''Burning Log'' is a

television program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, e ...

which airs traditionally on

Christmas Eve Christmas Eve is the evening or entire day before Christmas Day, the festival commemorating the birth of Jesus. Christmas Day is observed around the world, and Christmas Eve is widely observed as a full or partial holiday in anticipation ...

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...

morning on the

Shaw Spotlight Shaw Spotlight (formerly Shaw TV) is the name of locally based community channel services operated by cable TV provider Shaw Communications. The channels are available only to Shaw Cable subscribers and are produced in communities throughout w ...

community channels in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, replacing the remainder of the channel's programming for the time frame. The program is a film loop of a wood fire burning in a fireplace; an unidentified individual can periodically be seen stoking the fire. It airs free of charge, without any commercial interruptions, compared to US fire logs on local stations in that country which do so.

Origins

''Burning Log'' was shot in 1999 by a Shaw Cable staffer named John. It was conceived as a means by which Shaw employees could stay home with their families, instead of working over the holidays. The original film was shot by John at his home in

Victoria, British Columbia Victoria is the capital city of the Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Greater Victoria area has a population of 397,237. Th ...

. The video became famous when university students Rodger Banister, Brian Berglund and Paul McTaggart in Victoria staged a mock protest through a fake not-for-profit called BLOWS (Burning Logs of the West Coast Society) after Shaw took it off the air in 2000. The program was both a critical and ratings success, and by popular demand, it has been rebroadcast ever since. The program is a Canadian counterpart to the older (unrelated) WPIX Yule Log.

Ownership controversy

Craig McAllister of North Vancouver has claimed that it was he that shot the video, not John. John prefers to maintain anonymity, but his sister in Victoria confirms that the original Shaw video, which led to the mock protest, and a humorous piece on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart & Steve Carell, was indeed shot by her brother in 1999, as a way to allow Shaw staff to have time off over Christmas. The original video was subsequently replaced by Shaw with another version, which may or may not have been shot by Craig McAllister.

References

Christmas television specials 1999 Canadian television series debuts 1990s Canadian television series Slow television Television shows filmed in Victoria, British Columbia {{Christmas-tv-film-stub