All I Want for Christmas is Yinz

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Ever wondered what Christmas would be like if Santa sported a Steelers jersey or if Ace Ventura had a holiday special? Join us on a whimsical journey as we explore these playful ideas and rekindle our love for classic holiday films, with a special highlight on our unforgettable interaction with Macaulay Culkin at a cozy event in Johnstown. Despite the low-key promotion, meeting the iconic "Home Alone" star was a bucket-list moment, filled with nostalgia and shared laughter among fellow fans. We also share light-hearted stories about Culkin's quirky fashion sense and exciting news about his upcoming role in the "Fallout" series, adding a sprinkle of anticipation to our festive reflections.

The magic of watching "Home Alone" with a live audience is nothing short of electrifying, even if the snack bar fails to meet expectations. This experience brings back the charm and thrill of seeing it in theaters for the first time. As we reminisce about our Christmas traditions, we can't help but discuss how the holiday spirit has evolved over the years, especially post-COVID. From the joy of Christmas caroling to the nostalgic tunes that fill our hearts, we look back on our fondest memories and ponder the differences in celebrations across various climates, including the curious notion of a snowy Christmas in Florida.

Our festive journey takes a deeper dive into the rich history and evolution of Christmas traditions. We trace the roots back to ancient pagan festivals and explore how these celebrations transformed into the beloved holiday we know today. From the iconic poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" to the mischief-filled antics of Christmas past, we discover how cultural milestones and historical figures shaped modern festivities. Through personal stories of family gatherings, cherished childhood toys, and sentimental holiday songs, we capture the essence of the holiday season, creating a heartfelt tribute to the magic of Christmas past and present.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Oh, I love it.
I love it.
I didn't even look at my notes.
I was supposed to do that whileI was out.
Merry Christmas, it's Christmas.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Yeah, I mean, it's the best time of the year.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
That's all you're going to say.
There's a reason they say that,though it really is the best
time of the year.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
It's a great vibe.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
Yeah, I mean.
The only other thing that Icould think of is if they'd
somehow really do like anightmare before Christmas and
somehow put Christmas andHalloween together.
But Halloween to Christmasreally is just one long,
beautiful season.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
It is.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
Called the fall into winter.

Speaker 3 (00:34):
It is, but I like them being two distinct and
separate holidays.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
Oh, I do too.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
They have very different vibes.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
But what if, like Santa, just started wearing
black and orange?
What if Santa started wearingblack and yellow?
There is a Steeler Santa,steeler Santa.
Yeah, his name's Bright Kiesel.
No, I'm kidding, you've everbeen.
Yeah, oh, okay, just makingsure.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
Fear the beard.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
Fear the beard.
I'm pretty sure he owns a barcalled Red Beards.
I don't know if it's inPittsburgh or not, but I've seen
like I haven't heard of it.
Posts of it and various Steelerthings, but I'm not, like I
said, I'm not sure if it's in.
It might be in his hometown.
You know what I mean.
Like instead of like inPittsburgh in Pittsburgh.

Speaker 3 (01:20):
What's his hometown?

Speaker 1 (01:21):
I have no idea.
I don't know anything about theguy Other than he has a beard.
He was one hell of a modelAmerican.
You don't know what that's fromno, ace Ventura.
When he's talking about it,he's like.
He's like when he goes to thehouse he's like what do you know
about Ray Finkel, the guy thatanswers the door to his dad?

(01:42):
And Jim Carrey's like.
He's like graduated fromCollier High and he like rattles
off like a hundred statisticsand he's like says something
that at the end of he goes inone hill.
A model American, okay.
A little Ace Ventura Easter egg.

Speaker 3 (02:02):
Easter egg.
That has absolutely nothing todo with Christmas.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
I mean, although Ace Ventura has a lot to do with
Christmas, Because I don't know.
I felt like there was some kindof Ace Ventura Christmas thing
going on.

Speaker 3 (02:22):
You were about to pull a Ken on the Masked Singer
and make some weird crazyfucking.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
Is it Christmas in the first one?
They're in Miami, so theweather plays no part.
And they're in football season.
Oh no, they're playing in theSuper Bowl.
So it's January.
So maybe it's Christmas at thebeginning.
Maybe, it could very well be,did you just?

Speaker 3 (02:45):
find a clue.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
I might have I just solved the mystery of when is
Ace Ventura?

Speaker 3 (02:52):
what season does Ace Ventura take place in?

Speaker 1 (02:57):
but no, it is Christmas, as evidenced by the
14 times that I've watchedChristmas Vacation 17 viewings
of Home Alone.
Ooh yeah, we went 14 times thatI've watched Christmas Vacation
17 viewings of Home Alone Ooh.
Yeah, we went, we seen we wereKulka maniacs.
We were Kulka maniacs.

Speaker 3 (03:14):
So yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
Yeah, go ahead Tell about it.

Speaker 3 (03:17):
So not only have we watched Home Alone four
bajillion times, but we got to.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
We were literally like 10 feet from Macaulay
Culkin, listening to him talkabout Home Alone.

Speaker 3 (03:28):
Yes.
Q&a session after the viewingit was really cool.

Speaker 1 (03:33):
I wish every 80s and early 90s movie people, I mean
they might a lot of them do, I'msure, but he's never done
anything like that for for himalone really Right and uh to
have.
He only did it in, I think, 13cities and for some strange
reason that I still haven'tfigured out, he did one in
Johnstown.

Speaker 3 (03:55):
I mean, and he had a decent crowd, oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:59):
I mean it wasn't.
It's not so much that it's justweird.
Well, here, it's not so muchthat it's just weird.
Well, here's the thing is, Ithink that he none of them were.
I think he did do one outsideof Chicago and he did one like
in Milwaukee, but still, and Ithink he was doing one in like
Buffalo, but all of them werelike smaller, right, you know

(04:21):
what I mean.
It's not like Milwaukee is NewYork City, right, but like and
the one that was in Chicago waslike outside of Chicago.

Speaker 2 (04:25):
You know what I mean.
It wasn't like downtown.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
I mean because I think they wanted a small,
intimate audience.

Speaker 3 (04:30):
I get that, but they still could have done slightly
better on the promotionalpackage, and I don't blame him
for that.
Whoever's people are.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
Right, I mean, but if you look at it, I mean
relatively low production cost.

Speaker 3 (04:44):
Oh my gosh Right.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
It's just a money making.
I mean, he's making all kindsof money from it.

Speaker 3 (04:49):
Yeah absolutely, but I mean, it was just really cool
to hear the stories.
I mean, that was, it wasfantastic.

Speaker 1 (04:55):
And to watch Home Alone with an audience.
Yeah, that was cool, it's likewhen you ever get to watch a
movie like that, you know likeit was pretty cool.
Yeah, it reminded me when I sawit in the theater.
Yeah, seeing the little newrose pizza guy.

Speaker 3 (05:10):
Uh, just come running and just knocking into that
thing when he's driving in andlike I'm so adhd that I thought
that I was going to be bored inthe watching the movie because
I'd seen it so many times andnormally when we sit at home I'm
doing other things like on myphone or whatever.

Speaker 1 (05:30):
I was so engaged because, the audience was
engaged the only thing thatwould have made it better would
have been hot popcorn.
They dropped the ball a littlebit on the snacks they didn't
drop the ball yeah, absolutely,that was venue, venue, drop the
ball.

Speaker 3 (05:45):
Yeah, absolutely, that was so there was a venue
change and if they would havehad it at the um first summit
arena, which is where it wasoriginally booked um the
freaking snack bar there, rightbecause where they ended up
having it at the college, that'snot really a movie venue,
correct?

Speaker 1 (06:04):
and people don't necessarily snack the same way
they do in a movie versus like atheater performance right or
performing arts of any, yeah, ofany kind.
They have light refreshments,much like what we had yeah but
they don't have anything.
You can't get a hot dog, youcan't get no nachos.

Speaker 3 (06:22):
I mean they had candy but they had kettle corn and
I'm like it's a movie.

Speaker 1 (06:27):
You could have just got regular salty hot pot.
It's Home Alone, for God's sake.

Speaker 3 (06:31):
I would have made it homemade and brought it home.

Speaker 1 (06:33):
They should have had an ice cream bar.
They should have had hot cheesepizzas for everyone.
Hot cheese pizzas for everyone.

Speaker 3 (06:43):
It was cool, though it was a really good experience.
They did have cotton candy.

Speaker 1 (06:46):
Yeah, that was cool.
Yeah, like of all the things.
So they have like bullshit andthen they have cotton candy,
which is awesome, which youdon't usually get.
I wish they had cotton candy atthe regular movie theater.

Speaker 3 (06:58):
And they have bottles of soda which for some people
that is preferential, forsomething that is preferential.

Speaker 1 (07:03):
I mean I'd always rather have, unless I can just
have access to like a small cupthat I can refill, like when
viewing a movie or something.
I actually, at a movie, Iprefer water because it's like
because you're eating.
So much other richness of.
I'm just pounding down popcornand candy like it's 1922.

Speaker 3 (07:28):
Can we just call this out, though, about the whole
thing, because it was awesome.
It was an amazing experience,very awesome.
Macaulay Culkin was high as amotherfucking kite.

Speaker 1 (07:38):
Oh yeah, he was like whack-a-loon he was, he like it
was funny.
Though it was funny, I mean hewas very wackalooned.

Speaker 3 (07:46):
He was he like it was funny.
Though it was funny, I mean, hewas very much himself like it
was, I wasn't what's crazy is.

Speaker 1 (07:52):
You know, I take notice of things and he
absolutely had like a supercomfortable pair of moccasins on
.
I was watching him in the onead that he has for whatever,
he's wearing the same moccasinsCool.
So he must really like them.
So it's kind of like with DustySlay's shoes.
I know it's his too.

Speaker 2 (08:12):
Are they, hey dudes?

Speaker 1 (08:14):
I don't think so.
No, they don't look like it.
That's like the thing right now.
I guess I mean that was thething like five years ago, but
they're still very popular.
They're still very popular.
They're still very popular.
But I think that's set tochange.
But if I'm thinking aboutgetting them, it's definitely on
its way out.

Speaker 3 (08:32):
It's definitely on its way out if it's made its way
to me um, the other cool thingabout it obviously was some of
the stories he told about beingon set and the nice people and
everything like that, and youcan elaborate on that, because I
I got fangirled when I forgotto remember that he was married
to Brenda Song, who I absolutelyjust love she's like a cool

(08:54):
Brenda.

Speaker 1 (08:54):
Sing Song.

Speaker 3 (08:55):
She's the coolest.
She's just so cool.
She was one of the Nickelodeonkids that I just heard.

Speaker 1 (09:01):
I remember her on the only one that I ever watched
Was she on the Suite Life ofZack and Cody.

Speaker 2 (09:08):
Mm-hmm, yeah, that's what I remember her from.

Speaker 1 (09:13):
Not because I watched , like that wasn't, but you know
what I mean.

Speaker 3 (09:16):
I can't think of her name now, but it was like a
Paris Hilton-esque name.
I can't remember what it was atthis moment, but yeah, she was
on there.
I just she was just, I justlove her.
Um, and I just I can't wait tosee their kids.

Speaker 1 (09:34):
I haven't looked them up yet, but I bet you they're
so effing cute Like little.

Speaker 3 (09:38):
Macaulay Asians.
Yeah Little Asian Macaulkins.

Speaker 1 (09:40):
Little Asian Macaulkins.

Speaker 3 (09:43):
Oh my gosh.
So that was a cool experience,but yeah, like so movies I mean
it's a Christmas traditionanyway, and to share that with
Macaulay Culkin.
Yeah, that was hella cool.

Speaker 1 (09:55):
I mean yeah, for sure .

Speaker 3 (09:57):
I mean it's definitely like a bucket list
type item.
Sure For sure.

Speaker 1 (10:02):
And sitting so close to him, it felt very like we
were sitting like in his livingroom.

Speaker 3 (10:06):
Yeah, oh, and he gave us um the tea on a show he's
gonna be on I mean, by the timethis drops, everybody knows, but
he's gonna be on the newsseason of fallout of fallout,
which I think we're gonna startwatching um, or at least try.
I like I looked the.
It's just not my cup of tea.

Speaker 1 (10:26):
That was a fun story too, because he said that like
he watched the show.
Yes and like wanted to be on it, and then he's on it.

Speaker 3 (10:35):
Yeah, he said whenever they were watching it,
brenda was like you need to beon this yeah yeah, and then,
like he got the call, so that'skind of cool.

Speaker 1 (10:44):
He got the call.
He got the call.

Speaker 3 (10:47):
Oh, that was one of my favorite other stories that
he told.

Speaker 1 (10:50):
It was just how Joe Pesci was like look what you did
, you little jerk.
No, joe Pesci tried to serveunderage minor alcohol.

Speaker 3 (11:00):
To be fair, though, Macaulay Culkin is like a little
man.

Speaker 1 (11:03):
He was probably an adult when he was seven and, to
be fair, joe Pesci is like anold school, like they were given
Henry Hill wine and stuff.

Speaker 3 (11:13):
Yes, he's an old school Italian.

Speaker 1 (11:14):
You know what I mean, not that that's really Joe
Pesci, but it's really him in mybook.

Speaker 3 (11:19):
It wasn't weird in my book, Like it didn't strike me
as odd.

Speaker 1 (11:22):
It was like well, because here's the thing that
people don't ever want to talkabout Before, that's who used to
introduce you to alcohol.

Speaker 3 (11:30):
Right, it was like an adult.

Speaker 1 (11:32):
It was like you got let to have a beer, or like a
half a beer.

Speaker 3 (11:37):
Right, whatever they weaned you on it before they had
to wean you off of it 29 yearslater.

Speaker 1 (11:43):
Yeah, they eased you into it and they eased you right
on out of there.

Speaker 3 (11:50):
But my movie to kick off the holiday season always is
the Family Stone.
That is my.
It's a Saturday morning, rightwhen Christmas season is getting
ready to hem up, probably likethe week before Thanksgiving
even, I turn on Family Stone aball like a little bitch.

Speaker 1 (12:08):
Not to be confused with Love the Coopers, also
starring Diane Keaton.

Speaker 3 (12:15):
Also an equally good movie.
I like Love the Coopers forvery different reasons.

Speaker 1 (12:19):
Right, it's not quite the movie that Family Stone is.
Family Stone is a fantasticmovie because you have great
performances by that of likeLuke Wilson or what's.
Rachel McAdams or what's ClaireDanes?
Claire, I mean yeah, she's verygood in it, Like yeah, yeah,
Sarah, I mean.

Speaker 3 (12:38):
Sarah Jessica Parker.

Speaker 1 (12:39):
Oh, she's fantastic in it.
Craig T Nelson, it's loadedwith superstars.

Speaker 3 (12:42):
Yes, it's loaded, loaded, loaded, loaded loaded.
However, it's just a reallygood family movie it's a very
good story.

Speaker 1 (12:49):
There's a deaf gay kid.
Yeah, I mean, it ticks all theboxes it's, it's like it's a.

Speaker 3 (12:57):
Actually it's a good commentary on the pre-woke woke,
to be honest with you yeah, alittle bit, a little bit, a
little.

Speaker 1 (13:04):
I mean, if you've seen the movie.

Speaker 3 (13:06):
The scene I'm talking about.
Sarah jessica parker was a foolfor carrying on the
conversation.
However, that's what made memovies, so whatever.

Speaker 1 (13:16):
But right, I mean, I get it, it's.

Speaker 3 (13:18):
It does have a very uh, very um but love the coopers
was filmed in pitt inPittsburgh, which is one of the
reasons why I absolutely love it.
Plus, I love that one kidthat's in it.

Speaker 1 (13:29):
It again packed with superstars Marissa Tomei,
anthony Mack, john Goodman,diane Keaton again.

Speaker 3 (13:41):
Oh, what's his name?
Diane Keaton Timothy Chalamet.
Timothy Chalamet when he was achild is he?
Oh, he's the young.
Ed Helms what's his wife?
What's her name?
The chickadee from from thefamily.

Speaker 1 (14:00):
Guy voice Alex, alex, alex.
Guy voice lo.
Uh, lois's voice alex alex.
Yeah, alex borstein, alexborstein.
Um, and then what's amanda?
What's her name?
Is it amanda siegfried or oh?

Speaker 3 (14:15):
yeah, she's in it.
And then um the chickadee fromhouse.
What's her name?

Speaker 1 (14:20):
olivia, I can never remember which one she is Wild.
Olivia Wilde Is it Olivia Wilde, Okay, and then it also has
who's the old man?
You know who I'm talking about.
He's famous too.
I can't think of what his nameis.

Speaker 3 (14:38):
Army no.

Speaker 1 (14:39):
No, but regardless, we don't need to sit here and
read the cast.

Speaker 3 (14:44):
But it is such a stellar cast and it's a great
movie, but it's underrated, Ithink.

Speaker 1 (14:51):
Bless you, my child no, it is very underrated.
Plus, it's got the army guywhatever his name is.
I love him, he's very good.
But the movie, all those arelike great big families where
there's a lot going on,everybody's coming home for
Christmas.
It's a trope that they use inmovies.
It's the big family Christmas,everybody's coming home.

(15:14):
They're all in different places.
There's 19 kids.

Speaker 3 (15:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (15:18):
You know what I mean.
Like they all have differentstories, they all have different
romantic interest.

Speaker 2 (15:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (15:23):
They call it the old Christmas Come home.

Speaker 3 (15:27):
Is that what they call it?

Speaker 1 (15:28):
Yeah, in Hollywood.

Speaker 3 (15:30):
It's one of the.
It's one of the hallmarktemplates.

Speaker 1 (15:33):
It's yeah, that's what they call it In Hollywood
Hollywood Um what other?

Speaker 3 (15:37):
I mean there's so many, we could have a whole.
I mean, I mean there's so many,we could have a whole episode
just on movies.

Speaker 1 (15:43):
Well, yeah, that's the thing, but that's a big part
of the Christmas season for me,though I mean not just in term
of like Christmas movies, butthen we watch episodes of shows
about Christmas.
Yes, like the Christmasepisodes of House.
The Christmas episodes of Monk.
The Festivus episodes ofScience the New Girl, the
Festivus, the rest of it.

Speaker 3 (16:05):
No, I mean yeah, that's all cool.

Speaker 1 (16:05):
Because that's what you have playing, even when
you're not doing that.
You're like put somethingChristmas on.
Yes, yeah Put somethingChristmas on oh the playlist.

Speaker 3 (16:14):
I love when Sirius starts doing their.
Christmas channel.
It's all so fun, but myfavorite episode-wise is of
course SNL.

Speaker 1 (16:26):
Oh, the Christmas specials, christmas time for the
Jews.

Speaker 3 (16:30):
Oh my God, that's my favorite song.
What's that lady's name?
Darlene Love?
Maybe Darlene Love, no?
That's not her, maybe it is, Ican't remember.
But oh my God, that song is sogood.
I mean, I grew up on Motown.
That was my dad's music, sothat song just really hits home
for a lot of reasons.
Plus, I love the Jews and Ilove the concept of

(16:51):
Christmastime for the Jews.
Like I love Jews, chinese food,you love Jews.
That's what I'm talking aboutyeah, exactly the way that she
wrote.

Speaker 1 (17:07):
it is hilarious because it's so true Getting to
see actual Jewish people.

Speaker 3 (17:09):
What did you say?
Dying in love?
No, Darlene Love.

Speaker 1 (17:10):
Darlene Love?
That sounds like a strippername from the 1970s and they're
introducing her like coming tothe stage next.
Guys, get ready for the lustfulebony Darlene Love.

Speaker 3 (17:25):
I feel like I gotta to look that up now or we'll
call it back in the recap beforewe recharge.
He's talking about SNL.

Speaker 1 (17:34):
Christmas traditions of getting ready for Christmas.

Speaker 2 (17:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (17:40):
I love, although I will say you don't feel it every
year.

Speaker 3 (17:43):
No.

Speaker 1 (17:44):
Certain years.
It's like you can go anywhereand you feel Christmas in the
air Like everywhere, everywhere,yeah.
I'm not feeling it this year.

Speaker 3 (17:52):
Same.
I feel like.

Speaker 1 (17:53):
COVID broke that a little bit, I don't know I
haven't been keeping aspreadsheet of every Christmas
so I can't really remember whenthe last one that I felt it was.

Speaker 3 (18:05):
But I'm with you and I used to think that it was like
snow and things like that.
But I think it's just peoplehaving a positive attitude and
right.
And for the past like I won'tsay four years, but I'll say
four years people have likereally shitty attitudes.

Speaker 1 (18:19):
Well, not only that, but like people talk about
Christmas magic.
But it's real Right, Becausewhen you're a kid it feels like
it every year, all the time,100%, because that's like your
primary focus.
You're like it's fucking.

Speaker 2 (18:32):
Christmas.

Speaker 1 (18:33):
I'm fucking going to nail down on this.
We got a big vacation fromschool.
We're getting presents.

Speaker 2 (18:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (18:40):
You know what I mean.
Like you're geared up as a kidfor it.
So the magic is already in theair.
Just in that anticipation.
As an adult, you have none ofthat to look forward to.

Speaker 3 (18:49):
Right and like our kids are grown, grown and
there's no grandkids.
So it's like and like there's agenerational gap right now
where a lot of I don't know itfeels like there's there's not a
lot of kids in our circle forsome reason.

Speaker 1 (19:04):
So and there's there's not a lot of kids in our
circle for some reason.
So and uh yeah, and I mean tooa lot of it has to do with
weather yeah, I mean when it'slike it's got to be like the
right temp well, that's so Ialso think that there's not as
many people putting up christmaslights, at least around here
yeah, I would agree with thattoo.
It's like the bees.

Speaker 3 (19:25):
We do have a really cute block by our house and a
really cute old time home.

Speaker 1 (19:33):
Oh yeah, Village Street is beautiful.

Speaker 3 (19:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (19:35):
They do it up every year.
It's very nice.
It's the nicest thing in Moxham.

Speaker 3 (19:39):
Yeah, it really is.

Speaker 1 (19:41):
I mean it really.
I mean it's not even close thenice things they do at Moxham.

Speaker 3 (19:46):
it's not even close Village Street is the nicest,
and the Moxham House or whateverthat thing is called, the
Russell House, the Russell House, yeah where they do the wagon
rides and stuff.

Speaker 1 (19:55):
It felt like Central Park down there the other day.

Speaker 2 (19:57):
Yeah, and he sent me a picture and he was behind a
horse and buggy Clunk, clunk,clunk, clunk.

Speaker 3 (20:03):
Oh my gosh, I love it , I was pissed the whole way.

Speaker 1 (20:05):
I was like Jesus, fucking Christ.
Now this is what I got to dealwith.
Bad enough, they're shooting.
Not very often do you haveshootings within two blocks of
carriage rides.

Speaker 3 (20:17):
Central Park.

Speaker 1 (20:19):
I mean, how many shootings are in Central Park?

Speaker 3 (20:22):
Central Park and Johnstown, Pennsylvania.

Speaker 1 (20:24):
No, I'm going to look it up.
I don't think there's anyshootings in Central Park.
Stabbing Sure, stabbing Sure,but shootings Anyways, they
attract too much attention.

Speaker 3 (20:37):
Shoot.
I thought of something wheneveryou were talking about that.
Now I can't remember what itwas, because you were saying
about people, the lights atVillage Street.

Speaker 1 (20:46):
The only thing that would make Village Street nice
is if there was something thereto go to that's Christmas, if
there was a restaurant rightthere, and I know there is.

Speaker 3 (20:56):
Like a restaurant.

Speaker 1 (20:57):
It's not open at nighttime.
It's only open for breakfast.

Speaker 3 (20:59):
Right, it's a cafe.
Yeah, it's a cafe.
Yeah, it's a cafe.
It's not a restaurant, right.

Speaker 1 (21:02):
But that could do like a Christmas theme there,
yeah.

Speaker 3 (21:08):
That would be fun to have a business there to do
something.
Let's just turn Moxham into aChristmas village and make it
Christmas town.
No, oh, that's what I was goingto tell you.
So, like one of the things thatI worry about moving into
hotter temperatures, moving towarmer temperatures is not
having like the christmasweather when we were on our team

(21:28):
huddle at work this week, theladies like you, like 40 of my
team lives in florida somewhere,or in warmer weather even, and
so like they're like no, becausefirst of all, you get to enjoy
the christmas lights when theweather is still nice.
You get to enjoy the Christmaslights when the weather is still
nice.
You get to enjoy caroling whilethe weather is still nice, and

(21:50):
not only that, but more peopleput up lights and you've got the
boat things with the boatlights, so you don't lose
Christmas spirit when you don'thave snow is what I'm hearing.

Speaker 1 (22:02):
Although Try to tell our boys in South Vietnam that,
no, I'm hearing.
Although Try to tell our boysin South Vietnam that, no, I'm
teasing.

Speaker 3 (22:07):
No, no.
But then one of my girlfriendsthat lives in India wants to
come here and experience aChristmas with snow.

Speaker 1 (22:16):
Yeah, of course, because that's the way it's
supposed to be.
Santa don't live in Miami,Santa lives in Canada.

Speaker 3 (22:27):
Is that where the North Pole is?

Speaker 1 (22:28):
I mean, that's the only place that I feel like it's
kind of like that.
I feel like he's just way upthere.

Speaker 3 (22:33):
There is a North Pole , Alaska.
My friends that were on themilitary base.
Lived up there.

Speaker 1 (22:38):
Yeah, alaska's remote man, it's remote.

Speaker 3 (22:44):
So let's get into I don't.
Do you want to do the historyof christmas, or do you want?

Speaker 1 (22:50):
to do.
I want to talk a little bitabout the rowdies the rowdies
okay yeah, remember christmaswas filled with rowdies, okay,
and people hated it.
So hold on a second.

Speaker 3 (23:07):
Let's get into the history of Christmas, which was
not originally on December 25th.

Speaker 1 (23:11):
That's not Jesus's birthday, Despite what you heard
we could get into a deep, deep,deep discussion right now.
Yeah, let's skip the Jesusstuff.

Speaker 3 (23:21):
I don't want to get into that because, like here's
the thing is, I what we skip theJesus stuff.
I don't want to get into thatbecause, like here's the thing
is, we'll talk about it.
I love celebrating Jesus onChristmas, like.

Speaker 2 (23:30):
I really do.
I love Christmas.
We don't love.
Jesus on Christmas.

Speaker 1 (23:33):
It's his day.

Speaker 3 (23:33):
I love going to church, it's his day, but that's
not what the ancients intended,right?
And it wasn't even moved toDecember 25th until 300 years
later, to december 25th until300 years later.
Um, and so then, obviouslyyou've heard the stories, or
maybe not, because you tune themout, but, um, it actually
coincides with the saturnaliafestival yeah, not only

(23:56):
saturnalia but lots of the yulecelebration of the north.

Speaker 1 (24:00):
Yes, I mean, they just basically took everybody
was celebrating something aroundthis time of year anyway
because of the winter solstice,because of the changing of the
season, everybody like held thattime of year to something, no
matter where you are in ancienttimes.
Yes, because.
But regardless of any of that,they just took all the different
things and kind of over timethat eventually led to what was

(24:25):
christmas traditions, and thenchristmas traditions were
different everywhere else but,and what we know of is like
modern christmas traditionsreally are that modern?

Speaker 3 (24:34):
right, oh my gosh, like the last 200 years modern.

Speaker 1 (24:39):
Yeah, oh yeah everything that we know about
christmas and the way it'scelebrated is most of it, more
modern than that.

Speaker 3 (24:47):
Right.
Oh, way more modern.

Speaker 1 (24:49):
But the idea of Santa gifts, how we celebrate
Christmas now, is very much.

Speaker 3 (24:57):
The last 125.

Speaker 1 (24:59):
Well, no, I would say 200 years, because it was like
1822 was night before Christmas,right, and they're saying
that's 200 years because it waslike 1822 was night before
Christmas, right, and they'resaying that's the.
That's 200 years ago, right,that's the one that like changed
.
It was a game changer, right.
People could not.
It was like movies or musicnowadays People could not wait
to read this fucking poem, dude.
They were psyched.

(25:21):
People have never been sopumped about a poem in the
history of humankind.
They were like you got a copy.
You got a copy.
Let me read it man and theyread it and they loved it and
they couldn't get enough of it.

Speaker 3 (25:35):
I was getting ready to ask you if you know what the
original title of the NightBefore Christmas was Ooh, we did
talk about this in our studygroup Shit.

Speaker 2 (25:48):
What was it?

Speaker 1 (25:49):
Santa's Helpers no.
A Dream of Santa no.

Speaker 3 (25:55):
It's not fucking Jeopardy the.

Speaker 2 (25:57):
Wall.

Speaker 3 (25:57):
No.
A Visit from St Nick.

Speaker 1 (26:00):
A Visit from St Nick Nicholas, actually Nicholas
Nicholas.

Speaker 3 (26:04):
And do you know where it was first published?

Speaker 1 (26:07):
What do you mean?
Like in what magazine orperiodical?
The Old Farmer's Almanac, no,what?

Speaker 3 (26:14):
The Troy New York Sentinel.

Speaker 2 (26:17):
Oh 12-23-1823.

Speaker 3 (26:21):
Oh 1823.
On this very night.

Speaker 1 (26:24):
On this very night, 201 years ago.

Speaker 3 (26:30):
Exactly On a night much like tonight.
So that was published in 1823,and then Charles Dickens A
Christmas Carol was published in1843.

Speaker 1 (26:51):
And it wasn't until the early 1900s.
You know who gave the Santa themodern look?
Norman Rockwell.
Saturday evening.
That's where he changed,Because before that he was
dressed in American furs andstuff.
Because of being in theAmericas he was dressed in like
furs.
He had like a lot of differentcolor but like he's, the one

(27:12):
that gave him a red coat waslike this is what he looks like.
He made the jolly santa that weknew today did he yeah because
I heard otherwise what did?

Speaker 2 (27:21):
you hear.

Speaker 3 (27:23):
It was one, l Frank Baum.

Speaker 1 (27:26):
L Frank Baum was until 30 years later.
When did L Frank Baum do that?

Speaker 3 (27:30):
1910.

Speaker 1 (27:32):
That's probably a real close race.

Speaker 3 (27:34):
It is probably a real close race, but he wrote the
Life and Adventures.

Speaker 1 (27:39):
I think Rockwell did it in 1906.
No, I'm being serious.

Speaker 3 (27:43):
He wrote the Life and Adventures of Santa Claus
Santee.
He was Santee, yes.
Santee Claus, and he was givencredit to pulling together a lot
of the lore from the variousstories into one little kind of
Into the legend of Santee Claus.

Speaker 1 (28:01):
Yes, but yeah, l Frank Baum.

Speaker 3 (28:05):
Oh and.

Speaker 1 (28:06):
Who told you to put a bomb on?
I didn't tell you to put a bombon.

Speaker 3 (28:09):
Let's put to bed the Mandela effect that everybody's
trying to crop up and pop upright now About what?
The last line of Twits theNight Before.
Christmas.

Speaker 1 (28:21):
Originally said Happy Christmas, and they changed it.
I don't know who they are, butthose motherfuckers do a lot of
stuff Same people that editWikipedia.
Originally said Happy Christmas, happy Christmas, y'all.
And they changed it.
They did change it.

Speaker 3 (28:26):
I don't know who they are, but those motherfuckers do
a lot of stuff.

Speaker 1 (28:28):
Same people that edit Wikipedia pages.

Speaker 3 (28:30):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
So that is our little rundownon Christmas, but you wanted to
talk about.

Speaker 1 (28:42):
Oh, the rowdies, the town rowdies.
No, christmas used to be likeHalloween Nefarious.
People would go nuts in thecolonies.
Yes, people would be goingcrazy, throwing shit through
people's windows, acting rowdy.
And they said we got to put arest of these town rowdies

(29:05):
because the Puritans were having.
They were not happy about it.
The Puritans yeah, the Puritans, and they were not happy about
it.
And they said we got to figureout a way to control these town
rowdies.
So they wanted to start to push.
Other groups wanted to controlthe chaos of Christmas.
It was wild, wild dude.
Control the chaos of Christmas.

(29:26):
It was wild, wild dude, worsethan Halloween, like what we
think of how kids just misbehaveon purpose.

Speaker 3 (29:34):
It was wild Drunkards , people would come to your door
and if you didn't give them adrink, they'd throw shit through
your window.
Well, they said that the 12nights of Christmas bore more
debauchery than the entire restof the year.

Speaker 1 (29:46):
Yeah, they did more damage to Christ's name in the
12 days of Christmas than thewhole rest of the year.
That's what they said.

Speaker 2 (29:52):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (29:53):
And um, so that's why they wanted to start to push.

Speaker 3 (29:58):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (29:58):
A more quiet, family oriented gift giving, commercial
Christmas, christmas,commercial, commercial Christmas
, but Commercial Christmas,commercial.

Speaker 3 (30:07):
Christmas, but so like when I was growing up.
So my dad's mother was EasternOrthodox, right that's where
Santa comes from.
Is this what you wanted?

Speaker 1 (30:23):
No, that's where the what was his name Sinterklaas.
Sinterklaas is Dutch.
Yeah, that's all the what washis name Sinterklaas.

Speaker 3 (30:27):
Sinterklaas is Dutch.

Speaker 1 (30:28):
Yeah, that's all the same people over there they all
had the same traditions, all theLatvians and the Lithuanians.

Speaker 3 (30:34):
Miracle on 34th Street.
She sings that song Dun dun,Sinterklaas, Sinterklaas.

Speaker 1 (30:40):
Sinterklaas, but anyway, I live in Latvia.

Speaker 3 (30:44):
So my dad's mother was Eastern Orthodox, but I
don't think that my dad went tochurch with her.
I don't know, and so well, hisgrandparents were Polish
Ukrainian.

Speaker 1 (30:56):
That's Lithuanian.

Speaker 3 (30:59):
But anyway.
So we left our tree up untilJanuary 7th and it was always
understood that January 6th wasChristmas and some years we
would get something on that day,Some years we wouldn't.
It was no big deal to usbecause we didn't like really
understand.
And now, as an adult, puttingall the research together, it

(31:20):
finally dawned on me and clickedthat the 12 days of Christmas
are from December 25th throughJanuary 6th, which is the
epiphany.

Speaker 1 (31:28):
Yeah, I always understood that because growing
up in church the bullet I readevery bulletin because I was
bored as shit.

Speaker 3 (31:36):
Oh, I didn't pay attention to any of that.

Speaker 1 (31:38):
Well, they always had at the top of the like the
bulletin.
It would always say the date,and then it would let you know.
It would always say the date,and then it would let you know.
So there's like liturgicalseasons and they always had the
liturgical season date as well,so it would be like third Sunday
after epiphany or whatever.
There's like different seasonsand I don't remember them all.
Right but like obviously AdventChristmas, right, you know what

(32:01):
I mean.
Like epiphany, I remember allthat stuff because it's.
But yeah, so I with globalpartners, right.

Speaker 3 (32:28):
So everybody was talking about their traditions
and one of the most commonthemes through everybody's
tradition, if you grew up inlike the 70s and 80s, was an
orange and a coin or money ofsome sort and a small ham.
Is that what Santa gave you?
No, but, like in my like, inour stockings when we were

(32:50):
younger, we got a toothbrush, anapple, an orange and candy.
That's what we got and a coin.
But that was because I didn'trealize until we talked about it
that the coin symbolized wealthfor the coming year and the
orange symbolized that you werenever going to get scurvy ever
again.

Speaker 1 (33:11):
So let's talk about what goes into stockings,
because it's just brought me toa different thing.
So what we used to get was wewould get one small gift in your
stocking around $5, like thatkind of item.

Speaker 3 (33:24):
We did as we got to be older, yeah.

Speaker 1 (33:26):
Around $5, like that kind of item we did as we got to
be older.
Yeah, and then you would get aSlim Jim toothbrush and then
various candies and whatnot.
But I mean, that was Slim Jim.
You kidding me, buddy?
Slim Jim and candy.

Speaker 3 (33:40):
I loved when I was old enough to wear makeup,
because then we started gettingmakeup and little hairspray and
well at dad's we used to get.

Speaker 1 (33:49):
He would get us.
You would get instead ofgetting.
You would get one big slim gym,but then you would also get a
smaller pack of like the littleones, the box like seriously,
when we go to for christmases,if scott doesn't come home with
a Slim Jim, he is or othervarious types of smoked meat
products.
It doesn't have to bespecifically a Slim Jim.

(34:10):
Just when I was a kid it was,I'll take jerky.

Speaker 2 (34:14):
I mean let's be real, I'm not even that big of a fan
of a Slim Jim, although I willeat them.

Speaker 1 (34:20):
I do like them.

Speaker 3 (34:32):
So what else from that time frame though that I
just love?
I well, I've said it before, Ithink on another episode, that I
think that the movie feast ofseven fishes captures.
It's a great movie the whole 70s, early 80s vibe of christmas to
me like living in westernPennsylvania and like all the
things we didn't do feast ofseven fishes.
But it was very similar in thefood prep and like everybody
coming in and out of the houseand hanging out and drinking and

(34:54):
people at the bar, and thenthey would come back from the
bar and eat a plate and then go.
All of that happened.
It didn't have to be fish orItalian people.
That all happened right when Iwas growing up and I loved it.

Speaker 1 (35:06):
I mean we had cookies and stuff.
We didn't really have set meals, maybe some little wieners.

Speaker 3 (35:12):
What on Christmas Eve ?
Yeah, oh, ours is like.

Speaker 1 (35:17):
Well, if we'd be at dad's, we would get to open one
gift on Christmas Eve.

Speaker 3 (35:29):
We didn't do that at mom's, but I like I don't think
we were ever allowed to givegifts on christmas eve, even
when we were a teenager.
My dad gets a really big kickout of the whole surprise on
christmas morning thing, so hewas very much all for that, I
think, like I don't.
Here's the thing is I don'tremember a lot of my childhood,
so I I'm just piecing togetherwhat I do remember.
But I also lived with both ofmy parents my entire life too,

(35:52):
so we didn't have a lot ofmoving around.
Right, right, right, you knowwhat I mean.
Yeah, so we always had a ham onChristmas Eve.
Always had a ham on ChristmasEve.

Speaker 1 (36:01):
What's weird is, like I said, I don't remember any
food being a part of.
Like I said, I don't rememberany food being a part of.
I mean, obviously I'm sure weate, but for me not to remember
it must not have been that bigof a deal.

Speaker 3 (36:14):
I mean, ours is very, very bland.
No like on.

Speaker 1 (36:16):
Christmas.
We would always be going tograndma's and stuff, so it was
ham or whatever, but at home onChristmas Eve.
I don't remember anythingspecific.

Speaker 3 (36:26):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (36:26):
I would have liked to have had a food tradition.

Speaker 3 (36:29):
I feel like it's a Western Pennsylvania thing
because, like we would do so wewould go to church.
All the lights would be down lowand only the Christmas lights
would be glowing.
Right, so it had the ambience.
Gumballs and Christmas musicwould be playing and people
would be doing whatever, likeplaying cards or whatever.
Adults would play cards.

(36:49):
But the food was always thesame it was a ham with rolls if
you wanted to make sandwiches,but like no side, and then shell
, like nuts in a shell, a bigbowl of those that you had to
crack open yourself a big fruitplatter, and then we always this
was like the 80s charcuteriewas the uh, hickory farms, the

(37:15):
big hickory farms boxes we wouldjust cut those are the best.

Speaker 1 (37:20):
The spread, the cheese spread oh my god, I need
one right now.
What?
Time is it no seriously 6.14 itmight be a little too late to
get a hickory farm.

Speaker 3 (37:34):
I don't even know if they still have those anymore
you're goddamn right, they do no.
So you guys got together like onChristmas Eve oh, yeah, always
both my grandmothers, so eitherat my grandmothers or so either
at my grandmother's or at myaunt's house and at my parents
house there'd always be a spread, so we would go visit for a
little bit in the evening, thencome back to my parents and hang

(37:57):
out and then like because therewere so many cousins, like some
of the cousins would come like,especially once we started
getting gaming systems.
Then all of my mom's brothersare my age right, so all of the
teenagers would be, or they werea little bit older than me, so
like they would all be at myhouse playing video games and
eating fucking snacks all night.

(38:19):
I like that, not leaving untilfive o'clock in the morning.
I would have loved yourChristmas Helping my mom build
bikes or whatever I would haveloved them.

Speaker 1 (38:26):
Yeah, I would have loved your Christmas Helping my
mom build bikes or whatever.
I would have loved them.
Yeah, see, for us Christmas Evewas always private, Not private
but like it was just we went tochurch and then we went home
and we're like, we're like inbed by like eight.

Speaker 3 (38:37):
Well, see that was.
The other thing is that I alsogot to experience Susie's family
from the time I was like 12until the time.

Speaker 2 (38:44):
I was what did they?

Speaker 3 (38:45):
do?
We went to church with Susie'sfamily on Christmas Eve.
So if I was with Susie's familythat year and it was, there
were years where we weren'thanging out a lot, but most of
the years in that time we were,and so we would go to church and
then Susie's mom always had abunch of food at her house.
Plus, the church had somethingafter church.
They would have like cookies orwhatever.

Speaker 1 (39:07):
I am Now.
It depends on your church too.

Speaker 3 (39:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (39:10):
Because, like we would go to Quincy, that's at 7
o'clock, you're done, you'rehome, you're in bed.
I do vaguely remember a coupleof McDonald's trips on Christmas
Eve, which really makes me kindof hungry for McDonald's.
But second, off, I could go formcdonald's but second off, if

(39:32):
you went to norm's church thatwas at not, didn't even start
till 11 that's my favorite andyou're rolling out of church at
like midnight buddy when I tellyou that I'm emotional.

Speaker 3 (39:45):
I cannot sit through a candlelight service at
Christmas without sobbing,Sobbing.

Speaker 1 (39:52):
They break into the little town of Bethlehem, buddy
it's over.
It's over.

Speaker 3 (39:58):
Even at the old Remember we did go to Quincy one
time on Christmas Eve.

Speaker 1 (40:02):
Yeah, that was cool.

Speaker 3 (40:03):
That was real cool.

Speaker 1 (40:05):
I love Quincy on Christmas Eve because they do
the little candlelight thing andit's so small.
There's like five rows atQuincy, Right.
So you're in this like thesound is great though they.
That's what I love about thechurch is like it's got like
five rows of pews but they havea pipe organ that was made for

(40:25):
like a fucking cathedral youknow what I mean, and so it's
like it sounds like beethoven.
Yeah, boy, you know what I meanit?
Hits that heavy like you'relike what?

Speaker 3 (40:36):
is going on now I know it fills your.
It's meant to fill your soul.

Speaker 1 (40:40):
It does, oh my god pipe organs will fill your soul.

Speaker 3 (40:43):
That's a whole vibe right there, organs yeah.

Speaker 1 (40:47):
That's why I like Norm's church.
Norm's church's organ is waybigger than the one at Quincy
and it has way more stuff.
But you don't hear it in thesame way.

Speaker 2 (40:57):
Because of the size of the sanctuary it's huge and
it just gets lost in the mix.

Speaker 1 (41:04):
It doesn't fill the room.

Speaker 3 (41:05):
Yes, but what I looked forward to every year
with the church, every singleyear.
It didn't matter if me and suzywere hanging out or not.
I was in a play, a chorus thingwhat do they call those?

Speaker 1 (41:20):
it's like the reenactment of the nativity, but
it has a name you're absolutelyright.

Speaker 3 (41:26):
I can't think right now but yeah, I was always doing
that um, so and singing I love,like I was in the chorus in
school and all that, so like, ohmy god.
So I always just loved singing.
Um, I'll never, I never forgotthis uh one song it was in I
think I was in seventh gradecourse, and it was Santa Claus.

(41:48):
Santa Claus, you are much toofat.
I was sleeping peacefully andnow my bed is flat.
Santa Claus, santa Claus, howmuch do you weigh?
I'm glad I'm not a reindeerthat has to pull your sleigh,
that's funny.
It was fun.
Um it was done to the tune ofJingle Bells.

Speaker 1 (42:07):
I just don't feel like singing right now no, I
mean that's I wouldn't want youto.
I mean driving around and lookat christmas lights.
That's something we used to doon christmas eve a lot.
Yes, I love that on the wayhome from church or whatever.
Yes, um, you know.
However, it went um trying tothink of some of the other
things that we did that likestand out to me we went

(42:29):
Christmas caroling you wentChristmas caroling?

Speaker 3 (42:32):
yes, I've been to Christmas caroling at least, at
least 20 times like 20 yeah, inmy entire life I've been
Christmas caroling at least 20times.
I would sign up to do like.
Sometimes we would do it threenights in a row.

Speaker 1 (42:46):
I think I did go once One time in Hagerstown and
around Norm's church aroundChristmas.
I think I did go once the youthgroup or something did it.
I love it, but I think that'sthe only time that I ever went
caroling.
And I never received a carolingeither.

Speaker 3 (43:05):
I've never been a caroling, I've never received a
caroling either.

Speaker 1 (43:07):
I've never been a caroling.
I've never been a caroling.
I don't think I would like it.

Speaker 3 (43:09):
I don't think I would .
After watching Christmas withthe Cranks, I'm pretty sure I
would be terrified.

Speaker 1 (43:13):
Yeah, I don't think I would like to be a caroling.
Where are all these peoplecaroling at, though?
If you've never been a carolingand I've never been a caroling,
where's the caroler?
No one knows.
That's the secret they don'ttell you they don't do it
anymore.

Speaker 3 (43:30):
The world's a dangerous place nowadays you
could probably look up.

Speaker 1 (43:35):
There's probably more than one crime that's been
committed against Christmascarolers.
There's probably enough to makean entire ID series called
Carol to Death.

Speaker 3 (43:49):
Oh, my Atlanta.

Speaker 1 (43:51):
I mean, they literally have an entire program
where crimes just occurred onstreets named Elm.

Speaker 3 (43:57):
Right, well, no, I know.

Speaker 1 (43:59):
Like seasons worth.

Speaker 3 (44:01):
So what was the decoration sitch in your house
growing up?

Speaker 1 (44:06):
There was one red cardinal that we put in the tree
and I remember one year dadmust have zapped out like three
things of lights.
This is back when you wouldburn out a whole fucking set of
lights.

Speaker 2 (44:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (44:19):
If even the slight, if you blew on it the wrong way,
and it would just say thatsomething happened.
It the wrong way and it wouldjust say that something happened
.
And dad, mom, had this.
It was a red cardinal, but ithad like wire feet to like put
it in the tree with and oh mygod christmas vacation zapped

(44:40):
out like three sets of lights onthis thing, and I don't really
know why.

Speaker 3 (44:45):
I'm not sure what was happening but um, because they
have metal feet in the wire.
But fucking christmas trees inthe 80s were uh dangerous and
then we had a lot of mix.

Speaker 1 (45:01):
That was part of my other thing.
I love decorating the tree yeah, with my with mom and my
brothers and like I'll taketurns doing it and we would get
to put up our own, like onesthat were for us, because we had
, like you know, baby's firstChristmas, yada, yada.
So you would get to put up yourown.
And then there was like onesthat were like community ones
that anybody can put up, right,if you were in rotation.

Speaker 3 (45:28):
I can't believe y'all had to do it that way.

Speaker 1 (45:30):
Nobody like in my house, nobody wanted to decorate
the tree.
You kidding me by the time.

Speaker 3 (45:32):
I fight about it by the time I was 12, I was doing
it solely by myself.
Everybody else was preoccupied.
I'm pretty sure my sister wasalready drinking it.
That's no, I'm joking she wouldhave been eight.
No, but no, I mean, I just I'm.

(45:54):
But I'm also like you have toconsider that we know this now,
but I was autistic back then andnobody knew it, so like I would
have hissy fits if ornamentsweren't placed perfectly.
So my parents just gave up.
They're like, fuck it, let herdo it.
She loves to decorate, she'scrazy and she needs the
decorations to look just so.

Speaker 1 (46:19):
Did any of the tree decorating involve candy canes
and or popcorn strings?
No on the popcorn stringsbecause my mom was terrified
that we would get bugs we madewell, we made one one time at
gravel reeds, and we got aboutseven kernels of corn in before
we gave up and just ate thepopcorn how could you not?

(46:39):
Oh my god, but grandma reedalways had candy canes on her
tree which I love because thenit was just a candy cane free
for all.
We didn't do that at mom, or Ithink they might have did that
at dad's linda so at dad's wedidn't touch the tree.
Linda had very specific way ofdecorating the tree.
She did all of that and we werenot to touch the ornaments,

(47:01):
play with them in any way, shapeor form.
And um, there may have beencandy canes that we weren't
allowed to eat on there, ormaybe we ate them, I don't
really remember.
I can't tell you.
It wasn't the free-for-all ofthe candy canes that Grandma
Reed's was.
Grandma Reed had boxes of candycanes that she could reload.

Speaker 3 (47:20):
Reload.
That's how my dad was.
She's like oh what.
You ate nine candy canes.
I've got seven more boxes.
Here you go.
Yeah, that's, that's what mydad was doing with.
Our christmas tree is reloadingafter everybody ate a candy
cane, and especially like oncethe flavored ones came out
that's what she had.

Speaker 1 (47:37):
Yeah, it started off as peppermint.
Yeah, there was like a point inthe 80s where those cherry malt
they're cherry flavored butthey're multicolored.
They're rainbow they becamevery popular and then when she
started getting those, it wasgame over.
Guess who's saying to grandma'stonight and eating 47 candy
canes this guy so what's crazyabout me having OCD with

(48:02):
decorating?

Speaker 3 (48:03):
I mean, obviously it's not as bad now is that when
the older two of my kids werereally little, like under five,
I would let them decorate thewhole tree, and then I would
wait until they went to bed andI would yeah, I would just have
to take care.

Speaker 1 (48:20):
I will bring this up, though, and I need to get my
videotapes of my christmasesfrom when I was a child into
digital media.
I really need to get on thatbefore those tapes disintegrate
to nothing right regardless ofany of that.
There is one on there.
There's a video of this.
In 1989 they came out with thereal ghostbusters action figures

(48:40):
for the tv show the real ghostGhostbusters.
I got Dr Peter Venkman onChristmas morning in that stupid
little Pomeranian fox.
He somehow got my toy.
When I got my toy, Peter had nohead, no arm.
He was chewed to bits and youcould not find them Like anymore

(49:04):
.
After you know what I mean, itwasn't like you could go to the
store and you could get E themlike anymore.
After you know what I mean.
Like it wasn't like you youcould go to the store and you
could get a egon oh, I thoughtyou could get ray and find the
parts.
I was like they were in his ohno, I think you couldn't replace
it, like the time that I oncegot two of the same barbie for
my birthday let's.

Speaker 3 (49:22):
Can we talk about this?
Because we haven't talked aboutthis on any episode yet what
Barbies.
Scott played with Barbies.

Speaker 1 (49:27):
Hell, yeah, I did.
I played with action figures aswell.
They were getting them Barbies.
I used to put the covers.
How I would do it is I'd putthem under the cover.

Speaker 3 (49:38):
Can we not talk about your performance and I'd pull
it If they were.

Speaker 1 (49:44):
I didn't know what doing it was.
You're like seven, but you knowthere's something, so I would
pull the cup.

Speaker 2 (49:51):
I'd have them laying there next to each other.
I'd put an arm over.

Speaker 1 (49:54):
So he was like holding Barbie's back and then I
would put the covers up so itwould just come up so they'd be
nestled in their blanket.

Speaker 3 (50:04):
Oh my.

Speaker 1 (50:05):
Atlanta and it wasn't so much Barbie as it was Jem I
played with toys for my shows.

Speaker 3 (50:13):
Truly outrageous, and I liked Jem.

Speaker 1 (50:15):
Jem got it, although the GI Joes.
It was a little awkward becauseJem was like three times their
size, so the GI Joes couldn'tget it.
She had to get more with like awrestling figure or an X-Man oh
my god, or something.
Did you write storylines forthem?
No, but I'd play with them.
Okay, she slept with the greatwrestler Terry Funk one time,

(50:40):
jim, didn't she, terry Funk?
I had an old rubber, terry Funkdoll, and he was holding his
hand up like this.

Speaker 3 (50:49):
I was like more obsessed with fashioning my
Barbies, like I mean, causedesign is like my thing or
whatever.
So I was always like trying tosee if I could sew their clothes
differently or cut their hair.

Speaker 1 (51:04):
I was more into.
They were like I was alwayswrestling any, all my figures,
so they were like part of thewrestling stories.
No, they were like managers andstuff or like whatever, or
women wrestlers.
I would wrestle them and butyeah, and like I said, it was
more gym than Barbie, although Idid have a few barbies because

(51:28):
there wasn't that many gemcharacters.
But one time for my birthday Igot two of the same one and it
was like a tragedy and I had togo out to ames and get a
different one.
I used to embarrass theembarrass the shit out of too,
because dad said we'd be at thestore and he'd be like pick
anything you want.
I'd be like I want the Barbiepole.

(51:49):
No, dad, I want the Barbie pole.
You don't want the GIJ?
No, I want the Barbie pole.

Speaker 3 (51:59):
That's fantastic, though I mean it's.
It's a great commentary becauseyou're such an alpha male now.
They do grow out of itsometimes, I mean.

Speaker 1 (52:08):
I'd be concerned if it was, if I didn't have
wrestlers trying to fuck barbies.

Speaker 3 (52:15):
The Barbie pool was actually for after wrestling.
I have to do.

Speaker 1 (52:18):
I do have to say this .
So Gremlins is a greatChristmas movie and I, as a kid,
I wanted nothing more.
I mean, I had like a back.
Before books on tape, they hadbooks on record.
Do you remember?

Speaker 2 (52:32):
that, yeah, I do Like for mostly kids' books, because
it was like you know, and I hadthe Gremlins like book.

Speaker 1 (52:41):
You know what I mean.
That they wrote it was justlike a you know, they made it
for kids.

Speaker 3 (52:51):
Wait, was the book a book before the movie, or no?

Speaker 1 (52:52):
oh, it's when they used to take movies and like
yeah, yeah, yeah, it was justlike a book for kids.
It was like, you know, it wasjust the gremlin story, but it
was like in a book, a kid's book, and but I had the.
It was like four differentrecords and I used to man, I
love that buddy.
It was spooky too.
I wonder if I could get thathold of them.
But yeah, gremlins is always abig Christmas thing for me too.

Speaker 3 (53:16):
Yeah, I wasn't, like I wasn't a big fan of Gremlins.

Speaker 1 (53:20):
But I wanted a Mogwai .
But I did one More thananything in the whole life.

Speaker 3 (53:24):
Oh, what were those things called though?

Speaker 1 (53:27):
Alf.
I wanted an Alf too.

Speaker 3 (53:30):
Everybody was getting Remember when they had the Alfs
yeah.

Speaker 1 (53:33):
Everybody got one, and I wanted one, so bad, and I
didn't get one.

Speaker 3 (53:36):
No, I'm talking about something that.

Speaker 1 (53:39):
I've had, since we've been together A Furby.
A Furby.
Yes, I remember when Matt got aFurby.
A Furby, yeah, I remember whenMatt.
Matt got a Furby one year andit was like a big deal.

Speaker 3 (53:49):
At one point I had like seven different Furbies,
cause I used to love them and Iused to train in the talk and
all that stuff.

Speaker 1 (53:57):
But it's one of those things.

Speaker 3 (53:58):
I think I still have a Furby in the basement
somewhere.
Probably you know start talkingto me.
I know, no, you're right.
I think I did actually destroythe last one I had.

Speaker 1 (54:09):
They look like evil demons.

Speaker 3 (54:10):
I know they were like the fake ones.

Speaker 1 (54:13):
But they were a mogwai ripoff.
Yeah, whoever invented Furby,fucking ripped off the gremlin
guy a million bucks.

Speaker 3 (54:20):
Yeah, agree, my hair split like Morticia Adams and
it's driving me insane.
I don't usually have a widow'speak like that.
It's weird.
I mean I do, but you can't awidow's peak.
Um, oh, I know what I was gonnaask you.
So through your you knowteenage years, through high

(54:42):
school, if you could say onegift that was your absolute the
best gift ever.
What was it?

Speaker 1 (54:49):
I don't know about teenage years.
I mean, the best gift Iprobably ever got of all time
and I was probably like 12, wasTecmo Super Bowl, Because I
wanted that more than anythingon the face of the earth.

Speaker 2 (55:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (55:03):
So much so.
And then mom tricked me to tryto teach me a Jesus lesson.
No, well, so, mom.
So basically we knew kind oflike what our limit was.
Like moms, you could ask forone big gift, and it was like
around $50.
Okay.

Speaker 3 (55:18):
Is the range, cause Santa was going to bring you
something else anyway.

Speaker 1 (55:23):
No yeah, oh.
I don't know if kids are oh,that kid's no but seriously,
though, like we knew that, likethat was our rank, because, like
once you know that there's nosanta, you know, you like want
to ask for, you know, and thatwas like our limit was like, and
even that was a lot because itmeant I wasn't going to get a
lot else right if I was gettingthis 50 toy which was tecmo

(55:44):
super bowl right, which was 50for the game, and to get a lot
of L's Right.
If I was getting this $50 toywhich was Tecmo Super Bowl Right
, which was $50 for the game,and that's a lot of money in
1992 or something or whatever itis, and I wanted it so bad and
I didn't.
I opened all my presents thatwere under the tree.
I didn't get it and mom waslike they pulled one of those,

(56:06):
like mom and dad weren'ttogether then, and mom was like
what's the matter?
I was, you know, like you'rehappy with everything you got,
yeah, and like sad because Ididn't get this.
And then it was like hiddenunder the tree skirt and she's
like I think I see somethingsticking out.
And then it was Techno SuperBowl, oh wow.
And I flipped out.
I played it for like eight,nine years straight.

Speaker 3 (56:31):
That's hilarious, because one of the movies that
we just watched Christmas moviethe kid that's what he carried
with him was Techno Super Bowl.

Speaker 1 (56:39):
Oh really.

Speaker 3 (56:39):
He's grown, but yeah, Mine was.
I don't even know.
I'm just going to say what wecalled it back then.
We called it a boom box, right.

Speaker 1 (56:51):
Oh, good call.

Speaker 3 (56:52):
But it was a dual cassette.

Speaker 1 (56:55):
Dual cassette.

Speaker 3 (56:56):
Dual cassette and it was this big, like it was the
big one.

Speaker 1 (57:02):
Like I couldn't just yeah, it was a shoulder, yes and
um, and I got some tapes withit.

Speaker 3 (57:04):
It was a big one, like I couldn't just Shoulder
only.
Yeah, it was a shoulder, yes,and I got some tapes with it,
like.
So my parents were like theylistened to oldies and they
didn't know a whole lot aboutmodern music for a 12 year old
right.
Right, so they got me, theywere norm.

(57:24):
They got me like Billy Joel'sgreatest hits, but it was like
the eighties only.

Speaker 1 (57:30):
Speaking of, I got to remember, remind me to show you
this meme.
Like, did you see RandyCollier's meme?
No, about Billy Joel.
No, oh, it's hilarious Anyway.

Speaker 3 (57:40):
And then, um, my uncle knew that I was getting it
, so he knew I was getting itfor Christmas, so my mom had him
like dub some of his tapes forme, so it was like it was oh, it
was the Chop Gun soundtrack.
That was the first tape that.

Speaker 1 (58:02):
I.

Speaker 3 (58:02):
Danger zone.
Yeah, oh, I can't remember whatthe slow song was, but I was
like singing it all the time.

Speaker 1 (58:11):
Oh, no, that was Offset, and.

Speaker 3 (58:12):
Gentleman, was it Turn around?
Every now and then I get alittle bit old.
Never come around.
No, I don't think that was it.

Speaker 1 (58:22):
No.

Speaker 3 (58:23):
Oh, and the Dirty no, no, no, no Wait, would I have
been old enough?
No, the Dirty Dance soundtrackcame out way after that.
I was only like 12 when Ibought that, but the only other
thing that I really what was it,though there had to be a slow
song.

Speaker 1 (58:36):
Oh, there was, I remember it but.

Speaker 3 (58:41):
I don't but anyways, any usual um.
So the other gift I remember isonly because it's literally the
only memory ever that I have ofmy dad's mom and she brought me
when I was very, very young,like three, a doll that you like

(59:01):
, pulled the string in the backand it grew.
It was terrifying, but Iremember that for some reason.

Speaker 1 (59:09):
I remember that.
So when I was at the about theage of like where's you know,
you stopped believing Santa.
So six, seven, something likethat, eight, I don't know, for
me it was five, but that'sgrandma read.
No, I mean, it's whatever time,like you're at school or
whatever like when you, that'swhen you figure it out well, I
just picked it up because I paidway too much attention to adult

(59:33):
conversations when I was thatage well, also too like.
But here's the thing is like Ihad suspicions, but like I tried
to hold out.

Speaker 3 (59:43):
Right.

Speaker 1 (59:44):
And I'd be like, well , maybe he doesn't, it's like
Jesus, like he's kind of like afigurehead, like he doesn't
really do that oh see Like hedoesn't really.
There is a Santa but he doesn'treally deliver presents, he
just is.
It's like the spirit ofChristmas, whatever I don't know
.

Speaker 3 (59:59):
But I was too nosy Like.
But I was too nosy Like Iwanted my mom to let me help her
with the little kids stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:00:12):
So I just told my mom that I knew so I could help her
.
But Grandma Reed tried to likeI'd be like, do you believe in
Santa?
You know, just like Christmas,santa Claus, do you believe in
Santa?
Yeah, and I'd be like, do youbelieve in Santa Graham?
And she'd be like I believe inhim.
I know that he's real.
She said your dad met him onetime and she said that dad

(01:00:35):
wanted nothing more than this.
I think it was a robot toy ofsome kind or some kind of action
figure and it was a robot andhe wanted nothing more than this
robot.
Was it Dad or was it Uncle Bo,I don't remember?
And that he got the robot butit was broken and Santa

(01:00:59):
personally told him it wasbecause Rudolph stepped on it by
accident and he got to meetSanta because his robot got
broke.

Speaker 3 (01:01:08):
Oh.

Speaker 1 (01:01:09):
And you know what I mean.
Like he had to meet him so hecould apologize for Rudolph
breaking his.
So that kept me going for aboutanother year probably, I think.
On that one I was like, well,all right, well, if Graham says
it, it meant him.
I mean Right, who am I to argue?

Speaker 3 (01:01:25):
Right, forget what, dustin in my class said no, like
thinking back on it now, my momprobably knew that if she
didn't appease me by letting meknow that I was right, that I
would like bring my brother andsister into it and screw it up
for everybody.
So Scrooged.
No, let's talk about someChristmas music.

(01:01:46):
So what's your favorite?

Speaker 1 (01:01:51):
Favorite Christmas song.
Oh, it's so many.
I like the one where they'relike, is it?
Oh Holy Night?

Speaker 3 (01:02:00):
Oh Holy Night, is my hands down, absolute favorite of
all time.

Speaker 1 (01:02:04):
I like so many of them.
I like Good King West.
Holy Night is my hands downabsolute favorite of all time.
I like so many of them.
I like Good King West's Nosleus.
I like Hark.
The Herald Angels Sing that'salways been one of my favorites.
Blue Christmas is probably myfavorite commercial one.

Speaker 3 (01:02:22):
Yeah, is that the?
I like the Elvis version.
Yeah, yeah, elvis.
Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:02:40):
Me like licky macaidad.
I love that.
Um, yeah, I mean, there's somany there is um but I do enjoy.
Probably, I guess you have togo with a holy night because
when they're when they hit, likewhen you have somebody really
doing it and they hit those bigmoments.
Or there's like an orchestraand it's like magic.

(01:03:02):
Yeah, yeah, yes.

Speaker 3 (01:03:04):
One of my favorite versions, even though I'm not
like a huge fan of hers.
Carrie underwood has a reallygood version of no holy night.

Speaker 1 (01:03:11):
I think carrie underwood's a good singer she's
a good singer, I just don't yeahI mean, I don't care for her
either, but yeah, she's a goodsinger and it's not like that's.
You know what I mean?
That song, you just want a goodsinger, somebody that can hit
those big notes.
Like big, the way they're meantto be hit.

Speaker 3 (01:03:28):
But I feel like there was somebody else that had a
version that I oh I know whoseversion was my hands down
favorite for a long time and Ilistened to it on repeat forever
.
It was Christina Aguilera.

Speaker 1 (01:03:39):
My favorite Christmas song, though, is probably it's
Christmas Time in Hollows Queens.

Speaker 3 (01:03:45):
What.

Speaker 1 (01:03:48):
You know Run DMC Christmas in Hollis.

Speaker 3 (01:03:54):
I don't know that song yes you do, do I?

Speaker 1 (01:03:57):
It's like the most famous Christmas rap of all time
.

Speaker 3 (01:03:59):
I didn't know there was one.

Speaker 1 (01:04:02):
You know Christmas time in Hollis.
Really, really.
In what Def Jam world are youliving in?

Speaker 3 (01:04:10):
I wasn't allowed to listen to those songs when I was
a kid, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:04:14):
That's very bizarre.
I can't believe you don't knowthat.
I'm really shocked.
I thought you did.
They sing it in Night Before.
Oh, that's what they're doingkaraoke to it's Christmas time
in Hollis Queens.
Okay, I love that movie andcolored greens.

Speaker 3 (01:04:32):
Yeah, but I didn't know that.
I thought that that was new.

Speaker 1 (01:04:35):
Oh, my God.
I thought they wrote it for themovie no that's a run DMC song
from the 1980s called ChristmasTime in Hollis Queens.

Speaker 3 (01:04:42):
Yeah, I probably wasn't allowed to listen to it.

Speaker 1 (01:04:46):
I thought that was going to hit a good note there.

Speaker 3 (01:04:51):
Now I learned something new, because I do love
that movie and I know exactlywhich song you're talking about
now but.
I didn't know it was run DMCyeah.

Speaker 1 (01:04:58):
Run DMC.
We'll watch it after we're donewith this.
Yeah, not the movie, just thevideo.
Yeah, not the movie, just thevideo yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:05:05):
We just watched the movie the other night.

Speaker 1 (01:05:08):
My other favorite Christmas rap is Wonder why
Christmas missed us.
It's just one line, but no.

Speaker 3 (01:05:18):
I do know that one.

Speaker 1 (01:05:19):
Who's your favorite reindeer?

Speaker 3 (01:05:23):
Vixen Mine's.

Speaker 1 (01:05:25):
Comet you ever seen?
Seen that movie.
That's a good movie, comet yeahyeah, that's good, or prancer
prancer is a good movie I don'tthink it's comet, it's prancer.
Prancer is my favorite, likethere is a movie called comet
there might be, but I think it'sprancer is the one I'm talking
prancer is a great movieprancer's got sam elliott in it.

Speaker 3 (01:05:43):
Yeah, yeah, that's the one I'm talking about, but
Vixen's my favorite just becauseI like the word Vixen, right.

Speaker 1 (01:05:48):
I mean, if I was picking it purely off a name,
then I'd probably go with Idon't know four of them.

Speaker 3 (01:05:55):
Dasher Dancer Prancer Vixen Comet Cupid Donner
Blitzen.

Speaker 1 (01:05:58):
What was it?

Speaker 3 (01:05:58):
Tate.

Speaker 2 (01:05:59):
Slough.

Speaker 3 (01:05:59):
Slasher Dancer, prancer Vixen Comet Cupid Donner
.

Speaker 1 (01:06:05):
Blitzen.

Speaker 3 (01:06:06):
I guess Blitzen, yeah , because that sounds like it's
the second one.
Fun to say Blitzen.

Speaker 1 (01:06:11):
It sounds like something.
It sounds like a play.
The Steelers run on ChristmasDay against the Chiefs.
All right, we got the Blitzenpackage.
Reindeer, reindeer.

Speaker 3 (01:06:25):
So the other two things that I wanted to talk
about before we wrap upChristmas around Christmas are
one is again Waffle HouseChristmas.

Speaker 1 (01:06:33):
You just broke my heart.
No, we used to go every yearwith my mom and my stepdad to
Waffle House on Christmasmorning.
That was a big part of our,that was our big thing, and
there's a song about it.
Christmas morning, that was abig part of our, that was our
big thing, and, uh, there's asong about it.
Well, apparently it's a bigthing.
In the South, people loveWaffle House Christmas, don't

(01:06:53):
they?
They do.
When you go on Christmas, it'susually, it's always busy.

Speaker 2 (01:06:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:06:59):
And everybody's very festive and uh yeah it's a good
time.

Speaker 3 (01:07:06):
I love a waffle house christmas.

Speaker 1 (01:07:07):
I mean, I love a waffle house.
I'm trying to I take it awaffle hat.

Speaker 3 (01:07:09):
Put it this way waffle house tuesday, monday,
thursday all as good as wafflehouse christmas absolutely, and
the other thing that we didn'ttouch on, which um is of days
gone by as far as I'm concerned,is malls during.

Speaker 1 (01:07:25):
Christmas.
Who didn't love a mall betweenThanksgiving and Christmas?
Yeah, you'd have that one dayas a family.
It was like an outing andyou're like we're going to the
mall, yeah, and it'd be like allday and you would be eating at
the food court.

Speaker 3 (01:07:42):
If you were young enough, you're seeing Santa,
maybe gotten some pictures.

Speaker 1 (01:07:46):
Oh yeah, Santa was always hanging oh Sears or
getting a family photo at Sears.

Speaker 3 (01:07:52):
Yes, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:07:55):
Those are always fun, so much fun.
I remember the Sears andHairstown had a so it the photo
thing.
They had like a machines withcandy in them and at that one
you could stick your hand up andjust pull candy out and we did
gumball city, baby, gumball cityof course you know this.

Speaker 3 (01:08:22):
Oh my god.

Speaker 1 (01:08:22):
I remember that alright.

Speaker 3 (01:08:24):
So, um, we are going to wrap oh my God, I remember
that.
All right, so we are going towrap up our Christmas
celebration with you guys.
We are splitting this episodeinto two episodes and we will be
back with you on New Year's Eveto give you a rundown of

(01:08:46):
everything that we've done thisyear and everything that's been
going on in the world this year.

Speaker 1 (01:08:52):
And now it's time for Scott's thoughts.
And here at Christmas time, atGilded Trash, we like to think
about the little guy.
So this is called Complimentsfrom the Garbage man.
Christmas comes and Christmasgoes, with summer rain and
winter snows.
The garbage man who always goesfighting mankind's every foe.

(01:09:16):
He's poor and humble and knowsno wealth but is ever guarding
the public health.
No wealth, but is ever guardingthe public health.
He works in cheer, drinks lotsof beer of the deadly germ that
is always near.
So don't forget him whenChristmas comes, to help him
make his loved ones dear withjust a little Christmas cheer.

(01:09:38):
So put something out for thegarbage man.

Speaker 3 (01:09:42):
So we will see you in a week, not two weeks this time
all right.