2024 Weird Christmas Flash Fiction Contest Winners:

Weird Card Winner: “The Study of Owls and the Christmas Contronyms” by Daniel Roop

Unreal Holiday Celebration Winner: “The Mycelial Muffinheads’ Annual Pilgrimage to the Cave of Forget-Me-Nothings” by C.L. Sidell

Stocking Stuffer Winner: “All Eves for the Yule” by A.S. Hahrwort

All the stories: (in no special order other than appearance on the show):

• “Nativity” by John Nicol
• “The Sadly Beautiful Life Cycle of the Mrs. Claus” by Nicoletta Giuseffi
• “Rudolpha” by Nicholas De Marino
• “Countdown to Christmas” by John Wolf
• “Keepers of the Fruitcake” by Carla Rudy
• “Liturgy for the Feast Among the Gastroliths” by Cardigan Broadmoor
• “O Unholy Night” by Matthew Reyes
• “Northern Romance” by Reva Sherrard
• “St. O’Clause” by Lancelot Schaubert
• “Advent” by Ben Daggers
• “There Was Only Ever One Delivery” by Brian B. Humby
• “Santa Hooks Up a Sabbatical” by Paul Lewthwaite
• “Canary” by Stephanie Kelly
• “Growing Season of the Giver” by J. Rohr
• “Lightsgiving” by Greg Clumpner
• “Niklaus” by Rosa Meronek
• “The Study of Owls and the Christmas Contranyms” by Daniel Roop
• “The Mythical Muffinheads’ Annual Pilgrimage to the Cave of Forget-Me-Nothings” by C.L. Sidell
• “All Eves for the Yule” by A.S. Hahrwort

Please help support the contest, the podcast, and Weird Christmas website by donating/gifting any and all amounts at Ko-Fi.com (click here). The money from the prizes is all from donations. And the more donations I get, the more I can give to the contestants. My long term goal is to make every story count as a professional sale by most writing organization’s standards. You can also donate any amount through PayPal by giving to [email protected].

A big thank you to both volunteer readers this season: Dustin Pari (@dustinpari, who is always so wonderfully generous and optimistic and inspiring), and my friend Joel who wants nothing more to do with this whole thing.

Usual opening: “O Holy Night” by Tiny Tim, “Christmas Doesn’t Last” by Make Like Monkeys, “Santa Claus Boogie” by Hasil Adkins, “Space Age Santa” by Ross Christman

Special opening: “Christmas-Procrastination Blues” by Tom DeMasters.

Bumper music (ripped straight from YouTube): by Myuu (for the dark piano) and a host of wonderful theramin artists.

Contest results from previous years: 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018.

Please see WeirdChristmas.com for text and info on all the stories and writers.

Craig talks with the ever knowledgeable and jolly Benito Cereno about Scandinavian elves, which you're starting to see more and more places in decorations and movies. All links mentioned on the show, along with info on Benito, can be found at WeirdChristmas.com at this link:

https://weirdchristmas.com/2023/12/23/nisser-and-tomtar-scandinavian-elves-with-benito-cereno/

If you’re feeling generous, you can leave a donation at Ko-Fi.com. It’s probably Christmas-time (ish) when you’re reading this, so remember the spirit of the season is giving. And I’m trying not to turn on the guilt machine, but I would like to pay my hosting fees. heh heh

Or PLEASE LEAVE A WEIRD REVIEW ON APPLE PODCASTS OR YOUR FAVORITE PODCAST APP! Send me a note that you did ([email protected]), and I’ll send you a sticker!

The best show of the year: 19 stories of Christmas Weirdness from the annual Weird Christmas Flash Fiction Contest. Please visit WeirdChristmas.com to get information on the authors and to read the stories again.

If you want to support the contest and help make more and bigger prizes for the writers next year, please visit Ko-Fi.com/weirdchristmas to donate any amount.

I talk to Earl Fontainelle of the SHWEP (Secret History of Western Esotericism Podcast). We try to trace down any textual evidence that would connect the origins of Christmas to ancient pagan sources, namely the Mithras cult and Emperor Constantine’s Sol Invictus cult.

Listen here, on your favorite podcast app, or at the Podbean site.

The SHWEP

The SHWEP Oddcast

Music:

• "Scriaben Christmas Time is Here" by Kurt Knecht
• "Christmas is a Pagan Holiday" by Matt Potako

If you’re feeling generous, you can leave a donation at Ko-Fi.com. It’s probably Christmas-time (ish) when you’re reading this, so remember the spirit of the season is giving. And I’m trying not to turn on the guilt machine, but I would like to pay my hosting fees. heh heh

Or PLEASE LEAVE A WEIRD REVIEW ON APPLE PODCASTS OR YOUR FAVORITE PODCAST APP! Send me a note that you did ([email protected]), and I’ll send you a sticker!

Benito and I discuss the traditions surrounding the Mari Lwyd, getting into similarities with other European wassailing and hobby horse traditions.

A recording of the Mari Lwyd rhyme in action by the BBC.

Benito's Links:

• Benito’s Christmas history videos
• Benito’s writing at Gumroad
• Apocrypals podcast
• Friends ‘Till the End podcast
• Progressively Horrified

Music:

• "Here Comes the Mari Lwyd" by The Eugenes
• "Mari Lwyd" by Colorama

If you’re feeling generous, you can leave a donation at Ko-Fi.com. It’s probably Christmas-time (ish) when you’re reading this, so remember the spirit of the season is giving. And I’m trying not to turn on the guilt machine, but I would like to pay my hosting fees. heh heh

Or PLEASE LEAVE A WEIRD REVIEW ON APPLE PODCASTS OR YOUR FAVORITE PODCAST APP! Send me a note that you did ([email protected]), and I’ll send you a sticker!

SURPRISE CHRISTMAS IN JULY PODCAST!

I never quite got this show finished during the season, so my humble apologies. All is now well.

Thank you to Meghan Arcuri for talking to me about Charlotte Riddell! Her collection of Riddell’s stories will be out very soon. And here are some links to her work, which I encourage everyone to check out:

• A Little Purple Book of Sharp Wit by Charlotte Riddel, ed. Meghan Arcuri
• Arcuri’s stories:
  • “Because You’re Mine”
  • “Green with Hunger”
  • “Am I Missing the Sunlight” in Borderlands 7

• Her bio: Meghan Arcuri is a Bram Stoker Award®-nominated author. Her work can be found in various anthologies, including Borderlands 7 (Borderlands Press), Madhouse (Dark Regions Press), Chiral Mad, and Chiral Mad 3 (Written Backwards). She is currently the Vice President of the Horror Writers Association. Prior to writing, she taught high school math, having earned her B.A. from Colgate University—with a double major in mathematics and English—and her masters from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She lives with her family in New York’s Hudson Valley. Please visit her at meghanarcuri.com, facebook.com/meg.arcuri, or on Twitter (@MeghanArcuri).

Readers who were so gracious and generous with their time this year, as well as being totally patient and not complaining at all when I ghosted them:

• Tessa
• Dustin Pari
• Ileana Reyes
• Charles Gillingham
• Jenny Rowe
• Tony Dixon
• Seb
• Tim Hulsizer
• Amy
• Jessamy Thomison

Bumper music for this episode:

• Usual opening: “O Holy Night” by Tiny Tim, “Christmas Doesn’t Last” by Make Like Monkeys, “Santa Claus Boogie” by Hasil Adkins, “Space Age Santa” by Ross Christman
• Featured opening/bumper: “Bad Boy Naturally” by Make Like Monkeys
• Bumper/closing: “Christmas in July” by the Brutalligators
• Spooky piano Christmas music (as always) by Myuu.

If you’re feeling generous, check out my Patreon page here where you can get all kinds of bonuses throughout the year. You can also buy me a “coffee” ($3 gifts) at Ko-Fi.com.

Or PLEASE LEAVE A WEIRD REVIEW ON APPLE PODCASTS OR YOUR FAVORITE PODCAST APP! Send me a note that you did ([email protected]), and I’ll send you a sticker!

I chat with Thomas Ruys Smith, editor of Christmas Past: An Anthology of Seasonal Stories from Nineteenth Century America and Professor of American Literature and Culture at the University of East Anglia.

Links from the show:

• Christmas Past: An Anthology of Seasonal Stories from Nineteenth Century America [publisher] [Amazon]
• Thomas Ruys Smith's author website

Bumper music:

• Usual opening: “O Holy Night” by Tiny Tim, “Christmas Doesn’t Last” by Make Like Monkeys, “Santa Claus Boogie” by Hasil Adkins, “Space Age Santa” by Ross Christman
• Featured opening/bumper: "Christmas Past" by Holodelic
• Bumper/closing: "American Christmas" by Chris Dudley

If you’re feeling generous, check out my Patreon page here where you can get all kinds of bonuses throughout the year. You can also buy me a “coffee” ($3 gifts) at Ko-Fi.com.

Or PLEASE LEAVE A WEIRD REVIEW ON APPLE PODCASTS OR YOUR FAVORITE PODCAST APP! Send me a note that you did ([email protected]), and I’ll send you a sticker!

It’s out later than I would have preferred, but like the inevitability of New Year’s following Christmas, it is here.

To read the stories, get bio information and links on the authors, and for all other show notes, please check out WeirdChristmas.com.

Results:

• Overall Winner: “The Fight” by Elizabeth Guilt
• “Weird Cards” Category Winner: “If the Suit Fits” by Michelle Christophorou
• “There Was a Man Dwelt by a Churchyard” Category Winner: “A Churchyard Carol” by Dan Fields
• “Stocking Stuffer” Category Winner: “The Power of Presents and Spidersilk” by Daniel Ausema

Honorable Mention (in no particular order):

• “The Second Coming” — Michelle Christophorou
• “Married to Christmas” — Dustin Pari
• “The Christmas Room” — J.D. Wilson
• “Saving Cinterland” — JJ Mokrezewski
• “The Messenger” — Jens Hieber
• “A Christmas Burial” — Gary Ballard
• “Spirits of Christmas” — D.P. Blanchard
• “A lock of hair, a baby tooth, a toenail” — Eleanor Luke
• “Red Nose” — Thomas Lawrance
• “The Last Holiday” — John Wolf
• “It’s the Most Dreadful Time of the Year” — Paul Lewthwaite
• “How Santa Got Schooled” — Kate Sherrod
• “O Holey Night” — John Possidente
• “The Yew’s Embrace” — Jen Rowe
• “War’s End” — Adam Gottfried
• “Carton Holiday” — Ibiteye Overcomer
• “Christmas Spirits” — Laurie Peterson
• “Piss Pistol” — Brandon Case
• “Grandpa?” — Jonathan Saint

Please help support the contest, the podcast, and Weird Christmas website by buying a “coffee” (a gift in increments of $3) at Ko-Fi.com (click here). For even more support, please consider joining my Patreon page (click here) where for $2 or $5/month, you’ll have access to extra content and bonuses like physical postcards mailed throughout the year. With more support, I can offer more and bigger prizes for the contest next year.

A big thank you to my volunteer readers this season: my work buddy Lisa and LW Salinas (@sithwitch), both of whom stepped in at the very last second. Otherwise, almost all the authors wanted to read their own work this year, which was fun!

Bumper music:

• Usual opening: “O Holy Night” by Tiny Tim, “Christmas Doesn’t Last” by Make Like Monkeys, “Santa Claus Boogie” by Hasil Adkins, “Space Age Santa” by Ross Christman
• Special opening: “A Little Too Late for Christmas” by The Crux
• Outro: "White Christmas" by the Ventures
• Bumpers: here, here, here, here, here, lots of dark piano Christmas music and Theramin stuff.

Contest results from previous years: 2020, 2019, 2018.

Talking with Christopher Philippo, editor of Volumes 4 and 5 of the Valancourt Book of Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories.

• Chris' Goodreads site
• Valancourt Book of Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories, Volume 4 (the American stories) [Amazon]
• Valancourt Book of Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories, Volume 5 [Amazon]

Links to the poems and other goodies from the show are at WeirdChristmas.com.

If you’re feeling generous, check out my Patreon page here where you can get all kinds of bonuses throughout the year. You can also buy me a “coffee” ($3 gifts) at Ko-Fi.com.

Or PLEASE LEAVE A WEIRD REVIEW ON APPLE PODCASTS OR YOUR FAVORITE PODCAST APP! Send me a note that you did ([email protected]), and I’ll send you a sticker!

Al Ridenour is back after talking to us last year about Krampus, but this time to help unpack the lore and traditions around the Perchten, Krampus-esque goblin-ish creatures tied to both Krampus and Frau Perchta.

Links mentioned on the episode:

• Bone and Sickle Podcast
  • Ep. 80 "America and the Old, Dark Christmas"
  • Ep. 58 "The Hellish Harlequin: Phantom Hordes to Father Christmas"
  • Ep. 38 "Frau Perchta the Belly-Slitter"
  • Ep. 17 "Christmas Ghosts"
  • Ep. 15 "Saint, Devil, Sugar-Bread, & Whip: Krampus and Nicholas"
• Al Ridenour's page
• Book The Krampus and the Old, Dark Christmas by Al Ridenour (link from the publisher)

Bumper music:

• Usual opening: “O Holy Night” by Tiny Tim, “Christmas Doesn’t Last” by Make Like Monkeys, “Santa Claus Boogie” by Hasil Adkins, “Space Age Santa” by Ross Christman
• Special opening: "Kramperl, Kramperl, Besenstiel" by Die Pagger Buam
• Bumper/Closing: "Frau Perchta" by Waldtraene

If you’re feeling generous, check out my Patreon page here where you can get all kinds of bonuses throughout the year. You can also buy me a “coffee” ($3 gifts) at Ko-Fi.com.

Or PLEASE LEAVE A WEIRD REVIEW ON APPLE PODCASTS OR YOUR FAVORITE PODCAST APP! Send me a note that you did ([email protected]), and I’ll send you a sticker!