Advent Calendar House

🎄 It’s 1977, and the cast of Broadway’s hottest new musical is taking drastic measures to convince 4 different unions keep the theater open for a Christmas party because they forgot to book a venue.  🎙️ Guy Hutchinson joins us to watch the original Broadway cast of “Annie” play somethings in between themselves and their characters in a unique TV Christmas special that may very well have been many...

🎄 It’s 1981, and a jolly swagman who may or may not be Santa Claus is flying me around the world in a sleigh built out of a bench and some rope we had lying around to search the globe for a lost baby kangaroo.  Today’s Christmas in July episode begins where it’s actually winter in July, and only gets stranger and more inappropriate from there.  🎙 Dan MacPherson joins us for “Around the World with...

🐰 It’s 2004, and a stuffed toy rabbit voluntold me to clean his house.  🎙 Sammy Hain and Matt Spaulding join us to celebrate both Easter in July and Scrooge Sunday with a trip to the Hundred Acre Wood as Rabbit does double duty as both the Easter Bunny and Scrooge, all while Christopher Robin is somewhere else entirely.  📺 You can find “Springtime with Roo” on Disney+ .  ****  💬 Topics & Ta...

🎄 It’s 1983, and my emotional support jack-in-the-box is not providing much help for my Imposter Syndrome.  🎙️ Tommy Coombs , Jayme Kilsby , and Chad Young join us for a deep dive into another pre-ALF puppet special from Paul Fusco starring a very depressed elf in training trying to find where he belongs in Santa’s workshop by first finding everywhere he doesn’t belong.  Plus: Santa’s Swedish Che...

🎄It’s 1979, and an evil king is having abandonment issues after his entire kingdom left, so he made an army of robots instead of going to therapy.  The Advent Calendar House has once again emerged from hibernation after declaring 4 more months of winter to pretend it’s still winter.  🎙 Gerry Davila from Totally Rad Christmas , Matt Spaulding from North Pole Radio , and Jeff Loftin from the Lost C...

Let’s all go to the taco show!  The Advent Calendar House has awoken early from its long winter’s nap to take the Leap Year challenge as prescribed by Dr. Frasier Crane on one unseasonably warm February morning in 1996.  🎙 Erin Evans and Joey O. get dressed up in buttons and boys to look into the “Frasier” cast’s Christmas connections, explore the world of complicated opera solos and bad Western b...

🎄It’s 1984, and Ebenezer Scrooge is threatening to raise his asking price for a warehouse full of corn.  This Christmas Eve episode not only drops on a Scrooge Sunday, but it’s also the Advent Calendar House’s 150th episode! 🎙 Erin Evans , Joey O. , and Anthony Strand join us for a Dickens of a celebration with 1984’s TV movie adaptation of “A Christmas Carol” starring George S. Scott, along with...

🎄It’s 1980, and my spoiled nephew just got beaten in a ski-jumping contest by a bear who’s never seen winter before.  🎙 Bill Hanstock join us we fail upward through middle to upper hotel management featuring a simultaneously very mature and very immature conversation about cartoon bears discovering mistletoe. What could be the Jellystone Winter Lodge’s final Christmas carnival manages to wake up...

🎄It’s 1970, and Santa’s been locked up in an underground cave with 2 giant Muppet monsters.  🎙️ Tori Schmidt and Tony Whitaker join us as we venture through the tunnels under Santa’s workshop to uncover Jim Henson’s first ever TV holiday special, presented by The Ed Sullivan Show and featuring the first Muppet performances by Richard Hunt, Fran Brill, Marilyn Sokol, and John Lovelady, as well as...

🎄It’s 1983, and the Worst Kids in the World are taking over the church Nativity play, smoking in the ladies’ room, and helping themselves to the sacramental grape juice.  🎙 Scott Leopold from Holly Jolly X’masu and Bob Baker from Festive Foreign Film Fans join us as we meet the Herdmans in a classic Christmas story turned TV movie starring Loretta Swit from “M*A*S*H” and a young Fairuza Balk in h...

🎄It’s 1994, and the Jeffersons are poisoning Metropolis with greed spray from toy atomic space rats.  🎙 Gerry Davila , Paxton Holley , and Jeeg join us on an unpredictable flight through the first Christmas episode of “Lois and Clark,” written by Dean Cain and starring Sherman Hemsley as the Toyman and Isabel Sanford as his reluctant assistant, plus Denise Richards, Dick Van Patten, Doug Llewelly...

🎄It’s 2001, and a magical partridge is sending me on a coat drive for some kind of Karate Kid-style Santa training.  🎙️ Andre Bennett and Tim Babb join us for a ride in our light blue ’54 convertible as we take a joyride through the very last and most overlooked Rankin/Bass Christmas special, featuring a mostly black cast starring Patti LaBelle, Gregory Hines, and a criminally underused Eartha Ki...

🎄It’s 1989, and a killer in a Santa suit is making it really hard to hide my dead husband’s body.  🎙 Jamie Ray from Fave Five From Fans joins us to dig up the first filmed episode of “Tales From the Crypt,” a cozy Christmas nightmare directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring his then-wife and talented screamer, Mary Ellen Trainor, and the kid who gets her hoverboard stolen by Marty McFly.  **** ...

🎄 It’s 1979, by way of 1933 — or the other way around — and the human from Fraggle Rock has broken into my garage with a haunted choir of singing children.  🎙️ Scott Leopold from Holly Jolly X’masu and Tommy Coombs join us as we turn the dial on our haunted time-traveling radio to find Henry Winkler at the height of his fame as the Fonz hiding under multiple layers of makeup as a Scrooge figure i...

🕎 It’s 2003, and a team of Hebrew school basketball players think they’ve found the ghost of Judah Maccabee in a random guy living in a van.  🎙️ April Ryley and J.W. Friedman join us for a Disney Channel Original Hanukkah Movie very, very loosely based on the true story of former college basketball star Lamont Carr and a yeshiva’s struggling team looking for a leader.  📺 “Full-Court Miracle” is...

🎄 It’s 1987, and someone stole Santa Claus in the middle of his hot dog break.  🎙️ Lindy Kempe and Emily Rowley join us as we follow a renowned novelist who may or may not be a teenager and her animated mouse writing partner on a quest find out who kidnapped a department store Santa, while we solve the mystery of how anyone remembers this Christmas special that only aired once.  ****  💬 Topics &...

🎄 It’s 1991, and Santa Claus is fighting with a talking dog over a park bench.  By some Christmas miracle, this obscure special was rediscovered over 30 years later. For years, people on the Internet tried to identify it on a TV in the background of an old family photo, until finally, thanks to the power of positivity, it was identified as “The Soulmates in The Gift of Light.”  🎙️ Michael DiGiova...

🎄 It’s 1977, and Happy Gilmore’s grandma is surrounded by dancing chickens.  It’s a beautiful day for a podcast, and this season of the Advent Calendar House begins with a visit to Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood in a Christmas special that hadn’t been available for more than 40 years until it resurfaced in 2022. It’s surprisingly less festive than some might expect, but it makes up for that with som...

🎄 After spending 3 months locked in a water tower, the Advent Calendar House has escaped in time for Christmas Podcast Day, a fake holiday originally made up for a hashtag back when social media was slightly less stupid.  It’s not Scrooge Sunday, but the theme for this year’s Christmas Podcast Day is “A Christmas Carol,” so I’m playing a long, but also cheating a little by covering both segments...

🎄 Previously on the Advent Calendar House, we watched a cavemen take over Santa’s job after he fell off the roof in “ A Flintstone Christmas .”  This time, our reunion tour of previously podcasted-about characters makes its final stop of the season in Bedrock, where Fred Flintstone is letting the lead role of “Ebonezer” Scrooge go to his head.  🎙️ “Ant-stony” Strand and “Mi-coal” May join us as w...

🦃 Previously on the Advent Calendar House, we let the goofy alien puppet with the jokes toy with our emotions in “ ALF’s Special Christmas .”  This time, ALF teaches us about Melmac’s version of Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, he’s already eaten the turkey, but there might still be some  sweet potato pie in the garage, with the homeless man.  🎙️ Chad Young , Tommy Coombs , and Jayme Kilsby join us a...

🎄 Previously on the Advent Calendar House, we went on an apocryphal adventure with the story of The Little Drummer Boy .  This time, Rankin/Bass drums up an unnecessary sequel from 1976, its busiest year for holiday specials.  🎙️ Brandon Medley joins us on a side quest to retrieve the stolen silver bells from a troop of greedy Roman soldiers in the “Rogue One” of Christmas stories.  ****  💬 Topi...

🎄 Previously on the Advent Calendar House, we spent Christmas Eve on Sesame Street , Hanukkah on “ Shalom Sesame ,” and even uncovered the oddity, “ A Special Sesame Street Christmas .”  This time, join us as we fly faster than time backwards around the globe to 1996 to watch Elmo save, then ruin, then fix Christmas.  🎙 Becca Petunia and Anthony Strand from ToughPigs.com drop in to watch Elmo’s w...

🎄 Previously on the Advent Calendar House, we saved Punky Brewster’s Christmas spirit in “ Yes, Punky, There Is a Santa Claus .”  This time, join Punky in 1985 on an animated adventure in which Punky and pals visit Santa’s workshop and accidentally start Christmas too early.  🎙 Adam Pope and Steven join us on an instantaneous trip to the North Pole courtesy of Glomer, her new magical leprechaun-g...

🎃 Previously on the Advent Calendar House, we flew a sleigh made out of a dumpster into space with the California Raisins in “ Will Vinton’s Claymation Christmas Celebration .”  This time, we’re reanimating a creepier creation of his from 1991 — a Halloween special that premiered in May for some reason.  🎙 Sammy Hain and Chad Young join us for “Claymation Comedy of Horrors,” starring the scheming...