CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN!

[polander]

Holy cow, December 16th already! Time is seriously flying by...I can't recall ever seeing a month slip by so quickly, much less December racing so fast to Christmas! TV is heavily entrenched in holiday commercials and every store you go into is bound to have some garland strung up, at the very least. I went into an auto parts store yesterday that had a full-sized artificial tree set up by the register...good on 'em for bringing the spirit into a place where you wouldn't normally expect it! Today we're gonna take a look at a much-maligned holiday foodstuff...the infamous fruitcake!





That's right, the famous Georgia Fruitcake. Everybody makes jokes about how terrible fruitcake is, but when's the last time you actually had one? My great-grandmother used to make a pretty good fruitcake, so far as I can remember, but nobody in my family has ever really gone out of their way to purchase one of these little pre-made numbers. So, logically, I've made it my duty to test out the legendary fruitcake for you, my loyal friends and true. The things I do for you people sometimes...let's get this goin'.









Well, technically it's a cake. But it's not like your standard birthday variety...this is a dense, bread-like cake, packed into a mush of nuts and spices and strange jellied fruits. The taste could best be described as an acquired one. I don't know a single person who would pick up a piece of fruitcake, take a bite and think it was the best thing they've ever had. It's palatable, sure, but it's not really...good? It just doesn't taste like you want it to. It smells pretty good, but the texture of that cake is just...bleh. Skip the fruitcake, kids...you ain't missin' nothin' here. But you don't have to take my word for it! *Ba-dun DUN!*



Today's selection for the Commercial Countdown gives me a special feeling. A feeling that you just wanna hold on to. A feeling that you can't get enough of. I think I've got that M&Ms Feelin'!

Click to view

We always used to have a bowl of M&Ms out in the candy wonderland that Santa would leave around the living room on Christmas morning. I like to assume that this commercial may have had something to do with it. I really like the jingle, and the holiday aesthetic is out of control - happy kids, family time, decorating the tree, enjoying M&Ms and even a cameo at the end by Santa! Odd that they chose to have him taking off in a horse-drawn carriage rather than via reindeer, though...what are you trying to say to us, Mars Corporation? Maybe they spent the entire budget decorating that festive family room and didn't have enough left over for two seconds worth of flying reindeer action. Who knows? Your thoughts? Happy Sunday, everybody!

Paul