TV's "Yule Log" Burns Bright at Age 40

Big news: The Yule Log is 40 years old this year.

What's the Yule Log, you say? If you grew up in the New York metropolitan area, as I did, the words are filled with kitschy nostalgia and conjure a Christmas tradition that transformed TVs into fireplaces that threw no heat. WPIX-TV ran a 7-minute loop of logs burning in a fireplace, the dancing flames keeping beat to Christmas carols, from 1966 to 1989. No commercials, just a repeated loop of video flames signaling that time had stopped for a while and home was the place to be, hearth or no hearth.

If you stared long enough, you could pinpoint when the loop would start anew. "In a way, it was the first music video, and the star was a burning log," Mitch Thrower, whose father came up with the idea, told CBS News.

I'm happy to report the Yule Log is back and available on more screens nationwide. WPIX, now CW11, brought it back in 2001 for a hurting city after 9/11. CW11 is owned by Tribune Broadcasting, and the log and music will appear Christmas morning on the WGN superstation and 10 other Tribune stations, including WXIN-TV in Indianapolis and KTXL-TV in Sacramento. (Check the full list of TV stations and times here.)

If you're on the go over the holidays, you can download a yule log podcast to your video iPods. That's one tiny fireplace, but hey, portable nostalgia is an interesting concept.

So back to the log's birthday. Even though there were lots of years with no fire burning up the screen, CW11/WPIX-TV New York will mark 40 years with The WPIX Yule Log: A Log's Life, an hour-long holiday special about the film loop's history that will air on December 23 at 7:30 p.m. The music has been digitally remastered by a loving fan, Chip Arcuri.

Got a high-def TV? You may be able to tune into a competing yule log on INHD, a high-def network available to more than 24 million homes with HDTVs. The network has been airing its own yule log since 2003, and it will air for 24 hours starting 7 a.m. EST on Christmas. That's one way to showcase your HDTV picture to family and friends.

You can read the whole story about the WPIX Yule Log's resurrection here and here. It's worth your time, especially if the flickering TV flames are among your Christmas-past memories. (You'll learn that while the first fireplace was filmed in New York's Gracie Mansion, the second and longest-running flames were filmed in Palo Alto, California, in the middle of summer!) And if you live in one of the newer markets airing the log, you'll have a chance to start a whole new tradition in your home.

"There's a sentimental attachment to it," number one fan and yule log soundtrack meister Arcuri tells CBS News. "When you watch the Yule Log, at least for me personally, it brings back such poignant and personal memories of growing up."