Classic TV Christmas: Green Acres: "An Old-Fashioned Christmas"

Watch "Frosty the Snowman" Online

Frosty The Snowman (Rankin Bass) by theperminator

Watch the Original "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" Online

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Christmas Possum

 

GLENNIE NELL'S ROAST CHRISTMAS POSSUM
From The Treasury of White Trash Cooking by Ernest and Trisha Mickler.

Ingredients:

• 1 possum, corn and milk-fed
  for one month prior, cleaned and dressed


• ½ cup vinegar


• Kitchen Bouqet™


• Persimmons jam


• 5-6 slices bacon


• 8-10 medium sweet potatoes


• Salt and pepper

Preparation:

Immerse the cleaned and dressed possum in an enamel dishpan or basin, making sure it's completely covered. Add an half cup of vinegar and let soak in the refrigerator overnight. In the morning, drain the water and cut the possum into pieces. Boil the pieces in salted water until done, but not falling off the bone (1-2 hours, depending upon the size and the age of the possum). When done, remove the pieces from water and allow to drain in a colander. This part of the process will remove most of the fat.

After the meat cools, rub the pieces generously with salt and black pepper. Then prepare a mixture of 1/2 jar of persimmons jam (any light-tasting jam may be substituted) mixed with two teaspoons of Kitchen Bouqet.™ Thoroughly coat possum pieces with mixture. Transfer pieces to large roasting pan.

Lay 5 or 6 strips of thick-sliced bacon or salt pork across the glazed possum meat, and surround with the sweet potatoes, which have been peeled and rubbed with oil or Crisco.

Put in preheated 350° F. oven and roast, covered, for 30 minutes. Then uncover and cook until well-browned, but not burned (approx. 30 minutes longer). Baste with drippings every few minutes during this phase of the cooking.

Afterremoving from oven, test the sweet potatoes for doneness with a fork. If not yet completely cooked, transfer them to a lightly buttered casserole dish and finish them off in 350° F. oven.

I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas (1953)

Not only was ten-year-old Gayla Peevey unexpectedly vaulted to fame in 1953 after recording "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas," but she actually got a hippo for Christmas that year. In a 2007 radio interview, Peevey related how "...a local [Oklahoma City] promoter picked up on the popularity of the song and Peevey's local roots, and launched a campaign to present her with an actual hippopotamus on Christmas. The campaign succeeded, and she was presented with an actual hippopotamus, which she donated to the Oklahoma City zoo. The hippopotamus lived for nearly 50 years." (source)

Here's Gayla, from way back in the day, on the Ed Sullivan Show--

"A Visit From Saint Nicholas," Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Dec. 1857

Note how Saint Nick in the leading illustration has something of a rustic "gnomish" quality, as compared to later, red-suited incarnations of the fat man.



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Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer, 1948

Directed by Max Fleischer who brought us Popeye, and the first animated incarnation of "Superman," among other delights--

Classic Christmas Cartoon: Little Audrey in "Santa's Surprise"

A Classic Disney Silly Symphony: "The Night Before Christmas" (1936)

Tom and Jerry: "The Night Before Christmas"

Bing Crosby and Marjorie Reynolds Sing "White Christmas"

From Paramount Pictures 1942 hit, Holiday Inn. This marked the motion picture debut of the now immortal "White Christmas."

 

CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW VIDEO

 

"The Night Before Christmas" (1905)

The Night Before Christmas is a 1905 American silent short film directed by Edwin S. Porter for the Charles Edison. It is based on Clement Clarke Moore's 1823 poem, "T'was the Night Before Christmas" (originally "A Visit from Saint Nicholas") and was the first film production of the poem(1903).