Christmas Creeps

Ani-May 2025 continues! On this episode we're discussing Mobile Suit Gundam's "War in the Pocket" OVA from 1989. It's Christmastime on the Riah space colony, and eleven-year-old Al has made friends with Special Forces pilot Bernie, who's on a secret mission to destroy the Gundam being built in the colony. The two improbably become fast friends, and along the way Al learns some hard truths about all this war business he's dreamed so much about. It's a harrowing tale, and our resident Gundam expert Dr. Nick is here to explain all of it. And I do mean alllllll of it! So crack open a cold one and get yourself some burgers. It's gonna be a wild ride! Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel! Intro/Outro: Happy Christmas, You Guys! (Simon Panrucker) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Ani-May is back once again! We're dedicating the month of May to all things anime. First up is "The Sleight Before Christmas", from the second series, released in 1977. Lupin and the gang are out to steal the last bottle of Napoleon's wine, on it's way to be delivered to the President of the United States for Christmas. In this episode, Joe and Bradford discuss expensive wines, cheap wines, the phenomenon of subs vs. dubs, and compete to see who can do the best Bill Clinton impression. Also, stay tuned for what's coming up on this year's edition of Ani-May! Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel! Intro/Outro: Happy Christmas, You Guys! (Simon Panrucker) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Christmas Eve is the worst travel day of the year, which means an airport is also the best, most dramatic setting you can get for a Christmas movie. At least, that's what this week's film will have you believe. Carry-On is the latest holiday offering from the good people at Netflix: A tense, smartly-written thriller about TSA agent Taron Egerton trying to stop mercenary terrorist Jason Bateman from detonating a chemical weapon in a crowded airport on Christmas Eve. Along the way, we get a few classic holiday needledrops, some excellent action sequences, and a chilling villain turn from Jason Bateman. Also in this episode, we discuss the possibility that Carry-On may be the true ending to Arrested Development, the phenomenon of "Whamageddon," and the state of Netflix's original film slate. Check it out! Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel! Intro: Happy Christmas, You Guys! (Simon Panrucker) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 Outro: Carry On (fun.)

Our 2025 podcasting year begins in earnest with Golden Winter, an Asylum knockoff of an Air Bud spinoff about a family of golden retriever puppies who lose their mother, bring a family together, and help foil a bank robbery just in time for Christmas! Proving that there is always more and it is always worse, our descent into madness finds us discussing the films of The Asylum, pitching our own ideas for a Die Hard sequel, and questioning our own existence. You know, the usual topics for this podcast about Christmas movies! Anyway, we hope you enjoy it, and we promise a more coherent episode next time. Maybe. If you've been good. Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel! Intro/Outro: Happy Christmas, You Guys! (Simon Panrucker) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Happy New Year, Creepazoids! It's January, so you know what that means... It's time for our second annual Video Game extravaganza! The holiday season is behind us, so we're taking some time out of our winter break to discuss a few of our favorite things: video games!  Joe, Johnny-5 and Bradford countdown their five favorite video games of 2024. Also in this episode, we get into some honorable mentions, favorites from listeners in our Discord channel, and so much more! So crack open a cold one and get ready for 80+ minutes of quality video game shenanigans. Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel! Intro/Outro: Happy Christmas, You Guys! (Simon Panrucker) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

We have a tradition around here of spending our holiday break covering films other than Christmas films. So what better way to celebrate July at Christmas than with the best action movie of 1995? That's right, tonight we're discussing Die Hard with a Vengeance! You know the drill: In the next few hours, Simon is going to tell Lt. John McClane what to do. And Lt. McClane is going to do it. That's what the trailers say, at least. In truth, Hans Gruber's little brother is out for revenge against our old buddy John, who's just trying to kick a nasty hangover in the Big Apple. Along the way he teams up with Samuel L. Jackson, who wants absolutely nothing to do with him. It's great. So crack open a cold one, pull up a chair and join your holiday broskis as we chat about Die Hard, pinball machines, New York landmarks, and all the other random crap this podcast is known for! And, of course, we wish all of you a Very Happy New Year! Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel! Intro: Summer in the City (The Lovin' Spoonful) Outro: Happy Christmas, You Guys! (Simon Panrucker) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Merry Christmas, Creepazoids! This is our tenth year celebrating Christmas on this podcast. Can you believe that? This Christmas, Joe and Nikki take some time to discuss a few of the holiday movies they've watched this season. Primarily: Red One! Yes, friends. This is officially our Red One episode. But fret not! We also spend a little time discussing and rating two other new Christmas movies: The "Jack Black as Satan" comedy Dear Santa, and the surprise Netflix hit Hot Frosty. This episode is three reviews in one! It's a Christmas miracle! So crack open a cold one, pull up a chair by the fire, and enjoy some prime time holiday shenanigans. From all of us here at Christmas Creeps: We wish you a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a most excellent New Year! Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel! Intro: Parade of the Wooden Soldiers (The Crystals) Outro: Happy Christmas, You Guys! (Simon Panrucker) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Season's greetings, Creepazoids! This December we're indulging in a few of this podcasts favorite things (there's a Christmas song in there somewhere...). On this week's stocking stuffer, Joe and Johnny-5 take a look at King of the Hill's season nine Christmas episode "Ms. Wakefield". Days before Hank Hill's Christmas party, an old woman (voiced by Happy Days' Marion Ross) shows up to reminisce about her old childhood home. Things then take a turn when Hank discovers Ms. Wakefield intends to die in his house on Christmas, forcing him to become the bad guy whose only crime was not wanting death to cast a pall on his family's Christmas. Also in this episode, Joe briefly touches on a few recent Christmas movies he's watched this season, and we discuss the odd ambiance of mid-December holiday malaise. Fun! Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel! Intro/Outro: Happy Christmas, You Guys! (Simon Panrucker) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Last time, we discussed the Christmas slasher P2. This week we follow it up with a look at that film's unofficial 2023 Hindi remake, simply titled "I Love You". Same premise, same setting, there's a holiday involved (in this case Diwali)... I don't know what surprised us more: The fact that we're even covering this movie on our podcast in the first place, or the fact that we all actually kinda liked it? For our purposes, we have a fun time comparing the two movies, and seeing what elements of the original translate to a film made halfway around the world. We fully realize three white Americans are the last people who should be discussing anything related to Diwali or Indian cinema in general, so we hope you'll bear with us as we tread some new territory for Christmas Creeps! Also! Returning guest Dr. Nick delivers a late-episode derail into video game chat about the Ace Attorney games. So never let it be said that this podcast doesn't stay extremely on-brand about absolutely everything... Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel! Intro/Outro: Happy Christmas, You Guys! (Simon Panrucker) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Welcome back, spooky friends! This week, our pal Dr. Nick returns to help us discuss the 2007 slasher flick P2. It's a solid contender for Worst Movie Title Ever, but as we'll discover, the movie itself is pretty solid! It's Christmas Eve, and office worker Angela finds herself stuck in her office building with lonely security guard Thomas. Things quickly take a turn for the worst as Thomas reveals himself to be a lovelorn psycho who takes her hostage and tries to have his way with her. She escapes, and a brutal game of cat and mouse ensues. We'll dig into what makes this movie tick, how it has or hasn't aged gracefully, and the use of Christmas music as diegetic plot devices. Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel! Intro/Outro: Happy Christmas, You Guys! (Simon Panrucker) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Greetings boils and ghouls! Home For The Horrordays continues this week as we bring you a Stocking Stuffer on the Tales from the Crypt episode "And All Through the House"! Based on the 1950s horror comics of the same name, Tales from the Crypt ran for seven seasons on HBO, and featured some of the biggest names in action and horror at the time. The episode we're discussing tonight comes from Back to the Future director Robert Zemeckis! After killing her husband on Christmas Eve, murderous mom Elizabeth is besieged by a deranged serial killer dressed up as Santa Claus. She can't call the cops, because there's already a dead body in the house, so she'll just have to deal with it herself! It's a gruesome, gag-filled good time. Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel! Intro/Outro: Happy Christmas, You Guys! (Simon Panrucker) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Oh, you thought we weren't gonna cover Rare Exports? Think again, buddy. Home for the Horrordays continues as Joe and Bradford tackle the granddaddy of Finnish holiday horror. The scary folklore version of Santa Claus descends upon a farming community, killing caribou and kidnapping children, and it's up to young Pietari and his dad to find a way to save Christmas. Also in this episode, we taste test Coca-Cola flavored Oreos AND Oreo-flavored Coca-Cola in an effort to keep up with the gross gimmick food trends. Nothing but the best audio content for our lovely listeners! Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel! Intro/Outro: Happy Christmas, You Guys! (Simon Panrucker) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

We bid farewell to barbecue season as Home for the Horrordays continues! This week we're looking at Mercy Christmas, a horror/comedy about a family whose Christmas tradition is to kidnap unsuspecting victims and have them for Christmas dinner. As in eat them. Because they're cannibals. Ha ha ha! Join us as we tell the tale of Michael Briskett (yes), as he wishes for the traditional family Christmas, and gets more than he bargained for. Bradford gets angry at the family's poor cooking practices, Joe gets angry at the mountain of missed opportunities, and Johnny-5 was just angry right outta the box. Also we somehow wind up talking about Legos. Like ya do. Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel! Intro/Outro: Happy Christmas, You Guys! (Simon Panrucker) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

After a long summer off, we're back to ring in the most wonderful time of the year: Home for the Horrordays! On this episode we discuss the SyFy Channel original movie Icetastrophe, AKA Christmas Icetastrophe, AKA A Christmas Tale. No matter what you call it, this is a silly Day After Tomorrow knockoff in which a meteor crash lands in a small Washington town and flash freezes everything in sight. It's up to scientist Alex and townie Charlie Ratchet to save the town, while entrepreneur Crooge struggles to stay alive long enough to save his kids. Ratchet? Crooge? Yeah... It's one of those. The Christmas Carol connection is tenuous at best. Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel! Intro/Outro: Happy Christmas, You Guys! (Simon Panrucker) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

It's the 4th of July on this podcast, which means we're roughly halfway to Christmas! So what better way to celebrate than with the most 4th of July movie of them all: Jaws! You know Jaws. It's the granddaddy of all killer shark movies. It's Steven Spielberg's first breakout hit. It's the movie that made summer the season of blockbuster movies. And more than just being historically important, Jaws is just an all-around damn good movie. Crack open a cold Narragansett and join us as we break down everything that makes this movie tick, why it's still revered as a classic, and whether or not news of an exploding whale influenced the film's ending! Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel! Intro/Outro: Happy Christmas, You Guys! (Simon Panrucker) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Summer is upon us once again, and that means it's time for a whole bunch of action movies! And in our case, that means action movies that may or may not actually have something to do with Christmas. On this episode we're looking at the 1998 Euro-heist flick Ronin! Robert De Niro and Jean Reno speed across France in pursuit of a stolen briefcase, whose contents may or may not be a danger to world peace. Also, it's Christmas! You didn't think we'd just watch Ronin for no reason, did you? Also in this episode: Bradford discusses his recent vacation to Paris, Jonathan brings up Rugrats in Paris for some reason, and we stumble backwards into the best pitch for an Austin Powers movie ever! Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel! Intro/Outro: Happy Christmas, You Guys! (Simon Panrucker) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Happy May, friends! This week's show comes to us via listener request. Life is full of twists and turns that you never expect. For instance, we never expected to be talking about the 2017 Netflix film El Camino Christmas this week, but that's exactly what we're gonna do! El Camino Christmas finds a handful of ne'er-do-well drunks, shady cops and innocent bystanders all holed up in a liquor store on Christmas Eve. Life lessons are learned, secrets unearthed, all that good stuff. Perennial Christmas favorite Tim Allen is here to force everyone to sing Christmas carols at gunpoint, which means this is the one Christmas film that accurately captures the way this podcast feels 90% of the time... Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel! Intro/Outro: Happy Christmas, You Guys! (Simon Panrucker) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

On this episode we're talking about An All Dogs Christmas Carol! It's the series finale of the All Dogs Go To Heaven animated series, itself a sequel series to Don Bluth's original All Dogs Go To Heaven. This thing went on a whole lot longer than we would have guessed! Now guardian angel dogs living in San Francisco, Charlie and Itchy take it upon themselves to pull a "Christmas Carol" on their nemesis, Carface (voiced by Ernest Borgnine!), to show him the error of his ways. There's also something about a demon dog hatching a plan to steal Christmas presents, but it's not important. What IS important is that Joe gets hoodwinked into playing the donation game himself this week, and he does... well, the important thing is he does it. Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel! Intro/Outro: Happy Christmas, You Guys! (Simon Panrucker) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

It's that time again! The gang's all here as we take a listener request and dedicate this week's episode to Daddy's Home 2! Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg are all hunky dory as co-step-dads after the original Daddy's Home, so what better way to test that familial bond than by bringing in their own dads (John Lithgow and Mel Gibson, respectively) to help celebrate the holidays and/or completely ruin them? In this episode, we talk about all manner of weird garbage, from the weird logistics of Airbnb, to the complicated legacy of "Do They Know It's Christmas", imagining fake movies made up for this movie, the phenomenon of going to the movies on Christmas Day, and a whole lot more! Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel! Intro/Outro: Happy Christmas, You Guys! (Simon Panrucker) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

And we're back! On this episode, Nikki returns to help Joe and Bradford break down Disney's most recent holiday offering: The Naughty Nine! On Christmas morning, Andy discovers Santa did not bring him the video game console he asked for. Realizing he's been put on the naughty list, Andy enlists the help of seven kids with expert skills (and one adult who's definitely not Chris Pratt) to fly to the North Pole and steal back the Christmas gifts they rightly deserve. So it's Ocean's Eleven but with kids. Cool. Great. Also in this episode, Joe pitches his own idea for a Christmas kids movie, Bradford explains the distinction between a horse-cop and a cop-horse, and Nikki regrets ever returning to this stupid podcast. Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel! Intro/Outro: Happy Christmas, You Guys! (Simon Panrucker) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

It's been a few weeks, but we're finally wrapping up our video game extravaganza! If you haven't listened to part 1 yet, we highly recommend you give that a listen before diving into part 2. (Link's in the show notes!) In this episode, we each discuss our top two games of the year, plus some honorable mentions, and a handful of comments from our very own listeners! See? If you listened to Christmas Creeps, we might put you on the show too. Anywho, now that we've finally gotten Video Game Chat out of our systems, we can get back to the business of talking about terrible Christmas movies. Stay tuned for your regularly scheduled Christmas Creeps! Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel! Intro/Outro: Happy Christmas, You Guys! (Simon Panrucker) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Happy New Year, Creepazoids! 2024 marks our 10th year of Christmas Creeps, and to celebrate we're kicking off the year with a show we've wanted to do for a long time: Video Game Chat! This week we're taking a break from Christmas movies to talk about the best video games we've played in 2023. They don't have to be new games, just games we played in the last year. Them's the rules.  We realize this episode may not be everyone's cup of tea, but rest assured our regular programming will resume in February. For now though, please enjoy this ridiculous episode in which we all talk so much about video games that we had to break it up into two parts! (Part 2 coming next week!) Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel! Intro/Outro: Happy Christmas, You Guys! (Simon Panrucker) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Merry Christmas, Creepazoids! The big day is finally here! On this episode, Joe is joined by his fiancée Nikki to share a few of their favorite Adult Swim Christmas episodes. Nikki brings us "Dethmas", the Christmas episode of Metalocalypse, in which heavy metal band Dethklok get unwittingly roped into not only taking part in a TV Christmas special, but also into entertaining their mothers for Christmas. It's brutal. Then, Joe comes bearing the gift of Aqua Teen Hunger Force and "Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past from the Future", the single greatest episode title in television history. To all our listeners, thank you so much for making us a part of your podcast rotation. 2023 has been a bit of a rocky year for us here at Christmas Creeps, but we've still tried to bring you the most entertaining, ridiculous Christmas media podcast of them all. We couldn't do this without you. So have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and we'll see you in 2024! Intro: White Christmas (The Drifters) Outro: Happy Christmas, You Guys! (Simon Panrucker) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 Background music by Holizna

On this week's podcast, we're testing out some holiday coffees! Bradford brought us a selection of Nightmare Before Christmas-themed coffees from the good folks at Bones Coffee Company, and we're going to brew a cup of each one right before your very ears. So kick back and pour a cup of whatever ya got with Joe and Bradford as we shoot the breeze on this relaxing late-December morning. You've worked hard this month, you deserve it! Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel! Intro: The Coffee Song (Frank Sinatra) Outro: Happy Christmas, You Guys! (Simon Panrucker) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0   Background music by: Heroboard - Music for Creators  

On this episode we discuss Alexander Payne's The Holdovers, a brand new Christmas film about the people left behind while everyone else is off on their own holiday adventures. And to help us break it all down, we welcome back Johnny-5, The Human Robot! The Holdovers is all about folks dealing with the loneliness of the holiday season however they can: Drinking, watching game shows, wandering around at night, crashing Christmas parties. Y'know, general introvert behavior. But there's so much more to it than that. It's really something special. We'll dig into all that, plus the McRib being back, reminisce about our own holdover Christmases, and more! (Also, blanket spoiler warning here. We discuss it all, and recommend you see this one first. But you can do what you want, I'm not your dad.) Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel! Intro/Outro: Happy Christmas, You Guys! (Simon Panrucker) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

This month we're pushing back against the onslaught of Christmas Creep by extending spooky season in a block we're calling SHRIEKSGIVING! On this episode we look at last year's The Killing Tree, about a serial killer who gets reincarnated as a murderous Christmas tree. It is exactly as silly as you'd expect, but somehow, someway... we found this one kinda charming. Also in this episode... Bradford unexpectedly manages to connect The Killing Tree to Xenoblade Chronicles, we accidentally wade into the quagmire of the villain being right but for the wrong reasons, and the guys reminisce about burritos we've eaten. Never a dull moment around here, folks! Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel! Intro / Outro: "Carol of the Bells" by Bards Bizarre

Greetings Creepazoids! It's the day after Halloween, but that doesn't mean the scares have to stop! This week we're bringing you an episode all about the 1988 film Scrooged, starring Bill Murray as the scroogiest of TV executives and a whole host of Christmas spirits determined to show him the error of his ways. November 1st also Christmas Podcast Day! Today our fellow Christmas podcasters are all covering a different adaptation of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol", so head on over to social media and search for #ChristmasPodcastDay to join in on the fun! Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel! Intro / Outro: "Carol of the Bells" by Bards Bizarre

Season's Greetings, spooky friends! It's time once again for our favorite season here on Christmas Creeps: HOME FOR THE HORRORDAYS! Joe's fiancée Nikki joins us this week to help us break down the Cartoon Network miniseries Over The Garden Wall. It's a show about two brothers lost in a creepy, antiquated netherworld called The Unknown, and has a very unique perspective on nostalgia, history, and the changing of the seasons. It's not really Christmasy, but it's perfectly in our wheelhouse and ripe for discussion. And discuss it we do, because on this episode we go deep into the hidden meanings and history behind some of the stranger things in this cartoon. We want to ease you into things this season. You can have a little spooky. As a treat! Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel! Intro: Adelaide Parade (The Blasting Company) Outro: Happy Christmas, You Guys! (Simon Panrucker) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Well friends, we did it. This week we cross Home Alone 4 off our list, a film we've honestly been dreading for quite some time. It took us nine years, but we finally watched every Home Alone film. Home Alone 4 was meant to be a backdoor pilot for a Home Alone TV series, ultimately never picked up for a full season. And thank goodness, because this is far and away the worst thing the franchise has ever produced. With the wholly unrelated Home Alone 3 a distant memory, we return to the McCallister clan and an all-new adventure in which Wet/Sticky Bandit Marv once again tries to burgle a home occupied by young Kevin. Hijinks—if you want to call them that—ensue. We're sorry. Feel our pain. Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel! Intro/Outro: Happy Christmas, You Guys! (Simon Panrucker) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

The summer heat is oppressive. The school year is about to begin. These are the Dog Days of Summer. So of course we watched another talking dog movie! This episode Joe and Bradford experience A Doggone Christmas, a movie about a telepathic talking dog and the children he befriends as he escapes the government agents hellbent on sending him off for experiments, which isn't at all similar to a Steven Spielberg movie about a friendly space alien... Also along the way, Bradford winds up explaining more about train culture, Video Game Chat finds us discussing Pikmin 4, and somehow we wind up talking about Day of the Dolphin. Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel! Intro/Outro: Happy Christmas, You Guys! (Simon Panrucker) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

On this episode we've got Pac-Man Fever and it's driving us crazy! Just two short years after the debut of the arcade hit Pac-Man, Hanna Barbera produced a Saturday morning cartoon all about the denizens of Pac-Land. And, naturally, a Christmas episode was soon to follow! Joe and Bradford spend a good portion of this episode on video game chat, as you can imagine. But also we explain our original plans for this episode and why we had to scuttle them, as well as our nostalgia for defunct TV channels, and our own experiences with haunted hotels. And somewhere in all that we talk about how Pac-Man saves Santa! Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel! Intro/Outro: Happy Christmas, You Guys! (Simon Panrucker) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

This one's been a long time coming. On this episode we discuss a cult classic among holiday specials: Will Vinton's 1987 Claymation Christmas Celebration! And to help us break it all down is special guest Gerry Davila, host of the Totally Rad Christmas podcast! Claymation Christmas has a certain reputation in the pantheon of holiday specials. You either love it for its handcrafted stop-motion and off kilter sense of humor, or you hate it for being a half hour barrage of dad jokes. (At least, that's how my own parents think of it.) Either way, if you lived through the 80s, chances are Claymation Christmas has a special place in your heart. So grab a frosty beverage and let's get a-wassailin'! Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel! Intro/Outro: Happy Christmas, You Guys! (Simon Panrucker) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Ani-May strikes back for one last hurrah this week! Our pal Dr. Nick returns for this double-length episode to explain the myriad ins and outs of the Mobile Suit Gundam universe as we discuss the 1998 feature film Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz! Earth is about to be invaded by one of its colonies on Christmas Eve, right after the planet decided to rid itself of its protecting force of giant mech suits. Our intrepid team must retrieve the suits before they crash into the sun, and hope they're not to late to save Queen Relena and the planet (and Christmas!) before it can be conquered by pint-sized dictator Mariemaia. If none of that made any sense to you, don't worry! Nick brought charts and graphs (which can be found at christmascreeps.com) to explain everything—and I do mean EVERYTHING—you need to know. And if that's not enough, well then there's more than enough Gundam media out there to help you out. So strap yourselves in for one last blast of Ani-May madness! Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel! Intro/Outro: Happy Christmas, You Guys! (Simon Panrucker) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

And we're back! Ani-May continues with the Christmas episode of Mr. Osomatsu, which as far as this dumb American can tell is an animated sketch comedy series? Bradford referred to this one as being "no chill", but it turned out to be more this guy's speed than the previous episode. Also in this episode, Bradford gives us the skinny on the long history of this series, which dates all the way back to the 60s. Look, I can't promise any of what transpires here is going to make a whole lot of sense, but we're doing our best this week! Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel! Intro/Outro: Happy Christmas, You Guys! (Simon Panrucker) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

It's Ani-May once again, the time of year when Bradford takes the reins and forces us to watch a bunch of anime! Like moths returning to the flame, am I right? This week we look at the Christmas episode of Laid Back Camp, fittingly titled "Campmas". How do a bunch of anime girls camping at the foot of Mt. Fuji celebrate Christmas? By day-drinking and cooking good food over a campfire, of course! What more does one need out of life? Also in this episode, Joe and Bradford reminisce about their own childhood camping experiences, indulge in some video game chat, and get real hungry at the mention of s'mores... Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel! Intro/Outro: Happy Christmas, You Guys! (Simon Panrucker) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Noirch Madness continues! This week we take a look at the 1946 adaptation of Raymond Chandler's Lady in the Lake! And to help us break it down, we welcome back our resident detective fiction expert Libby Cudmore! Lady in the Lake is the first feature film to be shot and staged entirely in the first person. The posters emphasized that the film's hero, detective Philip Marlowe, is played by "Robert Montgomery and you!" It's a fascinating gimmick, for sure, but how well does it help translate the novel? And what does changing the novel's setting to Christmas have to do with anything? Those are the very questions we aim to answer this week! Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel! Intro/Outro: Happy Christmas, You Guys! (Simon Panrucker) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Film noir is a genre we've only barely scratched the surface of here on Christmas Creeps. But that ends today! This March, we're highlighting some classic film noirs that also happen to be Christmas films. And what would we call such an event? NOIR-CH MADNESS! This week Joe and Bradford discuss the 1953 film I, The Jury, the film debut of Mickey Spillane's hard-nosed detective character Mike Hammer. In this film, Hammer vows to hunt down his best friend's killer, which leads him on a wild goose chase through the snow-covered streets of New York City. Also, Joe and Brad spend a good chunk of the back end of this episode on Video Game Chat, so if you like hearing us not talk about Christmas and movies, we got ya covered! Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel! Intro/Outro: Happy Christmas, You Guys! (Simon Panrucker) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Greetings and salutations on this NINTH season of Christmas Creeps! On our inaugural episode of 2023, we take a trip to our local Redbox to catch up with VIOLENT NIGHT! What if the hero in a hard-R Die Hard riff were San/ta Claus? And not just any Santa Claus. This Santa Claus is played by Stranger Things' David Harbour! That's the gimmick at the heart of 2022's hit holiday action flick. We were dubious of this one, but each of us found ourselves won over by the sheer absurdity of it all. It's hard to go wrong with bad guys getting their just desserts. Also in this episode: Joe eats gross gummies on purpose, Twitter continues to burn itself out, and the guys try to convince themselves they're not mellowing out. Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel! Intro/Outro: Happy Christmas, You Guys! (Simon Panrucker) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Merry Christmas, Creepazoids! This Christmas Day we bring you an episode all about A Christmas Story Christmas! Yet another attempt at an ‘official' sequel to Bob Clark's holiday classic, this one finds Peter Billingsley returning as a middle-aged Ralphie, now tasked with giving his family the fabled Perfect Christmas.  Is this a brazen attempt to cash in on our nostalgia? Or is it a genuine, warm-hearted plea to…er…cash in on our nostalgia? You may be surprised to hear where we land on this one! We'll dig into the original Jean Shepard stories, the nostalgia of assorted casseroles, and a whole lot more! Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel! Intro: Christmas Is The Time To Say I Love You (Billy Squier) Outro: Happy Christmas, You Guys! (Simon Panrucker) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Home for the Horrordays enters extra innings this week as we finally tackle a little film called SANTA JAWS! You see, it's Jaws, but the shark wears a fun little Santa hat. Not surprisingly, this comes from the Syfy Channel stable of original movies, but somewhat surprisingly, this actually looks and feels like a real movie. Granted, that's not much to hang our hats on, but we'll take what we can get! Come join us as we discuss gross Mountain Dew flavors, how Santa Jaws stacks up to Regular Jaws, the shenanigans going on over at Twitter, and more! Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel! Intro / Outro: Happy Christmas, You Guys! (Simon Panrucker) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Home for the Horrordays continues with one of the more bizarre films we've ever covered: Blood Beat! A family hunting trip in the Wisconsin wilderness is interrupted by the vengeful spirit of a dead samurai, and it's up to the two psychic women of the house to stop him. Or at least, that's what we think is going on here... Blood Beat is a bunch of loosely interpreted ends in search of a movie and it's our job to twist those ends into some kind of narrative sense. We also spend some time discussing apple picking, mellowcrème candies for old people, waterbeds, the films of Jim Wynorski and James Cameron, and so much more! Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel! Intro / Outro: Carol of the Bells by Bards Bizarre

Grab your pumpkins and pour your ciders, kids, because the most wonderful time of the year is finally upon us: HOME FOR THE HORRORDAYS! Home For The Horrordays is our annual tradition of watching Christmas-themed horror flicks. There are more of them than you'd imagine, and this year we've picked some real oddballs! On this episode, we dig into the 1984 cult classic Night of the Comet! It's 11 days until Christmas and a passing comet has vaporized most of Los Angeles. Survivors Regina and Sam find themselves besieged by mutant stockboys, nefarious scientists, and zombified cops. Will they escape with their lives? Can they find a way to save Christmas? There's only one way to find out... Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel! Intro / Outro: Happy Christmas, You Guys! (Simon Panrucker) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

For years, internet sleuths have tried to identify a cartoon based on nothing but an old family Christmas photo. In an amazing turn of events, not only was the cartoon identified, but it turned out to be an obscure Christmas special titled The Christmas Gift of Light. So you know we had to watch that thing ASAP! And watch it we did. On this Stocking Stuffer, Joe and Johnny-5 break down this odd little relic, spending entirely too long looking into the IMDb profiles of most of the voice cast, pondering the cartoon's purpose, and asking the big questions like "Why did we even want to watch this in the first place?" Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel! Intro / Outro: Happy Christmas, You Guys! (Simon Panrucker) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

There's a reason we don't often go to the made-for-TV well, and it's because we fear falling into that abyss never to be seen again. But sometimes a project intrigues you so much that you can't help but gaze into it anyway. This week we discuss the 1990 made-for-TV Disney film A Mom For Christmas! Directed by George Miller—"Zeus & Roxanne" George Miller, not "Happy Feet" George Miller—this film frequently verges on becoming a weird bit of body horror involving mannequins, alive and otherwise. We weren't sure what to expect here, but we wound up talking about soup for breakfast, mannequins on film, speculation on the forthcoming Christmas Story sequel, and a whole lot more! Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel! Intro / Outro: Happy Christmas, You Guys! (Simon Panrucker) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

This edition of Stocking Stuffers is unique, in that the episode of TV we're covering is only 7 minutes long. "All Through The House" is the lone Christmas episode of Netflix's animated anthology series Love Death & Robots. It's also a perfect fit for our show's often macabre and off-kilter grasp of the holidays. But since the episode is so short, Joe and Bradford take the opportunity to discuss a wide array of subjects. Bradford's experiments with DIY salsa, Brach's latest attempt to ruin candy corn forever, and the recent news of HBO Max's impending demise. We cover a lot of ground on this episode, and we hope you're okay with that! (The actual show discussion begins at 17:00) Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel! Intro/Outro: Happy Christmas, You Guys! (Simon Panrucker) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Happy Christmas in July! On this episode, we're still knee deep in summer action season as we take a look at the Wesley Snipes/Woody Harrelson buddy cop flick Money Train! They're two cops who also happen to be brothers, or is it two brothers who also happen to be cops? Either way, it's Christmastime in the Big Apple and Charlie owes a large gambling debt to a local mobster. What's a transit cop in need of cash to do? Why rob the money train, of course! Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel! Intro: "The Loco-Motion" (Grand Funk) Outro: Happy Christmas, You Guys! (Simon Panrucker) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

We're back with more holiday action hijinks! This week, in honor of the recently departed Ray Liotta, we take a look at his 1997 airplane thriller Turbulence! It's Christmas Eve and the feds need to escort a number of criminals, including the Lonely Hearts Strangler, from New York to Los Angeles. When all hell breaks loose and every officer and pilot onboard have been killed, it's up to flight attendant Lauren Holly to fend off the killer and safely land the plane. Turbulence is more of a Christmas movie that we honestly expected. Join us as we examine all of its holiday trappings, as well as how it relates to It's A Wonderful Life, the other 1997 "criminals take over a plane" movie Con Air, basic cable programming of yesteryear, and more! Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel! Intro: "Beans & Cornbread" (Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five) Outro: Happy Christmas, You Guys! (Simon Panrucker) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

This Memorial Day, we're kicking off our Summer Holiday Movie Season! All summer long we'll be highlighting ridiculous summer action movies with a holiday bent! On this episode we're taking the modern surveillance state to task with Tony Scott's 1998 mistaken identity thriller Enemy of the State! Will Smith is on the run from the NSA, who believe he's in possession of a videotape with incriminating evidence on it. In a shocking twist, he actually does have the tape, but he's still completely innocent. And all this because the guy just wanted to buy some Christmas gifts for his wife... Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel! Intro/Outro: Happy Christmas, You Guys! (Simon Panrucker) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Our pals Niall Flanagan and Dwayne Moloney, co-hosts of the Secret of the Sailor Madness podcast, join us this week to try and make sense of Rankin/Bass' 1967 Christmas special The Cricket on the Hearth! Based on Charles Dickens' other holiday novella, Cricket plays fast and loose with its source material to make it suitable for television. Certain characters get cut out, new ones invented out of whole cloth, and no less than NINE musical numbers to fill up an hour of your valuable holiday viewing time. It's nonsensical, it's absurd, but it's pure-strain Rankin/Bass. There's certainly a charm to the madness on display here, and honestly? We wouldn't have it any other way. Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel! Intro/Outro: Happy Christmas, You Guys! (Simon Panrucker) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

When we discussed A Karate Christmas Miracle last year, we swore that we wouldn't touch its follow-up unless we had no other choice. Ladies and gentlemen, that day came far sooner than we expected. A Wrestling Christmas Miracle has the distinction of being the only Christmas movie to feature the late, great Gilbert Gottfried. Going into this, that was all we knew. Only now can we say that we have been well and truly snookered. Gottfried is only in this movie because it recycles footage from a completely different movie, one that actually does feature Gilbert Gottfried. It's all very ridiculous, and we'll do our best to explain it all on this week's episode! Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel! Intro/Outro: Happy Christmas, You Guys! (Simon Panrucker) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Please enjoy this week's Stocking Stuffer to tide you over until our next full episode. This week we're taking a look at The Norm Show, Norm Macdonald's foray into the world of late-90s sitcoms. In this episode, "Norm vs Christmas", Norm tries to show his co-workers how magical Christmas can be, with a non-denominational holiday party, a Secret Santa gift exchange, and surprise decorations at home. This inevitably ends with everyone visiting the hospital, where even more shenanigans ensue. Also on this podcast, we briefly discuss the film we originally meant to cover, Joe eats a disgusting flavor of marshmallow peeps, and Jonathan takes any opportunity to talk about Elden Ring. Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel! Intro/Outro: Happy Christmas, You Guys! (Simon Panrucker) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0