Join host, Glen Warren, as we explore the history and origins of the Yule log, or buche de Noel.
It’s Episode 8 of The Total Christmas Podcast, and the emails have been flooding in, all 2 of them.
We have a professional celebrity chef who is going to give us their secret recipe for the perfect Christmas pudding, and then they sing us a song.
This episode’s version of a Christmas Carol is the 1939 radio play, with Orson Welles narrating and Lionel Barrymore as Ebeneezer Scrooge. If you want to have a listen here’s a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gJ3jINcTR0
In Christmas All Over The World we take a trip up to the far North and look into Christmas in Iceland, and we learn about the Yule Lads. Plus there’s a quiz, can you tell the difference between a Yule Lad and a Yule Bad?
So there’s all that, and we introduce you to The Total Christmas Drinking game, an exciting way to actually gain some joy from listening to this drivel.
This week’s recommendation is Librivox, a fantastic website where you can listen to free audiobooks that are in the public domain. There are over 13,000 books to choose from and you don’t have to sign up, you can just go on the site and download a book, it’s all free. Here’s the link:
https://librivox.org/
If you want to get in touch or get involved, you can contact us by facebook, email totalchristmas@gmail.com or go to the website, totalchristmaspodcast.com
Merry Christmas
Listen to this episode of Total Christmas Podcast
Author: Jack
Title: Episode 8 – The Yule Lads
The Hallmark brand is famous for greeting cards, keepsake ornaments, movies, and so much more. Holidays would not be the same without it! This episode features a conversation with Samantha Bradbeer, company archivist and historian for Hallmark. She takes us through the long history of this incredible company. And it starts more than 110 years ago.
Listen to this episode of the Sleigh Bells & Mistletoe Christmas Podcast
Author: Rikki Meece and Mary Richards, Christmas Podcasters
Title:
Christmas 1920 was a transformative time. The war was over and the deadly pandemic had subsided. Life could finally return to normal.
In this merry episode we take a long look at this epic Christmas of Tinker Toys, Prohibition, Lincoln Logs, Raggedy Ann, and getting a new car for Christmas.
We also discuss a bit about researching Christmas and the value of having newspaper records now available.
This look back at Christmas history also includes a tangent about Christmas of 1870 when Congress declared Christmas a national holiday. While we found little in the news archives that talked about that event we did find plenty of 150-year old Christmas opinion that we want to share.
Also discussed is the 19th century fad of mistletoe. First a poem and later a very popular song known as the Mistletoe Bough is explored. It is a ghost story of Christmas most people do not know about.
And finally we explore the tradition of Thanksgiving Day parades, which began in 1920, but not with Macy’s in New York City. That leads as well to a discussion of stores in 1920 — and their connection to stories in 2020.
This is a fascinating trip down Christmas memory lane.
Listen to this episode of the Merry Little Podcast
Author: Merry Podcaster
Title: Christmas 1920: One Hundred Years Ago
This week, the elves cover the Christmas episodes of the family-comedy, Everybody Loves Raymond! While Anthony is a huge fan, and believes that it’s an accurate description of family life in a New York Italian family, Thom and Julia haven’t really seen it before and this is a first time seeing multiple episodes for both of them. Do they think there’s a good amount of holiday cheer in here to make these episodes worthwhile, or do they feel the show is outdated and a bit cold to the point where even Christmas can’t salvage it? In addition, a ton of listener feedback is discussed and a new question of the week is posed! This is one fun episode you want to be sure not to miss, so settle back and enjoy! Also, remember that between now and next Monday’s episode, our Christmas in July episode will be dropping on Saturday, July 25th, and for Patrons of the show, a conversation between Anthony and April Ryley about Christmas in New York will be dropping the day before on Friday, July 24th, so make sure to keep an eye out!
Listen to this episode of Tis the Podcast
Author: Anthony
Title: Episode 155: You’re A Trophy Wife? What Contest In Hell Did I Win?
On this episode of Christmas Clatter Todd has a great Christmas Conversation with Thom Crowe from Tis The Podcast.
Listen to this episode of Christmas Clatter
Author: Todd Killian
Title: Typecast As A Wise Guy
This month we go dark and look at the 20017 album “from Spirits and Ghosts (Score for a Dark Christmas)” from ex Nightwish singer Tarja Turunen.
We also have a short listen to three obscure songs bought to us from a listener.
Listen to this episode of Tinsel Tunes Podcast
Author: DuaneBailey
Title: S2E12 – Tarja Turunen – Album from Spirits and Ghosts
We are celebrating our one year anniversary! It was in July 2019 we got this labor of love off the ground, and talked about Christmas in July. This episode includes a conversation with Jeff Westorver about Christmas in July 2020. He runs MyMerryChristmas.com.
Listen to this episode of the Sleigh Bells & Mistletoe Christmas Podcast
Author: Rikki Meece and Mary Richards, Christmas Podcasters
Title:
It’s the 7th Episode of The Total Christmas Podcast and we’ve received another email from a listener. Hard to believe but true.
This episode’s version of A Christmas Carol is a seldom seen animated one from 1991 produced by Fuji Television and Saban International Services. They play fast and loose with the story line, but it has a certain charm. If you fancy watching it here’s a link to it on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meZEOsCHqlk&t=458s
We take a good hard look at Yule logs, not just the wooden ones, but the delicious cake ones and we even have our first ever interview. We talk to Darrell Sopel from Alberta Canada one of the masterminds behind the world’s biggest yule log as listed in the Guinness Book of World Records.
And this week’s Christmas Not So Classic is also this week’s recommendation. It’s Tinsel Tunes the podcast hosted by Duane Bailey that delves deep into all the Christmas songs we know so well. He’ll be looking at Ding Dong Ding Dong by George Harrison. If you’re not already listening to Tinsel Tunes, here’s a link to the website: https://tinseltunes.com/
If you want to get in touch or join in with the show drop us an email at totalchristmas@gmail.com
Merry Christmas
Listen to this episode of Total Christmas Podcast
Author: Jack
Title: Episode 7 – Yule Logs
In the final installment of “Screw You, Watch This,” Chris hops back in the saddle and has Brian and Jon watch the original Magnificent Seven from 1960. Along the way they discuss hand sanitizer, killing the coronavirus with fireworks, taking back the term UFO, the fact the hosts are three dumb white guys, Jon struggling to remember the band the Chainsmokers, Rhonda Rousey, Vin Diesel, and what their campaign slogans would be if they ever ran for office.
Wikipedia entry for The Magnificent Seven: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magnificent_Seven
Listen to this episode of YuletideTV Podcast
Author: Chris, Brian and Jon
Title: Bonus Ep. 6 – The Magnificent Seven (1960)
Bring us some figgy pudding, and we won’t go until we get some. This episode covers the history of figgy pudding and why we sing about it during the holidays.

On this episode, we discus the classic Christmas story, Gift of the Magi. We’ll also tell you how to get your hands on some eggnog in the off season, countdown the top 5 movie Santas, and we premiere act 2 of our made-for-podcast Christmas movie, “A Bomb For Christmas.”
00:00 – 03:38 Intro and anniversary show announcement
03:38 – 05:52 We Need a Little Christmas Now
05:52 – 09:31 Five Golden Things (Best Santas in Movies)
09:31 – 12:09 Santa Babb’s Mailbag
12:09 – 13:29 Feedback From Our Last Show
13:29 – 23:02 The Gift of the Magi
23:02 – 23:36 Who Sang It Best? (Results)
23:36 – 38:10 A Bomb For Christmas (Act 2)
38:10 – 40:18 Wrap Up
40:18 – 43:32 Outtakes
“We Wish You A Merry Christmas” United States Marine Band
“Jingle Bells” Performed by Kristen Nowicki
Music for “A Bomb for Christmas”
We Wish You A Merry Christmas, Fairytale Waltz, Jingle Bells Calm, Darkest Child & The Chamber by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
(The embedded player for the episode is bellow the links)
Link to Join Us For Our 5th Anniversary on Saturday, July 18th at 7pm (PDT)
https://zencastr.com/timbabb/cwfc5
Borden Eggnog on Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Borden+Eggnog&i=grocery
VOA Reading Gift of The Magi
https://youtu.be/TXWMS4KFm1k
Brian Earl Reading Gift of The Magi on Christmas Past
https://christmaspast.media/ber-months-bonus-brian-reads-the-gift-of-the-magi/
Listen to this episode of the Can’t Wait for Christmas Podcast
Author: Tim Babb
Title: CWFC 068 – The Gift of The Magi
Happy Leon Day everyone! We’re officially halfway to Christmas and to celebrate, Chris and Kris are marking the special day by presenting the Top 5 New York City Christmas songs! They break some big podcast related news, read a listener review, and answer a couple questions from the mailbag about their potential plans for celebrating Christmas in July. Stay tuned until the end for the results of the tote giveaway. Stay safe everyone!
✌️🤶🎅👍
Music featured in this episode
Fairytale of New York – The Pogues
New York Christmas – Rob Thomas
Christmas in New York – Lea Michele
Links
Fairytale of New York (Cover) – Ed Sheeran
Fairytale of New York (Cover) – Ronan Keating
Listen to this episode of Christmas Time in the City
Author: Chris & Kris
Title: Top 5 New York City Christmas Songs

We celebrate Leon Day 2020 by reviewing Rudolph and Frosty’s Christmas in July, in addition to discussing other Rankin Bass specials and 2020 life in general. Please consider leaving us a review wherever you get your podcasts. We’ll be back to begin Season Two in November!
Email us at snowinsouthtown@gmail.com
Twitter – @snowinsouthtown
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/snowinsouthtown
The following links were mentioned in this episode:
Rankin Bass Quiz – https://play.howstuffworks.com/quiz/have-a-holly-jolly-christmas-this-rankinbass-quiz
What Christmas Movie Best Represents Your Life? – https://play.howstuffworks.com/quiz/what-christmas-movie-best-represents-your-life-hsw
Rankin Bass Rankings – https://www.vox.com/2014/12/24/7446181/worst-christmas-specials
Ralphie’s Red Ryders – https://ralphiesredryders.bandcamp.com
Listen to this episode of the Snow in Southtown Podcast
Author: snowinsouthtown@gmail.com (Snow in Southtown Podcast)
Title: Happy Leon Day 2020
Christmas of Puritans and Pilgrims is the stuff of legends. Unfortunately, most get what is real about the Puritan Christmas wrong because they believe the media and lazy historians.
This article, for example, is a good example of the bad history that out there. It is a mix of truth and just stupid assumption.
It doesn’t help that old images like this are floating around to support their conclusion that Christmas just didn’t happen in New England:
The very same publications that provide that image also provide the proof that Christmas was celebrated in New England and it had been since the arrival of the Mayflower.
Consider this: the Mayflower arrived in 1620. The so-called ban didn’t happen until 1659 — nearly 40 years later. What gives? If they had to ban it then Christmas was a problem, right? If they had to ban Christmas, then it had to have been NOT banned for those 39 years, correct?
So what’s the story? What Christmas a thing for Puritans?
And what about the pilgrims? What is the difference between a Puritan and a Pilgrim? Did those who were NOT Puritans in America celebrate Christmas?
In this episode we answer all these questions. We think you will walk away not only with a better understanding of both Puritans and Pilgrims but of the history of Christmas itself.
If you are American there are good odds that you are descended from someone who came as a Pilgrim in 1607 or as a Puritan in 1620. It is one of the great and positive trends of this weird year of 2020 — the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the Mayflower. Many are finding out just where their roots are in relation to this great and historic event.
If you want to understand those ancestors, then come to know their Christmas. It explains a lot about them all as people.
Listen to this episode of the Merry Little Podcast
Author: Merry Podcaster
Title: Christmas of Puritans and Pilgrims
On this episode, we learn all about “The Santa Box” – a new film made in Utah by Spanky Dustin Ward. It’s about a girl who thinks she’s cursed by Christmas, and what happens next when she moves to a neighborhood that goes all out for the holiday. Plus, this week’s Christmas News!
Listen to this episode of the Sleigh Bells & Mistletoe Christmas Podcast
Author: Rikki Meece and Mary Richards, Christmas Podcasters
Title:
The debut of the new segment called “Making A List.” This month’s list is Artist We Wish Would Make Their First Christmas Album” Also a “Do You Hear What I Hear” in which Todd reviews the Muppets’ 2006 Christmas album A “Red And Green Christmas.”
Listen to this episode of Christmas Clatter
Author: Todd Killian
Title: Please, Make A Christmas Album!
His history goes back through the ages…and he has several names and depictions…and it isn’t Christmas without him. Our vintage Christmas contributor Benjamin Bradley is back this episode to discuss Santa Claus!
Listen to this episode of the Sleigh Bells & Mistletoe Christmas Podcast
Author: Rikki Meece and Mary Richards, Christmas Podcasters
Title: