Christmas Comes to Pacland

The Advent Calendar House kicks off another Christmas countdown with the original video game crash, which leaves Santa stranded in Pac-Man’s neighborhood in 1982’s “Christmas Comes to Pacland.”

WARNING: This episode contains spoilers about Santa Claus from 11:25 to 13:30.

On This Episode

1. Mike Westfall (@fallwestmike), apparently necessary police officer in a town named after its own savior.
2. Lindy (@ieatvideogames), and
3. Alicia (@thinkbluee), the Sour Puss and Chomp-Chomp to my Pac-Baby.

Topics and Tangents

1. Santa is flying with 8 reindeer, including Rudolph. Who got the night off?
2. Why some reindeer actually have red noses.
3. This might be the first time a Christmas special shows Santa using a computer.
4. Russi Taylor’s Pac-Baby has the same voice she would later use as Robin in “Muppet Babies.”
5. No one in Pacland knows about Christmas, yet the Ghost Monsters know “Jingle Bells,” which admittedly isn’t all that Christmassy, so it gets a pass.
6. Absent from this special is the Ghost Monsters’ boss, Mezmaron, who looks like Darth Vader with his helmet off at the end of “Return of the Jedi.”
7. Is Pac-Man living in a town where everything is shaped like him the Pac-person equivalent of cartoonists drawing faces or eyes on everything to personify them?

Previous Podcast Episodes Mentioned

• He-Man/She-Ra: A Christmas Special (Season 2, Episode 18)
• Mickey’s Twice Upon a Christmas (Season 2, Episode 20)
• Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire (Season 3, Episode 9)
• G.I. Joe: Cobra CLAWs Are Coming to Town (Season 4, Episode 11)

Commercial Break:

• Pac-Man Cereal Commercial, 1984.
• Chef Boyardee Pac-Man Pasta Commercial, 1984.

Christmas Podcast Network promo:

• A Bomb for Christmas, made for podcast Christmas movie by Tim Babb of the Can’t Wait for Christmas Podcast, co-starring Mike as “Captain Willis.”

“Christmas Comes to Pacland” © 1982 Hanna-Barbera Productions.

The Advent Calendar House is on the web at adventcalendar.house, on Instagram @adventcalendarhouse, and on Twitter @adventcalhouse.