Calcifer Yule Log is a 30 minute 2021 anime available on HBO Max. It was produced by Studio Ghibli, the minds that have given us many top-tier family animes such as Spirited Away, Howl's Flying Castle, and more recently, The Boy and the Heron. People of any age can enjoy most of these titles, and I daresay that many adults would find them less annoying than a majority of American animated children's movies.
Calcifer Yule Log is not a typical Studio Ghibli release, however. The animation is high quality, but there is very little plot. For 30 minutes, an anthropomorphic fire burns logs in a fireplace. It begins to look nervous when it reaches the end of its log, and it reaches for another log. Once in place, the fire happily continues burning. And that's it. That's the whole 30 minutes. This was made a relaxed ambient view while one occupies themselves with other matters. It was not designed for the viewer to give it their full attention.
As such, I bet my son and daughter, ages 14 and 12, that I could watch Calcifer Yule Log longer than they could. My kids agreed readily, as they are both suckers for easy money. We laid out a few ground rules. One has to watch without entertaining themselves with a phone. No talking. No deliberately annoying each other. The video must be paused for bathroom breaks, which shall be limited to 5 minutes per occasion. And the kids added a rule for me: no sleeping. It was decided that if all of us made it to the end of the 30 minute video, we would immediately watch it again. If all of us finished a second time, then the bets would be off.
My daughter was confident she could beat me. My son had his reservations.
"You know how dad is. He has spaces in his mind. He'll just sit there staring at the screen and he'll be thinking about something completely different," he said. But in spite of his better judgement, he elected to proceed with the contest.
During the 30 minutes that followed, the rules about no talking and deliberately annoying one another were violated countless times, but we decided to continue without disqualifying one another. In the spaces between rules violations, I looked at the screen and either meditated or entertained myself with my own thoughts. I was tired and sore from my morning boxing class, so relaxing and doing nothing was my idea of a good time.
All three of us made it to the end of the video. My son was struggling, and he knew that I could do it again.
"Our only chance to win is to turn off the light and hope that Dad goes to sleep," he said.
I told the kids it was fine to turn the light off, as I knew I would be able to stay awake another 30 minutes. And so we began our second viewing of Calcifer Yule Log. The little fire burned and replaced its logs. My son tried to sneak in a nap, but we caught him and made him keep watching. My daughter decided to make us suffer by calling a bathroom break when there was only one minute left, and all three of us were either too stubborn or desperate to give up.
That is my story about how I tricked my adolescent children into watching a 30 minute video of nothing not just once, but twice in a row. If your interested in trying this with your kids at home, but you don't care for Studio Ghibli anime, you'll be happy to know that there are many other videos of burning yule logs available for streaming. There is even a Game of Thrones yule log where you can watch a dragon egg glow in the warmth of a fireplace. Or you could just start a nice cozy fire in your own living room and enjoy reminiscing about by gone days... but it might not be a good idea if you live in an apartment. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!