On Boxing Day, I got to wondering about where and when the modern custom of watching a pre-recorded fireplace came from. Before there were a million versions of this available on YouTube,
I used to have a DVD version of a similar video that I got sometime in
the early 2000s or so - both with and without "festive" holiday music (I
preferred without).
But the history of fireplace films is actually a lot older than I thought it was. Thankfully, Wikipedia has some interesting info on the subject.
The first known filming of a holiday hearth goes all the way back to 1966! The OG was a television program called The Yule Log that aired on WPIX, a TV station in New York City, set to holiday music. That one film spawned a whole host of imitations over the years, and has become a popular subject on YouTube as well, with countless variations and themes.
It got me thinking about the allure of fire, how humans have been so drawn to it for their entire existence, so much so that even the image of an animated GIF fireplace, as shown above, is calming and hypnotic to watch; how people seem to never get tired of campfires, scented candles and even virtual fireplaces. Even though fire is inherently dangerous - it can so easily become destructive - we find a sense of safety and comfort in it.
Click on the fire above for the full Wiki article about The Yule Log film!
