Christmas Podcasts Aplenty

[EDIT: Brian of the wonderful Christmas Past Podcast has a much more thorough list at his site here. I’ll probably just defer to him instead of trying to keep this updated. But…if you want to just start with the ones I’ve actually listened to, maybe I’ll make this list more…editorial. 😉 ]

Covid quarantine turned a ton of people to podcasting, and that makes sense because it’s a way to connect with people. And our little Christmas niche is no exception. A couple years ago, Brian Earl of Christmas Past and Thom from Tis the Podcast started a little thing called the Christmas Podcast Network that had (iirc) all but two of the existing Christmas podcasts at the time. All told, by my count, there were 9.

Today, I count almost 40. And I figured I’d put them in one place for convenience (but also because I’ve got another deadline approaching, which means it’s time to procrastinate). Now, I have to be honest: I’m a terrible podcast listener. I don’t keep up with many, despite doing a couple of my own. I’m not up to date on most of these, especially the Hallmark ones. So don’t take the ordering as any indication of priority or suggestion.

Still, here they are:

General Christmas Grab-bag (history, stories, chat, etc.)

• Weird Christmas – Simply the best Christmas podcast available. (Tell your friends.)
• Christmas Past – Brian Earl’s excellently produced exploration of Xmas history and fiction
• Christmas Clatter – Todd’s one of the friendliest folk in this strange crew – interviews, nostalgia, all kinds of stuff
• Seasons Eatings – history and trivia of holiday foods – unique and fascinating
• Merry Little Podcast – any Christmas topic you can imagine
• Christmas Time in the City – Chris and Kris live in NYC and talk about its holiday traditions
• Cozy Christmas – the host and his daughter talk all things Christmas
• Sleigh Bells and Mistletoe – a veritable cornucopia of Christmas
• Christmas Podding – a bit like a Christmas advice show
• Merry Britsmas – traditions and media from a British perspective
• Feliz Christmas Merry Navidad – a very new one from Manny’s Puerto Rican perspective (bilingual)
• Total Christmas Podcast – movies to history to music

TV/Movie Podcasts

• Tis the Podcast – three friends discuss (and argue) about beloved Christmas movies all year long
• Christmas Creeps – long running discussion of Xmas and related movies, “R-rated” as it should be (the rest of you are wimps)
• Advent Calendar House – Mike and friends break down Xmas TV episodes in a seasonal countdown format
• Totally Rad Christmas – 80’s tv and movie discussion – I was on it (here), so it’s high quality
• 90’s Christmas Podcast – precisely that, one of the hosts is German, which adds a unique dimension
• YuleTide TV – three friends tackle the good and the bad
• Santa by the Minute – each episode breaks down just one minute of Santa Claus: the Movie – yes, that’s a real thing (and pretty cool)
• Christmas Movies Actually – all movies all the time
• Snow in Southtown – movies along with music
• Sleigh Bell Cinema – movie chat with other movie podcasters

Hallmark/Lifetime/”Romance” Movie Podcasts

• Deck the Hallmark – probably the biggest of this kind – they were on Good Morning America and have a book coming out
• Pod I Want for Christmas
• Hallmarkies
• HallMark and Jess
• Happy Hallmark Holidays
• Business Christmas: A Hallmark Christmas movie podcast
• A Very Hallmark Christmas

Music Podcasts

• Christmas Stocking – I believe the oldest consistently running Xmas podcast
• Hark! The Holiday Music Podcast – Ian and RJ rank two songs each ep into “The List,” which is quite long by now
• Holly Jolly Xmasu – Scott dives deep into Japanese Xmas music – totally fascinating and guaranteed to surprise you
• Tinsel Tunes – Duane researches the history of favorite Christmas tunes for us
• Jingle Jank – each ep has a different theme of unusual Christmas music
• Celtic Christmas Podcast – it is indeed

Dramatic/Comedy Podcasts

• Can’t Wait for Christmas – Tim Babb’s feature collection of skits, stories, and all manner of fun stuff (Tim probably works harder than the rest of us combined)
• North Pole Podcast – a radio station for Santa’s elves at the north pole (updated irregularly)

Meta

• The Christmas Podcasts Podcast – Sean listens to all these other podcasts so you don’t have to! heh heh

I could be cruel and start a betting pool of how many of the new ones last the year, but (fine!) I’ll be human and wish them all the best. Plus, I’ve gotten to know some of these folk, and they’re all great people…just a little scary. I mean what kind of person spends this much time thinking about Christmas? Freaks.

If I missed one (or, hey, if you start one) let me know: weirdxmas@gmail.com