The Cinnamon Bear 🐻🌟

[Breanna]

Christmas is such a magical time, isn't it? Personally I'm not one for big celebrations but one thing I do every year is listen to a very *magical* little radio show from the 1930's called The Cinnamon Bear. 

It's rather silly but full of charm. I'm not sure the little bear's Irish accent is authentic 😂 but he does his best. I thought it would be fun to do a little listen-along throughout the month. For those who aren't up for listening to singing bears, I'll post a description of the episode in the comments each day. 

The first one is below! Feel free to listen ahead, of course.

Ep. 1: Paddy O'Cinnamon

Twins Judy and Jimmy are writing their letters to Santa when their mother asks them to help go through a treasured box of Christmas tree ornaments. The tinsel, ornaments and lights are all there, but the silver star is missing! Uncle Jed might have put it away in the attic so the siblings head up the steep stairs to search.

After racing up the stairs, they spot an old spinning wheel and a music box...and there's the old trunk mother told them to look for! It's heavy and covered with an old crazy quilt, but still no silver star.

The children begin to dig through the trunk and find some curious little things: a box of broken ornaments, a golden glass aeroplane, and a teeny little teddy bear with a green ribbon round his neck.

And, oh boy, there's a telescope too! Jimmy takes a look and it makes everything a million times bigger. The teddy bear is the smallest Judy has ever seen so the pair decide they might be able to take a look at him with the telescope they found. Bigger he grows indeed but then...he moves!

Garah! Garooh!

He talks! Judy is a bit frightened and asks Jimmy to ask the teddy who he is. He sings:

I'm the Cinnamon Bear
With the Shoe-button eyes
And I'm looking for someone
To take by surprise
I go growling and prowling
Each night after dark
But the folks say my growl's
Just a cinnamon bark...

Paddy O'Cinnamon is his name and the children ask him if he's seen their beloved silver star.

"Oh I've seen it lots of times," he says. But it's gone now. It's been stolen away by the Crazy Quilt Dragon who's terribly fond of shiny, bright things. Judy is rather distraught about the star, but Paddy offers to help them find it. He think Crazy Quilt will have taken it to the Lollipop mountains which is just through a little hole in the wall by the music box.

"But we'll never fit through there," says Jimmy. "Oh, yes you will," Paddy replies, "all you have to do is de-grow. Just de-grow! Get smaller and smaller and smaller until you're four inches high like me!"

The children think that is rather impossible, but the Cinnamon Bear says he'll tell them how to do it. 

See you tomorrow! 😉

[pgn]

I suspected the giant would've been shrunk at some point, but not that one! 🤣

[Cleoriff]

I think you could be right @TallTrees ...I wonder if any of the gang have any? 😣

[Breanna]

I promised 10, yes 10(!) episodes today so let's get into this story

For all the quips and silly nonsense, I do highly recommend listening to the episodes if you've got the inclination. 

As we all know, the children finally recovered their precious Silver Star from the Wintergreen Witch. Unfortunately the Crazy Quilt dragon sat on it so we need the super glue.

Crazy Quilt, being a good friend, has the idea that they ought to go visit the good Queen Melissa, who is the ruler of Maybeland. She is generally very smart about these things and has a bit of magic herself. 

Once they arrive to the castle, Queen Melissa gives them magic instructions that must be read in total darkness. There's not much of that around Maybeland and so the four head to a place called the Wishing Woods. She also mentions they ought to find someone named Nicki Froodle, but doesn't tell them how to find him.

On they way there, they meet a crocodile named Snapper Snick. And wouldn't you know it, he gobbles up Queen Melissa's magic instructions to fix the Silver Star. 

Everyone's mightily upset at him but he explains that he can read by eating. And guess where it's totally dark? A crocodile's belly!

He tells them they need to go to the Wishing Well so that they can wish their star fixed and whole again. The Wishing Woods is not very easy to navigate, but with the help of an alarm clock-eating ostrich named Oliver, they find their way to the well.

As they're thinking about their wish, Paddy O'Cinnamon leans in for a closer look down the well...and he falls right in. His poor stuffings will get so wet!

They sadly only have one wish and the children can't very well leave their good friend the Cinnamon Bear in the Wishing Well, so they use it to wish him out. Poor Paddy is wet and soaking but they set out to try and find another way to fix their star. 

On their way out of the woods, they encounter some very shady characters called the Muddlers (my personal favourite villains of this story). They're just all around bad and drag all four of our heroes (not sure if Crazy Quilt counts) into the terrible river of mud where they leave them to be sucked in!

Thankfully the Cocklebur Cowboys stumble upon them and pull them to safety. So they can continue on following their noses, as the Cinnamon Bear suggests. 

While traversing the Purple Plain, they are set upon by natives who think that Crazy Quilt's pelt would make a fine gift for someone special. As they are pursued, Judy tries to think of anything they might trade in return for their safety, with the Silver Star smashed to bits, they don't have much else. That is, until Judy remembers her little looking glass, the one she used to terrify the Wintergreen Witch.

They are happy to trade for the little mirror and just as they leave, wouldn't you know it...the Wintergreen Witch appears and now they've been caught out without any protection!

The Wintergreen Witch isn't much liked by the people of Maybeland, which is probably why she lives on the remote Island of Obie. Everyone keep a close eye on her when she leaves. Thankfully the Grand Wonky arrives just in time to banish her away to Looking Glass Valley (that's going to be a nightmare for her, I tell ya).

The Grand Wonky has some ideas about how they might fix their star and tells them they should go search for the Singing Tree. They search and search and before they find it, a Flying Hat comes round with a note attached. The note instructs them all to climb inside where they find chairs just all their right sizes and then the hat whisks them away to the Land of Ice and Snow. 

When they arrive, they find a Snowman and out of ideas, they ask him where they might find Nicki Froodle. It turns out the Snowman is quite familiar with him--he's one of Santa's elves...

[pgn]

Those Cocklebur Cowboys sound a happy sort of crowd... 

Nicki Froodle reminds me of the pixie helper scene in Hogfather...

Another unlinkable video here: https://youtu.be/cSOUIuGcY74

[Breanna]

They made a Hogfather movie 😱. I know what I'll be watching tomorrow night after work @pgn 

[pgn]

Here is the Pixie clip:

https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkx3SeZcIlPYKA4DIGhtCQLLisUF0ZNBdHA

[Breanna]

Alright y'all we're back on track. Three episodes left and three days til Christmas. Let's see if they've got that silver star patched up yet.

Ep. 24 The Parade

After arriving in the Snow Country, by way of the magic hat, the children and the Cinnamon Bear finally meet Santa Claus. He knows just the person to fix the silver star and takes them all to Jack Frost's house. 

After a bit of close inspection, Jack applies some magic snow cement and like magic, the star is whole yet again. Finally they've got the silver star just as it should be! The cement has to set so Jack Frost placed it on the window sill to dry. 

When Judy went to check on the star, it sure gone. Swiped by some mysterious thief. Just as good as it had never been there. Santa and Jack Frost suspect this may be the work of a group called The Bad Dolls and send out a detachment of tin soldiers to track them.

They head back to Santa's workshop to regroup and figure out just what to do. As Judy and Jimmy and the Cinnamon Bear explore the workshop and have a bit of fun, Santa receives a message...

The Bad Dolls have been spotted by one of Santa's men Captain Tintop. A skirmish has broken out and they're being led by an unidentified subject...who's all green. I wonder who that could be?

"Well that sounds like..." start Judy, but Jimmy stops her, "It can't be, Judy. It just can't be. She's trapped in Looking Glass Valley."

But then the speaker starts again, Maybegram just received from Queen Melissa of Maybeland:

WARNING.

CITIZENS OF SNOWLAND, SANTA CLAUS, JUDY, AND JIMMY.

BE ON LOOKOUT FOR WINTERGREEN WITCH.

ESCAPED FROM LOOKING GLASS VALLEY ASSISTED BY ANOTHER WITCH WITH BLACK CAT TATTOOED ON LEFT ELBOW.

WINTERGREEN LAST SEEN FLYING OVER BOTTOMLESS ABYSS ON BROOMSTICK HEADED FOR THE SNOW COUNTRY.

BEWARE SHE IS DANGEROUS.

Judy and Jimmy are feeling properly terrified but Santa tells them it'll be alright. He sends Nicki Froodle to dispatch air support.

To take their minds off the situation, Santa takes the children to his his own personal steam engine. He even teaches Jimmy to drive it!

As they go along, Santa tells the toys in the workshop it's time for the Christmas Tree Parade. It's how they all get inspected before Christmas. There's trumpets and lights and marching and everything.

"Santa Claus, that was wonderful!" says Judy as she applauds. As the Parade ends Nicki Froodle returns with a message for Santa. 

Captain Tintop is waiting in his office, and he's got the silver star!

[pgn]

Captain Tintop and his superior, General Goldtop, are starting to look suspiciously guilty of something...?

[Breanna]

I'm wondering what magic they used to get the star away from the witch if she was so powerful and dangerous!

[Cleoriff]

All getting too much for my brain to work out. Quite honestly, there are many villains in this story. 😂