As a Christmas treat, The Dabbler briefly goes 3D and with a very special seasonal slideshow (glasses not provided).
‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse…
If you ever owned a 3D View-Master, you may be familiar with this endearing poem. By the 1970s, the space age style specs (originally invented for viewing travel photography), had become a Christmas stocking essential for children of both sexes. I’m not sure what happened in my case, but I was never given one of the coveted red plastic viewers. Instead, I had a rather less sophisticated looking blue plastic 3D Picture Viewer, into which I placed stereoscopic viewing cards.
My favourite 3D story was The Night Before Christmas – and as a special Christmas treat I thought I’d show this to you. The only problem is how to achieve the 3D effect on the internet. Apparently, it’s possible to interchange the duplicated images for ‘cross eyed viewing.’ But I hope you will be able to share my sense of wonderment at this colour-filled visual extravaganza via retro 3D (ie age-speckled 2D) viewing alone. These marvels of illustration kept me enthralled for hours on end. However basic the viewing case, I think my Night Before Christmas far surpasses the View-Master version…
Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night.
I had a Winnie the Pooh one of these. Those colours are about as vivid as colours can be – no wonder it made a lasting impression.
I’ve been reading this one to Brit Jnr lately, though it wasn’t part of my childhood and nor, alas, was the 3D gadget. Apparently the poem was intrumental in forming the modern conception of Santa, but it’s odd that he’s portrayed as a teeny tiny pixie-man.
Watching Richard Hammond on Christmas Winter Wipeout – now there’s a teeny, tiny pixie-man. Will be reading this later – now gather round the laptop children…