Today is my Dad's 63rd birthday.  Last year, we had the fortunate opportunity to spend a week at Walt Disney World during the holidays and celebrated his birthday on Disney's BoardWalk. (Note the unique Disney trash can in the background of this video!)

If you recall, back in 2009 Disney was running their "What will you celebrate?" promotion where you got free admission to the theme parks on your birthday.  Since we already had park tickets, they offered Dad other benefits.  We chose the "Birthday Fastpass"

Dad shows off his Fasspass Birthday Card

This allowed the birthday recipient and 5 other guests to get what was basically a universal Fastpass to any attraction, selected from pre-defined groups at each park.

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Culinary Christmas - December 9: The Christmas Song

Featured Foods: Chestnuts, turkey, Hoffman Beverages, danish

In the mid-1980s, during his stint on Saturday Night Live, Billy Crystal recorded this version of The Christmas Song featuring many impersonations that he used on the show, including Sammy Davis Jr., Fernando, Howard Cosell, Joe Franklin, and Muhammad Ali. It all seems quite dated now, but hey, at least he mentioned a couple of food items, namely "chestnuts roasting on an open fire!"

Other than that, I personally find this song very annoying. Do you?

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Culinary Christmas - December 8: You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch

Featured Foods: Banana, garlic, tomato, 3-decker sauerkraut & toadstool sandwich with arsenic sauce

I'm a big fan of PBS. I believe that we still need a non-profit television network in this country. After all, would a commercial television network give us a theme song as cool as this?

Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? was a game show on PBS that ran from 1991-1996 that produced 296 episodes. It was based on a popular computer game series from Brøderbund Software that taught geography. The original prompted many spinoffs, including Where in the USA…, Where in Europe…, and Where in Time…. As the son of a librarian, I played these games a lot on those Apple II computers. The formula was eventually ported to television in the hopes of improving education of geography to a mass audience. I loved the show!

One of the distinctive elements of the game show was the "in house band", performed by a cappella group Rockapella, who performed "clues" for the contestants, as well as belted out the show's catchy theme song. We revisit the same group as they perform their own rendition of You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch.

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Culinary Christmas - December 7: I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas

Featured Foods: Vegetables

You'd think that with my affinity for things like "The Hippo Song" that I would have featured today's Steve's 25 Days of Christmas Music tune a lot earlier… but alas, I haven't. I'll even let you in on a little secret. Up until Thanksgiving of this year, I had never heard this song. I know, it's crazy given the extensive Christmas music collection we have.

During our Culinary Christmas celebration, we're trying to be as open as possible to include all the different types of food and drink. Today, we even accommodate those weirdos who refuse to eat meat. Because as sung by Gayla Peevey during I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas, "Mom says the hippo would eat me up, but then // Teacher says a hippo is a vegetarian." So there you go. Personally, I think you may be better off throwing the whole hippo onto the fire and cookin' him up!

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We're all pretty familiar with the 1965 television classic, A Charlie Brown Christmas. But how familiar are you with the other Peanuts specials that celebrate this time of year? In fact, there are 4 in all!

A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)

The "sequel" to the classic appeared some 27 years later when It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown hit the airwaves on CBS in 1992. Interestingly, this was actually released to video first, via an exclusive at Shell gas stations.

It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown (1992)

You can tell by watching that it tried to emulate the success of the original, and by doing so, failed miserably. Once you get past the annoying smooth jazz versions of Vince Guaraldi's music, you are treated to a plotline involving Charlie Brown trying to sell wreaths and buy gloves, Peppermint Patti attempting to get out of a book report, and yes, another Christmas play… with Scripture thrown in along the way. You'll never think of "Hark!" quite the same way after watching Sally practice her lines. Intended to be broadcast in a 30-minute timeslot for years to come, it was never seen on TV again. You can find it as a bonus feature on the DVD release for A Charlie Brown Christmas. It's not a great show, but it's fun to watch… kinda.

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Culinary Christmas - December 6: Ding Fries Are Done

Featured Foods: Whoppers, french fries, apple pie

Welcome to a new week of Steve's 25 Days of Christmas Music, continuing our Culinary Christmas theme!

We now feature the song that totally ruined "Carol of the Bells" for me, because everytime I hear an instrumental version of that song, I instead sing the lyrics from today's tune. Yes, it's Ding Fries Are Done!

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Culinary Christmas - December 5: In The Snow

Featured Foods: Stroh Rum

Now for something a bit different…

Stroh Austria GmbH is the manufacturer of spiced rum. To help expand the brand that's been around for over 170 years, the company created a promotional musical group called The Rumbar Girls. And with that creation we get today's catchy, dance/polka song called In the Snow (it even has a music video!)

So if you are looking for some alcoholically-oriented beverages to go along with our collection of Culinary Christmas tunes so far, then today is the day to drink up!

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Culinary Christmas - December 4: Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

Featured Foods: Corn for popping

Want some popcorn? Then Rosemary Clooney has some for you with her rendition of Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!!

You can tell she recorded this later in her career because her voice is much lower, there's a trademark "waver" in her voice, and she references her age in a modified set of lyrics:

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Culinary Christmas - December 3: 12 Days of Christmas

Featured Foods: Pear, milk, geese, wassail, hen, boar's head

It's a no brainer that this "Culinary Christmas" theme would feature a version of the 12 Days of Christmas. You've got pear trees, geese, milk, and a bunch of other edibles. And if you've watched PBS in any capacity, you'll recognize today's artist, Straight No Chaser, as they have starred in numerous specials, usually designed to get people to contribute to their local station. After all, this programming is made possible by "Viewers Like You. Thank You."

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Last week, my sister who lives in Indiana called me up… "Hey, I found a box of Quaker Crunchy Corn Bran… want some?"

Steve enjoys Corn Bran

This was a cereal that we enjoyed as kids, and while it's still made, it's rather hard to find (as I noted in this blog post from 2002). When we got together for Thanksgiving, Karen gave me a box. Yum!