn't have to worry about finding a place to sleep tonight (and he will be safe from those kids, I guess). I'm not sure why the dog and the kid have to be in the cell with him, though. They gave some angry looks to the snowball kids, but it doesn't show them throwing anything. Maybe throwing angry looks makes you an accomplice to throwing snowballs.