MERRY CHRISTMAS, BABY!

The kids are fast asleep, the stockings are hung round the chimney with glee and Santa's snacks are in position. It's time for Dad to go to bed, because the dawn arrives way too soon, and there are many things still left to do, believe it or not, before the festivities around here can get under way. But I'm gonna try to make the day less a chore this year and more about remembering the things that are important to me. Let's each of us make it a merry and peaceful Christmas day for everyone around us, give ourselves a chance to relax and reflect and rejoice in the company of friends, neighbors and loved ones, and set the concerns of the everyday aside, even for just a few hours.

And now a quickie gallery of some lovely Santa's helpers from Hollywood's past to help better decorate your day.



Carole Lombard (top right, circa 1929) and two of Santa's sauciest sirens make sure the holidays are merry and bright, and distracting and cold sweat-inducing. Then, Carole enacts a Christmas morning ritual-- the sober existential contemplation of an armload of strangely decorated boxes.


Loretta Young (also circa 1929) gives Santa's claws pause and perhaps makes Old Saint Nick wish she was the holly jolly missus... (And if that outfit isn't pre-Code, I'll roast my chestnuts.)


Barbara Stanwyck considers dropping a heavy ornament on Dennis Morgan's head, anything to stop yet another drunken rendition of "Simply Having a Wonderful Christmastime."

Merry Christmas, baby, and to all a good night and a great day.

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