The Yule Log

Shortly after waking Christmas morning, shaking off my eggnog fog and safely negotiating an endless sea of discarded wrapping paper, I flipped on the TV to see if my old compatriot, "The Yule Log", had managed, once again, to return home for Christmas in all its beautifully mundane, flaming brilliance; indeed it had.

As per Wikipedia - "The Yule Log is a television program which airs traditionally on Christmas eve or Christmas morning, originally on New York City television station WPIX but now on many other stations. A radio simulcast of the musical portion was broadcast on sister station WPIX-FM (later WQCD and now WRXP) until 1988. The program is a film loop of a yule log burning in a fireplace, with a traditional soundtrack of classic Christmas music playing in the background. It airs without commercial interruption..."

I have to admit, there's something about a close-up of a log burning on a TV screen that chokes a brother up a little. A natural reaction I suppose; as a child of the 70s and 80s The Yule Log was a personal Christmas eve tradition for this little kid growing up in a Queens, NY home with four televisions but nary a fireplace in sight. The Yule Log served as my quietly patient, secret confidant during those mean, late-night hours when sleep was deprived by the excitement of the coming mornings festivities.

In an ever-shifting, 140-character world that seems to have little patience for anything, it's nice to watch The Yule Log burn, if only once a year, as a reminder that, thankfully, some things never change and some are still worth waiting for.


The Yule Log (sadly without copyrighted music)

Note - A cool Time Magazine piece on The Yule Log can be found here.