 Good morning, John. This Christmas I wanted to share something with you, something that I love. It's a book by Aaron Kubo that I saw as a Twitter thread 12 months ago, and I loved it so much, I wanted to turn it into a video. So, join me for a reading of The Christmas Creature. Gather my children this winter night. The air is crisp and the stars are bright. Turn off the tunes and take a pause. Cease your thoughts of Santa Claus. And hark the season's vital feature, appeasing the great Christmas creature. His trials are strange and tricky too, but heed my words and you'll make it through. The first test would be the Christmas boy. He'll knock and ask for your favorite toy. Hand it over and hold back your tears. You'll get it back, so have no fear. The second test is the Asking Bird. You must tell the truth with every word. The Christmas creature can hear your lies and watch you through your own dog's eyes. The third test comes on Christmas morning when you receive your Christmas warning. And yes, you are allowed to share. Call up your friends and compare. After that, you'll know it's time to make your dreaded Christmas climb. When you hear a high-pitched shriek most shrill, coming from your hometown's highest hill. So grab your offerings real quick. A lock of hair. A real good stick. If you've been naughty, a pint of blood, a haunted chalice, a mound of mud, he'll judge your gift, so beware. Use a bow and wrap with care. Climb the hill, and as you get nearer, take out your special Christmas mirror. You mustn't look directly at his face or your memories will be replaced. Walk backwards to him and throw your gift into the yawning blue, not red, rift. Toss it true and toss it quick before the fog around you gets too thick. Now the Christmas creature will ruminate on your special Christmas fate. And if you've done everything just right, a bong bing bong will ring through the night. The Christmas creature's great eyes will glow, your stolen toy will appear in the snow, mostly the same, but a little wet. And now you're in the creature's debt. You're in the creature's debt. It's tradition, so don't be scared. And Merry Christmas. You've been spared. Aesthetic is weird. Like I would have to look really hard and for a long time to have a good idea of why I love that story so much. Like I see a lot of stuff on Twitter and rarely do I reach out to the person who made this stuff and say like I would like to license that for a video. And then I'm gonna get my friend Sam to animate it and I'm gonna license some music for it and record narration for like two hours to get two minutes of performance. I don't know. I also don't know why I spent like 10 hours over the last few weeks working on my piece of the unofficial TikTok ratatouille musical. The one thing we should know about this is that taste is not like universally good or bad. It's our values and our world views and our experiences and our ideologies. Like the Vlogbrothers Project for Awesome 2021 calendar available now designed by Megan Tengas. Like why do I love it so much? I think it goes a long way down. And I think it's a good idea to examine our aesthetics, but I also think it's a good idea to indulge in our aesthetics. And thus Christmas creature and ratatouille musical and Project for Awesome calendar in these freaking socks. Erin Kubo is selling physical copies of the Christmas creature on her website. You can get those at the link in the description. Same with the calendars in the socks. The ratatouille musical is not for sale. John, I'll see you on Tuesday.