Look! It’s Vincent Price and a Christmas tree! If that doesn’t make you feel all merry and bright, I don’t know what will.
Today’s post is brought to you courtesy of whoever tweeted another festive pic of Vincent Price that crossed my feed yesterday, one where he was buying a Christmas tree with his daughter. “What other Christmassy Vincent Price things might there be?” I thought. And then I Googled and I found the most beautiful thing: Vincent Price narrating Dickens’ A Christmas Carol:
It’s a short telling of the story from 1949, clocking in at a mere half hour (and apparently it’s the oldest existing telly adaptation of the story). It’s an absolute joy to listen to, especially with a lovely mug of mulled wine.
And just so I don’t feel like I’ve cheated with the length of this blogpost, here are two more lovely Christmas things from great icons of horror what I love:
Christopher Lee’s magnificent heavy metal renditions of Christmas songs! A staple of any half-decent Christmas playlist. As well as Silent Night and Little Drummer Boy in 2012, he also released Jingle Hell in 2013, and Darkest Carol, Faithfuls Sing (to the tune of Hark the Herald Angel’s Sing) in 2014, making the buying of a new Lee Christmas single a short, but very lovely, Christmas tradition.
And, of course, I have to include something for Peter Cushing. Now, he first appeared in a Morecambe and Wise* sketch in 1969, playing King Arthur. He didn’t get paid. He then came back for five further appearances, each time demanding his money. His final appearance was in the 1980 Christmas Special where, after a mere 11 years, he finally got hold of his ten quid.
Here’s my favourite of the appearances, which isn’t from a Christmas Special, (the Sawing A Peter Cushing In Half – from the 1970 Christmas Special – isn’t in the Cushing Society archives) but it *does* have Peter Cushing singing and dancing and comedy-ing ALL AT ONCE, and in a top hat, as you do:
And here’s his final appearance, in 1980, where he gets his money AT LAST! Gosh, I love Peter Cushing.
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*Dear young and/or non-British people, if you don’t know who Morecambe and Wise were, this is a handy note where I can tell you: they were an incredibly successful comedy double-act, most especially in the seventies. To give you an idea of how big they were: in 1977, 28 million people, half the UK population, watched their Christmas Special. (Extra exciting fact: this figure is disputed, but their specials did command audiences in excess of 20 million.)
Lizbeth Myles 
I grew up watching Hammer Horror so Price, Cushing and Lee hold a special place in my heart. (Especially Cushing because of his Doctor Who connection) And, as a fan of Heavy Metal, I am well aware of Lee’s secret life in Heavy Metal. I love his recital of a spoken word passage originally performed by Orson Welles for the reworked version of the song Dark Avenger. Lee told British magazine Metal Hammer: “Heavy metal has, since its very beginning, surprised in the best sense of the word, and people all over the world. To be involved in that, and to show people that even now I can still surprise my audience, it’s very important. I’ve spent my entire career taking risks. Acting is a risk, it has to be. I’ve never been afraid, and I’ve done my best to take those risks.”