The Yule Log, that odd perennial entity that has burned brightly and constantly to the sweet sounds of midi harpsichords and recorders on televisions for forty years, is making news this year. Born in 1966, the original WPIX-TV Yule Log is now being challenged by a “new-and-improved” Yule Log in high definition. (This isn’t the first year that The Yule Log HD has been on the scene—it’s actually been around since 2003, and it is only this year, perhaps due to the growing number of households with INHD service, that the media has decided to play up the rivalry.) TYLHD was created by some yuppie with a vested interest in INHD and who shows no regard for holiday traditions simply because the film looks “grainy[,] 30 years old [and] is not going to fill up the full screen.” So? What’s wrong with that?

Although The YL isn’t a necessary component needed to conjure up fond memories for me of Christmastime at home, the original WPIX Yule Log has definitely been as ubiquitous a presence in my parents’ house during the holidays as homemade cookies, certain movies, and cats chewing on ribbon. And it’s the WPIX Yule Log I sip the taste of Christmas in front of, not some “new-and-improved” fancy-schmancy HD thing. No, I’ll stick with the original, grainy, old, and whatever YL.

However, I do think it’s a bit ironic that although the original Yule Log was conceived as a gift for New Yorkers without firelaces even in houses with fireplaces (read: spaces for their own Yule Log) as in ours, it’s the Yule Log on the television that the family gathers around. Indicative of modern times, I guess. Or, put a little more eloquently in the AP article cited above: “Christmas is also a day to slow down, to set aside life’s frenetic pace for enjoyment of family, and nothing symbolizes that unhurried attitude better than a picture that doesn’t change for hours.”