MetaTalk posts tagged with christmas

7th Annual MST Club Holiday Video Marathon Social Distancing Edition

JHarris — Tue, 22 Dec 2020 16:48:58 -0800

It's time again for that weird thing we do, which is program 72 hours of specials, bad Christmas movies, MST3K episodes and other things. It's MST Club's 2020 Holiday Video Marathon! We usually put this in for intermittent yuletide jollies and destress, to help people relax at an often frustrating time of year. This year, with so many people sensibly staying home for the holidays, it promises both to be less and more stressful than usual. Anyone can come by and watch weird stuff with us, members or not! Our show runs from December 23 through to midnight December 25. Details inside! Previous years: 2019 - 2018 - 2017 - 2016 - 2015 - 2014 We have a chat room attached so people can joke along with the show, but it's fine to lurk or have us on in the background! We do this by the seats of our collective pants, but we have a vague sort of theme schedule. We are open to reading the crowd to see what people would like though. Our plans (times are Eastern) are: DEC 23: Morning: specials, riffing Afternoon: Rankin-Bass Evening-Night: MST3K and other riffing, miscellaneous DEC 24: Morning: more specials Early afternoon: Christmas episodes of old TV shows -- Jack Benny, Burns & Allen Evening-Night: MST3K and other riffing, our favorite specials DEC 25: Morning: Quiet time -- Yule logs, specials Afternoon: Our standards -- classic riffing Evening-Night: Winding down, non-holiday fare Our moderator list this year is TheSnakeOfArgument, valkane, StarkRoads, Satri and TV's Ilana. oneswellfoop might be helping too but has been having computer issues lately. Some of our items are from the Rifftrax catalog. While we have a terrific hodge-podge of material from them, we try to make sure that everything we have is bought and paid for. Please give them your support!

Help Pick the Winning Door

kathrynm — Fri, 18 Dec 2020 18:18:50 -0800

At the childcare center I work at, we are having a Christmas door decorating contest. Please help pick a winner. The pictures and a link to the ballot are here. There are no prizes, just bragging rights until next year.

6th Annual MST Club Christmas Marathon

JHarris — Mon, 23 Dec 2019 14:18:01 -0800

Hey all! The Christmas Marathon for this year is up and running! We have MST episodes, other riffing, specials and other bits of weirdness! Over 48 hours of stuff awaits you, for as long, where and when as you can stand it, at our cytu.be room at https://cytu.be/r/Metafilter_MST3KClub. We'll be showing things through Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and we've even got some weird movies set up for the rest of today, so come on out if you want or need it! More details inside.... This is what I call a "no-stress" marathon. We're here if you want some fun with silly internet people, or if you need to take a break from dinner preparation or family, or if you want mildly entertaining background stuff going on during these short days or long nights. Tune in at any time in the next two days and you'll find something ridiculous, and drop out whenever you want. That's our promise to you, the random visitor! Highlights are, as always, the malevolent Ice Cream Bunny, the Star Wars Holiday Special (is it better than Rise of Skywalker? no), Santa's House of Madness and more. We're always rotating in new things, too, and we're open to suggestions if we can find them on YouTube or other compatible video site. Early Christmas morning we have a yule log or two and some timeshifts of Fox Kids and Nick at Nite programming for that pleasant nostalgic irradiated-by-phosphors feeling. As always, our riff material is bought and paid for, but if you wish to express your own appreciation to the original creators, you can do so at rifftrax.com and mst3k.com. Thanks again, happy holidays, and as foop has been known to say I believe, good night and good gravy!

Random Acts of Kindness

Fizz — Fri, 20 Dec 2019 11:56:03 -0800

End of another long week, let's carve out a space to talk about something other than politics for those that need that space. Let's talk about random acts of kindness. I just read this news story about a woman who let a stranger ahead of her in line while shopping, the stranger repaid this act of kindness by purchasing some of her items as a thank you. What are some random acts of kindness that you have experienced yourself? Maybe someone bought you a cup of coffee. Or passed on a parking ticket that still had time left on it. It could be the dinner that was paid for without your knowledge. Whatever it is, in keeping with the holiday spirit, let's talk about those random acts of kindness that surprised you. Don't forget that this includes being kind to yourself. Cheers.

The Great Mefi Cookie Swap 2019

chara — Mon, 18 Nov 2019 06:42:27 -0800

Lovely mefities, Cookie Swapping Season is nigh! Sign up by December 1 to get in on all of this deliciousness. Fun Fact: 2019 marks the 10th anniversary of the Mefi Cookie Swap! This tasty tradition began with shothotbot and was carried on by ausdemfenster over the years. Last year, I took on the task of keeping the cookie swap going, and it was a fantastic experience! Thank you to all who offered helpful feedback! To sign up, please complete the Google Form here by December 1. Bakers will be organized in groups of 4-ish, based on a very complex algorithm factoring into account each person's dietary restrictions, geography, and favorite GBBO contestant (#teamjames4life). I will do my level best to get groups organized and notifications sent out by December 3. By December 13, you should send 6 cookies to each of the bakers in your assigned groups. That’s 18 cookies minimum, but feel free to bake extra for friends, household members, IRL strangers, or whoever looks like they could use a cookie. If you have questions, feel free to memail me or email themeficookieswap@gmail.com Glad tidings and tasty treats to all, Chara

'Tis the Season

Fizz — Mon, 24 Dec 2018 03:14:57 -0800

Happy Christmas! Happy Hanukah! Happy Saturnalia! Happy Kwanza! Glad Yul! Happy just another day of work or rest! Whether you celebrate the Christian religious holiday Christmas, or not. I wanted to have a place for us to share some happy with each other. Stay safe and warm. Hug your loved ones and know that you matter. Cheers!

MST Club Christmas Video Marathon 2018!

JHarris — Fri, 21 Dec 2018 22:58:07 -0800

"That's a number five!" As in, this is the FIFTH YEAR MST Club's been doing this! I guess the secret's out that we show far more than just MST episodes there, we have a huge collection of old and new, good and bad specials, movies and Very Special Episodes, in addition to other videos and riffing of multiple flavors. This year we're doing it for THREE DAYS, staring Midnight (Eastern time) in the morning of December 23rd and going through to the end of Christmas Day. It's all taking place here. Previous threads: 2014 - 2015 - 2016 - 2017 We do this not just for our own amusement but to help provide a yuletide mood evener. Some people have tense family situations, or a need to escape for a while, or something to have on in the background while the turkey's cooking, or want something Christmassy to do in the absence of family, or just want some laffs for the holidays. I call it a "no stress" marathon 'cause no one really expects anyone (including ourselves!) to try to be there for every moment of the thing. cytube has a pretty good automation system to keep things rolling even when modless, although usually one of us will be there, unless we're all passed out or hopped up on nog. In our second or third year we tried strictly scheduling it, but it ended up being far more more trouble that it was worth. We do try to show certain kinds of things at certain times though: DEC 23 and 24: Mornings - Bad and Weird Christmas Episodes & Specials Evenings/Nights - Riffing, mostly Christmas themed with some wildcards thrown in DEC 25: Morning - Good Christmas Specials & Yule Logs Afternoon - Our best riffing, culminating in our year long gaze-in-horror at the Star Wars Holiday Special Evening/Night - Marathon wind-down time, showing things that are pointedly not Christmas-related. Helping me out this year, as usual, is TheSnakeOfArgument, valkane and oneswellfoop. Snake particularly has been very helpful in getting this organized this year. We do show riffing from places like Rifftrax and Cinematic Titanic, but all of our riffs are bought and paid for. If it makes you feel guilty to watch on our dime, you can shoot them a dollar or two (Rifftrax has a donations page). Or buy something from them, I'm sure they wouldn't mind that. We have some interesting surprised this year. I found on a random site a large collection of computer graphics demos! Snake's made us some custom bumpers with marathon info and silly Christmas music backgrounds! We've got even more weird stuff than previous years! And we'll just have to see what else there is in store.

Were you the secret quonsar (2009) who gave me this ornament?

If only I had a penguin... — Thu, 20 Dec 2018 19:24:59 -0800

I received this lovely ornament for my Christmas tree from my Secret Quonsar. I believe it may have been 2009 or thereabouts. I'm making an album of my ornaments and there origins, and I'd like to give credit where credit is due. Did you send me this? I believe it was just signed Secret Quonsar at the time but I'd love to know who it was.

Barking Jingle Bells

80 Cats in a Dog Suit — Wed, 12 Dec 2018 19:12:16 -0800

Hi, Mefites! I have a need to see your pets in their holiday finery - sweaters, headgear, what-have-you. Have a picture of your cat in the tree? Need to see that too.

Metatalktail Hour: Open Holiday Thread!

Eyebrows McGee — Sat, 24 Nov 2018 17:33:56 -0800

Good Saturday evening, MetaFilter! This week, I'm feeling Christmassy now that (American) Thanksgiving is in the books, and Hannukah is like ALMOST UPON US (so early this year!), so it's a holiday open thread! The topic is wide open and we'd love to hear everything that's up with you, except for politics! And if you have ideas for future talktails, hit me up!

Metatalktail Hour: Holiday HoliYAY!

Eyebrows McGee — Sat, 23 Dec 2017 16:47:40 -0800

Good Saturday evening, MetaFilter! This week, an open thread for the holidays, and I hope you're having lovely ones! Tell us something holiday-y that's up with you.

MST Club Video Marathon 2017: Christmas In SPAAAACE

JHarris — Sat, 23 Dec 2017 05:56:01 -0800

This is MST Club announcing our 4^th annual "No Stress" Christmas Video Marathon! No Stress means it's pretty laid back as far as marathons go: feel free to have it going on in the background to cooking, sleeping, football or whatever, or exchange jokes with us in the chat window. The primary site of this thing is the MST Club Cytube page, with our Rabb.it room as a possible alternate if things go awry. The time is throughout December 24 and 25, from 6 AM Eastern/ 3 AM Pacific through to Midnight on the 25th. Come by with or without your favorite nog if you like! More details are in the extended description. Previous threads: 2014 - 2015 - 2016 The MST Club Christmas Marathon is intended to be a destress hangout spot for MeFi members and people just wanting to relax and laugh a bit during the holidays. Marathon contents include:

Riffing videos, including Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes (with an emphasis on Christmas fare), RiffTrax and Cinematic Titanic (paid-for copies of those).
Christmas specials good, bad and just funny.
Short Christmas-related, generally humorous material.
Miscellaneous stuff, including some new material not seen in previous marathons that I'd like to keep as a surprise. Not everything is Christmas related, but currently most of it is. I'm testing the waters concerning how much non-Christmas material we should use.

Last year we tried a strict schedule kind of thing, but it chafed a bit, especially when technical issues prevented us from watching the thing scheduled for that moment. So this year we're keeping things flexible, and going with general themes for different times. Our room mods are free to choose what exactly is airing, from our library of yuletide wonderments and atrocities, or go their own way, or accept requests from the audience. (It helps if the video is on YouTube, Vimeo or Dailymotion, and if it's not blocked in many countries.) The main advice for watching that I have to offer is to try to watch from a Flash-capable browser. Most of the stuff should be viewable from plain HTML, but in the past we've had issues with some sites, especially Vimeo and Dailymotion. Dailymotion in particular has a wealth of Christmas specials and related videos. If you're on a Mac using Firefox or Chrome should be good enough. I don't think there are good solutions for iPads and most Android, unfortunately, but give it a try even if that's your only opinion. The alternate room, the Rabb.it one, won't see much use unless something drastic goes wrong with the cytu.be room, but there is one major thing watchable there that we can't at the moment see in the main room: the Christmas episode in MST3K Season 11. If we try to switch over to watch it there, it'll probably be towards the end on December 25. Further details, updates and last-second corrections will appear in this thread. We'll be meeting in the cytube room this evening (on the 23rd that is) for preparations if you want to drop by a bit early and say hello.

Metatalktail Hour: Pre-Holiday Chatter

Eyebrows McGee — Sat, 11 Nov 2017 17:05:43 -0800

Good Saturday evening, MetaFilter! Now that Halloween is over, I am ready to GET HYPE for the winter holidays, and with the SUPER-INTENSE SNOWSTORM we had on Friday that made it impossible to drive, but only for an hour, I think the universe is telling me it's time to talk turkey. (And trees and menorahs and festivus poles and kinaras and champagne and red envelopes and logs and orbital mechanics and any other holiday accoutrements that may be common to your culture, family, or religion!) So what is up for the next couple months, what are you looking forward to, what are you making cunning plans to avoid, tell us everything holiday.

Happy Holidays!

Eyebrows McGee — Sat, 24 Dec 2016 20:49:29 -0800

Happy Hannukah, Merry Christmas, and for the rest of us I'm sure we'll enjoy Festivus. Share your plans/best present/whatever AND your single best Dec/Jan holiday recipe but YOU MUST PICK ONLY ONE. (It's like Highlander, but for recipes.)

2016 MST3K Club No-Stress Christmas Video Marathon

JHarris — Wed, 21 Dec 2016 10:50:51 -0800

For the third year running, those of us in MST Club are planning a holiday marathon of video festialities. (Jonathan Harris voice: "That's not a word!") On the menu: MST3K Christmas movies, a few other riffing delicacies, a wide assortment of Christmas specials and episodes both good and bad, and some other short oddments thrown in. Once again, the purpose is to be the good-natured background radiation to your Christmas rituals, taking the edge off the hard moments and adding extra cheer to the soft ones. Come by whenever and however long you want. Official times: 6 AM Eastern Christmas Eve through to 6 AM December 26. As usual, the site of this madness is the MST Club cytube page. A lot of stuff is returning from last year, but we're aiming to have less repetition this time around. We are also planning to have a schedule, so you can see what's coming and catch your favorite things. We do reserve the right to switch things up though, if some item isn't working with the audience at that moment, or in the event of technical difficulties. As always, the motto of MST Club is "Doing things that we're surprised are even possible, with a minimum of backup failsafes." We're still working on getting everything encoded and set up, more information will appear in this thread as we get closer.

Friendsmas

IndigoRain — Mon, 05 Dec 2016 17:47:48 -0800

The thread with people opening their homes for Thanksgiving warmed my heart. Let's not forget there are those among us with nowhere to go for Christmas/other winter holidays. Taken from the previous thread: The proposed process: Potential hosts who would like to open their tables and/ or beds can state their home cities in a comment below and what day(s)/ which holiday(s) they're opening their homes, and let people contact them directly Potential guests contact a host directly via MeMail or email to coordinate and to check that everything will work out (food allergies and preferences, dishes offered, style of [Christmas] [timely and organized or occurring eventually and in a semi-haphazard format] and topics that could be discussed that might cause discomfort or arguements), before exchanging contact information. Also, you may want to review your location settings, where you could remove the lat-long and only enter a general text description or adjust the lat-long to provide some location vagueness, for the benefit of you and/or your guests.

A MetaFilter Kindness

Rob Rockets — Tue, 29 Dec 2015 08:32:18 -0800

I'd like to call out raccoon409 who, in response to my AskMe, sent me some bourbon balls. It was fantastic enough to receive bourbon balls in response to my AskMe, but it was even more special because it raised the number of Christmas gifts I got from zero to one. raccoon409 asked only that I pay the gift forward. The beneficiaries of raccoon409 kindness were a STEM program at my high school and a local cat and dog shelter who needed some money toward a generator.

Finding an AskMe re kids' post-holiday blues

Paul the Octopus — Tue, 30 Dec 2014 14:33:25 -0800

I seem to remember reading an AskMe two or three years ago (though the question may have been older) where the asker described their child (daughter?) acting sort of ungrateful after Christmas, complaining that there weren't enough gifts, etc. One of the answers suggested that the child didn't really want more gifts, but was just feeling some post-holiday letdown, and offered some suggestions for dealing with that. Does this ring a bell for anyone? Can you help me find this AskMe again? The details that stuck with me are the "not enough gifts" complaint and the post-holiday blues answer. I thought this question was it, but it lacks both of these details.

A Patrick Swayze Christmas: all day Mystery Science Theater 3000 stream

JHarris — Mon, 22 Dec 2014 05:39:41 -0800

Every week I put up a post about an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 over on FanFare. In conjunction with that, we've been having group watchings of the episodes online Thursday evenings through a stream syncing site. This year however, Thursday falls on Christmas Day. So instead, we're going to have an all-day marathon stream of MST-related Christmas artifacts. We have the newfound ability to stream things other than YouTube videos through sync-video, so some of the things we'll be showing are more out of the ordinary. So this time only, I'm also going to be offering many other MST-related items, in addition, of course, to the two MST Christmas episodes. These are not technically FanFare showings -- I am going through the Mystery Science Theater episodes in order, and we're not up to either of them yet. That's why I'm announcing it here rather than over there. The room will go up some time on Christmas Eve. I'll post a link to it here when it's ready to go. The whole thing will cycle, and a complete run will probably be many hours, so any time you drop by you should find something interesting. Of course this is Christmas Day, people will be busy (even I probably won't be in the room that much), but if you need some help getting through the day, we'll be there for you. No stress, no mess.

Is there an official Metafilter Charity we can donate to for Christmas?

Faintdreams — Sun, 07 Dec 2014 06:31:56 -0800

I was just wondering is there an official (or at least majority agreed) charity that Mefite's can give to in Metafilters name ? I know some people like to give to specific charities during this time of year. I checked previous metasunder the search term "Official Charity", and didn't get any search results. Apologies if this has already been asked and answered.

A fun little number and you should hear it

flapjax at midnite — Sun, 22 Dec 2013 02:59:58 -0800

Listen, MetaFilter, 'tis the season and all that, so get yourself over to MetaFilter Music (you know, that subsite you never go to) and check out the absolutely wonderful little Hawaiian Christmas ditty that your fellow Mefier chococat posted, OK? It's called Mele Kalikimaka and it's big fun and just all kindsa damn good and full of holiday cheer and slippery guitars.

87: Dungeons and Dragons

mathowie — Tue, 10 Dec 2013 14:43:53 -0800

Episode 87 of the podcast was recorded on December 9th and runs about 1hr 40min long as we recap our favorite posts from the past five weeks. MeFi Music Dink's Song by gorbichov MeFi Jobs Logo designer for a fictitious 90s show Sew a cat-pee barrier blanket for a bed MeFi Projects Naming rights for a homeless shelter by missjenny (posted to MeFi) Decorated lunch bags for my two sons by Presidente de China (example, see also: CrazyUncleJoe's bags) Automated awkward phrased caution door signs by oulipian (posted to MeFi) Pizza Clones twitter bot by aparrish oublio: most popular stuff on the internet by jeddie (posted to mefi) Writers Blocks by raisindebt Ad Astra new album by sleepy pete MeFi Posts Planet Money makes a shirt (some NPR sources for it: 1, 2, 3) TV: Muppet show megapost, Andromeda megapost Clickingbad, a Breaking Bad/click game Libyan plane crash memorial in Niger (on imgur) How to draw abs on characters Spelunky kill screen coming up (JHarris spoiler explains all) The 92nd Street Y video archive goes online (library mention of videos) Crapshoot episode 6: drinking Joose with Andy Baio Andy Kaufman's faked death rumors Clocks: generative art piece The Amazon Fulfillment center short fiction Fluid Simulator ascii app Rest is a luxury for the rich (on being poor), Stiffed tip for a gay waitress Things no one tells you about losing lots of weight An optical illusion video (from MetaTalk) Lovecraftian roguelike-like Grand Canyon in a rare fog (frozen skunk, extruded ice) Ask MetaFilter questions Do you close the bathroom door when you're home alone? (cortex's old bathroom habits roundup) Can you heat up christmas pudding with coins in it? What have you been wrong about, realized it, and it changed your life? What are some good tabletop games for 2-6 players? Advice for a specific driver's license road test in Massachusetts Looking for new intellectual stand up comedians corgi post: Meatball on a merry-go-round (corgi tag on MeFi) Tips on making homemade root beer What jobs were unique to the Renaissance and Colonial America? Nerding out over D&D Carl Sagan's dictation tapes question MetaTalk posts The best post contest for December Holiday threads: Secret Quonsar gift exchange, gift drive, cookie swap MST3K Thanksgiving chat griphus got married! Improvised menorah Rock of Ages: Hebrew vs. Christian

Ugly Cat Cookies

misha — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 11:42:36 -0800

Since the Metafilter cookie swap thread is now over 30 days old and closed to new comments, I have come here today to bring you, by popular request, the 7th sign of the impending Catpocalypse! Inside: the ugliest sugar cookies you have ever seen. I wasn't kidding, folks. Simon's Cat Sugar Cookies.

Secret Quonsar Recieved

infini — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 01:34:28 -0800

Yay for secretquonsar! Got my gift today! Hoping mine wings its way on time.

Secret Quonsar thank-you thread!

IndigoRain — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 08:36:18 -0800

Secret Quonsar thank-you thread! Thank you sooooooo much Secret Quonsar! I got the out-of-print sequel (well, not exactly sequel, more of a similar story along the same lines - I've never read it) to a favorite childhood book! When the Dolls Woke by Marjorie Filley Stover. The first book, which I absolutely adore, is Midnight in the Dollhouse.