All things holly, jolly, and odd-ly.
Episodes
Dec 4, 2020
Dec 4, 2020
47 min
Time to destroy your appetite! I talk to Glen Warren from the Season's Eatings Podcast about weird Christmas food throughout history.
Links:
- Season's Eatings Podcast
- List of Christmas Podcasts (from Brian Earl's Christmas Past)
- Holly Jolly Xmasu (Japanese Christmas music podcast)
- Totally Rad Christmas ("Rudolph's Shiny New Year" episode with me)
- The Lamppost Huggers by Christopher Stanley (some Christmas horror stories)
- Valancourt Book of Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories, vol 4 edited by Christopher Philippo
Music in this episode:
- "Christmas Food" by Idito the Chicken and Moonpie Nobot
>>>>>
If you’re feeling generous, check out my Patreon page here where you can get all kinds of bonuses throughout the year. You can also buy me a “coffee” ($3 gifts) at Ko-Fi.com.
Or PLEASE LEAVE A WEIRD REVIEW ON APPLE PODCASTS OR YOUR FAVORITE PODCAST APP! Send me a note that you did (weirdxmas@gmail.com), and I’ll send you a sticker!
Nov 26, 2020
Nov 26, 2020
1hr 40 min
As a Thanksgiving treat, enjoy a deep dive down the rabbit hole of Santa history with Tom Jerman, author of Santa Claus Worldwide: A History of St. Nicholas and Other Holiday Gift-Bringers. This is my favorite book of Santa history, and Tom and I covered a lot of ground.
Links mentioned in the show:
- Buy the book!
- From Amazon
- From McFarland Publishers
- Tom's new website A Collection of Santas with new blog posts summarizing topics in Santa history and other treats.
- Books mentioned:
- The Children's Friend (1821)
- Irving's Knickerbocker's History of New York (later version)
- Glen Warren's Season's Eatings Podcast
Music from the episode:
- "Sankt Niklas war ein Seemann" - Freddy Quinn
- "Jolly Old St. Nicholas" - Wilf Carter
- "Jolly Old St. Nicholas" - Chadron Polka Band
If you’re feeling generous, check out my Patreon page here where you can get all kinds of bonuses throughout the year. You can also buy me a “coffee” ($3 gifts) at Ko-Fi.com.
Or PLEASE LEAVE A WEIRD REVIEW ON APPLE PODCASTS OR YOUR FAVORITE PODCAST APP! Send me a note that you did (weirdxmas@gmail.com), and I’ll send you a sticker!
Nov 17, 2020
Nov 17, 2020
33 min
I'm not usually your go-to source for new movies. But this one is worth your time. The Christmas Ride is a mumblecore (improvised dialogue) film about a ride share driver getting an emotional gut punch on Christmas day. I talked to the producer/director Stefanie Davis, and I hope you'll check it out.
Here's the trailer for a taste:
You can stream it from Amazon (free with Prime) and Vimeo:
- Stream from Amazon Prime
- Watch on Vimeo ($4.99 right now...help an indie movie out!)
Cool people!
- Starring Daryen Ratté
- Writer/Producer/Director Stefanie Davis
- Bouncy Boxer Media
- The film's twitter
- Slacker (Craig's favorite old "mumblecore" movie)
Music:
And the promo was for Holly Jolly Xmasu -- a podcast all about Japanese Christmas music. You'll be hearing more from Scott soon. :)
If you’re feeling generous, check out my Patreon page here where you can get all kinds of bonuses throughout the year. You can also buy me a "coffee" ($3 gifts) at Ko-Fi.com.
Or PLEASE LEAVE A WEIRD REVIEW ON APPLE PODCASTS OR YOUR FAVORITE PODCAST APP! Send me a note that you did (weirdxmas@gmail.com), and I'll send you a sticker!
Oct 31, 2020
Oct 31, 2020
1hr 16 min
Krampus. Seems like I should have done a show on Krampus years ago, but I was waiting for the right person. And that person is Al Ridenour, author of The Krampus and the Old, Dark Christmas: Roots and Rebirth of the Folkloric Devil. This is the definitive book on Krampus, and Al fills us in on all the history and celebrations we could want.
Links mentioned in the show:
- The book: The Krampus and the Old, Dark Christmas
- Bone & Sickle (Al's podcast)
Music:
If you’re feeling generous, check out my Patreon page here where you can get all kinds of bonuses throughout the year.
Oct 15, 2020
Oct 15, 2020
43 min
Christmas werewolves are a thing. I mean, I don't know if they're REAL real. But people really used to believe they were a thing. So Christmas expert Benito Cereno fills us in on their history
Benito's been on the show before, talking about Christmas comics and the Yule Lads.
Links mentioned in the show:
- Benito's werewolf Christmas story, "Two Gifts"
- Benito's YouTube channel
- Apocrypals podcast
- Benito's site
- Bone & Sickle Podcast (episode 30: Loup-Garou, Werewolves in France)
Music this episode:
- "Werewolf Christmas" by Timur and the Dime Museum
- "Werewolf in Christmas Past" by Max Dimartino, Lee Lacey
- "Meido Krampus Noche" by The Courtesan and the Cabin Boy
And check out the Merry Britsmas podcast for all your British Christmas needs!
If you’re feeling generous, check out my Patreon page here where you can get all kinds of bonuses throughout the year.
Oct 2, 2020
Oct 2, 2020
32 min
The first podcast episode of the 2020 {shiver} season. We do a bit of deep diving into the world of Halloween postcard collecting which, if you follow me on social media, you know is a small obsession of mine. Eric Hinton runs Halloween Postcards and has collected all, yes, ALL of the Halloween postcards printed before World War 2. We wander around some of the stranger examples and figure out what goes on in the musty corners of our collector-type-brains.
This episode has a video version as well so you can see the cards we're talking about. Head over to my youtube channel here.
Bumper music:
"Happy Christmahanavaloween" by Melanie
"Horror Flick" by Make Like Monkeys
If you're feeling generous, check out my Patreon page here where you can get all kinds of bonuses throughout the year.
Jan 9, 2020
Jan 9, 2020
47 min
A talk with Brad Warner, author of the new book Letters to a Dead Friend About Zen. How Buddhism can help calm holiday stress, and just stuff about Brad and Zen in general.
Jan 4, 2020
Jan 4, 2020
51 min
What do we know about Christmas during the Middle Ages? Turns out it's kinda hard to find very much information. I talk to two medievalists, Misty Schieberle and Scott Smith, who help me trace what few mentions of Christmas there are in the English tradition.
Dec 30, 2019
Dec 30, 2019
56 min
The 2019 Weird Christmas ghost story is "The Story of a Disappearance and an Appearance" by M. R. James. I also get some help with background on James and Punch and Judy puppet shows (which show up in the story) from Jim Moon of the Hypnogoria Podcast.
Dec 19, 2019
Dec 19, 2019
1hr 2 min
Weird Christmas talks to the indie music blog Christmas Underground about the world of Christmas mixes and how he finds great, unknown Christmas music all year long.