Here's another review on a Wiggles video from me....Christmas in July is here! Oh, I mean.. Yule Be Wiggling.. from the popular childrens entertainers, The Wiggles.

The Wiggly, Wiggly Background
If you are not familiar with The Wiggles, they are a group of four Australian grown men with backgrounds in Early Childhood Education who sing and dance around and perform children's tunes. Each member of The Wiggles (Greg, Murray, Anthony, and Jeff) wears their own color (Yellow, Red, Blue, and Purple) and has a distinct performance personality. The Wiggles are joined by a few of their friends which include: a pirate (Captain Feathersword), a dog (Wags the Dog), a green dinosaur (Dorothy the Dinosaur), a purple octopus (Henry the Octopus) and a few other friends - which add to the fun. Their biggest appeal is the 6 and under crowd with a strong toddler contingent making up quite a large fanbase in Australia, US, and Canada.


Yule Be Wiggly Disclaimer
As the title of the video suggests, this tape is about Christmas. This tape includes both Santa and religious references, including the nativity. If any of these things are against your belief system this might not be the tape for you or your children.


About The Wiggles: Yule Be Wiggling

The Wiggles have released two videos with Christmas themes. Wiggly, Wiggly Christmas is their first holiday video (released in 2000) which was followed by Yule Be Wiggling released the following year (2001). Of the two of them, this one was more professionally done and must have had a bigger budget since its a bit more "polished".

Yule Be Wiggling is 48 minutes in length and is targetted for children ages 1 through 8 years of age. The program contains 16 tunes which are a good mix of new songs and traditional Christmas carols.

Yule Be Wiggling Song List

Doing a Dance
Just Can't Wait for Christmas Day
Here Come the Reindeer
And the World Is One on a Christmas Morning
Murray's Christmas Samba
Jimmy the Elf
Curoo Curoo (Carol of the birds)
Christmas Around the World
Wags Loves to Shake Shake
Jingle Bells
Angels We Have Heard on High
The Christmas Polka
Decorate the Tree
A Scottish Christmas (Instrumental)
Come on Everybody (We'll tap for you)
Yule Be Wiggling

Ready to Wiggle?

Yule Be Wiggling opens with all of The Wiggles, their Wiggly Friends (Captain Feathersword, Henry the Octopus, Wags the Dog, Dorothy the Dinosaur) and a few others Doing a Dance because its Christmas-time. Santa's Elves and Reindeer are actually professional dancers, unlike the young child dancers that are traditionally used in Wiggles programs. Its hard to tell the ages of the dancers under their costumes, but I would guess that they are young women in their late teens or early twenties.

Its Christmastime in Wiggles Land and just like kids, The Wiggles Just Can't Wait for Christmas Day. They take turns sharing what it is that they look forward to. Anthony, the dashing Blue Wiggle (he's a hottie) is looking forward to filling his tummy with all sorts of Christmas treats. Jeff, in purple, is sleepy and needs to be told "Wake Up Jeff".
Red-shirted Murray looks forward to playing his guitar. And last but not least, Tall and Handsome Yellow-Shirted Greg will be spending Christmas with his family and friends.

Anthony and Captain Feathersword are waiting with anticipation for Santa. As it turns out, the Captain has some sort of Santa Radar in his pirate hat and tunes in to find where Santa is on his way. At first he notes that Santa is in the US - the Grand Canyon to be specific. Together they do a few little crazy dances (like the Belt Buckle Wobbly Dance) and speed up Santa's sleigh. The Captain tracks him down in Hawaii, and then again in Sydney, Australia. To welcome Santa to Australia, The Wiggles do a song and dance number called Here Come the Reindeer. As the song concludes a computer animated Santa arrives via a sleigh on the screen. This same computer animation then is used for the rest of the program in between the numbers.

It may be confusing to some, that Australian Christmas takes place in the summertime. Murray takes a minute to explain that in the US, Christmas takes place in the winter and some places even have snow but that in Australia its summer time. More important than weather differences, Christmas is about togetherness and unity And the World Is One on a Christmas Morning. This is probably one of my favorite songs on Yule Be Wiggling. There's no silly, song and dance but instead a sweet song and melody about the meaning of Christmas. The Wiggles are gathered around a microphone and singing together - they are even using a song sheet. An almost music video like effect has been created alternating between shots of the singers and of children at Christmastime. Because Christmas is in the summer we see children playing outdoors and at a pool in addition to holiday photos. My favorites of the children are those of the young children dressed like angels and of the babies. My son likes to watch other children and loves to look at babies, so he enjoys it.

Murray's Christmas Samba announced by none-other than Santa himself, is a silly Christmas song and dance led by Murray. Murray's so happy that he's doing a crazy dance!!
I confess to have joined along a few times!!!

We've all heard and seen the Christmas special about the little elf who wants to become a dentist, right? Well, the tale of Jimmy the Elf is a bit similar. Jimmy is a little elf at the North Pole that can't stop sneezing. This song is done completely in computer animation, sort of like Caveland on Hoop-Dee-Doo. Its really well done and you will feel as if you've gotten transported inside a little snow globe village which is none other than Santa's village at the North Pole!. Poor Jimmy - Ah-Choo!

Special guest, Morgan Crowley, joins The Wiggles all the way from Ireland. He begins by wishing everyone a Happy Christmas in his native Irish Tongue and then sings Curoo Curoo (Carol of the birds). This is another ballad-like song about Christmas morning. Children gather around Morgan (in an Orange shirt) and The Wiggles in a nativity-like setting. I'm pretty certain that these are the same children, in the same roles (Mary, Joseph, Shepards and Angels) as seen in Wiggly, Wiggly Christmas.

It wouldn't be a Wiggles program without the Big Red Car. In Christmas Around the World, The Wiggles help Santa deliver presents all around the word in their Big Red Car. Some of their stops include, Italy, Ireland, New York City and London. Their Big Red Car flies across the screen and the background is a technicolor spiral that is very retro looking. Murray keeps bursting out with some grooving singing Ya Ya Ya Ya Ya.....

Q. Who's the grooviest dog you know?
A. Wags the Dog! and Boy, that Wags Loves to Shake Shake A song all about Wags the Dog.

Wags loves Music, he loves to bark. He even loves Johan Sebastion Bach!

It wouldn't be Christmas without a few Carols. The next 2 songs are traditional Christmas music, done a bit differently. Instead of a round of Jingle Bells, Wiggly Style. We have Morgan Crowley, again, this time in his Singing Teacher Suit. This is one crazy suit, which is actually a white suit with black music notes all over it. Morgan is teaching Captain Feathersword how to sing and is giving him one final lesson. According to Morgan, the best way to sing Jingle Bells is to "Imagine you are a bell". Of course, Morgans high voice (almost falsetto) does sound like a bell, compares to The Captain's brash singing! This song is followed by another traditional carol, Angels We Have Heard on High which features the children gathered round in the nativity setting again. They are all rocking side to side, and of course my son joins in on this with them.


To take the pace back up again, The Christmas Polka is a full stage dance number featuring the entire Wiggles cast, and Santa, doing the polka. At one point Santa acts as the "caller", sort of like in square dancing, and they all do-si-do around him and have a grand 'ol time.

There is a reason that I love Captain Feathersword. He's so crazy, that I just gotta love him. Ok, and I love his boots. Santa even has similar ones! Captain Feathersword decides that he wants to be a Christmas tree and get decorated! In Decorate the Tree, The Wiggles wrap him in tinsel and put a star on top of him and turn him into a tree. This song has one of the best rock beats of the entire program, its definitely hip. Going along with the tinsel theme the dancers (elves) are wearing sparkling gold outfits that are a bit edgy here. They might have been slightly more appropriate if these were children doing the dancing, but they are grown ups. All in all, the song is quick, and a lot of fun.

I must say that A Scottish Christmas which is an instrumental number, is probably the hidden treat of Yule Be Wiggling. Two young little girls, Erin (in a tartan dress) and Jessica (in an Irish dancing dress) introduce the number by teaching how to do a couple of dance moves from Scottish and Irish dancing. The Wiggly orchestra (consisting of a Violin, Cello, and trumpet) then play a jig while 2 dance troupes show their stuff. My son absolutely loves this and he actually trys to get up and do a jig. I've gotta say, for being 18 months old he does a pretty good job (stomping his feet back and forth very quickly!). As I am part Irish, myself, I grew up with Irish dancing and its cute to see my son enjoying something that I enjoyed as a child. There's even one little boy dancer in the troupe, which is pretty cool. I wish there were more!

Dorothy The Dinosaur leads Come on Everybody (We'll tap for you) with Santa, Wags, Captain, Henry and the entire Wiggles gang. Dororthy is QUITE the dancer.
The program ends with Yule Be Wiggling as a finale as children join in with The Wiggles to do a simple dance that is easy to imitate (Up, Down, Round and Round).

Everybody's Dancing and Yule Be Wiggling Too!

Overall
Of course, as a Wiggly Mom, I highly recommend Yule Be Wiggling for your video collection. The songs are great, ranging from high energy dance numbers to melodic traditional songs. I love the Irish flare brought to the program with the traditional folk dancing and special guest Morgan Crowley. The Captain is in particularly good form in this tape and as always, he brings lots of laughs. Greg, Murray, Anthony, and Jeff are their usual likable selves. Seriously, I could just hug and kiss these guys for all the hours of fun they have brought into my living room and car. If you are looking for a Christmas focused tape that is musical and a bit off the beaten path as far as your usual Rudolph, Frosty, etc etc - you should definitely consider either Yule Be Wiggling or Wiggly Wiggly Christmas from The Wiggles.

You won't regret it, in fact - Yule Be Wiggling!
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Reviews of Other Videos from The Wiggles
Wiggle Time
Yummy Yummy
Wake Up Jeff
Dance Party
Wiggly, Wiggly Christmas
Yule Be Wiggling
Wiggly, Wiggly World
Toot Toot!
Wiggly Play Time
Hoop Dee Doo Its a Wiggly Party!
Wiggly Safari or Wiggly Safari on CD
The Wiggles Magical Adventure - A Wiggly Movie
Wiggle Bay


For "Everything you need to know about The Wiggles" Read: The Wiggles 101

Visit The Wiggles website:
http://www.thewiggles.com


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This review is part of "Hoop-Re-View! It's a Wiggly Write-off!".Please check out the wiggly reviews of the following fine parents and caregivers:
jenb123 & marytara (The Wiggly Moms and co-hosts), lisado, ariel10575, ritag11, staceys1, mind-full, vbfc , CJsmommy , kurt_g (a Wiggly Dad), and mothermeatloaf (another Wiggly Dad)

Wiggle Along with Me!


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children up to Age 4