An Avatar Christmas – page 19
You can really tell that this comic is being drawn by a guy from The South, not just because I thought about a restaurant still having tables out in December, but because I could so easily take a real picture of it.
Also, fun fact: this was hands down the most complicated of these pages to put together, taking several whole days to move all the elements around and get everything in place… so it was a LOT of fun when I accidentally saved the finished file under the wrong name, which sent it to the wrong place, which briefly left me genuinely afraid I’d forgotten to save it AT ALL. The joys of cartooning.
The Eggnog Burger’s Layla’s, the Eggnog Nugget’s for Trigger, and the box of Concentrated Eggnog Smell was ordered by Ichabod in hopes that Avatar would be able to enjoy it.
No Xalgoxnogg? No artificially-eggnog-flavored-eggnog? Those are my favorites!
Outdoor tables in December are not exclusive to The South, even if you limit yourself to the 48 contiguous states – I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, and I’ve seen some around here. They’re probably more common around Los Angeles and San Diego, as well as in Arizona and New Mexico. Going further, I imagine outdoor tables in December are common in Hawaii (though maybe not on the big island this year due to the volcanic eruptions). Considering other countries, I would guess that almost any place in the tropics or southern hemisphere has a decent chance of having restaurants with tables outside in December, unless it’s high in the mountains.
Meh, it’s all a myth, perpetrated on us by the upper New England states through Hollywood/pop culture, that their “White/Snowy” Christmas is the “real” Christmas, so convincingly that the rest of us like Blitz feel compelled to apologize for deviating from the norm – but if you look at an online map of places that average have snow on the ground at Christmas, it’s maybe 1/4 of the country – our snowless Christmas is the norm, and snowmen and snowdrifts is the oddity. I suspect Frosty The Snowman is behind it, and/or possibly the Illuminati. Rebel against the deception!! Overthrow the myth!! Down with snowy Christmas!! :p
Honestly, I’d blame the midwest. They get as much or more snow as New England, and have generally been treated as “real america” for like a hundred years. Hell, most of my Christmases growing up in MA didn’t have much or any snow on the day itself.
(But yes, the frosty Illuminati are definitely to blame for Ohio’s cultural strength)
Oh yeah, The Midwest gets snow too, but it’s New York & LA who make all the media (with the latter deferring to the former in terms of holiday entertainment) and pretend that everyplace else doesn’t exist, both within the US and abroad.
I was referencing that Hollywood seems to regard the Midwest as the quintessential American experience, yes. We are all in agreement here!
Most of the world’s population lives in the Northern Hemisphere, simply because most of the world’s pleasant & available land is in the Northern Hemisphere. As such, most of the world is in, or entering, Winter during what is known as “The Christmas season”. Winter, as a season, is known for a few things, but mostly the cold, commonly represented by snow, which itself only comes about in either the farthest reaches of the planet or at Winter. “The Christmas Season” also late enough into Winter that there’s a likely chance of snow, while early enough that people are unlikely to be sick of said snow yet. Additionally, if you remove snow from the equation, you’ll either be left with hail, sleet, or cold & constant rains, none of which can easily be twisted to suggest anything positive in the way that Snow has.
With all of this information aligned, Snow is the Xmas symbol simply because it’s quick, easy, dirty, and everyone in media loves abusing stereotype shorthand.
That’s the thing though, the vast majority of that Northern Hemisphere population will never ever see a snowy Christmas – so, though it may be winter, snow remains a myth. You’re right though, it really is just lazy media doing what’s easiest and abusing cliches. Plus they have to convince the other >80% of us to buy that fake snow spray stuff to make it “look like Christmas”