Spring Loaded: A Message From the Editor
My Pez Christmas Tree
Pez Poetry

Spring Loaded: A Message from the Editor | top

Hello and happy December from Pezhead Monthly! It took me pretty much all of last month to recover from my wild Pez October, which featured TWO Pez events and a plethora of Pez scores. And when you throw Thanksgiving into the mix? Man, I think I need a nap just thinking about it. But life is good and I can't complain.

I mainly spent November bouncing around from store to store and picking up Pez here and there, as you'll see in my score recap below. I also saw 2 movies in theaters, including Eternals (fairly good, thanks laregely to rock-bottom expectations) and Ghostbusters Afterlife (lots of fun and heavy on the nostalgia). This means that for the first time in a long while, I just about broke even on my AMC Theaters A-List membership... unless you count the popcorn and Coke (and I choose not to count the popcorn and Coke, thank you very much). And of course, there was Thanksgiving. We hosted it at our house and it was good time. There is so much to be thankful for and it is very important to stop and reflect on that.

Speaking of thankfulness, I have an attitude of gratitude for the Virtual Pez Convention (VPC). As I mentioned in last month's issue, VPC convention hosts Landon and Morgan were kind enough to allow me to be featured for a brief poetry break for the 2021 VPC Fall Fest and Charity Auction. For this event, I recited one of my original poems, "A Pezhead's Fear." And because it was Halloween, I dressed up as one of my idols, Mr. "Weird Al" Yankovic. I am pleased to share that the video is now live on the VPC website. You can check it out here. And here is a screenshot of me mid-poem, with a special appearance by part of my Batman Pez display in the background.

My November Pez scores came from a variety of places. From GetGo, I picked up 2 dispensers from the new Sing 2 set, Gunter the pig and Johnny the gorilla. From Cracker Barrel, I picked up one of the Eternals collector sets (Kro and Celestial). From CVS (dot com), I picked up the new Office collector's tin, featuring Michael, Dwight, Jim, and Pam. The tin is shaped like a briefcase and really looks great! From Target, I picked up the new Mandalorian box set. While the dispensers are not new, the design of the box set is: when it was first released last year, our little Grogu's name was not yet announced. He was simply known as The Child. Now that his name is known, Pez re-released the box set with Grogu's name on it. Here is a comparison picture of the previous Mandalorian box and the new one.

From my Pez pal Topher I got a number of great custom painted pieces in November. These included a set of gold Simpsons, some new Star Wars, and a rainbow of doggies in honor of his beloved dog Ashley, who sadly passed away recently.

And from Pez.com, I picked up Ash the porcupine (completing my Sing 2 set), the second Eternal box set (Sersi and Ikaris), and all 4 individual Eternal dispensers to display on their own. And last but certainly not least, I was one of the lucky few who was able to pick up the latest limited edition mascot from Pez.com, the candy corn mascot. This guy sold out in less than an hour so I consider myself extremely fortunate to have picked it up.

Here is a picture of all of my November Pez scores. You can click on it for a larger view.

As for this month's issue, it is overflowing with Pez joy. We start out with the cover image, which is a Pezzified take on a photo of Mariah Carey and her earworm of a song, "All I Want For Christmas Is You." If you plan on going to any store in the next month, it's pretty much inevitable that you'll hear it. (In fact, I bet it is already in your head just after reading this!) Moving on, I share some thoughts and photos of the latest addition to my Pez room, my Pez Christmas tree. Rounding out the issue is some Yuletide Pez poetry.

Also, be sure to check out the Pezhead Monthly Christmas page. It contains all of the Pez Christmas features from this publication, including some stuff from this very issue!

Did you miss last month's issue, where I shared my experience at TWO Pez events, my big INDIANA PEZ swag project, and an update to The Batcave? You can still read it here. To search the full Pezhead Monthly archives, hop on over to the archive page, where you can browse by feature, Pez Poetry Slam, or issue. There's also a Google search bar to help you search the content across the site. And hey, maybe you would like to submit some words, photos, artwork, or videos to Pezhead Monthly to be featured in an upcoming issue? That would be great! Check out the submission details here.

Thanks as always for reading Pezhead Monthly. Take care and see you next month!

Joe Durrant
Editor, Pezhead Monthly
joe@pezheadmonthly.com

My Pez Christmas Tree | top

Part of what makes this time of year so wonderful for those of us who celebrate Christmas is decorating the tree. I am looking forward to decorating our tree soon with my lovely wife. Among the many ornaments that we'll hang on the tree will be, of course, some Pez ornaments.

This year, now that I have an entire room to display my Pez (even though parts of it are still a work in progress), I decided to get another, smaller tree for the Pez room. As it turns out, I had plenty of extra Pez ornaments to decorate it with. I started out with the 12 Days of Christmas mini Pez that were released a few years back. I then added the ornaments I've found at Cracker Barrel over the last couple of years, along with a few ornaments I picked up at Pez gatherings. I added a few more things and ho, ho, ho, what do you know, I have a Pez Christmas tree!

Here is a photo of my tree. On either side of the tree are my giant Pez plushes: on the left, fittingly, a showman decked out in Christmas attire, and on the right, a smiley face because after all it's the hap-happiest time of the year. (You can click on this photo and all others for a larger view.)

I picked up this ornament from my Pez pal Ross at the IN Crowd 2020 Pez gathering. It's such a cool ornament. It's filled with Pez candies, and the back of it has the date of the gathering, October 17, 2020, with 2 facemasks in the 2020 number, a nice recognition of the pandemic. Thanks again, Ross!

And now, the backside of my Pez Christmas tree! Up on top you can see the cool mini milkshake ornament I picked up from IN Crowd 2021.

And hey, it would not be a Pez Christmas tree party without a Batman Pez head! I did not make any special modifications to the head, I just stuck a hook in it and hung it on the tree. My fingers are crossed that it will stay up all month, and that the cats don't discover it! If you look carefully again at the full tree picture above, you'll see a second Batman head (hint: you can click on the picture for a larger view, and it's on the lower part of the tree).

Towards the top of the tree, I placed a photo of me from Pezamania 27. Here, I strike a rockin' pose with a very kind gentleman who bears a striking resemblance to Ol' Saint Nick. From what I understand, he's never been seen in the same room as Santa, so you really never know! Anyway, the theme of that year's Pezamania was "Christmas in July", so I felt it fitting to place this picture on my Pez tree. (Also at that convention was a nice ornament that I'll be hanging on our main tree upstairs.) I also admit that I changed into my green Batman shirt to blend into the green screen. Ah, fun times.

And finally, we come to the tree topper. This is a very important part of the tree, but I did not really have time to find an adequate topper this year, especially given that I just bought the tree a few days ago. Ah well, maybe next year! But given the conundrum of what to place on top of the tree, I figured a question mark lid to one of the L.O.L. dispensers would be fitting.

I am very glad to have a Christmas tree for my Pez room. I had a great time decorating it while listening to Christmas tunes on the speaker, inhaling the sweet scents of the Sparkling Spruce air freshener plug-in, and enjoying my delicious refill of Coke from Potbelly. It's put me in the Christmas spirit for sure. Now if you excuse me, I need to go deck the halls, hang the stockings with care, and make my absolute best effort to finally get off the naughty list.

Editor's Note: After decorating the tree, putting together this feature, and uploading it, I realized that I forgot to add a very important ornament: the limited edition full body Santa that was just released this year! Here it is, just hanging out.

Pez Poetry | top

Pez Haiku #158

Last Christmas, you gave
Me your Pez. The very next
Day, put on display.

Prancer

There once was a Pezhead named Prancer,
Who, when he found Pez, was a dancer.
When asked what should be
Beneath that bright tree,
"Some more Pez" was always his answer.