Home Is Where The Virtual Hearth Is

Television long ago replaced the fireplace as the central gathering place in the American home, which adds to the layers of McLuhanesque irony hidden in the annual Yule Log video. Fortunately, the spotlight shines even brighter on the world’s most famous log this year, as The New York Daily News reports:

Generations have sat raptly in front of the television on Christmas Day, mesmerized by a holiday classic: “The Yule Log.”

Now, for the first time in the storied log’s 40-year history, secrets of the burning timber will be revealed.

WPIX/Ch. 11 presents “The WPIX Yule Log: A Log’s Life,” Dec. 23 at 7 p.m.

Hopefully they’ll put it up on YouTube in time for Christmas. In the meantime, the above clip should help get you in the mood, though you’ll have to keep hitting play after its short run, rather than waiting for it to automatically loop.