December 31, 2019 • 34 mins
Christmas carols have a storied, strange history. Join the guys on the last day of 2019 as they crack open the eggnog and dive into the ridiculous histories of some of the season's most popular Christmas songs, from the story of 'Hopalong boots' to the weird tradition of wassailing.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
(00:27):
to the show Ridiculous Historians. As always, thank you so
much for tuning in. As is our want. It is
past Christmas, it's the very last day of the year,
so we're gonna crack open some homemade egg nog into
a Christmas episode just a few days late. I'm Ben.
I am the first Noel, the last last one. So okay,
(00:52):
so I am opening this are super producer Casey Pegram
You you nogging up man. I'm not gonna a cup.
I don't have a cup. I'm just gonna drink it.
You didn't bring your knog My knogg is at home. Okay,
well you guess that's want to taste taste we can cheers. Okay, great,
my first nogg. Do we give the knog backstory we
(01:13):
did in the last episode we did previous episode, So
cheers to you Ridiculous Historians everybody. We're as we record
as you hear this. Actually we're just a few a
few short hours away from twenty twenties, So give your
loved ones a hug, call someone you miss, let them
know you've got their back in the coming year. Cheers, Cheers, lush,
(01:39):
some strong knog. Okay, so it's a lot on the
mic there, Sorry guys. So backstory of our nog this
was This was made as we mentioned in previous or
as we mentioned in a different episode. This was made
by our our composer for Ridiculous History, one Alex Williams,
also producer of Note, host of the Delightful, Delightfully Quirky
(02:04):
I Heart podcast Ephemeral, has worked on such true crime
blockbusters as Atlanta, Monster, Monsters, Zodiac, and h a lot
of other cool stuff. And he's a he's a real
noster um. He makes this every year and brings to
the office and they go like hotcakes. And it is
based on his interpretation of George Washington. Yes, that George
(02:27):
Washington's incredibly booze heavy famous eggnog recipe, which is kind
of a we we talked about it in a previous episode.
So just go find uh find whatever the heck we
were doing on this show a year ago. And then
and then uh, you'll you'll hear us, you'll hear us
give a breakdown of the recipe. I'm gonna try to
(02:49):
keep up with this nog while we're doing today's episode.
But this is heavier than I. Remember, you got a
lot more nogg than me. I'm I'm just I just
had a little taste of boy I already feel it
really packs a wallop. I'm trying to find just a
rundown of the ingredients without like going through the actual method.
I've got it. Oh wait, here we go. I got
one here too. We can just launch your list off
(03:10):
real quick. Yeah, let's do it. So, he says, one
quart cream, one quart milk, one dozen tablespoon and sugar
and then and then the alcohol starts. That's right, one
pint brandy, one half pint rye whiskey, one half pint
Jamaican rum, one quarter pint sherry, and and you mix
(03:31):
the liquor first, then separate the yolks and whites of
twelve eggs, add sugar to the beaten yolks and mix well.
And then you add the milk and cream, and you're
slowly beating at the whole time. Then you beat the
egg white stiller stiff. You fold them into the mixture.
Then you put it somewhere away for several days, tasting frequently.
(03:53):
So it's crazy. This sounds like a frat house kind
of recipe. Yeah, man, I I think it's gonna take
me a while to get this down. What do you think? Yeah,
what do you think? Yeah? This is one to save
or over an extended period of time. I completely agree.
We were having this debate off air. We are getting
to an episode also by spoiler alert, at some point
(04:15):
we'll get to what we're supposed to be doing here.
But we were talking about this off air. There is
a debate about cold v hot nog. Are you a
hot dog person or you a cold dog person? I
think we're we're cold noggins over here, right, big time, forcefully. Yeah,
although I do understand the potential appeal of a warm
not hot nog because it's sort of like a hot,
(04:37):
creamy drink, you know, like a hot cocoa or something,
and it could work. Yeah, you were saying something like
thirty seconds in the micro thirty seconds in the microwave, okay,
And I can see that. You know, you're like by
a fire baby, it's cold outside, that kind of thing.
That song is very problematic. It is, We're excredibly problematic.
It's strange that it was so popular for so long
and we are talking about of smith songs today with
(05:01):
a little bit of help from our pal, longtime friend
of the show and personal friend of the three of us,
Christopher hauciotis here in Christmas Spirit Chrismas Spirit. I started
saying that, I just never stopped. I don't. I don't
know why I say that, but I guess I just
you know, he was here from the start. Uh. He
was our research associate early on before our boy Gabe
(05:22):
joined the show. And now Christopher is often doing exciting
things on his own, uh, And so I always feel
like he is with us, and we still work with him.
You know, it's not we always have the Christopher a
spirit here, you know. Uh, Christopher will be returning to
the show in the new year. But now he's, as
you said, old, doing some some other things. He came
(05:43):
to us, as he so often does, with this fantastic
idea that we thought would be pretty interesting. You see, Christopher,
amongst his many talents, he's he's a cracker jack writer,
and he hipped us to the story behind all those
Christmas carols that people have been hearing. And you know,
(06:03):
the weird thing about Christmas carols is in that liminal
period between Christmas Day and December thirty one, or sorry,
January one, you still kind of hear those songs, right,
and it seems like they start every like, when's the
first time this year you guys heard a Christmas song
that would count as like Christmas season. It's usually like
(06:24):
in a grocery store like way pre Christmas season. I
would say the the less the least egregious early time
for hearing Christmas music would be like after Thanksgiving. It's
usually day one after Thanksgiving. I would agree with that
being the least egregious. But I've heard, you know, I'm
(06:45):
a Halloween guy myself from multiple levels, so I've heard
some instrumental Christmas music playing like not three days into November.
That's heresy. And they've already got, you know, the seasonal
aisle decorated with stuff. Place smells like cinnamon brooms, just
get your I think it's because it's such an economic
(07:07):
boom to brick and mortar stores. But before we do this,
we do have to have a trigger, a warning for
anybody who feels like they've heard too much Christmas music.
We're not gonna be heavy on it, but we may
have some clips pop up here and there. Right, Yeah,
I would just about guarantee you um so. A point
Christopher makes in this article you wrote for How Stuff
(07:28):
Works back in the day is that advertisers and marketers
are big fan of the whole idea of the lead
up to Christmas as we know, it happens earlier and
earlier every year, it seems like, and it's a little vexing, honestly,
but they kind of they relish it because they want
to sell as much stuff and give people as much
opportunity to remind people that the Christmas season is coming,
(07:50):
because it also comprises about of all us annual retail sales.
And uh, I would say the crown jewels of the
lead up to Christmas song would be the twelve Days
of Christmas, you know, with the what is it piper's
piping and the drummer's drumming and partridge that's the last one.
(08:13):
That's that's you can get there eventually. Do you know
all of them? I don't. Let's see, no, I'm sorry.
The partridge in the pear tree is the first one.
So it's the partridge in a pair. This will be
a fun quiz. Let's see if I can get this.
We've got partridge in a pear tree, um, two turtle doves,
three French hens, four calling birds, five old rings, five
(08:35):
gold rings. That's the big like the hook right there? Um,
four calling birds, three French hens, two turtle does, and
a partridge in a pear tree. So it's nine lords
of leaping, ten ladies dancing. What is it? Eight six
six six hens a land, seven pipers piping, eight lords
(08:59):
of leaping, uh, nine ladies dancing, ten swansa swimming eleven
geza laying. I'm gonna make new lyrics trap. I've named
them all, I think, but I haven't named them in
the exact correct order. I think it's the only fight.
Let's see. Let's see. Oh, it doesn't go in order.
It doesn't go chronologically in terms of the days versus
(09:21):
the number of things. Because on the third day of
Christmas you got five golden rings. So yeah, I bring
that up because that's something that a lot of a
lot of us miss. You know, it's it's funny. Um,
I would agree, it's a trivial question. I don't know
if it's a fun trivial question. I think just because
I'm not the biggest fan of that song, but I
am a fan of that Song's history. It first shows
(09:43):
up in England in seventeen eighties, so it's a little
bit more recent in the English version than I had
always assumed. But reportedly it has French origins. Is that correct?
That is correct? And it's meant to build anticipation for
Christmas Day. Uh, not so much in a retail way,
(10:03):
but in more of a religious way, because the Christmas
season lasts all the way up until Epiphany on January six,
and that's the day that most Christians actually associate with
the birth uh and specifically baptism of Jesus. And uh,
the whole gift exchange wasn't really as big of a
(10:24):
thing as it is today. Um, but yeah, that was
when you would you would actually tend to exchange gifts
on Epiphany, not on December given away on January six. Now, Uh,
this is this is public to me. They're numerous uh
different interpretations of this song. Casey, could you, in the
(10:45):
in the spirit of late Christmas, which is what I
am dubbing our our holiday here, could you give us
a little taste On the first day of chrissm Troo
Love said to me apartrogen a pear tree. On the
second day of Christmas, my true love said to me
(11:08):
two turtle doves and a part rege and a pear
tree on the third day of next Up. No, no,
I know that you and I are fans of musicals, Casey,
are you a fan of of music musicals? It depends,
(11:31):
It really really depends. I could not say yes as
a overall category, but there are exceptions. Okay, So basically,
if it's not, if it's not Little Chapa Horrors, forget
about it. Yeah, more or less. Know. I mean, there's
there's some great stuff, but you know, just something about Yeah,
it's just not my thing. It's I don't go deep
(11:52):
without genre. Yeah, that's just cats right, that's your favorite. Well,
I am kind of excited to see cats Man the
Early River though. Boy the reviews that I want to
see it before they fix it. I want to see
all the like rendering errors and like, you know the
where they like didn't mix it right, that's right, it's
pretty wild. Um. Yeah. No, I'm a bit of a
musical nerd um, not like encyclopedically so, but I'm definitely
(12:15):
a fan and I am not aware of the musical
Meet me in St. Louis from four starring Judy Garland. Uh,
and that is where the song have Yourself a Merry
Little Christmas became a very special and important Christmas song.
Have yourselfs Oh, merry Little Christmas makes you tide good
(12:50):
troubles miles away. And I am a huge fan of
that song. I actually I think it's quite charming and
very sweet. Yeah, it's sweet. It's way better than babe
it's cold outside. Uh. So you're right. This was introduced
in nineteen forty four, but Christopher argues that it became
(13:13):
more famous or more canonical, at least thanks to the
nineteen fifty seven cover by Frank Sinatra. And there's a
line in there about making the Yule Tide gay, as
many of our listeners already know, doubtlessly, gay in this
sense is in its original sense a synonym for happy
(13:35):
or cheerful. But where does Yule Tide come from? Yeah,
it's like the Yule log, you know, like the it's
it's a an ancient Germanic festival, more of a pagan
thing that would have been held in midwinter. Um called Yule,
and tide is an Old English word for a season,
which makes sense turning tides, you know, But that's also
(13:58):
refers to tide in the ocean, which are tied to
the moon, which tied to the season, you know, like
changing of the season, and then tied plus tied the
hominem's they abound. I also makes me wonder about words
such as even tide, which it was maybe a different thing.
Here's here's another one. What does it mean to troll?
(14:22):
The ancient Yule tide Carol? That's one of the lines
carol ers sing when they get through deck the hallsn
we now are la la la la, la la la,
the ancient attack Carol, La la la la la attack it.
(14:44):
I'm gonna take a guess, troll. I bet it's almost
like skipping the light fantastic, you know what I mean?
Like tripping the light fantastic a sort of to you know,
troll that you know, like to give it your all,
to like really lean into it and and give it
a boisterous performance kind of you know, you're I like
(15:05):
where your head's at. You're on the right path there
because according to the o E Ed, troll has numerous meetings.
One of them is to sing in a happy and
care free way. So you kind of got it there
right there are older meanings like moving around in a
circular way, or singing songs that kind of row row
(15:28):
row your boat around, yeah, around, So you could do
that with deck dolls. Yeah, and how about this back
to some old English traditions. The melody of deck the
Halls is actually originally from a Welsh song, a traditional
Welsh song called nos Galan or New Year's Eve, and
(15:49):
that's back from the early seventeen hundreds. It was as
many of these types of songs were a drinking song.
And that's where we get the original line um that
was changed to dawn we now are gay apparel, which
as we know, means put on our happy clothes, are
Christmas sweaters and such. In the original it was Phil
(16:10):
the mead cup drained the barrel. Alright, Yeah, a little more,
a little harder on the paint, right. And what's fascinating,
even from a folkloric perspective, is the way we see
these songs evolve over time with different lyrics, different interpretations,
and sometimes entire melodies lifted and an entire set of
(16:32):
different lyrics put on them. Sometimes they change the meaning.
There's a song that I have a soft spot in
my heart for called It's beginning to look a lot
like Christmas, which talks about a town transforming, a pair
of hop along books, an epistle that chooses the worst
Shibani and Ben Doll. It'll talk a little gol for
(16:52):
a walk because the hope for Jennison gen hard And
it's an anticipatory song. It's meant to build excitement, sort
of the same way the Twelve Days of Christmas is
in this song. You know, people put up decorations, they're
getting a better mood. Kids start to think about the
presence they would like, and they name presents like a
(17:15):
pair of hop along boots and a pistol that shoots,
and then dolls that will talk and so on. So
we get it, toy, pistol dolls. But what exactly are
hop along boots? Have you ever had a pair of
hop along boots? Anybody? No? It would have been like
hop Along Cassidy, the famous Western cowboy, the actor Bill Cassidy, Right, Yeah,
(17:36):
popular character Bill Cassidy. So it's beginning to look a
lot like Christmas comes out in Bill Cassidy. Is this
He's the cowboy who drinks sasaparilla. He made that famous
Sioux City Sasaparilla. Perhaps Uh he had a weird walk
because he got shot in the leg in the course
(17:58):
of his adventures, and p gave him the nickname hop
Along And so since he had this nickname hop Along
from his storied career. Of course, whenever you do a
show that children love, it's all about the moychandizing. Right,
that's a Spaceball's reference. So around the time that it's
beginning to look a lot like Christmas drops. In nineteen
(18:20):
fifty one, hop Along Cassidy boots were a popular child's
item or toy. You know. They were like the air
Jordan's for the kiddies, uh where they were like uh
you know, they weren't on the level of a Tickle
Me Elmo, but they were still very very popular. Yeah,
it's true, um, and that you can actually find some
branding behind it online. Uh. Just hop Along Cassidy acme
(18:44):
cowboy boots. Here's your pal, hop Along Cassidy and his
brand new cowboy boots. And they're sort of kids size.
He's holding them like with two fingers, like they're very tiny. Um,
you can still buy some in the style. It's uh,
it's a pretty traditional shorter cowboy boot with kind of
like in lave eagle looking things on the front and
the back stitched in. Pretty pretty cool actually. So the
(19:06):
next tune, or the next concept, I should say, is
one that I actually learned about a little while ago,
but I I still think is pretty weird. So most
of our popular Christmas songs here in the States come from,
you know, the mid twentieth century, nineteen fifties or so.
(19:27):
And that's because the concept of Christmas could be uniformly
impressed upon the audience, or they come from Northern Europe
in the seventeen hundreds and eighteen hundreds. There is a
song called here We Come a wasstling that's still around.
If you're you are you familiar with this one? Watle
was like a drink, right, yeah, yeah, you've got it. Yeah.
(19:50):
And then a wastling was also just a caroling while
drinking said drink, I imagine um? Or is it just
drinking in public? Is that what wastling is? I think
the would go, that's that's a crime. Uh, let's let's
look at both parts of those questions. So the wasstle
itself is an alcoholic beverage. It served hot like muld cider,
(20:13):
punch or for some reprobates nog, and it comes from
an Old English term that means be well, apparently washstling itself,
as the tradition involves a band of singers or carolers
going door to door in their neighborhood and they're singing
Christmas songs and they're offering their audience the home dwellers
(20:35):
drinks from a huge bucket of wasstle they'd carry with them.
(21:05):
But it was a transaction. It wasn't just a free
song and a drink. What you like, gather people up
right and they take them along with you. Isn't that
a thing? I believe so definitely the knocking people's door
and then when they come out you like that you
invite them to join you. Kind of that sounds like
a lot of fun, I know. At the very least homeowners,
after they would listen to the song and have a
(21:25):
drink of this booze, they would have to give the
sailors the whostlers some stuff, right, interesting quid pro quo.
It's almost like more of a tricker treat situation, really,
very much so. And this is all reflected on the
lyrics do we wish you a Merry Christmas when the
(21:46):
carollers demand some figgy pudding and we won't go until
we get some cup What is figgy pudding? Figgy pudding
(22:14):
is almost like a pound cake kind of or it's
like one of those circle cakes, you know, like with
a hole in the middle. Um, it's dense. Uh. It
has figs chopped densely, you know. Buttermilk. Um sort of
almost like a whole wheat flour situation. Um, nutmeg, cinnamon,
that's basically a sugar. Okay, it looks pretty good. You're
(22:37):
like a fig Yeah, yeah, yeah, I make the I
make a pretty mean brion crew with a nice fig
Is it like a briefe like a cheese thing baked brize? Uh,
that's weird. Okay, So now I know what figgy pudding is.
What's our what's our next song on the list? Mr? Brown? Well,
(22:57):
I'll tell you my friend. Next on the list? We
have Uh, it's the most wonderful time of the year. Um.
And the concept of telling ghost stories on Christmas, which is,
you know, to a modern audience, might seem a little off.
There's a line in we Wish You a Merry Christmas. Uh,
they'll be scary ghost stories and tales of the glories
(23:21):
of Christmas is long long ago. Scary ghost stories at
Christmas get out of here be parties for hosting marshpellas
for toasting and caroling out in the snow, there'll be
scary ghost stories and tales of the glories of Christmas
is long long ago. Yeah, it is weird, right because
(23:45):
we think of ghost stories as more of a Howoween
tradition or maybe when you're out camping somewhere. But it
turns out that telling ghost stories during Christmas time is
an old English tradition that was completely normal and unremarkable
for people during the Victorian era, at least according to
(24:06):
the Paris Review, the Smithsonian, and other sources. And if
you think about it, it makes sense because you're in
like the dark of winter, you and your family and
friends are hanging out. There's no television, there's no radio,
there's no speed walking competition, so you're left to your
own devices and tell each other engaging spooky stories. And
(24:28):
you know, when you think about it, a Christmas Carol
by Charles Dickens is very much a ghost story of
it is. It gets downright spooky at times. Have you
ever seen the Mickey Mouse Christmas Carol? Yes, yes, I have. Yeah. Yeah,
the big scary dog guy whose name I'm forgetting now
he no, no, he's like Goofy's nemesis. He plays he
(24:53):
plays the death figure, you know, the ghost of Christmas Future.
That's correct, the evil. Yeah. He's like a like a
scythe carrying uh death and he's smoking a cigar and
he's very he's very intimidating. I remember being kind of
spooked by that movie. Um, I of course very much
enjoy uh the Bill Murray film Scrooged. Yeah, that's my rewatch.
(25:15):
I love sco It's a nice marriage of Halloween and Christmas.
For halloween er such as myself, I also enjoyed Nightmare
Before Christmas. There's a great great comedy show here in
our fair metropolis of Atlanta called Invasion Christmas Carol, put
on by one of my improv Alma Moters, which is
(25:35):
Dad's garage out there just down the street from us.
And they do uh comedic take on a Christmas Carol.
But here's there, here's their stick, and I swear to
god it works every show they do. Each time they
do this show, they have someone come in as an
unannounced character and purposefully try to wreck the show, purposely
(25:57):
try to wreck the story and just like distract people
and just raise havoc. No like insert themselves into the
story as themselves though no, it's different character whoever they want.
Like like the last night before recorded this, h Thomas
the Tank Engine was one of the characters and he
was terrifying because they did. He came in as you
(26:19):
went a tank. No, no, no, I know the guy
was doing it. He was picturing. He was showing me
the costume and it's it's like the costume is too
big to get through the podcast doors. I find Thomas
the Tank a little bit menacing honestly. Oh yeah, Charlie
the Chucco as well, you know what I mean, Charlie
the Cucco is an off brand Thomas the Tank. I
(26:39):
think maybe I'm thinking of this Stephen King. Charlie, Uh,
it's a it's a different thing. Okay, god it you
may have just made it up. And no, no, no,
no oh, I'm thinking of blame the motto as well.
No anthropomorphized locomotives in general, I don't want to pay
one too broad of a brush, but in general, I
don't care for them. You're right, Charlie. The Cucci was
a children's book by Stephen King, the very menacing cover. Yes,
(27:03):
it looks like a book, is it not. It's a
children's book that occurs. Oh no, it's not by Stephen King.
It has a review at the top by Stephen King.
It's by Beryl Evans, but it's mentioned in his Dark
Tower series. Interesting in a in a menacing way. It
is by Stephen King. You put it out under a pseudonym,
(27:24):
had he had to make a new one after Bachman
got burnt. Casey on the case. Huh our second Stephen
King reference in as many episodes from the world of
the Dark Tower. But it appears to be a children's book.
I like this, but I'm not aware. So we have
one more story because we are, of course in rush
(27:44):
to get our last pieces of business done to ring
in the new year. And and it's been a great
year so far, you know, I give it overall. I
think we've we've had a good time, but we're ready
for what is our last Christmas song? What is the
last song we talked about today? Last Christmas? Yes, that
(28:07):
is my favorite Christmas song of all time. Oh, I
love that. Can we get a little taste Christmas? Oh yeah, smooth,
(28:33):
smooth as ever. I don't know if this is true,
but I remember on that show Clarissa explains it all.
She was really into George Michael and she says his
real name, and it's apparently Georgio Pantio two. Yep, uh,
Georgios Chicos. Yeah nice? Great? Is that Greek? Sounds very cristy? Yeah,
(28:54):
it was his His father was a Greek restaurant tour
And of course the uh. This song, which is a
personal favoritist from Friends of Mine, is still not as
popular as All I Want for Christmas by Mariah Carey,
which is the the juggernaut of the season. It just
hit number one after like decades. It's the uh, I think,
(29:18):
the second most delayed number one Billboard hit UH, and
it's never gonna beat the first one because it was
Vera Lynn, who was a famous UM singer English singer
UM and she was like in her nineties when this
song hit number one. So what is the last song
for today's show? Winter Wonderland from nineteen hundred and thirty four, Well,
(29:43):
in the meadow we can build a Snowman and pretended
he is possible round. He'll say, oh, you're married, Wilson.
No man, but you can do the job when you're
on town. That paints a lovely went here a scene
with two lovers strolling down the lane, gentle snowfall in
(30:06):
the meadow. We can we can build a snowman and
pretend that he is Parson Brown. Who's Parson Brown? Yeah, casey,
give me a record scratch. Who's this Parson Brown guy?
I always thought it was Carson Brown. That's just some
dude they know who hates snowman. They need to mock him, yeah,
or love snowman, and they need to build a monument
(30:27):
to him. So parson is a title, it's not a
first name. I thought it was like a famous person
or something. So this is this is news to me.
I'm into this. Give it to me. Oh, he's just
he's a parson, someone who has the ability to marry people.
A parson is a physician in Christian clergy, like Thomas Blood.
So he's there just as they're trying to make the
(30:49):
snowman into a clergyman so that he can marry them
on the spot. Yeah, there super into each other, and
this winter Wonderland is more than they can handle. And
one note here for snowman chronology. Snowman themselves, for a
long time had buttons who nose. Carrot noses are a
(31:12):
new thing, and if you think about it, there are
a thing that comes from a time of plenty, because
usually if someone had a carrot, they would just eat it.
Frosty the Snowman had a corn cob pipe and a
button nose and two eyes, I mean had a coal
dead eyes like a doll's eyes or you know what
I mean. You know what I'm gonna say, Oh, what's
(31:32):
the what's his name? Give it to him a really
remind me of it? Is? Is it Scarlett Johansson? No? No,
yes it is No someone you always say has dead eyes?
Who is it? And I'm like, you know, why did
you get did you get on notice? Did you get
put on notice? No? I'm just in you know, I
in the spirit of christopherm Us. I'm gonna I'm gonna
(31:52):
remain positive, you know, So Happy holidays to everyone with
live eyes and dead eyes alike. What I say, this
nog has given me weird hand sweats by boys. I
got the knock sweats. Yeah, yeah, yeah, uh, this this
has been a brief look into Carol's This is just
a again a very brief, very brief dive into some
(32:16):
of these. But we hope that you, like us, have
found some things that you didn't know about some of
your favorite seasonal songs. Also, I'm curious, are you someone
who loves or hates Christmas music? The Internet is such
a divisive place that every year I don't see anybody
who has like a mild take on Christmas songs. I
(32:38):
don't see anybody just lets the waves wash over them.
I see people who love love love them, or hate
hate hate them. So what are you let us know?
Let us know what your favorite Christmas songs are, or
your favorite holiday songs. We should say holiday, because these
don't all have to be you know, Christmas carols or whatever.
We also want to hear some of your least favorite
(32:59):
and I am going to I'm gonna shout out a
very very strange song from the cognitive hinterlands of country music,
which is maybe familiar to some of us listening. It
is Santa's Coming in a worly Bird. Have you guys
ever heard of this? I don't believe so no A
(33:21):
worly bird at the time was slang for a helicopter.
I'm just you know, you can look it up yourself.
I don't know if we have the rights to play it.
The boy, it's a weird way. Thank you as always
to Christopher hasiotis uh the namesake of Christopher Us and
the Christopher mass Spirit. Thanks, of course the super producer
(33:41):
Casey Pegram. Big thanks to Alex Williams for the nog
and for the tunes for this beautiful song that you're
hearing right now, which kind of has a Christmas Eve
vibe to it in a weird way. Maybe I'm just
contextualizing them because I'm getting into spirit. This is my
last day at the office for a little minute, and
I'm very pleased uh about that fact. Huge thanks to
(34:02):
Gabe our research associates, uh Eve's Jeff Coats check her
out on this day in history class and Afro punk
solution sessions. Yes yeah yeah, And also huge Christopher miss
thanks to Jonathan Strickland a k a. The Ridiculous Grin,
Charion a k a. Young Quizzles a k a. The Quizter.
(34:26):
We hope that you have a fantastic twenty We can't
wait to see what adventures you have and uh, what
wonders await you? What's al For more podcasts from my
heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
(00:27):
to the show Ridiculous Historians. As always, thank you so
much for tuning in. As is our want. It is
past Christmas, it's the very last day of the year,
so we're gonna crack open some homemade egg nog into
a Christmas episode just a few days late. I'm Ben.
I am the first Noel, the last last one. So okay,
(00:52):
so I am opening this are super producer Casey Pegram
You you nogging up man. I'm not gonna a cup.
I don't have a cup. I'm just gonna drink it.
You didn't bring your knog My knogg is at home. Okay,
well you guess that's want to taste taste we can cheers. Okay, great,
my first nogg. Do we give the knog backstory we
(01:13):
did in the last episode we did previous episode, So
cheers to you Ridiculous Historians everybody. We're as we record
as you hear this. Actually we're just a few a
few short hours away from twenty twenties, So give your
loved ones a hug, call someone you miss, let them
know you've got their back in the coming year. Cheers, Cheers, lush,
(01:39):
some strong knog. Okay, so it's a lot on the
mic there, Sorry guys. So backstory of our nog this
was This was made as we mentioned in previous or
as we mentioned in a different episode. This was made
by our our composer for Ridiculous History, one Alex Williams,
also producer of Note, host of the Delightful, Delightfully Quirky
(02:04):
I Heart podcast Ephemeral, has worked on such true crime
blockbusters as Atlanta, Monster, Monsters, Zodiac, and h a lot
of other cool stuff. And he's a he's a real
noster um. He makes this every year and brings to
the office and they go like hotcakes. And it is
based on his interpretation of George Washington. Yes, that George
(02:27):
Washington's incredibly booze heavy famous eggnog recipe, which is kind
of a we we talked about it in a previous episode.
So just go find uh find whatever the heck we
were doing on this show a year ago. And then
and then uh, you'll you'll hear us, you'll hear us
give a breakdown of the recipe. I'm gonna try to
(02:49):
keep up with this nog while we're doing today's episode.
But this is heavier than I. Remember, you got a
lot more nogg than me. I'm I'm just I just
had a little taste of boy I already feel it
really packs a wallop. I'm trying to find just a
rundown of the ingredients without like going through the actual method.
I've got it. Oh wait, here we go. I got
one here too. We can just launch your list off
(03:10):
real quick. Yeah, let's do it. So, he says, one
quart cream, one quart milk, one dozen tablespoon and sugar
and then and then the alcohol starts. That's right, one
pint brandy, one half pint rye whiskey, one half pint
Jamaican rum, one quarter pint sherry, and and you mix
(03:31):
the liquor first, then separate the yolks and whites of
twelve eggs, add sugar to the beaten yolks and mix well.
And then you add the milk and cream, and you're
slowly beating at the whole time. Then you beat the
egg white stiller stiff. You fold them into the mixture.
Then you put it somewhere away for several days, tasting frequently.
(03:53):
So it's crazy. This sounds like a frat house kind
of recipe. Yeah, man, I I think it's gonna take
me a while to get this down. What do you think? Yeah,
what do you think? Yeah? This is one to save
or over an extended period of time. I completely agree.
We were having this debate off air. We are getting
to an episode also by spoiler alert, at some point
(04:15):
we'll get to what we're supposed to be doing here.
But we were talking about this off air. There is
a debate about cold v hot nog. Are you a
hot dog person or you a cold dog person? I
think we're we're cold noggins over here, right, big time, forcefully. Yeah,
although I do understand the potential appeal of a warm
not hot nog because it's sort of like a hot,
(04:37):
creamy drink, you know, like a hot cocoa or something,
and it could work. Yeah, you were saying something like
thirty seconds in the micro thirty seconds in the microwave, okay,
And I can see that. You know, you're like by
a fire baby, it's cold outside, that kind of thing.
That song is very problematic. It is, We're excredibly problematic.
It's strange that it was so popular for so long
and we are talking about of smith songs today with
(05:01):
a little bit of help from our pal, longtime friend
of the show and personal friend of the three of us,
Christopher hauciotis here in Christmas Spirit Chrismas Spirit. I started
saying that, I just never stopped. I don't. I don't
know why I say that, but I guess I just
you know, he was here from the start. Uh. He
was our research associate early on before our boy Gabe
(05:22):
joined the show. And now Christopher is often doing exciting
things on his own, uh, And so I always feel
like he is with us, and we still work with him.
You know, it's not we always have the Christopher a
spirit here, you know. Uh, Christopher will be returning to
the show in the new year. But now he's, as
you said, old, doing some some other things. He came
(05:43):
to us, as he so often does, with this fantastic
idea that we thought would be pretty interesting. You see, Christopher,
amongst his many talents, he's he's a cracker jack writer,
and he hipped us to the story behind all those
Christmas carols that people have been hearing. And you know,
(06:03):
the weird thing about Christmas carols is in that liminal
period between Christmas Day and December thirty one, or sorry,
January one, you still kind of hear those songs, right,
and it seems like they start every like, when's the
first time this year you guys heard a Christmas song
that would count as like Christmas season. It's usually like
(06:24):
in a grocery store like way pre Christmas season. I
would say the the less the least egregious early time
for hearing Christmas music would be like after Thanksgiving. It's
usually day one after Thanksgiving. I would agree with that
being the least egregious. But I've heard, you know, I'm
(06:45):
a Halloween guy myself from multiple levels, so I've heard
some instrumental Christmas music playing like not three days into November.
That's heresy. And they've already got, you know, the seasonal
aisle decorated with stuff. Place smells like cinnamon brooms, just
get your I think it's because it's such an economic
(07:07):
boom to brick and mortar stores. But before we do this,
we do have to have a trigger, a warning for
anybody who feels like they've heard too much Christmas music.
We're not gonna be heavy on it, but we may
have some clips pop up here and there. Right, Yeah,
I would just about guarantee you um so. A point
Christopher makes in this article you wrote for How Stuff
(07:28):
Works back in the day is that advertisers and marketers
are big fan of the whole idea of the lead
up to Christmas as we know, it happens earlier and
earlier every year, it seems like, and it's a little vexing, honestly,
but they kind of they relish it because they want
to sell as much stuff and give people as much
opportunity to remind people that the Christmas season is coming,
(07:50):
because it also comprises about of all us annual retail sales.
And uh, I would say the crown jewels of the
lead up to Christmas song would be the twelve Days
of Christmas, you know, with the what is it piper's
piping and the drummer's drumming and partridge that's the last one.
(08:13):
That's that's you can get there eventually. Do you know
all of them? I don't. Let's see, no, I'm sorry.
The partridge in the pear tree is the first one.
So it's the partridge in a pair. This will be
a fun quiz. Let's see if I can get this.
We've got partridge in a pear tree, um, two turtle doves,
three French hens, four calling birds, five old rings, five
(08:35):
gold rings. That's the big like the hook right there? Um,
four calling birds, three French hens, two turtle does, and
a partridge in a pear tree. So it's nine lords
of leaping, ten ladies dancing. What is it? Eight six
six six hens a land, seven pipers piping, eight lords
(08:59):
of leaping, uh, nine ladies dancing, ten swansa swimming eleven
geza laying. I'm gonna make new lyrics trap. I've named
them all, I think, but I haven't named them in
the exact correct order. I think it's the only fight.
Let's see. Let's see. Oh, it doesn't go in order.
It doesn't go chronologically in terms of the days versus
(09:21):
the number of things. Because on the third day of
Christmas you got five golden rings. So yeah, I bring
that up because that's something that a lot of a
lot of us miss. You know, it's it's funny. Um,
I would agree, it's a trivial question. I don't know
if it's a fun trivial question. I think just because
I'm not the biggest fan of that song, but I
am a fan of that Song's history. It first shows
(09:43):
up in England in seventeen eighties, so it's a little
bit more recent in the English version than I had
always assumed. But reportedly it has French origins. Is that correct?
That is correct? And it's meant to build anticipation for
Christmas Day. Uh, not so much in a retail way,
(10:03):
but in more of a religious way, because the Christmas
season lasts all the way up until Epiphany on January six,
and that's the day that most Christians actually associate with
the birth uh and specifically baptism of Jesus. And uh,
the whole gift exchange wasn't really as big of a
(10:24):
thing as it is today. Um, but yeah, that was
when you would you would actually tend to exchange gifts
on Epiphany, not on December given away on January six. Now, Uh,
this is this is public to me. They're numerous uh
different interpretations of this song. Casey, could you, in the
(10:45):
in the spirit of late Christmas, which is what I
am dubbing our our holiday here, could you give us
a little taste On the first day of chrissm Troo
Love said to me apartrogen a pear tree. On the
second day of Christmas, my true love said to me
(11:08):
two turtle doves and a part rege and a pear
tree on the third day of next Up. No, no,
I know that you and I are fans of musicals, Casey,
are you a fan of of music musicals? It depends,
(11:31):
It really really depends. I could not say yes as
a overall category, but there are exceptions. Okay, So basically,
if it's not, if it's not Little Chapa Horrors, forget
about it. Yeah, more or less. Know. I mean, there's
there's some great stuff, but you know, just something about Yeah,
it's just not my thing. It's I don't go deep
(11:52):
without genre. Yeah, that's just cats right, that's your favorite. Well,
I am kind of excited to see cats Man the
Early River though. Boy the reviews that I want to
see it before they fix it. I want to see
all the like rendering errors and like, you know the
where they like didn't mix it right, that's right, it's
pretty wild. Um. Yeah. No, I'm a bit of a
musical nerd um, not like encyclopedically so, but I'm definitely
(12:15):
a fan and I am not aware of the musical
Meet me in St. Louis from four starring Judy Garland. Uh,
and that is where the song have Yourself a Merry
Little Christmas became a very special and important Christmas song.
Have yourselfs Oh, merry Little Christmas makes you tide good
(12:50):
troubles miles away. And I am a huge fan of
that song. I actually I think it's quite charming and
very sweet. Yeah, it's sweet. It's way better than babe
it's cold outside. Uh. So you're right. This was introduced
in nineteen forty four, but Christopher argues that it became
(13:13):
more famous or more canonical, at least thanks to the
nineteen fifty seven cover by Frank Sinatra. And there's a
line in there about making the Yule Tide gay, as
many of our listeners already know, doubtlessly, gay in this
sense is in its original sense a synonym for happy
(13:35):
or cheerful. But where does Yule Tide come from? Yeah,
it's like the Yule log, you know, like the it's
it's a an ancient Germanic festival, more of a pagan
thing that would have been held in midwinter. Um called Yule,
and tide is an Old English word for a season,
which makes sense turning tides, you know, But that's also
(13:58):
refers to tide in the ocean, which are tied to
the moon, which tied to the season, you know, like
changing of the season, and then tied plus tied the
hominem's they abound. I also makes me wonder about words
such as even tide, which it was maybe a different thing.
Here's here's another one. What does it mean to troll?
(14:22):
The ancient Yule tide Carol? That's one of the lines
carol ers sing when they get through deck the hallsn
we now are la la la la, la la la,
the ancient attack Carol, La la la la la attack it.
(14:44):
I'm gonna take a guess, troll. I bet it's almost
like skipping the light fantastic, you know what I mean?
Like tripping the light fantastic a sort of to you know,
troll that you know, like to give it your all,
to like really lean into it and and give it
a boisterous performance kind of you know, you're I like
(15:05):
where your head's at. You're on the right path there
because according to the o E Ed, troll has numerous meetings.
One of them is to sing in a happy and
care free way. So you kind of got it there
right there are older meanings like moving around in a
circular way, or singing songs that kind of row row
(15:28):
row your boat around, yeah, around, So you could do
that with deck dolls. Yeah, and how about this back
to some old English traditions. The melody of deck the
Halls is actually originally from a Welsh song, a traditional
Welsh song called nos Galan or New Year's Eve, and
(15:49):
that's back from the early seventeen hundreds. It was as
many of these types of songs were a drinking song.
And that's where we get the original line um that
was changed to dawn we now are gay apparel, which
as we know, means put on our happy clothes, are
Christmas sweaters and such. In the original it was Phil
(16:10):
the mead cup drained the barrel. Alright, Yeah, a little more,
a little harder on the paint, right. And what's fascinating,
even from a folkloric perspective, is the way we see
these songs evolve over time with different lyrics, different interpretations,
and sometimes entire melodies lifted and an entire set of
(16:32):
different lyrics put on them. Sometimes they change the meaning.
There's a song that I have a soft spot in
my heart for called It's beginning to look a lot
like Christmas, which talks about a town transforming, a pair
of hop along books, an epistle that chooses the worst
Shibani and Ben Doll. It'll talk a little gol for
(16:52):
a walk because the hope for Jennison gen hard And
it's an anticipatory song. It's meant to build excitement, sort
of the same way the Twelve Days of Christmas is
in this song. You know, people put up decorations, they're
getting a better mood. Kids start to think about the
presence they would like, and they name presents like a
(17:15):
pair of hop along boots and a pistol that shoots,
and then dolls that will talk and so on. So
we get it, toy, pistol dolls. But what exactly are
hop along boots? Have you ever had a pair of
hop along boots? Anybody? No? It would have been like
hop Along Cassidy, the famous Western cowboy, the actor Bill Cassidy, Right, Yeah,
(17:36):
popular character Bill Cassidy. So it's beginning to look a
lot like Christmas comes out in Bill Cassidy. Is this
He's the cowboy who drinks sasaparilla. He made that famous
Sioux City Sasaparilla. Perhaps Uh he had a weird walk
because he got shot in the leg in the course
(17:58):
of his adventures, and p gave him the nickname hop
Along And so since he had this nickname hop Along
from his storied career. Of course, whenever you do a
show that children love, it's all about the moychandizing. Right,
that's a Spaceball's reference. So around the time that it's
beginning to look a lot like Christmas drops. In nineteen
(18:20):
fifty one, hop Along Cassidy boots were a popular child's
item or toy. You know. They were like the air
Jordan's for the kiddies, uh where they were like uh
you know, they weren't on the level of a Tickle
Me Elmo, but they were still very very popular. Yeah,
it's true, um, and that you can actually find some
branding behind it online. Uh. Just hop Along Cassidy acme
(18:44):
cowboy boots. Here's your pal, hop Along Cassidy and his
brand new cowboy boots. And they're sort of kids size.
He's holding them like with two fingers, like they're very tiny. Um,
you can still buy some in the style. It's uh,
it's a pretty traditional shorter cowboy boot with kind of
like in lave eagle looking things on the front and
the back stitched in. Pretty pretty cool actually. So the
(19:06):
next tune, or the next concept, I should say, is
one that I actually learned about a little while ago,
but I I still think is pretty weird. So most
of our popular Christmas songs here in the States come from,
you know, the mid twentieth century, nineteen fifties or so.
(19:27):
And that's because the concept of Christmas could be uniformly
impressed upon the audience, or they come from Northern Europe
in the seventeen hundreds and eighteen hundreds. There is a
song called here We Come a wasstling that's still around.
If you're you are you familiar with this one? Watle
was like a drink, right, yeah, yeah, you've got it. Yeah.
(19:50):
And then a wastling was also just a caroling while
drinking said drink, I imagine um? Or is it just
drinking in public? Is that what wastling is? I think
the would go, that's that's a crime. Uh, let's let's
look at both parts of those questions. So the wasstle
itself is an alcoholic beverage. It served hot like muld cider,
(20:13):
punch or for some reprobates nog, and it comes from
an Old English term that means be well, apparently washstling itself,
as the tradition involves a band of singers or carolers
going door to door in their neighborhood and they're singing
Christmas songs and they're offering their audience the home dwellers
(20:35):
drinks from a huge bucket of wasstle they'd carry with them.
(21:05):
But it was a transaction. It wasn't just a free
song and a drink. What you like, gather people up
right and they take them along with you. Isn't that
a thing? I believe so definitely the knocking people's door
and then when they come out you like that you
invite them to join you. Kind of that sounds like
a lot of fun, I know. At the very least homeowners,
after they would listen to the song and have a
(21:25):
drink of this booze, they would have to give the
sailors the whostlers some stuff, right, interesting quid pro quo.
It's almost like more of a tricker treat situation, really,
very much so. And this is all reflected on the
lyrics do we wish you a Merry Christmas when the
(21:46):
carollers demand some figgy pudding and we won't go until
we get some cup What is figgy pudding? Figgy pudding
(22:14):
is almost like a pound cake kind of or it's
like one of those circle cakes, you know, like with
a hole in the middle. Um, it's dense. Uh. It
has figs chopped densely, you know. Buttermilk. Um sort of
almost like a whole wheat flour situation. Um, nutmeg, cinnamon,
that's basically a sugar. Okay, it looks pretty good. You're
(22:37):
like a fig Yeah, yeah, yeah, I make the I
make a pretty mean brion crew with a nice fig
Is it like a briefe like a cheese thing baked brize? Uh,
that's weird. Okay, So now I know what figgy pudding is.
What's our what's our next song on the list? Mr? Brown? Well,
(22:57):
I'll tell you my friend. Next on the list? We
have Uh, it's the most wonderful time of the year. Um.
And the concept of telling ghost stories on Christmas, which is,
you know, to a modern audience, might seem a little off.
There's a line in we Wish You a Merry Christmas. Uh,
they'll be scary ghost stories and tales of the glories
(23:21):
of Christmas is long long ago. Scary ghost stories at
Christmas get out of here be parties for hosting marshpellas
for toasting and caroling out in the snow, there'll be
scary ghost stories and tales of the glories of Christmas
is long long ago. Yeah, it is weird, right because
(23:45):
we think of ghost stories as more of a Howoween
tradition or maybe when you're out camping somewhere. But it
turns out that telling ghost stories during Christmas time is
an old English tradition that was completely normal and unremarkable
for people during the Victorian era, at least according to
(24:06):
the Paris Review, the Smithsonian, and other sources. And if
you think about it, it makes sense because you're in
like the dark of winter, you and your family and
friends are hanging out. There's no television, there's no radio,
there's no speed walking competition, so you're left to your
own devices and tell each other engaging spooky stories. And
(24:28):
you know, when you think about it, a Christmas Carol
by Charles Dickens is very much a ghost story of
it is. It gets downright spooky at times. Have you
ever seen the Mickey Mouse Christmas Carol? Yes, yes, I have. Yeah. Yeah,
the big scary dog guy whose name I'm forgetting now
he no, no, he's like Goofy's nemesis. He plays he
(24:53):
plays the death figure, you know, the ghost of Christmas Future.
That's correct, the evil. Yeah. He's like a like a
scythe carrying uh death and he's smoking a cigar and
he's very he's very intimidating. I remember being kind of
spooked by that movie. Um, I of course very much
enjoy uh the Bill Murray film Scrooged. Yeah, that's my rewatch.
(25:15):
I love sco It's a nice marriage of Halloween and Christmas.
For halloween er such as myself, I also enjoyed Nightmare
Before Christmas. There's a great great comedy show here in
our fair metropolis of Atlanta called Invasion Christmas Carol, put
on by one of my improv Alma Moters, which is
(25:35):
Dad's garage out there just down the street from us.
And they do uh comedic take on a Christmas Carol.
But here's there, here's their stick, and I swear to
god it works every show they do. Each time they
do this show, they have someone come in as an
unannounced character and purposefully try to wreck the show, purposely
(25:57):
try to wreck the story and just like distract people
and just raise havoc. No like insert themselves into the
story as themselves though no, it's different character whoever they want.
Like like the last night before recorded this, h Thomas
the Tank Engine was one of the characters and he
was terrifying because they did. He came in as you
(26:19):
went a tank. No, no, no, I know the guy
was doing it. He was picturing. He was showing me
the costume and it's it's like the costume is too
big to get through the podcast doors. I find Thomas
the Tank a little bit menacing honestly. Oh yeah, Charlie
the Chucco as well, you know what I mean, Charlie
the Cucco is an off brand Thomas the Tank. I
(26:39):
think maybe I'm thinking of this Stephen King. Charlie, Uh,
it's a it's a different thing. Okay, god it you
may have just made it up. And no, no, no,
no oh, I'm thinking of blame the motto as well.
No anthropomorphized locomotives in general, I don't want to pay
one too broad of a brush, but in general, I
don't care for them. You're right, Charlie. The Cucci was
a children's book by Stephen King, the very menacing cover. Yes,
(27:03):
it looks like a book, is it not. It's a
children's book that occurs. Oh no, it's not by Stephen King.
It has a review at the top by Stephen King.
It's by Beryl Evans, but it's mentioned in his Dark
Tower series. Interesting in a in a menacing way. It
is by Stephen King. You put it out under a pseudonym,
(27:24):
had he had to make a new one after Bachman
got burnt. Casey on the case. Huh our second Stephen
King reference in as many episodes from the world of
the Dark Tower. But it appears to be a children's book.
I like this, but I'm not aware. So we have
one more story because we are, of course in rush
(27:44):
to get our last pieces of business done to ring
in the new year. And and it's been a great
year so far, you know, I give it overall. I
think we've we've had a good time, but we're ready
for what is our last Christmas song? What is the
last song we talked about today? Last Christmas? Yes, that
(28:07):
is my favorite Christmas song of all time. Oh, I
love that. Can we get a little taste Christmas? Oh yeah, smooth,
(28:33):
smooth as ever. I don't know if this is true,
but I remember on that show Clarissa explains it all.
She was really into George Michael and she says his
real name, and it's apparently Georgio Pantio two. Yep, uh,
Georgios Chicos. Yeah nice? Great? Is that Greek? Sounds very cristy? Yeah,
(28:54):
it was his His father was a Greek restaurant tour
And of course the uh. This song, which is a
personal favoritist from Friends of Mine, is still not as
popular as All I Want for Christmas by Mariah Carey,
which is the the juggernaut of the season. It just
hit number one after like decades. It's the uh, I think,
(29:18):
the second most delayed number one Billboard hit UH, and
it's never gonna beat the first one because it was
Vera Lynn, who was a famous UM singer English singer
UM and she was like in her nineties when this
song hit number one. So what is the last song
for today's show? Winter Wonderland from nineteen hundred and thirty four, Well,
(29:43):
in the meadow we can build a Snowman and pretended
he is possible round. He'll say, oh, you're married, Wilson.
No man, but you can do the job when you're
on town. That paints a lovely went here a scene
with two lovers strolling down the lane, gentle snowfall in
(30:06):
the meadow. We can we can build a snowman and
pretend that he is Parson Brown. Who's Parson Brown? Yeah, casey,
give me a record scratch. Who's this Parson Brown guy?
I always thought it was Carson Brown. That's just some
dude they know who hates snowman. They need to mock him, yeah,
or love snowman, and they need to build a monument
(30:27):
to him. So parson is a title, it's not a
first name. I thought it was like a famous person
or something. So this is this is news to me.
I'm into this. Give it to me. Oh, he's just
he's a parson, someone who has the ability to marry people.
A parson is a physician in Christian clergy, like Thomas Blood.
So he's there just as they're trying to make the
(30:49):
snowman into a clergyman so that he can marry them
on the spot. Yeah, there super into each other, and
this winter Wonderland is more than they can handle. And
one note here for snowman chronology. Snowman themselves, for a
long time had buttons who nose. Carrot noses are a
(31:12):
new thing, and if you think about it, there are
a thing that comes from a time of plenty, because
usually if someone had a carrot, they would just eat it.
Frosty the Snowman had a corn cob pipe and a
button nose and two eyes, I mean had a coal
dead eyes like a doll's eyes or you know what
I mean. You know what I'm gonna say, Oh, what's
(31:32):
the what's his name? Give it to him a really
remind me of it? Is? Is it Scarlett Johansson? No? No,
yes it is No someone you always say has dead eyes?
Who is it? And I'm like, you know, why did
you get did you get on notice? Did you get
put on notice? No? I'm just in you know, I
in the spirit of christopherm Us. I'm gonna I'm gonna
(31:52):
remain positive, you know, So Happy holidays to everyone with
live eyes and dead eyes alike. What I say, this
nog has given me weird hand sweats by boys. I
got the knock sweats. Yeah, yeah, yeah, uh, this this
has been a brief look into Carol's This is just
a again a very brief, very brief dive into some
(32:16):
of these. But we hope that you, like us, have
found some things that you didn't know about some of
your favorite seasonal songs. Also, I'm curious, are you someone
who loves or hates Christmas music? The Internet is such
a divisive place that every year I don't see anybody
who has like a mild take on Christmas songs. I
(32:38):
don't see anybody just lets the waves wash over them.
I see people who love love love them, or hate
hate hate them. So what are you let us know?
Let us know what your favorite Christmas songs are, or
your favorite holiday songs. We should say holiday, because these
don't all have to be you know, Christmas carols or whatever.
We also want to hear some of your least favorite
(32:59):
and I am going to I'm gonna shout out a
very very strange song from the cognitive hinterlands of country music,
which is maybe familiar to some of us listening. It
is Santa's Coming in a worly Bird. Have you guys
ever heard of this? I don't believe so no A
(33:21):
worly bird at the time was slang for a helicopter.
I'm just you know, you can look it up yourself.
I don't know if we have the rights to play it.
The boy, it's a weird way. Thank you as always
to Christopher hasiotis uh the namesake of Christopher Us and
the Christopher mass Spirit. Thanks, of course the super producer
(33:41):
Casey Pegram. Big thanks to Alex Williams for the nog
and for the tunes for this beautiful song that you're
hearing right now, which kind of has a Christmas Eve
vibe to it in a weird way. Maybe I'm just
contextualizing them because I'm getting into spirit. This is my
last day at the office for a little minute, and
I'm very pleased uh about that fact. Huge thanks to
(34:02):
Gabe our research associates, uh Eve's Jeff Coats check her
out on this day in history class and Afro punk
solution sessions. Yes yeah yeah, And also huge Christopher miss
thanks to Jonathan Strickland a k a. The Ridiculous Grin,
Charion a k a. Young Quizzles a k a. The Quizter.
(34:26):
We hope that you have a fantastic twenty We can't
wait to see what adventures you have and uh, what
wonders await you? What's al For more podcasts from my
heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History News
Hosts And Creators
Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
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