Welcome to Film Strip Sessions.

I'm Jay.

I'm Lindsay.

I'm Ron.

And I'm Matt.

And we are the podcast that tries to keep the Christmas spirit alive one day a year, and this is that day.

Shout out to our friends.

It is the podcast who managed to keep that going year round, except when they're doing spooky stuff, which is always fun.

But First off, Matt, welcome back to Film Strip Sessions, man.

It's good to be here.

I I've been on a sessions.

I guess I have.

Either way, I've always happy to be on film strips so.

Thanks so much.

We we had so much fun at our November sessions, talking Thanksgiving and movie and food pairings.

We decided, hey, we need to do one for the Christmas season too.

And just each of us kind of take a corner of the Christmas entertainment genres and talk about them banting about with each other.

And definitely had to have on our favorite Santa Claus for that.

Yes.

Yes, thank you.

That is.

That's what we do.

So Ron, I'm going to kick this one to you first, my friend, because you happened.

I you admitted this to Lindsay and I recently and we've known you for years and did not know this, that you were a champion of the Hallmark Christmas movie.

So please do tell.

Now you keep saying admitted like it's a secret I've held in myself.

That's not the case.

I've been openly a fan of these movies for years.

I really love the the formulaic pablum of the Hallmark Christmas movie.

I love the fact that it there's always going to be snow.

I love the fact that someone's they're always going to be wearing a red and a green sweater on the cover.

I enjoy the the predictability of the stories because while they are, they do follow follow a very similar arc, a certain Joseph Campbell's hero's journey, if you will.

And you won't because that's really gilding with Lily for these.

Wow.

Yeah.

You know Jay, if you would read The Power of Myth, you wouldn't understand the fact that Lacey Chabert has to go save the Christmas tree farm by winning the Coco competition.

I was going to say like, I I want to take a shot of the JTJPT formula of a Hallmark movie.

All right, So it's please, it's Candace Cameron Beret, Lacey Chabert, Danica McKellar, or before she went to jail, Aunt Becky.

It's the big city successful person who has this somewhat douchey but also redeemable fiance person in her life and this big important job.

But she gets called back to the wilderness home that she came from and fled many years ago to save the Christmas tree farm, the clock tower, the school dance, something through a cocoa competition, peppermint making machine, Maple syrup, you know, concoction.

And along the way, she falls in love with like, not Josh Lucas from Sweet Home Alabama, but pretty much that archetype of like 5th grade boyfriend who turned out to be this hunk hanging out in the woods who's like a.

He makes beautiful art.

Well, he's like, very thoughtful.

His real job is like he runs a pencil factory or something like that, but together they fall in love and you know, douchey Mcdream bag find somebody else to fall in love with and they all go after it.

About 90 minutes sound right?

You sound, you sound pretty accurate.

That is the traditional Hallmark movie formula, yes.

I will say though, now that they have, now that Candace Cameron Beret and the former president of Hallmark Films have left for Rifle Network GAC, the formula is starting to change quite a bit #1 the hero girl is not always white sometimes.

Sometimes she's allowed to be black.

Sometimes she's allowed to be a Jewish.

Jewish.

Oh, Jewish.

Yes.

Oh, I don't know, that sounds OK.

Keep.

Going Sometimes there are black characters who aren't just background characters or the sassy best friend.

Or or Medea.

Yeah, well, no, that's Tyler Perry.

That's a totally different genre of Christmas movie and we can get into that if you'd like.

I've.

Seen all of them with my wife in theaters, so sleeping at that.

That's so special.

Rachel is a Madea fan so.

That's so funny.

I have AI have a story about Madea.

I can tell you shortly, but let me get through my my spiel here first.

So Candace Cameron left to become the creative director of GAC and the head of the network basically poached her over and they are making very much the traditional Hallmark movies, but with even less interesting character actors, right?

Even less interesting actors, less interesting characters, less interesting backgrounds.

There's no occasional mention of homosexuals being in that universe because Hallmark, you sometimes have like a gay best friend or they've actually had a couple of Movies Now where they've had gay romances as the lead.

That's one of the reasons why Candace Cameron defected, because that offended her sensibilities.

Really snaps for Hallmark.

That's that is progressive for.

Hallmark, yeah.

Because Hallmark realizes that their core audience is not, you know, the 60 year old grandmothers anymore.

They still make a lot of movies that are for the 60 year old grandmothers, but there is an increasing population of people in my age range, the coveted mid 40s demographic, who are watching these movies and enjoying these movies and who are open to more diverse casts and more diverse plot lines.

Because sometimes it's not a Christmas tree farm or an old the end they're trying to save.

Yeah, well, and let's be honest, we're not so far from being 60 year olds.

I was going to say for for us who are staring down the barrel of.

I was like, the 60 year olds are not like they're they were well, trying to think of how old my mom is.

Yeah, she's.

There would be, they're probably seven years.

Lindsay, just to give us some context, when we started doing filmstrip, I was in my early 30s.

So just keep that in mind, OK Matt, where are you on on the Hallmark movie?

You know, I think the only Hallmark movie I've ever seen all the way through beginning to end is a very old Hallmark Christmas movie.

It's Misses Santa Claus with Angela Lansbury.

Murder she Santa Claus.

Yes, it's a great movie, I love it, but the it's a.

Great movie.

Yes, but the most recent ones I've I don't think I've ever seen a single one all the way through.

And it's mostly because just ROM coms are just not for me, right?

They just aren't I've I've seen very few of them that are are actually funny and also interesting and and good.

I think the last one I watched and I I had never seen it before, but a friend of mine showed it to me recently was bridesmaids.

So but the the kind of generic, the thing everything Ron said he he enjoys about them, the formulaic, the the genericness like to me that that ROM com formula doesn't work.

Now that being said, there is a Hallmark movie channel on my I have I don't have cable.

I have the Samsung built in.

Whatever comes on my my Samsung TV, it comes with digital channels and there is a Hallmark Movie channel on those channels.

So maybe I'll sit down and watch 1 all the way through just because Ron has such an affinity for them.

I'm like, OK, now I've got to see what Ron sees in these movies.

So.

I will say that the best one I watched last year actually wasn't a Christmas movie, it was a Hanukkah movie.

OK.

OK, do tell, because now I'm now I'm.

They talk about broadening your wings.

Yeah.

Like I said, they they, they let the the hero be a Jewish.

Now it was called.

Let me see if I could find it.

I don't think it was Hanukkah on the rocks, but that was a good one.

They had one that was essentially a take on Groundhog Day but a like a time loop Hanukkah movie and I believe the girl goes back in time to the 80s and it involves her parents.

I think it's basically Back to the Future plot.

This.

Is back to the Groundhog Day, Veronica?

Yeah, but Hanukkah and it was actually was very funny.

There was very funny sequences in it.

I'm going to take that.

Sounds like an SNL skit.

Actually, no, it sounds like a Mad TV skit.

Back to the Hanukkah Future or something like that would be what they would have done so.

Yeah, it's the the the the.

Round and round.

Is that what it's called, Ron?

That, that may be it that.

The reference to the dreidel or something like that?

Yes, yes.

And the time loop.

So, and I believe there was some sort of dreidel involved.

That's like, that's the mechanism that sent her back in time.

I made that up.

I can't believe that's OK that OK, You know what, though?

I'll I'll say something to jump in real quick before you do so Matt, funny enough, like it's been a a long debate here on film strip as to why we haven't done a lot of comedies.

And I'm one of those people that I think it's hard to do a movie podcast on a comedy because jokes are kind of in the moment of the time unless there's something else going on in the movie too.

But there's one exception to that.

And it's some of the earliest film strip stuff.

And I would revisit this anytime.

I'm a sucker for ROM coms, always have been from from from the 80s on through.

I still watch ROM coms and I Rachel watches these Hallmark movies too during this time of year.

Ron And it usually takes me, but I usually hold like she starts like in late October and I'm like, you know, we have to have spooky things.

Then we have to have Thanksgiving and then we, you know, I have to have it in a certain way.

But I will jump in and watch a few of them with her.

If I think the ROM of the ROM com is is worthy and reminds me of like other ROM coms that I've seen.

So little known fact.

Jason big fan of ROM coms.

So I'll do those.

All right, Linds, where are you on these Hallmark things?

I don't think I have physically been able to sit through an entire Hallmark movie ever in my life, much to my mother's and my aunts and my sisters and my niece's chagrin.

I really tried.

We, my family and I, we rented, we would every handful of years we'll do like a little some kind of family cabin trip mountain thing.

And it's usually right around November.

So it's right around when these movies are really starting to pick up.

And I think it, it was like 2019.

It was pre pandemic, but very close to pandemic in 2019.

We all went and they were so freaking excited to watch these Hallmark movies.

And so I was like being a good sport.

I was like, you know what, I'm going to sit down and I'm going to watch one of these Hallmark movies with you.

And I got, I don't know if I got 30 minutes into it and I was like, I got to go.

I went downstairs and I'm pretty sure I ended up playing pool with my nephew or something.

But it was just, you know, it just, it wasn't for me.

I do see the appeal.

My sister explained it to me.

She said it's just, and it's what Ron had mentioned too.

Like it's just nice because it's, you know, exactly what's going to happen.

It's always has a happy ending.

Everyone ends happy.

They're all like objectively good looking, you know, they're very like vanilla good looking people.

That One Tree Hill good looking is kind of.

Yeah, yeah.

Like there's nothing.

They're they're like Sears catalog, good looking.

Oh, that's a good way of saying it, yeah.

Right.

Like they're all very like, yeah, they're not, they're not going to be like Victoria's Secret models or anything, but, you know, they could they they're not ugly.

And I was like, all right, I get that.

I just to get my formulaic, you know, dose in just watch the same movies over and over and over again.

So I don't know which maybe.

Maybe.

Yeah, yeah.

So I, I've never, and I think it's just because I feel like the ones that I've seen, the acting is so bad that I just can't get past it.

And that has always been my issue.

It's probably gotten much better though.

I will say now that they're not there, there's not a Candace camera for a stranglehold on the movies they've gotten.

The acting quality has gotten a little.

Bit better, yeah.

She had such like a, a was such a production force in these things.

I was not aware of that so.

And to be fair, I I don't think I've ever seen, I don't think I've ever seen a Hallmark movie with Laci shoot last.

Year.

Chabert, yeah.

I haven't seen one with Laci Chabert in it.

So maybe that would change my mind.

That would probably change my mind.

She's pretty good.

Yeah, she can.

She can elevate the the material.

And honestly, they've gotten now that these are more of a thing, they've been able to get better actors to be in them.

Like there was one a few years ago they made with three angels, I want to say.

And one of the angels was Reginald Bill Johnson, and he was awesome.

Oh wow, and I should kind of see that though.

And that one.

Was actually like legitimately funny and very warm and he's he was super charming in it.

He's exactly the kind of presents you want in a thing like this playing an Angel.

But he had a nice back and forth.

There was another Angel that was a little, a little short Asian lady and she was very like acerbic towards him and, and those two would go back and forth.

And there was like a third Angel that was kind of like stuck in the middle, tried to play the peacemaker.

And it was a very funny, very funny back and forth kind of thing between them because they're all like trying to do nice things, right?

But they're just having these disagreements on how to do the nice things.

And you know, you know, the, the one, the one angel's like this guy's an idiot.

You're not, you're never going to succeed with him.

You're well, just try with the dog or whatever, you know?

Well, you you're talking about that though.

Like Scrooged?

Yeah.

You're talking about that though, and it does remind me of a ROM com from 1983.

That was this I'll filled attempt at capturing John Travolta and Olivia Newton John's chemistry from Greece again in this movie called two of a Kind where they are like being manipulated by these different angels to try to get these two people together.

Because it's kind of like, I don't know, avert the apocalypse or something like that.

There's a lot of darn stuff going to, but you've got Charles Derning is in it.

Oliver Reed is Satan, Scatman Crothers is one of the angels.

It's actually like not entirely well, no, it's entirely awful, but it's worth watching because it's so bad.

It's funny to watch them try to just keep doing this, you know, and try to keep doing the Travolta and Newton John thing.

I mean, they they still have a ton of chemistry.

Good.

They still did.

You know, that was only a couple of years or a few years after Greece, but and definitely a I, I feel like it's one of those that's right to get ripped off and remade somewhere along the way.

And it probably has and I just don't know it, but you saying that made me go like, what's the name of that again?

Ah, two of a kind.

Yes and yes, I saw it so.

Yeah, maybe I'll have to give it another chance.

No, Lindsay, the best thing about these is you don't actually have to pay that close of attention.

Yeah, this is like the kind of thing you can put on like when you're like, if you're like all cooking something together in the kitchen or you're all playing cards or something like that.

That seems like.

Presents, just hanging out, watching the kids play, that kind of thing.

Yeah, it's something.

It's something nice to have on in the background.

Background.

Unlike the unlike the hollow dog and hollow cat one that I watch every year they do on like Christmas Day.

I want to say they do like hollow dog where it's just like little happy friendly dogs in like a Christmas scene.

They're running around doing dog things and then they have cats and the little cats are running around doing little cat things.

That's very cute and funny.

That always makes me cry every year.

I thought we peeked with just like the fireplace that you can have on television.

Yeah, that was always cool.

Wow, although I will say it since you mentioned it, the Rifftrax Yule log that they do every year is very funny.

Now that I would have to do into so well, Speaking of animated things, Lindsay, you're you're you're the fan of the animated side of the Christmas movie stuff.

So what are what keeps you going back to those?

What do you love about them?

What are some of your favorites?

Part of it's nostalgia, right?

It's a lot of the same movies I watched when I was a kid and it just, I like them.

I always did.

And we're talking I'm going to lump like some of the claymation in there too.

And I am going to lump Muppets Christmas Carol, even though it's not technically animated, because it is the Superior Christmas Carol.

We might have to fight over that because the one with George C Scott kind of rules so.

I don't know, I think.

I think Muppets Christmas Carol is.

No, it's been a minute.

It's a perfect Christmas Carol movie.

It is pretty damn perfect, yeah.

Last year, Jay, I read The Christmas Carol like the full novella or whatever it is.

Very wordy.

The one that's closest to the original book is The Muppet Christmas Carol.

Really.

Yeah, I read that, Yeah, I read that book every year.

And it's.

It's surprising how close that Muppet version is to.

While he was dead to begin with.

Yep, he was dead and.

Also and also the thing I thought was a joke that they threw in just for that movie, The part where he where Gonzo Dickens turns to the camera and says a Tiny Tim who did not die.

Actually, a thing that's in the text of the real Christmas Carol.

Who did not die?

OK, now, now I I have a sign I've got to I'm going to have to go back and reread this because it's been a long, long time so.

It is usually.

I have a.

It's been a few years since I've read it all the way or since I've read the full and I.

I I told the story somewhere, and I don't know where I told it, but one of the reasons it says that in the original text is because it was published as a serial and people were so outraged at the thought that Tiny Tim was going to die that Dickens got.

Hate mail?

Dickens.

Dickens almost got miseried by one of his fans, is what you're saying.

Well, you know, he he wrote that cockativity story and so.

Yeah.

Oh, that's, that's good.

You mentioned nostalgia, though, and that's what I wanted to kind of pick on.

Like what?

What specifically, like brings you back with those things.

And we are all taking time and turn freezing tonight.

We sure are.

OK.

Yeah, she's back.

Let me toss it back to let me toss it back to you, Lindsey.

One of the things you you mentioned, though, specifically was that that was the nostalgia that keep keeps you coming back.

So what is it that like really pulls on the old memory strings for you?

The animated Grinch Who Stole Christmas is a big one.

Like I remember watching that in my Grammys living room in Maine with my brother and all my cousins every Christmas.

That was our thing.

We loved Grand shoe stole Christmas.

So that's it's the live action 1 is fine.

A lot of people really enjoy it.

It's good, but it's not.

It's not one of the if I don't watch this movie this season, I will be unfulfilled kind of movies.

It wasn't Christmas if I didn't.

Yeah, right, right.

Like there are several Christmas movies like that that I must watch, and that's not one of them.

What?

What are the ones you must watch then that you brought it up?

Oh, I must watch Muppets Christmas Carol.

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.

Then let's see the Santa Claus is coming to town.

And Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, the Claymation Y ones, Those are good.

The Rankin and bass stuff.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

What is we were my Brian and I were just talking about this earlier today actually about what is 'cause my favorite Christmas movies or my favorite movies change depending on like the time of day.

You know, it just depends.

So, so some newer Christmas movies have found their way into a must watch rotation.

Office Christmas Party is a new one.

It's not an animated one, but it is a comedy and it is wildly funny.

It's just fun.

Like it's a movie to like, I don't know, just enjoy.

There's not a whole lot to think about, but let's see.

What else am I missing?

I feel like I'm missing several others.

Elf I also must watch.

I know that's not always a fan favorite, but I went to see that one in the movie theater when it came out and you gotta have it.

Frosty the snowman.

The animated Frosty the Snowman.

That one still brings tears to the eyes for me.

I remember thinking that was so sad when I was a kid and yeah, but but it's no, it's definitely a those are that's usually what when we finally are all together with family and stuff like that, we've got stuff noise in the background.

Those are usually the things we put on.

Is that because it just sort of?

There we are, and Grinch.

I froze and now I'm back.

Yeah, no, they're.

But those are all Yeah.

I mean, those are all hard to argue with, right?

Like Rankin Bass, I'm going to be super pedantic.

It's it's not claymation.

They're not made out of clay.

It's and a magic stop motion.

It's just one of my things.

Everybody calls them claymation.

Yeah.

Gumby is claymation.

I yeah, I don't know what else to call it, so thank you for giving me the vocabulary appropriately.

Do that.

If you want to talk about claymation, let's talk about the Claymation Christmas Special.

The Claymation Christmas special, Yeah, Which is?

Fabulous.

Yep, that's also Yep.

But yeah, Rudolph's items, when you're all that, it's all good stuff.

Garfield's Christmas the.

Garfield's Christmas special I mean, the older and older I get, the more and more Garfield's Christmas gets me I.

Can't watch?

Garfield's Christmas anymore because it makes me cry too much.

It it does bring a tear or two, it's just the sweetest.

Thing it's funny rewatching these things that I've kind of took for granted for years through the eyes of my child, right?

Right, because it's funny because like she, she didn't want to watch the Grinch for like 2 years and then one year it just clicked and she just watched it like a dozen times, right?

She didn't want to watch A Muppet's Christmas Carol at all for like the when she was like 3, but for whatever reason, when she turned 4, we watched it over and over again, same story.

Muppet Family Christmas.

She loved that one.

You know, it's weird the kind of things that will take off and like click and become a thing that she wants to watch versus things that she resists.

Now that she's a little bit older, she has a little more faith in our ability to pick out things that are, you know, good or at least a healing.

And then that'll last for like 3 years and then she'll be a tween and then I'll be back to being an idiot again.

And that's fine.

But the important thing is, is I made you watch Frosty the Snowman and you loved it.

I made you watch Rudolph and you loved it.

And then we even watched like, the Year without Santa Claus.

Yep.

We go.

We watched the the Easter Bunny one.

We've watched You're without Santa Claus is the one with heat miser and cold miser, right?

Yes.

Yep.

OK, we watched.

We watched Santa.

Claus coming to town.

Santa Claus is coming to town.

That's it.

Thank you.

I knew you would know.

Have you seen Now You're Talking about Easter Bunny ones?

I'm going to go off in a tangent here.

Rankin Bass actually made three different Easter Bunny origin story movies.

All three of them were There was the first Easter Rabbit.

There was Here Comes Peter Cottontail, and then there is the bizarre weird like earth to special that is the Easter Bunny is coming to town, which is like Santa Claus is coming to town done over again, only with the Easter Bunny.

It's like you're in the Bizarro universe.

I love it but it is so weird to.

Watch, that's my little.

Easter Bunny tangent.

One of the puppets in that one I swear looks like a James Bond henchman or something with a long face.

He looks like he could be a Bond villain.

Or something.

But yeah, those are all.

Those are all.

And then another one you want to watch if you want to have a real trip is The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus.

That's a that's another ranking in bass.

It's based on the L Frank Baum book of the same name.

L Frank Baum, of course, did The Wizard of Oz, and he wrote a very interesting Santa Claus story, and Rankin and Bass did something pretty special with it.

So I'm not surprised.

What are your thoughts, Matt on The Little Drummer Boy?

The Little Drummer Boy is a weird one for me now, simply because I am an atheist and the Little Drummer Boy, of course, is.

So I tend not to watch The Little Drummer Boy anymore.

It's it's, it's fine for what it is, but it's it's not.

For as much as I love Christmas, I love a very secular version of the holiday.

If it makes you feel better, it has very little in common with like any OH.

No, no, no, it definitely does.

It definitely does not especially it's especially the sequel as well the Little Drummer Boy book too.

But also there's there's other really forgotten ones like Nestor, the long eared Christmas donkey.

The first Christmas snow, one of my favorite Rankin Bass ones, is not stop motion and is not frosty.

The snowman is the night before Christmas, the one with the mice in the clock.

Tower.

Yeah, I do like that one.

Yeah, I do like it.

That one always felt like a cousin to Secret in him, you know, with their animated minds, which is.

Santa's weirdly Amish in that one.

He has no mustache.

Yeah, yeah, that's right.

How do you feel about Polar Express?

I like The Polar Express.

I know a lot of people think now The Polar Express has problems.

I don't have the uncanny valley problem that a lot of people have with the animation in that film.

I think their elves are really weird and creepy.

Super creepy.

I think their North Pole is a little like company town industrial hell in that movie.

But I do think it's, I, I wish I could see that movie in IMAX 3D because it has some amazingly beautifully animated sequences that seem like they would be a roller coaster ride to watch in IMAX 3D, you know?

I've seen it in that format.

And I'll tell you, I didn't like it before I saw it in that format.

And then I was like, oh, I get it now.

This is really how this was meant to be, you know, absorbed and taken in.

And when we saw it, the IMAX theater we saw it in, we it was sold out.

So Rachel and I were sitting, I said these kids whom we did not know, who we just ended up sharing popcorn with all night and to watch them to reach out and try to touch all the snowflakes.

It's just something kind of like magical about that because at that point, like our nieces and nephews were just getting to the age where they kind of knew what was going on.

So it was fun to see because we have kids.

So you know, this sort of kid adjacent stuff and see that was fun, but I didn't like that movie and not just because of the dead eye animation stuff.

I just was like and isn't really my thing, but then seeing it in that format, I was like, OK, I get it now.

Like it is.

It is a ride.

It's a beautiful ride.

Yeah, and I'll tell you, that's Robert Zemeckis did that again several years later.

We were talking about A Christmas Carol.

Another great and I think under appreciated version of A Christmas Carol is Disney's A Christmas Carol with Jim Carrey as Scrooge.

It's also wonderfully animated.

It's and it's again, it was meant to be watched in 3D.

It has some blatantly 3D gimmick shots in it, but it is a very well animated, well done film.

So if if you haven't checked out Disney's Animated A Christmas Carol from Robert Zemeckis in a while, that's another one I recommend.

Yeah, I'll tell you why I haven't.

Because that Jim Carrey Grinch thing is just like an abomination that must be destroyed, in my opinion.

I hate that.

I'm sorry.

That first one, that animated one holds a very special place for me.

I'm like, you don't touch that.

Like no, he does some.

Very, very Jim Carrey things as Scrooge, but less because again, it's later in Jim Carrey as he's gotten older is, you know, like a lot of human beings has gotten more reserved.

And so he does some of that Jim Carrey like stuff as Scrooge, but not like a lot of it.

And it's usually kind of appropriate like like his, you know, Scrooge waking up Christmas morning realizing it's Christmas morning.

He goes like all on Jim Carrey in that scene.

But it it doesn't bother you quite as much because Scrooge has just been through this whole ordeal, you know, so.

That was an excellent Jim Carrey that.

Was a very really was Yeah, like come for the recommendation stay for the gym carrier.

Well, Matt, let's toss it to you.

What are some of your like go to must watch things?

Are they all fall into do A1 pile or do you kind of make your rounds to a lot of stuff so.

I kind of have an all over the place pile.

I'll tell you I'm going to go and talk about just a a couple that I think have come out, you know that more recently that like a clause it is a Netflix original.

I hope at some point I Netflix occasionally will put things out on physical me clause is a fantastic film.

It's got JK.

Simmons.

As Santa Claus, it's the animation.

Yes.

Oh, sorry to interrupt.

Yeah, that's no, it's OK.

The animation's very good.

It's it's wicked heartfelt.

The main characters of mailman, which I mean, that's my day job.

So I kind of relate to it.

It's I don't know.

I I just think claws is and it won some awards and rightfully so.

It's it's a fan Jay, All right, not Jay.

Ron, I take it you've seen it.

Yes, and then it definitely brings a tear to my eye.

Yeah.

Everything, everything does, but some things do way easier and, and Claus is one of those ones that really gets me that I have to leave the the room at certain points because it's just going to become a, a full on, you know, ugly cry moment for me.

I'll tell you another one I I like a lot that people don't tend to know a lot about that I really enjoy is a movie called Christmas Story, not a Christmas Story, but it's just called Christmas Story.

And the reason it's just called Christmas Story is because it's actually a Finnish film.

It's translated from Finnish.

That's why it's called, but it is a it is a Santa Claus origin story, but in a after a very Finnish style.

It's it's it it looks great.

It's it's a live action film.

It looks fantastic.

It's everybody in it is very good.

I've only ever seen it dubbed here in the States.

I've never seen like so, but the the dubbing actors do a good job and it's it's just another one of those films that like has a lot of like really touching moments in it that I think is is worth a watch.

So anybody that hasn't seen Christmas story, I that's one that I always toss out.

But then I always have, you know, classics on my list as well.

Like, you know, some people debate the Christmas Christmasyness of this film.

To me, it's simply a Christmas film only because it would feel weird to watch it any other time of year.

And that's It's a Wonderful Life.

I am forever and ever and ever shocked at the actual true story of how that film became a classic after bombing and falling into the public domain.

Because every time I watch it, I'm like, this is, you know, they, they, they the saying is there's no such thing as a perfect film.

Fuck, man, watch It's a Wonderful Life and try to tell me it's not a perfect film because it's it's every top to bottom, It's well scripted, it's well acted, it's well shot.

It's it's just, I don't know, I love it's a wonderful life.

It's it's a top ten film of all time for me, not just top 10 Christmas film and the same for the original Miracle on 34th St.

These days I hear a lot of.

People love the original.

One these days, I hear a lot of people talk up about the remake.

I I don't like the remake.

I don't get why people love it.

The original film I think is magic.

I think it's fantastic.

I think Edmund Gwen as Santa Claus, you know, Nick, Chris, Chris, he's fantastic, yet little Natalie Wood is fantastic.

She's so amazing in that film.

She just has some of the best little lines.

And one of my favorites, I'll have to think of it, is she's like, I believe.

I believe this is stupid, but I yeah, this is silly, but I believe.

She thought Edmund Gwen was Santa Claus.

She had never met him without his beard.

His beard, by the way, not his.

He did not grow that.

That is prosthetic really, is it?

Looks.

Like 1947, it looks incredible too, Yeah.

No, he, he was not a bearded man.

And they gave him a, a theatrical beard and she had never seen him without it.

And when he the, he showed up at like the after party or the awards or something like that.

And she was like, who is this man?

Yeah, he.

She thought he was actually Santa Claus in.

There's a scene in that.

It's one of the Jay, you were talking about humor and being of the time and humor sometimes doesn't age well.

The scene in that film where the judge repeatedly tells him to produce further exhibits and put them on his desk.

And he keeps trying to explain, like, you don't want me to do that?

And the judge just keeps going.

And finally, they bring in bags and bags and bags of letters to Santa Claus and I cackle every.

It's.

So funny.

It's a great gag so.

That is a good gag.

That's the kind of like I think when I say that about comedies, a lot of times they they are at the moment, but like there are some gags that just work for when we did all those Marx brothers movies years ago.

Y'all like I what last about those is you see how copied they were, you know through the years and like how much that kind of gag like still plays.

And they're still getting copied.

My favorite thing is when someone goes, oh, they're doing a Three Stooges bit and I have to, I'll at least think it and I'll just go, actually, it's a Marx Brothers bit, but.

I'm actually, yeah, that's awesome.

Yeah, no, that's awesome.

So.

You know, and then I'm a traditionalist.

I always throw in, I watch the Santa Claus.

It's one of my, you know, Mickey's Christmas Carol.

I have become a big fan speaking going back to Netflix.

I've become a big fan of the the two, the Christmas Chronicles movies with Kurt Russell.

Those are a blast.

Have you seen red one?

Yeah, I didn't.

Also AJK Simmons like juiced up Santa.

Yeah, I need to give Red one another shot.

I didn't love it.

There's this.

There's this thing that they are doing as of late where Santa's becoming an action star.

It started a little bit with The Christmas Chronicles and went there quite a bit with Violent Night and then with Red One.

And then there's another movie that's supposed to be coming out this year, I think.

I haven't heard anything more about it.

It must have been put back, pushed back to next year.

The Man with the bag with Arnold Schwarzenegger as Santa Claus.

Yes, Merry Christmas, children.

I.

Am here to.

Give you your present.

So by the way, my bag, my magical bag, it got stolen.

So I have to enlist someone on the naughty list.

This, this thief to help me get my bag back.

That's the plot of that movie.

And they're going to be united with the thief from Conan the Destroyer, right?

Here we go, right?

Yeah, that guy.

Yeah, I bet you're humble.

Honestly.

Our buddy Arnie does so much character research I bet he'll end up doing like maybe he just felt like he didn't have enough Santa experience and he's just going to maul Santa for the next two seasons.

That'd be.

Funny as.

Heck, yeah.

Because wasn't he he, he was a kindergarten teacher before Kindergarten Cop.

Like he Yeah, really.

He'll he'll dig.

It that's a he'll be.

Time and what it.

Needs to be a stay tuned on this show.

Oh, by the way, Kindergarten Cop is circled around our brains for years.

I would I would love to go back and.

Rewatch that, I mean it's brought up a lot.

I know they filmed it.

I've seen I've seen set photos of him in costume.

He looks very good.

I bet he does, yeah.

It's it's just, it's I haven't heard anything about it, so I don't know.

Yeah.

So I I kind of float around a lot of the Henry.

Cavill's going to be the next Santa Claus after.

I, I float around a lot of the classics and a lot of the, again, kind of Lindsay's nostalgia and the feel good, right?

Because I, I, I kind of the way my year goes.

I come out of that Halloween season where I've spent, you know, a couple months of like murder and mayhem and blood and guts.

And then I just want to spend a few weeks, like, feeling good about life, you know?

After 15 hours of recording with Anthony.

Yeah.

Or a movie thing.

Everybody needs a little feel good.

Yeah.

We need a come down moment.

That's that's fair.

That's.

Fair.

And then and then I brought it up.

Let's see.

I'm trying.

Oh, another one that I love that I I think is Santa Claus, the movie with David Huddleston.

I remember that one.

Yeah, I remember that.

Yeah, it's, it's a weird film.

It's kind of like 2 movies.

It like somewhere in the middle it becomes an almost entirely different movie.

Yeah, because it is like.

Dudley Moore.

Yep, David Houston, Dudley Moore and John Lithgow.

Yeah.

Do you have a John Lithgow impression?

Sorta what is it Christmas?

Cancel my subscription.

What else did he say in that movie?

I know there's Christmas, he does that one and I can't think of another of his really like really over the top lines from that movie.

It's so wild that Lithgow has become like this big sort of comic presence and stuff in his later days and things because I remember him from like these early drama roles, you know, in the 80s and stuff.

He was the preacher in foot losing.

He was so earnest in that movie.

Like you, you didn't agree with him, but you appreciated him because he was so like heartbroken over his son being dead.

And then he was the guy who had an affair with Deborah Winger in terms of endearment.

Talk about a schmaltz fest.

And but he's but he's good in that though.

He's.

Really good.

Don't forget he got himself out of that that comic and back to deadly serious when he was a serial killer on Dexter.

Yes, well entity.

Killer.

See, the first time I knew him as a serial killer was in a little Denzel Washington joint called Ricochet.

And that is that is a bonkers movie to stay tuned to my hat too.

So yeah, that's I.

Love.

That movie yeah, me too.

I that movie's insane.

That's a Russell McKay he joint, so that tells you a lot about.

If I ever get to do, if I ever get to do schlock and awe, it's going to be ricochet and virtuosity.

Well, that's a great pair.

You need to reach out to Lindsay because she would definitely go for that so.

I mean, it's double Denzel's, right?

Yeah, the double Denzel.

Yeah.

So that wasn't.

I love that Lindsay's the one that said that.

I can't be the only one whose brain went.

There, honestly, it didn't.

I was like, OK, that's fair.

I I tend to be a fan of like, I mean, I watch horror movies year round.

So obviously I have my Christmas horror, but I kind of like the the offbeat, like Christmas movie and stuff.

And I want somebody like die hard to Christmas movie.

I mean all that stuff.

But like there are other movies that happen at Christmas time that aren't directly just about the holiday that I like.

And one of them I can thank Ron's wife for because Anna and the apocalypse was not something I knew existed.

And Phil Holly was like, you need to watch this.

You'd like musicals.

You would you would dig this because she knows all musical stuff and I love that movie.

I I think musical.

It's a Zombie Christmas musical.

Yeah, I've never seen that before.

Yeah, it was actually, I think it was.

It started out as just like Zombie Musical was the short film that got it made.

He basically and so.

Grabbing my movie list.

Yeah, and apocalypse.

Somebody singing and dancing and stabbing zombies with the giant candy cane.

This is the perfect movie.

For that is, that is your movie.

Really, who among us doesn't want that?

Except possibly mad.

I like zombie movies, that's it.

And I like musicals.

So it's it's a fun, it's fun, it's all done in like goofy fun.

It feels a lot like to me.

The reason highly recommended it to me because because I'm a big Buffy fan and Buffy's musical episode is one of the coolest things they ever did in the season.

They didn't have a lot of good like 3 lines like they found a lot in that that one episode to do.

And so it plays a lot like that.

So if you dig that kind of thing, if you dig once more with feeling you'd dig.

And in the apocalypse, Lindsey, you would you would like it, it being a musical person, you you would dig it.

It's your it's your jam.

We already thought about the musical 31st St.

this time of year.

Like I mentioned it on the the November session show that November's the time when I usually revisit James Bond movies and do stuff with them.

And there's one that specifically, you know, set during the holidays and it's owner Majesty's Secret Service.

It's the the standalone Jorda Lasen.

It's also got the, you know, the Alps and all that snow and it's it's beautiful.

I mean, so I, and that's an excuse.

I always go back and rewatch that one and I'm glad that movie's gotten reappraised in recent years because it you know, it's just dumped on forever because it's basically a Sean Connery movie with like Sean Connery's model stunt double, you know, in in the role.

But but other than that, I mean, it's fine.

It's it.

It works but.

George Lazerby is not a problem in that movie.

No, he's he's fine.

He's fine.

Oh yeah, he's fine.

Yeah, it's Diana Rigg is what really sells that movie.

And Telly's about us too.

But Diana Rigg's awesome in that movie.

So I, I, I like her a lot.

But everybody.

If you only know Diana Rigg from like Game of Thrones, go back and watch that.

Oh, go back and watch that and watch the great Muppet capers.

Yeah, I was gonna say I know her from great Muppet capers.

That was my introduction to Charles Grodin and her that was like all the way.

Back and watch The Avengers where she's incredible.

Yeah, and we're not talking about the MCU.

Great Muppet caper film strip.

Stay tuned.

Oh, big time.

Yeah, we're going to.

We're definitely going to talk about that one.

I love that movie too.

Love that one I had.

To jump on like The Muppets wholeheartedly like I have.

Ron, if you knew how many times I quoted Kermit and Fozzie's reporter gimmick lines when I was a reporter, it would make you laugh.

I constantly use that, use that all the time.

And nobody ever caught on to it.

I was like, see, this is was all training for these moments.

But yeah, but no, I like that one.

But now there are, there are three like horror themed, you know, Christmas movies that I always go to.

And it's because at one time or another I've had some sort of podcast tie into them.

So years and years ago when I was editing for now playing, they did all the Silent Night, Deadly Night films and I helped cut those together.

And when it was, when the 2012 remake got made with Malcolm McDowell and Donald Lowe and you know, all these other people and it kind of came and went and everybody forgot about it because they just dumped it straight to video.

But I contend it's actually pretty fun.

It's it's not so much a horror movie as much as it's an action movie.

And it's not really a remake of Silent Night Deadly Night, like at all.

It's just sort of tangentially in that space.

But I like it.

It's it's fun and goes down pretty easy.

The other two were episodes here on film strip.

So I recommend everybody if you want to know what I think is the origin of Santa becoming an action hero.

It's this 2005 movie that was directed by a guy who used to be an assistant to Bret Ratner.

It's called Santa's Sleigh.

With.

Bill Goldberg and Emily the Raven and Robert Culp and Saul Rubinic and all these other Jewish actors and Rebecca Gayheart's and Brian on the show.

But film strip.

Brian introduced me to that years ago.

And it, I think it lives on Amazon just permanently.

And it's, but it's, there's rocket launchers, Chris Catan's in it.

It's it's nuts.

I mean, it's a bonkers thing, but it's so much fun.

And I usually I'll throw that on at some point during the holiday season because you know, it's a laugh.

And then I will.

I can't go through a a Christmas season without turning on rare exports because of Ron and I only did it on this show.

I think we took that one too to the podcast and made them watch it too.

It's.

It's.

I will never forget Finnish.

You know, Heisenberg, I called him.

So he was the the lead actor in the movie.

That's very.

Yeah.

He's very much the Finnish Bryan Cranston.

But I I love that movie and I don't understand half the language in it.

And I don't need to like, it's just.

Yeah, it's it's hilarious to me.

I love it.

Yeah.

It's Bjorn Cranston.

Yes, Pierre.

Cranston.

That's that's gold.

That do kind of feel bad that we didn't warn Julia that there was a bunch of penis in the movie, but.

Elf elf Dong.

Yeah, but it's but it's much funnier that we didn't.

No, it was her reaction to that is classy.

I think it I think it's on their regular feed.

Y'all go back and listen to that if you want to.

But yeah, so it's it's it's pretty wild.

Like the story.

It's kind of like a little bit of a mix between like thing and Krampus and a few other things.

Lindsay, it's pretty wild.

So but it's it's a good watch and it's goes down easy too.

It's pretty pretty quick if memory.

And there's also some elements of that Toby Hooper, Invaders for Mars.

Yes, yes, yeah.

Feels like in that like the vein of things.

The thing buried underground and with the salt, Yeah.

Yeah, yes, it's in that it's got that that kind of Bee Movie 50s and 60s thing going on.

But you know, it was made in the 2000s.

But again, it's I think it's only like an hour and 20 minutes and maybe 10 minutes of that is credited.

It's a fast watch, like it wastes no time getting you into it.

So it's got cute kids in it and it's it's fun.

So yeah.

It moves very fast and it's very much a European view of Santa Claus, kind of.

Thing right but there's also like this whole like real random subplot that could be the subplot of like a cold open to a Bond movie because it's like arms dealing going on yeah too it's weird it's there's a lot of shit happening to that movie is what I'm trying to say so but yeah I go for that kind of thing I go for the kind of the offbeat stuff like that because it's just it's my personality and.

You know, have you seen Dalco Santa Claus yet, Jay?

No, I have not.

I have not.

AKA Deadly Games.

AKA what if Kevin McAllister was actually trying to kill in the Home Alone movies?

Wait a minute, wait a minute.

What's the name of this again?

South Code Santa Claus AKA Deadly Games.

No, that that sounded like this movie called Better Watch out that I watched that was about this kid trying to like, I don't know, Mack on his babysitter, but also maybe trying to kill her.

That sounds really.

Fun.

It was on one of the previous brackets.

It wasn't this year's.

It was on one of the.

Ones before, but all right.

Yeah.

Did I?

But I've I've seen.

All those movies run together when you're watching them.

It's actually pretty good.

I mean, like, you know, for immediately the kids like it, the like Patrick Wolburton's in it for like half a second and that's what that sounded like was better watch out.

So that kind of thing.

Yeah, this is this is French OK, about like 2 years before Home Alone.

It pretty much directly inspired Home Alone.

There's, there's even some straight lifted sequences that feels like but yeah, it's, it's bananas.

Wow, Yeah, I've heard it now.

Now it, now it, now it rings a bell.

It's got more than one name too.

I think that's why it there's.

Yeah, well, it's Dial Code Santa Claus, AKA Deadly Games, AKA Dial Code.

Dial code Santa.

That's the.

That's the one.

That's the name.

Yes, OK.

The poster of it looks like Rambo trying to shoot Santa Claus, who's trying to stab him with an icicle.

So I miss good poster art.

We we don't make that.

Anymore don't we all?

Well, look man, like go look at foreign poster art sometimes too.

Their interpretations of what's going on in American films is there's like one of the one of the Halloweens, like Michael Myers has an RPG for some reason.

I'm like, wow, that's one.

Of the That's one of the African painted posters those are.

Incredible.

Yeah.

I was like, wow, that that's a different movie.

So, and maybe it could have been made yeah, but no, I I like that kind of stuff.

And then, you know, I don't know, I, I think about two like movies that are like that are definitely about that time of the year, but aren't really about the subject matter too.

They're always kind of fun and just for you to throw Christmas around, you know, like, not of the comic comes to mind and Invasion USA, which is definitely a Christmas movie because Chuck Norris drives over a whole Christmas tree farm in that.

But yeah, I, I, I do like those.

I mean, I, I have fun watching those and, and doing all that stuff.

And then any, any of the Shane Black Christmas stuff, you know, it's always on the list for me.

Yeah.

Matchstick man Kiss kiss Bang Bang's always a lot of fun.

So because I like his sensibilities, it's snarky humor.

Holidays are tough for me, like just not to get too personal here or whatever, but it's not associated with some of the best memories, not from like childhood, but more from like teenager or the young adulthood, stuff like that.

And so it's just a lot of things that I'm like, eh, you know, I, I get through it because a lot of people around me love it.

My wife loves the holiday season.

So I want to, you know, enjoy it with her and I do.

But for me, I also, I, I do have to find my own little cave of like wonders to to play in.

That's why I watch these all so.

You know you're you're gremlins and.

But that's that's one I'll only watch about needing an ironic laugh.

It may be one of the worst monologues in cinematic history.

Gremlins goes in the nostalgic bucket for me.

I watched that.

Well, I didn't watch it just at Christmas though.

I'd watch it in the summer too.

I didn't.

I'll tell you another, I'll tell you another really good one and it's back to it's not offbeat it, it's not one a lot of people see and it's not easy to come by, but it's a gem is Muppet Family Family Christmas.

Oh, I hadn't thought about that one in a long time.

So.

It's good.

It's good.

It's they all.

Everybody goes to Fozzie's mom's house for Christmas.

Watch out for the icy patch.

You know, that's our buddy Mike Westfall over at Advent Calendar House always ends his episodes with watch out for the icy patch.

And you say, I'll go to Fozzie's mom's house.

All The Muppets go.

All the Sesame Street go.

All the Fraggles go Doc.

It's funny to think about that Those are all part of the same universe, but they are like, yeah, they're just yeah, so.

Yeah, all of them are there and it's and it's fabulous and like, people are like sleeping in socks that are hung up on the walls depending on the size of the Muppet.

Animals, Animal and Gonzo sleeping on Hangers on the wall and Animal Love.

Hanger love hanger.

This this checks out.

Yeah, animal.

Ever sleeps, man?

Yeah, the fact like the idea of Animal, I know what he's based on in this in this persona, but Animal being the drummer is like the most spastic dude.

Playing the drums may have not been the choice guys, but you know, it's it's good times with all of that.

So I, I feel just as an aside note, since we've had a lot of Muppet talk tonight, like there's something like disconcerting but really alluring about the whole Fraggle Rock situation for me that I can't quite pinpoint.

But just having watched it growing up and I don't know, I, I saw some of it not that long ago.

I just got into a mood and I was like, this is so trippy and weird, man.

I can't believe they let kids watch this.

But.

I loved Fraggle Rock when I was.

A kid, partly Canadians, so that's part of it.

It had a great song that that helped like having a good theme song is the.

Did anyone ever watch Eureka's Castle?

That was a Nickelodeon Fraggle.

Fraggle Rock was Disney.

Eureka, we're gonna say Eureka's castle would have been passed.

I think Jay's time by a.

Little bit, yeah.

Big yeah.

Back in my game, yeah.

Eureka's Castle, I'm looking this up now.

Came out in 9091, so yeah, no, I would have been.

Dated Muppets were on Saturday Night Live and they sucked.

Yeah, that's pretty much, yeah.

See by 90 and 90 work.

And we hated it.

Yeah.

I was raised on puppets right between Sesame Street and Fraggle Rock and Muppets and.

Oh, hey, man, going into the fairy land, that with Mr.

Rogers Neighborhood was my favorite part of that show.

Yeah, yeah, I was all about that.

Forget about Gen.

X Millennial.

We're the We're the puppet generation.

Is.

Really.

What that is?

Yeah, I mean really, that it invaded every part of our lives.

Genesis put it in a music video, you know, And those are some scary ass puppets by the way, too, so.

What is the first Christmas movie you remember seeing?

Oh man, I mean.

Good question.

My parents were always like, let's watch Rudolph people.

And I, I remember specifically watching Rudolph as a kid because I as a very little kid, I was terrified of the Bumble.

I would hide behind the couch.

Until.

He had his choppers taken out and then he was the nice bumble.

I was afraid of him.

He was the mean Bumble.

And I, like I said, I would hide behind the couch.

So I remember watching that and that's probably probably the, you know, because back back in my day, before streaming, you had to catch them on the right night on CBSNBC or ABC, depending on who owned the rights that year.

And we liked it.

Look everybody, an old man is talking.

No, I, I'm, I'm saying preach on because like Frosty the snowman is probably mine for that same reason.

Like we've been the same time.

I would have seen that.

I would have seen Rudolph.

I'd have seen the all that stuff because my parents love that stuff.

And so we had it on and watched it.

I distinctly remember us going to see A Christmas Story in theaters together as a family though.

And.

So I, I remember just being just blown away by that, you know, again, because 1983 when that came out, I think I was, I was still pretty young And so I, it affected me in a lot of ways.

And years later I got to see a production of it where they had a guy who had a really good voice.

He didn't sound like Jean Shepard, who had a great voice.

He narrates the movie if you haven't seen it, but he wrote all this stuff.

Who is off stage reading all this stuff while people are like acting out vignettes.

It's like a community everything.

It was so good.

But it's so touching too, because there's like there's some real heart in that movie that still gets to me.

So I, I, it's running the ground now because the 24 hour marathon and stuff.

So like I for years I have avoided it, but I think last year it came on and we just sat and and watched it because it had been a long time since I just sat and sort of lived with it.

And I was like, you know what?

This is really good.

And then a few years ago that Peter Billingsley and all that whole crew got back together and like did like the official sequel to it.

I know there's another one that's kind of a sequel, but it's it's pretty good.

It's cute.

So you know I've got ATV show.

I guarantee none of you grew up so.

And I knew it had Christmas stuff in it.

It was a Canadian series called Today's Specials.

Anybody remember this?

I do.

Yeah, that's not the skidamerinky dinky dink people.

No, that's Sherry Lois.

That was Sherry Lois Brim.

Yeah, today's special was this.

These these mannequins would come to life after they shut the department store down and had like a whole.

That's Yeah.

I remember watching reruns of today's special.

They showed it on the USA Network, which is, for whatever reason, the one I watched.

When everybody else was watching Nickelodeon or Mr.

Rogers or some shit, I was watching Cartoon Express.

Yeah, Cartoon Express on on USA.

Yeah, 100% so.

But they did a lot of Christmas.

Stuff on that one, whatever cheap knockoff the whatever cheap knockoff cartoons they could have.

Gobots was on that, probably.

Was that the one where Gary Ganu did the news?

Might have been.

Yeah, it might have been.

I can't.

I can't remember all of it.

I can't.

I can't remember all of it.

I just remember it just making a a real impression on me as a kid for some reason.

And especially when they would decorate the store for Christmas, because we'd see that like, you know, I grew up in a town.

We grew up in a town when they were malls and people decorated them and it was beautiful.

And you actually went out to see the decorations of the stores.

Like there's, there's that scene in, in Christmas store where like they do that, you know, in the opening of it.

And even though we didn't get a lot of snow where I grew up, people did go all out and decorate.

And like, we used to ride around and look at Christmas lights in people's neighborhoods, you know?

You're not still.

I was like, we still do that.

Yeah, there's some really nice ones around here where you see it, so.

Our trip to New York that we did several years ago pre made was wonderful because we did the thing where we came out on 42nd St.

and went down in front of the Macy's and saw the windows.

And if you follow that path it leads you to the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree.

So you start at a certain point and you walk, basically walk from the subway stop all the way down the street for like 4 blocks or whatever.

And then there's the Rockefeller Center tree.

It's amazing.

Oh man, it's a.

Fabulous.

It's a fabulous like Christmas thing to do.

It's beautiful.

That does sound like something to be funded so.

And then after that we were all all really like deep fried and people because it's me, Holly and our friend Katie and and none of none of us like big crowds or people.

So I was like, well, let's go find the the quietest place we can to have like soup and a drink.

And we found a little Russian restaurant in the theater district that was incredible.

It's not there anymore, but but yeah, it was borscht and palmini and big imperial stouts and.

Very good.

Just the brown bread and the pickle tray was awesome.

That sounds great.

It's awesome.

So well, y'all, it has been a blast talking about these different things and sort of reminiscing with y'all tonight.

It's it's always fun as we kind of wrap up the year here on film strip with to do one of these type of things and so appreciate everybody coming on.

Matt, tell folks how they can follow you and everything you got going on, man.

Don't follow me, I don't want to talk to you.

You can listen to me over on the 2 Broke Geeks podcast.

It's been pretty intermittent this year 'cause my Co host Justin and I have pretty opposing work schedules.

So it's been a pretty difficult year for getting episodes out on the regular.

I work a lot of days, he works a lot of nights.

It it doesn't, it hasn't worked out very well, but we're still putting episodes out.

So you can find me over at the 2 Broke Geeks podcast.

And yeah, that's, that's what I've got going on.

That's where you can find me most of the time.

And also tell folks since you are the published author of this.

Yeah, buy my book.

Buy my book.

This is a Christmas episode and my book is a Christmas book.

Buy my book.

It is Santa in his own words.

Buy Santa Claus with help from Matt Spaulding.

You can find that on Amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.

I'm very bad about promoting my own book.

It feels like a feels like such a weird fraud thing to do.

So every time I have an opportunity to bring it up, I tend to forget because I'm like.

No, but it's not because you.

I know it's.

Not I know.

Yeah, I know.

But that's just it's it's, it's part of being me.

Fair, fair enough.

But it's so cool because we know a published author, yes.

Right.

It's like so cool so.

I used to be the published author on this podcast.

Now it's Matt Stern.

I.

Guess.

Yeah, you're still the chief writer in film stripping.

Well, yeah, but AI killed all my publishing opportunities.

Sadly so yeah, well, as we know, but that's another day here on Donahue.

We get into dystopian March or whatever we're going to talk about.

So Speaking of which, we have lots of fun stuff playing going in to next year.

So you can find all of that wherever you find your podcast.

Just look for Filmstrip podcast, 15 plus years of episodes out there.

Some like this, some session shows where we're just generally, you know, talking about a topic or most of the time it's us taking a movie and have a lot of fun with it.

And you can follow us on social media at Film Strip Pod.

We share announcements about upcoming shows, other fun content.

And now you can go to our letterbox page because as every movie we've ever reviewed there with links to where you can listen to it.

So if you want a quick one, you won't find the session shows there obviously, but you'll find all the movies we've reviewed there in the day.

And don't worry if it says there's spoiler content.

I don't know how to turn that off because that just means if you click the link, we're probably going to tell you what the movies about.

But give that a look and hey, leave us a positive review as well.

It helps other people find the podcast, share it with your friends, and also it helps us make feel good about ourselves.

It's the holidays.

We all want to do that, right?

So until next time for Ron Lindsay and our good friend Matt, the published author and Santa expert himself, I am Jay.

Thank you for listening to film strips.

Thank you for listening to Film Strip.

You can find more episodes on our website, filmstrippodcast.com.

The filmstrip theme music is produced and performed by Frozen Lake 121.

All content used or discussed in these podcast episodes is the property of the respective owners and used under the Fair Use Act, Section 5O4C2, Title 17.