Christmas Stories

Christmas Stories

By Tobias SturtSociety & Culture
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Christmas Stories episodes

  • The Elf Service - Episode 6

    Letters to Father Christmas. What is the Post Office to do with them? They can’t deliver them. They don’t know his address. They can’t return them. Who could be so cruel? Irving Jefferson has the answer and it’s brilliantly simple. But reporter Maddie Sharp is beginning to suspect that Irving Jefferson and his plan might not be as simple as they appear.


    The Elf Service is a story for Christmas in 24 daily episodes, written by tobias sturt and read by Jon Millington. The theme music is Santa Claus is comin’ to town by Riley Farley and their orchestra from The Internet Archive (https://archive.org/). Our illustrations are by Jamie Lenman (http://www.jamielenman.com/portfolio/).


    The Elf Service is inspired by a true story - the story of John Gluck, the Santa Claus man, a story I heard about on the sadly defunct Futility Closet podcast (https://www.futilitycloset.com/2020/09/28/podcast-episode-313-the-santa-claus-association/), and then discovered more thoroughly in Alex Palmer's biography of Gluck (https://uk.bookshop.org/books/the-santa-claus-man-the-rise-and-fall-of-a-jazz-age-con-man-and-the-invention-of-christmas-in-new-york/9781493049158)


    Gluck was an entrepreneur (a slightly shady one at that) in pre-WWI New York, who started a charity taking letters written to Santa Claus and finding wealthy Manhattanites to answer them with presents. And there my story starts diverging (fairly dramatically) from real life.


    I've also been reading Crying the News, a history of America's news boys (https://uk.bookshop.org/books/crying-the-news-a-history-of-america-s-newsboys-9780197533338/9780197533338), which I discovered via the You're Wrong About podcast (https://yourewrongabout.buzzsprout.com/1112270/6500155)


    The Christmas Stories podcast is hosted on Acast and we also have a Substack newsletter. You can find out about both at christmasstories.co.uk

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    15 min
  • The Elf Service - Episode 5

    Letters to Father Christmas. What is the Post Office to do with them? They can’t deliver them. They don’t know his address. They can’t return them. Who could be so cruel? Irving Jefferson has the answer and it’s brilliantly simple. But reporter Maddie Sharp is beginning to suspect that Irving Jefferson and his plan might not be as simple as they appear.


    The Elf Service is a story for Christmas in 24 daily episodes, written by tobias sturt and read by Jon Millington. The theme music is Santa Claus is comin’ to town by Riley Farley and their orchestra from The Internet Archive (https://archive.org/). Our illustrations are by Jamie Lenman (http://www.jamielenman.com/portfolio/).


    The Elf Service is inspired by a true story - the story of John Gluck, the Santa Claus man, a story I heard about on the sadly defunct Futility Closet podcast (https://www.futilitycloset.com/2020/09/28/podcast-episode-313-the-santa-claus-association/), and then discovered more thoroughly in Alex Palmer's biography of Gluck (https://uk.bookshop.org/books/the-santa-claus-man-the-rise-and-fall-of-a-jazz-age-con-man-and-the-invention-of-christmas-in-new-york/9781493049158)


    Gluck was an entrepreneur (a slightly shady one at that) in pre-WWI New York, who started a charity taking letters written to Santa Claus and finding wealthy Manhattanites to answer them with presents. And there my story starts diverging (fairly dramatically) from real life.


    I've also been reading Crying the News, a history of America's news boys (https://uk.bookshop.org/books/crying-the-news-a-history-of-america-s-newsboys-9780197533338/9780197533338), which I discovered via the You're Wrong About podcast (https://yourewrongabout.buzzsprout.com/1112270/6500155)


    The Christmas Stories podcast is hosted on Acast and we also have a Substack newsletter. You can find out about both at christmasstories.co.uk

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    15 min
  • The Elf Service - Episode 4

    Letters to Father Christmas. What is the Post Office to do with them? They can’t deliver them. They don’t know his address. They can’t return them. Who could be so cruel? Irving Jefferson has the answer and it’s brilliantly simple. But reporter Maddie Sharp is beginning to suspect that Irving Jefferson and his plan might not be as simple as they appear.


    The Elf Service is a story for Christmas in 24 daily episodes, written by tobias sturt and read by Jon Millington. The theme music is Santa Claus is comin’ to town by Riley Farley and their orchestra from The Internet Archive (https://archive.org/). Our illustrations are by Jamie Lenman (http://www.jamielenman.com/portfolio/).


    The Elf Service is inspired by a true story - the story of John Gluck, the Santa Claus man, a story I heard about on the sadly defunct Futility Closet podcast (https://www.futilitycloset.com/2020/09/28/podcast-episode-313-the-santa-claus-association/), and then discovered more thoroughly in Alex Palmer's biography of Gluck (https://uk.bookshop.org/books/the-santa-claus-man-the-rise-and-fall-of-a-jazz-age-con-man-and-the-invention-of-christmas-in-new-york/9781493049158)


    Gluck was an entrepreneur (a slightly shady one at that) in pre-WWI New York, who started a charity taking letters written to Santa Claus and finding wealthy Manhattanites to answer them with presents. And there my story starts diverging (fairly dramatically) from real life.


    I've also been reading Crying the News, a history of America's news boys (https://uk.bookshop.org/books/crying-the-news-a-history-of-america-s-newsboys-9780197533338/9780197533338), which I discovered via the You're Wrong About podcast (https://yourewrongabout.buzzsprout.com/1112270/6500155)


    The Christmas Stories podcast is hosted on Acast and we also have a Substack newsletter. You can find out about both at christmasstories.co.uk

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    15 min
  • The Elf Service - Episode 3

    Letters to Father Christmas. What is the Post Office to do with them? They can’t deliver them. They don’t know his address. They can’t return them. Who could be so cruel? Irving Jefferson has the answer and it’s brilliantly simple. But reporter Maddie Sharp is beginning to suspect that Irving Jefferson and his plan might not be as simple as they appear.


    The Elf Service is a story for Christmas in 24 daily episodes, written by tobias sturt and read by Jon Millington. The theme music is Santa Claus is comin’ to town by Riley Farley and their orchestra from The Internet Archive (https://archive.org/). Our illustrations are by Jamie Lenman (http://www.jamielenman.com/portfolio/).


    The Elf Service is inspired by a true story - the story of John Gluck, the Santa Claus man, a story I heard about on the sadly defunct Futility Closet podcast (https://www.futilitycloset.com/2020/09/28/podcast-episode-313-the-santa-claus-association/), and then discovered more thoroughly in Alex Palmer's biography of Gluck (https://uk.bookshop.org/books/the-santa-claus-man-the-rise-and-fall-of-a-jazz-age-con-man-and-the-invention-of-christmas-in-new-york/9781493049158)


    Gluck was an entrepreneur (a slightly shady one at that) in pre-WWI New York, who started a charity taking letters written to Santa Claus and finding wealthy Manhattanites to answer them with presents. And there my story starts diverging (fairly dramatically) from real life.


    I've also been reading Crying the News, a history of America's news boys (https://uk.bookshop.org/books/crying-the-news-a-history-of-america-s-newsboys-9780197533338/9780197533338), which I discovered via the You're Wrong About podcast (https://yourewrongabout.buzzsprout.com/1112270/6500155)


    The Christmas Stories podcast is hosted on Acast and we also have a Substack newsletter. You can find out about both at christmasstories.co.uk

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    14 min
  • The Elf Service - Episode 2

    Letters to Father Christmas. What is the Post Office to do with them? They can’t deliver them. They don’t know his address. They can’t return them. Who could be so cruel? Irving Jefferson has the answer and it’s brilliantly simple. But reporter Maddie Sharp is beginning to suspect that Irving Jefferson and his plan might not be as simple as they appear.


    The Elf Service is a story for Christmas in 24 daily episodes, written by tobias sturt and read by Jon Millington. The theme music is Santa Claus is comin’ to town by Riley Farley and their orchestra from The Internet Archive (https://archive.org/). Our illustrations are by Jamie Lenman (http://www.jamielenman.com/portfolio/).


    The Elf Service is inspired by a true story - the story of John Gluck, the Santa Claus man, a story I heard about on the sadly defunct Futility Closet podcast (https://www.futilitycloset.com/2020/09/28/podcast-episode-313-the-santa-claus-association/), and then discovered more thoroughly in Alex Palmer's biography of Gluck (https://uk.bookshop.org/books/the-santa-claus-man-the-rise-and-fall-of-a-jazz-age-con-man-and-the-invention-of-christmas-in-new-york/9781493049158)


    Gluck was an entrepreneur (a slightly shady one at that) in pre-WWI New York, who started a charity taking letters written to Santa Claus and finding wealthy Manhattanites to answer them with presents. And there my story starts diverging (fairly dramatically) from real life.


    I've also been reading Crying the News, a history of America's news boys (https://uk.bookshop.org/books/crying-the-news-a-history-of-america-s-newsboys-9780197533338/9780197533338), which I discovered via the You're Wrong About podcast: https://yourewrongabout.buzzsprout.com/1112270/6500155


    The Christmas Stories podcast is hosted on Acast and we also have a Substack newsletter. You can find out about both at christmasstories.co.uk

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    16 min
  • The Elf Service - Episode 1

    Letters to Father Christmas. What is the Post Office to do with them? They can’t deliver them. They don’t know his address. They can’t return them. Who could be so cruel? Irving Jefferson has the answer and it’s brilliantly simple. But reporter Maddie Sharp is beginning to suspect that Irving Jefferson and his plan might not be as simple as they appear.


    The Elf Service is a story for Christmas in 24 daily episodes, written by tobias sturt and read by Jon Millington. The theme music is Santa Claus is comin’ to town by Riley Farley and their orchestra from The Internet Archive (https://archive.org/). Our illustrations are by Jamie Lenman (http://www.jamielenman.com/portfolio/).


    The Elf Service is inspired by a true story - the story of John Gluck, the Santa Claus man, a story I heard about on the sadly defunct Futility Closet podcast (https://www.futilitycloset.com/2020/09/28/podcast-episode-313-the-santa-claus-association/), and then discovered more thoroughly in Alex Palmer's biography of Gluck (https://uk.bookshop.org/books/the-santa-claus-man-the-rise-and-fall-of-a-jazz-age-con-man-and-the-invention-of-christmas-in-new-york/9781493049158)


    Gluck was an entrepreneur (a slightly shady one at that) in pre-WWI New York, who started a charity taking letters written to Santa Claus and finding wealthy Manhattanites to answer them with presents. And there my story starts diverging (fairly dramatically) from real life.


    I've also been reading Crying the News, a history of America's news boys (https://uk.bookshop.org/books/crying-the-news-a-history-of-america-s-newsboys-9780197533338/9780197533338), which I discovered via the You're Wrong About podcast: https://yourewrongabout.buzzsprout.com/1112270/6500155


    The Christmas Stories podcast is hosted on Acast and we also have a Substack newsletter. You can find out about both at christmasstories.co.uk

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    16 min
  • The Last Resort

    A story for Halloween, written in 2022


    Inspired by a visit to Porthcawl in South wales, where they really have tarmacked over the beach - although I don't know whether they have a little local god keeping the town alive (apart from my friends Will & Jo - who live there and *are* gods)


    The music is: 'Thinking Music' by Kevin MacLeod (https://filmmusic.io/song/4522-thinking-music)


    Effects from Freesound : Timbre, Julien Nicolas, NLM, Yarmonics kyles, nebulousflynn, 7778

    https://freesound.org/people/redskelington/bookmarks/category/166869/?page=1

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    12 min
  • The Ghosts of Christmas Presents - Chapter 24
    Chapter 24: In which Mr Benedict Nail has a happy Christmas and wishes one to everyone else, too. Including you. Alone and loving it one Christmas Eve, the selfish and unfriendly Benedict Nail finds himself shrunk into miniature and lost in the wilderness of his own living room, which turns out to populated by the ghosts of long-dead Londoners. To reverse the enchantment he must set out on weird expedition through the knick-knacks and mementoes of his past, and in the course of a long midwinter night discover a whole new Benedict Nail. The Ghosts of Christmas Presents is a seasonal adventure through one man's living room, the wonders he finds there and the lessons he learns. Told in 24 chapters, it is written by Tobias Sturt and read by Jon Millington. The music is 'Path of the Goblin King' by Kevin MacLeod of filmmusic.io (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4503-the-path-of-the-goblin-king) You can get in touch with us through our website: www.christmasstories.co.uk, where you can also find more Christmas stories. We're also on: Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/1cnV4Q5uFiZ667AwCeYWcD) Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/jo/podcast/christmas-stories/id342644159) Soundcloud (https://soundcloud.com/ruritania) Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/christmasserial) YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQh_qRDlz4ukgQJBoV_2ALA) Stitcher (https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-adventure-calendar-of-mr-timothy-hope) Google Podcasts (shorturl.at/fpEWZ)

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    11 min
  • The Ghosts of Christmas Presents - Chapter 23
    Chapter 23: In which Mr Benedict Nail decides that, after all, he really does like Christmas, neighbours and musicAlone and loving it one Christmas Eve, the selfish and unfriendly Benedict Nail finds himself shrunk into miniature and lost in the wilderness of his own living room, which turns out to populated by the ghosts of long-dead Londoners. To reverse the enchantment he must set out on weird expedition through the knick-knacks  and mementoes of his past, and in the course of a long midwinter night discover a whole new Benedict Nail.The Ghosts of Christmas Presents is a seasonal adventure through one man's living room, the wonders he finds there and the lessons he learns. Told in 24 chapters, it is written by Tobias Sturt and read by Jon Millington. The music is 'Path of the Goblin King' by Kevin MacLeod of filmmusic.io (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4503-the-path-of-the-goblin-king)You can get in touch with us through our website: www.christmasstories.co.uk, where you can also find more Christmas stories. We're also on:Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/1cnV4Q5uFiZ667AwCeYWcD)Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/jo/podcast/christmas-stories/id342644159)Soundcloud (https://soundcloud.com/ruritania)Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/christmasserial)YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQh_qRDlz4ukgQJBoV_2ALA)Stitcher (https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-adventure-calendar-of-mr-timothy-hope)Google Podcasts (shorturl.at/fpEWZ)

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    10 min
  • The Ghosts of Christmas Presents - Chapter 22
    Chapter 22: In which Mr Benedict Nail discovers that the spirits have done it all in one nightAlone and loving it one Christmas Eve, the selfish and unfriendly Benedict Nail finds himself shrunk into miniature and lost in the wilderness of his own living room, which turns out to populated by the ghosts of long-dead Londoners. To reverse the enchantment he must set out on weird expedition through the knick-knacks  and mementoes of his past, and in the course of a long midwinter night discover a whole new Benedict Nail.The Ghosts of Christmas Presents is a seasonal adventure through one man's living room, the wonders he finds there and the lessons he learns. Told in 24 chapters, it is written by Tobias Sturt and read by Jon Millington. The music is 'Path of the Goblin King' by Kevin MacLeod of filmmusic.io (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4503-the-path-of-the-goblin-king)You can get in touch with us through our website: www.christmasstories.co.uk, where you can also find more Christmas stories. We're also on:Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/1cnV4Q5uFiZ667AwCeYWcD)Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/jo/podcast/christmas-stories/id342644159)Soundcloud (https://soundcloud.com/ruritania)Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/christmasserial)YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQh_qRDlz4ukgQJBoV_2ALA)Stitcher (https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-adventure-calendar-of-mr-timothy-hope)Google Podcasts (shorturl.at/fpEWZ)

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    10 min

About Christmas Stories

From the publisher's feed

Merry and magical stories that take Christmas seriously (or as seriously as it should be taken, which is both not at all and entirely too much). 24 episodes of a new Christmas story for adults read…

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