Fay's 12 Days of Christmas (1995)

Santa Fay, nowhere near New Mexico.

Fay and her three pups return for what should be a holiday classic in more households than already is. The same light-hearted, absurd comedy displayed in "William Wegman's Alphabet Soup" can be found here. Released the same year as "Alphabet Soup", the set-ups are similar.  The twelve days are counted up, each with the dogs forming the corresponding number, then a scene is acted out for each day's activity (making Christmas cards, baking cookies, decorating the tree, etc).

As this is geared for the preschool age, there's a lot of repetitive counting, shape recognition and color identification. On the 4th day Fay reads a book that illustrates the importance of sharing. Through "shrewd dealings" one of the pups acquires all of the other pups' toys, but decides she still isn't happy and gives them back because she would rather have friends than possessions. There's a good deal of teaching going on here, but never so obvious that a child would resist it (I don't think, anyway). Wegman's narration is calm, soothing and loaded with jokes inserted for the adult's benefit. A great example of Wegman's humor can be found during a segment where the dogs are demonstrating how to make snowflakes out of paper. During this scene aimed at 3-year-olds he says "Did you know that snow is solid precipitation in the form of white or translucent crystals of various shapes originating in the upper-atmosphere as frozen particles of water vapor?" I laughed out loud at that line, and it wasn't the only time during the 30 minutes that happened.

I'm looking forward to trying this out on my grandson next Christmas. He'll be three then, so the educational bits will be right on target. We're already working on this stuff now, but it'll be fun to see his reaction. I'm thinking the pacing will be too slow for him, though. It was just right for me.

5/5