In 1987, the California Raisins missed their bus, then made a sleigh out of garbage and flew it into space in the greatest holiday special out of all holiday specials hosted by clay dinosaurs.  

WARNING: This episode inexplicably contains a major spoiler for the 2014 movie How to Train Your Dragon 2.  

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🎙 Guest:  

Erin Evans (@mserinmevans).  

Joey O. (Y-Not Radio, Words with Nerds, @ImGonnaDJ24).  

Emily Rowley (@mlerowley).  

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💬 Topics & Tangents:  

1. RIP Will Vinton (1947–2018), the creator of (capital-C) Claymation who may or may not have inspired Leap Day William, and who was still alive when we recorded this.  

2. Vinton also worked special effects on the Epcot attraction Captain EO starring Michael Jackson.  

3. Johnny Counterfit, the voice of Rex (and not at all Johnny Arcade), wrote a JFK time-travel novel.  

4. Rex and Herb’s original appearance in Dinosaur, which was later included in a direct-to-video thing starring Fred Savage.  

5. Related: “I Just Realized Why We Are All Mean,” by Jon Bois.  

6. Captain Stormfield’s Visit to Heaven, from The Adventures of Mark Twain, featuring Tim Conner (Herb) as a 3-headed alien in St. Peter’s place at the wrong “Heaven.”  

7. The California Raisins’ cancelled Nintendo game: The Grape Escape.  

8. Simpsons did it: The California Prunes.  

9. This special ends with a reference to the grossly enormous Mr. Creosote from Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life.

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“Will Vinton’s Claymation Christmas Celebration” © 1987 Will Vinton Productions, Inc.  

Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  
Say hi on Twitter @adventcalhouse.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.