In this classic Christmas tale from the Christmas season of 1987, we'll see what happens when the Andrews family gets bitten by the holiday decorating bug, on this...the 18th day of the PEP CULTURE ADVENT CALENDAR.
The source of the story comes from "Laugh #5". And how awesome is it to see the Archie characters sharing the cover with not just Santa Claus, but with Sabrina the Teen-Age Witch and Josie and the Pussycats? Isn't it cool how the holidays can bring everybody together? And the name of the story is "An Award Winning Christmas". I guess this sets the stage for some sort of competition involving Christmas lights? Let's see how this unfolds.
We descend on the Andrews family household a few days before Christmas Eve, and Archie is in an uncharacteristically bad mood. And when Fred Andrews joins him looking out the window, he starts to get upset as well. Across the street from their house is their neighbour, Mr. Gaskill. And Mr. Gaskill is a legend in the neighbourhood. For years, his house has been the undisputed champion of the Christmas Eve holiday display contest. No other house in the entire town of Riverdale has managed to compete with him. Not even the Lodge Mansion, surprisingly enough! Of course, Mary Andrews doesn't see this as much of a problem. Truth be told, she recognizes the hard work that Mr. Gaskill puts into his holiday display, and every year seems to be more beautiful than the last.
However, Fred is in no mood to join in the warm fuzzies of the holiday season. His mission for the holidays is to put Mr. Gaskill out of commission this Christmas, and he sets out to the nearest hardware store to buy up as many strings of Christmas lights he can get. He takes Archie along for the ride - which I assume is because Archie can carry more boxes of holiday lights. Given Archie's penchant for having butterfingers, I'm hoping that Fred doesn't trust Archie to put up the lights. He may end up accidentally burning down their house!
The following few panels show Mr. Andrews and Archie feverishly hammering nails and stapling lights to the exterior of the Andrews family home, with Mary shaking her head in astonishment and disbelief. She can't believe that her husband and son are so obsessed with winning a holiday lights contest that they seem to have lost the true spirit of what Christmas is all about. And on a side note, it's these interesting panel designs and crystal clear images that make me a fan of Rex Lindsey's work. He has such a distinct style that makes all of the characters pop, and aside from Samm Schwartz, nobody drew Jughead better than Lindsey did in my opinion. I still don't quite understand his desire to give Archie a mullet in his stories from the late 1980s...but then, most guys I knew in that time period had that style. Including myself, I'm afraid to admit.
And no. There are no pictures. I burned them all.
Ahem...anyway...it's time to test out the holiday display, and for what it is worth, the Andrews family household looks amazing...well, as amazing as it could be for a comic book that was printed over thirty years ago anyway. Seriously though, with a brightly lit snowman on the front lawn, every window and door on the house with lights around it, and Santa and his reindeer on the roof, the Andrews house looks like it should be on the front of a Christmas card. Certainly the Andrews family have a great shot of winning the holiday decoration contest this year.
However, what the Andrews family doesn't realize is that sometimes strings of lights can be defective. And before you can say the word brownout, one of the strings that Archie and his dad bought goes dead minutes before the judging! Archie and Mr. Andrews are upset at this development, and their rage increases when across the street, Mr. Gaskill notices their house and starts to approach them. Fred is not happy about this at all, as he's convinced that the only reason Mr. Gaskill is coming over is to rub their failure in their faces.
Instead, he brings them a single white light bulb. One that will fit the string of lights that went out on their window display. Archie quickly grabs the light bulb and screws it in place, restoring brightness to the once blacked out string. Fred cannot believe that Mr. Gaskill would help them out like this, but Mr. Gaskill - understanding the real meaning of Christmas - states that it was the neighbourly thing to do on Christmas. And with that declaration, Fred starts to feel a little bit sick to his stomach as the judges approach their street to look over everybody's decorations.
It appears that Mr. Gaskill was the angel in disguise for the Andrews family, bathing them in a lucky beam of brilliant white light.
Fred Andrews got his Christmas wish granted. His house finally wins the coveted award for best decorated house in Riverdale. But he's not happy about it. In fact, now that he has the trophy, he almost sort of wishes he didn't win it. It wasn't about the trophy, or the lights, or the satisfaction of kicking Gaskill's butt in the contest. Once Mr. Gaskill shared his light bulb with Mr. Andrews that allowed him to win, it was almost as if Mr. Gaskill planted a light bulb of intelligence and wisdom inside of Fred's head about what Christmas is really about. It's about sharing, compassion, and opening your hearts to everyone who needs it.
And in celebration of Fred Andrews actually understanding that Mr. Gaskill is not the enemy, but a friend, Mary invites all of them inside for some Christmas treats and Christmas songs.
And that's one offer that NOBODY can turn down.
We are now in the home stretch of holiday fun, and I've saved the best for last. Tomorrow will be the nineteenth day of the PEP CULTURE ADVENT CALENDAR, and I've kind of left one character out of the loop until now. Tomorrow, we'll be featuring Reggie Mantle in the holiday story...and in this tale, we find that even the lousiest of people can sometimes have a heart as large (and complex) as a three thousand piece jigsaw puzzle.
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