(via Shutterstock)
What, what, you say, you have yet more ornaments to place upon the tree?
Why yes, yes I do; every year I tell myself I’ll stick to 9 or 10 new ones, just the best of the best and yet every year, 50 to 60, sometimes more make their way into my collection because I love Christmas, it gives me joy and it’s next to near impossible for me not to get swept under the joy of collecting little hanging pieces of festive plastic that are so much more than just facsimiles of characters I know and love.
Picking just 15 ornaments from the ones not featured in my first ornaments post of the season is a real challenge but as I unpacked the ornaments I’d accumulated over a year of eBay purchasing, it became relatively easy to pick the ones that resonate with me most.
Sometimes its nostalgia, sometimes its a recalling of a heart laugh from a well-written sitcom and remembering music that has enriched my life; whatever the impelling reason to collect and feature a particular ornament, the truth is that decorating the tree for me is a statement of what really matters for me.
I love Christmas, I love all the warm family and friends memories I have associated with it, and so, when the tree goes up and gets covered in lights and tinsel and ornaments, it’s like every single one of those memories live again and I can feel wrapped up in them, if not forever, then at least for a season when everything feels wondrously alive and prettily possible.
Parks and Recreation – Ron Swanson
What a gloriously good sitcom this is. Running for 126 episodes from 2009-2015, Parks and Recreation by Greg Daniels and Mike Schur, sits firmly in the mockumentary style of televisual comedy, showing up how not just how weird government and office life can be, but how strange people are within those hothouse environments where intimacy is a thing of necessity, not choice. But what emerges from shows like this is how even when we’re forced into artificial close proximity with people that some good and wonderful things can emerge and that even people like gruff Ron Swanson might actually have a heart of gold lurking somewhere deep within in. Quirky, silly, comedically brilliant and parodically rich, Parks and Recreation is sitcom royalty and having this ornament on my tree embodies how much I love this kind of TV.
Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck: Looney Tunes – Back in Action
Looney Tunes, which kicked off in 1930 and which is still going to today, is packed full of all kinds of memorable characters but the two that have stuck with me the longest and which I adore the most are long-time rivals, Bugs Bunny (voiced for over 50 years until 1989 by the legendary Mel Blanc) and Daffy Duck (ditto) whose eternal race to best the other was stuff of some brilliantly funny animated shorts and films such as 2003’s Looney Tunes: Back in Action where Daffy demands more of the spotlight, is fired only to be needed again when it emerges that Bugs needs him to really nail his routines. This ornament doesn’t a sublimely good job of showing off the rivalry between the two characters and how one needs the other to fully realise their appeal.
Guardians of the Galaxy: Rocket & Groot
I long ago grew tired of superhero films, largely because they are all so damn serious, ands yes, yes, I get it, they’re fighting evil and demons within and without which leaves precious little time for quipping and jocularity. But when the first Guardians of the Galaxy film rocked into cinemas in 2014, I was entranced because here was a superhero with a thrillingly immersive plot, memorable characters, snappy dialogue and a vibrantly intense sense of humour that melded perfectly with its more serious elements. It also had a real sense of found family and heart, evidenced most clearly by the prickly but loveable Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper) and Groot (Vin Diesel) whose one-word language carried so much meaning. They are an adorable, emotionally meaning twosome and their presence on my tree celebrates how wonderful friendship and family can be.
Goofy (90th anniversary ornament)
I know, I know, you’re not supposed to have favourites among Disney characters when they’re all so good but I have adored Goofy for as long as I can remember. He’s the character I sought out when I was at Disneyland in 1990 and 1994, the ones whose cartoons I laugh at most loudly and whose goofiness, good heart and charm mark him out as something special in a pantheon of characters who all have their flaws. First appearing in Mickey’s Revue in 1932, and the solo in 1934 in Orphan’s Benefit, Goofy has been around a while, as this ornament cleverly attests with modern Goofy meeting initial Goofy, and I like to think it’s because while Mickey is holding the show together and Donald Duck is prone to comedically hilarious rage, Goofy just keeps on keeping on, solid, dependable and lovely and the kind of character you would want as a friend, now and for 90 much-loved, highly successful years.
Blinky Bill
Writer and illustrator Dorothy Wall first slid anthropomorphic koala Blinky Bill into the public consciousness in a 1933 book by Brooke Nicholls, Jacko – the Broadcasting Kookaburra, for which Wall did the artwork. It didn’t take long for Blinky Bill to get his own solo outing in Blinky Bill: The Quaint Little Australian in the same year, which led to a slew of successive titles like Blinky Bill Grows Up (1934) and Blinky Bill and Nutsy: Two Little Australians (1937). These were eventually collected into The Complete Adventures of Blinky Bill in 1939, a collection which was reprinted 26 times between 1940 and 1965 and which became one of the foundational books of my reading-rich childhood. I still have the collection today and while it’s a little bruised and battered after much loving use, it’s a treasures possession because it reminds me of how lucky I was to have parents who loved books and reading and who bought me books when I was quite young and which began a lifelong love of literature which, this blog attests, endures to the present.
Snoopy red bauble
Peanuts is my favourite comic strips of all comic strips and Snoopy my favourite comic strip character. While I have come across many a great comic strip in my time including Calvin and Hobbes, Mutts and Pearls Before Swine, its Peanuts and Snoopy that first captured my heart and hold it still. He debuted in the iconic strip by Charles M. Schulz way back on 4 October, 1950 and has endured as a quirkily idiosyncratic character who’s not your typical dog and who has been everything from a hip university student to a World War One flying ace and a bestie to a small bird named Woodstock. How can you not love a character that gloriously diverse? This particular ornament was bought for me by a wonderful colleague, Claire, when she was back in the UK seeing family and I adore it, not simply because it has Snoopy on it, but because its my favourite colour red and it pops on the tree and gives Snoopy the prominence he deserves.
Ziggy
I seem to have a thing for underdogs, most likely stoked by the fact that I was bullied all my schooling life and I have never been part of the mainstream, and that likely explains why I have such great affects for Ziggy, whose the stars of a comic strip where he constantly ends up on the unfortunate side of life. His misfortunes are of the kind that any of us could experience and that’s likely why the character, who was drawn from 1971 to 1987 by Tom Wilson and then from then to the present by his son, strikes a chord with so many people. We are him, we get him and we love the fact that despite the absurdities and oddities of life visited upon him that his good faith and sweetness ensures and that he loves his dog Fuzz (seen here with a festive Ziggy) and doesn’t give up on life, just like us.
Finding Nemo 20th anniversary- Nemo, Dory and Bruce the Shark
Seriously it’s 20 years since Nemo and Dory and the whole gang from Pixar’s wondrously funny and enormously heartfelt film, Finding Nemo, hit cinemas and made their ways instantly into our hearts? It appears so. There’s now an ornament to prove it! It seems unfathomable, and yes that word was very much chosen deliberately, that there was a time when Nemo (Alexander Gould), his dad Marlin (Albert Brooks) and Dory (Ellen DeGeneres) and their cohort of quirky friends weren’t a part of our lives but but prior to 2003, the year of the film’s release, we were in a Nemo deficit and all the poorer for it. Thank goodness we have not only this film but the superlatively good sequel, Finding Dory. We are very lucky indeed!
Who Framed Roger Rabbit 35th anniversary
There’s no denying that this film was a revolutionary moment in film, seamlessly and affectingly combining live action with animation and seizing our hearts in the process. Released in 1988 and starring Bob Hoskins as cynical private investigator who ends up being the eponymous protagonist’s biggest protector, voiced by Charles Fleischer, Who Framed Roger Rabbit was epic and visually spectacular with characters that literally, at times, seemed to pop off the screen. I reviewed it in 2018 for its 30th anniversary and noted that “for all its cartoon pratfalls and innate silliness, and character namedropping – everyone from Donald and Daffy Duck, who feature in a classic piano duel, to Dumbo, Goofy, Tweety Bird, Bugs Bunny, Mickey Mouse and a down-on-her-luck Betty Boop (colour cartoons haven’t been kind to the black and white animation star) – it is very serious, a film that looks brilliantly-colourful at every turn but which, at its heart, tells the kind of intelligent story which elevates it to a wholly-affecting, utterly-immersive and emotionally-resonant piece of superlative filmmaking.”
Donald Duck – The Three Caballeros
Thanks to the weekly delights of The Wonderful World of Disney, introduced for years by Walt Disney himself, I watched a lot of animated features from the Mouse House growing up. Not all of them stuck in my memory but one that did is The Three Caballeros, 1944 released that brought together animation and live-action in what Wikpedia says is a “musical propaganda anthology film … produced as part of the studio’s goodwill message for Latin America.” Starring Donald Duck and José Carioca, a Brazilian cigar-smoking parrot, and featuring stars of the period including Carmen Miranda’s sister Aurora and Dora Luz, the film was exotic, fun and musically colourful, entrancing me at every turn. Having this ornament is a delight and takes me right back to those nights in front of the TV in my pajamas watching the world come straight to me.
The Matrix: Morpheus
Released way in the final year of the twentieth century, 1999 – Ok technically not but I’m a writer, not a mathematician, so final year of that century it is – The Matrix blew me away with its sophisticated sci-fi storytelling, its poetically riveting special effects and its characters who spoke in measured, somewhat pretentious but always meaningful tones. Written and directed by the Wachowskis, the film featured a guru of sorts, Morpheus, whose entreaty to the film’s protagonist and hero Neo (Keanu Reeves) to choose the red or blue pill has now passed into the popular lexicon as a way of describing a portentous decision with massive ramifications. This ornament captures Morpheus’s presence perfectly and is a perfect addition to my pop culture dominated tree.
Soul – Joe Gardner and 22
One of the Pixar that was release straight to streaming thanks to the lockdown constrictions of the COVID pandemic, Soul premiered in 2020 right at the point when cinemas were shut, I was living off my DVDs and reviewing them for a COVID film festival, and when something new and utterly heart affecting was desperately needed. The film delivered on every count, serving up a trademark Pixar blend of deep thoughtfulness and intense emotionalism and wild crazy imagination ideas, beautifully formed characters and zippy, funny dialogue. It absolutely has it all, and while its central focus is about what happens when you die, not you might the best narrative theme to thrust upon a mortality-challenged global population, it ultimately is about living, belonging and connection with jazz pianist (Jamie Foxx) and 22 (Tina Fey) at its utterly resonant and wholly engaging heart.
ABBA Voyage
I have loved ABBA ever since I can remember. For most of the ’70s until disco consumed me in the latter part of that decade and ’80s glam pop sealed the deal a few years later, ABBA were music for me and I lapped everything I could get on them, from their harmony-rich, chart-topping music, the endless merch and magazines and the stories of two couples who were, until they weren’t, very much in love. They lapsed in my affections for a good 15 years or so until I moved to Sydney, realised all over again as an adult how fantastically good they were and started listening to them. Sure there wasn’t any material but since the old stuff was so good, what did that matter? Then in late 2021, ABBA released their ninth and final studio album to jaw-dropping excitement – we’d be promised two songs and got a whole LP! – and followed it up with a groundbreaking stage show featuring virtual avatars, motion captures of ABBA themselves, in London which is rumoured to be every bit as good as the band in their heyday. I have yet to see it but at least I have this year’s bauble so that’ll do for now.
Elemental
After a run of Pixar movies released only on streaming, getting to see Elemental in the cinema was a JOY and turned out to be one of the best things they’d done in a while with a brilliantly imaginative premise, gorgeously expansive world-building and a love story of complete opposites at its heart that rose and fell on some suitably epic narrative twists and turns. The ornament shows the two characters at its heart, Ember Lumen (Leah Lewis), a fire element whose always done the right thing until she discovers she might want more than toeing the line and sappy water element, Wade Ripple (Mamoudou Athie) in a central pose for the film which close but far apart the same time. Giving off some serious Romeo & Juliet vibes, Elemental is a gem and its ornament a worthy addition to the tree.
Wile E. Coyote as Batman (Warner Bros. 100th anniversary)
At the beginning of this post, you will read about singing the praises of Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny and while yes, they are my favourites, I am also quite enamoured of Wile E. Coyote (Mel Blanc until 1989) who was always bested by the Road Runner (Mel Blanc until 1974) but maintained the faith and clung to his tenacious belief that he would win one day. He never did of course in all the years after his introduction in 1949 in Fast and Furry-ous, but he kept trying and honestly while he was the predator and his winning would have meant Road Runner’s demise, you kind of wanted to be successful one day. He’s still singularly unable to best his rival but at least he can dress up as Batman for Warner Bros’s 100th anniversary with gadgets from long-time supplied to aid him in his ongoing quest to come out on top.