Rule No. 1 for Midnight Mass: No charging at the Pope. Like, ever. Or else what happened to this lady will happen to you.

I'm glad to see the Pope's security team is more with it than the Secret Service at that press conference in Iraq.

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One of my absolute favorites.

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I still want a hula hoop, too. (And fast-forward to the 1:40 mark if you just want to hear the song)

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This is such a goofy song and it gets stuck in my head every Christmas. So now I will share it with all five of you reading the blog today.

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Merry Christmas from WTN! Here's a Christmas song by one of my very favorite bands on the planet.

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Cat sees tree. Cat bats at tree. Cat climbs tree.

I'm waiting for the sequel, Cat Topples Fully Decorated Tree.

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Check it out -- someone in Margate has synched their Christmas lights to music and put it on YouTube!

Turns out they have a whole Web site with useful tips on how to set up your own light display, how to get to their house to see their light display, more videos of their lights set to music and, oddly, how to cook the perfect turkey.

We at WTN always are glad to post local videos, so please send them if you've got them. And many thanks to our friend and colleague Rebekah Monson, who has an amazing sense of coolness and turned us on to this clip.

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I logged onto Facebook the other day and saw that my friend and colleague Scott Travis referenced this gem in one of his status updates.

I immediately requested the link to Solid Gold Christmas, which it turns out is an 11-part (!!!) collection on a YouTube channel called FuzzyMemoriesTV.

I will spare you all 11 parts, but will bring you clip No. 2, because of the witty banter and Marie Osmond. And the Solid Gold Dancers doing an interpretive dance to Frank Sinatra singing "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing!"

If you fast-forward to the 6-minute mark, you'll see an appearance by Madame. And at the very end, there's a plug for Pepsi Free. Totally 80s.

For those of you bored enough today to watch all 11 parts, click here and search for Solid Gold Christmas.

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The talk show host and pop star go on tour -- in a neighborhood where they sing Christmas carols.

And where someone must have kept the paparazzi at bay, because I thought they followed that girl everywhere and I don't see one at all in this clip.

Quick vote: How many of you think the woman with the bird in this clip has any clue who Britney Spears is?

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I remember when I first heard this as a kid and got all upset by the idea of other kids in Africa not knowing it's Christmas and not having food and how the only water flowing is the bitter sting of tears.

These days, when I hear the song I listen to pick out the voices of British pop/rock stars.

When I heard the song Friday, I figured it was time to track down the video. Which helps with the matching voices to singers bit, but only somewhat -- turns out I can't identify these guys by sight.

This is what I could make out from the first couple of minutes of the video: First there's the guy that I don't remember but for some reason I think he's the other dude from Wham!, then Boy George, then there's Phil Collins playing drums, then the guy that I think is from Duran Duran, then there's Duran Duran Guy singing with Sting, then someone I don't recognize at all, then there's Sting and Duran Duran Guy and Bono, then it goes into a montage... etc.

If any charitable WTNers can help me fill in the blanks, I'd be most appreciative. Just don't judge me for failing to remember this whole cast of characters, I think I was like 7 when this song came out.

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This will never rival Jingle Cats, but setting up a tower of microwaves to beep Jingle Bells is sort of cool.

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Though I can tell you from personal experience, turning on a microwave when there is nothing in it is the surest way to fry it, resulting in a lecture from your husband and a trip to buy a new microwave.

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Much like we haul out the Christmas decorations from our garage and attic every year, I'm bringing this clip from our WTN vault for you today.

Because for me, this video of Christmas lights set to Run-D.M.C.'s "Christmas In Hollis" never gets old. Enjoy.

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Barney, the White House dog, has a new holiday video out. Sharing screen time with Barney are Olympic gold medalists Michael Phelps and Nastia Liukin.

Also from the White House, I found out that during the 2008 Holiday season, they go through 22,000 holiday cookies, 250 coconut cakes and 700 gallons of eggnog. Yum.

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Alert WTN reader (and Sentinel colleague) Kara Romagnino sent this little gem our way. If this doesn't get you in the holiday spirit, then nothing will.

There is some debate in the comments on this that he's lip synching. It's possible, but if you're lip synching, wouldn't you want to fake-sing to a good version of the song?

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Why do Macy's employees need Richard Simmons and craisins to prepare for Black Friday?

I have no idea. Sometimes I think Richard Simmons just appears at places uninvited and demands people to be peppy.

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The early morning sales, the shoving, the cranky people arguing over electronics... Rejoice! Black Friday is upon us!

I don't know about you WTN readers, but Black Friday scares us. In fact, if you ever want to freak out a reporter, walk up behind him (or her) and say, "We need you to get up at 4 a.m. and go to (insert retail establishment here) for our Black Friday story."

Black Friday is a gold mine for videographers looking to capture mobs of fanatical consumers looking for deals. Which, in turn, means a cornucopia of Black Friday videos on YouTube, and good times for your friends at Watch This Now.

Here are some of our favorites, in honor of this busiest shopping day of the year. If you've got one that we've missed, feel free to add a link in the comments.

Up first: This clip, shot outside a Best Buy, of shoppers rushing to get into the store as it opens at 5 a.m.

Next up: This vintage news report from WTVJ in Miami, of Black Friday in 1984. Check out the fabulous neon! And the plastic yellow watch!

More clips after the jump.

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Check out these musical Gap Christmas commericals. I'm not sure if these are brilliant or disastrous. What do you think?

Jingle Bells featuring: Flo Rida, Trey Songz, Jon Heder, Janelle Monae, Selma Blair, Rainn Wilson, Jason Biggs, Romany Malco, Freddy Rodriguez, Dixie Chicks, Sandra Bernhard

Baby It's Cold Outside featuring: Selma Blair & Rainn Wilson

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Sure, you can synch your outdoor Christmas light display to that Trans-Siberian Orchestra song, like those people that were on the Today Show last year.

But is the Trans-Siberian Orchestra chillin’ and illin’ just like a snowman?

Do they rhyme Darryl with Christmas carol?

I think not.

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OK, that's not entirely true. But there are a whole lot of YouTubers posting clips of their cats in Christmas trees.

It's a simple lesson, really. If America’s Funniest Home Videos has taught us anything, it is that animals are comedic gold, and they are a surefire way to attract viewers.

Which explains our cat-related posts today – we need page views, people. There is also hard evidence of this cat fancying, though, in the 16 pages worth of videos I found when I did a YouTube search for “Christmas tree” and “cat.”

These clips are exactly as promised: Cats in and around Christmas trees. Some of them are set to Christmas music. And a bunch of them have been added in the past month. I guess no one ever bothered to check to see just how many cats-in-Christmas-tree videos already existed on YouTube before putting their clips on the Internet.

Trust me when I tell you I don’t need to post the whole lot of them. I think this sums it up nicely, the most-viewed cat-in-tree video that wasn’t a comedy post:

Now keep coming back to Watch This Now, or we will be forced to post more animal clips here to get repeat visitors. You have been warned!

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