“We wish you the merriest, the merriest,
The merriest, yes the merriest,
We wish you the merriest, the merriest,
The merriest yule cheer.”
So sang Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Fred Waring and The Pennsylvanians in a song I discovered while Christmas shopping recently, added to my seasonal playlist and now can’t get out of my head. Another new addition for me this year is Smudge. Regular blog readers will know all about the little cat I’ve been cat sitting for years who’s now living with me. He’s made my home feel even warmer and cosier. Everything’s set for the best Christmas ever, including here on the OiNK Blog.
As each post is published it’s name
will turn into a piggy pink link below
Including what you’re reading right now I’ve 26 posts in total planned over the holiday season, more than any previous year and it’s going to be a blast! If it wasn’t fun to write this site I wouldn’t do it, so when I’m putting so much into Christmas 2025 I hope you’ll enjoy it just as much as I am writing it. I obviously want to provide for my fellow OiNK pig pals in particular every year and this time is no exception.
OiNK’s resident photographer Ian Tilton took the pictures of that famous OiNK! Book cover, which had an original rear (pun so intended) that the publisher just couldn’t allow. That’ll be revealed alongside other rare photos and info from my chat with Ian in A Tail to Tell on Thursday 11th December 2025. The behind-the-scenes goodies continue in The OiNK Scrapbook, a collection of photos taken by members of the OiNK team which’ll be published on Sunday 28th December. This shares the void week between Christmas and New Year with the first of a new series looking back on the OiNK letters pages. This begins with a Grunts Celebrity Special (that’s what happens this time of year on TV after all) on Tuesday 30th December.
Annuals are just as much a part of the blog over Christmas as they were to us as kids. Usually our first post-introduction post is the Big Comic Book but this year I’ve a special treat before that. On Tuesday 25th November you can peruse all the classic adverts for all of our annuals from Marvel, Grandreams and Fleetway in Yuletide Yearnings. Then Fleetway’s Big Comic Book 1990 will make its grand entrance on Saturday 29th November with even more classic comics than before. One of those classics was Buster, and continuing our OiNK love-in we follow Pete Throb and Tom Thug into the pages of the 1991 Buster Book on Monday 8th December.
We’ll take our fourth shadowy flight into the dangerous world of a man who does not exist (and his talking car K.I.T.T., of course) in the Knight Rider Annual from 1986 on Thursday 18th December. This year also sees the start of a new yearly real time read through as we take our first Christmas trip to a firehouse in New York with The Real Ghostbusters Annual from 1988 on Thursday 4th December. If the inclusion of these books tickles you, you’ll definitely not want to miss the Big Christmas Competition on Monday 1st December, trust me!
Another annual series also includes an annual for the first time this year. Confused? Last year I began reviewing the Christmas issues of Marvel UK’s original Transformers comic. You’ll see a preview of this year’s offerings in Coming Up, a post covering 1985’s promotional material on Sunday 14th December. This year’s edition of the weekly is properly festive (Optimus Prime dressed as Santa? Check!) and the comic’s first hardback annual promises to be a feast to rival your turkey dinner. You can compare for yourself, as Transformers #41 will be on the blog on Sunday 21st December (nice of the Cybertronians to celebrate my birthday) and the Transformers Annual will be up on Christmas Day.
Another comic series with a triple helping of goodies this holiday season is Beano. Beano #272 from 1945 was the first million-selling issue and is up for review as part of the 80th Anniversary Box Set read through on Thursday 27th November, the issue’s actual 80th birthday! We come right up to the present day with the Beano Christmas Special 2025 and if last year’s was anything to go by it should be another laugh-a-minute experience with plenty of highlights to choose from. That’s on Saturday 6th December. Then it’s back to the 80s on Boxing Day to take the first look in decades at a childhood favourite book, The Dandy and The Beano Fifty Golden Years.
Rounding things off are the latest entries in two ongoing series. Aliens #19 brings the frosty chills on Tuesday 23rd December, and check out Aliens #18 which is already up on the blog with its seasonal cover. There’ll also be no less than six Mighty Marvel UK Comic Checklists, published every Wednesday with details of special issues on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. These will share the Eves with my usual personal Christmas Message and New Year’s Message too, wrapping everything up in a big bow.
I’m really looking forward to this Christmas in my personal life and I wanted to go all out to have the blog match that level of anticipation. I think I’ve done it because I can’t wait to share all of this year’s treats. You can follow along here using a WordPress account or by subscribing via email (see links to the right on desktops or below the post on mobiles), or via socials on the blog’s Instagram and Facebook feeds and my own personal Bluesky so you don’t miss a thing across the holiday season. Christmas 2025 starts now! (Oh, and if you’re wondering if a certain OiNK Blog tradition continues this year, the tree is below.)
All that remains is for me to wish you all A Very Merry Christmas and Very Happy Holidays!
OiNK Blog 