For generations of New Yorkers and holiday lovers everywhere, there’s something oddly comforting about watching a fireplace on a screen. Whether you click to watch it like the old days on YouTube, or keep it rolling in the background while you’re sipping eggnog, the WPIX Yule Log has become a piece of television folklore worth revisiting.
Below is the classic video footage, the same kind of clip that many folks still seek out online to get that cozy, crackling hearth vibe on their screen.
Once you’ve soaked in the flickering glow, here’s a look at the strangest, coolest, and most Long Island-worthy facts about this quirky holiday tradition:
Crazy Facts About the WPIX Yule Log
- It wasn’t meant to be artsy, it was practical. The Yule Log was dreamed up in 1966 by WPIX general manager Fred Thrower as a holiday gift to New Yorkers without fireplaces. He even wrote a memo suggesting the station cancel regular programming and commercials to show a looping fire with Christmas music instead.
- The first footage was only 17 seconds long. Yep, that tiny loop filmed on 16mm at Gracie Mansion, the NYC mayor’s official residence, became the whole show’s backbone.
- An antique rug got singed during filming. Producers removed the protective grate to get a better shot and a stray spark burned a hole in a valuable carpet. That little mishap kept WPIX from returning to Gracie Mansion later.
- A California fireplace stood in for New York. When the original film wore out and WPIX needed fresh footage, they found a fireplace hundreds of miles away in Palo Alto and shot a longer, smoother loop on 35mm film, the six-minute image most people remember.
- It was one of TV’s earliest “non-programs.” Time magazine later called the Yule Log “the television industry’s first experiment in nonprogramming,” a surreal idea that turned out to be an enormous ratings hit.
- It inspired imitators far and wide. Once WPIX proved a burning log could be must-see content, other stations across the U.S. and even Canada created their own “burning log” or Yule Log programs.
- It wasn’t just for folks without fireplaces. According to fans and creators alike, even households with real hearths tuned in because watching it felt like a collective holiday ritual.
- A lost memo sparked it all. The archived typed note from the original WPIX exec outlined exactly what he hoped to achieve and that humble memo is now a part of Yule Log lore.
Photo: YouTube screen capture.
