Can you imagine chowing down on fried caterpillars for Christmas dinner or hiding your broom to fend off mischievous witches? Welcome to a very quirky episode of Weird World Variety, where we promise to take you on a one-of-a-kind, globe-trotting adventure that uncovers the most unusual Christmas traditions from across the world. From the creepiness of Austria's Krampus to Japan's love for KFC during the festive season, we're set to burst your conventional Christmas bubble!
As your hosts, we pull back the curtain on the bizarre, the fascinating, and the downright hilarious. In our first chapter, we dare you to look at Christmas cobwebs and defecating figurines in the eye and not crack a smile, while we then venture into the realm of Italy's old woman Bufana and Iceland's Yule Cat. In our second chapter, we dive straight into a pot of fried caterpillars, a South African festive delicacy. You'll hear how Norwegians keep witches at bay, and how Swedes gather around the TV for a special Christmas cartoon featuring Donald Duck.
But the quirks don't stop there! We dial down the weirdness by taking you on a virtual tour of some of the best holiday light displays in the United States. From the Bright Nights at Forest Park in Springfield to the historic Clifton Mill in Ohio, we leave no bulb unlit in our quest for the most magical festive illuminations. Grab your cup of hot chocolate, sit back, and let us transport you to the twinkling streets of America's most illuminated cities. This episode is a festive feast for the ears, packed with fun, laughter, and a whole lot of Christmas spirit. So, brace yourself for a wild, weird, and wonderfully festive ride with us, your hosts Matt and Jesse.
Can you imagine chowing down on fried caterpillars for Christmas dinner or hiding your broom to fend off mischievous witches? Welcome to a very quirky episode of Weird World Variety, where we promise to take you on a one-of-a-kind, globe-trotting adventure that uncovers the most unusual Christmas traditions from across the world. From the creepiness of Austria's Krampus to Japan's love for KFC during the festive season, we're set to burst your conventional Christmas bubble!
As your hosts, we pull back the curtain on the bizarre, the fascinating, and the downright hilarious. In our first chapter, we dare you to look at Christmas cobwebs and defecating figurines in the eye and not crack a smile, while we then venture into the realm of Italy's old woman Bufana and Iceland's Yule Cat. In our second chapter, we dive straight into a pot of fried caterpillars, a South African festive delicacy. You'll hear how Norwegians keep witches at bay, and how Swedes gather around the TV for a special Christmas cartoon featuring Donald Duck.
But the quirks don't stop there! We dial down the weirdness by taking you on a virtual tour of some of the best holiday light displays in the United States. From the Bright Nights at Forest Park in Springfield to the historic Clifton Mill in Ohio, we leave no bulb unlit in our quest for the most magical festive illuminations. Grab your cup of hot chocolate, sit back, and let us transport you to the twinkling streets of America's most illuminated cities. This episode is a festive feast for the ears, packed with fun, laughter, and a whole lot of Christmas spirit. So, brace yourself for a wild, weird, and wonderfully festive ride with us, your hosts Matt and Jesse.
Si, si, sss.
Speaker 2:What is monster luck. It's me personified For people that know anime. You know what we're talking about. What is monster luck? Are you personifying yourself as a lucky person.
Speaker 3:I give others luck. I have no doubt about that at all, because that seems to be like my whole life, dude.
Speaker 2:I'll tell you what I'm gonna need. Some luck with this Christmas stuff going on bro. This is crazy.
Speaker 3:I'll give you my Midas touch. I use that for magic too.
Speaker 2:Stop rubbing my shoulders, bro. I didn't. What are you talking? About I definitely did. Welcome back to Weird World Variety. My name is Matt.
Speaker 3:And I'm Jesse.
Speaker 2:And we are here to bring the extra weird this holiday season. Holiday season is in full swing. This is December. By the time you guys hear this, it will be the 12th.
Speaker 3:Is it?
Speaker 2:Because I don't see swings very much. Well, you know actually to be honest, we got a neighborhood not far from here that has three newly built swings they just put up with lights. That would be cool because it's like a whole, like handmade. Like they put this tree brand they literally took a tree, put it in another tree and attach three swings to the bottom of it.
Speaker 3:You should go by there and leave a post-it note that says hey, maybe you should light this.
Speaker 2:Dude, that would be awesome.
Speaker 3:They would love that. And then your number.
Speaker 2:Actually, they probably wouldn't love that they don't use electricity.
Speaker 3:Oh, they're all mesh.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's a certain community.
Speaker 3:I thought something was a mesh.
Speaker 2:All right, moving on. Oh my goodness, Welcome back everybody to the madness that is this Christmas season. Jesse, I don't know about you, but this season has gone. Actually, this year has gone way too fast for my liking. I feel like everything is gone by super quick and before I could even save up money for Christmas gifts.
Speaker 2:We are already here he's at Sonic speed. Oh, my goodness, we will talk about that next week. I got some fun stuff that you found next week that we could talk about Sonic speed, but this week, yeah, shadow speed bonus preview for audience members who don't know what's going on yet, there's a little Easter egg for you for next week's show. This week we've got some fun stuff. So, since it's holiday season, let's go ahead and just dive right in, because this I'll tell you what this, this first section of our show is going to be a long one. So y'all buckle in, because it's about to get real weird up in here and it's going to be a lot of fun. Let's talk about Christmas traditions.
Speaker 3:I found an article that said that said unusual Christmas traditions from around the world. I had, like I thought Santa Claus was Asian at the top, but I mean he does look Asian, he looks Asian. I bet you with a with what you call that, the rat tip, not rat tail. That's the hair. What do you call that?
Speaker 2:I don't know what that I always forget. What that's cool.
Speaker 3:It's a cool looking beard, but I don't know what it's called Santa. Claus, it does not make any sense for Santa Claus.
Speaker 2:Anyway, micro beard, we are going to dive right into this article right after this. All right, so unusual Christmas traditions from around the world. I'm surprised you found this, actually, because sometimes I have a hard time finding articles like this, but you found a pretty good one. This one's pretty in depth, so we're probably going to spend at least two parts of the show on this.
Speaker 3:Your lack of faith is disturbing, I find your lack of faith disturbed.
Speaker 2:Have faith, just not in everything.
Speaker 3:All right, you should have faith in me.
Speaker 2:Punk. My faith is very monitored. Monitored by who Slim down over the years of life, beating me up, you mean moderate. It's toned down. You know what I'm saying? Like it's on a downhill slope. I so appreciate that. Anyway, we wanted to talk about a lot of stuff during Christmas we are going to get into religious beliefs and all that, but we wanted to talk about some traditions that might not be from the US, that are strange across the world, that maybe you don't know about.
Speaker 3:That's why maybe your friends don't know about Weird.
Speaker 2:And we thought this would be a fun article to do, so I'm going to let you do the first one, because this is one of your favorite characters.
Speaker 3:No, it's not. That was part of the lore. But when I saw that I was creeped out and I was like ah, okay, for people listening the picture of this first one is very creepy.
Speaker 2:It does look like something straight out of the underworld. If you know what I'm talking about, do you want to read the first one, or do you want me?
Speaker 3:to. I want to read the next one.
Speaker 2:Okay. So the first one is labeled bad Santa. This is from Austria. British kids are well acquainted with Father Christmas, santa Claus or Saint Nick, but we'll find something a little more sinister lurking around Austria. That's because it's here that a ghoulish creature called Krampus, the evil accomplice of Saint Nicholas, is said to wander the streets in search of badly behaved children. In the month of December, you can expect to see terrifying mass figures out and about, scaring kids and adults alike with ghastly pranks. If this holiday tradition sounds like your kind of thing, be sure to check out the Krampus parade. They have a Krampus parade in.
Speaker 3:Vienna.
Speaker 2:Nasty, okay, and not only that, this is really creepy, but remember that petition you had for keeping Halloween around. I've got your answer right here. Go to Austria.
Speaker 3:Sucker. Yeah, no, I'm good on that. That's not the same thing.
Speaker 2:Go to Austria, dude. There you go. You got your Halloween and Christmas all wrapped up in one All right.
Speaker 3:Number two Cobweb Christmas Ukraine, one of Ukraine's favorite festive traditions, is not one of those or not one for those with a fear of creepy crawlies where we would have bobbles, tentals and stars. Legends use decorations that mimic the natural formation of spiders webs shimmering with dew. See, that's right, miley, I love spiders. The tradition goes back to a folk tale about a poor widow who could not afford to decorate a tree for her children. Legend has it that spiders in the house took pity on the family and spun beautiful webs all over the tree, which the children awoke to find on Christmas morning. Spiders webs are also considered to be lucky in the Ukrainian culture.
Speaker 2:Now you remember as a kid some kids they get obsessed with that thing and they bring like pets or whatever to their parents. Jesse's thing was spiders. No, I didn't actually never let it go.
Speaker 3:I would do that totally. I want to get a bunch of baby spiders and just like throw them everywhere.
Speaker 2:He was because I'm that crazy about him. He would literally install the world's first spider house. I think.
Speaker 3:Oh, that's a good idea.
Speaker 2:I might do that. That's awesome. Merry Christmas kids. What is it? Colonel Santa?
Speaker 3:Japan. It looks like it's come straight out of Japan.
Speaker 2:It is. Look, even has a KFC box. What the heck. Okay. So back in 1974, the American fast food restaurant KFC released a festive marketing campaign in Japan. The seemingly simple slogan Kurosumasu Niwa, Kentucky.
Speaker 3:I don't know if I'm saying that right Kentucky for Christmas.
Speaker 2:Sorry guys. Kentucky, for Christmas, spawned a national tradition that still thrives to this day. Kfc started some stuff. What the heck? That's awesome, that's crazy. I've never heard of that. Although Christmas isn't a national holiday in Japan, families from all over the country head to their local KFC for a special Christmas Eve meal.
Speaker 3:What that's awesome. They used to be man.
Speaker 2:Now we got to go to Japan just to see that.
Speaker 3:I want to see people go to KFC on Christmas Eve. If I go to Japan, I might not come back.
Speaker 2:See, that's the thing I love Japan. I think it's awesome. That's awesome. There you go. How about you read the next one? The next one cracked me up as soon as I saw it.
Speaker 3:Pickle in the tree Germany. The Christmas tree tradition embraced around the world today is believed to have started in Germany back in the 16th century. So it comes as no surprise that our continental cousins still have some unique customs relating to the festive conifers. One of these is to hide a pickle somewhere within the branches of the tree and give a gift to whichever child in the household finds it. Some claim that the tradition may not be German after all. One legend says that the Christmas pickle originated in Spain, when two young boys were held as prisoners inside a pickle barrel. The heroic Saint Nicholas rescued the boys and brought them back to life. Either way, a pickle on a Christmas tree is a tradition we can totally get behind, and let's just say the picture is literally a pickle ornament.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:There's a pickle ornament.
Speaker 3:It's like a In the tree A frickled pickle.
Speaker 2:A frickled pickle or an urnway.
Speaker 3:A pickle with bumps.
Speaker 2:For anybody that wants to follow along. This is holidayextrascom. It's a travel blog on different traditions around the world. Again, holidayextrascom. This is a pretty neat article. Okay, roller skate mass, caracas. Yeah, caracas, is that how you say that In the Venezuelan capital of Caracas, swathes of city dwellers make their way I'm sorry the way that this is written Make their way to mass on roller skates every year on Christmas morning. That's sick. The tradition is now so well established that many of the city streets are closed off from traffic from 8 am so that they can skate and get to church safely. It's even said that children will sleep with one lace from their skates tied around their toe, the other skate dangling from the window, so that their friends can wake them up with a friendly tug on the lace.
Speaker 2:That is crazy. So they all skate to. Oh, that's great, they all skate to mass, that's awesome. It sounds a little dangerous too, though in a way yeah, but they closed off the streets now, so it should be pretty. It's showing Santa on skates. You imagine the days they didn't close off the streets and people are just skating through the streets. Oh, I bet that's something to see. How about?
Speaker 3:this one. This is Sana in Finland. Many homes in Finland come equipped with their own Sana, and at Christmas time, this cozy spot becomes a sacred space associated with long dead ancestors which I didn't know. That's an interesting fact Me either On Christmas Eve it's customary to. Should I say that? Well, we all know what Strip naked and take a long unexpected event in the Sana, which is also believed to be home to the legendary Sana Elf.
Speaker 2:What the Sana Elf.
Speaker 3:After the Sana session, fins heads to the evening celebrations, while spirits of those ancestors take their place in the bubbling water.
Speaker 2:Oh. So it's kind of like a way to honor their ancestors. But yeah, if you've ever been to a Sana, you know you're not wearing clothes. It's a regular Sana. But dude, that's crazy. I didn't know that was part of their tradition.
Speaker 3:I didn't know it was supposed to respect their dead ancestors.
Speaker 2:That was something I didn't know.
Speaker 3:I kind of want to research the Sana Elf now.
Speaker 2:The Sana Elf sounds hilarious we got to look up the Sana Elf sometime. Shoes by the fire. This one's weird the.
Speaker 3:Netherlands. A picture of a shoe with a bow and carrot sticking out of it.
Speaker 2:Yeah it looks like some sort of document, maybe a letter or something. Yeah, oh yeah, we'll see. And then some carrots.
Speaker 3:So maybe my guess here is the reindeer or some sort Huh Reindeer? Oh, maybe.
Speaker 2:Maybe a note to Santa.
Speaker 3:Find out.
Speaker 2:Let's find out, okay. Every year, in the days leading up to the 25th of December, dutch children eagerly place their shoes by the fire in the hopes that center claws. It's literally spelled center claws.
Speaker 3:That's just another name for.
Speaker 2:Sana, we'll fill them with small gifts and treats in the night. Traditionally, carrots are left in the shoes for center claws. Faithful steeds, look at that A white. Oh, no, oh, nevermind it's not for the reindeer. Center claws faithful steed, a white horse named America.
Speaker 3:America.
Speaker 2:That's a weird name and America round. Oh, maybe that's where it's from.
Speaker 3:You think that's where it's from? That would make total sense, dude. Wait, we got to look that up now. We got to look that up, america. That totally makes sense now.
Speaker 2:Where did America and go around come from? I can't believe we're looking this up Mary go around. Mary, this is not related at all. You, yeah, this is not related at all 12th century by the way. Yeah, no, not related at all. That would have been so funny bro.
Speaker 3:When I seen that name I was like what?
Speaker 2:That's how ignorant we are.
Speaker 3:It would have been so funny.
Speaker 2:In the olden days, naughty children would receive a potato in lieu of gifts. But potato punishment is no longer considered an appropriate scare tactic Potato punishment. So instead of cold they got potatoes.
Speaker 3:I would not even be. That wouldn't even be a punishment. I mean all right, I'm going to make a few fries out of it.
Speaker 2:I don't think that's why they had to stop. Here's an interesting one.
Speaker 3:The fauna, the witch and the Halloween. Hmm, forget Santa on 25th December when in Italy, as all the action takes place in the eve of 5th January, According to folklore, an old woman named Bufana visits all the children of Italy to fill their stockings with candy and leave them presents if they've been good, Just like Father Christmas. Bufana enters through the chimney and is left, is left left treats by the children who live there. Oh okay, she's left treats, I got it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they just typically wine and local delicacies. Some of these, some of these paragraphs are wrote weird.
Speaker 3:I was like wait a minute, am I saying it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, that's interesting.
Speaker 3:The fauna, the witch, alrighty.
Speaker 2:Then how about the Yule Cat Iceland? One of the more unique festive traditions we've heard comes from Iceland, where a giant cat is said to roam the snowy countryside at Christmas time. Traditionally, farmers would use the Yule Cat as an incentive for their workers. Those who worked hard would receive a new set of clothes, but those who didn't would be devoured by a giant cat like beast.
Speaker 3:It looks like a ginger cat.
Speaker 2:The picture they got is just a regular house cat. It's hilarious. Today it is customary for everyone in Iceland to get new clothing for Christmas to avoid an unsavory demise. Yeah.
Speaker 3:I remember we were talking about earlier, though I was just like if I saw a wildcat I'd try to pit it. You can eat me, it's fine, but I'll talk to you about God the whole time.
Speaker 2:Jesse would sacrifice the clothes just to meet the cat.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I want to meet the cat.
Speaker 2:What kind of weird dreams would you have as a kid, though, if you Yule?
Speaker 3:Cat.
Speaker 2:Hey, by the way, if you don't wear a card, you're going to get devoured by a giant cat I'd be like.
Speaker 3:All right, that's fine with me, let's do it.
Speaker 2:Oh, fried caterpillars, South Africa, here you go, buddy.
Speaker 3:Gross Screw past that picture. Come on, man I don't want to look at that.
Speaker 2:No, no, no, no, no. You got it. You got to read. You got to suffer like the rest of us. When you think, of Christmas food.
Speaker 3:Mince pies and turkey are often hot. Come on, man, I'm trying to read it. High on the list In South Africa, however, it is the creepy crawlies that local children look forward to Festive fried caterpillars.
Speaker 2:They seem like one of the most unusual Christmas traditions.
Speaker 3:But these caterpillars aren't just the run-in-the-all variety. You find in the garden the Pine Tree, emperor Moth or Christmas caterpillar covered in very festive hues, giving all who swallow a little extra in the coming year Extra luck. He said extra luck when it says swallow. I had to swallow a little extra.
Speaker 2:I'm going to add some like food sounds and then add some.
Speaker 3:Add some guys going yum. That was hard to read because the picture was awful. Oh man, they look like mealworms or something like that it looks interesting.
Speaker 2:I don't know man.
Speaker 3:That looks very. Thanks for scoring today again.
Speaker 2:Listen, everybody needs to be scarred.
Speaker 3:Bro, I got like I got thousands. Okay, I got too many. It is probably more than that, no.
Speaker 2:I don't need more. Oh, my gosh, all right.
Speaker 3:So that's much better.
Speaker 2:Look another Halloween like thing in the next one. Oh, we've got here. All right, all right, all right, all right.
Speaker 3:So get past that picture Watch.
Speaker 2:Flying Witches Norway. According to Norwegian Folklore, christmas Eve is the day when mischievous spirits and witches take to the skies for mischief and general tomfoolery. As witches often use brooms as their preferred mode of transportation, its tradition for Norwegian families to hide away any sweeping sticks where the witches won't be able to find them.
Speaker 3:You think there was a tom that was fooling around and that's where they got tomfoolery from.
Speaker 2:I have no idea. Hey, tom, apparently, if you don't want your broom taken, you gotta hide them. I didn't know that was a thing. No, that's so weird. Do you think it's actual witches, or is somebody going through the neighborhood just chucking brooms?
Speaker 3:Just grabbing brooms, like our arborist, our arborist at 3am.
Speaker 2:I mean, I wouldn't put a past to anybody.
Speaker 3:People are petty, now I mean.
Speaker 2:Really, they got a thief and they haven't solved the case for years. It's just been an ongoing investigation.
Speaker 3:It became lore instead.
Speaker 2:It became lore. Oh, that's awful. I'm sorry, I'm just making a joke.
Speaker 3:Awfully funny. That's awful.
Speaker 2:Alright.
Speaker 3:Donald Duck, sweden. Okay, there's a vid.
Speaker 2:There's a. Should we play the video?
Speaker 3:What's the description?
Speaker 2:Talk about the video right there.
Speaker 3:There's a video. It says videobub is the 1958 Christmas special called Cal Cali. We don't know the foreign languages, so Anka Otsch, hans Vanner, ansgar Godjul or Donald Duck and his friends wish you a merry Christmas. There you go. That's a translation. Every Christmas, families around Sweden gather around the television at 3pm sharp to watch Donald deliver his raspy message. Oh my gosh, everything on Christmas is planned around the television special and more than 40% of Sweden's population still tune in like clockwork. The tradition dates back to the 60s, when televisions were a new commodity in Sweden, and only two channels are aired, one of which played Disney cartoons at Christmas. It may be a quirky tradition, but a whole nation coming together to watch Christmas cartoons together is about as festive as it gets.
Speaker 2:So basically it kind of like how we have, like, the Macy's Day parade. Yeah, that's not that great and like our dog show and stuff and the football games and stuff during Thanksgiving. They have their tradition of watching this video. You want to watch it.
Speaker 3:I think they're like a hundred now.
Speaker 2:We should watch it. You want to watch it?
Speaker 3:I mean hopefully. We want to stick the mics up, dude.
Speaker 2:I mean it should be loud enough. Okay, if you want to watch this, you can. Why is there? This is so long.
Speaker 3:It's 33 minutes. It's 33 minutes.
Speaker 2:Let's just watch the first minute. Okay, I'm just going to watch the first minute, because there's a commercial after the first minute anyway, alright, so we got black and white Disney cartoon, so they play this every year. So it's like a 30 minute show, kind of like a regular TV show, like our shows that we play.
Speaker 3:The hour has arrived for you to see your living room, the most memorable moment of Walt Disney's greatest feature attraction.
Speaker 2:It's our biggest, happiest surprise package of the Christmas season, this is old, old birthday presents from all of us to all of you. Wow, to you by Canada dry. Oh she's. America. He just drinks the bottle, bro. Canada dry America's first family of beverages.
Speaker 3:It's so weird.
Speaker 2:Oh, my gosh bro.
Speaker 3:First, languages Canada dry.
Speaker 2:Come on now.
Speaker 3:That's what's funny to me.
Speaker 2:Look at the Cheerios commercial. This is all in black and white, you remember? Like the Jetson's age Dude, it was so blurred I could barely see ticker bill.
Speaker 3:That's probably.
Speaker 2:Wow, ok, so that was cool. That was like, if you really want to travel back in time, watch from all of us to all of you, 1958, it is on YouTube and that's the program they're talking about. That is crazy, I like it.
Speaker 3:I like to sit down and watch and watch the whole thing, yeah.
Speaker 2:I would sit down and watch it. Maybe we'll watch it. We could give it a review.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:We can give it a review, so maybe you know what I will save this. Can I open this in another?
Speaker 3:We just commentate throughout the whole video. Like the other YouTubers, they were yeah well, I don't know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we could do that. We could do like a special review of it. Ok, can we not? This is another commercial, but yeah, I'm just going to save it. We're going to add it to our watch list. That kind of looks cool. To be honest, some of the some of the chapters in here Walt Disney, jiminy Cricket, santa's Workshop, toy Tinkers on with the show, memorable moments, peter Pan, you can fly so they kind of go down all these different characters.
Speaker 3:Oh, it says some of them.
Speaker 2:Mamby Pinocchio.
Speaker 3:I've got no strength.
Speaker 2:I'm sure we could find this though. Yeah, it says, it says one that goes.
Speaker 3:I got no strings on me.
Speaker 2:It's probably available for really cheap. It is available for DVD, so it's probably really cheap if you want to watch the full thing Mamby, pinocchio, lady of the Tramps, cinderella they got all of them in here Snow White, mickey and on the piano Jimmy Cricket again, and then the end. That is so cool. I kind of want to watch it now. I want to be part of this tradition.
Speaker 3:You can make it your tradition.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 3:But or a tradition, I should say.
Speaker 2:So yeah, Donald Duck and his friends wish you a Merry Christmas. But I didn't see Donald Duck, we just saw Mickey.
Speaker 3:Well, I mean, I'm sure he's in there when he's got to be right. Further in, ok, or maybe not much further, but further in, oh man you know, we're almost done yeah.
Speaker 2:So let's, let's get to the last two. The alternative Christmas tree that looks pretty cool. New, zealand, I think it looks pretty epic.
Speaker 3:Actually a giant leaning bonsai tree.
Speaker 2:I'll tell you what I want. To be on that beach right now, Next to the tree.
Speaker 3:I just like to stay there.
Speaker 2:Overrated man. I like the beach.
Speaker 3:Sand is so. It's just so annoying though.
Speaker 2:I mean it can be, but I mean, if you're just going to the beach just to chill, not do anything, that's, it's a nice place to be. Ok, all right, did you read the last one? Yeah, thanks.
Speaker 3:Oh wait, I can't remember.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think I did Thought all thought all Christmas trees were created equal. I think again. The no. The Kiwis are all about the Pocaoo, pocaoo, calla, pocaoo, takao. I want to say that's the right and a beautiful tree that is native to New Zealand, with gnarled roots and bright curbs and flowers, which is really cool. I like all that. The first mention of the Pocaoo you guys that again. But, but, but, but, but, but, but, but Pocaoo To go out. Who took the tree that came from Austria?
Speaker 3:That tree.
Speaker 2:I'm putting it on Hosh Stetter in 1867. He described locals decorating their churches and homes with brightly colored branches. At Christmas Today, the tree is recognized as a symbol of Christmas around New Zealand and is featured on Christmas cards, decorations and even in the Christmas carols that children sing at school.
Speaker 3:What is that? The Po whatever tree, the Po Po tree, the Po whatever tree. It is a really cool tree.
Speaker 2:If you guys go see this, it's like the tree. The picture that they have here is a beach, is a big whiny tree, remember it looks like it's leaning though. Remember, like the twisted branches of, like the Oriental style trees.
Speaker 2:Yeah, kind of that's what it kind of looks like with the red flowers, and the red flowers remind me of the death flowers. You remember the death flowers? What they look like? They're really brightly red. Oh, but instead of like flower leaves, they have like these red stems that come out. So that's pretty cool. I like that.
Speaker 3:That's crazy how about the last one, I think, yeah, Yolgote, Sweden. What is that picture, bro? Last but not least, there it is. But we have one more Christmas tradition from Sweden, which may just be the oldest tradition still celebrated on the list. The Yolgote dates back to at least the 11th century, where there are mentions of a man-sized goat figure led by Saint Nicholas had the power to control the devil. Oh well, at least he's like no devil.
Speaker 2:That's interesting.
Speaker 3:The Yolgote, as you can imagine, has changed quite a bit throughout history. In the 17th century it was popular for young men to dress as the goat creature and run around pulling pranks and demanding gifts. By the 19th century, the goat became the good guy, a giver of gifts. Instead of Father Christmas, men in the family would dress up as the goat and give gifts to the entire family. Wow, the man goat is no longer and the Yolgote has taken its place in modern history as a traditional Christmas ornament on trees throughout Sweden. In larger cities, giant versions of these goat ornaments are created out of straw and red ribbons.
Speaker 2:How do you dress up as a goat? Do you just go, as crampus Is?
Speaker 3:that, not for me, not for that. And this is red ribbons, yeah.
Speaker 2:But like the ones that like even the straw goat that they got here, it doesn't look like it's not an evil thing.
Speaker 3:So like.
Speaker 2:I'm wondering what kind of young men to dress up as the goat creature.
Speaker 3:The figure led by Saint Nicholas had the power to control the devil, so it's supposed to be good. Yeah, it's supposed to be a good thing.
Speaker 2:It's like a paragon of good, but the young men go around pulling pranks and demanding gifts. That's kind of weird. I don't know, I don't. That is a crazy, that's a weird one, that's pretty. As Christians, we talk about the birth of the goat, birth of Jesus Christ, and besides, you know another usual Christmas story that most I'm sure most people know. Listening to this, that you know about the birth of Jesus and what the story is, are there any other traditions that you have ever done or maybe your family has done?
Speaker 3:In relation to Jesus or or Christmas in general. Yeah, my family has been scattered for so long that we it's hard to explain we hardly ever get together. Do you guys get together at all at Christmas?
Speaker 2:You guys get together at all at Christmas.
Speaker 3:I mean like immediate family does, but that's it.
Speaker 2:I know with us we do have a small tradition that we do. It's kind of fun. So, like before, we open presents Our tradition is eating food. You know how like some families read the story of Jesus or the birth of Jesus. Yeah Well, we do it in a unique way, so like when, before we open Christmas gifts, we have this book, and in this book is a bunch of doors, and every time you open up a door for a different day. So, like, you know how, like the advent calendar, december.
Speaker 3:Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I like it. So every time you open up a door for a different day, it's another section of the birth of Jesus's story.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I always like this.
Speaker 2:It's really cool and the whole thing you can. You can do every day all the way up to the 25th, or sometimes we just wait all month and then on the 25th we'll do all 25 doors and it's, it's pretty cool.
Speaker 3:I would totally do that, like if I had any, I would start that myself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, or anything closely related to that, I remember.
Speaker 3:I read, I read out of the Bible with my mom.
Speaker 2:We did have a few advent calendars a day. And now what I was called yeah, well, that was a book, but there's like advent calendars you can get where you open up, like wooden ones, with actual orders on it, yeah, or you can get the ones with chocolates and I know.
Speaker 3:That movie I was telling you about had the guy he was actually using one of those one we do with the kids.
Speaker 2:It's really fun is we have a North Pole radio, so every day they listen to the radio. They get to listen to what's going on at the North Pole.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay so, like you go to one and has the section for the day, you go to two. So every time, you know, my son wakes up, or every time we get up or whatever, we can go to a different day on that radio and he gets to listen to what's going on at the North Pole. It's really funny, it's a lot of fun and it's really cool because then, on you know, christmas Eve or whatever, he's like, he's like, this is news from the North Pole. Santa's getting ready to sell out, and he's like, he's like, and he's got his sleigh packed, everything's packed and the reindeer are ready to go, the snow is falling down fast and the elves are, and like you can hear the elves and the reindeer and everything.
Speaker 2:It's. It's really cool. It's kind of like a fun little thing. If you can ever find a funny gift like that, kids love it. I remember and this will be the last tradition I talk about before we go to the break. But the other tradition that was really cool is if you can find companies. There's not too many of them and some of them take a long time to get you your stuff. But if you can find companies, there are certain companies out there where you can get Santa tracker kits.
Speaker 3:So tracker kids.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so like a week before Christmas You'll get a package in the mail and it has snow from the North Pole, it has a magnifying glass, it has like Like all kinds of stuff that you can track evidence of Santa, and then it has, like it'll be addressed to your kid, so it'll have their name on it and it'll say that they either made the naughty or nice list that year, so it'll determine whether you know. So it's a whole thing where you know you can, you can get it and it's like it came from the North Pole, the whole thing. So they get a letter from the North Pole, they get Everything. So they get the, the trackers, the, the reindeer stuff, the letter they get to know if they made the naughty or nice list.
Speaker 2:It's really cool and some companies do it, some companies don't. But if you can't do that, you can always drop off a letter at your local Santa mailbox, which a lot of stores have. If you go to a lot of stores, like Macy's or whatever, they have Santa mailboxes where you can leave Santa a letter and you can mail him a letter of what you think your, your family, should get blessed with this year if you've been a good girl or bad, if you've been a good boy or bad boy. Anyway, I thought it was really cool.
Speaker 3:Some, some fun stuff you can do one tradition I try to to do personally is as a gag. It's kind of a gag tradition is I leave coal for people, but you know that Chocolate candy, that yes, yes coal. I would literally buy bags of that for people and put it in those.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know if my parents were trying to say anything, but sometimes I would get those candy coals.
Speaker 3:That's the one I can name like I Would give people coal chocolate as a gift.
Speaker 2:As a gift, I would get some gifts from my parents sometimes and it would say from mom and dad on it. It'd be like candy coal and I mean like really guys, yeah, that's not bad this year I.
Speaker 3:Was just telling the kids that I the my friends kids. I was like I'm gonna get you guys a bunch of coal this year, lee, what? Okay, they didn't.
Speaker 2:Hopefully none of our audience members gets coal for Christmas this year, let's just chocolate right, unless it's chocolate chocolate Cole is great.
Speaker 3:You don't.
Speaker 2:You don't want to be on the you don't want to be on the naughty list, that's for sure. Man dude, all those traditions sound insane. It was. It was crazy like seeing Some of the traditions remind me more of like paranormal or Halloween traditions than Christmas and I think time we did that. I think some people don't realize that Christmas traditions they're not there there's still a lot of pagan stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's not a lot of stuff that's, you know, just rooted in a religion or just rooting in. I think a lot of people get the misconception that, oh my gosh, I I saw my, I saw somebody else, the one I thought I was big. But no, but um little inside joke we have, I saw you. I don't think people realize, being from America, that there are so many things that are not related To the Christian faith.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, yeah that other countries do like. There's so many Traditions, like, as soon as you go outside of our country. There are so many interesting things out there and believe systems that you wouldn't, you would never think of and Well, I'm actually sad to see Christmas here being little to not about the Christian. Yeah, it's gotten to the point in America where it's no longer about Gifts have nothing to do with Jesus, for instance.
Speaker 2:I mean yeah, but like, not even, not even that, like it hasn't even. You know, the whole thing with with Jesus was he was a giver, but it was, and he gave his life, and that's all you know the whole thing. But now it's not about giving. Now it's about how many presents do you get at Christmas, or how many you know?
Speaker 3:Do you buy everybody something and that's why I don't put stock in it most of the time. Do you know when, in reality?
Speaker 2:Personally, once, once we leave this earth, material things just they don't matter, they don't matter. So you know, like we said in the last episode, if you get a chance to spend time with your friends and family, you know, that's more important I think, way more important than just gifts. I mean, the gifts are cool, they're fun food.
Speaker 2:I mean, food is pretty good food is fun yeah food, food is fun, but like you can't trade that time with your family because some people this Christmas keep in mind that many people across the world Don't do not get Christmas.
Speaker 3:Don't celebrate at all, don't get celebrated.
Speaker 2:We have many people right now across the world that are involved in wars at the moment, so they don't even get a night's rest. So just if you're celebrating Christmas this year, be thankful with your family and Be thankful that you are alive and blessed and Well it's you know, and don't worry if you Don't get what you want for Christmas. Give him the glory yeah, many years of life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, all right. So, and and another tradition we always talk about, and this is the third section in our episode of Talking about this we have the last, the last of the lights of the lights, the top 40. We are doing the last. I'd say, sit for no, I'd say it's 40, ta-da we left out.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, it is 40. Yeah, we are on 31 Actually yeah cuz we talked about.
Speaker 2:Remember we talked about? There's a Cleveland Mississippi.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, I was like what is it?
Speaker 2:Okay, all right, we will get right to those lights right after this.
Speaker 3:I Won Springfield Massachusetts. Just get right back into it, I guess. More than six million visitors have delighted in Springfield's bright nights at Forest Park since the event debuted in 1995 and With 675,000 LED lights on display, it's easy to understand why Dubbed the Northeast biggest holiday lighting experience. The show focused or focuses, sorry on famed folks from the area, like beloved dr Seuss creator Theodore Geisel.
Speaker 2:That's cool. The picture that they have looks neat.
Speaker 3:It's like it's multiple archways.
Speaker 2:People are driving through it and this looks like a castle. It's pretty cool. That does look sweet called.
Speaker 3:Susie land, susana land, I don't know. Susie land, susie land.
Speaker 2:That's very sus, susie, very Susie. Yeah, 675,000 is nothing that's needs that. That's a lot of lights.
Speaker 3:Man. I've heard of so much more in other places.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but that would be a fun one.
Speaker 3:I bet yeah, the ones that we've heard so far look at this little number six hundred seventy five thousand little guy, it's such a little number, like we're talking about four hundred thousand lights.
Speaker 2:Gosh, try harder.
Speaker 3:Million. There's one million's a pretty sure that we read.
Speaker 2:We had a couple that were in the millions 32, duluth, minnesota. Sure, it'll be plenty cold because it is Minnesota, but the walkthrough of Bentleyville tour of lights in Duluth promises to warm hearts, with a spectacular display including a 128 foot tall tree Festooned, said festooned, with nearly six hundred thousand lights. That is a In the picture that they got that is really bright.
Speaker 2:That is a lot of brightness Like is that just a tree with six hundred thousand lights? Okay, here's the best part admission is free, and so our goodies like hot chocolate and cookies remember what we talked about. That should be oh, we should go there. We're going to Minnesota this weekend it's already bad enough traveling there, probably, but visitors are encouraged to bring a new unwrapped toy or non-perishable Food item to donate to those in need. So they probably have a toy drive and a food drive going on, bro, that is.
Speaker 3:So nice to see though.
Speaker 2:I, and that was exactly what we talked about. We want to see more light displays when they do the hot chocolate and things and make people feel welcome and warm, like come on, man, it's one time out of the year you guys can sacrifice. Oh, here, let's have a hot chocolate.
Speaker 3:What's it cost $7 make much more than that, even if, even if they were giving stuff away.
Speaker 2:Yeah, cuz people will go there to buy food. Yeah if you had other food trailers set up and stuff people go there to buy food. Yeah. I know that. You know even some of the ones we've been in the. They would give away hot chocolate and cookies, but they'd have a bake sale and people would just flock and be like, hey, let's get some baked goods, you know all right.
Speaker 3:Number 33, the. I really love the picture. It kind of reminds me of them, cactuses and Mario, I feel like other than lights.
Speaker 2:I feel like this is like an Alice in Wonderland scenario, with the globe stacked up on top of each other. Is that what they are? In globes, they look like globes. Okay and it makes me think of like walking into a video game or something like that.
Speaker 3:All right, good 33 is booth Bay, maine. I thought I said boot Bay earlier. I was, like Normally, a walking experience. This year's garden and glow our gardens and glow at the coastal Maine Botanical gardens will feature a driving tour Through more than 600,000 lights, including themed areas and plenty of crowd-pleasing light tunnels. Other festive events in the area traditionally include the light boat parade and festival trees, both part of the annual booth Bay light celebration.
Speaker 2:So what we've learned from this is that if you are in a part of the country that has a botanical garden, more than likely gonna have like they might have lights which you might be able to go to. So that's, that's pretty cool. Keep that in mind. If you are near a city with a botanical garden or a garden in general, that is cool, wow, okay, 34 Clifton, ohio.
Speaker 3:Let's find it dating back.
Speaker 2:We are gonna go find it dating back to 1802. The historic Clifton Mill is a beautiful sight all year around, but come holiday season, when more than four Million Christmas lights decorate the mill building as well as the surrounding gorge Falls and grounds sounds awesome.
Speaker 3:It's truly jaw-dropping.
Speaker 2:The other fun to have to be had is Santa tinkering in his workshop. Live, that's pretty cool. So you can go see Santa working on his toys in his workshop, you can go see the falls, you can go see Christmas lights. This picture is fantastic. Look how they did the sections of the lights Across the building. Yeah, I like how they went Vertically on the roof too, yeah they did the vertical thing on the roof, they got stuff on the roof, they did the fence lines. Bro, we got to go find this.
Speaker 3:That's I mean. So we're in Ohio, we should go find out green.
Speaker 2:Yeah, green County we're gonna go visit that. That would be sweet.
Speaker 3:One out of 40 is better than none, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, actually there's another one I want to go to, if you Want to go. I definitely want to go check out dogwood pass to. What's that? Dogwood passes in southern Ohio, okay, and they're only open certain days, but they do a cowboy show and they have the Grinch and they have Santa Claus and it's an old West town. Okay, thank you, it's got Christmas lights and stuff. It looks really cool number 35 Merles inlet yeah, South.
Speaker 3:Carolina, nearly 3000 hand lit candles. Wow and Millions of Christmas lighting those, by the way. That job wrapped around and hanging and sparkling sheets from trees and sculptures. This is the famed nights of a thousand candles at Brooke Green Gardens another garden Be sure to sip some of the refreshments available and listen for the carolers and live music filling the night air.
Speaker 2:See, they got refreshments to see. That's what I'm talking about. That's what I'm talking about, and live.
Speaker 3:I mean they want more people show up Doing it anyway, like that's gotta be something to see.
Speaker 2:a thousand candles, that's crazy 3000 yeah 3000 hand lit candles. That is nuts. I would. I would definitely check that out. Any, it's okay. Listen to carolers and live music.
Speaker 3:Look like a bunch of skeletons stand around. Oh no, those are the candles jars.
Speaker 2:Yeah, those candles yeah, those look like jars. Oh, okay, or maybe those I.
Speaker 3:Can't tell really.
Speaker 2:Those look like light bulbs. I think the candles might be another thing, but what they but they're. What they're showing is like a light bulb inside a jar.
Speaker 3:Okay, I'm not really sure. Unless that's the candle, it's the flame inside the yeah, but see how brown this one looks.
Speaker 2:I don't think that's a flame. They might do the candles you know, separately, alright, 36 Lie Lyle, that's I'd say Lyle. Illinois. Now, in its ninth year, the Morton Arboretum, arboretum.
Speaker 3:I can't talk.
Speaker 2:Arboretum's Illumination promises to provide a truly awesome spectacle for the whole family, with interactive lighting effects and sound design, thrilling visitors as they amble Down a one-mile walking path. Okay, so it's a one-mile walking path. The Arboretum Will also offer the chance to take the chill off with belly warming, drinks and s'mores in front of a cozy fire. Okay, and from the picture, it looks like lit up like they did. All these trees in different colors.
Speaker 3:It looks like they were painted, or it really does dude. That's incredible powder.
Speaker 2:Probably be better Description for those tall evergreens in the distance, lit by green, red and blue floodlights with a silhouette of people in the bro. That is neat. I would check that out. That's pretty cool.
Speaker 3:Kind of look like a row of you get rainbow.
Speaker 2:You get drinks and s'mores too. Oh, drinks and s'mores and a fire, like there's a Probably a fireplace or a bonfire or something that's sick, all right, what?
Speaker 3:what there's a city called at 37 is called Santa Claus Indiana. Let's hear about it with a name like Santa Claus. You know this Indiana town has to have a faint, fabulous holiday light show and it does. Santa Claus land of lights tells the thrilling story of Rudolph and his shining nose, and storyboards and thousands of lights every 1.2 mile driving route. Oh, kids love that. Highlights include the three light tunnels, 300 light display pieces and 11 giant story scenes. That's pretty cool. I Actually a city called Santa Claus.
Speaker 2:You know what we could say? Hey, I know, santa Claus.
Speaker 3:I went to see.
Speaker 2:I know Santa Claus.
Speaker 3:I ran over Santa Claus, my reindeer, my horsepower.
Speaker 2:I'm reaching, now you're reaching. How about this one?
Speaker 3:38, las Vegas, nevada never heard of that place before. Yeah, what's that? What's what's?
Speaker 2:uh, what's Las Vegas? It's hard to believe any Vegas light show could be complete with what the strip offers every night come sundown. But glittering lights manages to do just that. The drive-thru event at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, which I Don't know if the motor Speedway they did have. Just recently they had the formula one racing tour in Las Vegas, so I don't know if it's that, if that's it or if that's a different Speedway, but the drive-thru event at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway is truly breathtaking, thanks to the millions of Christmas lights Decorating the course. If you don't feel like getting behind the wheel, you can always hop aboard the open-air Santa tram. That sounds cool too. Oh, why not? Do you be dry? Your family drives and whoever drives.
Speaker 2:It's packed and yeah, and it's like you don't want to drive anymore. It's like, bro, why not take the tram?
Speaker 3:It would be it's probably better to do that honestly.
Speaker 2:I'm trying well, and you get the experience of like the open-air. Yeah, I'm going.
Speaker 3:I'd rather ride a train in a car any day dude.
Speaker 3:Yeah it would be, it would be neat. 39 Portland, oregon. People come from far and wide to the Oregon zoo zoo lights I've heard that before not only for the real animals but also the animatronic ones, illuminated by 1.5 million LED bulbs. Zoo lights is traditionally a pedestrian experience, though this year it will follow a hybrid model Some nights will be walk-through and some nights will be drive-through now the zoo here does zoo lights, and I'll tell you what anytime a zoo does Christmas lights, it's usually something really cool to see.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I would be down for that. And look at the picture. It's like things together lights and animals yeah it's, and they'll have, like, a lot of animals. I'm sure they'll have a lot of Christmas lights.
Speaker 3:I wonder if they put animals. I wonder if they try to dress up the animals and all like in sweaters or whatever, I don't think so.
Speaker 2:I think it would be funny if they did, but probably a little much and they wouldn't do that, I think it'd be All right, man, last one of our list. We finally made it.
Speaker 3:This was your idea bro.
Speaker 2:I finally made it last one. So number 40 of the top 40 places to see Christmas lights in the US is Hartford.
Speaker 3:Connecticut.
Speaker 2:Hartford, connecticut, you can do a good deed while touring a wonderland of more than 1 million Christmas lights at Greater Hartford's Holiday Light Fantasia benefiting the Channel 3 kids camp. The drive-thru event offers 200 individual displays on winding over two miles of Goodwin Park. There you go. Solid drive-thru was the last one but, like, as we like said before, a lot of these you know, some of these you don't have to pay for. Some of these are just neighborhoods that we talked about in our top 40 and if you really are on a budget, just remember a lot of your local neighborhoods and courthouses have light displays. So why not just take a drive? You know why?
Speaker 3:not, why not?
Speaker 2:take your family, get some hot chocolate, get in the car, make a whole event. We used to do that all the time. Especially, we used to take our, take our kids to Mean, live nativity. Just make a whole thing about it. Get some snacks, get some hot chocolate, sit in the car, roll down the windows, go see some lights why not? Why not? We have a lot more to get to. If you want a preview of next week, we're going to be talking about some crazy Science news that came in just recently, so happened very recently. And then we're gonna be talking about Christmas One of our favorite topics food. So next week, don't miss our show. Next week, we're gonna be talking about Christmas food and talk about some science news, and also we have the craziest and Weirdest off the wagon.
Speaker 2:That's just one of them, but we have the craziest and weird. That's one of. That's just one of them. We're gonna give you multiple sites. Yes, we're gonna give you a lot of stuff. So next week we have the craziest and weirdest Christmas gifts you can buy. If you really want to up the ante this year and you're tired of buying the same things this year, maybe your family is getting wrapped in like tradition to buy the same things. You want something different, right, jess?
Speaker 2:Yeah you need something different, right? Yeah, we got you. We're going to tell you the weirdest and craziest Christmas gifts you can buy this year, so you're gonna want to stick around for that.
Speaker 3:I mean, I can't guarantee I'll keep it.
Speaker 2:But They'll probably get thrown in the trash.
Speaker 3:But it'll be funny.
Speaker 2:At first it'll be so good, so I'll tell you what guys next time join us. We're gonna have a lot of fun with this and from the WWV. Stay weird, keep it weird, stay weird and watch with your weird, be weird, watch with your ears.
Speaker 3:I we hope.
Speaker 2:Thanks everybody, have a great week and happy holidays. It's almost the Christmas season and for the shoppers out there that haven't done any shopping yet, you're running out of time. Alright, guys, we have an extra long episode coming up for you next week, so stay tuned and, yeah, keep it weird. Thank you everybody for listening. It means the world and if you want to join our Facebook community, find us on Facebook or message us at weird world variety with Matt and Jesse, or you can find us on Instagram.
Speaker 2:Instagram is a good place to message us and, yeah, we'd love to talk to you guys. Share your favorite shows, cops, stories. If you have a story for us to research, send it to us please. We would love to find out more about it From the strange and wonderful place of the devil. So thank you, everybody.
Speaker 3:Yeah. You.