The holidays mean toys for children. Toys in those big catalogs that weigh down mail carriers even in this age of Web-enabled shopping; toys clogging the aisles of the stores and malls; and toys on television. It’s toys to the world.

After the holidays, after those toys are broken or discarded into some dusty closet corner, it’s toys for adults… aka the Consumer Electronics Show. For the select few of us who are invited to attend — or in my case, work CES — it’s a sometimes fantasy-driven winter wonderland that’s aptly staged in the unreal world of Las Vegas. Where else, for instance, can you see Ryan Seacrest and Brian Roberts on the same stage? Where else can you see 360-degree television?

CES, admittedly, is sometimes like the hidden underbelly of the kids’ holiday toy blitz. Like those trucks that climb over dirt mounds seemingly on their own while the kids watch in wonderment, there are actually hands in the background pushing them along. CES can be smoke and mirrors at times, that’s all part of a good toy story.

ActiveVideo’s going to have a presence at CES this year and there’s no smoke, no mirrors, but there is a cloud. The Internet cloud through which a connected CE device can bring new wonders to the delighted eyes of its users is on tap when ActiveVideo is embedded into a CE device.

The silver lining in the Web cloud is there for the taking, without embedding expensive and cumbersome software into the end device. A consumer electronics device — that’s CE, if you’ve been wondering — can be ActiveVideo-enabled and the enabling code would reach out to the cloud and make it rain down applications, content and other goodies for the end user.

It could be exclusive content for that particular CE manufacturer. And since ActiveVideo can work on virtually any Web-connected CE device, it doesn’t add to bill-of-materials costs, or take away from the CE industry’s already-thin margins.

Since CES is often a fantasy world, I don’t think it’s outrageous to use my own imagined scenario to describe what cloud connectivity can mean to a CE manufacturer. Suppose — and remember this is a fantasy — that the NFL, instead of granting its viewing rights to DirecTV, had the same for Sony, allowing specially equipped Sony televisions to receive what no one else could.

Remember, it’s a fantasy. But for our purposes, imagine what the impact would have been on Sony TV sales.

There’s a toy story worth pursuing, don’t you think?

One quick takeaway generated by Comcast’s massive bid to take control of NBC Universal stands out from the plethora of points that will keep talking heads, journalists and analysts busily occupied for the next year or so. Content is king and the king needs to be surrounded by all the accoutrements of power.

Comcast, by owning the pipe over which the content will flow — in effect building the castle in which the king will live — can provide the necessary flourishes that will indeed make content royalty.

At least that’s my favorite takeaway, but then you know I have a thing for content and how it’s presented on television.

By buying NBC Universal, Comcast has indicated that it’s interested in getting all kinds of content to as many screens as possible in as many ways as it can. Did you notice one of the hidden properties within the deal is Hulu? How do you think that’s going to play on a cable system—or maybe not on a cable system but on a cable systems’ mobile service? Did anyone say 4G? Did the term Clearwire pop up in there somewhere?

And how about the Universal theme parks? Is it too outlandish to think that there might be some tie-in between those attractions and the way they be brought to your home television as part of an interactive offering? Can’t get to Orlando to fly with ET—or whatever interactive event is going on there these days? Why not take a trip via your TV and some neat new yet-to-be-invented 3D graphics in your living room?

Of course there are the more conventional channels, the NBC cable lineup and the big boy itself, the NBC broadcast network. One of the first analyses of the deal was that perhaps Comcast will bring cable to broadcast rather than the way it’s always been with broadcast coming to cable.

The cable model is less structured. It features fewer programs, better quality, different schedules and less reliance on advertising support. DVRs really eliminate the need for scheduled viewing, but the broadcasters insist on having their seasons. Maybe a cable operator owning broadcast content will change that and the NBC broadcast lineup will resemble something more like USA or Bravo where high quality content comes and goes without regard to seasons.

Certainly Comcast might be able to infuse standard downstream programming with a patina of interactivity; burying more details in the nightly news, perhaps, with in-depth analysis akin to a newspaper editorial page buried within the program and available interactively to the interested viewer. Perhaps it would be a little more lighthearted; a jaunt to the background Web site of one of NBC’s remaining scripted programs. Being owned by the cable network certainly makes the R&D to develop such interactive fare more reasonable because there is already a conduit available to show it off.

That, perhaps more than anything else, is why I’m a little psyched about the deal. Rather than looking at it as one player owning too much, I’m seeing one player opening up the horizons of its capabilities to content providers who can how expand their views and their wares. The winners, when done properly and interactively, will be the end viewers; whether Comcast subscribers or others in a pay television universe that now includes computers, telephones and even competitive service providers.

Comcast, by buying NBC Universal, has proven that content is king. Now it’s time to give that king a castle in which to live and all the accoutrements that go with royalty.