This Christmas offers a yule log for everyone

With December 25 just around the corner, there’s no better time to slow your roll, take a deep breath, and relax with a treasured Christmas tradition, the TV yule log.

In the beginning, there was pretty much just one log, in tight close-up, bestowing its cathode ray warmth over holiday revelers while the likes of Percy Faith and the Ray Conniff singers worked their musical magic. 

Filmed at the New York mayor’s residence, Gracie Mansion, and first broadcast on WPIX in 1966, that original log has since made way for a legion of updates and copycats. While that first log may be long-gone, its spiritual heirs continue to provide virtual fireplaces for hearth-challenged families all over North America. 

Remember the excitement when a disembodied hand—sometimes with a pinky ring!—threw on a new log or poked the embers with a fire iron? Well this year there’s a whole new generation of Yule logs with a twist to liven up your Christmas airwaves.

Here’s a traditional version, with a feline enhancement.

Want the Property Brothers to join you for Christmas? No problem.

To celebrate the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, there’s a Darth Vader funeral pyre version.

Too dark? Maybe getting weird with Christmas will help. Keith Apicary from Adult Swim will help you with that.

Maybe weird isn't your thing and you find comfort in the steely gaze of Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman). Join him in a glass of whiskey.

If you need more cats, here’s Li’l Bub’s version.

And finally, just for old time’s sake, here’s WPIX’s 1966 original.