In For Another 'Silent Night' This Christmas

It looks like this year's Diet of Christmas Films could once again have a 'Silent Night, Deadly Night' theme.

In the 2025 edition of the Christmas Day posts, in which I list all the films I watched heading into December 25th, I pointed out I caught the 1984 horror movie - Silent Night, Deadly Night - as part of my viewing marathon.

It wasn't the only festive slasher I experienced in 2025.. I also caught its 1987 sequel. 

In the post, I teased the possibility of watching more films in the series because - according to the research I carried out in the midst of my binge sessions - I found FOUR more movies with at least three of those being follow-ups from the original.

But, that's not all. 

I missed something else. I learned something else over this past weekend.

There is a 2025 reboot of the first film and it's coming to Netflix a week from today.

I suppose the reason why Amazon had the 1984 movie so prominently positioned on the list of recommendations to me late last year is because of the existence of the new edition. According to the movie's poster, it was released in US cinemas on December 12 of 2025.

There's no doubt in my mind - I have to add this to the watchlist for the Christmas Day post.

This year's A Diet of Christmas Films will be the nineteenth edition. As usual, it's set to go live at 12am GMT on Christmas morning.

I Try A Couple Of The Mandalorian And Grogu Galactic Meals From Burger King

Seeing as it's Star Wars Day 2026, I thought I'd share that I had a couple of meals based on the new movie - The Mandalorian & Grogu - that's coming out later this month.

Burger King has one of the licenses and is offering a bunch of 'Galactic' themed meals that come with colour-changing cups.

I ordered a 'Galactic Chicken Royale' initially. It's similar to what you would usually get with this kind of burger: a crispy chicken breast patty and iceberg lettuce. However, on top of that, the Star Wars themed version also has crispy onions, melted cheese, a cheese sauce and... a green pickle ketchup!

It was very enjoyable, if I say so myself. It had a nice tang to it thanks to the green add-on. 

Here's the wrapping which covered the Chicken Royale. If you look closely, you might be able to see a bit of the green sauce beside The Manadalorian and Grogu.

I received the cup. There are four to collect. I haven't filled it with water to see it change colour, so the image below isn't that great. It does appear as though I have the version with Grogu on it, so that's not bad. The only other one I would want is of The Mandalorian himself.

Unless, of course, I went for all four for investment purposes!

Days later, I ordered another meal because Just Eat offered a fifty-percent deal. I thought I'd try Burger King once more opting for the 'Galactic Double Whopper Meal'.

That particular version of the Whopper contains the usual ingredients but they're also topped with the green pickle ketchup.

Annoyingly. they didn't give me a cup with that order. Therefore, I missed out on adding to the collection.

Cup calamities aside, the Chicken Royale meal was the best of the two. It offered more of a different take contrasted to its original version.

I close with one final comment.

I am wearing Mandalorian and Grogu socks as I write today's post.

May the 4th be with you!

HMV's Dream Cabinet Of Books

I woke up from a dream earlier this morning and, as I was doing so, I was met with a funny coincidence.

In the dream, HMV had set up a cabinet on the wall of my old bedroom. It worked like a mini bar but it contained books. Two books stood out from my recollection of the dream. The first was titled 'Tik-Tok' and had the exact image of Tik-Tok, from Disney's Return to Oz, on the cover. 

I figured out that the book was an autobiography of 'that guy from Return to Oz'. Before writing today's post, I looked the man's name up. I remembered he used to present Blue Peter when I was a child, but couldn't recall his name. 

It was Michael Sundin.

Back to the dream - The next book was the one I wanted the most. It was a tie-in of the Apple TV+ series - For All Mankind. I spent part of the dream trying to work out how to take the book from the shelf without having to pay for it. I was plotting to remove it, read it, and then place it back inside the mini bar bookshelf before HMV could find out it had been used.

I ended up picking the book up. It was a bit weird because it had a novel within a a ring binder (more like a Filofax, I suppose) and there was a section to colour in characters from the series.

And that's all I recall. I returned to Cardiff (not Oz!) and picked up my phone to check for any messages or emails. Once I got to the latter, I noticed Amazon had sent across its daily Kindle deals mailer. I opened it up and scrolled through the short list of titles going for 99p.

I came across one eBook and couldn't help but laugh out loud at the odds of seeing it today. 

'Tin Man' by Sarah Winman. This obviously has nothing to do with Oz other than sharing a similar name as one of the characters, along with Tik-Tok, in L. Frank Baum's fictional land.

Of all the mornings that book title could have came my way, it was the one immediately following a dream where I passed on reading one named 'Tik-Tok'.

What are the odds?!

I Try Sushi For The First Time

Here's something I will not be able to say within the next few minutes.

I have never eaten sushi before

I've always been wary of trying the Japanese food. However, over the past few weeks, I have talked myself into trying the sushi that's available in supermarkets' meal deals. Yes, I know this isn't proper sushi, but - for now (I should put a question mark around here)  - it's my gateway in.

Here's what I've bought. It's a mixture of teriyaki chicken and hoisin duck sushi. Don't forget, it's a little over four months since I first, and last!, ate duck. 

I'm now going off to have my lunch. I'll post an update immediately underneath.

* * *

Okay, so here's what I said to myself as I was eating the lunch.

'F**k me, this is nice!'

I loved it.

It feels like I have wasted a lot of years avoiding this 'dish'. With that said, I am still somewhat reluctant to try proper sushi from a Japanese restaurant. Maybe that's something I should get over considering how much I enjoyed this supermarket version.

So nice! I will absolutely have this Asda version again.

Unfixable

I'm sure I've mentioned that I placed a dog bowl, once owned by my sister's late dog - Spiky, in front of my bedroom TV as a tribute to him.

It had been there on the top since the days following Spiky's passing. I even used it, each autumn, to select the next books I'd read in the annual Booker Prize Marathons. 

Unfortunately, the bowl is no more.

Oreo - who liked to wind me up, every now and again, by taking the things out of the bowl before running away! - accidentally knocked it down last night.

It wasn't the first time Oreo had pushed the bowl over the edge. However, this would turn out to be the last occasion because, upon landing on the floor, it shattered.

Unfixable.

I'm obviously gutted. However, I have to be straight up - I am not as bothered by the loss of the tribute item as I thought I would have been had this happened years ago.

It rested there for over four years. Thankfully, I have other things to remind me of Spiky. For example, a photograph album I created in the days following his passing.

I obviously miss Spiky more than I'll ever miss his bowl. That's the best way to spin it, right?

A Fine Line Between Scambaiting And A Money Grab

I'm not going to name any names, but I have grown somewhat disillusioned by a YouTube scambaiter I had been subscribed to.

It had been a while since I bothered to visit their streams because they seemed to constantly be going on about background stuff that the audience doesn't really need to know. 

When I state that, I mean the business end of their videos. They'd constantly talk about things they were doing to try to monetize their channel. Then they'd spend another portion of the stream asking people to sign up. All before what we're supposed to be there for: to watch/listen to them disturb scammers at work.

YouTube has recently deemed their content to not meet the qualifications for monetisation, so they've tried to move their 'show', or whatever you call it, to other platforms and have set up a Patreon for people to donate.

I was sent a notification by YouTube today informing me of last night's stream. I had a listen. I could only last a few minutes because, again, it was all about the business end of their videos and not what I signed up for.

I'm all for people monetising their work. In this case, however, it feels like the monetisation is the priority ahead of the mission to disrupt scammers.

I believe there should be a balance between content and requests for donations. It feels very lopsided in this case. That's why I've made the decision to move on and find other people with similar mission statements who don't seem laser-focused on the Yankee Dollar.

Taylor's 2026 Update For April

It is getting there.

That's the best sentence I can use right now as it pertains Taylor's Pro Football Gambling Annual 2026.

I'm doing bits and bobs with the research each day, but there's little more I can do right now until the NFL releases the 2026 schedules.

That'll be when everything will fall into place.

Mid-May is when I expect the schedules to come out. Going by previous years, I'll gamble on it being two weeks from now when the little leaks of information start filtering in before the big reveal on May 14th.

I have a date I'd like the book to be published on, but I don't want to go public just yet just in case I (1) jinx it (2) miss the target or (3) BOTH!