Fall Asleep While Learning About Christmas Knickknacks

In this episode of the I Can't Sleep Podcast, fall asleep while learning about Christmas knickknacks. This episode is a hodgepodge of holiday odds and ends, from the history of snow globes to the sparkly origins of tinsel—and maybe a few surprises along the way. Perfect for winding down during the festive season. Happy sleeping!

Transcript

Welcome to the I Can't Sleep Podcast,

Where I read random articles from across the web to bore you to sleep with my soothing voice.

I'm your host,

Benjamin Boster.

Today's episode is going to be a combination of three Wikipedia articles,

One about candy canes,

One on tinsel,

And one on snow globes.

A candy cane is a cane-shaped stick candy often associated with Christmas tide,

As well as St.

Nicholas Day.

It is traditionally white with red stripes and flavored with peppermint,

But the canes also come in a variety of other flavors and colors.

A record of the 1837 exhibition of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association,

Where confections were judged comparatively,

Mentions stick candy.

A recipe for straight peppermint candy sticks,

White with colored stripes,

Was published in the Complete Confectioner,

Pastry Cook,

And Baker in 1844.

However,

The earliest documentation of a candy cane is found in the short story,

Tom Luther's Stockings,

Published in Ballew's Monthly Magazine in 1866.

Described as mammoth in size,

No mention of color or flavor was provided.

The Nursery Monthly Magazine mentions candy canes in association with Christmas in 1874,

And Babyland Magazine describes tall,

Twisted candy canes being hung on a Christmas tree in 1882.

A common story of the origin of candy canes says that in 1670 in Cologne,

Germany,

The choirmaster at Cologne Cathedral,

Wishing to remedy the noise caused by children in his church during the living crash tradition of Christmas Eve,

Asked a local candy maker for some sugar sticks for them.

In order to justify the practice of giving candy to children during Mass,

He asked the candy maker to add a crook to the top of each stick,

Which would help children remember the shepherds who visited the infant Jesus.

In addition,

He used the white color of the converted sticks to teach children about the Christian belief in the sinless life of Jesus.

From Germany,

Candy canes spread to other parts of Europe,

Where they were handed out during plays reenacting the Nativity.

The candy cane became associated with Christmastide.

This story is likely apocryphal,

With references to it not existing before the mid-20th century.

As with other forms of stick candy,

The earliest canes were manufactured by hand.

Chicago confectioners,

The Bunty brothers,

Filed one of the earliest patents for candy cane making machines in the early 1920s.

In 1919 in Albany,

Georgia,

Robert McCormack began making candy canes for local children,

And by the middle of the century his company,

Originally the famous Candy Company,

Then the Mills-McCormack Candy Company,

And later Bob's Candies,

Had become one of the world's leading candy cane producers.

Candy cane manufacturing initially required significant labor that limited production quantities.

The canes had to be bent manually as they came off the assembly line to create their curved shape,

And breakage often ran over 20%.

McCormack's brother-in-law,

Gregory Harding Keller,

Was a seminary student in Rome who spent his summers working in the candy factory back home.

In 1957,

Keller,

As an ordained Roman Catholic priest of the Diocese of Little Rock,

Patented his invention,

The Keller machine,

Which automated the process of twisting soft candy into spiral striping and cutting it into precise lengths as candy canes.

On St.

Nicholas Day celebrations,

Candy canes are given to children as they are also said to represent the crozer of the Christian bishop,

St.

Nicholas.

Crozers allude to the Good Shepherd,

A name sometimes used to refer to Jesus of Nazareth.

Tinsel is a type of decorative material that mimics the effect of ice,

Consisting of thin stripes of sparkly material attached to a thread.

When in long narrow strips not attached to thread,

It is called lametta,

And emulates icicles.

It was originally a metallic garland for Christmas decoration.

The modern production of tinsel typically involves plastic and is used particularly to decorate Christmas trees.

It may be hung from ceilings or wrapped around statues,

Lampposts,

And so on.

Modern tinsel was invented in Nuremberg,

Germany in 1610 and was originally made of shredded silver.

According to the Concise Oxford Dictionary,

The word is from the Old French word estancel,

Meaning sparkle.

In the 16th century,

The word tinsel was used for a variety of lightweight fabrics with a metallic effect made with silk and gold and silver thread.

These tinsel fabrics were used in elite clothes,

Mask costumes,

And for heraldic banners and flags.

Elizabeth of York bought tinsel satin in 1502,

And the wardrobe of Margaret Tudor included tinsel in 1515.

Tinsel and tilsand were less costly than cloths of gold.

Tinsel was used for a veil or cowl worn by Mary I of England at her coronation in 1553.

Silver tinsel fabric,

Described in Italian as tocca d'argento,

Was used for the sails of mechanical ships at a mask at the wedding of Mary,

Queen of Scots,

And Francis,

Dauphine of France,

In April 1558.

Modern tinsel was invented in Nuremberg around 1610.

Tinsel was originally made from extruded strands of silver.

Because silver tarnishes quickly,

Other shiny metals were substituted.

Before the 19th century,

Tinsel was used for adorning sculptures rather than Christmas trees.

It was added to Christmas trees to enhance the flickering of the candles on the tree.

Tinsel was used to represent the starry sky over a nativity scene.

By the early 20th century,

Manufacturing advances allowed cheap aluminum-based tinsel,

And until World War I,

France was the world leader in its manufacture.

Production was curtailed during the First World War as a result of wartime demand for copper.

During the 1950s,

Tinsel and tinsel garlands were so popular that they frequently were used more than Christmas lights,

As tinsel was much less of a fire hazard than lights were for the then-popular aluminum Christmas trees,

Which were made from flammable aluminized paper.

Lead foil was a popular material for tinsel manufacture for several decades of the 20th century.

In the United States,

The Food and Drug Administration concluded in August 1971 that lead tinsel caused an unnecessary risk and convinced manufacturers and importers to voluntarily stop producing or importing lead tinsel after January 1,

1972.

The FDA did not actually ban the product because the agency did not have the evidence needed to declare lead tinsel a health hazard.

Modern tinsel is typically made from polyvinyl chloride PVC film coated with a metallic finish.

Coated mylar film also has been used.

These plastic forms of tinsel do not hang as well as tinsel made from heavy metals such as silver and lead.

Germans refer to a row of military awards and decoration as Lammette,

German for tinsel,

Similar to dressing in full regalia or with a high level of formality.

The expression was coined earlier to describe the appearance of Hermann Göring,

E.

G.

In a chanson by Clare Waldroff,

Rechts Lammette,

Links Lammette,

Und der Bauch wird immer fetter.

Tinsel on the right,

Tinsel on the left,

And the belly gets fatter and fatter.

Humorist Laureate's 1977 film Weihnachten bei Hopenstedts about a family Christmas involved a depression-educated grandfather humming the Helena Marsch with Radebuff and deploring the lack of tinsel.

For Vermeer Lammette there used to be more tinsel.

Thus lamenting the changes in life due to the course of time has become proverbial.

Tinsel prints are two different types of print where tinsel is added after printing for decorative effect.

The older type is a rare style of German religious woodcut from the early 15th century.

The later type is English in 19th century,

Especially used for prints of actors in their roles.

Tinsel has many traditional uses in India,

Including decorations on images,

Garlands for weddings and other ceremonies,

And ornamental trappings for horses and elephants.

Tinsels of various types are popular materials used in fly tying.

Snow globes A snow globe,

Also called a water globe,

Snow storm,

Or snow dome,

Is a transparent sphere,

Traditionally made of glass,

Enclosing a miniaturized scene of some sort,

Often together with a model of a town,

Neighborhood,

Landscape or figure.

The sphere also encloses the water in the globe.

The water serves as the medium through which the snow falls.

To activate the snow,

The globe is shaken to churn up the white particles.

The globe is then placed back in its position,

And the flakes fall down slowly through the water.

Snow globes sometimes have a built-in music box that plays a song.

Some snow globes have a design around the outer base for decoration.

Snow globes are often used as collectible items.

The snow globe dates back to at least 1878,

As seen in the Paris Exposition Universelle 1878,

And reported in the U.

S.

Commissioner's Report of the Expo.

Paperweights of hollow balls filled with water,

Containing a man with an umbrella.

These balls also contain a white powder,

Which,

When the paperweight is turned upside down,

Falls in imitation of a snowstorm.

At the end of the 19th century,

The Austrian Erwin Pertze,

A producer of surgical instruments,

Popularized the so-called Schneegogel snow globe,

And got the first patent for it.

Originally his globe was to develop an extra bright light source for use as a surgical lamp.

As he tried to intensify the candle power of a so-called Schusterkogel,

A water-filled flask used to focus light since the Middle Ages,

With particles made out of different materials for reflection purpose,

The effect reminded him of snowfall.

He then built his first seen globe with a model of the Basilica of Marietzell.

Because of the great demand for his snow globes,

Pertze and his brother Ludwig opened a shop in Vienna,

Where the production continues until today as a family business,

Exporting throughout the world.

The material and methods used to make the particles for Pertze's globe is a family production secret.

In the United States,

The first snow globe-related patent was granted in 1927 to Joseph Gorachov of Pittsburgh,

Pennsylvania.

In 1929,

Gorachov convinced Novelty Pool Ornaments to manufacture a fish version underwater.

In America during the 1940s,

Snow globes were often used for advertising.

In Europe during the 1940s and 1950s,

Religious snow globes were common gifts for Roman Catholic children.

Snow globes have appeared in a number of film scenes,

The most famous of which is the opening of the 1941 classic Citizen Kane.

In the 1950s,

The globes,

Which were previously made of glass,

Became available in plastic.

Currently,

There are many different types of snow globes available.

These globes are produced by a number of countries and range from the mass-produced versions of Hong Kong and China to the finely crafted types still produced in Austria.

Snow globes feature diverse scenes,

Ranging from the typical holiday souvenirs to more eclectic collectibles featuring Christmas scenes,

Disney characters,

Popular icons,

Animals,

Military figures,

Historical scenes,

Etc.

Since 2000,

Fashion and luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton,

Ladurée,

Sonia Riquel,

Or Martin Margiela got a hold of the trend and grew fond of snow globes as collectible totems and emblems of their brand image.

Such enthusiasm was reinforced by presence in numerous art collections of contemporary artists Walter Martin and Paloma Muñoz,

Also known as Martin and Muñoz,

Who used snow globes as a medium,

Or museums who paid tribute to famous artists such as French sculptor Auguste Rodin in creating high-quality numbered glass dome snow globes.

Initially snow globes consisted of a heavily lead glass dome,

Which was placed over a ceramic figure or tableau on a black cast ceramic base,

Filled with water,

And then sealed.

The snow,

Or glitter,

Was created by use of bone chips or pieces of porcelain,

Sand,

Or even sawdust.

As they became more sophisticated,

The glass became thinner,

The bases were lighter,

Bake light was popular during the Art Deco period,

And the snow was made out of particles of gold foil or non-soluble soap flakes.

For health and safety reasons,

White plastic has become more common in the construction of modern snow globes.

The liquid has evolved from initially light oil to a mixture of water,

Antifreeze,

Ethylene glycol,

And glycerol.

An added benefit was that glycerol slowed the descent of the snow.

Today's snow globes can include music boxes,

Moving parts,

Internal lights,

And even electric motors that make the snow move so that it is no longer necessary to shake the globe.

Some also have central slots for positioning items such as photographs.

In 2005,

Many US stores started to sell inflatable snow globes as part of their Christmas decor.

These have a base with a blower,

Forcing air which carries polystyrene pellets from the bottom and through a tube up the back to the top,

Where they are blown out and fall down inside the front,

Which is made of transparent vinyl.

The rest of the globe,

Including the characters inside,

Are made of colorful nylon fabric.

These globes are typically large decorations for the front yard,

And are lighted internally with a few C7 nightlight-type incandescent light bulbs,

Which are enclosed in plastic spheres to prevent heat damage to the fabric.

A variation on this is the tornado globe,

Where small foam objects spin around inside a globe.

This is more common for Halloween,

Where foam bats or sometimes ghosts may fly around the Halloween figures in the middle.

These were most common in 2006,

And come in both large inflatables and smaller tabletop versions,

With rigid plastic globes about 8-12 inches or 20-30 centimeters in diameter.

As with the snow globes,

Static claying often causes the foam to stick to the plastic,

Especially vinyl,

When humidity is low,

While condensation will do the same thing on outdoor inflatables when humidity is high,

Or rainwater has seeped in while it is deflated.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is a fictional reindeer created by Robert L.

May.

Rudolph is usually depicted as the ninth and youngest of Santa Claus' reindeer,

Using his luminous red nose to lead the reindeer team and guide Santa's sleigh on Christmas Eve.

Though he initially receives ridicule for his nose as a fawn,

The brightness of his nose is so powerful that it illuminates the team's path through harsh winter weather.

Ronald D.

Lankford,

Jr.

Described Rudolph's story as the fantasy story made to order for American children.

Each child has the need to express and receive approval for his or her individuality and or special qualities.

Rudolph's story embodies the American dream for the child,

Writ large because of the cultural significance of Christmas.

Rudolph first appeared in a 1939 booklet written by May and published by Montgomery Ward,

The department store.

The story is owned by the Rudolph Company,

L.

P.

,

And has been adapted into numerous forms including the song by Johnny Marks,

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,

Rudolph's Shiny New Year,

And Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July,

From Rankin Bass Productions as well as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,

The movie,

And Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the Island of Misfit Toys from Good Times Entertainment.

Character Arts,

LLC manages the licensing for the Rudolph Company,

L.

P.

And DreamWorks Classics.

In many countries,

Rudolph has become a figure of Christmas folklore.

2014 marked the 75th anniversary of the character and the 50th anniversary of the Rankin Bass television special.

A series of postage stamps featuring Rudolph was issued by the United States Postal Service on November 6,

2014.

Robert L.

May created Rudolph in 1939 as an assignment for Chicago-based Montgomery Ward.

The retailer had been buying and giving away coloring books for Christmas every year and it was decided that creating their own book would save money.

May considered naming the reindeer Rolo or Reginald before deciding upon using the name Rudolph.

May said his daughter liked reindeer and he said he was treated like Rudolph as a child.

In its first year of publication,

Montgomery Ward distributed 2.

4 million copies of Rudolph's story.

The story is written as a poem in anapestic tetrameter,

The same meter as A Visit from St.

Nicholas,

Also known as Twas the Night Before Christmas.

Publication and reprint rights for the book Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer are controlled by Pearson PLC.

While May was considering how best to craft a Christmas story about a reindeer while staring out his office window in downtown Chicago,

A thick fog from Lake Michigan blocked his view,

Giving him a flash of inspiration.

Suddenly,

I had it,

He recalled.

A nose,

A bright red nose that would shine through fog like a spotlight.

The cultural significance of a red nose has changed since the history's publication.

In 1930s popular culture,

A bright red nose was closely associated with chronic alcoholism and drunkards,

So the story idea was initially rejected.

May asked his illustrator friend at Montgomery Ward,

Denver Gillen,

To draw cute reindeer using zoo deer as models.

The alert,

Bouncy character Gillen developed convinced management to support the idea.

Maxton Books published the first mass-market edition of Rudolph in 1947.

The copyright for it will expire in 2034.

A sequel,

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Shines Again,

Was published in 1954.

In 1992,

Applewood Books published Rudolph's Second Christmas,

An unpublished sequel that Robert May wrote in 1947.

In 2003,

Penguin Books issued a reprint version of the original Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,

With new artwork by Lisa Papp.

Penguin also reprinted May's sequels,

Rudolph Shines Again and Rudolph's Second Christmas,

Now retitled Rudolph to the Rescue.

The story chronicles the experiences of Rudolph,

A youthful reindeer buck who possesses an unusual luminous red nose.

Maxton excluded by his peers because of his trade,

Rudolph proves himself one Christmas Eve with poor visibility due to inclement weather.

After Santa Claus catches sight of Rudolph's nose and asks Rudolph to lead his sleigh for the evening,

Rudolph agrees and is finally favored by his fellow reindeer for his heroism and accomplishment.

Rudolph made his first screen appearance in 1948 in a cartoon short produced by Max Fleischer for the Jam Handy Corporation.

It was more faithful to May's original story than Mark's song,

Which had not yet been written.

It was reissued in 1951,

With a song added.

May's brother-in-law,

Johnny Marks,

Adapted this story of Rudolph into a song.

Gene Autry's recording of the song hit number one on the Billboard Pop Singles chart the week of Christmas 1949.

Autry's recording sold 2.

5 million copies the first year,

Eventually selling a total of 25 million,

And it remained the second-best-selling record of all time until the 1980s.

The stereoscoped Viewmaster version of the story was issued and copyrighted by Sawyers on August 1,

1950,

As a 14-frame,

7-image reel,

Numbered FT-25.

The next was provided by Thomas L.

Dixon in the model and diorama work by Florence Thomas.

A follow-up three-reel packet,

Also with Thomas involved,

Was copyrighted on September 10,

1955.

These showcase news stories by Robert L.

May,

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Jay Batty,

The Brilliant Bear,

FT-26,

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Uncle Bigby,

The Blue-Nosed Reindeer.

FT-27.

And Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Shines Again,

FT-28.

Later reissue packets of the 1960s and beyond replaced the FT-28 version with the 1950 FT-25 version.

The 1955 packet was promoted on television at the time by Arlene Francis.

DC Comics,

Then known as National Periodical Publications,

Published a series of 13 annuals titled Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer from 1950 to 1962.

Rube Grossman drew most of the 1950s stories.

In 1972,

DC Comics published a 14th edition in an extra-large format.

Subsequently,

They published six more in that format,

Limited collector's editions,

C-20,

C-24,

C-33,

C-42,

C-50,

And all new collector's editions,

C-53,

C-60.

Additionally,

One digest format edition was published as The Best of DC No.

4,

March to April 1980.

The 1970s Rudolph stories were written and drawn by Sheldon Mayer.

In 1958,

Little Golden Books published an illustrated storybook adapted by Barbara Shirk-Hazen and illustrated by Richard Scarry.

The book,

Similar in story to the Max Fleischer cartoon short,

Is no longer in print,

But a revised Little Golden Books version of the storybook was reissued in 1972.

Perhaps the most well-known version of all the Rudolph adaptations is the New York-based Rankin Bass Productions Christmas television special from 1964.

Filmed in stop-motion animagic at Tadahito Mojinaga's MOM Productions in Tokyo,

Japan,

With the screenplay written by Romeo Muller,

And all sound recordings with supervision by Bernard Cowan,

Done at the RCA Studios in Toronto,

Ontario,

Canada,

The show premiered on NBC.

As the producers of the special,

Arthur Rankin Jr.

And Jules Bass,

Only had the song as source material and did not have a copy of the original book,

They interpolated an original story around the central narrative of the song,

One that differed from the book.

This retelling chronicles Rudolph's social rejection among his peers and his decision to run away from home.

Rudolph is accompanied by a similarly outcast elf named Hermie,

Who skipped elf practice to become a dentist,

Along with a loud,

Boisterous,

Eager prospector named Yukon Cornelius,

Who was in search of wealth.

Additionally,

Original characters include Rudolph's love interest Clarice,

The antagonistic,

Abominable snow monster of the north,

And his narrator,

Sam,

The living snowman,

Voiced by Burl Ives.

In the 1964 stop-motion television special,

Rudolph is born to Donner the reindeer and Donner's wife.

He is discovered by Santa to have a shiny,

Glowing red nose.

For a while he hides this quality that makes him different,

But when his nose is discovered and he is ostracized,

Rudolph runs away with Hermie,

An elf who also considers himself a misfit.

On their aimless journey,

They run into Yukon Cornelius and attempt to stay away from the Bumble,

A huge,

Abominable snow monster.

Their journey leads them to the island of misfit toys,

Where sentient but unorthodox toys go when they are abandoned by their owners.

When Rudolph returns,

He discovers his family went to look for him and must be rescued.

Then,

Santa announces that due to bad weather,

Christmas must be cancelled.

Santa changes his mind when he notices Rudolph's red nose and asks Rudolph to lead the sleigh team,

Which he happily accepts.

After the story's initial broadcast,

Its closing credits were revised.

Images of wrapped presents being dropped from Santa's sleigh were replaced by a scene in which Santa stops to pick up the misfit toys and delivers them to the homes of the children below via umbrellas,

With the exception of the misfit toy bird that swims but does not fly,

Who is dropped to its destination.

The changes were prompted by viewer feedback,

Pleading for a happy ending for the misfit toys as well.

The special now airs annually on CBS rather than NBC and is hailed as a classic by many.

The special's original assortment of characters have acquired iconic status.

The success and popularity of the special led to two sequels,

Rudolph's Shiny New Year 1976,

Which continued the reindeer's journeys,

And the series was made into a trilogy with a feature-length film,

Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July 1979,

Which integrated the Rudolph universe into that of Rankin-Bass's adaptation of Frosty the Snowman 1969.

Being one of the most popular Rankin-Bass characters,

Rudolph also made his cameo appearance in two Animagic specials,

Santa Claus is Coming to Town 1970 and Nestor the Long-Eared Christmas Doggy 1977,

And in the Easter television special The First Easter Rabbit 1976,

With cell animation by Toru Haro's Topcraft.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is a Movie 1998 is a 2D animated feature film presented by Good Times Entertainment and Golden Books Family Entertainment,

Now Western Publishing,

And produced by Tundra Productions in Hollywood,

California.

It received only a limited theatrical release before debuting on home video.

Its inclusion of a villain,

A love interest,

A sidekick,

And a strong protector are more derivative of the Rankin-Bass adaptation of the story than the original tale and song.

The characters of Stormella,

Zoe,

Arrow,

Slyly,

And Leonard parallel the Rankin-Bass characters of The Bumble,

Clarice,

Fireball,

Hermie,

And Yukon Cornelius,

Respectively.

The movie amplifies the early backstory of Rudolph's harassment by his schoolmates,

Primarily his cousin Arrow,

During his formative years.

It was produced and directed by William R.

Kalachuk and written by Michael Aschner,

With music and songs by Al Kasha and Michael Lloyd,

And with most of the casting being assembled at BLT Productions in Vancouver,

British Columbia.

The film's recording facilities were Pinewood Sound in Vancouver,

Schwartz Sound in New York,

And Wally Burr Recording in Hollywood.

Among the all-star cast of voices were American actors John Goodman,

Bobbie Goldberg,

Debbie Reynolds,

Richard Simmons,

And Bob Neward,

British actor Eric Idle,

And Canadian actress Kathleen Barr as Rudolph.

Animation production services for the film were outsourced to Colorland Animation Productions in Hong Kong.

Good Times Entertainment,

The producers of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer the movie,

Brought back most of the same production team for a CGI animated sequel,

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the Island of Misfit Toys,

2001.

Unlike the previous film,

The sequel featured the original characters from the Rankin-Bass special as Good Times soon learned that Rankin-Bass had made a copyright error that made the characters unique to their special free to use.

Reviews

With visions of sugarplums…. I drifted off. Was there something about candy canes? Job well done, thank you Benjamin! 😁😻😊

Loved it. So easy to fall asleep to. I want to listen again to learn about tinsel.

❄️🎄🎅 Fun collection of Christmassy things! I have to listen again because I fell asleep so fast! Thanks Ben!