Season 3, Episode 10 – “Fat Man” (Alaska)

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Working in Alaska in the 1980s was no place for the fainthearted. It demanded perseverance and fortitude.  Work began before dawn.  The tasks were repetitive, backbreaking, and physical. Bears wandered close enough that you could hear their breath in the dark, or if the boom on the ship knocked you overboard, they weren’t coming back for you.  A seasonal job in the Alaskan wilderness reshaped you in ways that you couldn’t anticipate.  It was raw, demanding, and difficult.  But you also learned what it meant to be strong—and to be truly, vibrantly alive.

It was in this environment that the Festive Fans forged their personalities and became the true Christmas fans they are today.  For our special Thanksgiving episode, the boys return back to the Last Frontier to explore Christmas in this vast wilderness.  Alaska is the largest U.S. state and not contiguous to the lower 48 states.  It has impressive landscapes, towering mountain ranges, and expansive forests, tundra, and glaciers.

As our favorite season approaches, Mark and Bob take a trip down memory lane to revisit a pivotal time in their lives that they spent in the pristine wilds of Alaska. Although not a festive foreign place, it still has that untamed feel that makes it both unique and awe-inspiring.  Alaska, with its breathtaking scenery, sweeping majestic mountains, ice-blue rivers, and dancing northern lights, is something sacred.

Come join us as we reminisce on our time spent in this favorite state and discuss the 2020 Mel Gibson film “Fatman”.  At the same time that the lights begin to twinkle on our Christmas trees at home, we recall a place where the night sky was ablaze with stars illuminated by the midnight sun, no matter if you were watching from an oil rig or a fishing boat.  Our wish for Christmas is that Alaska forever remains this beacon of hope and promise, with its deep Indigenous heritage.  We want future generations to enjoy how we felt when we both stood on ground that seemed untouched, and embraced that fierce, unbroken, and wild freedom that Alaska offers to the young at heart.

It is Thanksgiving 2025 today, and Mark and I are so grateful not only for our fans, but also for our shared experience in the rugged landscape of the 49th state.  This is another common element that we share in our soul, just like our love for movies and Christmas.  Alaska deserves the special callout we give it here and we hope you enjoy it.  Although not its own country, we still can honor its vastness and recognize how it serves as an irreplaceable gift to the world.  Alaska is that rare reminder of how the Earth once was, and how it still should be allowed to be.

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