A Very Rankin Bass Christmas!

Best of Dottie, Holiday Kiddo

Believe it or not, these two guys had one of the biggest impacts on our childhood holiday memories.

Meet Arthur Rankin, Jr. and Jules Bass, the mastermind behind some of your favorite Christmas moments in front of the TV. These two gents bought us such delightful characters as:

I loves me some Yukon Cornelius!  My friend Jen and I joked that he was the uber cartoon dream husband.  Knew the importance of gold/silver for jewelry and was kind to animals. I loved his little team of mismatched doggies too!

And don’t forget about the most dapper snowman around!

Remember skinny Santa? EAT, PAPA, EAT!

I don’t know about you, but I was really frightened of the Abominable Snowman as a kid! That was some scary stuff to a five year old!

I so would have taken every toy on that island! A dolly for Suzy just broke my heart every time I saw her!

Oh, Hermie!  You made me actually want to go to the dentist! And of course RUDOLF!

I know not everyone is into letting their kids watch TV, but personally, I don’t consider Rankin Bass Christmas specials to be TV as much as an irresistible holiday memory in the making. Right up there with watching the Nutcracker or making Christmas cookies.

Arthur Rankin and his buddy Jules Bass came up with this wonderful animation technique they called “animagic” which included stop animation with these sassy dolls combined with cel animation for special backdrops like snowflakes.  He optimistically called his new animation technique “Animagic”. And it was more than enough to turn a Christmas novelty song and a felt-covered, lightbulb-nosed reindeer puppet into the most amazing hour on TV in December.

“Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer”, the flagship Rankin/Bass production, remains the longest-running, highest-rated special ever aired on US network television. The special has appeared on one of the broadcast networks every year since its debut on NBC’s “General Electric Fantasy Hour” in 1964, routinely landing near the top of the Nielsen Ratings Top 10 — a feat unparalleled in television history.

Oh, I forgot one other thing that made “animagic” so, well, magical! Not pixie dust. Just hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours of work slowly shifting the dolls around to make them move. Oof!

But the Rankin/Bass production team loved it and did it again and again to bring us such holiday characters as:

Seriously, have you watched this recently? Get ready to cry…

Clearly, they needed to get more use out of those desert backgrounds and came up with Nestor.  I love this little guy! what pluck. Again, sad at the beginning, but still so good!

I loved this little big eared and big hearted little baby! One of my favorites.

You already saw skinny Santa, but what about young Santa?

And of course these two brothers…

Of course Rank Bass Productions holiday specials are just the tippy tip tip of their wonderful work (hello Mad Monster Party…) but if you’d like more information, I highly suggest you check out Rick Goldschmidt’s amazing blog. He has a wonderful collection of images and literally wrote the book on Rankin Bass. And if you still want to see more Christmas specials inspired by Rankin Bass, check out this cool site dedicated to the best holiday specials out there.

Did you watch any Rankin Bass Christmas specials this year?

 

TGIVM!! (Thank Goodness for Vintage Mondays!)

Kiddo Style: Vintage

Whoa the days are just ticking down to Christmas right now! Yikes!  We were plenty busy this past weekend with the last of the holiday parties, the last bits of shopping and the last bits of packing before we head off to Colorado for a very snowy Christmas.

But before I leave on that jet plane, I wanted to share my last vintage goodies I found with you.  Oh so sweet! Enjoy!

We all love the Irmi lamp, but I’ve never seen THIS before. Genius! From Etsy seller, Seams Original.

Oh, this striped coat is perfect AND in one of those elusive bigger sizes. Perfect to add to your tween’s wardrobe full of American Eagle. Hee! From the marvelous Ms. Tips!

I’m dying over this sweet 70s western shirt.  So simple and doesn’t yell cowboy!  From Etsy seller, 3 Ring Circus.

I think this divided baby dish is the perfect baby shower present. So sweet and so usable! I remember Amanda Soule of SouleMama talking about buying a vintage one for each of her children. What a great tradition. From Etsy seller, Kid Wonder!

Whoa. I wish these shoes came in MY size! From Etsy seller, Lilybelle Shoes.

The cuteness level of this helicopter overalls outfit might be almost be too much for me. You’ve done it again, Sweet Shop Vintage.

That plaid dress is pure Sally Draper.  But the little girlie is way cuter!  WANT!  From Etsy seller, Potato Cake Vintge.

No bones about it, this sweater is AWESOME! From Etsy seller, Star Friends on Earth.

Green and orange duckie romper? Don’t mind if I do! From Etsy seller, Lishyloo!

Interesting book, but it doesn’t include PR professional in it. Nutty!  … From Etsy seller, 1 Sweet Dream Vintage.

Happy Monday!

Friday Link Hootenanny :: Fun Stuff to Browse

Holiday Kiddo, Link Hootenanny

Oooh lala. The count down is ON friends! We’ll be heading to Michigan soon and can’t wait for a little winter wonderland (as cold as it will be). What are your holiday plans? Are you travelling?

While you hustle and bustle off to your many holiday events, here are some fun crafty links to make things a little merrier.
1. Orange You Wild About Paper Snowflakes


We had a fun evening making paper snowflakes the other night…I have no photos because hey, sometimes it’s better to just live life then spend your time documenting (note to self…sometimes as bloggers I think we get so caught up in the documentation part of life! But that’s a whole other post….). Last year I was quite taken with these gorgeous snowflakes from How About Orange, and the instructions for making them were really easy! So we made them again this year.  Find more here.

2. A Brilliant Sputnik DIY

Check out this most incredible DIY project from Dabito at Old Brand New. He used one of those mobiles originally meant for photos and swapped them out for Christmas ball ornaments to make a sputnik style mobile! GENIUS! See how he did it here.

3. Super Rad Retro Gift Tags

So you’ve wrapped up your prezzies but you don’t want a schlumpy gift tag to muck up your wrapping. What to do? Why not download these adorable gift tags from My Paper Crane! Heidi makes thee most amazing little plushies you ever did see and she sweetly created a whole sheet of vintage-inspired gift tags for all of her readers! Download them here.

4. Simply Darlin’ Christmas Angel

My gorgeous pal Pilgrim has done it again and created this super cool downloadable angel. Have your kiddos color her in and maybe even add some glitter pom poms on those wings! She’d make a swell table centerpiece or just an awesome addition to your holiday decor. Download it here!

5. Star of Wonder, Star of Light

This star is so pretty, it would be lovely for Christmas or Hanukkah. See how to make one here.

6. This Little Wall of Mine.

Glitter stencils? Oh heck yeah! I think this is so festive and fun. You can see how it was done over at Katie’s Pencil Box.

7. Create Your Own Christmas Crib

These are so sweet! And you can download them for free here.

8. Glitter Pin Perfection

Sometimes it’s the simplest things that are the most fun. These sparkley glitter clothes pins from Ez over at Creature Comforts are just SO cute. See more here.

9. Pretty Paper Dollies 

A mug of hot cocoa, a roaring fire and a fun night of paper doll magic. Thanks to Miss Emily Martin, these little paperdoll downloadables are just the ticket. Get yours here.

 

10. Paper Bag Princess.

My talented friend Teri is the Craft Editor at the awesome Bloesem/bkids and she is always coming up with fabulous things. This simple, but amazing wreath is made out of painted paper bags. Paper bags? Yes! SUCH a clever idea! See details here.

Bonus Video:

We love Chronicle Books so very much….I was totally charmed by this adorable video they sent us for the holidays. I think you’ll love it too!

 

The MK Ornament Party Day 4: featuring tweedlebop!

Holiday Kiddo


As this week draws to a close I have one last addition to the Modern Kiddo Ornament Party. So far we have seen amazing ornaments from Kristin (klt:works), Pilgrim (draw! pilgrim) and Danielle(Kitschy Digitals). Our final artist is the amazing Michael Fleming of Tweedlebop! I’ve sang his praises before (here!) and I’m about to do it again. Just look at these super adorable spacey snow peeps he’s created for you guys!!!!!!! I’m in adorable snow-bot heaven:

Simply download and print out on card stock for best results. As always I’m partial to a little embellishing with glitter or tiny pom poms, but these little bad boys look pretty darn adorable as-is too. A wee hole punch to the top and string with baker’s twine, ribbon or string and yer all set!

And because several people have emailed me, here is a link to my vintage vinyl Retro Holiday Music Mix vol 1 & 2! Have a listen while you wrap those final presents and place this last special ornament on your tree!

Oh! And here is the genius behind all this spacey goodness—Michael Fleming!

Michael is supremely talented and just an all around groovy guy. In addition to being an incredible artist, he is also the proud papa to the fabulous Winston Theodore and Olive!


(sorry, couldn’t resist one more shot of little Olive….)

Please show Ze Tweedlebop lots of love and swing by  his site or his shop (where you can pick up some amazing stuff!). You can also become a Fan of Tweedlebop on Facebook!

Thank you so much Michael for this amazing set of ornaments and being such a wonderful friend to modern kiddo.

Download your special modern kiddo * tweedlebop holiday ornament here! (and a gentle reminder, ornaments are for personal use only!)