Christmas Creeps

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

This week we return to world of Jim Henson with the 1992 holiday classic The Muppet Christmas Carol! You know how this story goes: Ebenezer Scrooge is a miserly old turd who only loves his money. Three spirits show him the error of his ways, yadda yadda yadda Christmas is saved!

But the Muppets put their own unique spin on this tale, with some help from Jaws: The Revenge star Michael Caine! Is it enough to overcome what an often dark and tragic story A Christmas Carol can be? Or do the Muppets take things too far in the sillier direction? Join us as we answer these questions 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!

Happy New Year to one and all, and welcome to Season 8 of Christmas Creeps!

We kick off the new year with the little-seen 1987 animated Christmas special Christmas Every Day. Based on an 1892 short story by William Dean Howells, this cartoon seeks to answer the question: What would happen if we celebrated Christmas every single day?

Not only does the situation send one family into crisis, but it also puts a huge strain on the global supply chain, and sends this very podcast into an existential spiral from which we only barely manage to recover!

Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel!

Last week we pit the original Home Alone against its 2021 remake. Of course the remake didn't hold a candle to the original, but there is still a bit of unfinished business we need to discuss.

On this podcast, we attempt to rank all of the traps from both films. First we rank all the traps in the original Home Alone. Then we do the same for Home Sweet Home Alone. How does the iron to Marv's face stack up against the blowtorch to Harry's head? A billiards ball to the face vs a barrage of thumb tacks to the face; which is worse?

This episode attempts to answer these questions, 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: “Christmas All Alone” by Candlegravity

Merry Christmas to one and all! We don't usually pit two films against one another, but since it is Christmas we thought we'd give you fine listeners a little holiday treat.

Home Alone is one of our generation's unassailable holiday classics. We've covered a number of its sequels on the show before, but tonight we're finally digging into the 1990 original. But because one Home Alone simply isn't enough, we're also doing a deep dive into the newest entry in the series, Home Sweet Home Alone, just released on Disney+.

What makes the original a modern classic while the remake struggles to even find its footing? How many of the traps would a human being reasonably fall for? What on earth do you even use a male-to-male extension cord for, anyway? Join us as we answer these questions 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!

This week we discuss the nostalgia-fueled Nintendo frenzy of the film 8-Bit Christmas! Inspired in part by A Christmas Story, the film tells the tale of young Jake, a kid like any other in 1988 who just wanted a Nintendo Entertainment System for Christmas.

As you can imagine, this week's podcast is going to be wall-to-wall Video Game Chat. We understand if that might not be your cup of tea, but as three fans of video games ourselves, we each have firsthand experience with being a kid in the thrall of Nintendo's 8-bit charms. This could not be any more For Us if it tried. And yet, this is a film very much NOT For Us. Go figure.

Anyway, we'll dig into why this film's sense of nostalgia may be a bit askew, and why the most prominent NES game featured is, of all things, "Rampage". Buckle up, because it's about to get nerdy. Good luck, have fun!

Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Or rather, Happy T-Hanksgiving!

This week we dig deep into the Tom Hanks-filled 2004 animated feature The Polar Express, which somehow manages to turn Chris Van Allsburg's 32-page book into a feature-length adventure full of magical train-hopping hobos, swing-dancing elves, and one kid's quest to continue believing in Santa at all costs.

Our discussion takes some wild turns, from musing on the film's intended audience, to The Polar Express's influence on later animated features and video games (more than you'd think!), to postulating the existence of a Santa Claus multiverse. So hold onto your tickets and hop aboard, because this train's about to leave the station!

Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel!

On this week's episode, we attempt to explain the weirdo madness of the 1985 Rankin/Bass special The Life & Adventures of Santa Claus! Based on a story by "Wizard of Oz" author L. Frank Baum, this special features a council of immortal wood nymphs, an army of invisible trolls, and an elf that may or may not have inspired a character from The Legend of Zelda. Oh, and somewhere in all that there's the origin story of Santa Claus.

Also in this week's show, we take some time to sample a few new holiday libations, break down what it means to be a Christmas movie, and share our pitches for The Christmas Chronicles 3!

Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel!

We conclude Home For The Horrordays with James Wan's The Conjuring 2! Set against the chilly backdrop of Christmas, Conjuring 2 is based on the Enfield Poltergeist, a true haunting case from the late 1970s in which a ghost supposedly haunted a single mother and her four children living in the north of London.

And joining us this week is our old pal Dr. Nick! Last heard on our Black Christmas episode, Nick returns to help us break down all the spooks, scares and general quackery going on here. Also this week, we taste test some disgusting holiday candy, Johnny-5 slams a Four Loko and, well... You can guess where things go from there...

Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel!

The days are getting shorter... A chill is in the air... The smell of candy corn lingers... That can only mean one thing: It's time for HOME FOR THE HORRORDAYS!

For this year's spookytimes, we're spotlighting a pair of holiday horror sequels. On this episode, our pal Stuart joins us to bear witness to the wanton police brutality of Maniac Cop 2! They thought they killed the zombie cop the first time around, but now he's back and he's making some new friends...

Obviously, the idea of a maniac cop hits differently than it did in 1990. But that doesn't mean the film isn't without its pleasures. For one thing, there are some truly spectacular car chases and shootouts. Action hounds will be right at home here...

Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel!

This week Bradford brings us an episode of the Viceland comedy series "Nirvanna The Band The Show". The episode, titled "The Bean", follows its stars' attempt to sneak a float into the Toronto Christmas parade as a means of promoting their rock band that may or may not actually exist.

Christmas gags abound on this episode, including a surprisingly detailed homage to the finer points of Home Alone, and The Usual Suspects (for some reason). Meanwhile, our hosts reminisce about their own experiences with Christmas parades, holiday TV, 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!

Let's try that whole Dog Days of Summer thing again, huh? Santa Stole Our Dog! absolutely has a dog in it, and this time it might even be important to the plot! Why on earth would Santa steal someone's dog, anyway? Well friends, this is not the first time a little critter has followed Ed Asner home...

And in order the tell the full story of Santa Stole Our Dog!, we receive a transmission from our sister podcast, The O/S/T Party, to suss out how the film managed to secure music from Dolly Parton. That ain't even the half of what makes this week's film so bizarre, so grab yourselves a cold one, buckle up, and join us on another wild ride to the North Pole...

Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com! Join us on our Discord channel!

Welcome, dear listeners, to the Dog Days of Summer! The season is winding down, but it's hotter than ever out there, so what better time to stay indoors with a cool holiday treat featuring some cute little puppers? Well there's a problem...

This week's film, 12 Christmas Wishes for My Dog, was sold to us as exactly the kind of holiday/dog shenanigans we usually watch this time of year. Instead, this film features dogs for roughly sixty seconds before ditching them for a story even the Hallmark Channel would call ridiculous.

Also in this episode: the boys bag on J5 for drinking trash, the movie completely destroys Bradford's ability to do basic math, and we make more Butterfly Effect and Matrix references than any one Christmas podcast should make in an episode.

Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com!

Happy Christmas in July, superfriends! You didn't think we'd be doing one, but guess what? We're doing one! And wow is this one a doozy...

A Karate Christmas Miracle is one of those movies that defies explanation. A kid sets out to teach himself enough karate to reach black belt by Christmas in order for his missing father to come home after a yearlong absence. Why is he missing? Who is responsible? Why is the kid having psychic phone calls to The Karate Kid's Martin Kove? All of these are questions we asked ourselves while watching this baffling freight train to Nightmare City.

Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com!

Welcome back, friends! We're officially halfway to Christmas, so we figured what better way to round the corner on 2021 than with some toasty, heartwarming Muppet goodness!

A Muppet Family Christmas first aired in 1987 with a whole host of musical numbers, and due to copyright issues the special has appeared in a truncated form ever since. Unless you know where to look online... We dug up an original broadcast on YouTube, and that's what we're discussing today! So join us for a trip down memory lane as we discuss A Muppet Family Christmas, commercials and all!

Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com!

And now, we bring you the thrilling conclusion to the Let It Snow trilogy! This week's film is a romantic comedy from the late 90s, when indie cinema was all the rage and bucking Hollywood trends was a surefire way to get yourself noticed! That's a fancy way of saying this movie doesn't know what the hell its doing.

James and Sarah meet on a snow day in high school. His family is unlucky in love; she has too many quirks for her own good. Neither person comes across as especially dateable, but nevertheless a romance ensues. The will they/won't they dynamic flies off the rails almost immediately, leading to a series of extremely poor decisions for everyone involved. But it's okay, because people do stupid things for love, right? RIIIIIIGHT?????

Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com!

Memorial Day has come and gone! Summer is unofficially here! It's freakin' hot outside!

Since we're all sweating our butts off, we decided one good Let It Snow deserved another. That's right, this week we're discussing another film titled Let It Snow. This one is a horror film out of Ukraine, about a pair of dumb American tourists who find themselves stranded on a ski slope with a madman on a snowmobile hot on their trail. You know how these things go...

Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com!

We're finally back in the saddle this week with a Christmas movie that made all of us feel extremely old. It's the Netflix original film Let It Snow, which follows three sets of teens on Christmas Eve, each in search of love in one form or another. Naturally, all of these stories converge, and we have a real Love, Actually situation on our hands.

This one actually turns out to be a pretty open and shut case for us. It is exactly the film that you think it is, but that doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing. So hop on in and join us as we beg for some snow!

Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com!

Last year, in the middle of COVID lockdown, Joe and Bradford got good and drunk one night and recorded three episodes of a brand new podcast all about The Adventures of Pete & Pete. What you're about to hear is the first episode, in which we discuss Season 1, Episode 1: "King of the Road".

Topics of discussion include: Our own adventures at the Hoover Dam, our first encounters with the internet, the storied career of Toby Huss, Wellsville and the End of History, and whether or not we would return to the 90s if given the opportunity.

Enjoy this episode? Wanna hear more? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsLet us know what you think!

This week we remember the late, great Christopher Plummer with a look at the 1978 heist thriller The Silent Partner. Plummer plays a bank robber disguised as a mall Santa; Elliot Gould plays the bank teller who sees him coming and pulls a heist of his own. The cat and mouse game that ensues is as chilling as it is entertaining.

Also in this episode, we try to figure out why kids in this movie sing "Away in a Manger" wrong, ponder how to spend $48000 in the most boring white bread ways imaginable, and come to terms with the fact that both Gould and Plummer were undeniable smokeshows in their day. 

Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com!

Kurt Russell is back as everyone's favorite Santa for another wacky holiday adventure! It's Christmas Chronicles 2, a film that opens up the world of Santa and the North Pole, but in the process squanders practically everything that made the first film so charming. 

Also in this episode, we get into the proliferation of the dead parent trope, the further retreading of Chris Columbus' filmography, and the inevitable Christmas Chronicles/Fast & Furious crossover we all know is coming. We then attempt to completely rewrite this series, because we're desperate for fun around here...

Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com!

Happy New Year, everyone! We're back in the saddle after a long winter's nap, and after this week's episode we may be rethinking that...

This week we unravel the baffling existence of Rapsittie Street Kids: Believe in Santa! This computer-animated special aired in 2002 on the now-defunct WB channel. It was lost to history for years until internet sleuths dug it up and rescued it from obscurity. Rapsittie Street Kids tests the limits of what can rightly be called animation. With real Hollywood voice talent and a handful of musical numbers, there's no denying the effort, but...well, you have to see it to believe it!

Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com!

Merry Christmas to one and all! The big day is finally here!

This time every year, we like to celebrate July At Christmas with an obnoxiously patriotic action film! This year, we're dipping back into one of our favorite series with Live Free or Die Hard! It's a Die Hard! It's a 4th of July movie! It's got everything!

Okay, so maybe that last part isn't true. It's fun enough for a Die Hard movie, but this episode also gives us a chance to discuss a handful of other topics, including Christmas movie titles from around the world, the state of the internet in 2007, and how on earth a bunch of super-nerds never noticed giant C-4 bricks in their fancy Alienware computers...

Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com!

The twinkling of tiny LED Christmas lights can only mean one thing: The holiday season is officially upon us. That means home cooked meals and dysfunctional family visits and traumatic memories suppressed with copious amounts of egg nog. With that in mind, this week's episode is about all of those things! On this episode we're talking about the 2004 holiday stinker Surviving Christmas.

Ben Affleck is back as a miserable ad executive who pays the family living in his childhood home a large sum of money to pretend to be his family for Christmas. He desperately mugs his way through 90 minutes of tired Christmas jokes hoping that at least one person out there will laugh. By the end of it all we find ourselves reminiscing about old episodes of Doug and wishing Ben Affleck had played ALF. Literally anything to stave off the the boredom of having to talk about Surviving Christmas.

Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com!

Welcome to our fourth annual Shane Black Friday, celebrating the works of writer/director Shane Black! On this year's edition, our pal Libby Cudmore returns to help us figure out why the hell we decided to watch the 1991 Bruce Willis/Damon Wayans actionfest The Last Boy Scout.

Buckle up, because this episode is absolute chaos. The Last Boy Scout has almost nothing to do with Christmas. We discuss the inclusion of "Satan Claus", and whether or not "family" is enough of a case to call this thing Christmasy. We also inflict some truly gross holiday foods upon ourselves, so hopefully the Christmas spirit is alive and well in one of us at the end of this ordeal.

Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com!

This week we're joined by filmmakers Jake Horowitz and Andy Lewis to discuss the Rankin/Bass animated classic Frosty The Snowman!

Jake and Andy are the co-writers (and Jake the director) of the new holiday comedy Cup of Cheer! If you're a fan of the cozy, familiar Christmas movies that flood cable TV every holiday season, or even if you're not, then Cup of Cheer will be right up your alley. It's a big, goofy parody of the genre in the tradition of Airplane!, only with loads more Christmas trees and snow and awkward small-town romance.

On this episode we sit down with Jake and Andy to discuss the inspiration for their film, as well as some of their childhood favorites. This leads into a discussion of Frosty The Snowman and its place in the greater Rankin/Bass Cinematic Universe! Cup of Cheer is now available to stream on Tubi!

Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com!

Home for the Horrordays continues! Released in 1980, Christmas Evil was sold to cash in on the success of Halloween and Friday the 13th. While it bears many of the hallmarks of a typical 80s slasher film, what sets this one apart is how deeply we come to understand its main character, Harry. He's a disturbed individual, and we watch as he makes preparations to become his town's Santa Claus, delivering toys to good children, and dishing out pain to the naughty. And as we find out in this week's episode, it works more often than it doesn't!

Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com!

Welcome to October, the season of falling leaves, pumpkin spiced everything and also a little thing called HOME FOR THE HORRORDAYS!

We're kicking things off with Santa's Slay! This film is notorious for it's opening scene, in which a whole host of C-list celebrities get brutally murdered. The rest of Santa's Slay follows Bill Goldberg's Santa as he terrorizes a small town and the two wayward teens tasked with ending his reign of terror once and for all. Or at least until midnight on Christmas Day. It's completely arbitrary and none of the rules actually matter, but as we discover, the film is 100% aware of this.

Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com!

Happy Fall to one and all! Just as we bid farewell to another summer, so too must we leave behind the works of Tim Allen. On this episode, we round out the Santa Clause trilogy with a discussion of The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause.

Join us as we ponder the hard questions of the Santa Clause universe: How strictly must one abide by the rules of the Clause? Does this film's version of time travel make any sense at all? What is up with all the gender reveal parties? Oh yeah, and what the hell happened to Bernard??? Anyway, this film raises far more questions than it could ever possibly answer, and on top of everything else we've got Martin Short running around as the living embodiment of 2020. So that's great.

Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com!

Three years ago, we recorded an episode on The Santa Clause 2, and then immediately lost it the sands of time. This week we decided it was finally time to finish what we started. Santa Clause 2 is the definition of inessential, but is startlingly prescient in the way it depicts the rise of a fascist regime, and also how a fading 90s star can cling to fame with a vice grip well into the 2000s.

Also in this episode, we compare this film to another early-2000s blockbuster sequel, and Bradford discovers the worst Etsy listing on the entire internet. All in a day's work for Christmas Creeps!

Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com!

On this episode, we spotlight a film we've been trying to get our hands on for a couple years now. It's 36:15 Code Pere Noel, also known as Dial Code Santa Claus, or Deadly Games depending on where you find it. There is a case to be made that John Hughes stole many of his ideas for Home Alone from this film. Even if the similarities are just coincidence, this is still an absolute brainmelter from start to finish.

We'll break down all the gory details, all the Home Alone similarities, and all the killer Santa motifs right here. We also get into the Minitel computer system, The Adventures of Milo and Otis for some reason, and oh so many video game detours. Don't miss it!

Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com!

With our 100th episode behind us, it's time to get back to business. This week's show is all about Puppy Star Christmas. Not only is this part four in the Pup Star series, but it's also the eighteenth installment in the inexplicably extant Air Bud franchise. And if that's not enough, this is specifically a spin-off of the original Santa Buddies. If none of that makes any sense, don't worry, we'll lay it all out for you.

But because this film almost willfully ignores its own plot, we're forced to discuss everything from the superiority of foreign potato chip flavors, to whether or not the TV show CHiPS had any Christmas episodes, to the short history of people squatting on web domains for large corporations. It's a living.

Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com!

Happy 100 episodes, everybody! We finally made it!

To celebrate, we're pulling out one of the Big Guns and dedicating an entire episode to the 2003 Will Ferrell comedy ELF! You know the story: Buddy is a human raised by Santa's elves, who journeys to New York City to meet his biological father and hopefully rescue him from Santa's naughty list.

Within that framework is a whole lot for us to explore, and in this episode we attempt to discuss it all. Everything from the forever problematic "Baby It's Cold Outside", to the lasting impact of director Jon Favreau, to the existence of the very bizarre Elf Game Boy game. And we even take some time out to answer a few listener questions! So buckle up, because this episode goes all over the map!

Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com!

Episode 100 is just around the corner, and the only thing standing in our way is one final Christmas Shoes film. Join us this week as we endure The Christmas Hope, part three in a trilogy that, believe it or not, actually has some semblance of continuity.

Sure, the kid from the original film is all grown up now, and played by Sharknado's Ian Ziering instead of Neil Patrick Harris. Sure, the titular shoes don't actually appear in this film, replaced with a mystery box that even JJ Abrams would laugh at. And sure, we may be expecting too much out of a series that relies on manufacturing tragedies harder than Final Destination. But it's time to put this series to bed once and for all.

Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com!

Five years ago we forced ourselves to watch and discuss The Christmas Shoes. Y'know, the TV movie based on the book based on the song based on an email chain about a little boy who buys his mom a pair of shoes right before she dies? It was brutal stuff, and when we learned there were sequels, we decided we weren't nearly desperate or drunk enough to even think about touching those.

Well today is that day! On this week's episode, we're discussing The Christmas Blessing, the 2005 sequel to Christmas Shoes. Neil Patrick Harris stars as the kid from the original all grown up. 20 years later he returns to his hometown to find himself, finds love along the way, but wouldn't ya know it? The shoes reappear and the specter of death returns! It's a whirlwind of pain, grief and anger. And the movie is pretty rough too.

Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com!

It feels good to be back in the saddle talking about Christmas movies! This week we're talking about the 2018 adaptation of Dr. Seuss' "How The Grinch Stole Christmas," simply titled The Grinch. Produced by Illumination Studios (the house that Minions built), this film currently holds the title of Highest Grossing Christmas Film Ever. Home Alone held that title for 28 years until the right cartoon came out at the right time of year...

But that doesn't mean there isn't plenty to discuss! In this episode we compare this film to the 2000 live-action abomination, question the need for licensing so many Christmas songs for five seconds apiece, and ponder the need to cast Benedict Cumberbatch to voice The Grinch. Come join us!

Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com!

On this episode, we're discussing Animal Crossing: New Horizons. The whole gang has gathered on Jonathan & Karen's island to chat about island infrastructure, quirky animal neighbors, the fact that everyone hated Bunny Day, the creeping terror of tarantulas, and more! (That's right, it's a whole hour dedicated to video game chat. Sorry not sorry.)

Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com!

As the quarantine continues, so too does our mission to keep ourselves sane! Once again, Joe & Bradford bring you some fun home cuisine tips. Last week we discussed how to make your own cold brew coffee. This week, Bradford details how to make your own bread at home!

If you have any suggestions or requests for how-to guides from us weirdos, feel free to shoot those over to us, and we'll see what we can do! We're here to entertain, and we've got nothing but time on our hands...

Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com!

This week we're taking a break to discuss something a little closer to home. If you're anything like us, you're trying to limit your retail interactions to the barest of necessities. That sometimes means cutting out your morning coffee runs. I know, I hate it too. But these are strange times and it's for the greater good.

Anywho, on this week's episode, Bradford returns from podcast paternity leave to teach Joe the ins and outs of making your own cold brew coffee at home! So pour yourself a cup and come join us for Coffee Creeps!

Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com!

With everyone on lockdown right now thanks to COVID-19, we decided to stretch outside our comfort zone a bit and discuss a movie more relevant to current events. Crossing a couple of the obvious ones off the list, we finally landed on George A. Romero's 1973 cult classic THE CRAZIES!

Can our plucky band of survivors escape a town overrun by a deadly virus and also faceless military goons? Can top scientists create a vaccine before the president decides to nuke the entire town? Could there possibly have been a more stressful film for us to watch right now???

Questions/Comments? Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com!

Winter has finally arrived in our little pocket of the world, friends, and so on this episode we dive into the Rankin/Bass tale of Jack Frost! There are many Jack Frosts in the world, and this is the only one that features steampunk horses, climate-induced poverty, and a knight of King Arthur's Round Table who has a summer cottage somewhere on the Eurasian Steppe.

This is a very...strange cartoon. So strange, in fact, that Jack Frost clearly wasn't cool enough to carry this thing on his own, so they introduced a groundhog voiced by Buddy Hackett. That's right! Star of Disney's The Love Bug Buddy Hackett!! Wow!

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It's February, and by now you've probably accumulated a fair number of Christmas cards that you've either stashed or trashed. And that's what we want to talk about today, with "The Pick", the first of Seinfeld's two holiday episodes. "The Pick" finds Elaine agonizing over a Christmas card that features some unfortunate nudity, among other subplots that have little-to-nothing at all to do with Christmas. 

...Listen, we really just wanted to talk about Seinfeld this week, alright? Also this episode eventually veers into King of the Hill chat, and the subject of Hank Hill's plumbing. You've been warned. Anywho, we'll be back with a regular episode before you know it!

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Welcome to season six of Christmas Creeps! 

Niall Flanagan and Dwayne Moloney, cohosts of the Secret of the Sailor Madness podcast, join us once again to discuss the handmade charms of the Netflix original film Klaus! The film tells the story of Jesper, a young postal worker sent to the farthest reaches of Scandinavia. With the help of a reclusive toymaker named Klaus, Jesper accidentally gives birth to the Yuletide legend of Santa Claus. The film was even nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, so consider this our 2020 Oscar Special!

So sit back, grab yourself one of those leftover Christmas beers, and join us as we break down Klaus!

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Merry Christmas! It's time once again for our annual "July at Christmas" episode, where we take a break from Christmas to discuss something equally near and dear to our hearts: Obnoxious jingoism! Also video games! Inspired by our discussion of Four Christmases, this year we turn our attention to one of our favorite sports documentaries.

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters isn't just a film about competitive Donkey Kong. It examines what drives and obsesses men to lie, cheat and con their way to victory. Billy Mitchell can cling to a high score for twenty years through sheer cult of personality, but what happens when Steve Wiebe, a legitimate contender, emerges to challenge his record? How far will one clique go to keep potential newcomers away? And how can such an attitude rot a community from the inside out? Join us as we discuss these questions and more!

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Happy December to one and all! This week, we present to you a Stocking Stuffer we recorded back in August. J5 went digging around the Lost Media Wiki and turned up Cranberry Christmas! Sponsored and produced by the Ocean Spray cranberry juice company, this animated special features songs and narration from the one and only Barry Manilow! To our knowledge it has aired only once, and as this podcast bears out, there is probably a very good reason why. Enjoy!

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This week, the Creeps race across the country with college freshman/sociopath Jonathan Taylor Thomas in the 1998 Disney romp I'll Be Home For Christmas, another holiday road trip where nobody learns anything!

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It's Labor Day, which means we've rounded the corner and officially entered the season of actual Christmas Creep. And what better way to celebrate the unofficial start of fall than with a cozy little film about hillbilly otters and their hootjug holiday?

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This week, guest Drew Meyer drops by to force-feed us a big steaming bowl of Grumpy Cat's Worst Christmas Ever, a Lifetime Original Movie tailor-made for shilling Grumpy Cat merch to all you hapless holiday shoppers. Mreow.

Questions/Comments?Email us at XmasCreeps@gmail.comTweet us @ChristmasCreepsVisit us on the web at ChristmasCreeps.com!

This week, the Creeps attempt to wrestle some sense out of Peewee Herman's 1988 Christmas special, resulting in one of our least coherent episodes to date. I'm sorry, Santa. If you think this episode is really some dumb bad nonsense, why not email us and tell Johnny 5 all about it?

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This week we're embarking on a ridiculous mission to watch the entire Home Alone series backwards, starting with 2013's made-for-TV Home Alone 5: The Holiday Heist. A kid who's not Kevin McCallister defends a home that's not in Chicago, IL from burglars (and Malcolm McDowell) who aren't trying to steal everything in the house. It goes about as well as you'd expect.

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On this week's episode, the Creeps take a rocketship to the dopiest sci-fi Christmas movie ever made: Santa Claus Conquers the Martians! Not gonna lie, this episode starts running out of steam once we realize there really isn't a whole lot worth discussing about this movie. It's that transparent and terrible. But the conversation careens into some weird topics, so gird your loins and stick it out! No, not like that, you weirdos!

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This week, the Creeps discuss the Christmas movie that set the template for all other movies in which a complete idiot rescues a holiday from the clutches of despair. That's right, Ernest saved Christmas before it was cool. Deal with it.

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It's Birthday Boy's Choice this week as we celebrate Johnny-5's birthday by watching and discussing the granddaddy of all holiday heist movies starring Bruce Willis. That's right, we're watching Hudson Hawk, but for some reason the conversation immediately reverted back to Die Hard. Go figure.

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A special guest drops by for this week's episode, in which we honor the memory of Robin Williams by watching and discussing one of his last feature films: A Merry Friggin' Christmas. Hold on tight, folks, it's about to get real up in this 'cast.

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It had to happen sooner or later. This week, the Creeps tangle with the most notoriously terrible holiday program ever made: The Star Wars Holiday Special. 

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This week, the Creeps dive head-first into The Asylum with a remake of Home Alone starring a talking dog and Kevin Sorbo, fittingly titled "Bone Alone". Great. Cool. We love it. Merry Christmas ya filthy animals.

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This week, the gang takes the polar plunge into the icy waters beneath Gotham City. That's right, we're talking about Tim Burton's 1992 holiday classic summer blockbuster Batman Returns.

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To take the edge off the cloying feelgoodery of Christmas Shoes, this week we're talking about Danny Boyle's Millions, a film that also features a precocious kid, dead parents, God, Jesus, Christmas, and all the pizza money can buy.

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This week we dig way down to the bottom of the barrel and find a filthy pair of Christmas Shoes. Yup, that's right. We actually made ourselves watch the Rob Lowwe-starring, made-for-CBS TV movie based on the most feel-bad holiday song of all time: CHRISTMAS SHOES.

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