Merry Christmas! I hope the Santas in your life were good to you today. Today marks the beginning of the twelve days of Christmas in case that ever confused you (we all know how marketing and radio hosts like to screw that up), the period from now until Epiphany on January 6th when the wise men arrived. So don’t go throwing your Christmas trees out just yet, friends, as Christmas really has just begun. Sadly you’ll be hard pressed to find any Christmas specials on TV or songs on the radio by tomorrow. Odd that consumer, retail America never caught on to the twelve days of Christmas. Imagine all the presents you’d have to buy!
I received two new ornaments for Christmas that I’ll feature in the coming days, but first one of my favorites, an ornament from my partner, Michael. He gave this letter M to me at our first Christmas four years ago (‘M’ is what we call each other) and I love the way the tiny Swarovski crystals reflect the twinkle lights.
Also, 30 years ago I received an iconic gift: Castle Grayskull. So many of my childhood Christmas gifts were He-Man and She-Ra action figures that the holiday and the brand are inseparable to me. And there’s that amazing He-Man and She-Ra Christmas Special which was probably the longest commercial for the lines ever, but a favorite of mine to this day. Mattel released a new Castle Grayskull this year after much fan demand, in scale to the new MOTU adult collector line that started in 2008. Since I’ve been collecting the new line, I of course had to have the castle, and it’s brought me as much delight now as it did then. Even it it seems a bit absurd to devote valuable space in my NYC apartment to it.
