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Christmas

Art

Awesomely Bizarre Soviet Space-Themed Holiday Cards

By Marina Galperina on

Happy New Year! Why yes, that is a Santa riding a sleigh powered by space rockets. But no, it’s not a Christmas thing. Are you not familiar with Ded Moroz, the Slavic version of Santa Claus who shows up on New Year’s Eve to deliver presents? That’s not a Christmas tree, either — that’s a Yolochka (“little pine.”) Etc. All of that is explained in detail at Mazaika.com, but can we please talk about this cosmonaut theme? Why is Santa riding a Sputnik to the moon? Why is there a gaggle of children dancing in space? Welcome to the weird and wonderful world of Soviet space-themed holiday greeting cards, spotted by Dangerous Minds, where inspiring propaganda takes flight to great — very great — heights. Enjoy. … Read More

Photography

Monuments to Merriness: Christmas Superfans and Their Homes

By Emily Temple on

One of our favorite aspects of the holiday season has got to be the lights that pop up all over the city. But your neighbor with the blinking multi-colored tree? He’s got nothing on the folks photographer Jesse Rieser meets. In his ongoing project entitled Christmas in America: Happy Birthday Jesus, Rieser documents the superfans of Christmas, and the “monuments to merriness” they erect on their lawns every year. “I’m celebrating people celebrating,” Rieser told Wired. “They have the stage this one time a year to show their feathers, even if it is just buying a bunch of stuff and throwing it up in the yard.” This, friends, is some serious holiday spirit. Get a little merrier after the jump, and then be sure to head over to Rieser’s website to check out more of his work. … Read More

Web

What’s On at Flavorpill: The Links That Made the Rounds In Our Office

By Alison Nastasi on

Today at Flavorpill, we looked at photos from the set of Christmas classic, It’s a Wonderful Life. We talked about a few things everyone will be happy to leave behind in 2012. We reviewed the history of book digitization. We looked back on the year in architecture. We remembered a few Saturday Night Live sketches that should have been movies. We collected more recommends for our Doomsday entertainment checklist. … Read More

New York

The History Behind New York City's Most Iconic Holiday Decorations

By Courtney E. Smith on

Visitors descend on New York City during the holidays to eat highly suspicious roasted chestnuts from food carts, take in the holiday storefronts along Fifth Avenue, and see some of the most iconic decorations in North America in and along Rockefeller Center.

Between Thanksgiving weekend and New Years Eve, you can view a slew of bigger-than-life-sized art exhibits simply by walking up Avenue of the Americas between 48th and 52nd Streets. The tradition started during the Depression and became solidified as an annual event in 1933 when the plaza at 30 Rock first opened. Since then, an array of decorations have been added to the plaza and now bleed out to the rest of the buildings in the Rockefeller Group, running along Sixth Ave. Some of the works out this year have been on display for decades, finding themselves the background scenery in movies and TV shows, while others are relatively new additions. … Read More

Web

What’s On at Flavorpill: The Links That Made the Rounds In Our Office

By Alison Nastasi on

Today at Flavorpill, we watched the best music videos of 2012. We made a list of 12 things to do before the world ends. We saw everything wrong with The Avengers in three minutes. We discovered that HBO’s corporate website is in desperate need of a design update. We wanted to buy this nail polish that helps support a sanctuary for bats. We looked back on Christina Aguilera’s biggest fashion fails on The Voice. … Read More

Pop Culture

14 Celebrities’ Holiday Cookie Recipes

By Alison Nastasi on

You can probably guess that we have sweet treats on the brain. It’s the holidays, and we did recently show you how to host a hipster cookie party. With everyone’s ovens working overtime, is it any wonder we’re craving cavity-inducing yumminess? After we spotted a holiday recipe from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his family (it’s in a new cookbook filled with recipes from technology gurus), we wondered what other famous people are snacking on while they make merry. It felt like the right time to host an online cookie exchange. Get personal recipes from Neil Patrick Harris (he loves his cookies “ooey gooey”), Cookie Monster, and many others past the break. Report back to let us know how the taste test went. … Read More

Film

Flavorwire’s Guide to (Holiday) Movies You Need to Stream This Week

By Jason Bailey on

Welcome to Flavorwire’s streaming movie guide, in which we help you sift through the scores of movies streaming on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, and other services to find the best of the recently available, freshly relevant, or soon to expire. This week, we’re all about the Christmas spirit, with an assortment of ten holiday movies and TV shows for your Yuletide viewing. Check them all out after the jump, and follow the title links to watch them right now. … Read More

Comedy

We Can’t Stop Laughing at Fake Chloë Sevigny’s ’12 Days of Christmas’

By Judy Berman on

Some people love Drew Droege’s Chloë Sevigny impersonations because they think Sevigny is a pretentious hipster who deserves to be mocked. Some people — including, apparently, Sevigny — hate them because they love Sevigny and don’t appreciate the implication that she’s a pretentious hipster who deserves to be mocked. … Read More

Television

Watch Mariah Carey, The Roots, Jimmy Fallon, and Children Perform Adorable Rendition of “All I Want for Christmas Is You”

By Judy Berman on

We’ve already established that Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” is the most perfect holiday tune of the past two decades. In fact, it’s pretty much the only Christmas song we ever look forward to hearing. (Sorry, Sufjan.) So we were thrilled beyond words to learn that Jimmy Fallon, reviver of many great ’90s cultural artifacts, had Carey on the show to perform an unspeakably adorable rendition of the song. Backed by The Roots and the host himself on a selection of instruments you might remember from your elementary-school music class, the performance also featured a small menagerie of kids to sing along on the “you-oo-oo, baby” parts. If you missed it (or just need to see it again), click through to see the diva in action. … Read More

Design

15 of the Most Horrifying Holiday Decorations

By Alison Nastasi on

Untangle your holiday lights, slip into a cozy sweater, and dust off your menorah: it’s the time of year when people channel their inner Clark Griswold and go wild decorating their homes. We love to partake in some homey holiday cheer, but sometimes decorations go wrong. Very, very wrong. After spotting a hilariously weird DIY decor project on Laughing Squid, which we feature in our gallery past the break, we went exploring for other horrifying holiday decorations. The Internet did not disappoint. Click through to see our findings, and ponder along with us on why so many of them feature firearms and poop. Happy Holidays! … Read More