Few things are more Christmassy than the cozy warmth and flickering glow of a log on the fire.

The pop and crackle, the soft shadows, a primal fascination with fire and a sense of a connection

to previous generations and a simpler time.

It's little wonder that fires and fireplaces are so tightly linked to Christmas, from the

pre-Christmas tradition of the Yule log in northern Europe, to stockings hung by the chimney

with care, to chestnuts roasting, to St. Nicholas coming down the chimney with a bound.

Fireplaces have been basically obsolete for more than 100 years, thanks to the invention of central heating in the late 19th century.

But families all over the world continue to rekindle the holiday spirit, pun intended, year after year, just as I did growing

up in New England in the 1980s, and just as thousands upon thousands did in New York City on

Christmas Eve in 1966.

Which is pretty interesting when you think about it, because most New York City apartments

don't have fireplaces,

but many of them did have a piece of technology that was just coming into its own at the time,

a color television, and a local station that decided to try something that seemed a little

crazy at the time to broadcast three straight hours, commercial free, of a fireplace set to Christmas

music. This is the story of the WPIX Yule Log, a quirky little experiment that became a cherished

Christmas tradition and one man's obsessive quest to keep the flame burning. I'm Brian Earle. This is Christmas Past.

Imagine for a moment that you manage a local television station in the 1960s. Christmas Eve is coming up,

but you know that not a lot of people watch TV on Christmas Eve.

In fact, the only programming you have available to run is a roller derby.

Not only that, but nobody at the station wants to work on Christmas Eve.

Well, you could just sigh and throw your hands up and say,

...