Updated December 24, 2010

christmas2010-3139731

This is my Oklahoma City Christmas 2010 post. The background tune for all but one of the videos below is taken from the very fine 2003 movie Love Actually in which actor Bill Nighy plays an over-the-hill rocker (Billy Mack) trying to make a comeback with a hit Christmas tune. The full video clip showing his performance, only parts of which are shown in the movie, appears below.

loveactuallys-3593821 billnighy_billymack-7354914

If you want, you can play or download the MP3 tune here (left-click to play, right-click to download — depending on your web browser, select save link as … or save target as…) or something like that.

Video: Mesta Park, Heritage Hills, St. Anthony &nbsp Video: Billy Mack
Video: Old Fashioned Christmas   Video: Downtown
Photos: Mesta Park, Heritage Hills, St. Anthonys   Downtown Photos

THE VIDEOS

In all of the videos in this post, you can click the small icon in the lower right corner of the video viewer for a full screen view.

A Christmas Greeting From Old Oklahoma City

The video below consists of various photos of decorations in Mesta Park, Heritage Hills, and St. Anthony Hospital. Everything is old even if it’s new — St. Anthony’s origins date to 1898 and the Mesta Park and Heritage Hills homes have their beginnings around 1902. Many of the photos used in the video also appear separately below, after all videos.


You Know I Love Christmas I Always Will …

The video below shows rocker Billy Mack together with a little help from his friends — ala Robert Palmer’s Addicted To Love video — performing the tune first mentioned. The video gets pretty cheeky around the middle so don’t watch it if seeing women’s derrieres makes you want to shoot one or both of your eyes out. And, yes, Chaz Hill of Dustbury acclaim, this one contains the promised shoes, just for you … if you’re watching.


So This Is Christmas

As charming as the above may be to some, it does not capture the nostalgic or religious nature of Christmas remembered by most. My friend Carolyn Cuskey, curator of the Atkinson Center in Midwest City, forwarded me a Power Point file that she’d received from someone else but the author of which was unknown. It’s a gorgeous presentation of old-time Christmas’s set to John Lennon’s “So This Is Christmas.” I attempted to identify the file’s origins but did not succeed, except to say that similar files were found in Russian websites. Enjoy the charm and beauty of Christmas’s past with the music of John Lennon, below. You can download very nice and larger Power Point file here and email it to your friends.



Downtown Oklahoma City 2010
The photos in this video were taken on December 9 and 23, 2010.


THE PHOTOGRAPHS

The Mesta Park photos focus on the home of the Don Hawkins family. Since 2007, he has dazzled and entertained the neighborhood with the lavish Christmas display set to music played on his home-grown FM radio station — set your car radio to 101.1 FM and listen to the synchronized music and watch the stunning display. The flash file I put together above doesn’t do the display justice at all. The home is located at 930 N.W. 19th Street, which is the southeast corner of N.W. 19th & Olie (one block east of Western). Of course, the best view is in person, but Don maintains several real-time videos at his website, Mesta Lights.

Click on any of the photos for a 1024 pixel wide view.

Mesta Park Photos

mesta1c_510-1209589

mesta1g_510-5824168

mesta1h_510-7473333

mesta1j_510-7965665

mesta1w_510-7761838

mesta1z_510-5315798

mesta3b_510-9327961

mesta4a_510-4147790

mesta8d_510-6247994

mesta9b_510-3484212

Heritage Hills Photos

hhills1b_510-2745448

hhills2b_510-9526177

hhills3e_510-7412873

hhills3g_510-9810129

hhills3i_510-1874836

hhills4a_510-8392770

hhills5a_510-3847557

St. Anthony Hospital Photos

stann1b_510-6373321

stann1d_510-9414219

stann3a_510-6411429

stann2a_510-9851596

Downtown & Bricktown Still Shots
Taken on December 9 and 23, 2010

aa0a_510-3778327

aa0b_510-6291941

aa0c_510-7339441

aa0d_510-5817131

aa1a_510-1521897

aa1b_510-2996126

aa2a_510-6318678

aa2b_510-4132611

aa3a_510-8915177

aa4a_510-5635907

aa4b_510-1305711

devon1b_510-4319154

devon1f_510-5148499

devon2b_510-7256152

devon3a_510-4423691

devon3b_510-9744331

devon3c_510-5591109

devon3d_510-9217957

devon3e_510-5431401

bricktown01_510-4447445

bricktown02_510-4038473

bricktown03_510-1332680

bricktown04_510-1128807


I wish each and all of you a 2010 Merry Christmas!

Go To Top