Cavalcade of Crouch Christmas Characters

I hope that you decided to click on this one because of the incredibly clever alliteration that I used in the title above.  I heard once that this helps make things more memorable.  Just ask Chubby Checker or Tiny Tim - they know.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas at my house.  Around this time of year, our family welcomes a host of colorful and happy Christmas playthings from their storage place in the attic, where they have patiently waited for the previous eleven months.  I wanted to take a minute to share some of them with you, my loyal reader/subscriber:

I start with this one from my wife's childhood.  It is a Santa Claus that plays "Jingle Bells" while skiing UPHILL into the chimney after you pull him down the slope with the string attached.  How clever is that?  I guess Santa has to defy all laws of physics, and this is no exception.

This is a newer, "junior" version that we found at some point.  In this case, it plays "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" while he orbits the small house below, although he never actually gets there.  Suspicious?  Highly so.  My only wish is that it would play the Bruce Springsteen version of this song instead of the instrumental.

This snowman has a tree with 25 ornaments (one for every day of December including Christmas).  A voice that sounds a lot like the original "Frosty the Snowman" from the classic movie on TV each year (Jackie Vernon) says, "Each day, place an ornament on the tree to find out how many days are left until Christmas." Then there is a magic wand sound (perhaps a glockenspiel), and he says, "Wow!  It's almost time for that special day.  There are just ____ days left until Christmas." or something similar.  This is a lot of fun for the kids, although sometimes they sit and do every day in sequence, in order to speed up the space-time continuum and make Christmas day come today. 

 I know these frogs came from Dillard's (after my mannequin days there) because they are one of the few items we own which are still stored in the original box.  Through the mystery of infrared technology, they communicate with each other as they croak an energetic medley in two-part harmony, including portions of "Silver Bells", "Jingle Bells", and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas". 

My wife reminded that I was highly excited about buying these frogs back in 1999 or 2000, when my son was but a toddler.  I didn't remember this (big surprise), but she was giving me credit for a good idea since all three of our children have loved the Christmas frogs and the older ones ask for them by name now.

Last and perhaps least, we have the dancing Santa Homer Simpson (see below).  We obtained this beauty at Kohl's when my mom was in town one year.  Although it seems like something that would grow old quickly, it makes us laugh every Christmas now.  He sways his hips, Elvis-style, and sings a good number of tunes along with several sayings.  My favorites are "Jingle Bells" and "Deck the Halls".  Here are the lyrics as performed by Homer:

Jingle bells, jingle bells

Jingle all the day

Oh, what fun it is to ride singing polly wolly doodle all the day.

Jingle bells, jingle bells

Jingle all the day

Oh, what fun it is to ride to Santa Claus to-day.

And for "Deck the Halls":

Deck the halls with Buddy Holly

Fa la la la la la la la la

Tis the season something jolly

Fa la la la la la la la la

We are heavy with our jackets

Fa la la La la la La la la

Sing like crazy - make a racket

(manically) FA LA LA LA LA LALALALALA!

Thanks for joining me on this magical tour of our special Christmas friends.  I hope to share more terrific Christmas posts over the next month or so.

Austin Real Estate  Copyright 2007