Flintstones, Sunday, December 1961

There are anti-anachronistic types out there who complain that the Flintstones shouldn’t celebrate Christmas because the Stone Age was before the birth of Christ. Cartoons with animals that talk, they can handle. But cartoons with Christmas before Christ just ain’t factual, they bemoan.

Well, leave it to good old Gene Hazelton (or whoever wrote the story) to come up to an explanation. We’ll get to it in a bit. But, first, the other Flintstones Sunday comics (Saturday in Canada) from 50 years ago this month.



Wilma’s fickle in the comic from December 3. I like how Dino appears in the opening panel, even though he doesn’t really have anything to do. It happened in a bunch of comics. And that model in the pillbox hat. “White House.” 1961. Hmmm.



Barney was sure fascinated with flying, wasn’t he? Flintstones fans have seen ‘The Flintstone Flyer’ (1960) countless times, no doubt. It was reworked into one of the Sunday comics. There was another flying story on December 10. It features the old, dopey version of Barney.



Ah, the smug version of Fred. Pebbles took care of that, didn’t she? But Pebbles wasn’t around on December 17 so Fred isn’t Mr. Doting Domestic Daddy yet. He’s still a jerk. And he gets his in the end.



Here’s the Christmas comic, from December 24, featuring the Psychic Psanta. I can hear Hal Smith as the Jolly Old Elf. Humbug to you who still complain about Christmas Before Christ after this.



Barney’s nostrils make an appearance on December 31. They were featured in one of the earliest TV cartoons, too, but I can’t remember which one now.

As usual, click on any of the comics to make them bigger.