Someone mentioned this video in one of the discussion threads, and it may be familiar to those that saw it almost thirty years ago. It's actually extra special, because it was filmed just months before Bing's death.

Without further ado, Bing Crosby and David Bowie sing "Little Drummer Boy". 

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If you like "The Nutcracker Suite" and bicyling, you are going to love this video presented by Specialized Bicycle Components (hat tip to LGF).

One of the best versions of the classic Christmas song "White Christmas" has to be the Drifters' recording in the '50s.

Many of you will recognize it from the Macauley Culkin film "Home Alone". This is the version he comically lip-synched in the mirror as he combed his hair.

(Updates with other artists' renditions now follow.)

A friend e-mailed me the following "Christmas Lights Gone Wild" video that I wanted to share. Somebody took a lot of time to put this together, and even though its novelty wears off a tad in the middle, it's really extremely well done...and sure to give you and yours a well-deserved smile this time of year.

Merry Christmas.

(Updates follow with other versions, and other houses. So far, Update IV is the best by far!!!)

*****Update: Google has another version that's got better colors and sound.

*****Update II: Different house done to Mozart!

A rather extraordinary conclusion was reached by members of the panel on Sunday’s “The Chris Matthews Show” – the economy is strong. What makes this so earth shattering? Well, because the host prior to the elections – which, by the way, were only about seven weeks ago – regularly talked about how badly the economy was doing, and didn’t challenge those espousing similarly bearish viewpoints.

Yet, now that the elections are over, it’s okay for Democrat pols like Matthews to admit that which was clearly verboten prior to November 7. And, in this instance, not only did the host speak bullishly for a change, so did Dan Rather and Norah O’Donnell.

Matthews opened the show asking his guests what the best news for President Bush was in 2006. Rather amazingly answered: “The Dow and the economy. I’m not saying it will last, but the longer it lasts, the better it is for him, and I think it was the highlight of the year.”

The Dow and the economy were the highlight of the year? Really? Wouldn’t it have been nice if you folks recognized this before Election Day? Yet, Rather wasn’t the only one having such an astounding epiphany, as Norah O’Donnell agreed:

To a lover in the thrall of blissful delirium, there is nothing that doesn't relate to his beloved. Frank Rich is the morose mirror image. Not a leaf falls but that it reminds him of Iraq and the perfidy of the Bush administration. The ostensible topic of Rich's sub-req NY Times  column of this morning was Time magazine's solipsistic choice of "you" as person of the year. What this has to do with Iraq might not be apparent to you. But you're not Frank Rich.

Let's see how Rich managed to make the connection with some annotated excerpts:

• "Like Time today, Life in the late 1960s was a middle-of-the-road publishing fixture sent into an identity crisis by the cultural revolution that coincided with a calamitous war."

As bad as Vietnam was for us, it was much worse for the millions of Vietnamese and Cambodians who were killed by the dictators who took over once we pulled out.

It is unfortunate that Nativity scene figures are the target of theft and vandals across this country each year during the Christmas holiday. As this ignorant crime increases from year to year, it shows the lack of respect that too many Americans have developed for their neighbors as well as a failed respect for private property.

Let's face it. The people who do such things are jerks. It's just that simple.

But, on a lighter note, The Hartford Courant employed an interesting choice of words in their story on the recent several thefts of Nativity Scene figures across Southington, Conn.

After giving space to Church goers reacting with outrage over these mean-spirited, and pointless thefts, Courant staff writer, Ken Byron pulls this sentence out from his "professional journalism" bag 'o tricks: