Podcast 29 – Exploring Cozy and Not-So-Cozy Christmas Traditions

Across the world Christmas traditions differ from one country to the next. Some are super cozy, while others are bizarre and sometimes frightening! Here we explore many of these traditions and discuss which ones we love most. Watch on YouTube https://youtu.be/QQjcerCIwwA When a listener asked us to elaborate on our family's Christmas traditions, we took a step back and examined this question from a global standpoint. Christmas is celebrated worldwide, and many cultures observe this holiday in their unique way. From the German "pickle in the tree", to the poinsettia origin story from Mexico, we discuss some of the world's most interesting traditions, as well as a few of our own. Cozy and Not-So-Cozy Christmas Traditions Many of the world's traditions center around feelings of gratitude, love, family, and coziness, while others wander into darker realms. In this episode, we discuss super cozy traditions like the Icelandic Jolabokaflod which takes place on Christmas Eve and involves exchanging books, chocolate, and special beer with loved ones followed by an evening of reading, drinking, and enjoying sweets. On the other end of the spectrum, is the truly frightening legend of the Krampus, or the anti-Santa, who's known to wander the streets in search of badly behaved children. We also try to answer the age-old question, "Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?". While Tara and I may disagree on some things, we both concur that family traditions such as driving around to look at Christmas lights, our daughter Sam's hot cocoa bar, and baking cookies are at the top of our cozy list. Resources Snickerdoodle Cookie Recipe Italian Almond Cookie Recipe S Cookie Recipe Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe Prime Rib aka Standing Rib Roast Recipe Horseradish Sauce Recipe If you enjoyed the Christmas Traditions Episode, leave us a comment below and let us know!   We love your questions.  Please send them to [e-mail] (remove the 11111 for our contact).  There’s no question not worth asking. If you enjoy our weekly podcast, support us on Patreon and you will get 2 more bonus episodes each month! Thanks for listening! For a complete list of all podcast episodes, visit our podcast episode page.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
- Welcome back to theSip and Feast podcast.

(00:02):
Today we're going to be talkingabout Christmas traditions
here and around the world.
Tara, give us a little synopsis of today.
- So actually, this isin response to a listener
who sent us an email,
and it was in response toour Seven Fishes episode.
They had said that theythought it was very interesting

(00:24):
that the Seven Fishes is a tradition
amongst Italian American families,
and they were curious if wehad our own unique family
traditions, not necessarily food
related that we could share.
So when I read that question, I thought,
I think we could turn thisinto something a little bit

(00:45):
bigger and maybe talk aboutsome of the interesting
Christmas traditions thattake place around the world.
And as I was doing so, I learned of a few
that might be considereda little bit scary
or bizarre or whatever.
Some of them I knewalready. The scary ones.
- The one of the scaryones that I always think of

(01:08):
like immediately is the rompus
- That's on my list.
- Okay, well, we'll talkabout that one after.
- So we'll get to that.Um, we'll, we'll start off
by talking about some ofthose, like, like you said,
around the world Christmas traditions.
Then we'll talk aboutsome of the traditions
that we do in our own family.
Um, and we'll talk aboutsome of the food also,

(01:28):
because, I mean, this isthe Sip and Feast podcast.
We, we can't not talk about food.
And speaking of food, Jim,
I see you have a littlefeed bag in front of you.
. Tell us what you have.
- Okay. Well, this doesnot encompass everything
that we've made up until this point.

(01:49):
And today is, lemme see the date.
What is today's date tower?
- The, I think it's the 11th.
I'm, so this is the time of year where
I feel like I'm in a fog.
It's December 11th,
but it could just aseasily be December 20th.
- Yeah. I think people'shabits, like, so we're creatures
of habits, but during thistime of year, everything kind

(02:11):
of takes a back seat.
Mm-Hmm. to, to Christmas. Yes.
And the rush of gettinggifts, getting worried.
If you're going to have,if you're gonna host,
whether it's Christmas Day
or Christmas Eve, worried about, you know,
the family members that aregonna complain about the
food and Yeah.
I think a lot of thenormal activity Mm-Hmm.
- .- So maybe you go to the gym every day,

(02:34):
maybe you get that eightglasses of water in, you know,
maybe you eat healthy,
but during the holidays, that kind
of all goes out the window. Yeah.
- And also speaking for my own experience,
I spent 20 plus years workingin financial services.
I mean, the month of Decemberwas a blackout month for us.

(02:55):
We weren't even allowed to take off.
It's the busiest time ofyear when you're working,
whether it's in financial services
or you're working the financedepartment of any type
of company, you'reapproaching year end. Yeah.
- I get what you're saying.A lot of people are,
are stressed this timeof year with their jobs.
Yeah. Yeah. And now talking about stress
and ways to relieve yourstress, are these cookies here?

(03:16):
Now again, these aren't all the cookies.
What do we have here, Tara?
- Alright, I'm gonna goclockwise. Yeah. All right.
We're gonna start with Italianalmond cookies. Yeah, right.
- Yeah. Italian or Sicilian.
- Sicilian. Yeah. Yeah. Which, whichever.
I mean, you've got snickerdoodles, you've got
Italian S cookies, which areshaped like the letter S.

(03:36):
Yeah. Spoiler alert
and oatmeal raisin pecan cookies.
- Yes. So those are four.
These are four that we justmade recently for the website.
These are all on the website.So these are part of 'em.
And then we also have acouple other ones coming up.
And then we have all the onesthat are already on the site.
Mm-Hmm. . So weare gonna have a little bite

(03:57):
or two today, as Tarasays, my feed bag .
I, I, I'm just gonna say right away, the,
the best cookie here by amile is, what is it, Tara?
- Well, that's your opinion. What is it?
Yours is the snicker doodle.
And that's Sammy's favorite too.
If I had to pick a favorite on that plate,
it would probably be the almond cookies.
- The almond cookies. Well,those were a huge hit.

(04:18):
A lot of people liked them.Mm-Hmm. . Okay.
A lot of people are makingthat recipe. The snickerdoodle.
Let me tell you, if you neverhad one before, oh my God.
. I mean, you know,look, I grew up, I'm,
I'm 45 years old and my mother deprived me
of a snickerdoodle my whole entire life.
And your mother deprived youof a snickerdoodle also. Right?
- I didn't know what a snickerdoodle was
until I was a, an adult

(04:40):
- Was a snickerdoodle.
Maybe a snickerdoodle wasn'teven around until recently.
- I don't know. But I, what I am gonna do,
since I have coffee here,I'm grabbing an S cookie
because Yeah, it's, you see
how readily it dunks?
- Yeah. That's a dunker.That is a dunker. That one.

(05:00):
I like your shirt too.What do you got there?
Scrooge and Marley FinancialServices. Love that shirt.
That's a nice one. Notas good as my shirt.
- So I wore my Scroogeand Marley t-shirt today,
and I'll talk about it later
because a Christmas Carolreading A Christmas Carol

(05:21):
watching a Christmas Carolis one of my favorite
Christmas traditions eversince I was a little girl.
I think it's fostered my obsession with,
with England .
That's kind of maybewhere it was rooted in,
but we can talk about thatmore a little bit later.
- Yeah. Well, we'regonna, that's what we're,
- I'm gonna eat my cookie while you
talk a little bit. Right now. You,

(05:42):
- You eat your cookie.
That's what we're gonna be speaking about,
is the traditions.
- The most common traditionfor Christmas is gathering
around and enjoying ameal with your family,
but wanted to take a look atsome of the other traditions
that might be less knownto us here in the us.
Right. And the first one, whichI actually did know about,

(06:05):
is the Pickle in the tree.
- Heard of this? No, Inever heard of that one.
- Did you ever notice thatwe have a pickle ornament
that goes on our Christmas tree?
- No, I didn't notice thateither. Probably not. No.
- You can buy them at Hobby Lobby.
I'm sure Target probablysells the pickle in the tree.
But this tradition is believed
to have started in Germanyin the 15 hundreds.

(06:27):
And the idea is you would hide the pickle
somewhere in the tree,
and whoever, whicheverchild finds the pickle,
gets a special gift.
That's kind of a, a nice tradition. So it
- Sounds a little, itsounds a little weird.
It is. You know, go find the pickle.
- It's so ,- You know.
- Okay. This is a family show. ,
- Like, what's the othertradition? Go find the potato.

(06:50):
- Actually, there's apotato on that's up next.
But the, the pickle is interesting.
So if you're ever, 'cause I always saw
pickle ornaments and Iwas like, oh, all right.
I'm a big fan of pickles.
Like I would buy a pickle ornament,
but I never realized
that there was actuallysomething more to it.
And I bought one, I don'tknow, a few years ago,
and nobody really evercared to find the pickle,
but I was, I would alwayshide the hide the pickle

(07:12):
. Anyway,
- It's not as bad as like, hiding an egg
and not being able to find the egg.
- Oh, like a real Yeah.Hard boiled egg for Easter.
That's happened too. Yeah.
Um, where we have founda hard boiled egg hidden,
the Easter bunny did a verydiligent job of hiding it,
and we didn't find the eggfor like three months later,
and it had turned black. You

(07:33):
- Should got smart by thatpoint and used the plastic eggs.
- Listen, that was back when I was a kid.
- Oh, yeah. When I was a kid too.
We, we were, yeah. There was no
- Plastic eggs.
We were, we were usingreal eggs. Yeah. All right.
Next one is something thattakes place in the Netherlands.
Dutch children leavetheir shoes by the fire.
So Santa Claus.

(07:53):
And that's just how they say Santa Claus
and Dutch will fill them with treats,
and they'll also sometimesstick carrots in their shoes
for Santa's steed.
So I think there, they believe
that Santa rides on a steedinstead of a bunch of reindeer.
And if you happen to be anunlucky kid who winds up

(08:14):
with a potato in theirshoe instead of a gift,
it means you were on Santa's naughty list.
- All right. Well, I'mgonna put a potato in,
uh, the kid's shoe this year.
Well, actually they won't even get it.
James will just be like, why is
there a potato in my shoe? The
- P are cool.
I can make tater tots. Yeah, bro.
- He won't, he won't get
- It.
The next one is anItalian tradition of Bana.

(08:36):
Bana is a witch. She's a good witch,
and she visits children inItaly to fill their stockings
with candy and presentif they've been good.
And similar to Santa, she willalso come down the chimney.
- Is this a, is this likea common one in Italy all
throughout the whole country? I think
- So.
La Ana is the witch. Yeah.
So I remember Angie, who's my dad's wife,

(08:59):
she was born in Italy,
came here when she wasaround 10 years old.
She always talked aboutgetting clementines
or like small orangesin her stocking Yeah.
At Christmas too. So I don't know if
that was just something her family did,
or if that's something that Italians do.
She was from Sano, the isthe village where she was,
which was near Salerno, whichI think is a larger city.

(09:22):
So if any of our listenershappen to be from that region
of Italy, and you observe asimilar tradition with the,
the orange, I think
- The oranges are let, are more, I think
that's like a po like poverty,
you know, like that's the gifts.
It could be that, that, thatthey got now no coal in Italy.
- I didn't. So I, I'm not an expert. Yeah.

(09:44):
I didn't read about coal. I'm just,
I was reading about interesting
Italian traditions. Yeah, I'm
- Sure I, it, it's funnywhat the clementines,
because I always, you know,I still always think of
that stereotypical image.
Remember like, I guess itwasn't from when we were young.
Maybe it was when we got into our teens.
Remember when they werelike just selling the crates
of Clementines everywhere.
Yeah. And I would alwayssee, like, in fact,

(10:04):
I think her father likeused to buy them and,
but I would always rememberpeople would always buy them
and they were so happyto have that big box
of clementines. Yeah.
- I I, for a while was buyingthem too. They're so good.
You. I love them. You were. Yeah.
- Yeah. They sell 'em thatway anymore. I feel like I
- Don't see them.
I don't see them in the crate. Yeah.
They sell them in like the mesh bag.
- The mesh bag now. Yeah.Times have changed. Mm-Hmm.

(10:25):
Exactly. Yeah. They're notin the crate anymore. Yeah.
- But I love them. I thinkthey're so good. All right.
Next is, I thought thisone was interesting.
This is from Ukraine.
Christmas trees are decoratedwith fake spiderwebs. Okay.
And the reason why is this,there was I guess a tale of
poor woman who couldn'tafford Christmas ornaments.

(10:49):
And she went to bed one night
after putting up her Christmas tree.
And when she came down,the tree was decorated
with a whole bunch of
silvery sparkling beautiful spiderwebs.
So interesting. You know,
they don't obviously use real
spiderwebs to decorate their trees.
They're using, you know,like the ornamental ones,
I guess maybe the ones that we would use

(11:11):
around Halloween time.
Yeah. So I thought that was cool.
Another one is related to ETT is Mm-Hmm.
, the Christmasflowers. Do you know
where ETT is come from?
- What country did they originate from?
- Mm-Hmm. .Where are they indigenous to?
- Oh, I'm gonna go with Brazil.
- You're close. Where? Mexico. Mexico.

(11:31):
- Okay. - Okay. So a Mexicanlegend tells of a girl
who had nothing but a bunch
of weeds to offer the baby Jesus.
At a Christmas Eve service, when she knelt
to place the weeds by the nativity,
the bouquet burst into bright red flowers.
Ever since then, the flowerswhose leaves are said
to be shaped like the star ofBethlehem have been known as

(11:53):
the Flores de Buena
or Flowers of the Holy Night
and became synonymous with Christmas.
Please excuse mypronunciation if it is off.
I think that pron, I only tookfive years of Spanish. No.
In high school and did not do well.
- I think that pronunciationwas really good.
I think that you do a greatjob every time. Every time.

(12:15):
I, you know, butcher completely a word.
And the most recent languageI was butchering was
French. The last few weeks.
- Yes. You've been butchering
that since the nineties whenyou were in high school.
- Yeah, actually, that's true.I've been butchering French
for, for a long time.
Italian. I butcher, you know,when I try to do the words,

(12:38):
um, I always like to saylike, I speak New York.
That's, that's, that's what Ispeak. Mm-Hmm. .
You know, people say, well, what is this?
Do you see in the commentsalways where they're like,
I can't, where, you know,like, this is a weird language.
I'm like, I just soundlike everybody from here.
But we've spoken about this in the past.

(12:58):
People under 40 do nothave an accent anymore.
It's really weird. Why is that?
And now they might not be 40,it might be 35. The cutoff.
Yeah. Why is that? I don't get it.
- It could be becausethey're exposed more to
people from other areas of the world.
So it's almost like aglobalization of an accent.

(13:20):
- Yes. You know what? You're right.
So New York in general is made up,
especially the hipster areas.
They're made up of non-native New Yorkers.
So they're everything that's there.
The language is, doesn't soundlike New Yorkers anymore.
- Yeah. But I'm not evenjust talking about that.
I'm talking like, youthink of these, these kids,

(13:41):
they're watching TikTok,they're watching Instagram,
and they're watching influencers from
literally all over the world.
And they're hearing different voices
and different pronunciations of words.
And they're listening
to the Kardashians andthey're Yeah.
- The mannerisms,- The way they pronounce
things, and they're

(14:01):
- Picking up those mannerisms.
- So yeah, I mean that I,again, that's just my hypothesis
- Versus out here it is veryinsular and doesn't change.
So that's why I sound likeeverybody I went to school with.
- Well, you didn't have that exposure.
- Yeah. Because there was no,there was no influx of people.

(14:23):
No, it was always just the same.
- Same. It was like yourparents and the kids around you.
Yeah. So I think my accentchanged a little bit when I
started working in financial services.
When I was in my twenties, I used to talk
to financial advisors inthe region I was responsible
for was the southeast.
So I used to talk to alot of folks from Florida,

(14:47):
Arkansas, Georgia, South Carolina,
and hearing the different accents
and having to kind of tweakthe way I spoke, I think
made my New York accenta little bit more subtle.
And then certainly living inMinnesota for a few years,
I really had to curtail my, yeah.

(15:09):
My accent. Why I consciously had to do it.
- I tried too. I juststopped talking when we
lived in this state, . But if that
- Was,- That was
- A very pleasant three years- .
I stopped talking. I'm justkidding. I really, yeah, I know.
Tara loved it. Tara's like,we're moving back, we're
- Moving- Back, we're moving back.
But no, I really did not speak much.
And yeah, if you, if youwant to, I guess become,

(15:32):
you know, a newscaster
or somebody on tv, youreally, I, I think you,
so you go to college incommunications, you really have
to lose those accents. Yeah.
- I think they want you tohave a very neutral accent.
Almost. Like, it's kind oflike a Midwestern accent. Yeah.
But not, but yeah.
I mean, you'll hear newscasters
and you're like, I can't tell

(15:53):
where they're from withthe way they speak.
Yeah. But they don't talklike that in real life.
They're putting on their voice.
- That's true. That's true.This is, I don't put on a voice.
This is just my voiceand my voice isn't bad.
I mean, I would say on an accent level
of a 10 being the worst New York accent,
I would say I'm like a fourmm-Hmm. , right?
- Yeah. There's certainly people that are,
- I mean, there's people thatare, that are so exaggerated

(16:14):
that you think you're watching.
Yeah. Like a fake show. Yeah.But it's, but it's real.
Right. But that's a dying,
those are dying breed, those people. Yeah.
- Well, like I said, Ithink it's the exposure to,
to folks from around the world.
- Alright, enough about the accent.
Let's continue with thetraditions while I eat
this snicker doodle.
- So in Guatemala, there is a ritual

(16:37):
that takes place on December 7th.
Do you know what? December 7th is?
December 7th, and I think it'sDecember 8th. Commemorates.
Um, Jesus', mother Mary.
So it's December 7th isconsidered the eve of the Feast
of the Immaculate Conception.
And people gather in towns
and villages across Guatemalafor Laima del Diablo,

(16:57):
which means burning of the devil.
Since the 17th century,people here have believed
that burning an effigy of thedevil will cleanse their homes
of the evils and misfortunessuffered in the previous year.
So that one's like, well,bordering on creepy,
but it's got like a positive Yeah.
Outcome. Not like oneof the more darker ones,

(17:17):
which I'll talk about in a moment.
Um, the next one, whichis the most enticing
or best sounding traditionthat like I would love
to do, and maybe we shoulddo it in our family,
not necessarily on ChristmasEve, maybe even like the day
after Christmas, is from Iceland.

(17:38):
And I am definitely goingto mispronounce this word.
I'm gonna try Yola Boca flowed,
and it translates to book flood.
And on Christmas Eve you'dexchange books with your family,
along with maybe some chocolate hot cocoa
or even special types of beer.

(17:58):
And then after you'veexchanged those things,
you all just sit aroundreading your new books
and eating chocolate and drinking beer.
- This is Iceland. Yeah, itsounds amazing. You know what?
I, they know how to live there.They, everything is slow.
With the springs and the hot springs
and the looking at the beautiful scenery,
and now I'm hearing aboutreading books with each other.

(18:21):
- I think Scandinavian countries have the,
this concept nailed down andthere's the Danish word hugger.
Yeah. H-Y-G-G-E.
You may have heard of it before there.
It's basically the wordthat means coziness.
Um, or it's a feeling of coziness.

(18:41):
And it's something that theseScandinavian countries kind
of live by, especially duringthe, the colder months.
And they, they'll fill theirhomes with, with candles
and lots of texturedblankets and slippers.
And it's just, it's all about being cozy.
It's about reading books.It's about playing games while
there's a storm raging outside.

(19:03):
It's just like the best of winter.
- It's such a great idea. And, you know,
I just started reading a book recently.
It's, you know, it's business book, which,
which I guess I don't even knowif that counts necessarily,
but it's nice to just read books.
Mm-Hmm. insteadof, you know, people say, oh,
I read a lot each day.

(19:24):
So you're on your phone consuming a news
article or on the computer.It's not the same.
- It's different. Also, Ithink reading on a Kindle
or some type of app like that,
because when you actuallyread a book, a physical book,
it just, I don't know, it takes on
a different feeling, a different vibe.

(19:44):
- Yeah. It's, it's a better,it's just better to do that.
And I think maybe even reading some
of the classics wouldbe a really good idea.
- Well, that is somethingthat I like to do every year
around Christmas.
And I don't, I wanna talkabout one more tradition,
but since we're talking
about it right now, I'll bring it up.
There are two things that Ireally, really love to read

(20:07):
around Christmas time.
And the first is obvious frommy Scrooge and Marley t-shirt.
It's a Christmas Carol. Um,
but I also love to read,it's a very short story
to read it in, I don'tknow, 15, I don't even know.
15 minutes. Less than that.Do you know what it is?
The Gift of the Magi? Oh,yes. Have you read that? Yes.
By O Henry. Yeah. If you haven't read it,

(20:30):
I recommend reading it.
You could even read italoud with your family.
It's a beautiful storyabout a couple who are kind
of too poor to, um, affordgifts for one another.
And I don't wanna give awaythe ending or anything.
You don't away. It's a great, it's, yeah.
But I recommend reading it. Itkind of gives you that warm,
fuzzy feeling and isdefinitely in line with

(20:53):
the gift giving and giving of oneself.
- So not, not necessarilyalong those lines,
but another really shortbook, not quite as short
as The Gift of the Magiis, um, as a man think of.
That's another, these are bothvery small, tiny little books
and they're really good.Mm-Hmm. A little different.
- The last traditionthat I wanna talk about,

(21:16):
which I think is the most bizarre, creepy,
whatever you wanna call it, is the rumpus.
Mm-Hmm. The Antis Santa.
So the Rumpus is known forwandering the streets in search
of badly behaved children.
This is so creepy. So inAustria specifically, people

(21:37):
will dress up in these likereally horrifying masks,
and they'll walk around and they'll prank
kids and, and people.
And there's even an annualCROs parade in Vienna.
And there's been moviesmade about this. It's
- Like 20 movies on- It. Yeah. There's
- There's a lot of them.
- There are. And these,if you look at some

(21:58):
of the illustrations too, of the cro Yeah.
- Comic books. They're scary.
- I mean, they're really scary looking.
Um, the Romps movie that I sawthat I liked, that I think is
probably worth watching, is,
I think it's just called Rompus. It was in
- 2015.
- 2015. Tony Collette is in it.

(22:19):
Um, the guy that playsTodd Packer in the office,
I don't know his name, but he's in it.
Um, who's the other guy? Adam Scott.
- Adam Scott from Parks and Recreation.
- Yeah. He's in it. Andthen the kid in the movie
is the same kid from themovie Chef MJ Anthony.
Yes. And it's just, it's,it's a good movie. It's scary.

(22:41):
It's so, don't watch it with little kids.
- You know what? It is a good movie.
And I think we didn't even talk
about watching that one again this year.
We really should. Yeah.
- But we're gonna talk aboutmovies in a minute. Okay.
When we talk about our ownChristmas traditions. Okay. Yeah.
Those are our traditions. But I wanted to
mention that because that is a movie.
It ties in with the Romps tradition.
- I actually saw another Rompsone with William Shatner.
That was really, yeah, it was like,

(23:01):
it was like rated R .
So not as good as the otherone that Tara is speaking of.
Now, those are two of 'em.
There's like, there'slike 30 of these movies.
- Do you know, I don'teven remember, I'm trying
to remember the nameof the movie we watched
last year with James.
It was a Fin Finn movie. Ah, it was bad.
It had like these reallyscary, naked elves.

(23:22):
It was really bad. Andit, I didn't realize how,
- But they were humans. They were
- .
It was like, oh my God. Thatit was like imported goods or
- Exported. It was so,
- What was the name of it? We've
- Been ripped off so many times.
And I know you have also there, I mean,
Netflix is one of the worstperpetrators in this regard.

(23:43):
You know, they, theinfinite, I guess, quest
for content at a decent price makes them
have some good movies.
And then some
of the worst movies you'veever seen in your life,
and they're blended in,in the same section.
Like, you'll be like, oh,legends of the Fall, uh,
Braveheart, uh, Shawshank Redemption.

(24:05):
Oh, this, uh, this moviewith Naked elves, .
And then like, just,and you, you like this.
Well, it must be good because it's next
to these other movies and I don't know.
And you know, what's the worstwhen you start watching these
movies and this, we do this often,
and you probably do it with your family.
You, you get invested.
You're like 30 minutesin, you're 40 minutes in.

(24:26):
Well then at that point you
- Can't, then you're like a just got
- Option.
You can't call on you, you, you, you
gotta you gotta finish it.
Yeah. There was a movierecently that we just saw.
And I love Jordan Peele.
I think he's hysterical in Key and Peele.
And, you know, he'sobviously extremely talented.
He did the, the Al Pacino show, uh, the,

(24:47):
that one, um, he did
- Get Out was good.
- Yeah. Get Out. He, he did theremake of the Twilight Zone,
but the one that was really not
good was, what was the name of it?
Nope. Nope.
- Yeah.- I mean, honestly, I was
- Disappointed 'cause I loved him. The
- Movie was a big nope for me.
Yeah. And it wasn't justme. It was, it was everyone.
- I love Jordan Peele.

(25:07):
I do, I do enjoy impersonatinghis many characters. ,
- If you haven't seen Key
and Peele, there are some of,it's some of the funniest, um,
individual skits you will ever see.
My number one is what Tara
- Substitute teacher.
- No, no. Not sub everybody.Everybody's number one.
Everybody's number one is a substitute

(25:28):
- Teacher.
You like one from like where their
aerobics skies from the eighties. The
- Eighties aerobics instructor .
If you haven't seen thatone, just go on YouTube,
type it in you, you'll die laughing.
Yeah. Another really good one by them.
Uh, and it's a dark one.
This is actually where youcould see Jordan Peele kind
of like went off the rails.
And this is when he was getting the idea

(25:49):
to make all these horror movies.
It was the, uh, family Matters episode.
- Oh, that one. Yeah.
And then also Flicker Flickertoo, where he like, yeah.
Flicks the guys. Myfavorite is the me any of,
of the Megan ones where he plays Megan.
And then, um, Keegan Key playsMegan's boyfriend, Andre.
And that's just so funny.

(26:10):
And then the other one is, um,
the Eternal From Within. Oh
- Yeah. .
- I mean, I mean,- They were making all this stuff.
- Let's not talk aboutthat there. But, but
- You can, would can watch that one.
Saturday Night Live was absolutely
horrendous for all these years.
Yeah. There's all this otherstuff going on around it. They,
- They're the best.
All right. So let'smove into talking about

(26:31):
our own traditions.
And I mean, some of them are really basic.
Like, we'll always bakecookies Yes. Right.
In the weeks leading up to Christmas.
And then we'll give them awaysometimes to family members,
sometimes to neighbors.
- Quick thing about thecookies, people asking.
I get, I gather, you probably wanna know

(26:54):
how early can people make 'em?
It's tough to make. This is a thing. Yeah.
You, you got a problem.Like, you can't make
12 different cookies threedays before Christmas. There
- Are some cookies that freeze really well
that maybe you'd wanna considermaking two weeks before
and, and freezing them.
Like I know the oatmealraisin cookies freeze.
Well, the s cookies freeze.
Well, chocolate chipcookies will freeze. Well,

(27:16):
- I heard pretty much every cookie does
and you can just Yeah.
Let 'em defrost and then warm 'em up. Yep.
- So, but I think a good ruleis like, we're gonna bake our
Christmas cookies this coming weekend.
So it'll be one week before Christmas.
And then, you know, sometimes,well, when the kids will,
were littler, they wouldbring them to school

(27:36):
and give to their teachers.
- I wanna just say this,
and again, y this is not legaladvice or anything like that,
but I will tell you simplyon our website, we put
three days for meat.
Okay. That means if you'recooking like a dinner,
a dinner recipe, say leftoverscan be refrigerated for up

(27:58):
to three days and eaten.
That's what we put, becausethat's what the USDA says.
We don't want to be suedfor it. That's what we put.
Okay. For cookies, weput I think five days
or seven days. Five to
- Seven days usually for- Cookies.
Look, the honest truth is justuse, just use your judgment.
Obviously don't put apot roast in the fridge

(28:20):
for a month and then eat it.
And you know, you'll be in theyou'll, you'll be in the er.
But if it goes past three days, again,
that's what, that's what we put there
for legal reasons on, on our website.
- So baking cookies is oneof the traditions that we,
we've been doing for yearsand years and years now.

(28:40):
Um, another one is one of my favorites.
We like to drive around andlook at Christmas lights.
- This is one of the besttr traditions that we have.
I don't know if you do this, if you don't,
if you never did it, I recommend you do.
It's a great time. Get a co get like a hot
cocoa hot or a coffee. Yep.

(29:01):
- Get- In your, with, with one of these
insulated mugs that I have here.
And just go, go pick a good neighborhood
around where we live.
The really, really expensive
neighborhoods don't have any lights.
Right. Tara, do you notice that?
- Yeah, but they're, they're more private.
There is a neighborhood which is still
ex I would consider it to bean expensive neighborhood.
But it, it's funny

(29:22):
'cause we were drivingaround there the other night
and James was like, what doyou think the cutoff date is
for this neighborhood to get decorated?
Like, he was like, implyingthat there's some coordinator
that everybody there, like there
- Is, there- Is has to have their houses decorated
by a certain day by a certain company.
Yeah. This is a neighborhoodthat's in St. James. And
- That's a new, so that'slike a new money neighborhood.

(29:42):
Yeah. Yeah. So the housesthere are expensive.
The taxes are very expensive.
Like all these homeshave taxes over $30,000.
But they're newer, they'renewer construction.
So it's probably youngerpeople who own them.
And they probably all oneprofessional white company knocked
on the door and they're like, Hey,
I'm doing Bobs down the street there.
You know, you wanna be as good as Bob.
You, you, you know, Bob's gonna outdo you.

(30:03):
Your wife might say something to you.
So like you, you're like,oh fine, I'll, I'll do it.
You know? How much is it?They're like $1,800, you know?
And then the whole entire neighborhood.
- Mm-Hmm.- , the whole
neighborhood had it. Yeah.
- I think they probablyfeel a lot of pressure to
- Compete, but those houses are on like,
I guess like a half an acre, maybe,
maybe three quarter.They're kind of close.

(30:24):
- They are- Close. Then we have this area
on the north shore of LongIsland called Oldfield.
And then there's other areas like
Qua you drive around these areas.
A lot of these homes are on 3,4, 6 acres and they're dark.
- Well, a lot of the,there's no lights. Yeah.
They're they're set far back too. Yeah.
Like, you don't, you're not necessarily
driving there to look at lights.

(30:44):
I think some of the areaswith the best lights are
the like medium income areas.
They go all out.
In fact, where I grew up
and the house, they, the house is there,
but the family who did the decorations,
they're not there anymore.
I grew up in Farmingdale.

(31:04):
It was a house thatwas behind the seven 11
that was on Route 1 0 9,like right near Secog Avenue.
If anybody's listeningknows where this house is,
they did the most elaboratedecorations in this house.
They had the whole garageconverted into Santa's workshop.
There were all these likeanimatronic things going off.

(31:26):
I remember for me, we wouldwalk to that house, me
and my dad, and I guessmy mom and my sister.
But I always remember being my dad
and I, we would first go toseven 11, get hot chocolate,
and then we would go thereand look at the lights.
And I think that's whyI love driving around,
looking at lights so much,because that was something
that I've been doing since Iwas really, really little. So

(31:49):
- The house you're talking about,
and I had houses like
that in the neighborhood Igrew up in at or towns over.
They were probably done by,
it was probably like a contractor
or electrician who owned the house.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Youknow, that's what I'm saying.
And they did it. They DIYed the whole
thing. Probably they like Chevy Chase
- In, in Christmas vacation.
This house, I'm tellingyou was incredible.

(32:11):
There were snowmen like lit up,
snowmen going along the whole roof.
Anyway, that's drivingaround looking at lights.
I would say Yes. You said getsome hot chocolate or coffee
or tea or whatever it is
that you drink when you're going to do it.
Also, it's fun to wear yourChristmas pajamas. Yes.
Or to dress in something really cozy.
The biggest, if you're gonna do it, the

(32:31):
- Biggest problem, Idon't know if this is how,
if you're experiencing this,
but people have lost their mind on the
road here in Long Island.
People are just, they,they're maniacs on the road
and not all of 'em.
That's what makes it even worse.
But you gotta be careful whenyou're doing this. Of course.
That's, it's just, it ofcourse, you know, you're trying
to drive, you're tryingto look at the lights.

(32:52):
Yeah. Mean your
- Warm beverage shouldn't be, you know,
mold wine. I mean, it's like,
- No, I'm not even, I don't- Mean that.
No, I, I know. I'm just saying like,
of course that goes without saying.
I, if you're gonna drive,you have to be careful. Yeah.
Yeah. The other traditionthat we have is Sam,
our daughter loves toset up a hot cocoa bar.
Oh yes. Every year in our kitchen.

(33:14):
So she did it again this year. Yeah.
And she's got like candy canes
and, um, actually marshmallows.
- I'm actually, I'm gonnashow, I'm gonna show
that Cocoa bar I'm gonna do,um, for the Patreon listeners,
we're gonna do, uh, alittle Patreon special
and I'll, I'll show that area
and also a couple other things.

(33:35):
- Um, so that's a lot of fun.
It just, even, it just kind
of gives like a cozy feeling to the house.
And ours is on just like alittle tiny, it's not a big bar,
it's a little tiny, whatwould you even call it?
It's where our coffee makeris. It's right next to that.
So it's just a, a tinylittle station set up,
but it gives the kitchen

(33:55):
and the house in general, kind of that,
that cozy feeling. It's a
- Little, a little table.
I bought it from that tablefrom Home Depot for about $150.
It's a ve very small, uh, what'sit called? Like a kitchen?
Like a kitchen cart orsomething like that.
- Yeah, it's like a movableisland. Yeah. Um, okay.
Another tradition that my, my dad

(34:17):
and his brothers do.
I don't even know if you'reaware of this ,
the Regift Santa.
Do you know this? No. Okay.
Every year Santa comes onChristmas Eve to our house. Right.
In the flesh. Often it's my dad
or one of his, well, inthe Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
In the past it was oneof my dad's brothers.

(34:38):
Like one of my uncles.Yeah. Or my dad dressing up.
And that torch has kind of been passed.
In fact, James asked if he could
dress up as Santa. I'm probably,
- I'm probably gonna have to do it.
- Yeah. So somebody will dress up like God
- Knows my belly is, I don't have
to You've been stuffanything in my belly. Yeah.
- You've been, you've been working on
that Santa Stom all year.
So somebody will dress up like Santa
and Santa will actually hand out the gifts

(35:00):
that we'll give each other.
But one of the things that my dad
and his brothers like todo is they like to re-gift
really bad gifts.
Mm. So you might wind up with a CD maybe,
or by like a V I'm tryingthink va chess player.
Yeah. Like a really bad movie. Like
- A, like a Sony walk.
Um, Discman

(35:20):
- Maybe.
But it would be like,I don't know, like a CD
by like Millie Vanilli.
Not that. I'm just tryingto like, not to knock.
- You're you're allowed to say Milli
Vanilli's back. Not to knock Milli
- Vanil.
Vanilli Milli, I'm trying to is bad.
I'm trying to come up with like,
you're allowed to say it like a bad gift.
And the gift comes from the Regift Santa.
So they like, that's,
that's a funny thing that they like to do.
- You know, milli Vanilli

(35:40):
never sung any of those songs. Right?
- No, I know. Yeah. Yeah.
So Jim, another tradition,
and I'm sure most familiesout there have these
traditions that we do.
I don't think we're unique at all.
But, um, the other thingwe do is pretty much
the whole month leadingup to Christmas, we'll try
and watch some of ourfavorite Christmas movies.
Some of them are debatable on whether

(36:02):
or not they are a Christmas movie.
So some of the ones thatare, I think without question
are Home Alone.
Home alone. Two Christmas vacation,
Scrooge Screwed. Yep. Right.
- Spirited. You can add in there
- Now.
Yes, I did. That's one of our
new favorites. Spirited. Which is,
- It's okay. It's not a favorite.
- It's okay. Yeah. It's a twist on, yeah.

(36:23):
It's a musical twist on a Christmas Carol.
- It's a Ryan Reynolds movie. Yeah.
Which I don't know about you,
but I think I've had a littletoo much Ryan Reynolds,
you know, like, he's everywhere.
You know, it's, I heard the
other day, you know how much he's worth.
Take a wild guess. It's net worth
- 100 million, 250 million. 500,

(36:43):
- 400 million.
- Okay. Yeah. I, I don't know.I I mean, he's, he's funny.
- It's probably most ofhis money was probably
made from the Deadpoolcharacter. Probably. That's
- What I'm thinking.
Probably. Yeah. Yeah. And then one
of my favorite Christmas movies obviously
is a Christmas Carol.
The specifically, the movie
that I like is theGeorge C. Scott version.

(37:04):
I also happen to like theAlbert Finney version,
which is just called Scrooge, I think.
But those are the twothat I grew up watching.
- Did you include Elf in your list?
- No, because so I, I'm nota big fan of Elf. All right.
But you, and that's not one that we're
talking about our traditions.
Yeah. We don't always watch Elf.
So I, 'cause Sammy doesn't like it.
- I do like Elf. The problem is my,
the women in my family don't like

(37:26):
Will Ferrell for some reason.
And , like, that's the thing.
Like one of the funniest moviesis, uh, Talladega Knights
and they won't watch that one with me.
But yeah, I digress.
I think we're missing a couple
that aren't on your list.

(37:46):
That should be on your list.
- I wanna talk about somecontroversial Christmas movies.
Okay. One that I'm gonna mention,
and it's one that my dadtold me a few years ago.
You have to watch this. Watchit with Sammy. You'll love it.
And the movie is Love, actually.
He's like, it's a great Christmas movie.

(38:06):
So I sit down to watch it with Sammy,
and if those of you haveseen it, you'll know that one
of maybe the first
or second scenes is areally, really inappropriate
adult scene.
So I had to right away stop it
and I was like, oh, Sam, wecan't watch this anymore.

(38:27):
Anyway, so I don't know.
I didn't, I have not finished watching it,
but to me, when I think oflike Christmas movies, I think
of movies that are family friendly.
And that's why I think the next movie
we're gonna what Talkabout what you're saying.
Yeah. Might not be a Christmas movie.
Even though I think most people,at least in our generation,
gen X, we think this is aChristmas movie, and that is

(38:49):
- Die Hard.
Mm-Hmm. . Yeah.
So Die Hard is 100% a Christmas movie.
And I'll just say, I justwatched Die Hard last year
with James, and he is not old.
And you know, I told him,you know, James, be prepared.
He was, he loved it.
and I will just say
that Die Hard is way less violent

(39:09):
and all that stuff compared
to the other crazy moviewe just watched, ,
what was the name of that one?
- Violent Knight.- . Yeah.
With Hopper from, uh, stranger Things.
- Yeah. Uh, David Harbor.- David Harbor plays,
- Um, who is actually from, do you know?
He's from White Plains.
- No kidding. Yeah. Well, assomebody without an accent.
Yeah. Yeah. But, um, he, um, plays a

(39:34):
Nordic Santa who, you can't remember why.
But anyway, he's Santa.
He has magic powers and John Le gmo
and a whole crew of like terrorists.
They, they try to break into this house
that supposedly has like ahundred million dollars in it.
So Santa David Harbor proceeds

(39:55):
to kill about a hundred peoplewith his hammer ,
like his Thor hammer.
And let me tell you, it's waymore violent than diehard was
entertaining comedy.
So I guess the violence,because it's comedic. Yeah.
It's done well. And they actually,
I was reading the director,he said that they were,
it is an homage to die hard. Yeah,

(40:17):
- For- Sure.
And they also had a couplescenes from, um, home Alone.
- Yes. They did include someof the home alone things.
The little girl in themovie, she did some of the,
she tried some of the tricks
that Kevin did except hers were Oh yeah.
- More violent,- A little bit more violent
- .
But it was entertaining.We watched that one, uh,
with the kids and

(40:37):
- He's like kicking ass while they're
boy playing in the background.
The Brian Adams something about
Christmas, Christmastime movies,
- .
Yeah. It was, it was okay.I mean, it's nowhere near as
- I liked it. I
- Mean, nowhere near as good as diehard.
Diehard is a classic. Well,
- Why do, why do I like it?
- You like David- Aor? I have a little crush on David
- Arbor.
- I I do. Yeah. The kids know.

(40:58):
So, you know, every, the kids get so,
so mad at me when I say that Ihave a crush on David Harbor.
Or like, they think I'm likedoing something nefarious.
- I know. They get mad. What? You, you,
you should watch BlackWidow the Marvel movie
because he's in, like, he's inone of those superhero suits.
- Yeah, I heard he haslike a, he plays like a
- Russian- A dad bod.

(41:18):
Yeah. In that. Well, hehas a dad bod in like
every everything.
Yeah. Except for maybe seasonone of Stranger Things. Look,
- Every dad has a dad bought it.
I don't know if he has kids or not,
but like, you're not supposedto be in your forties
or fifties with 8% body fat.
- So let's talk about some,some of our food traditions
for Christmas, Christmas Day specifically.

(41:39):
We already talked about Christmas Eve
and the Seven Fishes and all that stuff.
So I wanna really focuson, on Christmas Day
and what are some of the things
that we do every year as a meal. So
- Christmas Day, it's always a rib roast.
Uh, doesn't have to be,
we actually were debatingthis year possibly
doing a Chateau Brion.
Mm-Hmm. . Butit's typically beef for us.

(41:59):
Mm-Hmm. . Nowyou wanna change that, right?
You want a goose.
- So one of my dreams is to one year
do a traditional English,like straight out
of a Dickens novel Christmas dinner with a goose
and the Christmas pudding,
which I understand takes several days.

(42:22):
I know we have a few listeners in the uk.
If you have any like, tried
and true Christmaspudding recipes and tips
and tricks that you wouldlike to send my way,
I would love to hear from you.
But that's my dream one year is
to have a traditionalEnglish Christmas dinner.
I do really love on Christmas Day.
Like I like listening toChristmas music on the radio,

(42:45):
like pop Christmas musicleading up to Christmas Eve.
And then for some reason on Christmas Day,
I really like this oneparticular, um, album.
It's called Irish Country Christmas. Hmm.
And it's just all instrumental music
and it just makes me feel so
happy.

(43:06):
- Irish country Christmas. Yeah.
- It's, I think the guy'sname is Craig Duncan.
I don't know, but there's likeguitars and I, I don't know.
He's got some traditional,well that's Irish
and English instrumental music on there.
- That's easy to include.
I don't know about the goose though.
I don't, where am I gonna get a goose

(43:28):
- Outside?
- Yeah, I know we have a lakebias with a couple of them.
- No, I wouldn't say to do- That. Those are tremendous.
Is that, is that those are
goose right? That's what they are.
- Well, they're swans too.
- Oh no, those are swans. Yeah.
I know the hubs likethose things are huge.
- No, I'm kidding.- Yeah.
Geese are on the are onthe road always. Yeah. No,
- I - Honestly, these are alwayson like the soccer fields.
- Oh my God, they're so cute. Nevermind.
I don't think I wanna eat one of them.

(43:48):
- Well, same there with a duck. We
always see the duck at that.
We see a bunch of ducks at the lake. Yeah.
Along with the swans.
It's like two swans,like control that lake.
They're like, they'relike the enforcers there.
And they must be about 10times the size of a duck. Yeah.
They're huge. But the ducks are so cute.
You know, they're like goinglike duck, you know, bill down,
like their butts aresticking up in the air.
They're trying to like findwhatever they're trying

(44:10):
to find on the bottom of thebottom of the water and Yeah.
It just makes you notwant to have one. Yeah.
Though duck is pretty good.
Long Island duck specifically. Mm-Hmm.
- . It's,- Yeah.
- All right. So Jim,
any other traditions you wanna talk about
- By the time you listento this or watch this?
The rib roast will havebeen published on Thursday,

(44:32):
so only a few days earlier.
If you need help making a ribroast, if you don't know how
to do it, definitely watch the video.
I showed how to tie, it showedhow to do like a slip knot.
I showed how to remove the bone.
Because you might run into a situation
where if you buy it from Costco,
they're not gonna do that for you.
So you'll have to do ityourself. It's not a big deal.
We actually had somebody ask aquestion about, uh, what was,

(44:54):
what was the specific question
that they asked about the bone?
- It was the ch about the chime bone. The
- Chime. So, which
- Is not, which- Is the
- Backbone.
Yeah. But it's not something that's really
a problem here in theUS when you buy Yeah.
Unless you're getting likean entire cow. Yeah. And you
- Have to, I'll, I wanna address that
for for a second with people.
Yeah, go ahead. So yeah, that's,that's how it's connected.

(45:15):
And so the ribs,
and then you'll be connectedto this shine or backbone.
You, you're never gonna see that you're,
you're, you're never going to.
So I don't know if the personwas in the UK or, or what,
or if they were in middle of America
and they were buying a full steer.
Mm-Hmm. , I don't know.
But that's not something that'sgonna be a problem for you.

(45:36):
So with a regular boning knife
or just just a regular chef's knife,
you can easily remove the bone.
How, how I did in the video.And then you tie it back up.
This makes it easier byhaving it on the bone.
You'll get, it'll be a little juicier.
And then when it comes time to,
after you roast it, to carve it as simple
as removing that string.
And then you have your fullrib roast without the bone.

(45:57):
So you could cut nice slices. Mm-Hmm.
Chateau Brion.
Even easier to make ifyou wanna just do that.
- The Yorkshire puddingis also really good too.
We don't have a recipe up for that.
But that's what is thatflour egg. And then you
- Make it a cold batter.
Yeah. A lot of times there'll be eggs
in it, there'll be milk in it.
You stick the batter in the fridge.

(46:18):
Some people will evenstick it in the freezer.
You, after you do yourroast with the drippings,
the hot drippings, youpour your batter in there.
Mm-Hmm. . And it'll rapidly
expand when it's in the oven.
You can do individualsin a muffin tin. Mm-Hmm.
. So eachperson gets their own
little Yorkshire pudding.
Mm-Hmm. . Or you can use,
say you do your roast ina big cast iron, no need
to drain now you just pull your roast out,

(46:40):
pour your batter into thecast iron, put it in the oven,
and then you have thismassive Yorkshire pudding.
Mm-Hmm. . But the way
that we did the roast in the video,
there's not really any drippings
because it's kind of, it's a low and slow
and then you searing at the end.
That's the one downside to it.
- Okay. So that's really allI have for our traditions,
and we'd really love to hearfrom you on your favorite

(47:04):
Christmas or otherholiday type of traditions
that take place duringthis time of the year.
Send us an email to
[e-mail]
and as always, send us questions two.
- Yeah. Send us your questions.
And we'll be back next weekwith a whole new episode.

(47:25):
And we might actually be taking
off from the YouTube cookingvideos for a couple weeks.
We're not sure yet, right, Tara?
- That's right. We, we feel like we want,
- We filmed a lot, maybe- Like a little bit of a break.
We probably have sixaround the holidays. Videos
- Filmed already.
Yeah. That have not been published.
- So Yeah. We just wannaspend some time with,
with our family and Yeah.

(47:46):
And really enjoy this part,this time of the year.
And we encourage all ofyou to do the same. We
- Do.
We'll see you next time. .