Podcast Episodes – Page 6

The Wildly Popular Custom of Christmas Greetings

September 19, 2018/1 Comment/in Merry Little Podcast of MyMerryChristmas.com/by Merry Podcaster

Merry Podcast of MyMerryChristmas.com

The Wildly Popular Custom of Christmas Greetings

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There is a rumor going around that nobody sends Christmas cards any more. Some say the days of stamping envelopes and receiving cards are done.

Don’t believe every rumor you hear.

In this merry episode we explore the ancient — and still wildly popular — custom of Christmas greetings.

Of course, the average historian will take you back to the 1840’s to give you the history of Christmas greetings. That’s dumb.

Christmas greetings actually go back way before Christ. In fact, they are among the oldest of Christmas traditions.

Better still: greetings are a tradition that continues to grow in popularity.

This fascinating trip back in Christmas time just might restore your will to buy, write and stamp cards for sending.

Great Moments in North Pole Radio

September 12, 2018/0 Comments/in Merry Little Podcast of MyMerryChristmas.com/by Merry Podcaster

Merry Podcast of MyMerryChristmas.com

Great Moments in North Pole Radio

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A light departure this time around as we explore some great moments from North Pole radio.

Not everyone can listen to the great broadcast coverage of Santa’s flight on Christmas Eve. That is why now and then we package up a few highlights. They are a lot of fun and they set a great mood for those just itching to get a little Christmas going.

The North Pole trusts their news to nobody. They do it completely themselves. For hours before Santa launches the sleigh until he returns home they provide a steady stream of news coverage from the North Pole.

Through gracious arrangements with SantaUpdate.com and Kringle Radio, we provide just a glimpse of their merriness right here on the Merry Little Podcast.

These selected news segments give you another view of Christmas and of Santa in particular.

It’s a fun listen and a great departure from the usual fare. Let the kid in you loose as you enjoy a little news from the North Pole!

Christmas in the 60s

September 5, 2018/0 Comments/in Merry Little Podcast of MyMerryChristmas.com/by Merry Podcaster

Merry Podcast of MyMerryChristmas.com

Christmas in the 60s

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Christmas in the 60s is not as fondly remembered as Christmases of previous decades. We think that perception should change.

The 1960s were incredible years in many ways. Politics shifted, music morphed, movies changed, and society itself seemed at times to unravel. They were turbulent and violent years. They were years where the worst of us seemed to star on television every night.

Christmas did get caught up in all that. But did Christmas change, as the times did?

After all, in the 1960s Bing was still a bright Christmas star. So too was Perry Como and Frank Sinatra. We still had Christmas trees, mistletoe and Santa Claus.

But we had aluminum Christmas trees, soul Santa and Christmas-in-space.

We think Christmas got better.

Yes, indeed, Christmas did change. It grew, became more diverse — and yet, Christmas of time and tradition, also stubbornly held on.

It was a time of great Christmas contrasts.

In this merry episode we explore how Christmas old and new collided during the turbulent 1960s and we wonder what lessons we can take away from those days now.

In many ways, it is fair to say we have not learned enough — or maybe done enough — about the things that divide us.

This episode cannot touch on it all, of course. We take a long look at A Charlie Brown Christmas…and share a piece of the Merry Podcast episode #63 featuring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Christmas Too Early

August 20, 2018/0 Comments/in Merry Little Podcast of MyMerryChristmas.com/by Merry Podcaster

Merry Podcast of MyMerryChristmas.com

Christmas Too Early

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Complaining about Christmas too early seems to be a season in its own right. In fact, it has become predictable when the media starts moaning about Christmas in stores and Christmas music on the radio. Christmas, they say, comes earlier and earlier every year. But does it?

History says just the opposite. It starts later — not earlier.

We talk about the history of early Christmas in this merry episode and why the tendency is to blame stores for Christmas making an appearance too soon.

Some people have legitimate gripes about Christmas. Everything from having lost a loved one to suffering from stress, anxiety or depression is a real-enough part of the holiday season for many people. What about Christmas too early for those folks? What do you say, what do you do?

The modern Christmas is a complex thing. But we think a delicate balance can be achieved by understanding things the way they are and the way they have always been.

For much of modern Christmas history the urge, the tendency and the encouragement has been to always buy Christmas early. Stores do play their part but there are practical reasons they do when they do. We talk about those things.

But the real power of the early Christmas comes from sources many do not consider. It comes from the government and the pressure of world events. We discuss the history of those things, too.

Take for example the image from the upper right. It comes from a very early 20th century newspaper editorial urging folks to shop early in order to give retailer workers a break from the last minute rush.

The first world war was another period when “buy early” was the watchword for a nation anxious to support the war effort. “Buy early” was also the cry by none other than Franklin Roosevelt during the Great Depression.

But at the end of the day is that it? Does Christmas in stores really define what some call Christmas creep? And is that honestly such an awful thing?

Pumpkin Love

August 13, 2018/2 Comments/in Merry Little Podcast of MyMerryChristmas.com/by Merry Podcaster

Merry Podcast of MyMerryChristmas.com

Pumpkin Love

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Most people associate pumpkin with Halloween, right?

And why not? The jack-o-lantern, the festive color, the carve-a-bility and all that of pumkpins make it a great way to mark fall and the festive party we all know as Halloween.

Pumpkin as well anchors the after-glow of Thanksgiving. Once the stuffed turkey is dispatched it is time to bring on the pie.

But I tell you the love of pumpkin is the first truly American element of Christmas.

Yes, I said Christmas.

Pumpkin love in America begins with Christmas.

It has always been so and in this merry episode — and actually at 26-minutes this podcast is more of a pumpkin love fest — we get into the whys of pumpkin love and Christmas history.

It is more than a thing. It is a forever element of what we call the holiday season — the first of many iconic aymbols of Christmas that we just love. Pumpkin is as popular and as necessary as mistletoe, Christmas trees, wreaths, candy canes and eggnog.

That’s how much we love it.

How did the lowly, tasteless pumpkin become so beloved?

Well, like fat, bald husbands everywhere that which is normal and bland is in truth indispensible.

Pumpkin is versatile, has a long shelf life, is festively colored and mixes well with, well, everything.

Apple pie is America’s favorite. But nobody wants it at Christmas or Thanksgiving. That is exclusively the place for pumpkin.

In fact, pumpkin has been so beloved in American history that scores of newspapers have over time featured stories and even poetry about the pumpkin.

There are very good reasons for this.

If you have a pumpkin obsession — and seeing how pumpkin goes into everything this time of year, you must — this episode justifies you.

Loving pumpkin does not make you a freak. It makes you a patriot of the first order and it could very well run in your veins if you are of Puritan ancestory.

Celebrating 200 Years of Silent Night

August 6, 2018/0 Comments/in Merry Little Podcast of MyMerryChristmas.com/by Merry Podcaster

Merry Podcast of MyMerryChristmas.com

Celebrating 200 Years of Silent Night

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Silent Night is arguably the most popular Christmas song of all time. You thought it was White Christmas, right?

White Christmas might have the biggest sales numbers from a single artist…but Silent Night collectively from artists all over the world have easily outsold White Christmas.

Of course, it had a bit of a head start.

Born of humble origins in Obendorf, Germany 200 years ago in 1818, Silent Night has for generations enjoyed tremendous popularity that never seems to wane. It has been recorded in dozens of languages and in nearly every country in the world. Unlike White Christmas, Silent Night is performed annually by memory from crowds who gather at Christmas all over the world.

Can White Christmas say that?

In this merry episode we bring you the history — and bust a few myths — about the Christmas classic Silent Night.

Did you know, for example, that Silent Night is so revered in Austria that you can’t use it to promote a product or to make money?

What is it about Silent Night that makes it so attractive? Why is it that we can sing it from memory — without even thinking about it for more than a year?

This is the power of the music — and the message — of Silent Night.

A Festive Rant about Bruce Willis, Die Hard and Christmas

July 27, 2018/0 Comments/in Merry Little Podcast of MyMerryChristmas.com/by Merry Podcaster

Merry Podcast of MyMerryChristmas.com

A Festive Rant about Bruce Willis, Die Hard and Christmas

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Stop the presses: Bruce Willis — who is, in the grand scheme of things, uh, nobody — has declared that Die Hard is not a Christmas movie.

The media loves this kind of thing. Read about it here, here, here or here.

News to us.

This movie has Christmas music, Christmas trees, Christmas decorations, Christmas presents, Christmas foods, and Christmas sound effects. The whole thing is set at a Christmas party. The soundtrack has Christmas classics in it like “Let It Snow“, among others. It uses the phrase “ho, ho, ho” and it’s not about a trashy woman.

So this merry little episode contains a little memo to Bruce Willis: Die Hard is a Christmas movie, pal.

Ok, so many we go off on Bruce a little bit. But it is not like he didn’t have it coming. This guy hasn’t had a hit movie since the 1980s, for pete’s sake.

Technically, there are a LOT of Christmas movies out there that aren’t…in the strictest sense…um, Christmas movies. It’s A Wonderful Life is not about Christmas (but it is a Christmas movie). Did you ever hear Jimmy Stewart deny it?

No, because Jimmy Stewart had class. He had brains. And he probably has a publicist.

Bruce evidently doesn’t have any of those.

Anyway, we can’t talk about Bruce “Pinhead” Willis for the whole episode — and we don’t. This episode also covers the Christmas Anniversaries of 2018.

The Patriot Christmas

June 26, 2018/0 Comments/in Merry Little Podcast of MyMerryChristmas.com/by Merry Podcaster

Merry Podcast of MyMerryChristmas.com

The Patriot Christmas

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The Christmas of patriots — those who lived before, during and just after the American Revolution — was no small event. Historians like to say that Christmas in America wasn’t a thing. But don’t ask these patriots; they loved Christmas.

Who are these patriots? They are John Adams, Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson.

Each came from a different part of the Colonies. Each had unique thoughts of not only what America should be and what it could become. And each of them celebrated Christmas.

In this merry episode we take a seasonal patriotic look at Christmas in the Colonies as modeled by these greatest of American patriots.

Adams was a child and grandson of Puritan America. Surely he “hated” Christmas, eh? Surely he dismissed it as the Puritans did, right? No, he celebrated it just as they did — as families. Puritans, you see, didn’t outlaw Christmas altogether. They outlawed the raucous Christmas of England in the 1600s. The Puritans, though, were Christians of the first order. And they DID celebrate Christmas. The Adams family Christmas was actually prototpyical of families all over New England and their traditions were born of the generations who came before.

Thomas Jefferson was a Southerner and he celebrated Christmas like a Southerner. That is to say — hugely. The more the merrier, in fact. Jefferson was something of a Christmas ground breaker. He gave gifts to his loved one long before it became an American tradition.

Benjamin Franklin not only declared Christmas his most festive day he also documented it as a widely held event for all Americans. He WAS the media of his day. In this episode we tell of a famous Christmas experiment of electricity the eccentric Franklin took up with his feast of turkey — a tale you’ve likely never heard before.

You will not want to miss the Patriot Christmas.

Leon Day

June 20, 2018/0 Comments/in Merry Little Podcast of MyMerryChristmas.com/by Merry Podcaster

Merry Podcast of MyMerryChristmas.com

Leon Day

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Leon Day will soon be upon us! Are you ready? Do you celebrate Leon Day?

This is the real deal, folks. Leon is Noel spelled backwards — and it takes six months to turn it around.

Leon Day falls on June 25th, marking the halfway point to Christmas. And many, many people celebrate it in one way or another. It is a serious point on the calendar that signals to folks it is okay to get started in making merry.

In fact, there is even a petition recently launched to make Leon Day a National Holiday so that folks can celebrate a little Christmas — even if it is only halfway.

If you want to learn a little more about the History of Leon Day, head on over to our website at My Merry Christmas. Or, take a listen here to learn all about it.