The Halloween of Christmas?

Wut?

For Roman Catholics, today, January 6, is Three Kings Day, the last day of the 12 Days of Christmas, which commemorates the arrival of the three magi, or kings, to Jesus's manger in Bethlehem. It signifies the day god was revealed to him, which is why it's also known as The Epiphany.


Photo: Cryo Mariena via Flickr

While Three Kings Day is an important holiday in many Spanish cultures, bigger than even Christmas itself -- children place grass and water under their beds in a box for the magi and their camels and in return receive gifts -- it's also celebrated in many other countries around the world. Notably in Slovenia, which was once part of Yugoslavia, children go house-to-house like trick-or-treaters where villagers hand out almonds, dried figs, nuts, cookies, and other goodies.

While retailers have pushed Christmas sales far into the calendar so that every day seems like Christmas (and not in a good way), maybe those of us who enjoy Samhain can steal some of Saint Nick's thunder and make at least another day Halloween.

Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy

When it came down to it, the pressure to make the Christmas Day deadline trumped my desire to blog (and vlog) the complete build of my nutcrackers. While a lot of things I was able to photograph, time constraints really prevented me from doing updates (you'll notice a dearth of posts in December).

But I did manage to complete the nutcrackers in time for Christmas. Well, almost. Christmas morning I was actually still putting a few details on the king and they were still bald. They only got their hair this past week and I still have to complete the king's scepter and the soldier's sword. Time enough for that yet.

Overall, though, I was pleased with how they turned out, though I don't think I want to build another set any time soon.

Merry Christmas!

Bah! Humbug!

Steam Punk Has Jumped the Shark

Although I love much of the literature upon which the genre is based, I never quite got the whole steam punk-Halloween relationship. For a costume, perhaps, but I never understood what it had to do with haunting. Of course, I guess one could ask, what does a Medieval castle have to do with haunting too, yet I completely buy into that.

Fortunately, 12th century fortresses haven't had to contend with the pure evil that is Justin Bieber. Not so lucky is what was once the fastest growing subculture. The former mop-haired crooner recently released a Christmas video with a decided steam punk flair to it, effectively and quite suddenly making it very uncool to be associated with it. Add in a dollop of Macy's Christmas windows being done up in genre finery as well and you've got the makings of a very mainstream movement.

For all of you that may have missed the Bieber-ing of steam punk, I give you The Video.

I'm also not sure what all the break dancing has to do with steam punk (or Christmas for that matter) or why Bieber felt the need to grab his crotch in a holiday video. In fact, I find the whole video a fairly ludicrous take on a cherished Christmas song. I have no problems with updating a song for modern tastes. A lot of very good music has been as a result of redoing a song. But this video is just dumb. Sure, the production values are good, the choreography is good -- I don't know if I can say the singing, really, is all that good -- but it's just a dumb Christmas video.

Not only has Justin Bieber ruined a holiday song, but he's also infuriated an entire subculture who will now be forced to find a new trend to lead to the forefront.

Nutcracker Update

I've begun my Nutcracker build for Christmas and figured I'd update you on its progress. The reader's digest version says I've cut my Sonotube in half, cut out two wooden discs and screwed them in place in the bottom of each half of the tube, attached the toilet flanges, cut and stuck the PVC legs on, and cut and hot glued the corrugated plastic fins on the bottom of the tube to give the appearance the belt has cinched the coat.

Sounds like it should have taken me 10 minutes, but as any haunter (or hobbyist even) knows, nothing goes as quickly as we plan or like. Those few steps above took me two days. Admittedly I'm not moving at a blistering pace (and I'm battling a cold -- and losing!) but it is progressing and thus far looks as I pictured it. But there's plenty of time to screw that up. But below are some progress pictures.

Sonotube cut in half for torso

PVC pipe, to be cut into legs

Toilet flanges, to attach legs to torso

Cutting out the MDF discs to fit in tubes

Two discs cut

Drilling the tube to secure disc with screws

Hole and tube drilled

Disc attach, now placing flanges

Flanges attached

Nutcrackers doing a handstand

Shark fins

One fin attached

22 fins attached...ready for liftoff!

Nutcracker, Sweet!

Now begins the detestable season, wherein for a month I have to indulge my wife's preference for that other holiday. Part of that is building Christmas decorations. In the past I built a sleigh for the front yard, and a few holiday PVC candles (okay, I used them at Halloween too!).

This year however, is something slightly more ambitious. I'll be make a 6-foot tall nutcracker soldier (two, actually). This will be a challenge no doubt. We've seen some pretty impressive life-size nutcrackers at stores retailing for several hundred dollars apiece. A motorized one whose one arm moved up and down went for over $600.

My goal is to do it for substantially less though I don't foresee putting movement into it at this point (heck I'll just be happy to get it built in time for Christmas!).

The idea is to build it out of a Sonotube (the tubes used to pour concrete footings) and PVC pipe. I picked up a 16" x 6' Sonotube and a 10-ft length of 4" PVC. The plan is to cut the Sonotube in half to make the two bodies for the soldiers and the PVC will be cut into four 30" sections to serve as the legs. Four toilet seat flanges will attach the PVC to the MDF wood discs that I'll be cutting and inserting into the bottom of the tube. The head will be made out of paper mache.

Again, this is just the game plan, the idea I've got in my head. How it all turns out remains to be seen. But the first order of business I guess is to start cutting my tubes and PVC down to size.