Why the Muppets are my favorite part of the holidays (and let's be honest, pretty much everything else).
THURSDAY; 12.21.2023
Happy Winter Solstice! It’s usually on this shortest day of the year when I start to see my light at the end of the tunnel emerging. Final grades are submitted, studio is closed down, and I’m back in the midwest spending time with my loved ones. I started this substack at the beginning of this year as a way to get into the process of writing about my celebrations around creativity, and I’m so grateful so many of you have enjoyed this process with me.
Thank you for being here and stay tuned for more in 2024!
Unpopular opinion, I’m not really a big Christmas fan. Especially when you compare it to my Halloween stoke. I tend to lean more on the side of the Grinch, preferring to stay cozy in the mountains with my dog. However, once I hear The Muppets’ Twelve Days of Christmas from the album A Christmas Together with John Denver my heart grows three sizes.
Seriously, what a dream to collaborate with the Muppets. Not only did John Denver create a Christmas album with the Muppets, he also starred alongside them in the 1979 television special “A Christmas Together” were they performed each song and John Denver tried hard not to giggle as Ms. Piggy flirts with him throughout the entire special referring to him as “Johnathan”.
He’s not the only person who’s had the opportunity to make Christmas magic with this talented group of creatives. Like any good millennial, The Muppet Christmas Carol reigns supreme in my holiday movies. Every year I watch it, I grow more appreciation for Sir Michael Caine, who accepted his role with the utmost seriousness. That level of comedy was not lost on me as a child in the 90s, and it just keeps getting better. In a 2015 interview with the Guardian, producer and director Brian Henson said Caine responded to his casting as,
“I’m going to play this movie like I’m working with the Royal Shakespeare Company. I will never wink, I will never do anything Muppety. I am going to play Scrooge as if it is an utterly dramatic role and there are no puppets around me.”
Thinking about the Muppets and how much joy they bring me during the holiday season got me curious about their creator Jim Henson, and wondering how he celebrated.
First, I discovered Mr. Henson kept a log-book of his daily activities, known as “The Red Book” – a single line journal entry of each day.
12/22/1981 - ‘Open house Christmas Party in NY.’
According to The Jim Henson Company archivist, Henson loved to celebrate and show his staff his appreciation with special holiday parties each year. Here are few examples of the invites sent out -
12/16/1987 - ‘Muppet Family Christmas airs. Great reviews - great rating. I go over for UK Party.’
I especially loved the ending of the Muppet Family Christmas when Henson appears on screen washing the dishes so all his friends can continue partying.
12/5/1979 - ‘San Diego Museum of Art - Muppet Exhibit. Air John Denver Christmas Special.’
Jim and John were great friends, collaborating as often as they could before Henson’s sudden death in 1990.
Then, in the continuing of my heartwarming growth, I discovered this collection of Christmas cards of prints Jim Henson would make himself to share with loved ones during the holiday season.
Some of my favorite including these all from the 1960s;
Even as a humbug, I do enjoy that similarity of Jim’s, drawing fun cards to send out to loved ones – here’s our holiday card for 2023. Very Merry Wishes to you and yours!
Oxford picks “rizz” as the word of the year.
creative exercise:
The business of the holiday seasons means it can be difficult to find time to keep up with your daily creative practices. From now until the end of 2023, challenge yourself to journal “the Jim Henson way” and write a sentence of your highlight from each day.
12.21.2023 - Winter Solstice. Found time to write in substack and felt great, looking forward to making pirogies with friends tonight.
REFERENCES
Beaumont-Thomas, B. (2015, December 21). How we made: The Muppet Christmas carol. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2015/dec/21/how-we-made-the-muppet-christmas-carol