December 22, 2022 • 48 mins
Another year comes to a close here at SYSK, which means our annual Holiday Spectacular is at hand. So light a fire, pour up a comforting beverage and gather the family for some good cheer!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of I
Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the Holiday Cast. I'm Josh,
(00:24):
and Chuck is here and Jerry's here, and there's a
million elves surrounding us and making us kind of nervous
because they're just looking at us and not saying anything.
And this is Stuff you should know. The Holiday episode
the last recording of the year for us. It's great
and I'm so excited about that. And you and I
(00:46):
love our jobs, but it doesn't matter how much you
love your job. Vacation is better. Yeah, some vacation is better. Yeah,
I agreed. And this is gonna be our longest Christmas
break yet, and we're both super excited to do that.
But we're even more excited to share with you another
set of it's getting thin, but another set of great
(01:09):
stories for Christmas. I disagree. I feel reinvigorated. I think
we hit the We hit rock bottom two years ago
and and we've been coming back ever since then. I
feel great about this one. Did you really look at
two years ago? Was it bad? No? No, I just
remember it. It was not It was not great. Yeah,
I don't know. I need to be invigorated by you then,
(01:32):
because every year I keep thinking, oh boy, have like,
that's a lot of years to be doing six to
eight Christmas stories, Like how many are out there? There's plenty. Man,
we'll we'll never run out. Come over here. I'll invigorate
you right now. Okay, all right, thank you Hamana Hammanahammed.
Uh okay, we're gonna start out with your pick, one
(01:53):
of your picks. Yes. Um, this is actually from uh
a listener named Alexandra stock Or Still I'm not sure.
I bet it's stuck. She wrote in for several years
with a bunch of really good ideas, but she really
really was pushing for the chestnut one. And I understand
why now, because um, it's a really interesting story, the
(02:14):
story behind why chestnuts used to be basically like the
the the symbol of Christmas in America for a couple
hundred years, until it just suddenly stopped being that way. Um,
and let's talk about that. Yeah, and big thanks to
USA Today for a great article from Cape Morgan. I
(02:35):
wonder if that's the same Cape Morgan that writes for
How Stuff Works. Oh, I don't know. That's a great question.
I bet it is at any rate. Uh if you've
ever heard the Christmas song, not a Christmas song, but
the Christmas song from Coroon or net King Cole. You
might not even know. That was the title of what's
more commonly referred to as Chestnuts Roasting on an open fire. Yeah. Uh,
(02:59):
this was corded in nineteen forty six. It was a
very big hit, one of the biggest Christmas songs of
all times. Uh. And I guess it's sort of acted
like everyone around was in America was sitting around roasting chestnuts.
But I've never seen a chestnut, nor roasted or tasted one.
And that's because by that point there were no chestnut
(03:20):
trees in the United States anymore. No, very sadly, a
blight started to spread, I think starting in nineteen o four,
and within forty years almost every single American chestnut tree
was dead. And how many were there, There were a
lot of them. At one point, half of the trees
(03:41):
in the forests on the East coast from Maine to Alabama,
as far west over to Kentucky and Ohio were chestnuts.
Half of the trees in those in that stretch were chestnuts,
and I think there were as many as four billion
of them, So that's a lot of chestnut trees, and
that's a lot of chestnuts. That's a lot of roasting
(04:01):
because people used to eat these things. The chestnuts themselves
were small, They're about acorn size, and they had a
very obviously nutty flavor, but very sweet and carrot like
is what I've seen. When you just eat them out
of the shell. But then you roast them up a
little bit, things got even nuttier, and they got a
little sweeter, as things often often happened when they roast,
(04:24):
And it was a it was like a American and
especially a Christmas staple, where on street corners and cities
all over the United States and the Eastern Seaboard there
were chestnut roasters serving up bags and bags of this stuff. Yeah,
Kate Morgan puts it really, really great. She says, for
more than a century it was the smell of Christmas
(04:46):
in America. Nice I even wrote, gosh after that in
my notes. But it's sad, I mean, think about that.
There was this amazing tradition that dated back easily to
the eighteenth century, if not even a little earlier in
North America. Um, once Europeans came over and discovered chestnuts,
that I'm quite sure the indigenous people's were well aware
(05:08):
of for long before that, and they said, hey, these
are pretty amazing, and they made it not just part
of Christmas, but you could find chestnuts and dishes in
America and like throughout the year. But something about roasting
chestnuts that Christmas time was was very Christmas ee um.
And it's like you said, Chuck, were bereft. Those of
us alive today who were born after the mid forties
(05:31):
have never tasted a chestnut the way that it's supposed
to taste in America because the stuff we got now
it's not it's not holding up. No, they're importing chestnuts, uh,
I think largely probably for the Christmas season, even though
you can probably get them, I imagine all year round,
but they're mainly imported from Korea or Italy or China apparently,
(05:52):
and these are not the American chestnuts. They apparently do
not taste like they taste that Apparently they don't taste
that great at all. Uh. The way this one person
that was interviewed in here described them was this is
Libby O'Connell, who's a food historian. Wrote a book called
The American Plate colon a culinary history and one bytes.
(06:14):
But Libby describes them as sort of like a soft
potato and bland and not like this crunchy thing that
you would think of when you think of eating a
rusted chestnut. No, and in a horrible ironic twist, those
chestnuts that were eating today in America, like shmos, come
from the very same tree that was imported to Long
(06:35):
Island in the late nineteenth century that started the blight
that killed off the American chestnut. You won't catch me
buying those, then, it's terrible. Luckily, there is a glimmer
of hope. There is a group called the American Chestnut Foundation.
Since three they've planted at least seventy three thousand test trees.
(06:57):
They've been trying really hard to crossbreed American chestnuts with
Asian chestnuts so that they'll be um immune to the blight.
But they'll still produce those American chestnuts chest nuts. They
think maybe in a decade, maybe a little longer, we
will be able to experience the Christmas chestnuts like they
(07:18):
used to have back in the days of Nat King Cole.
That's right. So if you live in North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee,
or Pennsylvania. Then your state is growing those chest chestnut trees,
and uh, we all have our fingers crossed. A lot
is writing on this. Yeah, yeah, that's really well put
in chunk. So shall we climb in our sleigh and
(07:40):
hop over to the next roof. Yes, let's and we'll
have Jerry give us a little musical interlude in the meantime.
I gotta tell you the song's Jerry puts in or
(08:00):
that's my favorite part of this whole time. I like
us talking, it's fine, but the the holiday trimming that
that Jerry puts on it is just magnificent. And you
know what you're not gonna hear. Oh yeah, what ads?
That's right. We we we wall this one in the
Halloween episode off every year and say don't come near
my episode. That's right. And I think it's a great
(08:23):
tradition if you ask me, I think it is too.
There's nothing like leaving money on the table, all right.
So you dug up some cool stuff along with Sean
Flynn of Forbes Magazine on some very special places all
over the world that kind of have a cottage Christmas
industry in one way or another and for different reasons. Yeah,
(08:45):
there's places that say this is Santa claus is home.
Another places, No, this is Sant Claus is. Another places,
this is Santa claus Is summer home, um and or
other places are just like we're not saying that, we're
just celebrating Christmas year round. One of them is called
Rovaniemi Finland, where in Finland they know Santa Claus. You lpuki,
(09:09):
that's in Finnish. I've seen Rare Exports enough times that
I'm pretty sure that's how they pronounce it. It's rare Exports.
It's a Finnish Christmas movie that came out five six,
seven years ago. Yes, but they envisioned Santa Claus is
like a demon, not a not a friendly elf, and
they have to basically capture them and it's really interesting.
(09:30):
It's a great movie. Okay, I'll have to check that out,
you pukey uh so, and you'll wait. Not in yolla puki,
that's that's Santa Claus. What am I saying? And Rovaniemi
they are one of the ones to say, now this
this is where Santa was born. It's the official home
of Santa. We have the Santa Christmas House right over there.
(09:51):
You can go visit it. Uh, we have a post
office here where it is chock full of letters from
children all over the world, and we even have a
toy factory, so we lay claim. I looked at pictures
of Rovaniemi and enchanting under states that place. It's amazing.
(10:12):
It looks pretty pretty sweet. So that's one place. They
don't necessarily say Santa lives here now, but they say
Santa was born here. They've got a contender over in
Norway called drew Back, and they say, oh, yeah, you
think Santa was born in Finland. Wrong, he was born
in Norway under a rock outside of this town. Nothing
is more fun and disturbing than Scandinavian folk tales. It
(10:36):
seemed like they always fought something really weird, right, like
sa was born under a rock a few hundred years ago,
and that rock is right over there. Uh. They also,
of course have their own post office. Uh where kids
in their list? So kids are they're sitting their list
of different places all over the world where. I guess
it depends on where your parents allegiances lie. Yeah, but
(10:58):
I think all of these post off us is like
in drew Back and Roviniemi and the other places. We'll
talk about nowhere to forward him onto the North Pole.
So they get to Santa right. There a mere way station,
right exactly? What about Alaska? Isn't there a North Pole Alaska?
There is? Um. There's a place called the Santa Claus
House in North Pole, Alaska, and it is um supposedly
(11:22):
Satan Nick's home. I think it's one of as many
how homes UM and it's really cute. It's pretty kitchy looking.
There's a lot of strange paintings outside of it. UM.
But one of the other things that they have are
light poles. They are shaped like candy canes. That's yes,
that's stretch along um roads and streets called Santa Claus
(11:43):
Lane St. Nicholas Drive. Um, there's one. I'm wondering if
this is a nod to the vacation movies Holiday Road.
Oh yeah, that was Lindsey Buckingham, was it? It may
have been Fleetwood mac r i p Christine mcneeh. He
just asked away in real time. Yeah, very sad. Yeah,
(12:03):
I know. It's it's pretty neat to see how many
people are like this is a big deal. Yeah, very
big deal. That was very sad. Listen to it all night,
No but but that's not what this is about. This
is about Santa Claus Is sounds around that world. Snowman
Lane in North Pole, Alaska. Yeah, so North Pole, Alaska.
Another place that says this is where Santa lives. There's
(12:25):
a place in Indiana called Santa Claus Indiana and they say, no, no,
this is where Santa Claus lives. I can understand the
distinction here because Indiana is much further south than Alaska
or Norway or Finland. So this is possibly Santa Claus
is like summer home, one of his summer homes. Yeah,
this seems like the k o a campground of kitche
(12:46):
Santa places. Yeah, because they do have a campground. They
have a Lake rootolf there with a campground and they
they pour it on pretty thick there in Indiana with
a light show that tells the story of Rudolph and
his Trevia Hills. And they have a Santa's Candy Castle. Yes,
it's you know, they've made it. I'm glad you included
(13:06):
links to these places. You should go look them up.
It's it's pretty fun to look at. Santa's Candy Castle
was sponsored by the Curtis Candy Corporation, who make Butterfinger
and Baby Ruth and they they opened this place in
nineteen thirty five to really kind of give Santa Claus
Indiana boost. Of course, there's also a Santa Claus Museum
that would be worth visiting. I'd love to go visit
(13:27):
that someday. Yeah, you get in the Christmas spirit, right, Yeah.
Another thing they'll get you in the Christmas spirit in
July even is the eighty one foot wide star over Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
That's right, that's on South Mountain that was built in
nineteen thirty seven, and apparently in nineteen thirty seven it
(13:48):
was a real, uh sort of sign of hope during
the Great Depression, right, And I believe that the city
itself was founded on Christmas Eve there in a lahem,
and so I'm sure, I mean that's why they got
the name, right, Yeah, for sure. And they make no
claim whatsoever on Santa Claus having a home there, having
(14:08):
been born there. They're just fans, really big fans, you know. Uh.
And then finally, I guess Santa has his beach condo,
because who wouldn't if he were Santa and you could
just you know, he basically prints money every year. You know, sure, Uh,
this is where where exactly? This is in Florida. This
is inland, um kind of along the St. John's River,
(14:31):
So rather beach, he would have like, this is his airboat,
um swamp? Getaway. Okay, give me a north or south.
It's south south of what South Florida is. It's south
of Gainesville. It's east of Gainesville. It's due east of Orlando. Okay,
so I got you, I got you, so right there
(14:52):
in the center of the state sort of, yeah, pretty
much the center right. The Florida is very misleading because
it takes as long to drive to Miami me from Atlanta,
as it does to drive to New York, which seems
hard to believe, but it's true. But to drive from
um like Orlando to Tampa, it takes a hour and
a half. Basically, it's crazy. You can get to so
(15:14):
many places in Florida in two or three hours. It's
it's just nuts, right, But from tip to top to
bottom it's a long way. Yes, agreed. But Christmas, Florida
used to be Fort Christmas because it was a ford.
It was an army stock aide that was built an
eighteen thirty seven and they said, hey, I guess we
got this place with this name, and we got a
(15:34):
post office that kids are gonna want that postmark once
again from Christmas on stamped onto their letter. So that
seems to be the main industry. How yeah is their
post office? It's it's true, and they keep it decorated
year round to really attract people. Yeah, I love it
for sure. So there's some places you could visit if
you were like I really wanted to feel closer to
(15:55):
Santa this year, and I feel like doing some traveling.
There's a great list for or you everybody, all right,
and now we are going to talk about the two
worst Christmas songs in history. Oh my h you might
be right though, now that I think about it, I
(16:17):
hadn't hadn't considered that, but I think you're right. I mean,
there are certainly some annoying like pop rock versions of
Christmas songs, but it does not get much worse. Then
Grandma got run over by a reindeer and all I
want for Christmas is my two front teeth. Uh. I
will say this, Grandma got run over by a reindeer
(16:38):
is so infuriating, Lee catchy. It's been stuck in my
head all day and I didn't listen to it. Oh wow,
that's hilarious. Just from reading it and doing this research,
I've been walking around bashing my head against the wall
all day. It is catchy. It's what people in the
corporate world would call sticky. It's very sticky. Um. And
(16:59):
it's actually way older than I thought. I think of
that song is firmly in the mid eighties, but apparently
it was written all the way back in the seven
by a songwriter from Dallas named Randy Brooks. And depending
on who you ask, either his grandmother left him out
of her will or he no, I don't either. I
(17:22):
think it was a joke by whoever said it. And
then um, the likelier one that I think Randy Brooks
says that he was just thinking about those country songs
he as he put it, where they dragged you into
love with the character and then killed him off in
the third verse, and how he was kind of sick
of that, that kind of songwriting, and he wanted to
kind of make light of it. So he started thinking
(17:42):
about grandma being killed off, and even worse, what about
Grandma dying at Christmas? And he started wondering, like, exactly
how would Grandma die at Christmas and it hit him
like a flash. Yeah, it strikes me that Brooks may
have been sort of trying to get on the out
tales of like Ray Stevens, who was a country sort
(18:04):
of hed He wrote some serious songs, but he was
kind of known for novelty and joke songs, and it
was like the American Yakov. Yeah, sort of. Uh. He
definitely looked like, I'm not any thing about it. But
it was sort of a thing back then in country
music where you could write some songs that were humorous
and they could end up being big hits. So Brooks
(18:26):
would apparently do some of this apparently, Uh, did you
mention the Johnny Walker thing? No, I didn't. Supposed he
was headed to bed with his guitar and quote his
co writer Johnny Walker black and and wrote this song,
which you know, if you've never uh, certainly that chorus
will stick in your head. But how I'm not gonna
(18:47):
sing it, but I don't remember any of the words.
I knew Grandma got run over just from the chorus.
But when you look at the lyrics, it is, uh,
it's very dark. Grandma's drunk on Eggna is like leaving
the party and they're like, no, don't go, Grandma, and
she's like, I need to get my meds and goes
(19:07):
to get medication drunk and gets run over by Rudolph
and they say they find her dead in the snow
with footprints on her forehead and claws as in Santa
Claus marks on her back. That's pretty clever. What else? Um?
So the family celebrates Christmas dressed in black because their mourning,
(19:29):
and they have like a whole conundrum in front of him.
They were like, should we just open Grandma's presence or
should we send them back? And then the song goes
over and focuses on Grandpa, who's handling the whole thing
really really well. He's having a party. He's hanging out
watching football on TV and drinking beer and playing cards
and seems to be okay about this whole thing. Yeah,
(19:49):
so that's the essence of the song. Uh, Like I said,
Brooks had made a name sort of. It sounds like
regionally um writing these Ray Stevens esque country song And
I was performing it out one night when a married
duo married at the time just divorced a handful of
years later named Elmo and Patsy were in the audience
(20:11):
and they were recording artists, and they said, hey, can
we record your song? Uh. There they weren't huge stars,
but I looked them up and they were. They were
pretty well known at the time in that in the
country music scene. Uh. And Dr Elmo went on to
be a doctor veterinary medicine, which I thought was interesting.
I saw that too. Yeah, so um uh Randy Brooks
(20:33):
said sure, you guys can record my song, and they
actually started pressing their own copies of this. I guess
a single like a forty five of Grandma got run
over by a reindeer, so this was I saw. They
met at a high in Lake Tahoe during a blizzard
and that's where the whole thing happened. But the upshot
of it is um. By Christmas Day ninety nine, one
(20:55):
of these singles had made its way into the hands
of a DJ in San Francisco, and this DJ played
it on the radio for the first time, and uh,
it apparently was very polarizing from the outset. Some people
called the radio station and said, don't ever play that
record again. Other people said, like, where can I get
a copy of that record? And year by year, it
(21:16):
just kind of slowly started to spread around the country,
and then in three that was the year it just
absolutely blew up. Yeah. I mean that's why you remember
it as mid eighties because in eight three it became
a big, big hit for ish plus years after it
was written and a few years after it was first recorded,
(21:36):
So that's it's definitely or I guess actually more like, uh,
six years after it was written, in four years after
it was recorded. Yeah, Apparently it got a big boost
because Elmo and Patsy had gone to the trouble of
paying for a video to be made just in time
for MTV, and MTV put it in heavy rotation and
(21:57):
it ended up being the number one song on the
Billboard Holiday Charts for several years in a row, and
it spawned a whole bunch of stuff. It went gold,
it eventually went platinum. There's toys, ugly sweaters, there's a
cartoon based on it, sended candles. UM. Randy Brooks said
there was a hot chocolate mix. Couldn't find that to
corroborate it. Uh. And then there's a Christmas theme podcast
(22:21):
I found UM that seems to have released the most
recent episode last year. UM but they have twenty nine
episodes under their belt. Grandma got run over by a podcast. Uh.
And as far as the two singers, they got divorced.
I think that next year or so. So yeah, maybe
all that success went to their head. Yeah, that'll do it.
(22:43):
I've seen that movie. It could happen to you. Can
I read the last line? You wrote this last line right? Yeah,
not a bad run for a man who's co writer
is Scotch. You like that? That's great, very much tickled me.
So are we going to put a musical interlude in
between these two? Are we gonna head right over to
(23:04):
All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth.
Let's just head right over there. Big thanks. I got
most of this stuff. There's a bunch of histories of
this song, but the most thorough was from the Greenville
Theater in Greenville, South Carolina at Greenville Theater dot org.
And they they do Christmas plays and I think they
performed this every year. It will have been ended by
(23:26):
the time this comes out, But support local theater and
support the Greenville, South Carolina Theater. Yeah, And I found
it confusing at first. I was like, what does Greenville
Theater in South Carolina have to do with this, because
this whole thing took place in at Smithtown Elementary in Smithtown,
New York, Long Island, Yeah, where a man named Donald
Gardner and his wife Doris Gardner were music teachers at
(23:48):
Smithtown Elementary. And Donald Gardner was coming trying to come
up with a song for the second graders at one point,
and he noticed that they were talking amongst themselves and
kept saying like all I want for Christmas is, all
I want for Christmas is, And that's kind of a
phrase that they used. And then at some point, I
think Donald Gardner told a joke and all the children
(24:08):
started laughing, and he noticed something very significant about those
kids that inspired him. Uh, they did, and he actually
put a number thanks to the Washington Post, I know,
the actual statistic is sixteen out of the twenty two
children in the classroom, we're missing their front teeth. The
front two thing is funny when you have a kid.
(24:29):
My my daughter is pretty late on her teeth, losing
her baby teeth, so she still has this cute little
top baby teeth. Uh. But sometimes you'll see, like as
a kid as young as like four and five that
have these giant honkin front teeth because you know, those
adult teeth come in sometimes they don't fit in the
(24:50):
mouth so well. Yeah, true, but it's always funny to
see her friends at school, like a lot of them
have those big teeth. She still got her little teeth.
But losing the two front teeth is a big deal.
I remember I lost my front two in pretty quick succession.
We talked about uh, and I even put it on
my Instagram when my mom dressed me up as Huckleberry
Finn for the photo shoot, which you can find at
(25:12):
Chuck The at Chuck the Podcast. On my Instagram, you
have to dig back because I'm not going to repost
it or anything like that. But losing the front teeth
is a big deal. All these kids had their teeth
out and it struck. Donald Gardner is very funny and
apparently he whipped up this song you can tell in
about thirty minutes. Yeah, that's that's pretty amazing. Though he
(25:33):
was also like he he was a music teacher, he
also was really good at writing music as well. He
went on to write um songs for musical textbooks, among
other things. But Um the song initially was just relegated
to Smithtown Elementary for the first several years. Um, but
it became like a tradition that they still carry on today.
(25:54):
At Smithtown Elementary they have a holiday sing along and
um invariably they play or sing all I Want for
Christmas is my two front teeth. Um. But it really
kind of blew up in night when it was first
recorded and kind of hit. I think that's the impression
I have after Spike Jones and his City Slickers recorded it. Yeah,
(26:16):
there was a lady right before this who heard Gardner
sing this thing at a teacher's conference and said, that's
really catchy. Why don't you meet my boss at wit
Mark Music Company. They published the song and then, like
you said, Spike Jones and his City Slickers put it
out and it was Yeah it was. It was a
(26:36):
number one hit. Doesn't get much bigger, and it got
covered most um, notably by the Chipmunks. Yeah, it was
a Chipmunks song, wouldn't it. It was me and the Chipmunks.
Christmas songs are great. We listen to a lot of
Christmas music over the course of December. I love it
until I don't, right, But um, Emily she dives in
(27:00):
right after Thanksgiving and in fact, I wanted to play
it before Thanksgiving this year. I was like, Babe, it's
come on too early, just too early. Can we at
least wait till after Thanksgiving? So we haven't put on
the Chipmunks yet, But that's always a fun one in
the house. My favorite of all time is Frante and Tiger.
They're dueling pianos. I haven't heard that one good stuff. Yes, yes,
(27:24):
it is just I mean, I'm sure it's nostalgic for
me because I grew up on that, but I don't
I can't imagine anybody would hear it and be like
this is terrible. It's like, it's really great. Ferrante f
E r R A n t E and Tyker t
E I c h E R. And they actually did
the theme to Midnight Cowboy too. They were really accomplished musicians,
but they would both play grand pianos. That was like
(27:47):
their thing and their take on Christmas songs with two
grand pianos, and once it is really really something to hear. Well,
that's what I will try and do most times, is
put on like Christmas piano solo stuff to keep from
area the bad pop music. So I love them. Yeah, yeah,
that in a little Mannheim steam roller, and I'm all
set stirring stuff all right, I think it's slight time,
(28:11):
right it is. Let's slay on over to something else
with the musical annard leader. So chuck. Um. We've got
a little shorty here that we're gonna squeeze in about peppermint,
because if you stop and think about it, I can't
(28:32):
think of a taste, especially now that chestnut trees are
all dead. Um that is associated with Christmas more than peppermint.
You know. Yeah, you might get those little peppermints on
the way out of a restaurant, but aside from that,
you're not going to be tasting a lot of peppermint.
I don't think outside of December. No. And there's a
writer named Sam Worley for Epicurius who kind of rattles
(28:54):
off some good examples, like there's a bunch of Mochas
and Starbucks that uses it. There's ice cream treats called
frosty trees that I looked up. I was not aware
of frosty trees, and now I really want a frosty tree?
Have you ever had one? Now? Is it like a
hand by basically? But in the shape of a Christmas
(29:14):
tree made of peppermint ice cream a frozen handpie. So
so the peppermint is it's kind of the unofficial flavor
of Christmas, and Warlie asks a pretty good question like
what you know, why how did that happen? He ascribes
it to peppermint candy canes. I think that's a pretty
good case. But I also think you could make a
case that peppermint is like a cool blast of winter
(29:36):
in your mouth. So I can see just from that
as well being associated with it. Yeah, totally. It's not
like it tastes like you know, broiled liver. No, boy,
that would be imagine the world if that was the
taste of Christmas. Oh, as the story goes, and I
(29:58):
found this in a bunch of different places, and I'm
more like kind of helped to verify it at epicurious
but um, as the story goes, and certainly in the
book The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, there was
a German choral master uh in Cologne, Germany in the
sort of latest seventeenth century who had some rally German
(30:19):
kids at a live nativity and was like, this is
getting out of hand every time these kids come in.
All they're doing is cutting up. So can I get
something Mr. Local candy maker, like a candy that will
last for an hour or so and keep them busy?
And voila the candy cane, right, because nothing settles kids
(30:39):
down like a sugar stick. Yeah, but that's how it
came up. And apparently because of that link to the Nativity,
that's the reason that candy cane is curved. It's supposed
to replicate a shepherd's staff or echo what I guess
like that. Yeah, And I think originally they were only
white and the red stripes came a little later. Uh.
And I think, you know, it's funny you think of
(31:00):
peppermint is like red and white, but that's I think
that's probably strictly coloring, right, Yeah, peppermint is. I mean,
it's it's a lot like spearmint. It looks very green
and leafy. Yeah. Um. And it's apparently indigenous to the
Middle East in Europe. Um, and it was used as
like a medicine for a really long time. But yeah,
I can't imagine peppermint is anything but red and white
(31:23):
striped too. That's what we know it as. I am
not a big peppermint guy. But I'll I'll munch on
a little candy cane every now and then for nostalgis sake.
Oh sure, I like the fruity kinds though more than anything.
Oh like the rainbow colored m What about the big
giant miniature baseball bet peppermint candy canes that you would
(31:45):
get as a kid. It's a little ostentatious for me.
Do you remember those though? Sure you're like, uh like
billie clubs. They were, and if you had an older brother,
they were probably used like a billy club against you,
although not Scott. Scott would ever do something like that.
He would never do that. He would he would lick
his into a vampire killing spear, right and just drive
(32:08):
it right through the back of your knee. That's right. Um,
So here's a little fact for you. You can you
can bust out at your next Christmas party or holiday gathering.
The candy cane was invented about two years before it
became peppermint flavor. It was this kind of clean sugar
flavor up to that point. Yeah, like lick him stick. Yeah,
I love those as well. All right, that sleigh is
(32:32):
calling our name, my friend, let's get in the seats
still warm. Gross. Sorry head wish had net at broiled liver.
I thought with the open air of the sleigh it
might not really hit your nostrils too bad. But no,
(32:52):
Christmas is ruined. I was mistaken. So speaking of Christmas,
how about Elvis? How about him? So you dug something
up about um Elvis and and Christmas? Apparently the two
went hand in hand. And if you stop and think
about Elvis, I am not at all surprised that that
that this particular season was like the end all be
(33:15):
all to him. Yeah, Elvis was very into his family
and his friends, very into just sort of home in
America and just a well grounded Tennessee druck at it right.
I was about to say really into Ben's a dream,
but he was way into Christmas. And I have been
to Graceland two times. I went once regular and I
(33:38):
went once during Christmas. You show off. It is really lovely.
I would recommend going not at Christmas. It's sort of like, uh,
if you've ever been to the Biltmore House in Asheville,
I find that the regular tour is better than the
Christmas because it's so over overdone Christmas it kind of
gets in the way, a little bit of just the
regular beauty of both of the places I see. But
(34:02):
Elvis did it up for Christmas. Um colored lights everywhere. Uh,
six eight ft Christmas trees out front, blue lights up
that long driveway. Uh, it's funny they call it a mansion.
Graceland was not that big. Every time people go to
Graceland for the first time, they're always like, uh, this
is it. Yeah, I remember thinking that. But it's a
(34:24):
fun visit, and you should, I mean you and you
we should definitely go at Christmas. If you haven't been it,
it's if you've seen it regular, then you should go
at Christmas. Yeah, we saw it regular style, not peppermint style.
You said that he lined his house with blue lights.
I just find that so wonderful. Like, yes, plain white
lights are good, even multi colored lights are good. But
(34:44):
something about blue lights at Christmas are just they just
they really kind of make it more Christmas Eve to
me for some reason. Totally, And that was sort of
the style back then before everyone thought like the only
thing you could do was classy white lights, right exactly.
I know you like your color lights, yeah, Now I
love the big fat multicolored bulbs. Something about the small
(35:05):
blue lights too. I'm kind of my tastes have evolved
into that, I think. So we have a quote here
from the Memphis Press Scimitar in nineteen sixty six where
Elvis said, it really is the best season of the year. Man.
Christmas carols, trees and lionses just grab you. Something about
Christmas and being home I just can't explain. Maybe he's
(35:27):
been with family and friends, time to read and study,
and of course snowball fights and the sleigh rides and
you know, just home beautiful. That was wonderful, Elvis. Yeah,
I think he did a great job describing it. So
you can imagine that Elvis, as he was, and as
rich as he was, uh, and as much as he
(35:47):
liked Christmas, he really overdid it with presents. Um. Usually
employees got big fat cash bonuses. Um. Friends and family
would get anything from like jewelry to cars, uh to
daw dogs. He gave a girlfriend a poodle once. Um.
He just really liked to do it up. Um. And
apparently between nineteen fifty four and nineteen seventy six he
(36:10):
celebrated twenty three Christmas is at at Graceland. Whenever he could,
he would make his way home and and spend the
holidays at Graceland. Uh. And more often than not he
was he was able to, that's right. And we know
this because of the book Elvis Colan Day by Day
by Ernst Jorgensen and Peter Girl Nick Garrel, Nick, I
(36:32):
think you got it the second time. I think so.
But they went year by year and it sounds like
day by day. But we're gonna go over a handful
of these years that are notable. In fifty four, this
is before Elvis was a big famous star, and his
family lived in a little apartment on Alabama Street. And
just the week before that, Elvis made his first sort
(36:53):
of musical appearance at the Louisiana Hayride radio program. A
few days after Christmas, he ended up playing a club
in Houston and his career started on its way basically. Yeah,
But nineteen fifty six was his breakout year. Get this.
He had seventeen songs on the Billboard one that year.
Three of them were number one in nineteen fifty six.
(37:16):
So nineteen fifty seven he had bought Grace Lane and
this is his first Christmas at Graceland, but it was
ruined by the U. S. Military that's right. A few
days before Christmas he got his draft notice and on
Christmas Eve he asked for a deferm it and got
it and pushed that by just a few months. Oh,
(37:36):
actually a year and a few months. Pushed this deferm
it to March twenty nine nine. Yeah, let's still just
a few months. Oh okay, yeah, that's how yours work.
You're gonna make me cough? What else? Seven in ninety Well,
his mother died. Um. It was his first Christmas without
(37:57):
his mother. I'm sure that was rather sad. It was.
It was also a Christmas that he's spent in Germany
because he was stationed there during his military service, so
he probably was not very happy in Christmas nineteen fifty's
trying to make the best of it. Not a blue
light to be found in Germany and his his mom
was missing, So not the best Christmas of all time. Uh.
(38:19):
Fifty nine was his first with Priscilla. But you mentioned
the girlfriend who got the French poodle. Um, he had
a girlfriend at the time named Anita Wood, and he
sent Anita the French poodle while he was car noodling
in Germany with Priscilla. But by nineteen sixty six, he said,
(38:40):
it's I'm I'm I'm gonna make an honest man out
of myself. And he proposed to to Priscilla are on
Christmas Eve, which now I understand that's a super Elvius
thing to do. UM. And apparently between nineteen sixties seven
and nineteen seventy three there wasn't a whole lot going on,
just happy normal holidays. Be as we pick up again
(39:00):
in Yeah, and this was you know, the last few
years of Elvis's life are well documented. Is not being
great for his health. Uh, he was having some health
problems in seventy four during Christmas, and so to pick
his spirits up, I think he flew in a gospel
backup group called Voice a few times in and out
of Memphis just so they could sing with him at Graceland. Yeah,
(39:24):
that's pretty cool. What about the last one? Why are
you leaving that to me? I'll take it then, So
this is the year I was born. I've always been
convinced that I am the reincarnation of Elvis. Seventy six
is the last Christmas of UM of Elvis's life. Um.
(39:44):
He apparently it says that he had a bizarre last
Las Vegas engagement. Was that the very famous like Vegas
fat Elvis? Well, sure in seventy six, absolutely, Okay, so
then that that happened right before Chris Miss then yeah,
but that was I can't remember the incident, but there
(40:04):
was one concert in particular that kind of went off
the rails. Okay, it sounds like it was this Las
Vegas one. Yeah, I think I think it's one where
like he couldn't remember lyrics and he was sweaty and
it was just a bad scene. That's not good. So um,
that was his last show before Christmas. I guess he
went and recuperated, and then two days after he started
up another tour at Wichita State UM. And then six
(40:26):
and a half months later he died. Where chuck on
the toilet at Graceland, right, Well, I was just gonna
say it Graceland, but yes, yeah, you can't go up
there in his in his personal quarters as you know,
totally can't go up those stairs at Graceland. So that
was Elvis and Christmas in the blue lights there. I
(40:46):
loved it. They were like, all right, Elvis, you got
one more tour in you. Let's let's launch it at
which is All State University. Right where all the best
tours are kicked off. All right, so we finish up
with a boozy recipe like we like to do. I
think we should be first. How about a musical interlude
from Jerry Okay, Chuck. I don't know if we had
(41:14):
a boozy recipe the last couple of years, so it's
time to bring it back. And this one anyone can make.
You can make it with your eyes closed, you can
make it with your feet, You can make it very easily.
If you're you could have your eight year old child
make it for you if you wanted to. It's just
that easy. But what's interesting about it. It's called moose
milk and it's associated um exclusively with the Canadian military.
(41:37):
That's right. Apparently all of the militaries in Canada, the
Army and the Navy and the air Force and their
moose patrol, they all claim I guess, ownership, or at
least claim to have written the recipe. But we do
know that regardless of who did it, it was a
drink that was concocted back in World War Two and
(42:00):
has become just a very very customary drink to have
in Canada. I think, certainly for the military, but I
think all the way around Canada, right, Yeah, especially on
Christmas and New Year's Day. So, um, there's a lot
of different things you can do. There's a lot of
different ingredients. As you'll you'll get the gist of it
from this, and you can kind of let your imagination
(42:21):
run wild. And that's kind of what you're supposed to do.
You're supposed to make it to taste, using as much
or as little as as you want. Um. But our
friends at Atlas Obscura found a recipe from the Cape
Breton News, and um, they recommend that you basically stay
with whiskey, rum or vodka. I've seen rum more often
(42:41):
than not, and apparently though the military used rum when
they ran out of whiskey. So I would recommend one
of those two. But if you don't like the Brown liquors,
vodka apparently works. Yeah. This sounds barely even drink anymore.
But I am inspired by this very soothing, sweet sounding
Christmas treat, So I'm gonna have one of these soon, Okay,
(43:04):
but you should probably have it in the morning because
of the first ingredient, or else you'll stay up all night.
Coffee didn't keep me up, so one cup of cold coffee,
a cup of half and half. It's a lot totally
cal Uh. What else you got in there? Ice cream? Maybe? Yeah,
one and a half cups good vanilla ice cream, not
(43:27):
the cheap stuff that could be vanilla bean perhaps so.
And this is UM. This is basically I don't know
how many UM servings this makes now that I think
about it, but based on the amount of liquor, I
would guess one serving because it just calls for two
ounces UM of rum, whiskey or vodka actually says and
(43:48):
or uh, and then a tablespoon of kohlua, and you
mix it all together in a bowl, whisk it until
the ice cream has melted, and then you put it
in a cup and top it off with either nutmeg
or dark chocolate shavings to make it classy. I would
say not for the lactose intolerant, No, definitely not. And
(44:09):
I've seen that mentioned like this is this is not
for for you if if you are lactose intolerant UM.
But regardless of what UM recipe you use, whoever posts
the recipe invariably mentions that if you're in the military,
go ahead and double the amount of alcohol. Call for yeah.
I mean, if you've got a cup of coffee, a
(44:29):
cup of cream and ice cream, I think you could
stand you know, a half a cup of rum. Sure,
I could Navy strength No, wait, that's gin. Yeah, I
think there's navy strength rum too. Though. Okay, this is
I mean, this is not too far off from a
one of those trendy espresso martinis. That's right, that's right
(44:52):
because the in the coffee, yeah, really kind of make
it like that. So that's kind of a fancier version.
I found another one on a cooking website called with
Love from Beck's b e X and her recipe apparently
her husband was in the Canadian military, so I'm getting
the impression that it's adapted from him. It's way easier,
(45:13):
it's way more straightforward. And this is the one that
you're eight year old can make for you. Yeah, this
one's got ice cream, vanilla again, uh and rum, but
this time it's got egg nog in it and then
just a little nutmeg. That's about it. So but again
you just mix it all together, mix it all together,
and then whip it up into a cup. And she
(45:36):
she uses like two leaders ice cream, four leaders, eggnog
two leaders, rum and a tablespoon of nutmeg. Obviously this
is for more than one person. I hope, I really hope. Yeah.
I wonder if our buddy, our colleague Alex at work
has a great tradition he does every year where he
makes the George Washington recipe for boozy eggnog and he
(45:59):
makes a big matches and bottles and leaves it on
his front porch and sends out the email to all
of us and says, hey, it's out there again this year.
Come by and get some if you want. Yeah, And
he makes the nog from scratch, like eggs and everything
I've made. I've made the recipe with store made eggnog,
but then with brandy, I think whiskey and rum and
it's really really good, is it? But yeah, and I've
(46:22):
yet to have any of Alex's. I'm sure that it's
just knock your socks off when it's made from scratch.
And Alex says a great podcast as well called Ephemeral
that we can recommend. And also before we close, I
did a guest spot on another I Heart show called
Parenting is a Joke. It's a great O'feira Eisenberg of
(46:44):
asked me another fame and she's got a show with
us or old buddy Julie Smith produces it. Oh really
that's awesome, Yeah, said, Julie got in touch and she's like, hey,
you want to be on talk about parenting, And so
I'm on an episode that has already dropped. It will
be a few weeks old by the time you hear
this where I talk about parenting and uh and Ruby's
(47:04):
adoption story. And if you stay and listen through the credits,
there's a very short, little forty five second interview with Ruby.
That's adorable. Oh that is adorable. Great plug, Chuck. It's
a check it out and it's a it's a really
good show and check out aphemeral and happy holidays everybody. Yeah, yeah,
here's the part where we wish everybody happy holidays, right,
(47:26):
I mean I just did. Okay, Well, I'm gonna take
it up from there. I'm gonna say Merry Christmas, Happy
New Year, have a tip top Ted, Happy Hanukah, Happy Kuanza. Sure,
happy holidays in general, however you celebrate them. We're really
glad that you hung out with us, and we hope
we gave you some holiday spirit, right, Chuck, that's right.
(47:46):
And uh, we always like to think of our listeners
who have a bad time this time of year, because
it's true for a lot of people. It's not all
merriment for everyone. So if the holiday seasons are rough
for you, then we are thinking about you, and you
are not alone. And uh, we just want to wish
everyone well and uh, let's let's head into feeling good. Yeah.
(48:09):
So from Chuck and Jerry and me and from Frank
the Chair, from Dave, c, from Max, from Ben, from
everybody here. Stuff you Should Know, I have a happy holiday.
(48:39):
Stuff you Should Know is a production of I Heart Radio.
For more podcasts my Heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of I
Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the Holiday Cast. I'm Josh,
(00:24):
and Chuck is here and Jerry's here, and there's a
million elves surrounding us and making us kind of nervous
because they're just looking at us and not saying anything.
And this is Stuff you should know. The Holiday episode
the last recording of the year for us. It's great
and I'm so excited about that. And you and I
(00:46):
love our jobs, but it doesn't matter how much you
love your job. Vacation is better. Yeah, some vacation is better. Yeah,
I agreed. And this is gonna be our longest Christmas
break yet, and we're both super excited to do that.
But we're even more excited to share with you another
set of it's getting thin, but another set of great
(01:09):
stories for Christmas. I disagree. I feel reinvigorated. I think
we hit the We hit rock bottom two years ago
and and we've been coming back ever since then. I
feel great about this one. Did you really look at
two years ago? Was it bad? No? No, I just
remember it. It was not It was not great. Yeah,
I don't know. I need to be invigorated by you then,
(01:32):
because every year I keep thinking, oh boy, have like,
that's a lot of years to be doing six to
eight Christmas stories, Like how many are out there? There's plenty. Man,
we'll we'll never run out. Come over here. I'll invigorate
you right now. Okay, all right, thank you Hamana Hammanahammed.
Uh okay, we're gonna start out with your pick, one
(01:53):
of your picks. Yes. Um, this is actually from uh
a listener named Alexandra stock Or Still I'm not sure.
I bet it's stuck. She wrote in for several years
with a bunch of really good ideas, but she really
really was pushing for the chestnut one. And I understand
why now, because um, it's a really interesting story, the
(02:14):
story behind why chestnuts used to be basically like the
the the symbol of Christmas in America for a couple
hundred years, until it just suddenly stopped being that way. Um,
and let's talk about that. Yeah, and big thanks to
USA Today for a great article from Cape Morgan. I
(02:35):
wonder if that's the same Cape Morgan that writes for
How Stuff Works. Oh, I don't know. That's a great question.
I bet it is at any rate. Uh if you've
ever heard the Christmas song, not a Christmas song, but
the Christmas song from Coroon or net King Cole. You
might not even know. That was the title of what's
more commonly referred to as Chestnuts Roasting on an open fire. Yeah. Uh,
(02:59):
this was corded in nineteen forty six. It was a
very big hit, one of the biggest Christmas songs of
all times. Uh. And I guess it's sort of acted
like everyone around was in America was sitting around roasting chestnuts.
But I've never seen a chestnut, nor roasted or tasted one.
And that's because by that point there were no chestnut
(03:20):
trees in the United States anymore. No, very sadly, a
blight started to spread, I think starting in nineteen o four,
and within forty years almost every single American chestnut tree
was dead. And how many were there, There were a
lot of them. At one point, half of the trees
(03:41):
in the forests on the East coast from Maine to Alabama,
as far west over to Kentucky and Ohio were chestnuts.
Half of the trees in those in that stretch were chestnuts,
and I think there were as many as four billion
of them, So that's a lot of chestnut trees, and
that's a lot of chestnuts. That's a lot of roasting
(04:01):
because people used to eat these things. The chestnuts themselves
were small, They're about acorn size, and they had a
very obviously nutty flavor, but very sweet and carrot like
is what I've seen. When you just eat them out
of the shell. But then you roast them up a
little bit, things got even nuttier, and they got a
little sweeter, as things often often happened when they roast,
(04:24):
And it was a it was like a American and
especially a Christmas staple, where on street corners and cities
all over the United States and the Eastern Seaboard there
were chestnut roasters serving up bags and bags of this stuff. Yeah,
Kate Morgan puts it really, really great. She says, for
more than a century it was the smell of Christmas
(04:46):
in America. Nice I even wrote, gosh after that in
my notes. But it's sad, I mean, think about that.
There was this amazing tradition that dated back easily to
the eighteenth century, if not even a little earlier in
North America. Um, once Europeans came over and discovered chestnuts,
that I'm quite sure the indigenous people's were well aware
(05:08):
of for long before that, and they said, hey, these
are pretty amazing, and they made it not just part
of Christmas, but you could find chestnuts and dishes in
America and like throughout the year. But something about roasting
chestnuts that Christmas time was was very Christmas ee um.
And it's like you said, Chuck, were bereft. Those of
us alive today who were born after the mid forties
(05:31):
have never tasted a chestnut the way that it's supposed
to taste in America because the stuff we got now
it's not it's not holding up. No, they're importing chestnuts, uh,
I think largely probably for the Christmas season, even though
you can probably get them, I imagine all year round,
but they're mainly imported from Korea or Italy or China apparently,
(05:52):
and these are not the American chestnuts. They apparently do
not taste like they taste that Apparently they don't taste
that great at all. Uh. The way this one person
that was interviewed in here described them was this is
Libby O'Connell, who's a food historian. Wrote a book called
The American Plate colon a culinary history and one bytes.
(06:14):
But Libby describes them as sort of like a soft
potato and bland and not like this crunchy thing that
you would think of when you think of eating a
rusted chestnut. No, and in a horrible ironic twist, those
chestnuts that were eating today in America, like shmos, come
from the very same tree that was imported to Long
(06:35):
Island in the late nineteenth century that started the blight
that killed off the American chestnut. You won't catch me
buying those, then, it's terrible. Luckily, there is a glimmer
of hope. There is a group called the American Chestnut Foundation.
Since three they've planted at least seventy three thousand test trees.
(06:57):
They've been trying really hard to crossbreed American chestnuts with
Asian chestnuts so that they'll be um immune to the blight.
But they'll still produce those American chestnuts chest nuts. They
think maybe in a decade, maybe a little longer, we
will be able to experience the Christmas chestnuts like they
(07:18):
used to have back in the days of Nat King Cole.
That's right. So if you live in North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee,
or Pennsylvania. Then your state is growing those chest chestnut trees,
and uh, we all have our fingers crossed. A lot
is writing on this. Yeah, yeah, that's really well put
in chunk. So shall we climb in our sleigh and
(07:40):
hop over to the next roof. Yes, let's and we'll
have Jerry give us a little musical interlude in the meantime.
I gotta tell you the song's Jerry puts in or
(08:00):
that's my favorite part of this whole time. I like
us talking, it's fine, but the the holiday trimming that
that Jerry puts on it is just magnificent. And you
know what you're not gonna hear. Oh yeah, what ads?
That's right. We we we wall this one in the
Halloween episode off every year and say don't come near
my episode. That's right. And I think it's a great
(08:23):
tradition if you ask me, I think it is too.
There's nothing like leaving money on the table, all right.
So you dug up some cool stuff along with Sean
Flynn of Forbes Magazine on some very special places all
over the world that kind of have a cottage Christmas
industry in one way or another and for different reasons. Yeah,
(08:45):
there's places that say this is Santa claus is home.
Another places, No, this is Sant Claus is. Another places,
this is Santa claus Is summer home, um and or
other places are just like we're not saying that, we're
just celebrating Christmas year round. One of them is called
Rovaniemi Finland, where in Finland they know Santa Claus. You lpuki,
(09:09):
that's in Finnish. I've seen Rare Exports enough times that
I'm pretty sure that's how they pronounce it. It's rare Exports.
It's a Finnish Christmas movie that came out five six,
seven years ago. Yes, but they envisioned Santa Claus is
like a demon, not a not a friendly elf, and
they have to basically capture them and it's really interesting.
(09:30):
It's a great movie. Okay, I'll have to check that out,
you pukey uh so, and you'll wait. Not in yolla puki,
that's that's Santa Claus. What am I saying? And Rovaniemi
they are one of the ones to say, now this
this is where Santa was born. It's the official home
of Santa. We have the Santa Christmas House right over there.
(09:51):
You can go visit it. Uh, we have a post
office here where it is chock full of letters from
children all over the world, and we even have a
toy factory, so we lay claim. I looked at pictures
of Rovaniemi and enchanting under states that place. It's amazing.
(10:12):
It looks pretty pretty sweet. So that's one place. They
don't necessarily say Santa lives here now, but they say
Santa was born here. They've got a contender over in
Norway called drew Back, and they say, oh, yeah, you
think Santa was born in Finland. Wrong, he was born
in Norway under a rock outside of this town. Nothing
is more fun and disturbing than Scandinavian folk tales. It
(10:36):
seemed like they always fought something really weird, right, like
sa was born under a rock a few hundred years ago,
and that rock is right over there. Uh. They also,
of course have their own post office. Uh where kids
in their list? So kids are they're sitting their list
of different places all over the world where. I guess
it depends on where your parents allegiances lie. Yeah, but
(10:58):
I think all of these post off us is like
in drew Back and Roviniemi and the other places. We'll
talk about nowhere to forward him onto the North Pole.
So they get to Santa right. There a mere way station,
right exactly? What about Alaska? Isn't there a North Pole Alaska?
There is? Um. There's a place called the Santa Claus
House in North Pole, Alaska, and it is um supposedly
(11:22):
Satan Nick's home. I think it's one of as many
how homes UM and it's really cute. It's pretty kitchy looking.
There's a lot of strange paintings outside of it. UM.
But one of the other things that they have are
light poles. They are shaped like candy canes. That's yes,
that's stretch along um roads and streets called Santa Claus
(11:43):
Lane St. Nicholas Drive. Um, there's one. I'm wondering if
this is a nod to the vacation movies Holiday Road.
Oh yeah, that was Lindsey Buckingham, was it? It may
have been Fleetwood mac r i p Christine mcneeh. He
just asked away in real time. Yeah, very sad. Yeah,
(12:03):
I know. It's it's pretty neat to see how many
people are like this is a big deal. Yeah, very
big deal. That was very sad. Listen to it all night,
No but but that's not what this is about. This
is about Santa Claus Is sounds around that world. Snowman
Lane in North Pole, Alaska. Yeah, so North Pole, Alaska.
Another place that says this is where Santa lives. There's
(12:25):
a place in Indiana called Santa Claus Indiana and they say, no, no,
this is where Santa Claus lives. I can understand the
distinction here because Indiana is much further south than Alaska
or Norway or Finland. So this is possibly Santa Claus
is like summer home, one of his summer homes. Yeah,
this seems like the k o a campground of kitche
(12:46):
Santa places. Yeah, because they do have a campground. They
have a Lake rootolf there with a campground and they
they pour it on pretty thick there in Indiana with
a light show that tells the story of Rudolph and
his Trevia Hills. And they have a Santa's Candy Castle. Yes,
it's you know, they've made it. I'm glad you included
(13:06):
links to these places. You should go look them up.
It's it's pretty fun to look at. Santa's Candy Castle
was sponsored by the Curtis Candy Corporation, who make Butterfinger
and Baby Ruth and they they opened this place in
nineteen thirty five to really kind of give Santa Claus
Indiana boost. Of course, there's also a Santa Claus Museum
that would be worth visiting. I'd love to go visit
(13:27):
that someday. Yeah, you get in the Christmas spirit, right, Yeah.
Another thing they'll get you in the Christmas spirit in
July even is the eighty one foot wide star over Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
That's right, that's on South Mountain that was built in
nineteen thirty seven, and apparently in nineteen thirty seven it
(13:48):
was a real, uh sort of sign of hope during
the Great Depression, right, And I believe that the city
itself was founded on Christmas Eve there in a lahem,
and so I'm sure, I mean that's why they got
the name, right, Yeah, for sure. And they make no
claim whatsoever on Santa Claus having a home there, having
(14:08):
been born there. They're just fans, really big fans, you know. Uh.
And then finally, I guess Santa has his beach condo,
because who wouldn't if he were Santa and you could
just you know, he basically prints money every year. You know, sure, Uh,
this is where where exactly? This is in Florida. This
is inland, um kind of along the St. John's River,
(14:31):
So rather beach, he would have like, this is his airboat,
um swamp? Getaway. Okay, give me a north or south.
It's south south of what South Florida is. It's south
of Gainesville. It's east of Gainesville. It's due east of Orlando. Okay,
so I got you, I got you, so right there
(14:52):
in the center of the state sort of, yeah, pretty
much the center right. The Florida is very misleading because
it takes as long to drive to Miami me from Atlanta,
as it does to drive to New York, which seems
hard to believe, but it's true. But to drive from
um like Orlando to Tampa, it takes a hour and
a half. Basically, it's crazy. You can get to so
(15:14):
many places in Florida in two or three hours. It's
it's just nuts, right, But from tip to top to
bottom it's a long way. Yes, agreed. But Christmas, Florida
used to be Fort Christmas because it was a ford.
It was an army stock aide that was built an
eighteen thirty seven and they said, hey, I guess we
got this place with this name, and we got a
(15:34):
post office that kids are gonna want that postmark once
again from Christmas on stamped onto their letter. So that
seems to be the main industry. How yeah is their
post office? It's it's true, and they keep it decorated
year round to really attract people. Yeah, I love it
for sure. So there's some places you could visit if
you were like I really wanted to feel closer to
(15:55):
Santa this year, and I feel like doing some traveling.
There's a great list for or you everybody, all right,
and now we are going to talk about the two
worst Christmas songs in history. Oh my h you might
be right though, now that I think about it, I
(16:17):
hadn't hadn't considered that, but I think you're right. I mean,
there are certainly some annoying like pop rock versions of
Christmas songs, but it does not get much worse. Then
Grandma got run over by a reindeer and all I
want for Christmas is my two front teeth. Uh. I
will say this, Grandma got run over by a reindeer
(16:38):
is so infuriating, Lee catchy. It's been stuck in my
head all day and I didn't listen to it. Oh wow,
that's hilarious. Just from reading it and doing this research,
I've been walking around bashing my head against the wall
all day. It is catchy. It's what people in the
corporate world would call sticky. It's very sticky. Um. And
(16:59):
it's actually way older than I thought. I think of
that song is firmly in the mid eighties, but apparently
it was written all the way back in the seven
by a songwriter from Dallas named Randy Brooks. And depending
on who you ask, either his grandmother left him out
of her will or he no, I don't either. I
(17:22):
think it was a joke by whoever said it. And
then um, the likelier one that I think Randy Brooks
says that he was just thinking about those country songs
he as he put it, where they dragged you into
love with the character and then killed him off in
the third verse, and how he was kind of sick
of that, that kind of songwriting, and he wanted to
kind of make light of it. So he started thinking
(17:42):
about grandma being killed off, and even worse, what about
Grandma dying at Christmas? And he started wondering, like, exactly
how would Grandma die at Christmas and it hit him
like a flash. Yeah, it strikes me that Brooks may
have been sort of trying to get on the out
tales of like Ray Stevens, who was a country sort
(18:04):
of hed He wrote some serious songs, but he was
kind of known for novelty and joke songs, and it
was like the American Yakov. Yeah, sort of. Uh. He
definitely looked like, I'm not any thing about it. But
it was sort of a thing back then in country
music where you could write some songs that were humorous
and they could end up being big hits. So Brooks
(18:26):
would apparently do some of this apparently, Uh, did you
mention the Johnny Walker thing? No, I didn't. Supposed he
was headed to bed with his guitar and quote his
co writer Johnny Walker black and and wrote this song,
which you know, if you've never uh, certainly that chorus
will stick in your head. But how I'm not gonna
(18:47):
sing it, but I don't remember any of the words.
I knew Grandma got run over just from the chorus.
But when you look at the lyrics, it is, uh,
it's very dark. Grandma's drunk on Eggna is like leaving
the party and they're like, no, don't go, Grandma, and
she's like, I need to get my meds and goes
(19:07):
to get medication drunk and gets run over by Rudolph
and they say they find her dead in the snow
with footprints on her forehead and claws as in Santa
Claus marks on her back. That's pretty clever. What else? Um?
So the family celebrates Christmas dressed in black because their mourning,
(19:29):
and they have like a whole conundrum in front of him.
They were like, should we just open Grandma's presence or
should we send them back? And then the song goes
over and focuses on Grandpa, who's handling the whole thing
really really well. He's having a party. He's hanging out
watching football on TV and drinking beer and playing cards
and seems to be okay about this whole thing. Yeah,
(19:49):
so that's the essence of the song. Uh, Like I said,
Brooks had made a name sort of. It sounds like
regionally um writing these Ray Stevens esque country song And
I was performing it out one night when a married
duo married at the time just divorced a handful of
years later named Elmo and Patsy were in the audience
(20:11):
and they were recording artists, and they said, hey, can
we record your song? Uh. There they weren't huge stars,
but I looked them up and they were. They were
pretty well known at the time in that in the
country music scene. Uh. And Dr Elmo went on to
be a doctor veterinary medicine, which I thought was interesting.
I saw that too. Yeah, so um uh Randy Brooks
(20:33):
said sure, you guys can record my song, and they
actually started pressing their own copies of this. I guess
a single like a forty five of Grandma got run
over by a reindeer, so this was I saw. They
met at a high in Lake Tahoe during a blizzard
and that's where the whole thing happened. But the upshot
of it is um. By Christmas Day ninety nine, one
(20:55):
of these singles had made its way into the hands
of a DJ in San Francisco, and this DJ played
it on the radio for the first time, and uh,
it apparently was very polarizing from the outset. Some people
called the radio station and said, don't ever play that
record again. Other people said, like, where can I get
a copy of that record? And year by year, it
(21:16):
just kind of slowly started to spread around the country,
and then in three that was the year it just
absolutely blew up. Yeah. I mean that's why you remember
it as mid eighties because in eight three it became
a big, big hit for ish plus years after it
was written and a few years after it was first recorded,
(21:36):
So that's it's definitely or I guess actually more like, uh,
six years after it was written, in four years after
it was recorded. Yeah, Apparently it got a big boost
because Elmo and Patsy had gone to the trouble of
paying for a video to be made just in time
for MTV, and MTV put it in heavy rotation and
(21:57):
it ended up being the number one song on the
Billboard Holiday Charts for several years in a row, and
it spawned a whole bunch of stuff. It went gold,
it eventually went platinum. There's toys, ugly sweaters, there's a
cartoon based on it, sended candles. UM. Randy Brooks said
there was a hot chocolate mix. Couldn't find that to
corroborate it. Uh. And then there's a Christmas theme podcast
(22:21):
I found UM that seems to have released the most
recent episode last year. UM but they have twenty nine
episodes under their belt. Grandma got run over by a podcast. Uh.
And as far as the two singers, they got divorced.
I think that next year or so. So yeah, maybe
all that success went to their head. Yeah, that'll do it.
(22:43):
I've seen that movie. It could happen to you. Can
I read the last line? You wrote this last line right? Yeah,
not a bad run for a man who's co writer
is Scotch. You like that? That's great, very much tickled me.
So are we going to put a musical interlude in
between these two? Are we gonna head right over to
(23:04):
All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth.
Let's just head right over there. Big thanks. I got
most of this stuff. There's a bunch of histories of
this song, but the most thorough was from the Greenville
Theater in Greenville, South Carolina at Greenville Theater dot org.
And they they do Christmas plays and I think they
performed this every year. It will have been ended by
(23:26):
the time this comes out, But support local theater and
support the Greenville, South Carolina Theater. Yeah, And I found
it confusing at first. I was like, what does Greenville
Theater in South Carolina have to do with this, because
this whole thing took place in at Smithtown Elementary in Smithtown,
New York, Long Island, Yeah, where a man named Donald
Gardner and his wife Doris Gardner were music teachers at
(23:48):
Smithtown Elementary. And Donald Gardner was coming trying to come
up with a song for the second graders at one point,
and he noticed that they were talking amongst themselves and
kept saying like all I want for Christmas is, all
I want for Christmas is, And that's kind of a
phrase that they used. And then at some point, I
think Donald Gardner told a joke and all the children
(24:08):
started laughing, and he noticed something very significant about those
kids that inspired him. Uh, they did, and he actually
put a number thanks to the Washington Post, I know,
the actual statistic is sixteen out of the twenty two
children in the classroom, we're missing their front teeth. The
front two thing is funny when you have a kid.
(24:29):
My my daughter is pretty late on her teeth, losing
her baby teeth, so she still has this cute little
top baby teeth. Uh. But sometimes you'll see, like as
a kid as young as like four and five that
have these giant honkin front teeth because you know, those
adult teeth come in sometimes they don't fit in the
(24:50):
mouth so well. Yeah, true, but it's always funny to
see her friends at school, like a lot of them
have those big teeth. She still got her little teeth.
But losing the two front teeth is a big deal.
I remember I lost my front two in pretty quick succession.
We talked about uh, and I even put it on
my Instagram when my mom dressed me up as Huckleberry
Finn for the photo shoot, which you can find at
(25:12):
Chuck The at Chuck the Podcast. On my Instagram, you
have to dig back because I'm not going to repost
it or anything like that. But losing the front teeth
is a big deal. All these kids had their teeth
out and it struck. Donald Gardner is very funny and
apparently he whipped up this song you can tell in
about thirty minutes. Yeah, that's that's pretty amazing. Though he
(25:33):
was also like he he was a music teacher, he
also was really good at writing music as well. He
went on to write um songs for musical textbooks, among
other things. But Um the song initially was just relegated
to Smithtown Elementary for the first several years. Um, but
it became like a tradition that they still carry on today.
(25:54):
At Smithtown Elementary they have a holiday sing along and
um invariably they play or sing all I Want for
Christmas is my two front teeth. Um. But it really
kind of blew up in night when it was first
recorded and kind of hit. I think that's the impression
I have after Spike Jones and his City Slickers recorded it. Yeah,
(26:16):
there was a lady right before this who heard Gardner
sing this thing at a teacher's conference and said, that's
really catchy. Why don't you meet my boss at wit
Mark Music Company. They published the song and then, like
you said, Spike Jones and his City Slickers put it
out and it was Yeah it was. It was a
(26:36):
number one hit. Doesn't get much bigger, and it got
covered most um, notably by the Chipmunks. Yeah, it was
a Chipmunks song, wouldn't it. It was me and the Chipmunks.
Christmas songs are great. We listen to a lot of
Christmas music over the course of December. I love it
until I don't, right, But um, Emily she dives in
(27:00):
right after Thanksgiving and in fact, I wanted to play
it before Thanksgiving this year. I was like, Babe, it's
come on too early, just too early. Can we at
least wait till after Thanksgiving? So we haven't put on
the Chipmunks yet, But that's always a fun one in
the house. My favorite of all time is Frante and Tiger.
They're dueling pianos. I haven't heard that one good stuff. Yes, yes,
(27:24):
it is just I mean, I'm sure it's nostalgic for
me because I grew up on that, but I don't
I can't imagine anybody would hear it and be like
this is terrible. It's like, it's really great. Ferrante f
E r R A n t E and Tyker t
E I c h E R. And they actually did
the theme to Midnight Cowboy too. They were really accomplished musicians,
but they would both play grand pianos. That was like
(27:47):
their thing and their take on Christmas songs with two
grand pianos, and once it is really really something to hear. Well,
that's what I will try and do most times, is
put on like Christmas piano solo stuff to keep from
area the bad pop music. So I love them. Yeah, yeah,
that in a little Mannheim steam roller, and I'm all
set stirring stuff all right, I think it's slight time,
(28:11):
right it is. Let's slay on over to something else
with the musical annard leader. So chuck. Um. We've got
a little shorty here that we're gonna squeeze in about peppermint,
because if you stop and think about it, I can't
(28:32):
think of a taste, especially now that chestnut trees are
all dead. Um that is associated with Christmas more than peppermint.
You know. Yeah, you might get those little peppermints on
the way out of a restaurant, but aside from that,
you're not going to be tasting a lot of peppermint.
I don't think outside of December. No. And there's a
writer named Sam Worley for Epicurius who kind of rattles
(28:54):
off some good examples, like there's a bunch of Mochas
and Starbucks that uses it. There's ice cream treats called
frosty trees that I looked up. I was not aware
of frosty trees, and now I really want a frosty tree?
Have you ever had one? Now? Is it like a
hand by basically? But in the shape of a Christmas
(29:14):
tree made of peppermint ice cream a frozen handpie. So
so the peppermint is it's kind of the unofficial flavor
of Christmas, and Warlie asks a pretty good question like
what you know, why how did that happen? He ascribes
it to peppermint candy canes. I think that's a pretty
good case. But I also think you could make a
case that peppermint is like a cool blast of winter
(29:36):
in your mouth. So I can see just from that
as well being associated with it. Yeah, totally. It's not
like it tastes like you know, broiled liver. No, boy,
that would be imagine the world if that was the
taste of Christmas. Oh, as the story goes, and I
(29:58):
found this in a bunch of different places, and I'm
more like kind of helped to verify it at epicurious
but um, as the story goes, and certainly in the
book The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, there was
a German choral master uh in Cologne, Germany in the
sort of latest seventeenth century who had some rally German
(30:19):
kids at a live nativity and was like, this is
getting out of hand every time these kids come in.
All they're doing is cutting up. So can I get
something Mr. Local candy maker, like a candy that will
last for an hour or so and keep them busy?
And voila the candy cane, right, because nothing settles kids
(30:39):
down like a sugar stick. Yeah, but that's how it
came up. And apparently because of that link to the Nativity,
that's the reason that candy cane is curved. It's supposed
to replicate a shepherd's staff or echo what I guess
like that. Yeah, And I think originally they were only
white and the red stripes came a little later. Uh.
And I think, you know, it's funny you think of
(31:00):
peppermint is like red and white, but that's I think
that's probably strictly coloring, right, Yeah, peppermint is. I mean,
it's it's a lot like spearmint. It looks very green
and leafy. Yeah. Um. And it's apparently indigenous to the
Middle East in Europe. Um, and it was used as
like a medicine for a really long time. But yeah,
I can't imagine peppermint is anything but red and white
(31:23):
striped too. That's what we know it as. I am
not a big peppermint guy. But I'll I'll munch on
a little candy cane every now and then for nostalgis sake.
Oh sure, I like the fruity kinds though more than anything.
Oh like the rainbow colored m What about the big
giant miniature baseball bet peppermint candy canes that you would
(31:45):
get as a kid. It's a little ostentatious for me.
Do you remember those though? Sure you're like, uh like
billie clubs. They were, and if you had an older brother,
they were probably used like a billy club against you,
although not Scott. Scott would ever do something like that.
He would never do that. He would he would lick
his into a vampire killing spear, right and just drive
(32:08):
it right through the back of your knee. That's right. Um,
So here's a little fact for you. You can you
can bust out at your next Christmas party or holiday gathering.
The candy cane was invented about two years before it
became peppermint flavor. It was this kind of clean sugar
flavor up to that point. Yeah, like lick him stick. Yeah,
I love those as well. All right, that sleigh is
(32:32):
calling our name, my friend, let's get in the seats
still warm. Gross. Sorry head wish had net at broiled liver.
I thought with the open air of the sleigh it
might not really hit your nostrils too bad. But no,
(32:52):
Christmas is ruined. I was mistaken. So speaking of Christmas,
how about Elvis? How about him? So you dug something
up about um Elvis and and Christmas? Apparently the two
went hand in hand. And if you stop and think
about Elvis, I am not at all surprised that that
that this particular season was like the end all be
(33:15):
all to him. Yeah, Elvis was very into his family
and his friends, very into just sort of home in
America and just a well grounded Tennessee druck at it right.
I was about to say really into Ben's a dream,
but he was way into Christmas. And I have been
to Graceland two times. I went once regular and I
(33:38):
went once during Christmas. You show off. It is really lovely.
I would recommend going not at Christmas. It's sort of like, uh,
if you've ever been to the Biltmore House in Asheville,
I find that the regular tour is better than the
Christmas because it's so over overdone Christmas it kind of
gets in the way, a little bit of just the
regular beauty of both of the places I see. But
(34:02):
Elvis did it up for Christmas. Um colored lights everywhere. Uh,
six eight ft Christmas trees out front, blue lights up
that long driveway. Uh, it's funny they call it a mansion.
Graceland was not that big. Every time people go to
Graceland for the first time, they're always like, uh, this
is it. Yeah, I remember thinking that. But it's a
(34:24):
fun visit, and you should, I mean you and you
we should definitely go at Christmas. If you haven't been it,
it's if you've seen it regular, then you should go
at Christmas. Yeah, we saw it regular style, not peppermint style.
You said that he lined his house with blue lights.
I just find that so wonderful. Like, yes, plain white
lights are good, even multi colored lights are good. But
(34:44):
something about blue lights at Christmas are just they just
they really kind of make it more Christmas Eve to
me for some reason. Totally, And that was sort of
the style back then before everyone thought like the only
thing you could do was classy white lights, right exactly.
I know you like your color lights, yeah, Now I
love the big fat multicolored bulbs. Something about the small
(35:05):
blue lights too. I'm kind of my tastes have evolved
into that, I think. So we have a quote here
from the Memphis Press Scimitar in nineteen sixty six where
Elvis said, it really is the best season of the year. Man.
Christmas carols, trees and lionses just grab you. Something about
Christmas and being home I just can't explain. Maybe he's
(35:27):
been with family and friends, time to read and study,
and of course snowball fights and the sleigh rides and
you know, just home beautiful. That was wonderful, Elvis. Yeah,
I think he did a great job describing it. So
you can imagine that Elvis, as he was, and as
rich as he was, uh, and as much as he
(35:47):
liked Christmas, he really overdid it with presents. Um. Usually
employees got big fat cash bonuses. Um. Friends and family
would get anything from like jewelry to cars, uh to
daw dogs. He gave a girlfriend a poodle once. Um.
He just really liked to do it up. Um. And
apparently between nineteen fifty four and nineteen seventy six he
(36:10):
celebrated twenty three Christmas is at at Graceland. Whenever he could,
he would make his way home and and spend the
holidays at Graceland. Uh. And more often than not he
was he was able to, that's right. And we know
this because of the book Elvis Colan Day by Day
by Ernst Jorgensen and Peter Girl Nick Garrel, Nick, I
(36:32):
think you got it the second time. I think so.
But they went year by year and it sounds like
day by day. But we're gonna go over a handful
of these years that are notable. In fifty four, this
is before Elvis was a big famous star, and his
family lived in a little apartment on Alabama Street. And
just the week before that, Elvis made his first sort
(36:53):
of musical appearance at the Louisiana Hayride radio program. A
few days after Christmas, he ended up playing a club
in Houston and his career started on its way basically. Yeah,
But nineteen fifty six was his breakout year. Get this.
He had seventeen songs on the Billboard one that year.
Three of them were number one in nineteen fifty six.
(37:16):
So nineteen fifty seven he had bought Grace Lane and
this is his first Christmas at Graceland, but it was
ruined by the U. S. Military that's right. A few
days before Christmas he got his draft notice and on
Christmas Eve he asked for a deferm it and got
it and pushed that by just a few months. Oh,
(37:36):
actually a year and a few months. Pushed this deferm
it to March twenty nine nine. Yeah, let's still just
a few months. Oh okay, yeah, that's how yours work.
You're gonna make me cough? What else? Seven in ninety Well,
his mother died. Um. It was his first Christmas without
(37:57):
his mother. I'm sure that was rather sad. It was.
It was also a Christmas that he's spent in Germany
because he was stationed there during his military service, so
he probably was not very happy in Christmas nineteen fifty's
trying to make the best of it. Not a blue
light to be found in Germany and his his mom
was missing, So not the best Christmas of all time. Uh.
(38:19):
Fifty nine was his first with Priscilla. But you mentioned
the girlfriend who got the French poodle. Um, he had
a girlfriend at the time named Anita Wood, and he
sent Anita the French poodle while he was car noodling
in Germany with Priscilla. But by nineteen sixty six, he said,
(38:40):
it's I'm I'm I'm gonna make an honest man out
of myself. And he proposed to to Priscilla are on
Christmas Eve, which now I understand that's a super Elvius
thing to do. UM. And apparently between nineteen sixties seven
and nineteen seventy three there wasn't a whole lot going on,
just happy normal holidays. Be as we pick up again
(39:00):
in Yeah, and this was you know, the last few
years of Elvis's life are well documented. Is not being
great for his health. Uh, he was having some health
problems in seventy four during Christmas, and so to pick
his spirits up, I think he flew in a gospel
backup group called Voice a few times in and out
of Memphis just so they could sing with him at Graceland. Yeah,
(39:24):
that's pretty cool. What about the last one? Why are
you leaving that to me? I'll take it then, So
this is the year I was born. I've always been
convinced that I am the reincarnation of Elvis. Seventy six
is the last Christmas of UM of Elvis's life. Um.
(39:44):
He apparently it says that he had a bizarre last
Las Vegas engagement. Was that the very famous like Vegas
fat Elvis? Well, sure in seventy six, absolutely, Okay, so
then that that happened right before Chris Miss then yeah,
but that was I can't remember the incident, but there
(40:04):
was one concert in particular that kind of went off
the rails. Okay, it sounds like it was this Las
Vegas one. Yeah, I think I think it's one where
like he couldn't remember lyrics and he was sweaty and
it was just a bad scene. That's not good. So um,
that was his last show before Christmas. I guess he
went and recuperated, and then two days after he started
up another tour at Wichita State UM. And then six
(40:26):
and a half months later he died. Where chuck on
the toilet at Graceland, right, Well, I was just gonna
say it Graceland, but yes, yeah, you can't go up
there in his in his personal quarters as you know,
totally can't go up those stairs at Graceland. So that
was Elvis and Christmas in the blue lights there. I
(40:46):
loved it. They were like, all right, Elvis, you got
one more tour in you. Let's let's launch it at
which is All State University. Right where all the best
tours are kicked off. All right, so we finish up
with a boozy recipe like we like to do. I
think we should be first. How about a musical interlude
from Jerry Okay, Chuck. I don't know if we had
(41:14):
a boozy recipe the last couple of years, so it's
time to bring it back. And this one anyone can make.
You can make it with your eyes closed, you can
make it with your feet, You can make it very easily.
If you're you could have your eight year old child
make it for you if you wanted to. It's just
that easy. But what's interesting about it. It's called moose
milk and it's associated um exclusively with the Canadian military.
(41:37):
That's right. Apparently all of the militaries in Canada, the
Army and the Navy and the air Force and their
moose patrol, they all claim I guess, ownership, or at
least claim to have written the recipe. But we do
know that regardless of who did it, it was a
drink that was concocted back in World War Two and
(42:00):
has become just a very very customary drink to have
in Canada. I think, certainly for the military, but I
think all the way around Canada, right, Yeah, especially on
Christmas and New Year's Day. So, um, there's a lot
of different things you can do. There's a lot of
different ingredients. As you'll you'll get the gist of it
from this, and you can kind of let your imagination
(42:21):
run wild. And that's kind of what you're supposed to do.
You're supposed to make it to taste, using as much
or as little as as you want. Um. But our
friends at Atlas Obscura found a recipe from the Cape
Breton News, and um, they recommend that you basically stay
with whiskey, rum or vodka. I've seen rum more often
(42:41):
than not, and apparently though the military used rum when
they ran out of whiskey. So I would recommend one
of those two. But if you don't like the Brown liquors,
vodka apparently works. Yeah. This sounds barely even drink anymore.
But I am inspired by this very soothing, sweet sounding
Christmas treat, So I'm gonna have one of these soon, Okay,
(43:04):
but you should probably have it in the morning because
of the first ingredient, or else you'll stay up all night.
Coffee didn't keep me up, so one cup of cold coffee,
a cup of half and half. It's a lot totally
cal Uh. What else you got in there? Ice cream? Maybe? Yeah,
one and a half cups good vanilla ice cream, not
(43:27):
the cheap stuff that could be vanilla bean perhaps so.
And this is UM. This is basically I don't know
how many UM servings this makes now that I think
about it, but based on the amount of liquor, I
would guess one serving because it just calls for two
ounces UM of rum, whiskey or vodka actually says and
(43:48):
or uh, and then a tablespoon of kohlua, and you
mix it all together in a bowl, whisk it until
the ice cream has melted, and then you put it
in a cup and top it off with either nutmeg
or dark chocolate shavings to make it classy. I would
say not for the lactose intolerant, No, definitely not. And
(44:09):
I've seen that mentioned like this is this is not
for for you if if you are lactose intolerant UM.
But regardless of what UM recipe you use, whoever posts
the recipe invariably mentions that if you're in the military,
go ahead and double the amount of alcohol. Call for yeah.
I mean, if you've got a cup of coffee, a
(44:29):
cup of cream and ice cream, I think you could
stand you know, a half a cup of rum. Sure,
I could Navy strength No, wait, that's gin. Yeah, I
think there's navy strength rum too. Though. Okay, this is
I mean, this is not too far off from a
one of those trendy espresso martinis. That's right, that's right
(44:52):
because the in the coffee, yeah, really kind of make
it like that. So that's kind of a fancier version.
I found another one on a cooking website called with
Love from Beck's b e X and her recipe apparently
her husband was in the Canadian military, so I'm getting
the impression that it's adapted from him. It's way easier,
(45:13):
it's way more straightforward. And this is the one that
you're eight year old can make for you. Yeah, this
one's got ice cream, vanilla again, uh and rum, but
this time it's got egg nog in it and then
just a little nutmeg. That's about it. So but again
you just mix it all together, mix it all together,
and then whip it up into a cup. And she
(45:36):
she uses like two leaders ice cream, four leaders, eggnog
two leaders, rum and a tablespoon of nutmeg. Obviously this
is for more than one person. I hope, I really hope. Yeah.
I wonder if our buddy, our colleague Alex at work
has a great tradition he does every year where he
makes the George Washington recipe for boozy eggnog and he
(45:59):
makes a big matches and bottles and leaves it on
his front porch and sends out the email to all
of us and says, hey, it's out there again this year.
Come by and get some if you want. Yeah, And
he makes the nog from scratch, like eggs and everything
I've made. I've made the recipe with store made eggnog,
but then with brandy, I think whiskey and rum and
it's really really good, is it? But yeah, and I've
(46:22):
yet to have any of Alex's. I'm sure that it's
just knock your socks off when it's made from scratch.
And Alex says a great podcast as well called Ephemeral
that we can recommend. And also before we close, I
did a guest spot on another I Heart show called
Parenting is a Joke. It's a great O'feira Eisenberg of
(46:44):
asked me another fame and she's got a show with
us or old buddy Julie Smith produces it. Oh really
that's awesome, Yeah, said, Julie got in touch and she's like, hey,
you want to be on talk about parenting, And so
I'm on an episode that has already dropped. It will
be a few weeks old by the time you hear
this where I talk about parenting and uh and Ruby's
(47:04):
adoption story. And if you stay and listen through the credits,
there's a very short, little forty five second interview with Ruby.
That's adorable. Oh that is adorable. Great plug, Chuck. It's
a check it out and it's a it's a really
good show and check out aphemeral and happy holidays everybody. Yeah, yeah,
here's the part where we wish everybody happy holidays, right,
(47:26):
I mean I just did. Okay, Well, I'm gonna take
it up from there. I'm gonna say Merry Christmas, Happy
New Year, have a tip top Ted, Happy Hanukah, Happy Kuanza. Sure,
happy holidays in general, however you celebrate them. We're really
glad that you hung out with us, and we hope
we gave you some holiday spirit, right, Chuck, that's right.
(47:46):
And uh, we always like to think of our listeners
who have a bad time this time of year, because
it's true for a lot of people. It's not all
merriment for everyone. So if the holiday seasons are rough
for you, then we are thinking about you, and you
are not alone. And uh, we just want to wish
everyone well and uh, let's let's head into feeling good. Yeah.
(48:09):
So from Chuck and Jerry and me and from Frank
the Chair, from Dave, c, from Max, from Ben, from
everybody here. Stuff you Should Know, I have a happy holiday.
(48:39):
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