Packed away carefully in the back of the VHS cabinet was the Yule log tape
carefully preserved with the tabs cut off so that nothing could be taped over
it by mistake. It would have been a sin to erase the WPIX Channel 11 Yule Log Live from Gracie Mansion. This
was before You Tube where in the future you would have a choice of many
different logs with or without music.
The TV and the wall unit it sat in had been covered with an old roll of corrugated brick paper purchased many years before at the Woolworth store. The yellowed price tag reading 59 cents attested to the date. I had cut a rectangle out the exact size of the TV screen to increase the illusion that this hearth with no flue or chimney was real.
The children would pull up close in their seats to the hearth although it didn’t matter since there was no heat. I warned them not to sit too close so they would not get burned. The older ones giggled. My wife toasted marshmallows at the stove and hurried them into the living room handing them on their respective forks to the children for the full effect. It required a strong imagination to toast marshmallows on the Yule Log, The Christmas tree twinkled over in the corner as Bing Crosby crooned away and the children imagined what Santa might leave later that night.
Jim - Dec. 2018
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