Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Hey, sorry, ho, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh.
Speaker 2: There's Chuck. Jerry's here too. All the little elves are
Speaker 2: around us, watching us, adoringly waiting for us to begin
Speaker 2: this twenty twenty three holiday special episode of Stuff You
Speaker 2: Should Know. Hooray, hooray Chuck. Indeed, it's our Christmas episode.
Speaker 3: Yeah, our ad free Christmas episode, right, yes, it better
Speaker 3: be for sure.
Speaker 2: We'll find out after we publish.
Speaker 3: Oh goodness, boyd I mean did we even order these?
Speaker 3: Should we just freewheel it?
Speaker 2: Oh gosh, we're getting to it all, are you?
Speaker 3: Okay?
Speaker 2: I wanted to kind of meander for a little bit,
Speaker 2: but sure.
Speaker 3: Now we give me ander. What do you want to
Speaker 3: chat about?
Speaker 2: I don't know. How's the family?
Speaker 3: They're doing great? You know. This is actually a I
Speaker 3: don't want to say too much, but let me just
Speaker 3: say that this is a there's a turning point for
Speaker 3: my daughter this year at Christmas, A very big revelation.
Speaker 3: Oh my, that's all I'm going to say. I always
Speaker 3: wondered when it was going to happen, and it happened.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it is everything.
Speaker 3: Okay, I'm fine. Actually, Emily was a little more upset
Speaker 3: than I was. Yeah, and I was just like, you know,
Speaker 3: I mean, well, I'll talk to you offline, but everyone
Speaker 3: knows what I'm talking about, right.
Speaker 2: I think, so hopefully just everyone. Yeah, well, let's just
Speaker 2: stop this right now.
Speaker 3: It's still going to be a great Christmas regardless. I
Speaker 3: all agreed on that.
Speaker 2: Good and this is going to be a great Christmas
Speaker 2: episode despite that beginning.
Speaker 3: Okay, you know, let's start with I'm gonna go ahead
Speaker 3: and call let's just take turns. How about that?
Speaker 2: Okay, you're going to call an audible each time.
Speaker 3: Wow, I'm going to call an audible each time on
Speaker 3: my own picks.
Speaker 2: Okay, well you go first. How about that? Because yes,
Speaker 2: everybody in classic stuff you should know fashion. Chuck and
Speaker 2: I each picked a few Christmas pieces to talk about, yea,
Speaker 2: and then we sent them to one another and did
Speaker 2: not discuss what order we should do them. And so
Speaker 2: we're going to do that as we go along. That's
Speaker 2: what Chuck's talking about right.
Speaker 3: Now, That's right. And so the first thing I found,
Speaker 3: and another fun thing about the Christmas episode is that
Speaker 3: it allows us to get our sources, our sources become
Speaker 3: a little more relaxed our rigor like where we get stuff,
Speaker 3: because sometimes for Christmas stuff, you just get stuff from
Speaker 3: some of the wackiest websites and that's fine. Yeah, this
Speaker 3: one actually wasn't wacky. This was USA Today. That's legit, right,
Speaker 3: it's a little wacky. This is from twenty twelve from
Speaker 3: Craig Wilson. What are you doing on Christmas Day? Yeah,
Speaker 3: depends on where you are. And this is just a
Speaker 3: little survey they did because I was always curious about
Speaker 3: different traditions and different parts of the United States and
Speaker 3: how people do stuff. And this is a good little
Speaker 3: poll they did eleven years ago.
Speaker 2: Yes, Civic Science did a poll. Well, they didn't do
Speaker 2: a poll. They apparently found a bunch of other polls
Speaker 2: that totaled ninety thousand responses of Americans responding to questions
Speaker 2: roughly about what they're going to do around Christmas time,
Speaker 2: and they released it. They put it all together and said, hey,
Speaker 2: get this. It turns out depending on your region, each
Speaker 2: region has a lot of different things that they do
Speaker 2: or don't do around Christmas time. Let's rap about them.
Speaker 2: And Craig Wilson said, yes, let's that's right.
Speaker 3: So we're going to go over some of the highlights here.
Speaker 3: If you're in the Midwest, Oh, I don't know, let's
Speaker 3: say Michigan or Ohio or what else is in the midwest, Chicago.
Speaker 2: Iowa, Kansas, set Midwest. Yeah, Kansas is in the middle
Speaker 2: of the country. It's Midwest for sure.
Speaker 3: All right, we'll see what our Kansas friends have to
Speaker 3: say about that. If you live in the Midwest, though,
Speaker 3: then you are thirty five percent. You're more likely to
Speaker 3: work between Christmas Day and New Year's Day than any
Speaker 3: other part of the country. Thirty five percent of Midwesterners
Speaker 3: say they work that time between the twenty fifth and
Speaker 3: thirty first, which is terrible, so sad, very sad.
Speaker 2: They also are the least likely to have a work
Speaker 2: Christmas party too. I mean, yeah, I don't know what's
Speaker 2: going on up there, but they when they do go
Speaker 2: to a party, they go to the big ones. Almost
Speaker 2: half of Midwesterners who responded said that they're going to
Speaker 2: go to a Christmas party that has ten or more people.
Speaker 3: Not bad. And as far as gifts on Christmas Eve,
Speaker 3: we always waited till Christmas Day. But Emily, when she
Speaker 3: was a kid, opened some on Christmas Eve. And it
Speaker 3: may be a Midwest thing because they're twenty five percent
Speaker 3: more likely than the national average to open at least
Speaker 3: some of the gifts on Christmas Eve.
Speaker 2: We did not when I was a kid.
Speaker 3: That was for both Ohio.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure, that's where I grew up. That's where
Speaker 2: the Christmas gifts were open, was in Ohio, and we
Speaker 2: did not do that on Christmas Eve. What about the Northeast,
Speaker 2: the Northeast, including Wyoming and Maine, they apparently party all
Speaker 2: the time. Thirty nine percent of people eat Christmas dinner
Speaker 2: at a friend or family member's house. They're thirty percent
Speaker 2: more likely than anyone else or any other region in
Speaker 2: the country to go to a Christmas Eve party, forty
Speaker 2: percent more holiday parties than people from the South or
Speaker 2: the West. So they like to tie one on.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they like to tie one on. And they also
Speaker 3: get their shop and done early, or at least some
Speaker 3: of them do. Thirty four percent said they have finished
Speaker 3: their gift buying or at least most of it ten
Speaker 3: days by the fifteenth I guess of December, which is
Speaker 3: pretty good.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And then here in the South, people in the
Speaker 2: South are most likely to host a Christmas dinner themselves,
Speaker 2: but it's usually for fewer than ten people, and they
Speaker 2: like to take car trips if they're going more than
Speaker 2: one hundred miles away for Christmas. But also people in
Speaker 2: the South, and I can attest to this, don't work
Speaker 2: during Christmas and New year Like everything's basically shut down.
Speaker 3: Yeah, twenty nine percent, I think work, and I guess
Speaker 3: they just sort of have to. Although it's probably the
Speaker 3: same for the Midwesterners. I don't know if they're volunteering
Speaker 3: to work.
Speaker 2: I don't know. Midwesterners are odd folk.
Speaker 3: Christmas parties are big, though. Sixty four percent of Southerners
Speaker 3: will go to an office party.
Speaker 2: Which means something that means you are not at work,
Speaker 2: but you go to work for the party. That's what
Speaker 2: happens in the South.
Speaker 3: That's what we always did.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know, apparently it's the Southern thing.
Speaker 3: Well, actually that's not true, because they don't work between
Speaker 3: Christmas and New Year's. You're gonna have your office party
Speaker 3: before Christmas?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that's right. I just outed us as not
Speaker 2: working long before Christmas.
Speaker 3: Everyone knows we like to bragget about our month off.
Speaker 3: It's great. But twenty nine percent they're a little lazier
Speaker 3: with a gift buying. Only twenty nine percent had completed
Speaker 3: their shopping ten days before the holiday. And what about Westerners, Well,
Speaker 3: out West, you're going to get people that are maybe
Speaker 3: a little more transient. They're more than twice as likely
Speaker 3: to travel more than one hundred miles, and they also
Speaker 3: are more likely to twice as likely to get Christmas
Speaker 3: dinner at a restaurant or a club or something instead
Speaker 3: of at someone's house.
Speaker 2: Yes, and I think thirty eight percent of them go
Speaker 2: to see a movie in the theaters. So when you
Speaker 2: hear about people going to see a movie on Christmas Day,
Speaker 2: they're talking about California.
Speaker 3: All right, where are we headed next to my friend?
Speaker 2: Oh jeez, it's my turn again? Or already? I guess.
Speaker 2: Let's talk about Darlene Love Chuck.
Speaker 3: Treasure.
Speaker 2: But first let's do a little intercitial Christmas music.
Speaker 3: I love that part.
Speaker 2: Okay, thanks for that, Chuck, by the way, But we're
Speaker 2: talking about Darlene Love, who was part of the Wall
Speaker 2: of Sound, was one of Phil Spector's finds and someone
Speaker 2: Phil Spector took advantage of two. But she's most well
Speaker 2: known for her Christmas song Christmas and in parentheses, baby
Speaker 2: Please Come Home.
Speaker 3: You know the song, right, it's a great, great song.
Speaker 3: She might also if you see her face and you
Speaker 3: did not know that she sang that song. As we'll
Speaker 3: get to, I don't want to spoil and where she
Speaker 3: did this every year, but you're like, I know that woman.
Speaker 3: You might know her as Murtaw's wife from the Lethal
Speaker 3: Weapon movies. Oh really, Yeah, she was Danny Lover's wife.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, nice, that's a nice link. Another place you
Speaker 2: might have noticed her is on Letterman because every year
Speaker 2: from nineteen eighty six to twenty fourteen, when Letterman retired,
Speaker 2: Darlene Love came out and sang her Christmas baby Please
Speaker 2: Come Home Christmas song on the last show, last episode
Speaker 2: of Letterman before Christmas every year.
Speaker 3: Yeah, pretty amazing tradition. And Dave isn't one that had
Speaker 3: like three decade traditions like this. Apparently was also a
Speaker 3: little grumpy just about holiday music period. Paul Shaffer said
Speaker 3: that you know, he wouldn't let us play Monster Mash
Speaker 3: around Halloween. He just wasn't given to holiday novelty songs.
Speaker 3: So the fact that darn Leed loves song is something
Speaker 3: that he wanted back every year, and Paul says it
Speaker 3: was his idea to begin with, but Dave's idea to
Speaker 3: bring her back. It really means that Dave loved her
Speaker 3: and loved that song.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and we got this from our friends at far
Speaker 2: mag and they mentioned that the thing that kept us
Speaker 2: fresh every year. I mean, she belts it out and
Speaker 2: it's a really great, great song to begin with, so
Speaker 2: she gave it her best every year. But something that
Speaker 2: kind of kept it fresh over those basically thirty years
Speaker 2: twenty eight years was that the CBS Orchestra saxophonist Bruce Kapler,
Speaker 2: who was in Paul Shaffer's band. When that saxophone solo
Speaker 2: kicks off, he would come on stage in all sorts
Speaker 2: of different hilarious ways that just like tore the roof
Speaker 2: off the studio.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was always fun. I always loved like kind
Speaker 3: of waiting to see how he's going to make his
Speaker 3: entrance every year. I mean it started out fairly low key,
Speaker 3: and then it kind of grew into something with that
Speaker 3: huge I don't know if that's an actual bass saxophone
Speaker 3: or just a baritone, but it's one of those gigantic
Speaker 3: saxophones and he would come flying in on wire or
Speaker 3: be in a snow globe and stuff like that, and
Speaker 3: it was always just a lot of fun. The whole
Speaker 3: segment is always great.
Speaker 2: He came out of a present once a giant president,
Speaker 2: came in on a sleigh, stepped out of a fireplace
Speaker 2: like it was really great. Everybody loved it. And apparently
Speaker 2: this happened every year except for the Writer's Strike in
Speaker 2: two thousand and seven, and then when Letterman retired in
Speaker 2: twenty fourteen, Darlene Love took this tradition over to the
Speaker 2: View of all places. I'm not sure why. I couldn't
Speaker 2: find why, but now you can find her singing the
Speaker 2: song on the View right around Christmas time every year.
Speaker 3: I'm sure it's because if you called her up, probably
Speaker 3: we'll pay you money for sure.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we really like this song. There's a bunch of
Speaker 2: super cuts too on YouTube if you want to see it.
Speaker 2: That just do a really good job of editing together
Speaker 2: her Letterman performances over the years. It's fun, especially to
Speaker 2: see Bruce Kapler coming in all the different ways.
Speaker 3: Yeah, those are great. The Writer's strike here is a
Speaker 3: little bit of a bummer because I think it was
Speaker 3: just like three days after Christmas that year is when
Speaker 3: Dave struck his own independent deal with the union to
Speaker 3: bring the showback, So it was he was three days
Speaker 3: late basically from being able to not have that streak
Speaker 3: interrupted unfortunately.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and she's like, I could do a belated version.
Speaker 2: He's like, no, not this year.
Speaker 3: All right, c you the music Magical Elves.
Speaker 2: I'm so happy.
Speaker 3: Alrighty, you know what, Let's go with the worst Christmas songs.
Speaker 2: Oh boy, I'm pretty excited about this. I don't know
Speaker 2: if you out there in holiday podcast land can hear
Speaker 2: us shuffling our papers, But.
Speaker 3: That's what we're doing, rare paper shuffle.
Speaker 2: So you found a bunch of different worst Christmas songs.
Speaker 2: Apparently it's a pretty fun poll for people to conduct
Speaker 2: because people love to tell people what Christmas song they
Speaker 2: hate the most at that moment.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean, we could have included a hundred bulls,
Speaker 3: because there are that many or more, but we just
Speaker 3: kind of picked through. I kind of went by year
Speaker 3: of recent years. That was one in twenty twenty one
Speaker 3: from the Today Show. I think it was you Gov America, Yeah,
Speaker 3: who did this poll? And people responded And this shocks
Speaker 3: me that Santa Baby was I think their least favorite
Speaker 3: or most hated Christmas song.
Speaker 2: It shocks you. I'm in total agreement.
Speaker 3: I don't mind. I don't love it, but I don't
Speaker 3: hate it. I wouldn't rank that as the as my
Speaker 3: most hated.
Speaker 2: That's the thing, Like, I think the Christmas song you
Speaker 2: hate the most is the one you heard one too
Speaker 2: many times this year, the most recently. That's the worst
Speaker 2: Christmas song of all time to everybody, right, But I
Speaker 2: think the problem with that song that people have, if
Speaker 2: I'm projecting, it's like it's a sultry song about Santa.
Speaker 2: It's just odd. It goes against everything we know about
Speaker 2: Santa Claus. And I don't like it. It's not a good song.
Speaker 3: Not great. No, no, no, I guess I'm with you. I
Speaker 3: just don't know if that would be my most hated.
Speaker 3: We went to Holland Sentinel dot com because we had
Speaker 3: to get a poll out of West Michigan. And there's
Speaker 3: a something called local Spins in Grand Rapids, and they
Speaker 3: did a survey in twenty twenty, and this time, this
Speaker 3: one really upsets me. I know you don't like it,
Speaker 3: but I love it.
Speaker 2: I like it.
Speaker 3: Paul McCart. Oh, I thought you didn't like it, Paul
Speaker 3: McCartney's seventy nine Wonderful Christmas Time.
Speaker 2: If I said I didn't like it before, that means
Speaker 2: that that was the one I did one too many times,
Speaker 2: most recently, because I do like that song in general.
Speaker 3: Okay, not the best song, but I do think it's
Speaker 3: pretty good. But there is a B side to that
Speaker 3: called Rudolph the Red Nose Reggae. Yeah, did you listen
Speaker 3: to that?
Speaker 2: I did. I didn't realize it was instrumental. I was
Speaker 2: grateful for that.
Speaker 3: I I was due. And it's not even that reggae.
Speaker 2: No, it's got like the Dexys Midnight Runner violin kind
Speaker 2: of playing through it as instead of the lyrics. That's
Speaker 2: kind of what does the Yeah, what would you call it?
Speaker 2: The harmony? Ah?
Speaker 3: This is the melody?
Speaker 2: The melody? Okay, but yeah it was. It wasn't that bad.
Speaker 2: But I could see people hating Wonderful Christmas Time more.
Speaker 3: But what about the UK?
Speaker 2: Wait, one more thing about Grand Rapids, Michigan. My family
Speaker 2: used to go around Christmas time to Grand Rapids, Michigan
Speaker 2: because they had a dinner theater there and they had
Speaker 2: a puffey with frog's legs. And that's where I was
Speaker 2: introduced to frog's legs, which I wouldn't eat in a
Speaker 2: million years now, but used to love them around Christmas
Speaker 2: time every year. From this dinner theater's buffet.
Speaker 3: It tastes like chicken.
Speaker 2: It tasted a lot like chicken, froggy chicken.
Speaker 3: Yeah, of course, what's next? We go to the UK
Speaker 3: my friend far Out magazine, Boy, is that the second
Speaker 3: time we've used them?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Thanks a lot, far Out.
Speaker 3: So they don't like Mariah Carey apparently because her terrific
Speaker 3: in my opinion song All I Want for Christmas As
Speaker 3: You was voted as the most annoying.
Speaker 2: That's the UK, that's not far Out opinion, right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, that's the UK as a whole.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And far Up points out that you still have
Speaker 2: to give Mariah Carey props because apparently that song was
Speaker 2: written very quickly. She was like twenty two at the time,
Speaker 2: and you can make a really good case that that
Speaker 2: is the most recent, genuine, bona fide Christmas song that's
Speaker 2: entered into the cannon. I can't think of that shit, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: I can't think of one that's made it more recently.
Speaker 2: Than that, and this is like the mid nineties. I
Speaker 2: was like thirty years ago, I think. But yeah, I
Speaker 2: don't get that one either. I mean, it's not my
Speaker 2: favorite song, but it's not terrible. And I think the
Speaker 2: fact that it's in love actually too makes it even
Speaker 2: more delightful.
Speaker 3: I still haven't seen that. I mean, I'm no huge
Speaker 3: morac Ary fan, but I love that song. I think
Speaker 3: it's terrific.
Speaker 2: Okay, good, what's next? We're gonna go over to Old
Speaker 2: Street Solutions dot com. And this is a twenty twenty
Speaker 2: two pole. I didn't see where the poll was, but
Speaker 2: the clear winner, I mean, fifty three percent. That's really
Speaker 2: saying something like, usually your most Christmas song is hitting
Speaker 2: in like the thirty percent. Fifty three percent of people
Speaker 2: pulled so that they hated Justin Bieber's Missiletoe song. Have
Speaker 2: you heard that one?
Speaker 3: Well? I have now I had to listen to it
Speaker 3: for this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, me too.
Speaker 3: And I think we should read a portion of the lyrics,
Speaker 3: can we?
Speaker 2: I mean we're kind of have to.
Speaker 3: I think, all right, here's the selection. This is called
Speaker 3: Missletoe by Justin Biber. Everyone's gathering around the fire, chestnuts
Speaker 3: roasting like a hot July. I should be chilling with
Speaker 3: my folks, I know, but I'm aa be under the missletoe,
Speaker 3: word on the street, Santa's Coming tonight, Reindeers flying through
Speaker 3: the sky so high. I should be making a list,
Speaker 3: I know, but I'm gonna be under the mistletoe with you,
Speaker 3: shoddy with you, with you, shoddy with you.
Speaker 2: You're not gonna do the rest.
Speaker 3: I can go. Wow, I think you know the rest.
Speaker 2: So yeah, And the whole thing is set to this
Speaker 2: super lame Jack Johnson acoustic guitar beat. It's a really
Speaker 2: bad song. Like, it's a bad song even as far
Speaker 2: as Christmas songs go. It's just a genuinely bad song.
Speaker 2: And I think Christopher Dunford from Old Street Solutions points out, like, yeah,
Speaker 2: people like to hate on Justin Bieber, but that this
Speaker 2: song is like objectively a bad song. So it definitely
Speaker 2: does deserve that fifty three percent of votes. I think
Speaker 2: anyone who's heard it would agree with that.
Speaker 3: And this last bit we're gonna include is not a poll,
Speaker 3: but Rolling Stone magazine put out their very snotty top
Speaker 3: twenty Worst Christmas Songs list. Yeah, and I just wanted
Speaker 3: to read a couple of selections from this because Rob
Speaker 3: Sheffield of Rolling Stone really just brought the smarm to
Speaker 3: a new level when he was dissing Jessica and Ashley
Speaker 3: Simpson and little the Little drummer Boy version.
Speaker 2: He definitely did.
Speaker 3: Here's a couple of lines from his review, you've heard
Speaker 3: of the War on Christmas? Well, this song is the
Speaker 3: sinking of the Lusitania. Not bad. No, each pump pum
Speaker 3: is another drop in their musical waterboarding. And finally he
Speaker 3: closes the review with Christmas you chose violence? Did you
Speaker 3: listen to this one?
Speaker 2: I did. It's it's not bad, but it's also not
Speaker 2: good at all.
Speaker 3: I mean it's a straight ahead version of that song,
Speaker 3: which Rob Sheffield makes an argument that that song is
Speaker 3: just not good. Sure, I don't hate that song, but
Speaker 3: I do there is something about their parump pump pums
Speaker 3: that are just grating. I don't know what it is.
Speaker 2: It's not just that, it's also the way they go
Speaker 2: little baby. Yeah, it's pretty bad too. If you if
Speaker 2: you're listening, if you're not listening to the song, you're
Speaker 2: just it would come and go without you paying attention
Speaker 2: or noticing. But if you focus in on that song
Speaker 2: and the singing they're doing. It is not a great
Speaker 2: song at all, for sure.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's some enunciation problems, I think.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's surprising that he chose that as
Speaker 2: the number one out of all the songs. I mean, again,
Speaker 2: we're talking Justin Bieber put Missletoe out there, and this
Speaker 2: is not worse than Missletoe, but yeah, it's not good.
Speaker 2: What's your favorite? Going the other direction, what's your favorite
Speaker 2: of all time? Or right now?
Speaker 3: I should say I haven't got a ton. I mean
Speaker 3: we've talked about this over the years here and there,
Speaker 3: and I think I mentioned Tom Betty's song I love,
Speaker 3: I really love Elton John's Step into Christmas. I love
Speaker 3: the Wham song.
Speaker 2: Oh it's a great one.
Speaker 3: I like a lot of the waitresses. I love that song.
Speaker 3: There's a bunch of them. I like Christmas music a lot.
Speaker 3: Emily loves it and tries to start playing at the
Speaker 3: day after Thanksgiving, but I try and make her wait
Speaker 3: till December first at least, and then I have a
Speaker 3: hard house rule that it stops at midnight on December
Speaker 3: twenty fifth.
Speaker 2: I'm sure I've asked you this before, but do you
Speaker 2: guys listen to instrumental Christmas music at all.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I like it all. I mean piano classics. I
Speaker 3: found a good R and B soul playlist. That's great.
Speaker 3: I like it all. What about you?
Speaker 2: Okay, Well, I found something recently. I think I found
Speaker 2: it a MetaFilter. Somebody posted eight hours of vintage department
Speaker 2: store Christmas music, my music's competitor, custom music tapes, and
Speaker 2: it is exactly what you think. It's really really good
Speaker 2: background Christmas music. Good stuff.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'll check that out. Sinatra, I love that one.
Speaker 3: I like all that stuff.
Speaker 2: I think my favorite vocal Christmas music would be Johnny
Speaker 2: mathis probably far and away, and then my favorite instrumental
Speaker 2: Christmas music. I'm sure I've said this on every single
Speaker 2: Christmas episode we've ever done is Faranti and Tiker and
Speaker 2: they're dueling pianos. Although it's not really dueling. I would say,
Speaker 2: what's the opposite of doing holding hand? Yeah, they're holding
Speaker 2: hands pianos.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I think you should say that every year because
Speaker 3: people drop in and listen and they should always get
Speaker 3: their shout out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Fronte and Tiker definitely deserve their shout out every year.
Speaker 2: Thanks for that, Chuck All.
Speaker 3: Right, let's hop in that sled and get going.
Speaker 2: Okay, Chuck, I am up, and I'm going to go
Speaker 2: with Gosh is only my second pick so far, I think.
Speaker 2: So well, let's have a nice little interlude in case
Speaker 2: everybody wants to start getting buzzed at this point. Oh okay,
Speaker 2: because we like to do a cocktail of some sort
Speaker 2: of Christmas drink every year, and we blew through like
Speaker 2: all of the famous ones pretty quickly, so we've had
Speaker 2: to really kind of start looking around. And this year
Speaker 2: we found what I think is a pretty good one
Speaker 2: that I'd never heard before, and I think it's worth sharing.
Speaker 2: It's from our friends at Olive Magazine, and it's they
Speaker 2: call it a Christmas degrony, and it sounds pretty boss.
Speaker 3: I'm all in on this. This sounds really good.
Speaker 2: We'll tell him about the spiced gin.
Speaker 3: Well. I mean, that's the key to this thing, I think,
Speaker 3: because otherwise you have a fairly traditional negroni, but you
Speaker 3: have to spice that gin. My good friend Eddie, he
Speaker 3: hasn't done a with gin yet, but every year he
Speaker 3: makes his own little infused holiday boozes and it's a
Speaker 3: really nice treat and he brings them around and gives
Speaker 3: bottles out to people. But I'm going to request gin
Speaker 3: from Eddie this year because this sounds great.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So for the Christmas de grony from all of
Speaker 2: magazine there're spiced gin is five hundred milileaders of gin.
Speaker 2: That's right between a half pint and a pint, so
Speaker 2: I guess three quarters of a No, it's between. It's
Speaker 2: half of a leader, now that I think about it, Well, it.
Speaker 3: Depends on how much genuine. You know, how many these
Speaker 3: drinks you want. You can get any kind of bottle
Speaker 3: of genu wint for sure.
Speaker 2: So let's just say you take half a lider of gin, okay,
Speaker 2: and you put two centnamon sticks, two stars, four cloves,
Speaker 2: four cardamom pop pods crushed, that's very important, two bay
Speaker 2: leaves fresh if you got them, and two strips of
Speaker 2: orange peel, and if you've got some cheese cloth. You
Speaker 2: might want to put everything in there. It'll probably make
Speaker 2: the whole thing a lot easier. But if not, don't
Speaker 2: sweat it. You can put it all in that gin
Speaker 2: in a big old mason jar, half liter mason jar
Speaker 2: and leave it for about two days, maybe less than
Speaker 2: two days, one to two and then you strain it
Speaker 2: out and what you have there is your spice gin,
Speaker 2: and like you said, that's kind of like the main
Speaker 2: ingredient of this Christmas Negroni.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean from there you go fairly traditional negrony
Speaker 3: with the campari and the sweet vermouth, but instead of
Speaker 3: you can do your little orange twist, which I believe
Speaker 3: is a traditional Negrony garnish. Yeah, but since you've spiced
Speaker 3: it up, you can also add another cinnamon stick or
Speaker 3: another little is it star annis or anise? I never
Speaker 3: know how to say that.
Speaker 2: I think both are fine, all.
Speaker 3: Right, put both in there and that'll just add it
Speaker 3: even a little more pop there at the end, for sure.
Speaker 2: I mean, nothing says it's the Holidays better than handing
Speaker 2: somebody a cocktail with a cinnamon stick sticking out of it.
Speaker 2: That really drives the point.
Speaker 3: Home, right, Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 2: And also Negroni's are super easy to make. You just
Speaker 2: pour equal parts of the gin, campari and sweet vermouth,
Speaker 2: usually about three quarters of an ounce or twenty five milliliters,
Speaker 2: and you just pour that over ice in the glass,
Speaker 2: stir it up a little bit, and you've got a nigrotny.
Speaker 2: And if you've ever had a negroni and you've been like,
Speaker 2: this is all bit boozy for me. I found also
Speaker 2: an alternative negroni I think also from all of magazine
Speaker 2: that they suggest just take out the gin and put
Speaker 2: in prosecco instead, and you've got yourself a much lighter
Speaker 2: negroni that also would do really well with a nice
Speaker 2: cinnamon stick sticking out of it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've seen. I've had quite a few cocktails over
Speaker 3: the past year that have prosecco or a white wine
Speaker 3: as the boozy ingredient to what would ordinarily be just
Speaker 3: a cocktail, and it's interesting. I like it.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Same here. Also, I think I said on our
Speaker 2: tomorrow episode that I was going to try Capelletti, which
Speaker 2: was supposedly like a better version of Campari. Well I did,
Speaker 2: and I'm here to tell you just use Kampari. It's
Speaker 2: so much better, so much better.
Speaker 3: I went into, Uh, there's an amazing spirit store here
Speaker 3: in Atlanta, and I went in and asked for which one.
Speaker 3: It is, the Elemental Spirits Company, and it is right
Speaker 3: across from Buddies and Videodrome there at North Avenue. You
Speaker 3: know where that is. Yeah, sure, next to Emmanuel's Tavern. Okay,
Speaker 3: and it's great. They're they're very highly curated, really good,
Speaker 3: good stuff like that you don't find in regular liquor stores.
Speaker 3: But I went in and asked for an tomorrow. I said,
Speaker 3: gimme a couple. I said, give me, gimme one really
Speaker 3: accessible and give me the bitterest thing that you have.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, and I can't remember the name of it.
Speaker 3: I'll have to post about it later. But this stuff
Speaker 3: is it's almost like melort. It's so medicinal and.
Speaker 2: Bitter, Like you say why after each sip.
Speaker 3: I mean, I like it, but it's really like I've
Speaker 3: leapt into the bitter zone and this one's testing my limits.
Speaker 2: Okay, Well, if we're shouting out incredibly well curated liquor
Speaker 2: stores in Atlanta, I definitely want to shout out Eah
Speaker 2: and F Bottle Shop over by Peachtree Battle. It's so good.
Speaker 3: Oh, we'll have to check that one out too.
Speaker 2: That's also the kind of place you could just walk
Speaker 2: into and say I want to try something like this,
Speaker 2: and they'll give it to you.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I love stores like that where you just sort
Speaker 3: of trust in their expertise. Yeah, it's the best. I
Speaker 3: also want to shout out if you are big on like,
Speaker 3: you know, cocktail syrups and stuff like that to spice
Speaker 3: up a drink. Sure, I bought one the other day
Speaker 3: that I'd never heard of. It was a sweet potato
Speaker 3: oh syrup, and it is so good with whiskey.
Speaker 2: That sounds good just to drink on its own.
Speaker 3: It's great. It doesn't taste like, oh, like I'm drinking
Speaker 3: a sweet potato. It just it makes it more, you know,
Speaker 3: because there's other spices that just it's like a nice
Speaker 3: holiday whiskey cocktail basically. Man, it's just really yummy.
Speaker 2: Where'd you find that?
Speaker 3: This was a Decatur package on Clairemont, so like.
Speaker 2: You can find it probably nationwide.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, you know, people are local. I think
Speaker 3: it's a local one, so I wish I had a
Speaker 3: bottle in front of me, But you know, locally, there's
Speaker 3: probably all kinds of people in your urban center that
Speaker 3: are making their own shrubs and bitters and syrups.
Speaker 2: Well, I gotta find that one because it sounds pretty delish.
Speaker 3: Yeah, maybe I'll send you some.
Speaker 2: I'd love that, Chuck. I love pre presents from you,
Speaker 2: especially around Christmas time. All Right, great drink great drink
Speaker 2: agreed thanks to our friends of Olive Magazine. And here
Speaker 2: we go, hopping along back in the sleigh, out in
Speaker 2: the snow, putting on our white faux fur fringed frocks
Speaker 2: and going on to the next section.
Speaker 3: I guess we'll go with how to make your Christmas
Speaker 3: tree last longer. That this is a personal one, because
Speaker 3: I have had bad luck to past couple of years
Speaker 3: with our trees dying way too early. And I think
Speaker 3: it's because I was sort of stuck on using the
Speaker 3: Christmas tree stand I grew up with mm which, compared
Speaker 3: to today's stands, had not much room for the tree
Speaker 3: trunk itself and certainly didn't hold that much water. So
Speaker 3: I finally my mom got me one of those gigantic
Speaker 3: things that holds gallons of water. Yeah, and I think
Speaker 3: it was the right choice because it's doing much much
Speaker 3: better this year.
Speaker 2: Well, that's definitely one of the keys that Better Homes
Speaker 2: and Gardens recommends is getting a stand that fits.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you got it. You gotta those old school ones
Speaker 3: that hold like three cups of water.
Speaker 2: No good, no, because your tree is still alive even
Speaker 2: though you've cut it down, so it drinks up the water.
Speaker 2: And in addition to having a tree that holds a
Speaker 2: bunch of water and that fits the trunk, you want
Speaker 2: to keep that water level like basically high every day.
Speaker 2: You want to check it basically every day because the
Speaker 2: trunk needs to be pretty much submerged in water to
Speaker 2: keep that tree going for the month of December.
Speaker 3: Yeah. And I always heard, you know, pour some sprite
Speaker 3: or some sugar in there, and I never was sure
Speaker 3: if that was true. But there are tree people who say,
Speaker 3: if you put like a half a cup of granulated
Speaker 3: sugar to about five gallons of water and a half
Speaker 3: a cup of vinegar, yeah, then that's gonna nourish that tree.
Speaker 3: It's going to preserve the sap, and that vinegar is
Speaker 3: going to be a pH stabilizer that's gonna ward off
Speaker 3: bacteria and rot.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because that's the thing. You've got a reservoir of
Speaker 2: water in your living room and your living room has
Speaker 2: its heater on. That can be a bad combination. I've
Speaker 2: also seen you can throw some pennies in there too
Speaker 2: to help adjust the pH as well and keep bacteria
Speaker 2: from growing.
Speaker 3: But you want to pennies?
Speaker 2: Do you want to mix us all up? Five gallons
Speaker 2: of water. Just so happens that those orange home depot
Speaker 2: buckets are five gallons. You go out in your garage,
Speaker 2: put five gallons of water in there, half a cup
Speaker 2: of vinegar, half a cup of sugar. Mix it all
Speaker 2: up and you use that to top off your Christmas
Speaker 2: tree stand water every day.
Speaker 3: I love it if you got a kid, assign them
Speaker 3: that task because they are much more apt to be
Speaker 3: able to crawl under that tree. And it's special and fun.
Speaker 3: And they think they are helping. They think they're helping,
Speaker 3: and they are helping.
Speaker 2: They definitely are helping. What else? Man like? A lot
Speaker 2: of people also have ill fitting Christmas tree stands that
Speaker 2: are too small, and they carve off some of the trunk.
Speaker 2: They shave off some of the sides to make it fit.
Speaker 3: Jam it in there right, No good, No, apparently you
Speaker 3: need the sides of the trunk that helps it stay alive.
Speaker 3: You do want to cut, you know there is something
Speaker 3: too trimming some just off the bottom of the trunk.
Speaker 3: They'll usually do that for you where you buy your
Speaker 3: Christmas tree. If they say I love this article from
Speaker 3: Better Homes and Garden says, shave off two centimeters like
Speaker 3: that that's like it's barely the width of a chainsaw blade.
Speaker 2: It's three quarters of an inch. I looked it up.
Speaker 3: Oh okay, well I guess that's bigger than I thought.
Speaker 2: Yeah. No, I know, we're not super metric here everybody
Speaker 2: in the United States.
Speaker 3: But you do want to cut a little bit off
Speaker 3: the trunk, not too much. But you know that sap
Speaker 3: starts forming. It's like a scab almost right within hours
Speaker 3: of cutting the tree down. It tries to form a
Speaker 3: scab and that's gonna seal it up on the bottom.
Speaker 3: So that's why they trim it up for you at
Speaker 3: the Christmas tree place, because it's going to be much
Speaker 3: easier to suck water up.
Speaker 2: Yes, Also, this is a great excuse for you to
Speaker 2: buy a bow saw too and take that home, and
Speaker 2: then you can cut the little two centimeters off the
Speaker 2: bottom of the trunk yourself so it'll be as fresh
Speaker 2: as possible. So the key is trim somem off the bottom,
Speaker 2: but not off the sides of the bottom of the trunk,
Speaker 2: because that bark is really good at sucking up water,
Speaker 2: and you want to make sure this thing can take
Speaker 2: as much water as possible so that it stays fresh
Speaker 2: as long as possible.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and also be discerning when you go to pick
Speaker 3: out that tree to begin with. Don't don't just fall
Speaker 3: for what looks the prettiest you got to You gotta
Speaker 3: feel those branches a little bit. If it's getting crispy
Speaker 3: at all in the lot, then you're in big trouble already.
Speaker 3: So give it, you know, run your hand along it,
Speaker 3: give a little hug, give a little feel, give a
Speaker 3: little tug, and make sure everything smells really fresh, make
Speaker 3: sure that bark is very smooth, and make sure that
Speaker 3: you know the branches themselves feel not breakable but pliable
Speaker 3: at that point exactly.
Speaker 2: So, Also when you get at home, drying out the
Speaker 2: tree is not good. You don't want to accelerate drying
Speaker 2: it out. It's already getting dried enough being indoors, out
Speaker 2: of any humidity that might be around, and then near
Speaker 2: heat sources, so you want to not only just keep
Speaker 2: it topped up with water, you want to keep it
Speaker 2: away from heat as much as possible. And apparently even
Speaker 2: going with led lights will have a substantial effect on
Speaker 2: keeping the tree from drying out because they put out
Speaker 2: so much less heat than traditional incandescent lights. Doe.
Speaker 3: Yeah, good idea, and most of them these days are
Speaker 3: led I think.
Speaker 2: And then yeah, they're definitely easy to come by at least,
Speaker 2: and then chuck afterward, after the holidays have gone, after
Speaker 2: the last ornaments put up, and the last piece of
Speaker 2: tinsel that you're going to bother taking off has been
Speaker 2: taken off, even though there's a few strands left. What
Speaker 2: are you going to do with that tree to help
Speaker 2: your local wildlife?
Speaker 3: Well, your township or your county probably has a recycling
Speaker 3: situation going on. That is certainly a great way to
Speaker 3: dispose of your tree. But you can also if you
Speaker 3: live in a wooded area, you can just put lean
Speaker 3: that thing up against another tree in the woods and
Speaker 3: that can become a little shelter or a home for wildlife.
Speaker 2: For sure. You don't even have to live in a
Speaker 2: wooded area. You can throw it in your backyard on
Speaker 2: that side, Yeah, and rabbits would be like, thank you
Speaker 2: very much, I appreciate it.
Speaker 3: Or you can strip it, you can like trim off
Speaker 3: the branches and lay those downs as mult at the
Speaker 3: base of garden plants and stuff like that. Yeah, or
Speaker 3: do what I do already gave myself away is that
Speaker 3: my friends throw them all in the back of my
Speaker 3: pickup truck and we let them dry to a crispy brown,
Speaker 3: then throw them on campfires for quite a fireworks show.
Speaker 2: Very nice, indeed, but do it safely, oh for sure,
Speaker 2: And make sure you haven't already invited the rabbits in
Speaker 2: to live there. You want to stomp the tree a
Speaker 2: few times on the ground to shake out any rabbits
Speaker 2: that might have taken up residence before you throw it
Speaker 2: on the campfire. That's right, Okay, Well, I say it's
Speaker 2: time to move on. We got a couple left. Both
Speaker 2: of them are mine, it turns out, so I'm going
Speaker 2: to share one with you. So you pick the last one. Okay, okay,
Speaker 2: I'd be picking the last one for you by picking
Speaker 2: the second to last.
Speaker 3: I was waiting for you to catch on here.
Speaker 2: But Chuck, let's get back in our sleigh and go
Speaker 2: on to the next segment where we'll talk about an
Speaker 2: alternative Christmas movie. Okay, Chuck, So there are plenty of
Speaker 2: Christmas movies out there that are straight ahead Christmas movies.
Speaker 2: The point is about Christmas, about maybe learning the spirit
Speaker 2: of Christmas, about getting a toy, about running into Santa
Speaker 2: who knows. But there's also alternative Christmas movies that take
Speaker 2: place around Christmas and just Buy Proxy are technically Christmas movies,
Speaker 2: and at least one of them is a classic horror movie,
Speaker 2: which arguably gave us the slasher horror genre. Nineteen seventy
Speaker 2: four's Black.
Speaker 3: Christmas, Yeah, from Bob Clark, who has made three classic films,
Speaker 3: Black Christmas, A Christmas Story, and Porky's.
Speaker 2: Yeah. He made two Christmas films. One of them was
Speaker 2: a Christmas Story, the other was a slasher film called
Speaker 2: Black Christmas.
Speaker 3: Isn't that Nuts and Porkies?
Speaker 2: Yeah. I never saw Porky's. My mom would have died
Speaker 2: before she let me see Porky's and I still have
Speaker 2: never seen it.
Speaker 3: I saw it years later because I just felt I
Speaker 3: had to to make up for my restricted childhood. And
Speaker 3: it's not great. But what is pretty great is Black Christmas.
Speaker 2: It is It's subtle in a lot of ways, as
Speaker 2: far as a slasher movie can go. It's about as
Speaker 2: subtle as it can get. Bob Clark has said a
Speaker 2: lot of people have written film crit on this, like
Speaker 2: people consider Black Christmas a masterpiece an a plus. Some
Speaker 2: people think it's their favorite movie of all time. And
Speaker 2: the reason why is because rather than going with like
Speaker 2: straight ahead gore and like traditional horror that would come
Speaker 2: years later in the slasher genre, Bob Clark went with
Speaker 2: more suggested stuff and eeriness, and he went with terror
Speaker 2: over horror and building up dread and fear in like
Speaker 2: legitimate ways. And what's more, one of the things he
Speaker 2: did that really differentiated Black Christmas from the slasher films
Speaker 2: to come is you never actually see the killer the
Speaker 2: entire movie. You see his eye in one scene and
Speaker 2: that's the most you see of them. And then even
Speaker 2: more than that, he never gets caught. He's still around
Speaker 2: at the end.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, it's a I really liked it. I
Speaker 3: covered this on movie Crush. It was either it was
Speaker 3: either our like a horror movie roundtable with some of
Speaker 3: our colleagues, or it may have been a Christmas episode.
Speaker 3: But that's when I watched it. I hadn't seen it
Speaker 3: before that, and it is It is really good. And
Speaker 3: it was also sort of a landmark movie in that
Speaker 3: it established a couple of things. I mean, first of all,
Speaker 3: like you said, some people, you can make an argument
Speaker 3: that it is one of if not the first slasher movie.
Speaker 3: Some people say like Psycho and stuff like that, or
Speaker 3: Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which was released weeks before this, But
Speaker 3: you could you can make an argument that the kind
Speaker 3: of prototypical slasher movie in that like one person dies
Speaker 3: after another, you know, very slowly working his way through
Speaker 3: a group of friends that you know, Black Christmas was
Speaker 3: nineteen seventy four, and that was, you know, four years
Speaker 3: before Halloween came out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So the premise of the movie is set in
Speaker 2: a sorority house over Christmas break, So there's a limited
Speaker 2: number of people not only at the sorority house but
Speaker 2: on campus in general. And that's definitely part of the
Speaker 2: eeriness that that Bob Clark uses, just that feeling for
Speaker 2: anybody who's ever been on campus like during the summer
Speaker 2: or during a holiday break. It's just strange how quiet
Speaker 2: it is, and that's part of the whole thing. But
Speaker 2: they're stalked by an unknown phone caller who's calling them
Speaker 2: with like deeply obscene phone calls. Ye that they typically
Speaker 2: like in typical seventies fashion, just kind of like like
Speaker 2: laugh off or dismiss or like you know, they say
Speaker 2: lude things back to the guy. H yeah, but slowly,
Speaker 2: but surely they all start to be murdered one by
Speaker 2: one in this house.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it was also speaking of those calls, it's
Speaker 3: one of the other big landmark things is And I
Speaker 3: hope I'm not wrong, but I think this was the
Speaker 3: first movie where they said the call was coming from
Speaker 3: inside the house.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think the urban legend existed already, but this
Speaker 2: was the first movie to do that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, the movies didn't invent that trope, but
Speaker 3: the movies made use of the urban legend trope.
Speaker 2: Yeah, far as I know, it was the first one.
Speaker 3: I think so, because When a Stranger Calls was after this,
Speaker 3: and that was the other big one where they said
Speaker 3: that line.
Speaker 2: Man that movie. Few movies have meandered more than a
Speaker 2: When a Stranger Calls? Have you seen When a Stranger
Speaker 2: Calls back? No, it's even more meandering than the first one.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah, but.
Speaker 2: It's a good movie. Black Christmas is if you're interested
Speaker 2: in a horror movie. And again, like the I don't
Speaker 2: want to call them prank calls, the obscene phone calls
Speaker 2: are very obscene, So don't watch this movie with your kids.
Speaker 2: But if you're interested in something that is definitely set
Speaker 2: around Christmas, and Christmas is kind of an extra character
Speaker 2: in the movie. That's not your typical Christmas movie. And
Speaker 2: you're into horror, this might be right up your alley.
Speaker 3: Yeah, then seventy four version. There have been two remakes.
Speaker 3: The two thousand and six one was very gory and terrible.
Speaker 3: I didn't see it, but I did see the twenty nineteen.
Speaker 3: I thought it was pretty good.
Speaker 2: Oh really, Okay, yeah, I haven't seen either. I've just
Speaker 2: seen the original, And I said, some people say it's
Speaker 2: their favorite movie. At least two pretty big celebrities counted
Speaker 2: it as their favorite movie, didn't they. That's right, man, Yeah,
Speaker 2: Elvis was one.
Speaker 3: You know. I actually around Grace Lamb man. Watch that
Speaker 3: movie about those schrority girls is pretty good.
Speaker 2: Wow, that was really good, Elvis. Can you do it
Speaker 2: really good? Steve Martin? No, I can't either.
Speaker 3: Steve Martin loves it though. That's pretty wild and crazy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Olivia Hussey's in it. Apparently he met her years later.
Speaker 2: He's like, oh my god, you're in one of my
Speaker 2: favorite movies of all time, and she thought he was
Speaker 2: gonna tell her Romeo and Juliet like the nineteen sixties version.
Speaker 2: He said, you're in Black Christmas and she was like, what, Yeah,
Speaker 2: one of your favorite movies.
Speaker 3: So yeah, that's amazing.
Speaker 2: So that's it, everybody, Black Christmas, and we're gonna get
Speaker 2: in that sleigh one last time this episode for this
Speaker 2: Christmas Spectacular and go on to the last segment, which
Speaker 2: Chuck is going to pick for us.
Speaker 3: Hey, thanks for driving. By the way, I've had a
Speaker 3: couple of too many negronies. That infused gen has hitting
Speaker 3: me hard, So thanks for taking the reins.
Speaker 2: That's all right. I don't mind being the DD. Sometimes
Speaker 2: next year it's you though.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you found this great thing about Christmas card etiquette
Speaker 3: from the Merrily McKee Etiquette School. And we may have
Speaker 3: talked about this before. I've never we have never sent
Speaker 3: out a Christmas card as a family.
Speaker 2: I don't remember you saying that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we just we never did it. I don't know why,
Speaker 3: Probably because we're lazy. Emily was always her very very
Speaker 3: busy during the holiday season with her business, for sure
Speaker 3: the busiest time of the year, and so that would
Speaker 3: have fallen to me, and I never have really had
Speaker 3: much of an interest in doing it myself. But I
Speaker 3: love getting them and I'm one of those people that
Speaker 3: likes to display them.
Speaker 2: Okay, So if you ever decided to start sending Christmas cards,
Speaker 2: after you hear this Merrily McKee's Etiquette School's list of
Speaker 2: Christmas Card etiquette, you will be well prepared for how
Speaker 2: to navigate the travails of Christmas card sending.
Speaker 3: Chuck, all right, get us going. When should we be
Speaker 3: sending these things?
Speaker 2: So you want to send a Christmas card technically for
Speaker 2: it to arrive by January fifth, because you have until
Speaker 2: the end of the twelve days of Christmas for your
Speaker 2: Christmas card to arrive in the twelve days of Christmas,
Speaker 2: start on Christmas and go till January fifth, which is
Speaker 2: three Kings day. That's the traditional way, like if you
Speaker 2: were sending a card in nineteen oh three, that was
Speaker 2: your time limit. Now it's like much more abbreviated because
Speaker 2: people like you like to display Christmas cards. So you
Speaker 2: want to get them to people by I think December fifth, fifteenth.
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, if you're getting if you're purposely sending your
Speaker 3: Christmas cards, so they go out by January fourth, everyone
Speaker 3: that gets that Christmas card will say a little late huh.
Speaker 2: Kind of January fifth, you know. I mean it's like
Speaker 2: literally the next year.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so that's sort of like you said the old school,
Speaker 3: like by January fifth. They also say sort of back
Speaker 3: in the day that you didn't typically send them to
Speaker 3: your close friends and neighbors or colleagues that you will
Speaker 3: see right over Christmas. It was sort of a way
Speaker 3: to say like, Hi, I don't live near you and
Speaker 3: we aren't in like regular touch, so here's our family.
Speaker 3: But that certainly has gone away too, because you can
Speaker 3: send Christmas cards to anybody at any nun at any time.
Speaker 3: But sent them in July that would be really weird.
Speaker 3: But send them to anybody. You can send them to
Speaker 3: your next door neighbor and it's not like they'll think like,
Speaker 3: well that's weird. I see them every day.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Merrily mckithays, these days it's not rude to give
Speaker 2: anyone who celebrates Christmas a Christmas card, even if you
Speaker 2: see that person regularly. And I would argue the people
Speaker 2: you see regularly are the ones you would most want
Speaker 2: to send a Christmas card to these days, because everybody's
Speaker 2: so neurotic and insecure.
Speaker 3: I know, I well, I mean, would this make you insecure?
Speaker 3: What if you get a Christmas card every year from us.
Speaker 3: Let's say we were sending them to you and Momo
Speaker 3: and you me, and all of a sudden we didn't.
Speaker 2: I okay, I'm just playing a part here because I
Speaker 2: actually wouldn't do this. I would come to you and say, hey,
Speaker 2: we didn't get a card this year? Is everything okay
Speaker 2: between us? And what would you say in return? As
Speaker 2: far as Merrily McKee's Etiquette school.
Speaker 3: Suggests, well, I would say. I could say a number
Speaker 3: of things, but one thing I could say is, well,
Speaker 3: you know what, my friend money's little tighter this year.
Speaker 3: We had to cut down and send about half as
Speaker 3: many Christmas cards as usual.
Speaker 2: And I say, oh, okay, I was part of a
Speaker 2: huge culling of people.
Speaker 3: I can live with that exactly. That's supposedly the nice
Speaker 3: way if you want to drop someone from your list
Speaker 3: is to not just drop one person, but you know
Speaker 3: you're probably dropping a lot at once.
Speaker 2: Well, I think if you read between the lines, Merrily
Speaker 2: McKee's saying, even if you're just dropping one person, tell
Speaker 2: them they were tell them like half the list that
Speaker 2: you cut. So if somebody tells you are part of
Speaker 2: half the list, now that you hear that, you'll know
Speaker 2: that there's no telling whether you were half of the
Speaker 2: list or not.
Speaker 3: Yeah, kids, that's called a lie to spare someone's feelings,
Speaker 3: and that can be Okay.
Speaker 2: That's right. So if you want to cut somebody from
Speaker 2: your Christmas card list, how do you go about cutting them? Chuck, Like,
Speaker 2: what decisions do you need to make?
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, I guess you wouldn't put their name
Speaker 3: on an envelope.
Speaker 2: Okay, how would you decide? I think is what I'm
Speaker 2: trying to say?
Speaker 3: More specifically, Well, I mean I wouldn't do that to
Speaker 3: any senior member of your extended network because oftentimes our
Speaker 3: older friends maybe a little lonelier, and this card might
Speaker 3: really be a big deal for them.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Merrily McKee makes a really great point that some
Speaker 2: of your older adult friends or family members probably aren't
Speaker 2: on social media, or there's a good chance they're not,
Speaker 2: so getting a Christmas card in the mail is a
Speaker 2: big deal to them. Yeah, and they're probably don't have
Speaker 2: they probably don't have emails, so they're not going to
Speaker 2: get an e card. So not only do you want
Speaker 2: to keep the older people on your list, you also
Speaker 2: want to add in their Christmas card like an extra
Speaker 2: special note. Maybe, Yeah, Christmas drawing from your kid, because
Speaker 2: it is going to mean a lot more to them
Speaker 2: than you're you know, forty year old go go go, single,
Speaker 2: childless executive brother is going to it's going to mean
Speaker 2: to him.
Speaker 3: You maybe, you know, maybe if someone doesn't send you
Speaker 3: a Christmas card and not as like a revenge, but
Speaker 3: if you're just looking to cut back on the number,
Speaker 3: maybe you don't want to do it to the people
Speaker 3: who like every single year they send you one, but.
Speaker 2: You could do it as revenge too. I mean that works.
Speaker 3: I guess. There are no rules.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so, I mean that's there's there's some If somebody
Speaker 2: stops or if you send somebody a card also and
Speaker 2: they don't send you a card in return for two
Speaker 2: years in a row, they're off. They're done dead to
Speaker 2: you for sure. You don't even talk to them when
Speaker 2: you see them during the rest of the year. Yeah,
Speaker 2: Because that's the thing that people don't realize is when
Speaker 2: you take someone off your Christmas card list, you're not
Speaker 2: allowed to talk to them any longer. So really you
Speaker 2: need to decide pretty pretty you really need to give
Speaker 2: us some thought, I guess is what I'm saying do
Speaker 2: you want this person out of your life forever?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Absolutely?
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 3: And you said earlier something very key that you can
Speaker 3: send a Christmas card to anybody these days who celebrates Christmas,
Speaker 3: And that is very key because unless you know that
Speaker 3: your Jewish or Muslim friends really enjoy the Christmas card thing,
Speaker 3: then probably don't send them a Christmas card. Maybe a
Speaker 3: high how you're doing it's it's winter card.
Speaker 2: Sure, Or you could send your Jewish friends a Hanika
Speaker 2: card or your Muslim friends an idolph a tier card,
Speaker 2: which is the last day of Ramadan. I'm probably not
Speaker 2: pronouncing that correctly.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Would they appreciate that? Or would they be like,
Speaker 3: oh please?
Speaker 2: I think they would appreciate it. I think most people would.
Speaker 2: Maybe your your cynical Jewish friends or your cynical Muslim
Speaker 2: friends might might be like oh please, But I think
Speaker 2: for the most part we'd be like, wow, that was
Speaker 2: really thoughtful.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Or maybe they think you're like, just oh, I
Speaker 3: see what Chuck's doing here.
Speaker 2: He's buttering me up to hit me up for money.
Speaker 2: In June.
Speaker 3: Something's going on.
Speaker 2: Yeah, something's coming. So that's it for Christmas cards, and geez, Chuck,
Speaker 2: I mean that's it for the whole holiday episode, isn't it.
Speaker 2: I'm starting to talk slowly because I don't want it
Speaker 2: to end.
Speaker 3: I know, and you know what, I am a little
Speaker 3: worried about next year because the Christmas reservoir is genuinely
Speaker 3: getting thin.
Speaker 2: Well, we'll have to send an alert out to our
Speaker 2: Christmas idea helper Elves Robert Paulson and Alex Stock, who
Speaker 2: usually send us ideas they need to step it up
Speaker 2: for this year.
Speaker 3: Robert sennis one this year? Which one did he send it?
Speaker 3: Did we use it?
Speaker 2: I didn't see one from him.
Speaker 3: No, Oh I may have used it. Oh, let me
Speaker 3: look while you wind things down with glad tidings.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, well everybody, well Chuck does that. I want
Speaker 2: to say from all of us, it's if you should know,
Speaker 2: from Chuck and me, from Jerry, from Dave, from Ben,
Speaker 2: from everybody who's ever been involved with stuff, you should
Speaker 2: know we wish you the happiest of holidays, The merriest
Speaker 2: of Christmas is the happiest upon it because the happiest
Speaker 2: of everything. We hope this is a wonderful season of
Speaker 2: plaid tidings, joy, super boozy eggnog and just goodness in general,
Speaker 2: even just for a few days around the Christmas time.
Speaker 2: So thank you very much for joining us and sitting
Speaker 2: with us. Hopefully this sets you off. I'm the greatest
Speaker 2: Christmas ever.
Speaker 3: Boy, you did a great job killing time. Thanks Ma,
Speaker 3: that's genuine. We actually did not use Robert's suggestion this year,
Speaker 3: so we have one in the hip pocket for next year.
Speaker 3: I'm not even gonna say what it is. Okay, it's
Speaker 3: a pretty good one.
Speaker 2: Well, I have a list too. I'll send you. If
Speaker 2: you're really low, check it twice. I will, and I
Speaker 2: know that you're nice, so you will get that list.
Speaker 3: Happy Holidays, everybody. We love you.
Speaker 2: Yeah you guys, thank you so much for listening, and
Speaker 2: we'll see you next year.
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