In this first episode, I introduce myself and give you a general idea of what the podcast will be about.
Then my daughter and I answer those Very Important Christmas Questions, like: What’s your favorite Christmas movie? We also have a mild disagreement as to when it’s OK to start listening to Christmas music.
I also talk briefly about my favorite Christmas story, and give some shout outs to several podcasts that helped inspire me to make my own.
The Victorian Christmas is one of curiosity for a lot of people today. It is a time in Christmas history with a very long reach. It influences today in everything from music to decorating in the modern Christmas.
But what exactly is the Victorian Christmas?
It is a time so big in Christmas history that we just can’t get it all into this episode. This is part one.
In this episode we explore how Christmas in Germany of the 18th century gave rise to Christmas in the Victorian Era. And yes, we take a long gander at Queen Victoria. The Queen, along with contemporary Charles Dickens, gets a lot of credit for the craze of the 19th century Christmas.
We have to myth-bust that a bit. Yes, Victoria deserves some credit for popularizing things like Christmas trees and Christmas cards.
But the truth is that as a child the young Princess Victoria enjoyed a royal Christmas. And so much of what she experienced before she became Queen carried over to when she raised her children under the spot light royalty.
It should be noted more for what the Victorian Christmas did NOT do for Christmas that many people think that it did. It did NOT give us Christmas trees. It did not give us Christmas greetings. It did not all of a sudden cause Christmas to be celebrated around the world.
What it did do is pour gasoline on the secular celebration of Christmas. Christmas accelerated in style and influence during the Victorian Era and that’s the story.
It’s too big of a story to tell in just one episode.
In putting this together we would point you to some past episodes where we have talked about elements of the Victorian Christmas:
Sail back to 1981 with us as we dig up Rankin/Bass’s penultimate and possibly most obscure stop-motion Christmas special ever, “The Leprechauns’ Christmas Gold,” which may or may not only exist because they had the rights to “Christmas in Killarney” and needed someplace to put it.
On This Episode
Mike Westfall (@fallwestmike), tiny but prolific cobbler who only makes shoes in primary colors.
The only thing many remember about this special is its Nightmare Face reveal that a beautiful woman Dinty finds washed ashore is the banshee in disguise.
According to the Christmas Specials Wiki, Arthur Rankin said a promotion was planned involving prizes buried in random places around the United States for children to dig up, but was abandoned for safety concerns.
“Jack O’Lantern,” from Rankin/Bass’s “Festival of Family Classics” TV series, featuring a leprechaun disguised as a pumpkin.
In the 6th episode of Merry Britsmas, for Christmas in July, get ready to learn something about Christmas in the Tudor era, listen to a non-Christmassy Christmas song from a bunch of Scousers (Liverpool-citizens for non Brits!), & the first modern timey-wimey Xmas with Dr Who!
Hey, paisanos! We warp back to 1989 for a double dose of Christmas segments from “The Super Mario Bros. Super Show” — the live-action “Santa Claus is Coming to Flatbush,” featuring Santa losing his “transportation” in Brooklyn; and the animated “Koopa Klaus,” featuring a plot to… freeze the North Pole.
On This Episode
Mike Westfall (@fallwestmike), tiny selfish mushroom baby.
“King Koopa’s Kool Kartoons,” a live-in-studio spinoff show local to Los Angeles and hosted by King Koopa, performed at one point by Christopher Collins, the voice of Cobra Commander.
https://christmaspodcasts.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/adventcalendarhouse.jpg512512Christmas Podmasterhttps://christmaspodcasts.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/logo4-300x138.pngChristmas Podmaster2020-07-15 03:27:022025-08-13 07:07:13Super Mario Bros. Super Show: Koopa Klaus / Santa Claus is Coming to Flatbush
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
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.
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.
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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!
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https://christmaspodcasts.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/tinseltunes.png14001400Christmas Podmasterhttps://christmaspodcasts.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/logo4-300x138.pngChristmas Podmaster2020-06-29 23:09:482020-08-24 23:10:32S2E12 – 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.
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
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.
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)
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The Victorian Christmas is one of curiosity for a lot of people today. It is a time in Christmas history with a very long reach. It influences today in everything from music to decorating in the modern Christmas. 
Christmas 1920 was a transformative time. The war was over and the deadly pandemic had subsided. Life could finally return to normal. 
