SeedSing's Advent Calendar of Awesome Holiday Television Programs: Day 15 - "Futurama: Xmas Story"

The pre-Christmas Day season of Advent is upon us. Here at SeedSing we love the chocolaty goodness of getting a piece of candy once a day until we get to open our presents. As our gift to you we will present a new awesome holiday television program for every day of Advent. This is the greatest tv of the season. Enjoy.

Day 15: "Futurama - Xmas Story"

Original air date - December 19th, 1999

Opened Doors: One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen

Christmas has changed a lot over the course of human history. Many Christians associate December 25th with the birth of Jesus. The earliest Christmas celebrations were usually pagan affairs. Many people associate the December 25th as the shortest day of the year, so a big celebration takes place to get everyone in a good mood. Today we look at Christmas as a time for gift giving and togetherness. What will Christmas look like a thousand years from now?

The Fox animated show Futurama imagined how a lot of the world would be like in the year 3000. Our hero Fry is from the 20th century, so things are very foreign to him in this advanced world. In the second season episode "Xmas Story", one of the things he gets homesick, or timesick, for is celebrating Christmas. Thankful the Planet Express crew, and most of humanity still celebrate the timeless holiday of Xmas, there are just a few things different. Pine trees are long extinct, so your traditional Xmas tree is one of the palm variety. There is still gift giving, but not necessarily from Santa. Santa is quite different in the 30th century.

In the distant future, society decided to make Santa real by building a robot that would deliver toys to the nice, and punish the naughty. Due to a programming error, being naughty was very easy to achieve. The majority of the planet was naughty, and every December 25th Santa delivered his punishment. That punishment came from the end of a few high powered guns. The new Xmas tradition Fry must learn is to barricade himself from Santa's carnage.

Not really knowing the severity of the tradition, Fry gets caught outside when Santa's reign of terror begins. He is trying to recapture Lela's present, a parrot, and Santa comes to deliver his Xmas purge. Bender is a big fan of the murderbot, but everyone else is fleeing for their lives. In the end, Santa has all the naughty Planet Express employees in his sights. All are naughty, except Dr. Zoidberg, he made Santa's good list. Fry's first new Xmas was about to end until Santa is tricked back into the chimney. Following a big explosion, the large built not so jolly robot is sent into the upper atmosphere. No more Santa until next year. The crew rejoices by singing the classic carol "Santa Claus is Gunning You Down" New holiday memories for Fry and his friends.

We get attached to the traditions of our favorite holidays, but time moves on. As kids we all bought into the idea of a jolly St Nick delivering toys. As we get older most of us accept the fact that the magic was largely an illusion. In the far future we will have the technology to make our fairy tale traditions come to life. The question is, will these new creations honor our dreams, or will they thirst for our blood. Happy Xmas anyways.

RD

RD Kulik is the Head Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Next to Bender, he really wants to hang out with Tiny TimBot's creator. That person has some creativity.

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