One of many in a series of annual Christmas lectures given by Bassam Z. Shakhashiri, a Lebanese chemistry educator who spent most of his career at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The 1990 lecture includes the combustibility of different elements and chemicals, experiments with solid state carbon dioxide, liquid nitrogen, acid and bases, and appearances by Bucky, the UW mascot; Santa Claus; and UW Physics professor Clint Sprott and Plant Pathology professor Paul Williams. This video was taken from a DVD, which itself was made from an unknown magnetic tape. Any distortions in the image and sound of the video are inherent in the DVD itself.