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The Weird Stories Behind Your Favorite Christmas Carols · Ridiculous History

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Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
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Speaker 1: to the show Ridiculous Historians. As always, thank you so
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Speaker 1: much for tuning in. As is our want. It is
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Speaker 1: past Christmas, it's the very last day of the year,
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Speaker 1: so we're gonna crack open some homemade egg nog into
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Speaker 1: a Christmas episode just a few days late. I'm Ben.
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Speaker 1: I am the first Noel, the last last one. So okay,
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Speaker 1: so I am opening this are super producer Casey Pegram
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Speaker 1: You you nogging up man. I'm not gonna a cup.
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Speaker 1: I don't have a cup. I'm just gonna drink it.
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Speaker 1: You didn't bring your knog My knogg is at home. Okay,
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Speaker 1: well you guess that's want to taste taste we can cheers. Okay, great,
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Speaker 1: my first nogg. Do we give the knog backstory we
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Speaker 1: did in the last episode we did previous episode, So
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Speaker 1: cheers to you Ridiculous Historians everybody. We're as we record
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Speaker 1: as you hear this. Actually we're just a few a
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Speaker 1: few short hours away from twenty twenties, So give your
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Speaker 1: loved ones a hug, call someone you miss, let them
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Speaker 1: know you've got their back in the coming year. Cheers, Cheers, lush,
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Speaker 1: some strong knog. Okay, so it's a lot on the
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Speaker 1: mic there, Sorry guys. So backstory of our nog this
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Speaker 1: was This was made as we mentioned in previous or
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Speaker 1: as we mentioned in a different episode. This was made
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Speaker 1: by our our composer for Ridiculous History, one Alex Williams,
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Speaker 1: also producer of Note, host of the Delightful, Delightfully Quirky
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Speaker 1: I Heart podcast Ephemeral, has worked on such true crime
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Speaker 1: blockbusters as Atlanta, Monster, Monsters, Zodiac, and h a lot
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Speaker 1: of other cool stuff. And he's a he's a real
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Speaker 1: noster um. He makes this every year and brings to
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Speaker 1: the office and they go like hotcakes. And it is
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Speaker 1: based on his interpretation of George Washington. Yes, that George
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Speaker 1: Washington's incredibly booze heavy famous eggnog recipe, which is kind
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Speaker 1: of a we we talked about it in a previous episode.
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Speaker 1: So just go find uh find whatever the heck we
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Speaker 1: were doing on this show a year ago. And then
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Speaker 1: and then uh, you'll you'll hear us, you'll hear us
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Speaker 1: give a breakdown of the recipe. I'm gonna try to
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Speaker 1: keep up with this nog while we're doing today's episode.
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Speaker 1: But this is heavier than I. Remember, you got a
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Speaker 1: lot more nogg than me. I'm I'm just I just
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Speaker 1: had a little taste of boy I already feel it
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Speaker 1: really packs a wallop. I'm trying to find just a
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Speaker 1: rundown of the ingredients without like going through the actual method.
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Speaker 1: I've got it. Oh wait, here we go. I got
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Speaker 1: one here too. We can just launch your list off
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Speaker 1: real quick. Yeah, let's do it. So, he says, one
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Speaker 1: quart cream, one quart milk, one dozen tablespoon and sugar
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Speaker 1: and then and then the alcohol starts. That's right, one
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Speaker 1: pint brandy, one half pint rye whiskey, one half pint
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Speaker 1: Jamaican rum, one quarter pint sherry, and and you mix
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Speaker 1: the liquor first, then separate the yolks and whites of
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Speaker 1: twelve eggs, add sugar to the beaten yolks and mix well.
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Speaker 1: And then you add the milk and cream, and you're
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Speaker 1: slowly beating at the whole time. Then you beat the
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Speaker 1: egg white stiller stiff. You fold them into the mixture.
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Speaker 1: Then you put it somewhere away for several days, tasting frequently.
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Speaker 1: So it's crazy. This sounds like a frat house kind
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Speaker 1: of recipe. Yeah, man, I I think it's gonna take
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Speaker 1: me a while to get this down. What do you think? Yeah,
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Speaker 1: what do you think? Yeah? This is one to save
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Speaker 1: or over an extended period of time. I completely agree.
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Speaker 1: We were having this debate off air. We are getting
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Speaker 1: to an episode also by spoiler alert, at some point
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Speaker 1: we'll get to what we're supposed to be doing here.
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Speaker 1: But we were talking about this off air. There is
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Speaker 1: a debate about cold v hot nog. Are you a
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Speaker 1: hot dog person or you a cold dog person? I
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Speaker 1: think we're we're cold noggins over here, right, big time, forcefully. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: although I do understand the potential appeal of a warm
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Speaker 1: not hot nog because it's sort of like a hot,
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Speaker 1: creamy drink, you know, like a hot cocoa or something,
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Speaker 1: and it could work. Yeah, you were saying something like
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Speaker 1: thirty seconds in the micro thirty seconds in the microwave, okay,
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Speaker 1: And I can see that. You know, you're like by
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Speaker 1: a fire baby, it's cold outside, that kind of thing.
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Speaker 1: That song is very problematic. It is, We're excredibly problematic.
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Speaker 1: It's strange that it was so popular for so long
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Speaker 1: and we are talking about of smith songs today with
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Speaker 1: a little bit of help from our pal, longtime friend
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Speaker 1: of the show and personal friend of the three of us,
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Speaker 1: Christopher hauciotis here in Christmas Spirit Chrismas Spirit. I started
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Speaker 1: saying that, I just never stopped. I don't. I don't
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Speaker 1: know why I say that, but I guess I just
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Speaker 1: you know, he was here from the start. Uh. He
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Speaker 1: was our research associate early on before our boy Gabe
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Speaker 1: joined the show. And now Christopher is often doing exciting
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Speaker 1: things on his own, uh, And so I always feel
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Speaker 1: like he is with us, and we still work with him.
5:30
Speaker 1: You know, it's not we always have the Christopher a
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Speaker 1: spirit here, you know. Uh, Christopher will be returning to
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Speaker 1: the show in the new year. But now he's, as
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Speaker 1: you said, old, doing some some other things. He came
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Speaker 1: to us, as he so often does, with this fantastic
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Speaker 1: idea that we thought would be pretty interesting. You see, Christopher,
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Speaker 1: amongst his many talents, he's he's a cracker jack writer,
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Speaker 1: and he hipped us to the story behind all those
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Speaker 1: Christmas carols that people have been hearing. And you know,
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Speaker 1: the weird thing about Christmas carols is in that liminal
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Speaker 1: period between Christmas Day and December thirty one, or sorry,
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Speaker 1: January one, you still kind of hear those songs, right,
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Speaker 1: and it seems like they start every like, when's the
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Speaker 1: first time this year you guys heard a Christmas song
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Speaker 1: that would count as like Christmas season. It's usually like
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Speaker 1: in a grocery store like way pre Christmas season. I
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Speaker 1: would say the the less the least egregious early time
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Speaker 1: for hearing Christmas music would be like after Thanksgiving. It's
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Speaker 1: usually day one after Thanksgiving. I would agree with that
6:41
Speaker 1: being the least egregious. But I've heard, you know, I'm
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Speaker 1: a Halloween guy myself from multiple levels, so I've heard
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Speaker 1: some instrumental Christmas music playing like not three days into November.
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Speaker 1: That's heresy. And they've already got, you know, the seasonal
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Speaker 1: aisle decorated with stuff. Place smells like cinnamon brooms, just
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Speaker 1: get your I think it's because it's such an economic
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Speaker 1: boom to brick and mortar stores. But before we do this,
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Speaker 1: we do have to have a trigger, a warning for
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Speaker 1: anybody who feels like they've heard too much Christmas music.
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Speaker 1: We're not gonna be heavy on it, but we may
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Speaker 1: have some clips pop up here and there. Right, Yeah,
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Speaker 1: I would just about guarantee you um so. A point
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Speaker 1: Christopher makes in this article you wrote for How Stuff
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Speaker 1: Works back in the day is that advertisers and marketers
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Speaker 1: are big fan of the whole idea of the lead
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Speaker 1: up to Christmas as we know, it happens earlier and
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Speaker 1: earlier every year, it seems like, and it's a little vexing, honestly,
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Speaker 1: but they kind of they relish it because they want
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Speaker 1: to sell as much stuff and give people as much
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Speaker 1: opportunity to remind people that the Christmas season is coming,
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Speaker 1: because it also comprises about of all us annual retail sales.
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Speaker 1: And uh, I would say the crown jewels of the
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Speaker 1: lead up to Christmas song would be the twelve Days
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Speaker 1: of Christmas, you know, with the what is it piper's
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Speaker 1: piping and the drummer's drumming and partridge that's the last one.
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Speaker 1: That's that's you can get there eventually. Do you know
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Speaker 1: all of them? I don't. Let's see, no, I'm sorry.
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Speaker 1: The partridge in the pear tree is the first one.
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Speaker 1: So it's the partridge in a pair. This will be
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Speaker 1: a fun quiz. Let's see if I can get this.
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Speaker 1: We've got partridge in a pear tree, um, two turtle doves,
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Speaker 1: three French hens, four calling birds, five old rings, five
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Speaker 1: gold rings. That's the big like the hook right there? Um,
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Speaker 1: four calling birds, three French hens, two turtle does, and
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Speaker 1: a partridge in a pear tree. So it's nine lords
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Speaker 1: of leaping, ten ladies dancing. What is it? Eight six
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Speaker 1: six six hens a land, seven pipers piping, eight lords
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Speaker 1: of leaping, uh, nine ladies dancing, ten swansa swimming eleven
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Speaker 1: geza laying. I'm gonna make new lyrics trap. I've named
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Speaker 1: them all, I think, but I haven't named them in
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Speaker 1: the exact correct order. I think it's the only fight.
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Speaker 1: Let's see. Let's see. Oh, it doesn't go in order.
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Speaker 1: It doesn't go chronologically in terms of the days versus
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Speaker 1: the number of things. Because on the third day of
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Speaker 1: Christmas you got five golden rings. So yeah, I bring
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Speaker 1: that up because that's something that a lot of a
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Speaker 1: lot of us miss. You know, it's it's funny. Um,
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Speaker 1: I would agree, it's a trivial question. I don't know
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Speaker 1: if it's a fun trivial question. I think just because
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Speaker 1: I'm not the biggest fan of that song, but I
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Speaker 1: am a fan of that Song's history. It first shows
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Speaker 1: up in England in seventeen eighties, so it's a little
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Speaker 1: bit more recent in the English version than I had
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Speaker 1: always assumed. But reportedly it has French origins. Is that correct?
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Speaker 1: That is correct? And it's meant to build anticipation for
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Speaker 1: Christmas Day. Uh, not so much in a retail way,
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Speaker 1: but in more of a religious way, because the Christmas
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Speaker 1: season lasts all the way up until Epiphany on January six,
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Speaker 1: and that's the day that most Christians actually associate with
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Speaker 1: the birth uh and specifically baptism of Jesus. And uh,
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Speaker 1: the whole gift exchange wasn't really as big of a
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Speaker 1: thing as it is today. Um, but yeah, that was
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Speaker 1: when you would you would actually tend to exchange gifts
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Speaker 1: on Epiphany, not on December given away on January six. Now, Uh,
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Speaker 1: this is this is public to me. They're numerous uh
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Speaker 1: different interpretations of this song. Casey, could you, in the
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Speaker 1: in the spirit of late Christmas, which is what I
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Speaker 1: am dubbing our our holiday here, could you give us
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Speaker 1: a little taste On the first day of chrissm Troo
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Speaker 1: Love said to me apartrogen a pear tree. On the
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Speaker 1: second day of Christmas, my true love said to me
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Speaker 1: two turtle doves and a part rege and a pear
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Speaker 1: tree on the third day of next Up. No, no,
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Speaker 1: I know that you and I are fans of musicals, Casey,
11:27
Speaker 1: are you a fan of of music musicals? It depends,
11:31
Speaker 1: It really really depends. I could not say yes as
11:34
Speaker 1: a overall category, but there are exceptions. Okay, So basically,
11:38
Speaker 1: if it's not, if it's not Little Chapa Horrors, forget
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Speaker 1: about it. Yeah, more or less. Know. I mean, there's
11:46
Speaker 1: there's some great stuff, but you know, just something about Yeah,
11:50
Speaker 1: it's just not my thing. It's I don't go deep
11:52
Speaker 1: without genre. Yeah, that's just cats right, that's your favorite. Well,
11:55
Speaker 1: I am kind of excited to see cats Man the
11:58
Speaker 1: Early River though. Boy the reviews that I want to
12:02
Speaker 1: see it before they fix it. I want to see
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Speaker 1: all the like rendering errors and like, you know the
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Speaker 1: where they like didn't mix it right, that's right, it's
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Speaker 1: pretty wild. Um. Yeah. No, I'm a bit of a
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Speaker 1: musical nerd um, not like encyclopedically so, but I'm definitely
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Speaker 1: a fan and I am not aware of the musical
12:18
Speaker 1: Meet me in St. Louis from four starring Judy Garland. Uh,
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Speaker 1: and that is where the song have Yourself a Merry
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Speaker 1: Little Christmas became a very special and important Christmas song.
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Speaker 1: Have yourselfs Oh, merry Little Christmas makes you tide good
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Speaker 1: troubles miles away. And I am a huge fan of
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Speaker 1: that song. I actually I think it's quite charming and
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Speaker 1: very sweet. Yeah, it's sweet. It's way better than babe
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Speaker 1: it's cold outside. Uh. So you're right. This was introduced
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Speaker 1: in nineteen forty four, but Christopher argues that it became
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Speaker 1: more famous or more canonical, at least thanks to the
13:17
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty seven cover by Frank Sinatra. And there's a
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Speaker 1: line in there about making the Yule Tide gay, as
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Speaker 1: many of our listeners already know, doubtlessly, gay in this
13:31
Speaker 1: sense is in its original sense a synonym for happy
13:35
Speaker 1: or cheerful. But where does Yule Tide come from? Yeah,
13:39
Speaker 1: it's like the Yule log, you know, like the it's
13:42
Speaker 1: it's a an ancient Germanic festival, more of a pagan
13:46
Speaker 1: thing that would have been held in midwinter. Um called Yule,
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Speaker 1: and tide is an Old English word for a season,
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Speaker 1: which makes sense turning tides, you know, But that's also
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Speaker 1: refers to tide in the ocean, which are tied to
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Speaker 1: the moon, which tied to the season, you know, like
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Speaker 1: changing of the season, and then tied plus tied the
14:08
Speaker 1: hominem's they abound. I also makes me wonder about words
14:13
Speaker 1: such as even tide, which it was maybe a different thing.
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Speaker 1: Here's here's another one. What does it mean to troll?
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Speaker 1: The ancient Yule tide Carol? That's one of the lines
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Speaker 1: carol ers sing when they get through deck the hallsn
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Speaker 1: we now are la la la la, la la la,
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Speaker 1: the ancient attack Carol, La la la la la attack it.
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Speaker 1: I'm gonna take a guess, troll. I bet it's almost
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Speaker 1: like skipping the light fantastic, you know what I mean?
14:51
Speaker 1: Like tripping the light fantastic a sort of to you know,
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Speaker 1: troll that you know, like to give it your all,
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Speaker 1: to like really lean into it and and give it
15:02
Speaker 1: a boisterous performance kind of you know, you're I like
15:05
Speaker 1: where your head's at. You're on the right path there
15:07
Speaker 1: because according to the o E Ed, troll has numerous meetings.
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Speaker 1: One of them is to sing in a happy and
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Speaker 1: care free way. So you kind of got it there
15:18
Speaker 1: right there are older meanings like moving around in a
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Speaker 1: circular way, or singing songs that kind of row row
15:28
Speaker 1: row your boat around, yeah, around, So you could do
15:32
Speaker 1: that with deck dolls. Yeah, and how about this back
15:35
Speaker 1: to some old English traditions. The melody of deck the
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Speaker 1: Halls is actually originally from a Welsh song, a traditional
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Speaker 1: Welsh song called nos Galan or New Year's Eve, and
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Speaker 1: that's back from the early seventeen hundreds. It was as
15:53
Speaker 1: many of these types of songs were a drinking song.
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Speaker 1: And that's where we get the original line um that
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Speaker 1: was changed to dawn we now are gay apparel, which
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Speaker 1: as we know, means put on our happy clothes, are
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Speaker 1: Christmas sweaters and such. In the original it was Phil
16:10
Speaker 1: the mead cup drained the barrel. Alright, Yeah, a little more,
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Speaker 1: a little harder on the paint, right. And what's fascinating,
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Speaker 1: even from a folkloric perspective, is the way we see
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Speaker 1: these songs evolve over time with different lyrics, different interpretations,
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Speaker 1: and sometimes entire melodies lifted and an entire set of
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Speaker 1: different lyrics put on them. Sometimes they change the meaning.
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Speaker 1: There's a song that I have a soft spot in
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Speaker 1: my heart for called It's beginning to look a lot
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Speaker 1: like Christmas, which talks about a town transforming, a pair
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Speaker 1: of hop along books, an epistle that chooses the worst
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Speaker 1: Shibani and Ben Doll. It'll talk a little gol for
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Speaker 1: a walk because the hope for Jennison gen hard And
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Speaker 1: it's an anticipatory song. It's meant to build excitement, sort
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Speaker 1: of the same way the Twelve Days of Christmas is
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Speaker 1: in this song. You know, people put up decorations, they're
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Speaker 1: getting a better mood. Kids start to think about the
17:11
Speaker 1: presence they would like, and they name presents like a
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Speaker 1: pair of hop along boots and a pistol that shoots,
17:18
Speaker 1: and then dolls that will talk and so on. So
17:21
Speaker 1: we get it, toy, pistol dolls. But what exactly are
17:25
Speaker 1: hop along boots? Have you ever had a pair of
17:28
Speaker 1: hop along boots? Anybody? No? It would have been like
17:31
Speaker 1: hop Along Cassidy, the famous Western cowboy, the actor Bill Cassidy, Right, Yeah,
17:36
Speaker 1: popular character Bill Cassidy. So it's beginning to look a
17:40
Speaker 1: lot like Christmas comes out in Bill Cassidy. Is this
17:46
Speaker 1: He's the cowboy who drinks sasaparilla. He made that famous
17:49
Speaker 1: Sioux City Sasaparilla. Perhaps Uh he had a weird walk
17:55
Speaker 1: because he got shot in the leg in the course
17:58
Speaker 1: of his adventures, and p gave him the nickname hop
18:01
Speaker 1: Along And so since he had this nickname hop Along
18:05
Speaker 1: from his storied career. Of course, whenever you do a
18:09
Speaker 1: show that children love, it's all about the moychandizing. Right,
18:12
Speaker 1: that's a Spaceball's reference. So around the time that it's
18:17
Speaker 1: beginning to look a lot like Christmas drops. In nineteen
18:20
Speaker 1: fifty one, hop Along Cassidy boots were a popular child's
18:26
Speaker 1: item or toy. You know. They were like the air
18:29
Speaker 1: Jordan's for the kiddies, uh where they were like uh
18:32
Speaker 1: you know, they weren't on the level of a Tickle
18:35
Speaker 1: Me Elmo, but they were still very very popular. Yeah,
18:37
Speaker 1: it's true, um, and that you can actually find some
18:40
Speaker 1: branding behind it online. Uh. Just hop Along Cassidy acme
18:44
Speaker 1: cowboy boots. Here's your pal, hop Along Cassidy and his
18:47
Speaker 1: brand new cowboy boots. And they're sort of kids size.
18:50
Speaker 1: He's holding them like with two fingers, like they're very tiny. Um,
18:54
Speaker 1: you can still buy some in the style. It's uh,
18:56
Speaker 1: it's a pretty traditional shorter cowboy boot with kind of
19:00
Speaker 1: like in lave eagle looking things on the front and
19:02
Speaker 1: the back stitched in. Pretty pretty cool actually. So the
19:06
Speaker 1: next tune, or the next concept, I should say, is
19:11
Speaker 1: one that I actually learned about a little while ago,
19:14
Speaker 1: but I I still think is pretty weird. So most
19:19
Speaker 1: of our popular Christmas songs here in the States come from,
19:24
Speaker 1: you know, the mid twentieth century, nineteen fifties or so.
19:27
Speaker 1: And that's because the concept of Christmas could be uniformly
19:31
Speaker 1: impressed upon the audience, or they come from Northern Europe
19:35
Speaker 1: in the seventeen hundreds and eighteen hundreds. There is a
19:39
Speaker 1: song called here We Come a wasstling that's still around.
19:44
Speaker 1: If you're you are you familiar with this one? Watle
19:47
Speaker 1: was like a drink, right, yeah, yeah, you've got it. Yeah.
19:50
Speaker 1: And then a wastling was also just a caroling while
19:53
Speaker 1: drinking said drink, I imagine um? Or is it just
19:56
Speaker 1: drinking in public? Is that what wastling is? I think
19:59
Speaker 1: the would go, that's that's a crime. Uh, let's let's
20:04
Speaker 1: look at both parts of those questions. So the wasstle
20:09
Speaker 1: itself is an alcoholic beverage. It served hot like muld cider,
20:13
Speaker 1: punch or for some reprobates nog, and it comes from
20:17
Speaker 1: an Old English term that means be well, apparently washstling itself,
20:23
Speaker 1: as the tradition involves a band of singers or carolers
20:27
Speaker 1: going door to door in their neighborhood and they're singing
20:30
Speaker 1: Christmas songs and they're offering their audience the home dwellers
20:35
Speaker 1: drinks from a huge bucket of wasstle they'd carry with them.
21:05
Speaker 1: But it was a transaction. It wasn't just a free
21:07
Speaker 1: song and a drink. What you like, gather people up
21:09
Speaker 1: right and they take them along with you. Isn't that
21:12
Speaker 1: a thing? I believe so definitely the knocking people's door
21:16
Speaker 1: and then when they come out you like that you
21:19
Speaker 1: invite them to join you. Kind of that sounds like
21:21
Speaker 1: a lot of fun, I know. At the very least homeowners,
21:24
Speaker 1: after they would listen to the song and have a
21:25
Speaker 1: drink of this booze, they would have to give the
21:30
Speaker 1: sailors the whostlers some stuff, right, interesting quid pro quo.
21:34
Speaker 1: It's almost like more of a tricker treat situation, really,
21:37
Speaker 1: very much so. And this is all reflected on the
21:44
Speaker 1: lyrics do we wish you a Merry Christmas when the
21:46
Speaker 1: carollers demand some figgy pudding and we won't go until
21:51
Speaker 1: we get some cup What is figgy pudding? Figgy pudding
22:14
Speaker 1: is almost like a pound cake kind of or it's
22:17
Speaker 1: like one of those circle cakes, you know, like with
22:19
Speaker 1: a hole in the middle. Um, it's dense. Uh. It
22:22
Speaker 1: has figs chopped densely, you know. Buttermilk. Um sort of
22:28
Speaker 1: almost like a whole wheat flour situation. Um, nutmeg, cinnamon,
22:33
Speaker 1: that's basically a sugar. Okay, it looks pretty good. You're
22:37
Speaker 1: like a fig Yeah, yeah, yeah, I make the I
22:40
Speaker 1: make a pretty mean brion crew with a nice fig
22:45
Speaker 1: Is it like a briefe like a cheese thing baked brize? Uh,
22:51
Speaker 1: that's weird. Okay, So now I know what figgy pudding is.
22:54
Speaker 1: What's our what's our next song on the list? Mr? Brown? Well,
22:57
Speaker 1: I'll tell you my friend. Next on the list? We
22:59
Speaker 1: have Uh, it's the most wonderful time of the year. Um.
23:04
Speaker 1: And the concept of telling ghost stories on Christmas, which is,
23:10
Speaker 1: you know, to a modern audience, might seem a little off.
23:13
Speaker 1: There's a line in we Wish You a Merry Christmas. Uh,
23:17
Speaker 1: they'll be scary ghost stories and tales of the glories
23:21
Speaker 1: of Christmas is long long ago. Scary ghost stories at
23:26
Speaker 1: Christmas get out of here be parties for hosting marshpellas
23:30
Speaker 1: for toasting and caroling out in the snow, there'll be
23:34
Speaker 1: scary ghost stories and tales of the glories of Christmas
23:39
Speaker 1: is long long ago. Yeah, it is weird, right because
23:45
Speaker 1: we think of ghost stories as more of a Howoween
23:48
Speaker 1: tradition or maybe when you're out camping somewhere. But it
23:52
Speaker 1: turns out that telling ghost stories during Christmas time is
23:56
Speaker 1: an old English tradition that was completely normal and unremarkable
24:02
Speaker 1: for people during the Victorian era, at least according to
24:06
Speaker 1: the Paris Review, the Smithsonian, and other sources. And if
24:09
Speaker 1: you think about it, it makes sense because you're in
24:11
Speaker 1: like the dark of winter, you and your family and
24:14
Speaker 1: friends are hanging out. There's no television, there's no radio,
24:18
Speaker 1: there's no speed walking competition, so you're left to your
24:23
Speaker 1: own devices and tell each other engaging spooky stories. And
24:28
Speaker 1: you know, when you think about it, a Christmas Carol
24:31
Speaker 1: by Charles Dickens is very much a ghost story of
24:35
Speaker 1: it is. It gets downright spooky at times. Have you
24:38
Speaker 1: ever seen the Mickey Mouse Christmas Carol? Yes, yes, I have. Yeah. Yeah,
24:43
Speaker 1: the big scary dog guy whose name I'm forgetting now
24:47
Speaker 1: he no, no, he's like Goofy's nemesis. He plays he
24:53
Speaker 1: plays the death figure, you know, the ghost of Christmas Future.
24:58
Speaker 1: That's correct, the evil. Yeah. He's like a like a
25:01
Speaker 1: scythe carrying uh death and he's smoking a cigar and
25:05
Speaker 1: he's very he's very intimidating. I remember being kind of
25:08
Speaker 1: spooked by that movie. Um, I of course very much
25:10
Speaker 1: enjoy uh the Bill Murray film Scrooged. Yeah, that's my rewatch.
25:15
Speaker 1: I love sco It's a nice marriage of Halloween and Christmas.
25:19
Speaker 1: For halloween er such as myself, I also enjoyed Nightmare
25:25
Speaker 1: Before Christmas. There's a great great comedy show here in
25:28
Speaker 1: our fair metropolis of Atlanta called Invasion Christmas Carol, put
25:32
Speaker 1: on by one of my improv Alma Moters, which is
25:35
Speaker 1: Dad's garage out there just down the street from us.
25:39
Speaker 1: And they do uh comedic take on a Christmas Carol.
25:43
Speaker 1: But here's there, here's their stick, and I swear to
25:45
Speaker 1: god it works every show they do. Each time they
25:49
Speaker 1: do this show, they have someone come in as an
25:52
Speaker 1: unannounced character and purposefully try to wreck the show, purposely
25:57
Speaker 1: try to wreck the story and just like distract people
26:00
Speaker 1: and just raise havoc. No like insert themselves into the
26:04
Speaker 1: story as themselves though no, it's different character whoever they want.
26:08
Speaker 1: Like like the last night before recorded this, h Thomas
26:13
Speaker 1: the Tank Engine was one of the characters and he
26:16
Speaker 1: was terrifying because they did. He came in as you
26:19
Speaker 1: went a tank. No, no, no, I know the guy
26:21
Speaker 1: was doing it. He was picturing. He was showing me
26:24
Speaker 1: the costume and it's it's like the costume is too
26:27
Speaker 1: big to get through the podcast doors. I find Thomas
26:29
Speaker 1: the Tank a little bit menacing honestly. Oh yeah, Charlie
26:33
Speaker 1: the Chucco as well, you know what I mean, Charlie
26:35
Speaker 1: the Cucco is an off brand Thomas the Tank. I
26:39
Speaker 1: think maybe I'm thinking of this Stephen King. Charlie, Uh,
26:43
Speaker 1: it's a it's a different thing. Okay, god it you
26:45
Speaker 1: may have just made it up. And no, no, no,
26:47
Speaker 1: no oh, I'm thinking of blame the motto as well.
26:50
Speaker 1: No anthropomorphized locomotives in general, I don't want to pay
26:54
Speaker 1: one too broad of a brush, but in general, I
26:56
Speaker 1: don't care for them. You're right, Charlie. The Cucci was
26:58
Speaker 1: a children's book by Stephen King, the very menacing cover. Yes,
27:03
Speaker 1: it looks like a book, is it not. It's a
27:05
Speaker 1: children's book that occurs. Oh no, it's not by Stephen King.
27:08
Speaker 1: It has a review at the top by Stephen King.
27:10
Speaker 1: It's by Beryl Evans, but it's mentioned in his Dark
27:15
Speaker 1: Tower series. Interesting in a in a menacing way. It
27:19
Speaker 1: is by Stephen King. You put it out under a pseudonym,
27:24
Speaker 1: had he had to make a new one after Bachman
27:26
Speaker 1: got burnt. Casey on the case. Huh our second Stephen
27:31
Speaker 1: King reference in as many episodes from the world of
27:35
Speaker 1: the Dark Tower. But it appears to be a children's book.
27:38
Speaker 1: I like this, but I'm not aware. So we have
27:42
Speaker 1: one more story because we are, of course in rush
27:44
Speaker 1: to get our last pieces of business done to ring
27:47
Speaker 1: in the new year. And and it's been a great
27:50
Speaker 1: year so far, you know, I give it overall. I
27:54
Speaker 1: think we've we've had a good time, but we're ready
27:56
Speaker 1: for what is our last Christmas song? What is the
28:00
Speaker 1: last song we talked about today? Last Christmas? Yes, that
28:07
Speaker 1: is my favorite Christmas song of all time. Oh, I
28:10
Speaker 1: love that. Can we get a little taste Christmas? Oh yeah, smooth,
28:33
Speaker 1: smooth as ever. I don't know if this is true,
28:35
Speaker 1: but I remember on that show Clarissa explains it all.
28:38
Speaker 1: She was really into George Michael and she says his
28:41
Speaker 1: real name, and it's apparently Georgio Pantio two. Yep, uh,
28:46
Speaker 1: Georgios Chicos. Yeah nice? Great? Is that Greek? Sounds very cristy? Yeah,
28:54
Speaker 1: it was his His father was a Greek restaurant tour
28:59
Speaker 1: And of course the uh. This song, which is a
29:03
Speaker 1: personal favoritist from Friends of Mine, is still not as
29:06
Speaker 1: popular as All I Want for Christmas by Mariah Carey,
29:09
Speaker 1: which is the the juggernaut of the season. It just
29:12
Speaker 1: hit number one after like decades. It's the uh, I think,
29:18
Speaker 1: the second most delayed number one Billboard hit UH, and
29:23
Speaker 1: it's never gonna beat the first one because it was
29:26
Speaker 1: Vera Lynn, who was a famous UM singer English singer
29:30
Speaker 1: UM and she was like in her nineties when this
29:32
Speaker 1: song hit number one. So what is the last song
29:36
Speaker 1: for today's show? Winter Wonderland from nineteen hundred and thirty four, Well,
29:43
Speaker 1: in the meadow we can build a Snowman and pretended
29:47
Speaker 1: he is possible round. He'll say, oh, you're married, Wilson.
29:52
Speaker 1: No man, but you can do the job when you're
29:55
Speaker 1: on town. That paints a lovely went here a scene
30:00
Speaker 1: with two lovers strolling down the lane, gentle snowfall in
30:06
Speaker 1: the meadow. We can we can build a snowman and
30:08
Speaker 1: pretend that he is Parson Brown. Who's Parson Brown? Yeah, casey,
30:14
Speaker 1: give me a record scratch. Who's this Parson Brown guy?
30:17
Speaker 1: I always thought it was Carson Brown. That's just some
30:20
Speaker 1: dude they know who hates snowman. They need to mock him, yeah,
30:25
Speaker 1: or love snowman, and they need to build a monument
30:27
Speaker 1: to him. So parson is a title, it's not a
30:30
Speaker 1: first name. I thought it was like a famous person
30:34
Speaker 1: or something. So this is this is news to me.
30:35
Speaker 1: I'm into this. Give it to me. Oh, he's just
30:37
Speaker 1: he's a parson, someone who has the ability to marry people.
30:41
Speaker 1: A parson is a physician in Christian clergy, like Thomas Blood.
30:46
Speaker 1: So he's there just as they're trying to make the
30:49
Speaker 1: snowman into a clergyman so that he can marry them
30:54
Speaker 1: on the spot. Yeah, there super into each other, and
30:57
Speaker 1: this winter Wonderland is more than they can handle. And
31:01
Speaker 1: one note here for snowman chronology. Snowman themselves, for a
31:07
Speaker 1: long time had buttons who nose. Carrot noses are a
31:12
Speaker 1: new thing, and if you think about it, there are
31:14
Speaker 1: a thing that comes from a time of plenty, because
31:16
Speaker 1: usually if someone had a carrot, they would just eat it.
31:19
Speaker 1: Frosty the Snowman had a corn cob pipe and a
31:22
Speaker 1: button nose and two eyes, I mean had a coal
31:25
Speaker 1: dead eyes like a doll's eyes or you know what
31:28
Speaker 1: I mean. You know what I'm gonna say, Oh, what's
31:32
Speaker 1: the what's his name? Give it to him a really
31:35
Speaker 1: remind me of it? Is? Is it Scarlett Johansson? No? No,
31:39
Speaker 1: yes it is No someone you always say has dead eyes?
31:41
Speaker 1: Who is it? And I'm like, you know, why did
31:43
Speaker 1: you get did you get on notice? Did you get
31:45
Speaker 1: put on notice? No? I'm just in you know, I
31:49
Speaker 1: in the spirit of christopherm Us. I'm gonna I'm gonna
31:52
Speaker 1: remain positive, you know, So Happy holidays to everyone with
31:57
Speaker 1: live eyes and dead eyes alike. What I say, this
32:01
Speaker 1: nog has given me weird hand sweats by boys. I
32:05
Speaker 1: got the knock sweats. Yeah, yeah, yeah, uh, this this
32:09
Speaker 1: has been a brief look into Carol's This is just
32:12
Speaker 1: a again a very brief, very brief dive into some
32:16
Speaker 1: of these. But we hope that you, like us, have
32:20
Speaker 1: found some things that you didn't know about some of
32:23
Speaker 1: your favorite seasonal songs. Also, I'm curious, are you someone
32:27
Speaker 1: who loves or hates Christmas music? The Internet is such
32:31
Speaker 1: a divisive place that every year I don't see anybody
32:34
Speaker 1: who has like a mild take on Christmas songs. I
32:38
Speaker 1: don't see anybody just lets the waves wash over them.
32:41
Speaker 1: I see people who love love love them, or hate
32:43
Speaker 1: hate hate them. So what are you let us know?
32:46
Speaker 1: Let us know what your favorite Christmas songs are, or
32:49
Speaker 1: your favorite holiday songs. We should say holiday, because these
32:52
Speaker 1: don't all have to be you know, Christmas carols or whatever.
32:55
Speaker 1: We also want to hear some of your least favorite
32:59
Speaker 1: and I am going to I'm gonna shout out a
33:04
Speaker 1: very very strange song from the cognitive hinterlands of country music,
33:11
Speaker 1: which is maybe familiar to some of us listening. It
33:15
Speaker 1: is Santa's Coming in a worly Bird. Have you guys
33:18
Speaker 1: ever heard of this? I don't believe so no A
33:21
Speaker 1: worly bird at the time was slang for a helicopter.
33:25
Speaker 1: I'm just you know, you can look it up yourself.
33:28
Speaker 1: I don't know if we have the rights to play it.
33:29
Speaker 1: The boy, it's a weird way. Thank you as always
33:32
Speaker 1: to Christopher hasiotis uh the namesake of Christopher Us and
33:37
Speaker 1: the Christopher mass Spirit. Thanks, of course the super producer
33:41
Speaker 1: Casey Pegram. Big thanks to Alex Williams for the nog
33:45
Speaker 1: and for the tunes for this beautiful song that you're
33:48
Speaker 1: hearing right now, which kind of has a Christmas Eve
33:50
Speaker 1: vibe to it in a weird way. Maybe I'm just
33:53
Speaker 1: contextualizing them because I'm getting into spirit. This is my
33:56
Speaker 1: last day at the office for a little minute, and
33:58
Speaker 1: I'm very pleased uh about that fact. Huge thanks to
34:02
Speaker 1: Gabe our research associates, uh Eve's Jeff Coats check her
34:06
Speaker 1: out on this day in history class and Afro punk
34:10
Speaker 1: solution sessions. Yes yeah yeah, And also huge Christopher miss
34:15
Speaker 1: thanks to Jonathan Strickland a k a. The Ridiculous Grin,
34:21
Speaker 1: Charion a k a. Young Quizzles a k a. The Quizter.
34:26
Speaker 1: We hope that you have a fantastic twenty We can't
34:30
Speaker 1: wait to see what adventures you have and uh, what
34:34
Speaker 1: wonders await you? What's al For more podcasts from my
34:43
Speaker 1: heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
34:46
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.