--- title: "Merry Christmas" id: 76528 type: "computer_media" slug: "merry-christmas" url: "http://localhost/computer_media/merry-christmas/" markdown_url: "http://localhost/computer_media/merry-christmas.md" published_at: "2026-11-11T08:02:27+00:00" modified_at: "2026-11-11T08:02:27+00:00" author: "David Anderson" featured_image: url: "http://localhost/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/merry-christmas-1.png" excerpt: "A Christmas show for the ZX81: a greeting banner, Santa's sleigh and reindeer with moving legs, a song title, a tree and a screenful of greetings." post_tag: - name: "Downloadable" slug: "downloadable" taxonomy: "post_tag" url: "http://localhost/tag/downloadable/" - name: "TS 1000" slug: "ts1000" taxonomy: "post_tag" url: "http://localhost/tag/ts1000/" - name: "ZX81" slug: "zx81" taxonomy: "post_tag" url: "http://localhost/tag/zx81/" model: - name: "Sinclair ZX81" slug: "zx81" taxonomy: "model" url: "http://localhost/model/zx81/" - name: "Timex/Sinclair 1000" slug: "ts-1000" taxonomy: "model" url: "http://localhost/model/ts-1000/" indiv: - name: "Mark Freitas" slug: "mark-freitas" taxonomy: "indiv" url: "http://localhost/indiv/mark-freitas/" genre: - name: "Holiday" slug: "holiday" taxonomy: "genre" url: "http://localhost/type/holiday/" media_type: "Program" programmers: - name: "Mark Freitas" slug: "mark-freitas" taxonomy: "indiv" url: "http://localhost/indiv/mark-freitas/" download_url: "https://archive.org/download/timex-sinclair-software-archive/Merry%20Christmas%20%281982%29%28Freitas%2C%20Mark%29%28TS1000%29%28US%29%28Program%29.zip" mediadate: "1982" images: - url: "http://localhost/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/merry-christmas-1.png" - url: "http://localhost/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/merry-christmas-2.png" - url: "http://localhost/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/merry-christmas-3.png" - url: "http://localhost/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/merry-christmas-4.png" article_media: - id: 19384 title: "Merry Christmas" type: "article" url: "http://localhost/article/merry-christmas/" media_type_tags: "Holiday" license: false --- # Merry Christmas RUN and watch: a dark screen with a banner reading HAVE A, MERRY and CHRISTMAS in turn, then Santa’s sleigh and reindeer crossing the screen with their legs moving, HERE COMES SANTA CLAUS, RIGHT DOWN SANTA CLAUS LANE and VIXEN AND BLITZEN AND ALL HIS REINDEER, a Christmas tree, and finally the screen filled with CHRISTMAS with XMAS picked out. It then starts again; stop it with BREAK. It needs 16K. The article shows how to add your own messages with lines 101 and 102. Lines 9998 and 9999 save the program so that it starts itself. Published in Syntax December 1982 ([Merry Christmas](https://timexsinclair.com/article/merry-christmas/)). ## Source Code ``` 1 REM MERRY CHRISTMAS BY M.FREITAS 1981, REVISED 1982 2 LET T$="X" 3 LET Y=16 4 CLS 10 GOSUB 60 20 LET A$="███████████▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒██████████" 30 PRINT A$ 40 PRINT "███████████▒ HAVE A ▒██████████" 50 PRINT A$ 55 GOSUB 60 57 GOTO 100 60 FOR I=1 TO 9 70 PRINT "████████████████████████████████"; 80 NEXT I 90 RETURN 100 PAUSE 120 110 PRINT AT 10,12;" MERRY" 115 PAUSE 120 120 PRINT AT 10,12;"CHRISTMAS" 125 PAUSE 120 129 FOR S=1 TO 32 130 SCROLL 131 NEXT S 140 PRINT AT 2,19;"::";AT 3,20;"Y";AT 4,9;"£";AT 4,20;"█▄." 150 PRINT AT 5,4;"▄▄▄▄▖O ---------█▀";AT 6,4;"▝███▙▐▀ ▗▄▖ ▗██▛"; 160 PRINT AT 7,5;"████▐ ▗█▛ ▝▛▀▌";AT 8,5;"▜███████▘ ▗▘▗▘"; 170 PRINT AT 9,4;"▗ ▜█████▛";AT 10,4;"▚▄▄▙▄▄▄▟▄▘"; 180 FOR I=1 TO 8 189 FOR B=1 TO 4 190 PRINT AT 8,17;" ▌ ▌"; 191 NEXT B 194 FOR B=1 TO 8 195 PRINT AT 8,17;"▗▘▗▘" 196 NEXT B 200 NEXT I 210 PRINT AT 13,4;"HERE COMES SANTA CLAUS" 220 FOR I=1 TO 3 230 GOSUB 2000 240 NEXT I 245 PRINT AT 13,4;" HERE COMES SANTA CLAUS" 250 FOR I=1 TO 3 260 GOSUB 2000 270 NEXT I 280 PRINT AT 13,4;" RIGHT DOWN SANTA CLAUS LANE" 285 FOR B=1 TO 100 290 GOSUB 2000 295 NEXT B 300 PRINT AT 13,4;"VIXEN AND BLITZEN " 310 PRINT AT 14,7;" AND ALL HIS REINDEER" 315 FOR I=1 TO 5 316 GOSUB 2000 320 NEXT I 321 PRINT AT 15,12;"PULLING ON THE REINS" 322 FOR B=1 TO 17 323 SCROLL 324 NEXT B 325 PRINT AT 19,16;"*" 330 PRINT AT 20,16;"X" 335 FOR I=1 TO 8 340 LET T$=T$+"XX" 350 LET Y=Y-1 360 PRINT AT 21,Y;T$ 370 SCROLL 380 PRINT AT 21,Y;T$ 390 SCROLL 400 NEXT I 420 FOR I=1 TO 3 430 PRINT AT 21,15;"III" 435 SCROLL 440 NEXT I 445 PRINT " MERRY CHRISTMAS" 450 PAUSE 400 455 FAST 465 CLS 470 LET A$="▞▞CHRISTMAS" 490 FOR I=1 TO 29 500 PRINT A$;A$; 510 NEXT I 520 PRINT "▞▞" 540 SLOW 550 FOR N=1 TO 13 560 PRINT AT N,7;" " 570 NEXT N 580 PRINT AT 12,1;" ";AT 13,2;" ";AT 10,1;" ";AT 11,1;" " 590 FOR L=1 TO 2 600 PRINT AT L,12;" " 610 NEXT L 620 FOR B=3 TO 11 630 PRINT AT B,11;" ";AT B,17;" " 640 NEXT B 650 FOR I=11 TO 13 660 PRINT AT I,12;" " 670 NEXT I 680 FOR I=1 TO 3 690 PRINT AT I,19+I;" ";AT I,20-I;" " 700 NEXT I 710 FOR I=4 TO 13 720 PRINT AT I,23;" " 730 NEXT I 740 PAUSE 1000 744 FOR B=1 TO 22 745 SCROLL 746 NEXT B 750 RUN 1999 STOP 2000 FOR B=1 TO 3 2010 PRINT AT 8,17;" ▌ ▌" 2020 NEXT B 2030 FOR B=1 TO 5 2040 PRINT AT 8,17;"▗▘▗▘" 2050 NEXT B 2060 RETURN 9998 SAVE "X-MAS" 9999 GOTO 9998 ```