By Adam Sockel, OverDrive’s Social Media Specialist and avid believer in Santa Claus.

10882199_807497785976154_2860296199998628298_nI come from a family that believes in holiday traditions. As we’ve grown up things have changed, of course, but we make sure that we spend our favorite holidays together, embracing nostalgia and cheer. Chief among these traditions is how we spend Christmas Eve. For as long as I can remember our mother has hosted our entire extended family at her house for drinks, dinner, gift exchanges and an evening of love and laughter. As everyone departs our immediate family heads off to midnight mass and returns for the most important tradition: drinking hot cocoa late into the hours of early morning while watching Emmet Otter’s Jug Band Christmas.

For those not in the know this is a wonderful story created by Jim Henson full of Muppets and music… so right up my alley. It’s getting harder to watch it all together and so I wanted to make sure I still held my own viewing during the holidays. It’s not exactly the easiest thing to find on DVD so I was ecstatic when I saw my library had a digital version available on their OverDrive-powered site. Thanks to the library I can stream this treasured story whenever I like.

Adding Streaming Video to your OverDrive digital collection is great for your users as it lets them quickly grab something to watch (or use to entertain the kids) without needing to make an extra stop during the busy holiday hustle and bustle. It increases the value of your collection as a whole and makes the digital library the go to location for holiday entertainment.

The convenience extends to your staff as well as former DVD Librarian and current Collection Development Analyst, Rachel Woods, can attest: “At the end of the year when your technical services department is up to their ears in orders, the easiest and fastest way to get content into your video collection is through OverDrive. There are no labels to attach, no cases to replace, and this is content that can’t get lost or damaged.”

To save you even more time we’ve created a perfect list of holiday videos your users of all ages are sure to enjoy. Perhaps best of all is the fact that they’re in your collection almost instantly after purchasing. No waiting for the movies to arrive before you can loan them out!

And now, I would like to leave you with a sample of the greatest of all the holiday classics. Take it away, Emmet!