The 1982 UK Marvel annuals for 1981.

Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon. 

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Ho ho ho, little children! Santa Steve's smashed his way out of your fireplace and he's about to fling a whole heap of annuals at the foot of your Christmas tree!

But, first, he needs to find out what's on TV, today, December the 25th of December, 1981.

In all honesty, there's nothing that could be called outstanding. It's the usual mix of sitcoms, family entertainment, and much-loved presenters who'll later turn out to be psychopaths, sociopaths and malignant narcissists.

However, should you wish to investigate the topic further, this is the 1981 Christmas Day schedule for BBC One.

This is the accompanying schedule for BBC Two.

And, for the ITV Christmas schedules, you can click right here.

This seems a familiar sight. Mostly because I've already covered it in a long-ago post.

It seems that, despite being labelled a Collector's Edition, Marvel UK is marketing it as an annual.

It features the whole of Jim Steranko's run on the Captain America strip, as Cap gets nagged into hiring Rick Jones as the new Bucky. An experience Cap enjoys so much, the saga culminates in him deciding to fake his own death.

In between those two events, of course, there's an epoch-making battle to be had with the forces of Hydra and their whip-wielding female boss who'll wear any colour, so long as it's green.

Meanwhile, the above book's sibling gives us a whole heap of Neal Adams goodness.

In its first tale, the titanic teens must deal with the Living Pharaoh becoming the Living Monolith.

Then they must needs stop the Sentinels from merrily rounding up the world's mutants and bumping them all off.

It's clearly not going to be a merry Christmas for that particular super-team.

There's no controversy over whether this one's an annual or not. It even says it is on the Paul Neary drawn cover.

The book's dominated by The Wings of the Vulture! in which Blackie Drago takes over from Adrian Toomes as the Vulture and decides to prove himself by beating-up Spider-Man.

And, just to make matters worse, Kraven the Hunter shows up, as well.

We also get a ten-page text story called The Electric Sting. I don't know anything about it but, given its title, I'm going to assume the villain of the piece is either Electro or the Scorpion.

Despite no longer having a weekly comic, the Hulk gets his own annual - and it sees him join forces with the mighty Mogol, as the pair assist Tyrannus in his struggle with the Mole Man.

It's all going swimmingly until the Hulk discovers his new friend's a robot and decides to murder him.

After that, we get a five-page text story called A Hostage for the Hulk.

Next up, the Leader resurrects the Glob and sends him off to pick a fight with our hero.

That's followed by another five-page text story, this time called Caged.

And, finally, Jade Jaws must tangle with Warlord Kaa the living shadow in a tale reprinted from Incredible Hulk #184.

But it's not only Marvel's comic book heroes who get special treatment this year. So do its stars of stage and screen.

And so it is that we get the book we've all been dreaming of, in The Worzel Gummidge Annual.

I could tell you what happens in it but I really can't be bothered.

Plus, I don't actually know what happens in it.

Probably, Galactus shows up and Worzel has to become his herald.

Star The Empire Strikes Back Wars gets its second annual and does so with an Archie Goodwin, Al Williamson, Tom Palmer and Walt Simonson tale called The Crimson Forever which is followed by a Chewbacca-centered adventure called Rage in the Red Nebula.

Holy shaken-and-not-stirred, Batman! Even James Bond is granted a Marvel hardback!

And I'm going to make an inspired guess that it adapts that classic film For Your 007 Eyes Only.

It also gives us a feature on the many foes of James Bond, and one about the stunts that have made his films the legends they are.

It's not an obvious publication to be granted an annual but so annual-happy is Marvel UK, right now, that we get one anyway.

In its 64 pages, Starburst supplies us with features about Saturday morning movie serials, famous robots, famous aliens, famous spaceships, fantasy females and famous monsters.

And, yes, it does feature Caroline Munro, because Starburst always features Caroline Munro.

And, just to make sure Indiana Jones doesn't feel overshadowed by James Bond, he too gets his own book, which I have it on good authority adapts the movie of the same name.

So, with all that wrapped up, all that's left is for me to wish you a happy Christmas and that all your wishes come true.

Especially if you're wishing that I was a billionaire.

Merry Christmas to you all. :)

The 2019 Special Christmas Post! Never settle for second best. You don't need to, because I'm about to do it for you.

Because you The Reader demanded it, here it is; this year's Christmas song post!

Granted, there's a certain problem with such a thing, as, last year, I did one demanding to know your favourite Christmas song of all time.

Obviously, because I've already done it, I can't do that again - even though I want to - so I've hit upon an idea no one has ever had in the entire history of mankind!

And that's demanding to know what your second favourite Christmas song is.

What's that noise you hear on your rooftop? Is it the sound of Rudolph's hooves scraping on the slates, as Santa comes to deliver your presents?

Why, no, it's the sound of this site scraping the bottom of the barrel.

But, then again, perhaps it's not, because this now means that, next year, I'm going to be able to ask you for your third favourite Christmas song of all time. I can't wait for the year 2145 when I can, at last, discover the identity of your 127th favourite Christmas song.

Anyway, the second best Christmas song of all time. For me, it's an easy one because, if you have Slade's Merry Xmas Everybody as your Number One, as I did last year, there's only one record you can have as your Number Two.

And that's Wizzard's I Wish it Could Be Christmas Everyday. Has there ever been a catchier, bouncier, more joyous and successful attempt to capture the mood of a British Yuletide?

Yes there has; Slade's Merry Xmas Everybody.

But, that one aside, has there ever been a better attempt than this one?

No, there hasn't. The moment I hear that cash register open at the beginning of the track, I know the season of magic and goodwill is once more upon us.

But it does always strike me as being amazing that, arguably, the two greatest British Christmas songs of all time were written by men born within 12 miles of each other and mere months apart - and that those records were released in exactly the same month, December 1973.

It also amazes me to think that, had Roy Wood not fled ELO when he did, this would have been an ELO single.

Then again, it also amazes me that he was only 27 at the time. How does any man look that old at 27?

Anyway, those are my thoughts on the matter. You may have thoughts of your own, and you're free to express them below.

For that matter, you're free to express any thoughts you may have about any Christmas songs, because it's Christmas, and Christmas is meant for sharing.

Your favourite Christmas song of all time.

There must come a moment in the life of any nostalgia-based website when it feels compelled to scrape the bottom of the barrel and ask the question that cannot be avoided.

And, my friends, that moment has arrived. After eight years of evading it, I'm finally tackling the always thorny issue of just what is the best Christmas song of all time.

Obviously, it's Merry Xmas Everybody by Slade and I'm sure my total certainty about this has nothing to do with it having been the first song I ever heard on my first ever radio, way back in the winter of 1973.

With its Beano Annual sensibility and its strange shifts in tone from the jovial to the darkly glimmering, it perfectly caught the mood of a British Christmas. Like the band's earlier hit Coz I Luv You, it managed to sound like it had been around since before any of us were born but also to simultaneously hint at the impending arrival of an unsettling new era.

But what a remarkable winter that was. Not only did it give us Slade's masterpiece, it also gave us Wizzard's I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday, and two songs that each demanded to be Christmas Number One by right found themselves battling it out for the privilege.

Of course, a year before that had seen the release of John and Yoko's Happy Xmas (War is Over) although the decade prior to that had been a strangely quiet one for Christmas classics.

In fact, I'm struggling to think of any great Christmas songs from the 1960s or, indeed, any Christmas songs at all from that decade - unless one has the courage to recall Dora Bryan's All I Want For Christmas is a Beatle.

I can only assume people didn't celebrate Christmas in the 1960s.

The 1950s is a total black hole for me when it comes to Christmas songs.

The 1940s, of course, gave us White Christmas, the Everest of Christmas hits.

That decade also gave us Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas and The Christmas Song, otherwise known as Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire.

The 1930s gave us Santa Claus is Coming to Town. Who would have guessed that Bruce Springsteen was making records way back in the 1930s?

But, while 1973 may have hit Peak Christmas, the 1970s had at least two more tricks up their sleeves. 1975 gave us Greg Lake's I Believe in Father Christmas, written specially for anyone who likes to be a Mr Grumpy Boots each Yuletide, while 1977 gave us the ever bizarre alliance of Bing Crosby and David Bowie bringing Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy into our lives.

Having said that, the track wasn't released until early the next decade, when such awesomeness couldn't be kept from the world any longer.

The 1980s gave us Merry Christmas Everyone by Shakin' Stevens, Stop the Cavalry by Jona Lewie, Macca's Wonderful Christmas Time, the Waitresses' Christmas Wrapping, Siouxsie and the Banshees' Israel, Kate Bush's December Will Be Magic Again, Do They Know It's Christmas? Wham's Last Christmas and Fairy Tale of New York by the Pogues and Kirsty MacColl.

The 1990s gave us Mariah Carey's All I Want For Christmas is You, possibly the only Christmas track from that decade that's managed to match the popularity of its predecessors from earlier eras.

The 1990s also gave us East 17's anomalous Stay Another Day, one of those Christmas songs that has nothing at all to do with Christmas, other than that the band were wrapped up warm in the video.

That raises the perennial question; "Is Frankie Goes to Hollywood's The Power of Love a Christmas song?" All common sense says no. And yet it's somehow become inextricably linked with the festive period in a way that many singles which have made far more effort to be Christmassy haven't.

And what of the 21st Century? What Christmas treats has that given us when it comes to music?

Well, it's given us...

...erm...

...er...

To be honest, the only post 2000 AD Christmas song I can think of is the Darkness' heavily ironic Christmas Time, which is great fun but sounds suspiciously like a hyperactive teenager's parody of those 1973 Christmas hits that launched this post in the first place.

Can it be true? Can the era of the great Christmas song be dead?

I have no idea.

Perhaps you do have an idea.

More to the point, perhaps you have your own thoughts about what's the best Christmas song of all time. And perhaps you'd like to share them with the world, in the comments section below. If you would, you can. That is, after all, what the spirit of Christmas is all about.

Sharing.

Sharing.

And more sharing.