Animated Christmas Greetings 2014 to ALL my family, friends, acquaintances, and scattered relationships all around this great planet Earth, otherwise known as: “A mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam” as Carl Sagan famously described us.

Earth from 4 billion miles...

Earth from 4 billion miles…

Time to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year. Every year I’m searching for the newest and best Christmas light displays to post and I always end up right back here with this one (albeit last year I went a different route) .. But this year I decided to go a little more traditional, and so I give you a “little bit of this, and a little bit of that” with four of my favorite themes.

First up is a teaser of what follows at the very end.

Number two is an amazing High School performance of the Hallelujah chorus from Handel’s Messiah by students acting as silent monks.

Then a stunning performance of Amazing Grace that will linger long in the memory.

Number four is a wonderful “Christmas Dinner Family get-together” as depicted by, well, you’ll see (and note how very close the antics are to real life!)

And finally the piece` de resistance, the full spectacle as extended from the opening teaser.

So let’s get started shall we, with all these Animated Christmas Greetings 2014? The teaser…

And Warming Up in the Christmas Bullpen .. Silent Monks “singing” the chorus “Hallelujah” from Handel’s Messiah. The best. Just the best! A group of high school students gave the crowd a treat when they imagined how a group of monks under a vow of silence might put on a Christmas program.

Next up: Amazing Grace and Celtic Woman: When it comes to 21st Century “Strapless Ball Gown Pop Culture”, this is pretty much the pinnacle … I’ll see whatever diversity “twerking pop culture” you got and raise you three Celtic women. Any time!

Ah yes! The traditional family get-together .. Any resemblance to my family’s Christmas dinners is a slur on our reputations and will be answered by lawsuits that will give our enemies a permanent facial twitch. “Teh kitteh” at the head of the “Catmas table” exercising her comme il faut reminds me of one of my long-ago Great Aunts who was forever correcting us kids in manners and etiquette, while completely ignoring it herself!

The Amazing Grace Christmas House was located in Pleasant Grove, Utah and designed and programmed by Richard Holdman. A small little charity box placed in front of the display has raised more than $40,000 for the Utah Make-a-Wish Foundation. The display started in 2006 but traffic became too much of an issue and is no longer running. You doubt me? Here’s the complete show from 2010 in all its 15 glorious minutes of relentless inevitability. You can see why it had traffic backed up on the interstate all the way back to Salt Lake City:

Best home, best illuminations, best songs, best music ‘n light sync, best of everything! Merry Christmas to you all, and while we’re at it, let us never, ever, forget the “Reason for the Season” … Hope you enjoyed these Animated Christmas Greetings 2014 … Sweet dreams everyone!

Star of Bethlehem...

 

Sole` Deo Gloria

 

Face of Jesus by Richard Hook

 

h/t Gerard Vanderleun and American Digest, and personal archives collected over many years …