Advent Calendar House

🎄 Previously on the Advent Calendar House, we were Dreaming of a White Ranger with the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.    This time, they’re away helping Santa, so Zordon surprises Alpha by teleporting in a bunch of children for a Christmas party.  🎙️ Andre Bennett and C.J. Belanger joins us for a very bonkers Power Rangers home video, plus a mini tribute to the late Jason David Frank, who’s seen a...

🎄 Previously on the Advent Calendar House, our hearts and golden harmonicas went out to “ A Chipmunk Christmas .”  This time, it’s Scrooge Sunday, so get set to have some fun in this Dickens of an episode of “Alvin and the Chipmunks.”  🎙️ Tommy Coombs and Sean Sotka joins us in Hollywood — or at least a nearby cartoon suburb where Alvin turns his greed up to 11 and blames it on his lonely old nei...

🫓 Previously on the Advent Calendar House, we helped our favorite talking babies stop a true meanie in “ A Rugrats Chanukah .”  This time, we’re ignoring the rules of another long-standing tradition as “Rugrats” reimagines the story of Passover.  🎙️ Sarah Shay and Zach Gozlan join us as we witness grown men throwing temper tantrums and ending up locked in the attic.  📺 I found this special hidin...

🎄 Previously on the Advent Calendar House, we witnessed goodness make the badness go away in “ The Smurfs’ Christmas Special .”  This time, we’re taking a one giant puppy open sleigh ride back to 1987 to spend another Christmas with the Smurfs.  🎙️ Lindy Kempe and Donnie Storms join us to help the Smurfs save Christmas for a poor human toymaker and his gravely ill wife, while Brainy and Hefty get...

💝 Previously on the Advent Calendar House, we visited the Easter Bunny’s underground nightmare factory in “ The Berenstain Bears’ Easter Surprise .”  This time, it’s 1982, and love and hockey are in the air we get all warm and fuzzy with the Bear Family’s Valentine’s Day capers.  🎙️ Gerry Davila from Totally Rad Christmas joins us as Brother Bear gets stalked by a secret admirer, and his Papa’s p...

🎄 It’s the Advent Calendar House’s 10th season, and to celebrate, every episode is revisiting familiar faces and places already covered on the podcast.  Previously, we spent Christmas with the Joker in “Batman: The Animated Series.” This time, we’re returning to the 1997 premiere of the redesigned, rebranded “New Batman Adventures.”  🎙️ Andre Bennett and Joey O. join us on a festive tour of Gotha...

🎄 It’s 2002, and we’re trapped in a horrifying world where Kermit the Frog doesn’t exist.  🎙 Lindy Kempe , Adam Jurotich , and Erik Johnson join us for a spectacular, spectacular Christmas Eve extravaganza starring Kermit in the George Bailey role of the Muppets’ perfectly silly take on “It’s a Wonderful Life,” also featuring Joan Cusack, David Arquette, Matthew Lillard, the cast of “Scrubs,” and...

🎄 It’s 2012, and I found a 60-year-old tangerine under a floorboard in my bedroom that’s the perfect size for a snowman’s nose… or is it?  🎙 Adam Parker Sibun from Merry Britsmas joins us for another walk in the air back to 2012 for the charming sequel to the British Christmas classic, “The Snowman,” by the now-late Raymond Briggs.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:   I finally got a copy of the or...

🕎 It’s 1998, and we’re praying for a miracle after getting stuck in a snow bank on the side of a dark highway with only an eighth of a tank of gas.  🎙 April Ryley joins us on an enlightening revisit to the Flashy Girl from Flushing on her first Hanukkah as a married woman. Also, Ray Charles is here!  📺 You can watch “The Hanukkah Story” for free on Facebook .  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:   A...

🎄 It’s 2016, and a Scrooge-like unicorn is brewing a potion to eliminate Hearth’s Warming Eve from the calendar. That’s how potions work, right?  🎙 Jon and Bin from Bin’s Toy Bin and Santa by the Minute join us for a Scrooge Sunday canter through a “Christmas Carol” adaptation set in Equestria, the world of “My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.”  📺 You can watch “A Hearth’s Warming Tail” for fre...

🎄 It’s 1973, and a musical cricket is about to save the Christmas spirit during New York City’s quietest power failure.  🎙️ Michael DiGiovanni join us for a one-cat open sleigh ride into Chuck Jones’s beautifully animated sequel to “The Cricket in Times Square.”  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:   A very insightful Letterboxd review .  Name That Christmas Special’s screenshot gallery for this spec...

🎄 It’s 1970 by way of 1990, and I just noticed the Santa Claus at the mall is actually my gym teacher.  🎙 Andy Gattis joins us on a revealing trip back to The Wonder Years as we salute Robert Picardo’s standout performance as Coach Cutlip… and Santa.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:   Joe Cocker’s version of “With a Little Help from My Friends” over the opening credits was replaced for streaming...

🎄 It’s 1997, and Tim Curry as an evil pipe organ is literally bringing down the house.  🎙 Kristi and Bri from Bad Princess Movies join us as we journey into the depths of Disney’s direct-to-video library for an unnecessary but charming midquel that explains why the Beast hates Christmas and raises even more questions about the curse on his castle.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:   Bad Princess M...

🎄 It’s 1975, and a shepherd boy just lost his sight after staring directly at a lightning bolt.  🎙️ Mike Troxell joins us as we return to enchanted world of Rankin/Bass Christmas specials for an overlooked, underrated, and redundantly titled hidden gem about neither the first Christmas, nor the first Christmas snow.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:   Vox’s Emily St. James ranks all the Rankin/Bas...

🎄 It’s 1990, and a little girl’s Christmas wish is about to get shot out of the sky.  🎙 Joey O. join us for the podcast’s first voyage into the Disney Afternoon as Baloo the cargo pilot bear attempts to save his boss’s daughter’s belief in Santa.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:   Joey’s Christmas TV lineup that he wrote on a piece of paper around 1991 and found again 30 years later.  The TaleSpi...

🎄 It’s 1979, and no one wants to go to Pat Boone’s lame Christmas party, but everyone’s here to dunk on him.  🎙 Guy Hutchinson extends an invitation to discover this bizarre but wholesome special featuring the Hudson Brothers, the stars of “The Ropers” as themselves but also still as the Ropers, and a criminally brief appearance by Yogi Bear and his Hanna-Barbera friends.  📺 You can watch the “P...

🎄 It’s 1971, and Alastair Sim is delivering an even more animated performance as Scrooge.  🎙️ Michael May and Rob Graham join us as we invade your personal space for salute an animated adaptation of “A Christmas Carol” that bent the rules and became the last TV special to win an Oscar, directed by Richard Williams and executive produced by Chuck Jones.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:   Michael M...

🎄 It’s the Advent Calendar House’s 5th anniversary, so instead of celebrating one Christmas special, we watched three!  🎙️ Jeff Somogyi and Paxton Holley help us clear the runway as we salute Disney’s trilogy of 2009’s “Prep & Landing,” 2010’s “Operation: Secret Santa,” and 2011’s “Prep & Landing: Naughty vs. Nice.”  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:   Disney’s Prep & Landing Website fr...

🎄 November 1st is Christmas Podcast Day! I don’t make the rules; I just use the hashtag.  🎙 Gerry Davila from Totally Rad Christmas and Matt Spaulding from North Pole Radio join us as on a very important mission to dig up the original animated adventures of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in a 1948 short film that predates the song.  📺 You can watch “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” courtesy of th...

🎄 It’s 1997, and we couldn’t decide which holiday to end the season with, so we’re celebrating them all.  🎙 Joey O. joins us on a journey 20 miles below the surface of the Earth to the very “Pee-wee’s Playhouse”-like split-level cave of “Weird Al” Yankovic as he learns to listen to his friends and family.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:   Weirdle , the “Weird Al”-themed offshoot of Heardle, the...

🦃 It’s 1983, and we’re spending Thanksgiving in July at the Saturday Supercade.  🎙️ Chad Young , Tommy Coombs , and Jayme Kilsby join us as we take a cue from Q*bert and pals and try to stay on topic as they learn how to build a Q home in a Q land in a retelling of the first Thanksgiving as square as the wheels on the Q*horse and buggy Pilgrim Q*bert wants to win. ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:...

🎄 It’s 1992, and a group of 30-year-old teenagers are on a bus trip to their doom unless an angel in training can convince her supervisor they’re worth saving.  🎙 Ed Daly , author of “ The Christmas Book: The Ultimate Guide to Your Favorite Holiday ,” joins us for a very strange and very special visit to America’s most famous ZIP code in our first adaptation of It’s a Wonderful Life, even though...

🎄 It’s 1985, but we’re rocketing into the future, when apparently urgent veterinary care no longer exists.  🎙 Jack Ford from the Total Christmas Podcast joins us for a glimpse into the space-age year of 2062 to find out if 3 robotic ghosts of Christmas can convince Mr. Spacely to change his stingy ways, while the clock is ticking for the Jetsons’ dog, Astro, on his deathbed.  ****  💬 Topics &amp...

🎄 It’s 1995, and a couple of giant space monsters with swords are about to bring swords to a snowball fight and still lose.  🎙 Andre Bennett and Lindy Kempe join us as we follow the powerless Power Rangers to the North Pole, where they can’t Morph due to a cross-current of holiday magic. And also magnets.  📺 You can watch “I’m Dreaming of a White Ranger” for free on YouTube .  ****  💬 Topics &a...

🎃 It’s 1989, and Rue McClanahan is trapped in an underground castle inhabited by a bunch of Gremlin-looking puppets called Greevils — and for some reason, she wants to leave.  🎙️ Matt from Dinosaur Dracula drops in for a Halloween in July celebration of “The Wickedest Witch,” co-written and produced by ALF creator Paul Fusco, and starring Blanche from The Golden Girls as the evil Avarissa. As far...