How the Yule Log Became a Multimedia Star

“Logged In” from Yule Log 2.0 on Vimeo. By Joao Coutinho & Aly Tain, from watchyulelog.com.

It’s not easy to make the jump from local television to multiplatform superstardom. And it’s even harder to make that jump when you’re not a person, but an inanimate object.

But it can be done. The Yule Log proved it.

Once upon a time, this holiday oddity — made by pointing a TV camera at ye olde Christmas practice of a log burning in a hearth — was screened in just one city.

That makes sense. A televised Yule Log is already pretty weird. But weird things have a tendency to leap geographic boundaries these days. Thus the Yule Log — in many variations (or knockoffs, if you’re a purist) — is now everywhere: On Netflix, all over YouTube, and on various local and cable stations around the country.

It has a Facebook page and a truly awesome fan site. You can follow the original televised Yule Log on Twitter. There are Yule Log apps for Android and iOS. Obviously, there are GIFs. Most recently, the Yule Log has even inspired a brand new creative animation project by the artist Daniel Savage.

Who started this fire? And, more importantly: Where can you find your very own digital Yule Log this Christmas? Read on for answers to both below. Yule be glad you did.

“LogOS 7.0” from Yule Log 2.0 on Vimeo. By Salih, from watchyulelog.com.

History log
The first broadcast Yule Log appeared on the New York City station WPIX (Channel 11) in 1966. Dreamed up by station manager Fred M. Thrower, it was a loop of footage taken of a log burning in the fireplace of the mayor’s mansion — a media version of a tradition unavailable to the city’s chimney-lacking apartment dwellers.

There were no ads, and the soundtrack was holiday music. “It caused a sensation,” according to an appreciation published in The New York Times in 1984.

This three-hour “animated Christmas card” reappeared for years — although the footage was reportedly replaced in 1971, as the original’s quality faded — and became something of a tradition of its own. Indeed, it “regularly won its time slot,” according to Time.

Until 1989, that is. Then a new WPIX manager, who must have had a Scrooge complex, canceled it.

For a time, its embers smoldered only in the memories of its fans. Rick Moody, for instance, wrote of the “mystical thing” as his all-time favorite show in the first print issue of McSweeney’s:

“It was the first great video installation, in which the television was transformed into what it was really meant to be,” Moody argued, “an extension of the easel painting, a trompe l’oeil in the middle of the living room that adorned life, instead of interfering in it.”

But by then, technology was beginning to spark a revival. WPIX offered an online version of the broadcast in the late 1990s. Then, in 2000, the site now known as TheYuleLog.com emerged — positioning itself as the “ORIGINAL Fan site for the ORIGINAL WPIX Yule Log” and serving as the home base for a “Bring back the Yule Log” campaign. (The site is now a sort of time capsule of its own, charmingly warning visitors with dial-up connections away from an animation link.)

The following year, the Log was back on the air; soon it started to appear (first in original form, then with locally made alternatives) on other stations owned by WPIX’s parent company. In 2009, TheYuleLog.com’s founder Chip Arcuri got to pick the music for a fourth hour. (See his choices in the video embedded below.)

The upshot is that the Yule Log blazed back brighter than ever — a seasonal perennial, like It’s a Wonderful Life or A Charlie Brown Christmas.

Only with no characters, or plot. Just a burning log.

Burnin’ for you
To get a sense of just how unshakeable the image of burning wood has become in digital holiday culture, just type “Yule Log” into YouTube and stare blankly into the many pages of results.

This 10-minute version, apparently available as a high-definition download, seems to be the most popular one on YouTube:

For those planning lengthier Christmas celebrations, here’s a 10-hour version of a different fireplace burning:

Here is a one-hour variation starring a silly cat with its tongue hanging out:

You get the idea.

And if you want to see the Yule Log notion creatively made over, you also have choices. Here’s a nice multi-artist, 11-minute animation produced by Channel Frederator Network:

Finally, check out the project organized by Savage, called YuleLog.2014. A sequel to a similar effort last year, it features short animated clips by more than 80 artists, each offering what’s described as “a unique take on the WPIX-11 Yule Log.”

They’re all at www.watchyulelog.com, a site “bringing the traditional Yule Log back and into the digital age.”

I’ve already dropped in a couple of examples above, but here are a few more. This clip is from James Wignall:

Hello Old Friend from Yule Log 2.0 on Vimeo.

And here’s one from Ege Soyuer and Nick Petley:

So You’re Saying There’s a Chance from Yule Log 2.0 on Vimeo.

And one from Lisa Poje:

Midnight Yule Log from Yule Log 2.0 on Vimeo.

I’m rather fond of this highly abstracted interpretation from Jorge Canedo Estrada:

Perpetualog from Yule Log 2.0 on Vimeo.

Check out more at Watchyulelog.com or its Vimeo channel. It’s an impressive collection, and the best evidence yet that the nostalgists who pined for the return of the curious tradition have completely triumphed.

Or should I say “logged a victory”?

(Cover image: PBS)

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