Weird Christmas Podcast

Please check WeirdChristmas.com for the text of all the stories along with links to the authors' bios, other works, and all the show notes.

Please help support the show, the podcast, and Weird Christmas website by donating/gifting any and all amounts at Ko-Fi.com (click here). The money from the prizes is all from donations. And the more donations I get, the more I can give to the contestants. My long term goal is to make every story count as a professional sale by most writing organization’s standards. You can also donate any amount through PayPal by giving to [email protected].

If you’re looking for any of the links mentioned in the show, they're all at WeirdChristmas.com on the post for the first part of this conversation, which, yes, is technically a different episode, even though I probably should have made them all one, although there were a couple years inbetween the talks, so it kinda makes sense, and once you've started a truly epic run-on sentence, you really need to see it through. But all the links we discuss are there in one place.

The only differences are the intro/outro tunes:

Music:

It’s probably Christmas-time (ish) when you’re reading this, so remember the spirit of the season is giving. Any donations go toward hosting fees and paying the authors for the annual story show. If you’re feeling generous, you can leave a donation at Ko-Fi.com. Or PayPal me a direct donation using [email protected].

You can also LEAVE A WEIRD REVIEW ON APPLE PODCASTS OR YOUR FAVORITE PODCAST APP! Send me a note that you did ([email protected]), and I’ll send you a sticker!

Craig talks with Benito Cereno about Benito's tour of Christkindlmarkets (Or Christkindlmärkte to be accurate, but we're also gonna call them Christkindlemarkets just to make sure the search engines fine anything for my fellow Americans).

If you don't know Benito, you should. He knows more about Christmas history than anyone I know. He's also a talented writer, especially for comics. He's written most recently the Hector Plasm series (the latest one tackles Bigfoot), Startling Tales of Santa Claus, but he's also written for The Tick, the Invincible series, and the incredibly fun Tales from the Bully Pulpit that feature an ass-kicking Teddy Roosevelt. He's also working on a much longer mythology of Santa that will create a (mostly) self-consistent set of myths, stories, and legends about the man, integrating all of the folklore that he can find.

Music:

It’s probably Christmas-time (ish) when you’re reading this, so remember the spirit of the season is giving. Any donations go toward hosting fees and paying the authors for the annual story show. If you’re feeling generous, you can leave a donation at Ko-Fi.com. Or PayPal me a direct donation using [email protected].

You can also LEAVE A WEIRD REVIEW ON APPLE PODCASTS OR YOUR FAVORITE PODCAST APP! Send me a note that you did ([email protected]), and I’ll send you a sticker!

Baking: Recipes & Stories from Tomb Offerings to Gingerbread Boys. Talk about disgusting food and wondrously delicious treats, along with some of the strange stories that lay behind them all

Music:

It’s probably Christmas-time (ish) when you’re reading this, so remember the spirit of the season is giving. Any donations go toward hosting fees and paying the authors for the annual story show. If you’re feeling generous, you can leave a donation at Ko-Fi.com. Or PayPal me a direct donation using [email protected].

You can also LEAVE A WEIRD REVIEW ON APPLE PODCASTS OR YOUR FAVORITE PODCAST APP! Send me a note that you did ([email protected]), and I’ll send you a sticker!

2024 Weird Christmas Flash Fiction Contest Winners:

Weird Card Winner: “The Study of Owls and the Christmas Contronyms” by Daniel Roop

Unreal Holiday Celebration Winner: “The Mycelial Muffinheads’ Annual Pilgrimage to the Cave of Forget-Me-Nothings” by C.L. Sidell

Stocking Stuffer Winner: “All Eves for the Yule” by A.S. Hahrwort

All the stories: (in no special order other than appearance on the show):

Please help support the contest, the podcast, and Weird Christmas website by donating/gifting any and all amounts at Ko-Fi.com (click here). The money from the prizes is all from donations. And the more donations I get, the more I can give to the contestants. My long term goal is to make every story count as a professional sale by most writing organization’s standards. You can also donate any amount through PayPal by giving to [email protected].

A big thank you to both volunteer readers this season: Dustin Pari (@dustinpari, who is always so wonderfully generous and optimistic and inspiring), and my friend Joel who wants nothing more to do with this whole thing.

Usual opening: “O Holy Night” by Tiny Tim, “Christmas Doesn’t Last” by Make Like Monkeys, “Santa Claus Boogie” by Hasil Adkins, “Space Age Santa” by Ross Christman

Special opening: “Christmas-Procrastination Blues” by Tom DeMasters.

Bumper music (ripped straight from YouTube): by Myuu (for the dark piano) and a host of wonderful theramin artists.

Contest results from previous years: 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018.

Please see WeirdChristmas.com for text and info on all the stories and writers.

Craig talks with the ever knowledgeable and jolly Benito Cereno about Scandinavian elves, which you're starting to see more and more places in decorations and movies. All links mentioned on the show, along with info on Benito, can be found at WeirdChristmas.com at this link:

https://weirdchristmas.com/2023/12/23/nisser-and-tomtar-scandinavian-elves-with-benito-cereno/

If you’re feeling generous, you can leave a donation at Ko-Fi.com. It’s probably Christmas-time (ish) when you’re reading this, so remember the spirit of the season is giving. And I’m trying not to turn on the guilt machine, but I would like to pay my hosting fees. heh heh

Or PLEASE LEAVE A WEIRD REVIEW ON APPLE PODCASTS OR YOUR FAVORITE PODCAST APP! Send me a note that you did ([email protected]), and I’ll send you a sticker!

The best show of the year: 19 stories of Christmas Weirdness from the annual Weird Christmas Flash Fiction Contest. Please visit WeirdChristmas.com to get information on the authors and to read the stories again.

If you want to support the contest and help make more and bigger prizes for the writers next year, please visit Ko-Fi.com/weirdchristmas to donate any amount.

I talk to Earl Fontainelle of the SHWEP (Secret History of Western Esotericism Podcast). We try to trace down any textual evidence that would connect the origins of Christmas to ancient pagan sources, namely the Mithras cult and Emperor Constantine’s Sol Invictus cult.

Listen here, on your favorite podcast app, or at the Podbean site.

The SHWEP

The SHWEP Oddcast

Music:

• "Scriaben Christmas Time is Here" by Kurt Knecht

If you’re feeling generous, you can leave a donation at Ko-Fi.com. It’s probably Christmas-time (ish) when you’re reading this, so remember the spirit of the season is giving. And I’m trying not to turn on the guilt machine, but I would like to pay my hosting fees. heh heh

Or PLEASE LEAVE A WEIRD REVIEW ON APPLE PODCASTS OR YOUR FAVORITE PODCAST APP! Send me a note that you did ([email protected]), and I’ll send you a sticker!

Benito and I discuss the traditions surrounding the Mari Lwyd, getting into similarities with other European wassailing and hobby horse traditions.

A recording of the Mari Lwyd rhyme in action by the BBC.

Benito's Links:

• Benito’s Christmas history videos

Music:

• "Here Comes the Mari Lwyd" by The Eugenes

If you’re feeling generous, you can leave a donation at Ko-Fi.com. It’s probably Christmas-time (ish) when you’re reading this, so remember the spirit of the season is giving. And I’m trying not to turn on the guilt machine, but I would like to pay my hosting fees. heh heh

Or PLEASE LEAVE A WEIRD REVIEW ON APPLE PODCASTS OR YOUR FAVORITE PODCAST APP! Send me a note that you did ([email protected]), and I’ll send you a sticker!