A Bitter Spirit

Day 17: Hermey

How do you solve a problem like Hermey? You know, Hermey. The misfit elf from Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer? Anyway...here’s a man, er, elf who doesn’t like his job and clearly cares more about his hair than his fellow elves do. And haven’t we all been in his shoes? That’s probably why we can relate to Hermey so well. We’ve all been that guy at some point in our lives.

Day 16: Clarice

Elizabeth has Mr. Darcy.  Ron has Hermoine.  Katniss has both Peeta and Gale.  And Rudolph has Clarice (and we're not talking about Jody Foster in Silence of the Lambs either!). Clarice is the fetching doe who doesn’t care that Rudolph’s honker is bright red beacon. She even defies her parents' orders and joins the search party for her crimson-beaked beau. For that,  she definitely earns a place on Santa’s Nice List and a spot on our advent calendar.

Day 15: Virginia

Meet Virginia. A young girl with a question. A question for a newspaper. (Remember newspapers?) Virginia O'Hanlon asked her father if Santa Claus really existed. He famously replied, “if you see it in the [New York] Sun, it's so.” Taking her father at his word, she wrote a letter to the editor of The Sun. And a few days laters, one of the most famous editorials, assuring the young girl that there was a Santa, appeared in the paper. And a Christmas classic was born.

Day 14: Prancer

Prancer, in our minds, is Santa’s gayest reindeer. He’s there, working the sleigh like a champ, holding his own with all those straight reindeer. That’s just one of the reasons he’s on Santa’s Nice list. In fact, he’s beyond Nice. He’s Fabulous.

Day 13: Karen

Kate has a special place in her heart for Karen, the heroine of Frosty the Snowman (the classic animated special). Back in the day, Kate was known as Karin and she thought it was pretty awesome to have the hero of a story a) be a girl and b) have the same name (homophonically-speaking). Karen clearly makes the Nice list (she freakin' saved Frosty!) and deserves her own drink. Her classic scene in Frosty where she is shivering on the train is where our inspiration started.