It's a Green Christmas With Big Red...

Last year at this time, I was critical of The Coca-Cola Company for their holiday packaging and I praised Pepsi for their Christmas efforts; this year, it's the exact opposite. To celebrate the 75th Anniversary of the Sundblom Santa Claus advertising images, Coca-Cola brought out some wonderfully festive Santa and Christmas packaging - point-of-sale material, ornaments, trays, 2L bottles and cans, and even a commemorative 8 oz. wrapped bottle with the Coke Santa image. It was a welcome change from the Coca-Cola polar bears and seals of the 2005 campaign.

I had a great opportunity this year to write about the Coca-Cola Christmas 2006 campaign in the pages of the Christmas edition of the Soda Spectrum Series, but a few things came out after the magazine was being printed and thus I couldn't include them. The first is a great little deal I found at Zeller's department stores here in Ontario. For one week only, when you bought any Coca-Cola licensed item (tray, plate, or various tin trinkets) you would get a FREE 75th Anniversary Coca-Cola Christmas ornament. Now granted, the ornament (shaped like a bottle cap) was only priced at a few dollars - but it was a nice tip of the hat to the 75th Sundblom Santa and gave some much-needed publicity to the special anniversary. I picked up a great 75th Sundblom metal tray and then the free ornament. I'm sure that neither will be worth anything in the future, but since the tray only cost $9.99, it's hardly an investment that is deserving of a monetary return.

The other Coca-Cola tidbit that I discovered near the end of November was a promotion that Blockbuster Canada was (and still is) running. For $14.99 you could rent two new releases and get two packages of microwave popcorn, two 500mL bottles of Coca-Cola and ONE holligraphic plastic Coke cup (three different cups in the set). In the beginning, there was a different cup available each week for three weeks... now, several days before Christmas, Blockbuster is also selling the leftover cups for $1.99 each.

These cups are great - and quite strong (not like the regular flimsy commemorative plastic cups you usually see). Plus the holligraphic wrap around each cup gives is a 3-D appearance. Our Blockbuster location here in town didn't have too many left, so if you're a Coke collector, you might want to drop in to your local store sooner than later.

And finally... I'm guilty of the same mistake I wrote about a while back when I scolded people for publishing blogs but never writing in them or updating them. So, to rectify this omission, I'm back at it here as the year comes to a close. This past year has been a great year for Soda Pop Dreams Magazine and the Soda Spectrum Series - probably the greatest ever. If you're a regular reader of our print editions, this is not news to you. We published 8 editions of the Soda Spectrum Series and 4 Soda Pop Dreams! Plus, I somehow found time to jump into the world of podcasting with four podcast episodes with various guests related to soda collecting. It was a ton of fun, and 2007 is going to be even better with 9 Soda Spectrums and 4 SPD editions.

OK, that's all for now. From my family to yours, I wish you all a very happy and healthy Christmas and New Year. Take care, and Happy Collecting!