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Pod Warriors Christmas 2025
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Sheena joins the boys to drop the annual holiday episode of Pod Warriors. We talk Christmas traditions and the best toys from the 90s!
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Transcript
Introduction to Christmas Episode
00:00:01
Speaker
Baby,
00:00:09
Speaker
please
00:00:31
Speaker
Merry Christmas, Foley fam. We are back with a long overdue episode of the Pod Warriors. It's a Christmas tradition at this point. Me and Jordan recording a Christmas-based episode and we got a special guest with us tonight. Sheena, what's going on?
00:00:45
Speaker
Oh, I'm super excited to be invited to the ah Christmas episode of the Pod Warriors. You know I love holiday talk. Jordan, what's up with you, man? Not too much, man. It's been a while since we all three podcasted together. i had to make sure Seth was still on board with doing this this year because this is our third one in a row, and I'm sure we'll just keep doing it forever at this point. Oh, yeah.
00:01:06
Speaker
Facts, man. Facts.
Podcast Updates and Future Plans
00:01:07
Speaker
uh yeah i addressed it on so it's is december 18th thursday night as we're recording this uh monday there will be a new episode of our good friends tarbuckle tavern the debate with me and jordan on there we kind of addressed on there this me and she take a little bit of a break from pod and day life's just been busy man like very very busy we've been trying to really kind of just simplify stuff dude and really focus on the kids man quite frankly yeah um But we're we're still kind of kicking around exactly what the Chick-fil-A show is going to look like in 2026, dude.
00:01:37
Speaker
We're not announcing a John Cena farewell tour. like The feed's going to stay alive in some form. Got to give a shout out to Jordan, dude. Not tapping out. Jordan's been going solo, Colin Cowherd style on the goal line. Very commendable. Keeping it afloat. Doing a damn good job. Doing damn good job. If say so. It's still the best football podcast out there. Yeah. Solo podcasting is not for the week of our game. Yeah. I mean, my mom still listens, dude. I'm not on it. My mom will still text me about stuff Jordan said and stuff, dude. Every week, man. So you definitely, you got at least one hardcore fan in ah South Central ah Kentucky. Shout out to Miami. Yeah, but we'll keep you guys updated. And yeah, the Chick-fil-A show, it will be a thing next year with me, Sheena, and Jordan. We just got to figure out exactly what that's going to look like.
Favorite Christmas Songs Debate
00:02:17
Speaker
um so with that out of the way man let's let's get into some christmas do real quick kind of just a uh a table setter man before we kick it over to jordan jordan put together a badass format for us and he's gonna kind of he's gonna be the point guard for this episode but me and sheen were talking um right before we got on that was the darling love version of christmas baby please come home yeah uh she made a good point that it it's ah she likes prefers that to all i want for christmas is like the best christmas banger they're kind of similar style songs like ballads but like not like slow songs i agree it's my favorite christmas song jordan where do you stand on all i want uh for christmas is you
00:02:50
Speaker
Mariah Carey. Yeah, I'm aware who sings it. I know, just for anyone who's living under living under a rock for the last 20 years. If you live in living the Western Hemisphere, you know that song. It's true. If you walked in that if you walked in a so retail store in the last 20 years. I was going to breaks out of the ice on Halloween night at 1201. um i mean dude everybody loves that song like how can't you like i got no hate for the song yeah yeah it's it's a great song and mariah carey's awesome like dude yeah we're we're gonna talk about 90s tonight like it doesn't get much more ninety s than mariah carey yeah as much as it's become a meme like that like i i you know i'm a hardcore music fan if there's a song i like i really like breaking down like you know what made that song like so great everything and yeah like
00:03:32
Speaker
All I Want for Christmas, it really is just a pitch-perfect song, dude. That's why it's become embedded in the Christmas season.
Timeless Holiday Music
00:03:40
Speaker
What other holiday song is there that's just been a thing now? All the rest of them were from the 70s, 60s, really 50s, 40s, 30s. Jingle Bell Rock. The Mean Girls' Jingle Bell Rock had a moment where it was... you know, doing its thing. But I still feel like it's, what is it? Bobby Helms. That's still the Jingle Bell Rock that you hear, dude. You don't see the Mean Girls version coming on Pandora Christmas or anything like that. I think of NSYNC Christmas album, dude. NSYNC Christmas album was freaking money, dude. NSYNC did their thing, dude. NSYNC did their thing for sure, but
00:04:11
Speaker
Barack here's still a holder. That's just like a Christmas song. If you're putting together album of the 12 best Christmas songs ever, you're probably leading off with that. That's probably first song on there, man. Last Christmas. Oh, I love Last Christmas. Last Christmas by Wham. Yeah, that was probably the last one before this, dude. That was late mid to late Yeah, it's been a long time.
00:04:30
Speaker
Yeah, that's another good one, man. I like those, too. I got to go. But pretty much everything else from that's old stuff. You know, Darlene Love, that's 70s, dude. Freaking Elvis, Blue Christmas. You know
Real vs. Fake Christmas Trees: Traditions and Stories
00:04:40
Speaker
what I mean? yeah That's freaking 60s,
00:04:42
Speaker
Yeah, so shout out to Mark Carey. We got that of the way. um Let's kick it over to Jordy, man. take Take the wheel, dude. Jordan, take the wheel. All right. We're going start with ah Christmas traditions, and we're just going to kind of go through them. where We all do all of these, so we'll just kind of give you our discussion on them. Number one was decorating a Christmas tree. My number one thing on this is do you do a real or a fake tree, and did you do a real or a fake tree when you were a kid?
00:05:12
Speaker
I always grew up, I grew up with real trees my entire childhood. So my, yeah, my, uh, my dad was really big into just making sure we had a real tree. Uh, it was his thing. He like, like short squatty ones. You know, I always remember we had short squatty, like wild looking trees. You know, we never had that like perfect, like natural looking Christmas tree. Um, but, uh, in hindsight, it's wild to me cause I've never had a, you know, real tree and miss nature girl over here. I've never had a real tree, uh, for our family, but, um,
00:05:40
Speaker
It's serious fire hazard. It's a, it's a, it's a fire hazard. There's a lot, there's a lot of things going on there. There's a lot of like mold toxicity things. Um, I love the smell of a a tree. it. You can't beat it. du Yeah. If I had like one Christmas left, like, yeah, you got to remember to keep water in that sucker. to And you can't like, you can't get it started as early as we do. Like well i like to put my Christmas decorations up in November, like Thanksgiving weekend and stuff. And so, uh, yeah, if you do, if you do a real tree that weekend, by the time Christmas rolls around, yeah, you're dealing with a serious fire hazard. Yeah, we've always done a real tree ever since I was a kid. We still do a real tree now. The last two years, we actually went and cut down our own tree.
00:06:15
Speaker
i was going to ask you if you've ever cut down your own. yeah The last two years we did it, and it it does make the experience even better. We always get ours on Thanksgiving weekend, and I mean, our tree is still completely fine because we cut it down. like the The trees you get at the hardware stores and things like that, like those have been cut down since... I was going to say, yeah, so like yeah those do die out. But I think if you go to a Christmas tree farm and they cut it down fresh, like ours last year, we took it down. we always take it down after the epiphany on the 6th of January. And ours was still alive that day when we took it down. Like ah ours didn't show any signs of dying or anything. I mean, the needles were starting to get a little bit harder. But yeah, yeah it just, i don't know. We just always have done a real tree. I love having a real tree in the house.
00:07:00
Speaker
I like having a real tree too. Last year went and, or it was couple years ago when the kids were in forest school, we went around and collected everybody's real trees that were, they were getting them out after Christmas, you know, and the kids in forest school, they made like this big giant fort out of like older Christmas trees. And it was so super fun. So yeah, I'm all about Christmas trees. And, you know, again, they, just throw them into the water and, you know, they decompose or throw them out in the woods and, you know, it goes
Cost and Disposal of Real Christmas Trees
00:07:24
Speaker
back into nature. But yeah, surprisingly I've never done They've gotten expensive. real christmas trees have gotten pretty dang expensive um from what i understand yeah they're usually like if you go to cut your own down it's usually 10 to 15 dollars per foot so i mean it's not terrible when you think about it like it is a memory for zoe like zoe does love doing it i mean she looks forward to it every year now so yeah it's an experience if we were going to do a live one i would want to go cut one down too for sure in omaha too like the zoo takes a ton of the christmas trees to give to the animals and stuff and so yeah i mean they take the majority of the trees in omaha to the zoo so it's kind of cool how'd you cut it down bro did you like a power saw or you out there like paul bunion with an axe i need to paint the picture for you bro you They are not. That's too much of liability. They're not just letting you. They give those little hacksaws, dude. No, no, no. They do That's too much of liability also. They give you a stick and you turn it upside down and it has a red end on it and they come cut it down for you. Shut
00:08:21
Speaker
but shut up They cut it down for you? They have to. They will not let you cut your tree down. Really? sure but That's interesting. too much life le see I've seen a few people. There's a lady that I follow. She lives in Western Arkansas and they go like they go and cut their own.
Evolution of Fake Christmas Trees
00:08:34
Speaker
um And she was trying to cut it and she couldn't get it cut. So they did come and cut it for but she was able to cut it herself. That's interesting. But yeah, I can totally see see how that would be a liability. Somebody lose a finger, cut themselves and then the whole the whole farm goes The thing about the one we go to, it's only open Thanksgiving weekend. So like when you go back next year, they still have tons of trees because they just don't want to deplete everything they have. So.
00:08:55
Speaker
Yeah. We're still using our fake Christmas tree. It was ah unlit, you know, for, for years, you know, Seth and I were, we're have a pretty nomadic lifestyle. Um, and we lived in apartments and stuff and didn't really have the space for like a big tree. So we had our
Baking Christmas Cookies: A Beloved Tradition
00:09:08
Speaker
little Charlie Brown Christmas tree and that was our Christmas tree for years. And then when we got our bigger house in Hawaii in 2014, I went and got an after Christmas sale, um,
00:09:18
Speaker
tree and uh it was like you know 60 off at target unlit you know because i want to put my own lights on there cause i didn't like leds i wanted incandescent lights and uh we've been rocking with that sucker ever since so uh you know it's it's a classic it's a vintage tree shit now target puts their trees on 50 off on thanksgiving weekend like they're gone before thanksgiving's even over i mean we went this year because we got a little one a fake one for the basement Because I have tons of sports ornaments and all that. yeah So we just got a small fake one.
00:09:48
Speaker
And we went to Target and there was none left. It was it was like the day after Thanksgiving and there was none left. Dude, it was ah was your were your parents here for Thanksgiving? what we went We went Christmas shopping at Target. We went to Target and they had all the Christmas stuff out. And um it was before Thanksgiving because hadn't even been home for Thanksgiving yet. Yeah, it when they came here for the football playoffs. That's right. Yeah, they were here for the football playoffs. And we went to Target and they were putting everything out there Christmas. And there was like so much stuff that was already 50% off. And it wasn't even it hadn't even been Thanksgiving or Black Friday or any of that. And like the Christmas decorations were all 50% off. i was like those big the hell i think those big box stores just have to unload it whenever they can like they did i mean they don't want to have three rows stuff the day after christmas because nobody buys it at that point i mean everything around here at any store now is 50 off like ah that just lets you know how much they're milking us on the regular basis we're more than happy to let it go for 50 60 and they're still making a shit ton of money on it like still making so much money yeah they probably make those for like 18 cents and they're charging you 30 bucks for a strand of lights like it's insane yeah totally nuts dude okay uh number two was baking christmas cookies i'm pretty sure we all did this weird kid and probably still do it today
00:11:01
Speaker
Did Mammy, did y'all bake Christmas cookies when you were growing up? Dude, I've always just been hard up that like, you know, I know that the different, you know, like the more like, you know, winter spice cookies and... Snickerdoodles.
Community and Holiday Baking
00:11:12
Speaker
Each time of year has got its own signature cookie. But as a kid, dude, I was a hardcore Pillsbury chocolate chip cookie dough fan, like to the point where like that was in my top like three or four favorite foods. And...
00:11:24
Speaker
if If time and effort is being spent making any other type of cookie other than that, it's time wasted. You know i mean you know me, dude. I'm always like a maximalist, dude. like I'm going to pick whatever the thing I want to do the absolute most and like anything besides that, it's like it's wasting time. You know what I mean? so i I remember making cookies. I know Tad would like to bake cookies with mom and stuff. It was never really my thing because like i said, I'm like, you know give me Pillsbury chocolate chip cookie dough or else why are you wasting my time, dude? Yeah.
00:11:48
Speaker
I got, I got, I got a, I, this was not as big of a thing for me, but I do remember Tad and mom making cookies and stuff together and making, doing different. That was more Tad's deal than mine. Yeah. Not media. We, we always did big. We got all these tins, um, and we would have like holiday cookies and candies. We would make fudge. We would I remember granny making candy. She always, remember my, my great grandma making Christmas candy. I was never fan of that either, dude. Yeah. Like, bro, give me like some Laffy Taffy or something. I was just, I was a little shithead kid, dude. Like.
00:12:18
Speaker
I couldn't get into like just like the tradition stuff, like, or not like the, as far as food goes. Traditional. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, but yeah, we, we lived in a, like a rural, like, you know, County town. There was like lots and lots of like, you know, older people and stuff like that. So my mom, we would always stay up and like, you know, spend a few days making, um, like the, the Ritz crackers with the peanut butter in the middle and like covered in white chocolate and the pretzels and like all the different things, Buckeyes, um, which are basically just like peanut, peanut butter balls with chocolate on the outside. White chocolate covered pretzels. I'm down on making those. That was something i would look forward to. And so, yeah, and then we would make up little candy boxes and take them
Baking with Children: Challenges and Joys
00:12:54
Speaker
around to all the old people. And I would take candy boxes to school. Like all my friends, I remember I would like drop candy boxes and cookie boxes off to all my friends and they were like stoked, dude. So yeah, it was, it was definitely a thing for us.
00:13:06
Speaker
That's like the craziest thing to me too. And you just brought up the candy boxes. Like our neighborhood, the neighbors that were within like seven houses of us always got candy or cookies and candy from my mom. Like she would always take stuff to all of them and they would always bring stuff over. Like we had so much like Christmas stuff at our house by the time Christmas came around. It's like, you're so tired of eating it by that time already. But we always did. We always did cut out cookies. Like that was my mom's biggest thing. Like she always wanted to do cut out cookies.
Changing Traditions in Holiday Baking
00:13:36
Speaker
We hand decorated all of them.
00:13:38
Speaker
Well, after about five of them, all the kids were like, okay, that's about enough. We're done with this. And then my mom would be up for like eight hours doing those. And I just like, me and my mom went to lunch the other day and I was talking to her about I'm like, I don't even know how the hell you did that every year. Cause we tried it one year with Zoe and I was so annoyed after like five cookies. I'm like, fuck this, throw the rest of them away.
00:13:59
Speaker
That's how, that's exactly how I'm just like, it seems so good in theory, you know, and I haven't really gotten into like baking the Christmas cookies and stuff with the kids, you know, we might do some, you know, break and bake or something like that. But we haven't done the big traditional thing. Cause yeah, same thing, dude. Like they'll, they'll lose interest so quickly. And then I'm left. I'd like, I'm making burritos and cookies. I've messed up the entire kitchen, like 25 dishes. And now I've got to finish like making all these cookies, dude. And that's the thing. Yes. That's not really into that kind of like food. So it's like they're not, he's going to eat them. So it's not even like worth the effort to do it.
00:14:31
Speaker
um But I would like to start a tradition where we do that and like pass candy along because i just feel like back, you know, in our day, not to sound like an old grandma, but like it was just so much more community effort, You know what i mean? When we lived, i will say when we lived on a military base um in Hawaii, when we lived on Fort Island, there was like a big like holiday community there. Like we were always getting like little packages and stuff like that at the doorstep. What was the thing? Remember Halloween they would have the booze. We would do the booze. It was kind of something they'd Jingles. Like you get like a little, yeah, a little jingle package or something like that. But ah yeah. And in the whole neighborhood was really, really into it. So they would like go all out.
00:15:06
Speaker
And my neighbor, Sheila, was a baker and she would always be bringing baked goods and stuff by. So I love that. And I just think it's a good way to build community. of course, now, you know, all the kids have allergies and there's like so many different, so many different things. You're not even, you know, you can't be just passing like nuts off to people and stuff,
Nostalgic Holiday Treats and Memories
00:15:22
Speaker
you know? The other thing, too, is like, and you didn't think about it when we were kids and obviously nobody thought about it the 90s. It's like, do I really trust like my neighbor that I don't know that will be bringing me over something that they Well, that the thing you knew your neighbors, though, back then. Yeah. I mean, yeah, I know my neighbors here, but yeah, there's definitely been places that we've lived where it's like, I don't know the next door Yeah, but you know your neighbors. But how hell do you know your neighbor didn't just sneeze into those cookies right before they made them? True.
00:15:48
Speaker
dude i don't know man everything just seems so much different now and yeah you don't know your neighbors as well and we don't either but it's just i don't it just seems weird to me now um you never know when something's gonna have fentanyl it shit the old the old oh nothing like christmas cookies and fentanyls just bring the fentanyls everywhere nowadays you never know dude the old fentanyl frosted cookies and yeah We always do. Well, I always do. I do peanut brittle and then I always try to do the saltine Christmas crack. And then I do. What's that? What's the saltine Christmas crack? You just like line a baking sheet with saltines and then you just make a caramel real quick and dump it over the top and then ah finish it with um milk chocolate on top and then just sprinkle like M&Ms or whatever you want then break it up. That sounds good. It is really good. It's easy to do too. And then. Do you make puppy chow or reindeer food or whatever it's called at Christmas? We'll do that every once in a while. And then, i like, peanut brittle is, like, one of my favorite things ever. So, yeah, we always that. I peanut And then I did um the, like, peanut clusters, like the chocolate-covered peanut clusters. I did those this year, too. So... We used to make these things called haystacks and it was chow mein noodles, but it had, and it had like butterscotch on them and the, you would just like put them all in a little pile and then pour the butter. scotch on them and it made like a little ha Dude, they're so good. It does not sound good describing it like eating the little chow mein noodles, but dude, it is so good. The salty with the butterscotch. They're so crunchy and so crispy. Like look it up if you've never done it.
00:17:18
Speaker
that sounds like your thing. Make some little haystack cookies because they're delish. And I do feel like this is not as common as it used to be. Like baking Christmas cookies used to, like everyone used to do it. I just feel like it's, yeah these kinds of things are going more and more by the wayside. And ah for sure especially like our kids' generations, like they're not even going to remember any of this stuff at all or probably do it. Like, No, I mean, ah and, you know, to be fair, most people aren't making anything from scratch nowadays. Like it's all like, you know, break and bake or it's like those little sugar cookies, you know, with the little already got the already designs in them and stuff like that. So, yeah, it's it's a lost art for sure. I'm hoping I can pass it to my kids. So at least they have Christmas TikToks. What? making Christmas TikToks. Yeah, exactly. so All right. ah Number three, writing a letter to Santa.
00:18:09
Speaker
That's definitely gone by the wayside. I don't think kids even do that anymore. I don't think that's a thing. They it their iPad. I used to make lists, man. I used that i don't i never read a letter like Dear Santa until my mom, but I would definitely put pen to paper and craft up a list for his old ass,
Holiday Catalogs and Childhood Memories
00:18:22
Speaker
dude.
00:18:22
Speaker
I bet you did. I bet you did. I bet you had a freaking list. Prioritize specifics. i know I need the Series 4, not the Series 3, Bret Hart. you're like You're like Sally, you know? And if if all of us fails, 10s and 20s, you know? But the thing is, too, and and I was talking about this but the other day with couple my friends. like We used to get the Toys R Us catalog in October and start scoping out what you wanted for Christmas. Get the JCPenney wishbook. Yes, JCPenney. Now everybody just goes online. Like, Zoe made her Christmas list for us this year on a wish list online, and I'm like... What the fuck? we it just So we do still get... I don't know how we got set up on a distro. We got set up on some distro. Everybody gets the Amazon one. Okay, yeah. we get We still get the Amazon toy book.
00:19:07
Speaker
I guess Zoe's probably maybe little bit older once that thing started coming out. But for our kids, they still love... Going through the Amazon book. They go through the Amazon book and there's a Lakeshore learning book that they get because we've ordered from there before and it's got a bunch of toys in it. I definitely remember as a kid looking forward to that. And Target, I think Target sends out like a little like brochure type thing. It's not like a, yeah, it's not a full me it was the JCPenney wish book. That's the remember going through. Because everything. It had grown up stuff and kids stuff. Yeah, the toys in the back there. I remember going through it. Just, go through, circle everything you want, dude. And you see something you're in way. You circle that bitch like five times, Mm-hmm.
00:19:39
Speaker
Yeah, so Stella definitely got
Managing Children's Holiday Expectations
00:19:41
Speaker
that from you. Stella stella is not selective. She's like, oh I want this, is every everyone I want this, I want this. I'm like, well, you got to put like four or five circles around the things that you really, really want. because You're like, i can't Santa can't buy you all this. You know that, She told me the other she told me the other day, um you know, just spoiled. She said, it's it's kind of rude not to get air get somebody everything that they circle in the wish in their wish book. Yeah.
00:20:05
Speaker
was like I was like, oh my God. so And she's a December baby, so she gets a double. so yeah Oh, yeah. we're so We're celebrating her birthday this weekend. So not only is she December baby, she's a December 23rd baby. So, you know, we didn't we didn't plan that too well. you have And you have to separate it. Like, you have to find a way separate it. Yeah, 100%. And it's hard. Yeah. She's got to have, she's got to have birthday paper on her birthday presents. And then she's getting Christmas paper on her Christmas presents, dude. you know what
December Birthdays and Holiday Overlap
00:20:32
Speaker
I mean? mean, even the trip went over her birthday. It was pretty much like a Christmas trip. You know what I mean? Yeah.
00:20:36
Speaker
Yeah. The Charlie Brown Christmas stuff at Opryland. Yeah. Yeah. When she gets a little older, we, we discussed having like, you know, celebrating half birthday. So at least she can do it in the summer or something like that so that she can have a pool party or, you know, do something outside, something fun. Because, yeah, it sucks, dude. Everybody's busy. There's a million things going on that week before Christmas um and the week of Christmas. So it's like nobody's coming to no birthday party. And if they do, they're all going be miserable and, you know, waiting to get out to do else. be burden on your friends to try to do something yeah anything better than a person's sleepover. And I wouldn't. Yeah, i would I wouldn't do that. Yeah, it's just not, you know. but We feel bad for Zoe, too. I mean, I don't. I wish my birthday was two days before Halloween. It'd be like the greatest thing ever. But like Zoe's birthday just like blends into Halloween. I mean, shit, we did our birthday party this year on Halloween. like Yeah, my nephew's like that. His birthday is what? The 28th, right? Yeah.
00:21:23
Speaker
Yeah. I like November 24th. That's a good one. Thanksgiving week. It's almost always either I'm off or it's like one of those weeks at work. Then you see all your family, dude. If Thanksgiving, everybody's greasing you up with little money, dude. Like, oh, happy birthday. Mine's always either, you know, I'm either off work or it's one of those weeks at work where like everybody knows like, right, nobody's doing shit for this little like two or three days Yeah.
00:21:42
Speaker
Thanksgiving birthdays are good, but yeah, Christmas and Halloween,
Appreciating Christmas Lights
00:21:45
Speaker
that's pretty rough. that's ah It's tough, dude. So we're we're still navigating. She's still young. She's super happy to, you know, um to do whatever we want to do. And, you know, she's getting, mean, she's getting a freaking nice birthday. We're going to the Gaylord in Nashville. i remember as a kid, like when I was like her age, I used to think like, dude, i having birthday and Christmas at the same time would be awesome because it's just like one big just blowout. Just a week long celebration for Stella. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah, that's exactly. Yeah, just put it over the top.
00:22:13
Speaker
Yeah, that'll be really cool. ah Number four is looking at Christmas lights. I don't know what like the the Christmas light looking is in in Oakland, but ah in Omaha, we have a a really like rich neighborhood that's about two miles from our house, and they that neighborhood just goes all out. I mean, we go all out for Christmas, too. like Our entire roof is decorated with lights right now, so...
00:22:37
Speaker
I know y'all stuff is bananas, dude. When you sent those pictures, I was like, that's nuts. It was always a big thing for us as kids, and we've still done that. We always go around and check out all the best houses with lights stuff everything, man. I feel like there was something when I lived in Tennessee as a kid, man. It was like maybe Christmas Village or something. It was like a drive-thru situation, right? Like big garden and stuff where they all kinds christmas decorations remember in norfolk sheen we'd go through the botanical garden in norfolk same deal so yeah christmas lights that's something that it was big for us as a kid and that's something we've definitely continued on with with our kids now yeah mean it's just fun to go look at that stuff like it just i don't as an adult it still kind of makes you feel like a kid when you go look at christmas you know and i appreciate the people who go all out like i know it's not for everybody even myself like putting outside decorations We don't do near as much we used to. Oh, yeah. When we lived in Hawaii, I was freaking Clark Griswold of our neighborhood. You know what I I would go all out. But I just don't have the... I do the inside really good. I just don't have the energy to do all the outside stuff that I used to.
00:23:42
Speaker
But, man, I'm so grateful for the people who do do it because we love to go look at it. And I just think to myself, like, it's so much work, dude. So if you see anybody that's, like, got all the stuff up, even just a little bit of stuff up, dude, it's
Christmas Light Shows and Competitions
00:23:55
Speaker
work. So I send shout-outs and love to everybody who puts Christmas lights outside on their house for all of us to enjoy it. Because, like said, it's getting less and less. As the years gone by, I remember when we were kids, I felt like there were so many more Christmas lights than there are nowadays. Like, nowadays... feel when we were everybody did something, didn't. Yeah. There was, like, nobody that did nothing. Everybody would at least, like, throw string across the front....string white lights across the gutter or something, didn't. But, yeah, there's a of people who just, yeah, they just do not want to Don't even participate at all. So...
00:24:22
Speaker
Yeah, shout out to all the people who put lights up. There's people stopped in front of our house every night. Kids get out because we did a tunnel over the sidewalk too and kids get out and run through that every night. Like, it it makes it worth it when you see people enjoy it like that. I mean... Oh, I used to love that. So that was one of my favorite things, you know, not to like get yourself a pat on the back, but when people are like, oh, I love your house or we look forward to your house every year, you know, like it just. I love seeing the wiener dogs. Yeah, we had ours was, yeah, ours was a wiener wonderland was our theme. We had dash hounds everywhere, you know, on the roof and on the, you know, out in the front yard and all that kind of stuff. And so, yeah, when people be like, you know, are you putting the dash hounds out this year? Like it just makes you feel so good, you know? so yeah. Yeah.
00:25:01
Speaker
If you see somebody's lights that you like, yell at them. If they're out in the yard, yell at them and let them know that you like ah like their house. Jordan, have you seen the Christmas light show on, ah was that Netflix or Hulu? I think it was Netflix. like the It's like the best Christmas lights competition. Yeah.
Building Gingerbread Houses
00:25:15
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We're not there at all. We're not even remotely there. Dude, those people banana land. It's like professional grade. Yeah, those people start decorating in like June. In July.
00:25:27
Speaker
yeah yeah Like people that got like the LED driveways and stuff, man. Like, ah yeah, that's and everything is everything is like to a soundtrack and like yeah everything. WWE show in their driveway. man Yeah. I just imagine like all the wildlife being like, ah, you know like at nighttime, you know, or being there. Imagine being their neighbor and you're trying to go to sleep. You know, that light coming through your yeah your blinds, you know? Yeah, that's yeah that is insane. We're we're nowhere near that.
00:25:53
Speaker
I just think my thing is, is like, dude, the little bit that I had to like used to untangle Christmas lights and stuff like that. Like, I can't imagine keeping all of that straight and like knowing which pieces go to what. Like, oh, this is the driveway verticals and these are the, you know. like pretty much like got have like professionals come in to help you do that, dude. Unless those people just really that good at it. I don't know. That one guy said, he said him and his family just set it up. It was just him and like his, you know, older sons and his wife and they just go out there and set it up every year. yeah.
00:26:23
Speaker
People are insane. guess you do it the same every year. You just kind of get, you know. Yeah, you just kind of add on and stuff, and you learn how to troubleshoot this stuff. Makes sense. Yeah. Yeah.
The Reality of Christmas Caroling
00:26:31
Speaker
Number five, build a gingerbread house.
00:26:34
Speaker
Okay. we still do that, dude. Love that as a kid, still do it, The kids love building. we do it We even do it for Halloween. They have, like, you know, gingerbread house, like, ah Halloween kits now, and so we do it for Halloween, too. I love building gingerbread house kits. um We...
00:26:48
Speaker
ah I've never made my own surprisingly again. I've never made my own gingerbread. My friend Sheila used to make, she had like the molds and everything and she would like cut out her own gingerbread pieces and we would put, ah put them together at her house and stuff. And that was always fun. And she made her own icing and it was so, it was such good icing. Like it was so, it was perfectly sticky. So the houses like, you know, stuck together immediately and dried well. Um, we got a kit from Trader Joe's this year and it was so cute. Um, my mother-in-law got them and, uh, they were a frame houses. And I was like, these are going to be so cute. We got all the extra sprinkles and all the extra things, dude, the <unk>read so the gingerbread was awful.
00:27:23
Speaker
By the way, the gingerbread tasted like trash, which was fine. Whatever. Like, you know, the kids eat it a little bit, you know, if they eat it or if they don't, we just do it for the building anyway. But the worst part was it came with this icing powder that you got to make yourself.
00:27:35
Speaker
and it was terrible. It did not it was like loose and not sticky at all. It didn't like hold the houses together. like The kids were getting so frustrated. I was getting so frustrated. um I was so pissed off. I was just like, dude, just put in some pre-made freaking royal icing or whatever that is. You know what i mean? like That definitely sounds like a Trader Joe's move. like Here, make your own damn icing. It was it said you had to use it. so You had to use an egg white. so i forget what it was. What the... it was some sort of sugar and you had to add an egg white and add a little bit of water and mix it up. And I was thinking, Oh, it's, you know, this is going to be okay.
00:28:10
Speaker
No, it was a freaking terrible. And you had to put it into a piping bag, which wasn't bad. But I mean, the fact that it like was shitty icing. Um, yeah. And so you would try to like put, you know, put some on to put decorations and it would just run down the house. Oh, it was so frustrating. like the, Haribo puts out a good one. Haribo puts out a good one.
00:28:27
Speaker
and oreo oreo ones are good yeah when that's pretty good man the amount of options that these kids have now is insane though we went down the gingerbread aisle the other night i'm like they've got like a death every brand they've got like yes like dude what all we had was just a straight up gingerbread house like that's that's like You're getting some gumdrops on it. was going to say with gumdrops, there wasn't any good candy. Now there's like good candy you can put on there. see with like Sour Patch Kids or like little like M&M's and Skittles. Like, yeah, we had those fucking gumdrops with this super like P20 giant grain sugar all over the top. of And the hard, and it was like the hard candies. Like they were just like generic like hard candies. Chip your teeth, hard candies, dude. be fair though, our parents probably were paying like 50 cents to a dollar for those kids. True. Now they're 20 bucks a piece. Yeah.
00:29:14
Speaker
he Yeah, that's nuts, dude. But yeah, i love I love putting together a good gingerbread house. We always do. You know, we I'm at this point. We have a collection of like holiday sprinkles and like all the extra stuff. I like to add a little bit of extra stuff that's not in the kit just to put a little little pizzazz a little pizza to the gingerbread house, you know.
00:29:34
Speaker
ah Yeah, we we did them as kids. And I mean, we don't do them as much anymore. i think we just kind of forget about it. Like just the month of December goes so damn fast. And so he dances six days a week. So we just don't have a lot of time for that kind of stuff anymore. But I mean, we've just still done them in the past. So...
00:29:51
Speaker
Six is singing Christmas carols. This is something I never did. Never, bro. that's shit I've never sang them. I've never had them sung to me. I've never talked to somebody that's gone out sang Christmas carols. To me, this is something that literally only exists on movies and TV shows. I've never i've i've never in real life, i've I have no anecdotes of me or someone I know being involved on either end of Christmas
Celebrating Christmas Aboard a Ship
00:30:16
Speaker
caroling. So we didn't we didn't go to random houses in Christmas Carol.
00:30:21
Speaker
Our church went to our church went to the nursing home and we would sing Christmas carols at the nursing home. um you know theres But it was like a planned thing. But I don't think that counts. I think our school did that one time. I think we did like a school like music class. went and got like hot cocoa somewhere and then went to a nursing home and sang. still not the same though No, that's not. Yeah, I've never had carolers show You've never been like sitting at home, like watching fucking Thursday night football and like all of a sudden you hear, you know, fucking deck the halls from a group of people dressed like pilgrims out at the street, dude. I mean, you know, part of me, like, you know, the curmudgeon part of me would feel like I would be annoyed, but then the other part of me would feel like, oh, this is a Christmas rite of passage that I finally, you know, unlocked. I'll turn off the lights and close in the blinds. Seth is definitely the, this could be happening in my front yard and I'm not looking out. yeah Oh, yeah. Seth, yeah, he definitely wouldn't, dude. Throw stuff at them. Let the roosters out, dude.
00:31:18
Speaker
Oh, man. Yeah. i've I've never been like, you know, like you said, just spontaneously caroling at at people's houses. But the crazy thing is, is it does happen, though. Like, i see. Yeah, does happen. It's a thing. I'm like, dude, what kind of neighborhood do you live in where there's people just walking around singing Christmas carols? Like,
00:31:35
Speaker
I'm going to say that. But they get together and practice. So it's like a planned thing. They're like, you know, they're planning it and rehearsing it and doing all the things, you know, so it's like. on the show So I've been unfortunate enough. I have spent two Christmases out floating somewhere in the.
00:31:51
Speaker
the middle of the ocean and they did on the ship. There was a group that got together on the ship and they went around to the different like on departments and stuff. It either the day before Christmas or maybe it was either Christmas Eve. think it was the day before Christmas Eve, man. And yeah, they literally went around the ship to some of the different like, you know, main spaces in St. Carol. It was kind of nice. Yeah. That is cool. But yeah,
00:32:09
Speaker
That was totally, you know, totally different vibes. I will say that's probably the closest I've been on Christmas, Caroline. Yeah. You're, you're out on a ship. Of course they're, they're going be doing some, any little, any little glimmer of Christmas spirit probably feels good on the ocean. Yeah.
00:32:23
Speaker
Yeah. It's a, it's a, I will say, you know, if anybody's out there, I know we got a ah handful of, I think we've got vets. don't know if we got any like hardcore active duty listeners. I'm sure there's some out there, but I'm talking about for like the, specifically for the Foley fam, the folks in the Facebook group. I know we've got some vets. um If you're out there, dude, and you are like in the Navy, I would say if you happen to be on deployment at Christmastime, you're much better off being out to sea on Christmas. I think you still get some version of a Christmas celebration as opposed to like being in port. know a lot of people are like, oh, i wish we were in port, you know, just whatever. But, dude, if you're in port in some foreign country, you're just going to go sit in your hotel room and chill out by yourself. They do...
00:32:58
Speaker
excuse They do put in a lot of work to make Christmas feel like something when you're on the ship. like I don't know when you're there. They had like she like all the had the the wives and kids and stuff ah recorded videos. They played it as a surprise on like the ship's like TV system and stuff. I remember sending one in for you. Yeah, so that was cool. and And the cooks on the ship, dude, like they they throw it down, dude. I've had some badass... Both my Christmases I spent on sea, it was a badass Christmas meal. Yeah.
00:33:23
Speaker
Yeah, it's definitely unique experience, man. Nothing like being at home, but if you got to be gone, like, you know, try like the most of because it is something unique that not a lot of folks get to experience.
Gift-Giving and Care Packages for Service Members
00:33:32
Speaker
Didn't I send you a box one time where you were out at sea? I'm sure you did. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
00:33:38
Speaker
yeah You said probably some Haribo gummies, man. That's like my main currency on the ship, dude. There was a lot. I had to source. ah What was the the crab chips? the yeah the ah Old Bay's. What brand is it though? It's not hers, it? Is it hers? yeah Yeah, they didn't have them anywhere in Hawaii, dude. I could not find hers crab chips anywhere in Hawaii. and So i had to like source the actual website. You got the Old Bay chips and they got the Old Bay cheese curls. The cheese curls, yeah. The curls are where it's at. Dude, the cheese, the Old Bay cheese curls are freaking bomb, Old Bay sets them off, dude. You wouldn't think that be a thing, but it's, they're delicious. I have totally made my mouth raw eating yeah those cheese curls, dude.
Family Gift Exchange Traditions
00:34:17
Speaker
get your mind out of the gutter this is a christmas episode that just never goes away all right uh seven is gift exchange which i i know we all do this so so my thing on this was did you guys ever do anything like with your your siblings on christmas eve or like anything other than just christmas day We would always do one present on Christmas Eve. That's really the only thing we do as kids. haven't really done that with our kids. Sometimes they'll just bug the shit out of us when we open one. We really kind of save everything for Christmas to the point where we don't even put any presents out until Christmas morning. We just let it be Christmas Eve, a Christmas bomb goes off, dude. I remember my parents, they would always like... don't know just did it as they got to work because was strategic, but I feel would be like every couple of days, there'd be like a few more presents there and stuff. Yeah. Because your mom was frantically wrapping them as she could. And then you'd have Santa. Santa would show up Christmas Eve. And our parents were also a lot bigger on Santa also, man. Like Santa bringing a lot of stuff. Whereas us, man, like we, Santa brings a little bit of stuff. Santa doesn't bring as much stuff to our house. It's more, uh, yeah, we have, we have a, we get a nice modest gift from, from Santa. Yeah. Our kids know Santa goes and, uh,
00:35:24
Speaker
uh santa visits the the the more you know needy kids and gives a little bit more to them so yeah but he still makes sure to stop by and see them yeah our santa definitely hit the lottery at our house like it it was definitely all santa presents and then a couple from my mom it was like which is so wild to me as a grown as an adult now you know what mean like it's just like credit for you get no credit i feel like i feel like the magic was a lot more when i was a kid it's just because it was from my perspective i feel like we i don't feel like we've never maybe it's just because it's It hasn't really been a thing for us. I feel like like they know Santa and stuff, but I don't feel like they're on like pins and needles for Santa. No. I mean, they just know Christmas. meles I think we're going to get true. And this is this is definitely speaking from a place of privilege. So, you know, i understand this is not everyone, but like the kids get so much stuff like throughout the year that it's like. chris you know Christmas was a big deal at our house. You'd wait all year, bro. You'd have depression. like After that last present was open, like I remember having like withdrawal, dude, and being like, shit. Because i you know my birthday's November, I'd be like, dude, I got to wait 11 more months till get presents. I remember getting the Sega Genesis, dude. I got Sega Genesis one year for Christmas. I had Sonic the Hedgehog until that November, dude. I got Mortal Kombat that November. I went 11 months with fucking Sonic the Hedgehog. That was it on Sega. And I don't remember being that bad. That's the crazy thing about it, dude. I don't remember it being that bad. I think it was fine. but was like now like the meditation imagine if you imagine brenda only had one game for like three weeks he would bug the shit out of his dude he would be miserable dude yeah it's it's wild you just have so much kids now just have so much more access to everything too like when we were kids obviously we couldn't just download a game on our system like our parents couldn't be like hey can i have 40 to go download fortnite or whatever it's just that wasn't a thing like your parents actually had to go to the store to buy you a video game that doesn't exist anymore and yeah like the The amount of kids that never buy like a physical game is just insane to me. like I still always get the physical game. like i I just want to have it. I know I don't need it, but I just i want to have it.
00:37:18
Speaker
You never know, dude. I mean i well i am very much in in favor of going back to physical
Nostalgia and Technology in Christmas Media
00:37:24
Speaker
media. The problem with games, I think for movies it's different. For games nowadays, a lot of times, you're just putting the the disc just goes in to just freaking access the...
00:37:34
Speaker
The online stuff. So, yeah, they can still shut your ass down. If they want yeah. If they want to. But it's still cool happening. I went for the longest. I finally got tired of messing with it. But I'm with you, Jordan. I stuck with it a lot longer than most people did – Physical medium, yeah. Still going on getting the physical games, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
00:37:50
Speaker
But, ah yeah, i think I think as we we had the – we just had the best, I think. I think we had the best of both worlds, um you know, as far as Christmas goes. Like, I feel like us 90s babies and ah millennials – because it was just – it was still magical. We still had all the cool toys. We still had TVs and tech and games and stuff like that. But it was like – We weren't just playing with a ball and a cup like our parents were. Yeah, exactly. We weren't getting orange for freaking Christmas, you know. battle with the bouncy ball. Yeah. Yeah, a little pop gun. But – But it was still it was still just like unplugged and, you know, the magic was there. And I don't know.
00:38:26
Speaker
It's just different. The other thing, too, is and I know we don't. This is not on list, but I know we don't obviously watch as much live TV anymore outside of sports. But just like the amount of Christmas commercials there were between November and January. You were saturated, dude. None of that exists anymore. And companies spent like a huge part of their budget to like make Christmas ads it. Our kids watch almost, unless it's a football game or wrestling, our kids watch no TV with commercials. I know. That's what I mean. They're not seeing any of that, dude. Yeah, like there's no more like brand new Coke commercials. Like, don't you remember we were kids and it's like, okay, what's Coke going to do next year for the Coke commercial? It's like. Yeah. It's just everything, dude. The freaking Coke commercials, all the toy commercials. The beer commercials. Toyotathon, bro. Lexus, December to remember, dude. Like, it was just nonstop, dude. Freaking. Yeah. When it Honda holidays or whatever. And you had all the Christmas specials to your favorite shows, too. So it was like then. Yeah. Then your shows had a special Christmas episode that you were super excited to see.
00:39:25
Speaker
um And even like I feel like even the Super Bowl commercials nowadays are just whack, dude. Like it's like they don't put any effort in, you know, back then it was like a whole big thing to have an advertising budget to create this, ah you know.
00:39:35
Speaker
Yeah, because memory but I've watched all of the um Home Improvement Christmas episodes. I've watched all the Office, all the Parks and Rec, and all the Modern Family Christmas episodes already
Christmas Stockings: Tradition and Surprises
00:39:46
Speaker
this year. And it's like, dude, we lived in such a better time. like it just Home Improvement had one every single season. like Office doesn't have one every single season. Yeah. The Office didn't have one until season two, but then ah then they had one almost every season after that, right? Yeah. Two, three, and four, and then I think they start – I don't think they – know if all the later seasons have one. think there's only six total, five or six total. Okay, maybe, yeah. Nine seasons The And then Parks and Rec only has three, and then um ah Modern Family only has four out of, like, 11 seasons. Like, it's it's insane to me, like, how many of those shows just didn't have a Christmas episode every year. We just, yeah, we just watched the Simpsons Christmas special with the kids the other day. Yeah, those are good. You guys remember the Fresh Prince Bel-Air Christmas episode where Will told everybody that he knew Boyz II Men and they were going to show up and sing at his nephews? don't remember that. then He's been lying to everybody that, yeah, that Boyz II Men, he knew his friends Boyz II Men from Philly and that they were going to show up to his nephew or something, his nephew's baptism.
00:40:47
Speaker
And so this whole up episode's got this lie where everybody's getting hyped up and he's finally about to come clean, let him know, you know, he made it all up. And then somehow, Christmas Miracle, Boyz II Men walks in singing Silent Night.
00:40:58
Speaker
Boyz II Men, yeah, Christmas songs are... They're Christmas albums. Those are some hitters. That's oops all bangers right there, yeah. ah Okay, number eight is hanging stockings.
00:41:11
Speaker
So stockings are always a big deal at our house. We still make it a big deal with the kids. We still make it a big deal. i love those stockings, bro, because it's like you forget about them with all the yeah bonanza of Christmas. And then it's like, oh, yeah, we still got our stockings. I'd have like some wrestling magazines, some beef jerky, like yeah maybe one more wrestling figure. I'd usually have like of those little like Tiger Electronics handheld games that...
00:41:32
Speaker
Always sucked ass after like five minutes. It was still exciting to get them. This is the coolest thing ever. And then you're like, God, this is the dumbest fucking thing ever. Yeah. we always Stockings are always a big deal for us too, like Seth said. But we make it a big deal for the kids. Unfortunately, i don't even have... i have the stockings over there, but they're not hung on the mantle yet. I need to guess i need to get on that. My little mantle hanger is broke, so and I haven't replaced them. So i need to...
00:41:56
Speaker
to do that before Christmas. But typically we take them down and set them on the, you know, on the couch before, you know, that because I don't want to, they they get too heavy. you know, like I said, our kids are freaking spoiled rotten. So the the stockings get kind of heavy. Oh yeah. That's always what we started with, with stockings. Like we did our stockings first and then we opened presents. Cause like the, my mom, Well, whatever. Santa, my mom, put so much effort into those stockings. And like growing up, the older I got, the more I appreciated it because it's like, holy shit. She was buying so much different stuff for him. like
00:42:30
Speaker
we have We have a hockey team here. And your mom wasn't using the internet. yeah Your mom was going to freaking every store and like buying shit like right there and or putting it on layaway and coming back.
Community Generosity During the Holidays
00:42:41
Speaker
You know what I mean? like It was like a whole freaking thing. for them to, ah you know, keep up with everything and make sure everybody everything. We have a local hockey team here. They're called the Omaha Lancers. It's like semi-pro. it Literally, these kids get drafted into um the and NHL. But my mom used to buy me whatever pin they released every year during Christmas. And the the only one that I really like remember very well is, I think it was like when I was 12 and I was devastated because I didn't get one. And she's like,
00:43:11
Speaker
I swear I bought that and I'm like no it's not in here next the next year it was stuck in the very tip of the stocking and so I got both them I got both pins that year I was like did you find this one she's like what are you talking about I'm like what the the one from last year is in here and she's like I told you I got it that's so funny But wow yeah, like stockings were a big deal when we were kids. We did stockings first before presents too. We would always do stockings first and then presents prisons after. it just always felt like so magical. Like when you walked out to the living room and saw that your stocking was completely full. i don't know. And like, that's what we do with Zoe too. I'm like, don't ever lose the the stocking. Cause it's just, i don't know. It's one of the most fun things you do. And that's usually where all your candy is at too, is in your stocking. It's true.
00:44:00
Speaker
You mentioned layaway, man. made me think I was wondering if Christian McCaffrey still pays off the layaway at the Navy exchange every year. yeah sha christian Shaq still does it every single year. Yeah, Christian McCaffrey's do it. the The Navy Exchange, that's like a big department store that's on, ah you know, big Navy bases and stuff that only, you know, military folks can shop at. And it was it was happening the whole time we were there in Virginia. I'm assuming he's still doing it. But Christian McCaffrey, because of his ties, they're playing in North Carolina and stuff. He would always, on like the last week before Christmas, he would go and like pay off the tab, follow away. I always thought about going and just, you know, putting like 10 PS5s, like 85-inch plasma and just CMC comes through, Yeah. That's the place you took me to, right, Seth?
00:44:42
Speaker
Yeah, where we got that TV at that time. yeah that lady Oh my god, they got the giant TV. Yeah, yeah so like the ah the last week before ah before Christmas, Christian McCaffrey goes and and covers whatever way a away people have on tab there.
00:44:56
Speaker
That's cool. like Seeing all these videos, I guess I didn't know like how much of a community person Shaq was until like last year. Dude, he buys so many people things and like...
00:45:08
Speaker
You just listen to his story about his dad never had money. And um he always made sure that his sisters got some. And he's like, I'll get you later, big man. Like, you're not going to get anything for Christmas. And i don't know, man. Check is just such a cool guy. And just like seeing him take pictures with all these kids and stuff at games. Like, it's just a side of him you don't usually get to see.
The Shift from Christmas Cards to Digital Greetings
00:45:29
Speaker
Yeah, check definitely.
00:45:31
Speaker
Okay. Nine is Christmas cards. I mean, we obviously did this when we were kids. I think this is like a dead thing at this point. You know, I don't think it is. Yeah, there's definitely a lot of we have a lot of friends do it. We don't do it. dude We you do it like I did it for years. I used to send Halloween. I used to s send Christmas. you got You remember that, Jordan? I would send Halloween cards and I would send Christmas cards. and I would say every time we move, I would send like a photo with like our new address to people and stuff like that.
00:45:58
Speaker
And Jesus, you were making so much effort. Oh, yeah. I mean, but I use, don't know, but I haven't sent Christmas cards since Brett was born. So it's like, you know, the Christmas card, the Christmas card wagon died. But I mean, there are tons of people. This year, i think I saw a lot of people cutting back because the price of Christmas cards has gotten so astronomical. But I mean, I have friends that like they legit go out and they take Christmas family photos and like that's what they put on their Christmas cards and they you know, send them out with a letter and an update. And, you know, so a lot of, ah most people just put like, you know, love the, you know, blah blah, blah family or whatever. But, you know, I have friends that will write a whole freaking yearly recap. Who the hell's got time for that?
00:46:41
Speaker
I mean, I don't know. Some people love Christmas cards, dude. I i enjoy getting them from my friends. i all Every year I have a little a little pang of like, maybe I should send some out. But one, like I said, the the cost is astronomical. And just knowing that 99% of them are probably just going to get thrown away like the day after Christmas. You know what I mean? Everybody's going to have them you know on display or whatever for the until Christmas. And then it just gets thrown away.
Must-Watch Christmas Movies
00:47:05
Speaker
I'm like, ugh.
00:47:05
Speaker
I'll give Lori credit. She keeps all of ours. Like the ones that we get every year, she keeps them for like a keepsake. I mean, I used to do that. And then it got, I had a big old shoe box. It was just like full. And I was like, oh my God, you know? Yeah. We don't get as many anymore. I think we've gotten like two or three this year, but we used to get quite a few.
00:47:24
Speaker
Yeah, we when we were in Hawaii, we got a bunch, but we were there for so long that, you know, but I mean, we've moved twice since then. And so it's like, I think, you know, I'm still getting Christmas cards from people who lived in this house prior to us. And we've lived here for three years. So, you know, that's crazy people just don't update their addresses, you know. But you know those people that you buy. I do. Yeah, I've taken um i've taken the mail and stuff over to them. But yeah, they'll still get Christmas cards and stuff here. um That's crazy. Yeah.
00:47:51
Speaker
Mm hmm. Yeah, it's, um you know, I like it. I think sending an e Christmas card is the way to go. I think, you know, sending somebody just like ah if you want to. Why not just do a social media post? Well, you can do that, too. But I think if you want if you want to send like individualized or like ah a recap of something that you wouldn't want to put on social media or something like that, I think you could just do an email or like a text blurb or something like that. Yeah.
00:48:15
Speaker
Because, yeah, anyway um we we have to talk about one thing before we get to the 10th one, because I'm going to keep asking you guys this every year until you watch it. Have you guys watched Why Him yet? Still have not. Still know. You guys have to watch it before Christmas. You guys will love that movie. I'm telling you. Every recommendation I've given you guys for a movie, you guys have loved. It's solid. It's hard to get Sheena to sit down for movie unless it's a scary movie. It's so funny, though, dude. It's got James Franco in it. It's so good. I love movies. I like to watch movies, dude. I fall asleep sometimes. Sometimes. You guys have to watch it. Try to watch it at some point between now and the first of the year.
00:48:53
Speaker
okay i'll make it i'll make it a thing technically a christmas movie okay why him it's on the list we have a week we have one week we have to watch why we can make it happen you can walk how uh how kid unfriendly is oh no your kids can't watch it it's james franco did yeah brian cranston there is a lot of really foul language in it it's not a kid's movie at all Okay, 10 was watching Christmas movies or festive drinks. I just included those together. um I'm pretty sure we all still do this every year. We were just talking about it.
00:49:25
Speaker
You know, but like, I feel like all the Christmas movies that are ever going to be classics have already been made, dude. Yeah. Like, I feel like we there has been no, like, Elf is the last most modern Christmas classic, I think, that has come out, dude. Yeah, I mean.
00:49:39
Speaker
I mean, what was that? That was fucking like 15 years ago, that was three Yeah. 2000 elf was 2003 was 2005 yeah and't mean well the the reason like because uh and i've recommended this before on the podcast like confused breakfast they review all the movies and they were doing good show they did christmas subscriber they did christmas movies they do like three every year and they did elf and they're like this is like the last good christmas movie there is like it really is i mean the christmas movies from then on are just lazy christmas movies like they try to like play on the old movies but there's The thing is, is Christmas pre-technology is just, it's it's like perfect, right? like Like none of the, like so many of the Christmas movies that were classics then, they don't work now. Like you like Kevin would never be left a home alone. Elf, they would be looking up, but they would find his DNA on 23andMe. You know what I mean? Like they would know if Buddy the Elf belonged to him. what mean? Like there's just so many things that would not work.
00:50:36
Speaker
happen now the technology. Do Christmas movies even exist outside of like ABC Family? and No. more there's no like There's no like holiday movies. there it's so Yeah, even them and Hallmark always like the same story. It's like a chick goes back home and she brings like her, you know, big city boyfriend, but he's got a, you know,
00:50:52
Speaker
have phone calls doing business things while she reconnects with old flame i think like i chris kringle or something yeah i think the last christmas movie we saw in the theater was the new grinch movie the cartoon one i think that was 2018 i'm not i'm not a huge fan of that but it's a good love that movie and it's that that was absolute smash hit dude i think i think for a while it's the highest grossing christmas movie all time yeah i think that's the i think that's the last one that like i can really remember that I forgot about that one.
00:51:20
Speaker
I do love that one. I didn't watch it when it came out. because i Yeah. Zoe loves that movie. That's like one of Zoe's favorite movies. Sissy. Yeah. Stella loves that movie. And it's really good. I love that version of Grinch. I like all three Grinches. I think we've had this discussion on the podcast previously, but I love all three Grinches. really, really love,
Challenges with Streaming Christmas Classics
00:51:39
Speaker
you know. I think it's good on its own. i don't think it's super faithful. The original. I feel like the Grinch is too nice, dude. I like him to be, you never really hating this Grinch. You never seem like that bad of a guy, dude. Yeah. Well, cause he had, he, dude, it showed you the backstory, you know, and it just like, and he's on the screen so much. Like you got to make him likable, you know? And he was good to Max for the most part, right? Like in the original, like you just felt so terrible for Max. Whereas like this one, you know, he's still bossing Max around and, you know, Max is still doing all of his his you know chores and stuff like that. But he's never just like outright nasty to Max, you know, um which I which i appreciated. But
00:52:14
Speaker
Yeah, Christmas movies are definitely a thing of the past, but we watch them every every year. so love yeah The classics still hold up. Kids love Home Alone. They love Christmas Story. Yeah. yeah like what else was yeah but The movies that we have, like Christmas Vacation and all those movies are still fantastic movies even to this day. like We're really lucky that those that the ninety s eighty s and 90s were the way that they were because, I mean, yeah, look at it now. like there's There's just none.
00:52:42
Speaker
No, there would be no... they would All the plot holes, you know, they would just be like... They would be non-existent. You know what i mean? Like all the or all the plot devices would just be non-existent if in today's modern world. But, um you know, what I will say we we're talking about physical media, dude, especially like Christmas movies and stuff like that, I would recommend having physical media because I will never forget Stella was like...
00:53:03
Speaker
desperately wanting to watch the the Grinch. And this was like when we lived in Virginia. And it was like toward the end of November, like we had already had Thanksgiving and stuff. And I was like, surely to God, this is streaming somewhere, right?
00:53:13
Speaker
It wasn't streaming anywhere. And it didn't it didn't even like the beginning of December came and it still wasn't streaming anywhere. And I was like, what the actual F is going on here, dude? Like, how is it December? And we're not having Grinch available for streaming anywhere. so when it's been that nice That was that movie that nobody could get the streaming rights to for like 12 years or something. I remember that being a thing that nobody could buy the streaming rights to it. So then you only could get it on prime video. Like that was the only way you could watch it was by buying it, which yeah. and So, so yeah, get yourself a copy of whatever your favorite Christmas movies are.
90s Toy Crazes: Tamagotchi to Tickle Me Elmo
00:53:48
Speaker
Yeah.
00:53:48
Speaker
um Okay, that's it for traditions. Let's ah let's move into some 90s toys. Let's go. This was based on sales. I looked at a couple different websites, so if this is not in exact order, don't don't come after me.
00:54:03
Speaker
This does seem pretty right to me, though, honestly. Number one was Tamagotchis. Like, dude... I believe that 100%. When this came out, if you did not get one of these, you were a loser. like I'm sorry. like When you went to school after Christmas, if you did not have one that you had to feed during lunch hour, you were a loser.
00:54:20
Speaker
And dude, this was unisex, dude. This was like, you know what i mean? Boys had them, girls had them. Like it was, it was just like a toy. There was a whole cottage industry in knockoffs. Yeah. Tamagotchi was the leader, but you had like gigapets. Gigapets. They were huge, bro. Yeah. Like it was, yeah. Like Tamagotchi was definitely like the the front runner, but there was all kinds of, the the technology was so super duper simple, man. And like, yeah, they, ah there was all kinds of offshoots that had their own little mini cult followings. Yeah. Yeah, dude. Yeah.
00:54:46
Speaker
i just like, just like looking back at this and remembering how much of a big deal it is. Can you imagine if you can, can you imagine if you gave one of your kids these right now, they would look at you like you were stupid.
00:54:57
Speaker
Oh, yeah. And it was just so and you could clip them on like you'd be wearing it on your like, you know, purse or your little belt loop or whatever. So 90s Tamagotchi knockoffs were everywhere, often called gigapets, dinky dinos, nanobabies or just nanobaies oh just virtual pets. remember gigapets and nanobabies for sure. Yeah, that's so funny. Yeah, know those were crazy. But yeah, I 100% believe that this was the number one. I feel like they were just slightly like behind like our time. I feel like by the time they hit, I remember like I remember like Tad and like his friends being my little brother. He's two years younger than I remember it being like thing with them. i don't remember it being that much of a thing with like my friend. Really? No, all the girls in grade had Tamagotchis. It was a thing, dude. Yeah, that this was definitely a thing.
00:55:47
Speaker
um Number two is Beanie Babies. i can 100% buy this as well. huge. especially baby's was a culture you guys remember the mcdonald's ones were like dude yeah your mom had to go to mcdonald's before she picked you up from school to make sure you got it like think of it think of like funko's but if like everybody was into them and there was literally just nonsense behind them dude like yeah there was nothing nothing attached to and that's the thing there was none of these this these were not licensed properties these were nothing this nelly the whale yeah shit dude
00:56:18
Speaker
Yes, this is Nellie the Wheel. I think the closest we got to like a license was there was a Princess Diana um ah beanie baby. And it was like, you know, after she passed away, they made like a memorial beanie baby for her, um which I think is still one of the most like, you know, uh. One of the most rare be writer and sought after ones. Yep. We had them. I have no idea where they are. Like my mom, there was also, my mom said she never sold them, but like all the McDonald's ones, we have them somewhere and they're still in the packaging. Like that we never opened them.
00:56:48
Speaker
Well, there, Beanie Babies are another thing that just had, you know, freaking loads of knockoffs, dude. There was just all kinds. Beanie Babies. They had the Sable one. It was white. It had the black handprints across the chest.
00:57:00
Speaker
um Wow. That Sable one was great. That is hilarious. I remember that. ah Three was Tickle Me Omo. I can buy that this was three as well because I just remember how much of a craze this was when this happened. I mean, obviously, we weren't getting these, but... I wasn't getting Tickle Me Omo, but yes. And I feel like it was... Dude, to me, looking back, man, I feel like this thing was totally just media-created because I remember it just kind of being out nowhere. You'd never heard of this thing. And then all of a sudden, it was all over, like, you know, Good Morning in America and all the different new shows that, like, this is the must-have toy.
00:57:33
Speaker
for Christmas. And the thing I'm thinking is like, bro, this thing's targeted for like three and four year olds. So like, how the fuck are they even going to know like what they want for Christmas? You know what I mean? Like you get, they're going to like whatever you fucking get them, dude. I don't know.
00:57:44
Speaker
To me, like looking back on it, I feel like Tickle Me Elmo was a complete like industry slash media driven freaking demand thing. It was like some sort of like, yeah, some sort of like mental test. I remember my Aunt Michelle wanted to get one for my niece, Chelsea, dude. And just like, you know, it was like Jingle All The Way. It was like the closest thing I could say is the equivalent uh if you're sneakerhead trying to get like a highly sought after pair jordans man that was what it was like yeah people going store to store yeah like cena said that probably was like the closest thing to jingle all the way i think i wonder if it may line up like it took a moment may have been the inspiration behind it think if i think it i think it was but yeah just this one singular toy that you know again i think it works too along with turbo man because it's like why why do people want this thing like not even that great of a toy man Were Furbies before? Furbies was after. After Tickle Me Elmo. think tried to ride some of the wave, tried to recreate the Tickle Me Elmo thing. Furby was big, but it wasn't like Tickle Me Elmo. Cabbage Patch, know there wasn't like the, I don't know if there was the media. Yeah, back the 80s, yeah, Cabbage Patch Kids, there was a huge demand. A huge demand for Cabbage Patch. Yeah. I feel like that just stretched over so many years, though. Like, I mean, the Cabbage Patch Kids were still a thing when... Tickle Me Elmo was like a one-year thing. Yeah, Tickle Me Elmo was one-year run when people were fighting. But you can still buy a damn Tickle Me Elmo on the story. Like, they're still freaking, you know, Elmo's still... an iconic toy at this point, dude. Yeah, like, regardless whether it was, you know, real or fake, the whole, know, the big buzz behind it, dude. It is an iconic toy. And that dude that I feel like that's where Elmo took over I feel like Elmo was like a side character in Sesame Street like it was Big Bird. He was like Michelle on Full House. He was just like the little like cute. He was never the central any plot. He was just like there for cute comedy relief. Yes. And then Elmo. Elmo. Yeah. Elmo is Sesame Street dude. Like if you tell any kid about Sesame Street their first character that they're going to know is Elmo dude.
00:59:30
Speaker
so Yeah, I'm looking on a, I just did a quick Reddit search, man. I did deep dive. Yeah. Somebody said that this was one of the first things of widespread FOMO, man. Like the news started hyping this thing up. They got a couple, they got a couple of good, says they got a couple of good organic marketing plugs. And then it just took over from there. Dude, nobody wanted their kid to be the one kid that didn't have a tickle me Elmo at Christmas, man. And like you said, this was for three or four year olds. So it's like, you know, but they're going to like preschool and being like, I got a tickle me Elmo, you know, like, no, dude, i don't know.
00:59:58
Speaker
Nuts. Yeah. ah Sheena just mentioned this one. Number four was Furby. I definitely remember this. Furbies were cool. i remember I never had one, but I remember like I'd be going to KB's to see ah you know the wrestling figures in the video games, and there would always be a big Furby display front.
01:00:14
Speaker
In my mind, it was basically every single time I stopped and played with the Furbies for little bit before I went back to the back, dude. See, I like I always I never had a Furby. I always wanted one because I always wanted a Mogwai. Like, you mean? Like, I loved Gizmo. yeah And it was just like this was like the closest thing to it. and Like an active live toy Mogwai that we had, dude. And I was like, oh, my God, like this is so cool. um i don't know why i never got a furby wasn't like you know just like out of you know the financial realm of possibility but yeah it just never happened yeah same because i think they i want to say retail was maybe like 25 bucks yeah and or maybe even less than that dude but yeah these weren't bad yeah yeah furby was cool though furby was yeah it was neat there was there was one christmas where they were sold all the way out and then it became like where they were always in stock on on shelves but yeah i remember that one christmas it was like furbies were the hot toy and you couldn't find them any freaking where
01:01:05
Speaker
Number five is Super Soakers.
Impractical but Desired Christmas Gifts
01:01:07
Speaker
um Yeah, this was definitely a toy on definitely every boy's list for sure. never think about Super Soaker for Christmas though, dude. I'm thinking Super Soaker more like birthday situation or like go get going to Walmart and getting one in the summertime. Yeah, but dude, it said that these dropped. Like the initial drop was right before Christmas of whatever year it was. Imagine getting this at Christmas and then having to wait three months to like really play with it. The Super Soaker arsenal was nuts when we were kids. They had so many cool You got to remember, we also lived in the Midwest. Not everyone lived in the Midwest, like California. That's true. but yeah Anybody that's in the South was, they they were getting these for Christmas and being able to play with them. Like, i know it seems like the only reason we think of this is because we couldn't use them at that time, but there was a lot of people that could use them and
01:01:52
Speaker
And it's just, it's so crazy to me because I remember, i mean, I had one that had, like i think it was like three or four like chambers on it, dude. And you had to unscrew each one of those chambers and then like fill it up and put them back on there. That thing was so heavy, dude. It was cool. um But yeah, you thought it was like the coolest thing and in the world. Yeah.
01:02:09
Speaker
uh six was poly pocket this one kind of surprised me a little bit just because i thought this was way earlier than the 90s but apparently it was not uh and what was the was it mighty max was the uh micro machine boys version no no no there was a boy no there was a boy um and they were like little they were little dinosaur like it was like a dinosaur head right oh yeah um let's see here boys but yeah i definitely had poly pockets i loved the the little the little compacts yeah there was like skulls and dinosaurs had the mighty max they're pretty cool toys i mean stella still likes them dude it's pretty pretty neat pocket still thing they still sell poly pockets now play set yeah i think it's a great concept for a toy there is somebody that i um follow on instagram and he i forget what the name is um But I'm sure if you just search Polly Pocket, you'll you'll find him. But he's a Polly Pocket collector and he like restores Polly Pockets and he 3D prints like new Polly Pocket dolls and everything. And it's just like he's got the most crazy collection. You know, not that I'm into Polly Pocket dolls, but I just love anybody that's nerdy enough to like dive into their hobbies like that. um
01:03:11
Speaker
But yeah, his Polly Pocket collection is wild, dude. That's crazy. Yeah. Yeah, but I believe it because Polly Pocket was huge. I loved, I love my Polly Pocket compacts. Now they have, i mean, the whole like Stella's got a couple things that are like shaped like a horse. There's one that shaped like a seashell. There's like, you know, every size shape and you know. you guys want to hear a weird Polly Pocket story? Yeah. I got a friend at work that this was like two years ago. He brought this up.
01:03:36
Speaker
He sweared. i forgot how we got on the topic of these Polly Pocket Mighty Max toys, but he brought up when he was a kid, his sister used get all kinds of Polly Pockets. And he said he used to chew on the clothes that came with Polly Pocket. He was like, I don't know what kind of like rubber or plastic he was, but he said, I've never felt anything that had as satisfying of like a tooth feel. Yeah.
01:03:53
Speaker
Yeah, to chew on these things. He he said he used to get in trouble from his parents because he would like, you know, he'd chew up the freaking clothes. But he said it just had like, he was like, it was something about it, dude. that He was like, it just had such like a bouncy, chewy, like good feel when you're chewing on it and stuff. man i could see i get to I could see that. I could see that. And I'm shocked that you didn't source some sort of vintage Polly Pocket clothes so you could try it out, dude. You're a chewer. No.
01:04:14
Speaker
Yeah, you're ah you're a chewer. I figured that'd be right. Yeah. The chemicals. Yeah. yeah I don't tell them what you're leaching into your body at that point. Wow. I remember looking it up, though, dude, at the time. And yeah, like I found this is a Reddit post I found. It was a bunch of people. I said I used to chew.
01:04:30
Speaker
It's same thing. he There's a Reddit post. from This may be the guy I worked with. This from seven years ago. There's a Reddit post on the Reddit forum for Bidding Snacks where this guy talks about And yeah, it's apparently a thing. A lot of people were jumping in. This guy says, yeah, the purses were my favorite.
01:04:43
Speaker
Somebody says somebody said the purses were gourmet delight. um What is happening? So this post was from seven years ago. This is four years. So three years later, somebody jumped in and commented on this. So this is definitely a thing, right? Three years later, somebody found the post, commented, I'm salivating right now just thinking about chewing on Pauly pocket clothes. Dude, this is insane. mean yeah this like up che yeah I kind of want to do it now, dude. Here you go. So again, the original, I'll send you guys the post. Original post of seven years ago, one year ago, somebody comments, got on Reddit today just to make sure I wasn't alone. Chewing those clothes was so satisfying.
01:05:18
Speaker
179 days ago, my mom had to stop buying them for me because I kept chewing on them all the time as a kid. Yeah. So we're going to have to order some of these off eBay and give them a good deep cleansing and then chew on them. I know. i feel like I really need to feel this now, dude. I know, but I wonder if it's like if if it's dry rotted. You know what I mean? like If it's like lost the lost the elasticity that it would have had. and Oh, yeah. There's another post. Who else loved chewing on the Polly Pocket clothes as T.A.T. This is insane. Wow. Yeah. Didn't know that big.
01:05:46
Speaker
Yeah. All right. Number seven is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle figures.
Childhood Toy Memories and Craze Reflections
01:05:50
Speaker
This definitely tracks. I remember being bummed, dude. So I was, Ghostbusters was my thing, right? Like up until like, you know, really far i got deep into wrestling. Ghostbusters was my favorite, dude.
01:06:02
Speaker
And we lived in Scotland, man. Like my dad was in the Navy also. we were stationed in Scotland. So super limited on what toys we can get, right? These are mostly like American toys. You only get what's available at the exchange. Well, have stuff out in town too. I mean, it's not like we're out in, you know, we weren't in Burma or anything, dude. Like there were still, you know, stores in But like a lot of like American toys.
01:06:22
Speaker
Well, that's what i was going to say. going to say like, really, there's no like Scottish toy market, right? So all it is is whatever American toys that the Scotland companies happen to decide to, you know, order and get shipped over. Um,
01:06:35
Speaker
But anyway, um yeah, so I, you know, ghost but before that, was i had all kinds of Ghostbusters toys, And that's all I was asking for for Christmas, right? More and more Ghostbusters stuff, whatever. You know, I don't care what it is. Give me Ghostbusters stuff. And looking back now, I can see, like, there's just, like, I think it had to been kind of, like, a little bit agonizing for my parents. because i think if I had to have this conversation with my kids, how painful it would be. I still remember this. Like, it's kind of, it's fuzzy.
01:06:57
Speaker
But I still have this memory of... mom and dad telling me like hey we're not going be able to do any ghostbuster stuff this year but there's this new toy line teenage mutant ninja turtles and we're thinking you know i can't remember they said they were getting there they said they were thinking sand that was gonna bring me a bunch of ninja turtle stuff and i remember being in my mind i'm like distraught dude like like i remember in my memory i was super duper upset about this man like you know can't believe we're getting ghostbusters with these stupid freaking turtles you know um Story has happened. I did end up getting a bunch of Ninja Turtles stuff and loved it. But I remember that's like my first Ninja Turtles experience, dude, is hearing that I wasn't getting Ghostbusters and I was getting Turtles instead. And I just think back as a parent myself, like if you had never heard of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles when these came out? I mean, I'm five, dude. I'm a little idiot. How would I heard of it? And I lived in Scotland, dude. You know what mean? I'm five years old in Scotland, dude. So... um you know i'm thinking yeah my first exposure to ninja turtles was finding out that i wasn't getting any ghostbuster stuff for christmas and it was just this new toy line didn't even know it was a show or anything like that that was my introduction like this is your replacement because we can't find ghostbusters getting a bunch of turtle shit dude yeah it ended up being a happy ending i ended up loving turtles The year these came out, I remember this very well. Like, dude, Turtles was my shit. Like, I get it now that you said you were living in Scotland. Obviously, this wasn't coming on TV every day nine o'clock in the morning like it was here. Like, I watched this every day. Like, this is my favorite thing. And I mean, still to this day, like some of my greatest memories are getting Turtles toys for The toys were outstanding, dude. A lot of toys from, I mean, a lot of toys when we were kids were good. The Turtles ones are still really great. I think they hold up. Like, I think if I gave, like, the original Series 1 Turtles to Brett today, he would have fun playing with those, man. It was just, it was a great show. Like, the show was great on its own, and the action figure line was totally great on its own. But together, and then you rolled the movies into it and the video games, like, just an all-time, or, like, Turtles has got to be, like, a top three or four all-time, like, IP, dude. Oh, yeah. 100%. 100%.
01:08:53
Speaker
ah You sold the signed turtle set, didn't you? Yeah, I sold all my NECA turtles. Yeah, those man know I kind of wish I should i should have kept that signed set. You should have least kept that set. Those were so cool.
01:09:04
Speaker
Yeah, we got the video getting a signed. Yeah, we got the video getting signed. We didn't have anywhere to display it, man. We couldn't have just these four random turtles in the wrestling room. NECA turtles are awesome. I love that line. The cartoon turtles were great, too, though. Yeah, the the thing about the NECA turtles line, like hats off to anybody sticking with it. It got...
01:09:20
Speaker
deep bro and it's awesome for NECA right if you're a hardcore turtles fan it's got to be the best thing ever but I was I thought I was a pretty deep turtles fan they started dropping people that I'd never even heard of yeah like that line got some deep because all the figures look great but it's like dude the figures were great and they came with so many extras yeah it was a lot of real estate dude if you're if you're coming if you're collecting the NECA turtles line like you really got to be committed and it was just it got to just be too much doing that with the wrestlers but yeah I did love that line, man. Like some of those figures are incredible, but it's just like, dude, am I going to drop 40 bucks for this figure that I've never even seen? I don't remember this guy from the cartoons. Playability was a little questionable. Oh yeah. that class They were super brittle. There's definitely a couple that I snapped just doing basic posing. Yeah.
01:10:02
Speaker
uh eight is power rangers figures again when these dropped it was insane like getting these was so hard i mean you you had to be at toys r us when they ah opened when you knew you they were getting a shipment of these like all like the the um zords and everything like it just sold out them immediately This is another one that was, I feel, for me, this was a couple years behind me, dude. I remember my Power Rangers memories was me being pissed off because I wanted to watch SportsCenter in the morning, but brett or brett Tad wanted to watch Power Rangers every morning, so was a constant struggle. But I do remember, I remember, I have very deep memories of the action figure line just from Tad. I remember he had the the first five. I want to say the original five that came out were those ones that you could flip the head around, right? They were always in the Power Ranger suit, but you could flip the head and to their, like, you know, civilian head or whatever. And then, you know, you could press it and it would, like, have, like, a kind of, like, spring mechanism that would switch him to the mask, whatever. He had, he yeah so he had those and he had, like, these giant, like, 12-inch ones with all the different zords and shit, like Jordan said, man. It was a sprawling line. we were eight years old when these launched.
01:11:12
Speaker
1993 was when these toys came out. But I feel like watched Power Rangers, but it was mainly out of necessity. I mean? Because it was like what was on when we would get home after school. By 93, dude, I'm into wrestling. I'm into sports. I'm like, dude, I literally just misremembered. No, I was not immature. I just was misremembering the timeline. I thought, I'm like, was this like 97 and I was 12 years old and playing with these? No, it was 1993. It was completely fine. it was early. remember because lived with my grandma at that time. I remember because that's where we would watch Power Rangers at. Because the show only ran until 1995. The original. Yeah, it was early, early Damn, that's crazy.
01:11:59
Speaker
Yeah, I didn't have Power Rangers toys, but because it was never it was never my favorite show. I'm into it and I love people who are into Power Rangers, but it was just never my. I never. It was always cornball to me. Oh, I never. So when I say we had to go wait at Toys R Us, I never got these toys. My mom could not afford these toys. I get to play with them at my cousin's house. That was the only time I ever saw him. Like my mom could not afford these toys. The Zords were expensive. And she's like, no, I'm not buying these for you. I'm like, all right, whatever.
01:12:27
Speaker
I can appreciate the campiness of it now as an adult. And I really like the design of the Power Rangers, right? Like, I think they're just really cool looking like characters. But I hated that show when I was a kid. It wasn't my jam. It just wasn't my jam, dude. It made me want to beat up my little brother every time we were watching that instead of watching SportsCenter in the morning getting ready for school. No, I get it.
01:12:45
Speaker
Yeah, there's ah some some channel that we have on there. Like when we turn on our TV, like it's on like the Samsung channel. It's on the Samsung channel. There's a power ranges chick Power Rangers channel and it's always on. You know what i mean? Rita Repulsa.
01:12:58
Speaker
Yeah, it's just funny seeing it back, you know. Nice name drop. All right. Number nine is Game Boy Color. I never had one of these. I didn't have a Game Boy Color. I had an original Game Boy. Yeah, for me, man, I had an original Game Boy. It was cool. And then I remember getting a Game Gear. I was so geeked up for the Game Gear. And the Game Gear was such a letdown, man, that like that kind of turned me off handheld gaming up until like the Nintendo 3D, dude, like that the three ds or whatever, man. ah When that came out. And PSP was after that, right?
01:13:27
Speaker
PSP was around at the same time. Yeah. Yeah. We both had PSPs. Yeah. And had the Nintendo 3D. It the 3D or 3DS when I got, but yeah, those came out about the same time. Those were really cool. But yeah, I remember like the, to me, like the Game Boy was classy, right? The Game Boy Color is a bad-ass system too, man. Like looking back, like there's a lot of really, really good games on there, but I was just kind out on it as a kid. Yeah. I had a Game Gear too. And really the only game I ever played on Game Gear was Sonic. I had Sonic Spinball. I had Sonic Sonic Spinball, dude. Like, to me, Game Gear was kind of cursed. I think they were just kind of over-skis on what they were trying to do, man. Like, the battery life just sucked so bad, dude. Battery sucked, and the system was huge. Yeah, the system was huge. The games kind of ran like crap on it, dude, just because it was just a mismatch. I don't think they quite had the horsepower of the tech to do what they were really trying to do with the Game Gear, but... but game boy color was cool man i remember i know i remember playing uh on friends game boy colors playing pokemon and stuff man and just really if you wanted to go back dude like that'd be a good system to introduce a kid to just get him an old school game boy because game boy had a hell of a run and there are some apps some of the best video games ever made exist on the uh the game boy yeah there's a really cool uh lego set that's a it's a game boy yeah that thing is cool yeah it's really cool cool
01:14:39
Speaker
I saw it on an in-cap at Target the other day, and I was like, ohw that's that's dope, dude. they do make some cool Legos now. Uh, number 10 is talk boy slash talk girl.
01:14:49
Speaker
Never had one. Begged my parents. i beg one was bad no I begged my mom for one too. I wanted one so bad. I got, and and so instead of getting the actual like talk boy, i got this. It was a, it was cool. I liked it, but it was like, it took the mini tapes and it was just a Sony like handheld, like recorder just a recorder. It it was just a recorder, which is, it's the same thing, but it's not was it wasn't the same because it was like, It's not what Kevin McAllister had. It's not what Kevin McAllister had. And I used, I mean, I used my little recorder like crazy, but it wasn't the same kind of ruined the magic that it wasn't the ah the game or the talk point. Definitely not the same at all. i didn't have one either, but I wanted one really bad.
01:15:30
Speaker
yeah I think I would still get one. If I found one at a yard sale or something for the kids, because if you look online, if you... The kids would love that, dude. They're so expensive. wonder if can even find the media for them, like the actual tapes. Like the small... I forget what those mini tapes are called, dude. they're just mini cassettes, man.
01:15:46
Speaker
I know. I thought they had like a special name, but maybe they're mini cassettes. Yeah. Good times. all right. um Let's finish it off with what was your favorite present from the ninety s I mean, know Seth,
Favorite 90s Christmas Gifts
01:16:01
Speaker
what do you think? So do you not have a vivid memory of what you got from the nineties? No, I'm trying to think, dude, if I want to just go with Jack's BCAs, dude, I remember Hasbro's I kind of got as they came out. Like so Hasbro's and Jack's BCAs, that's like really the two main figure lines of my my childhood. I felt like Hasbro's, I kind of just got them as they came out. And also Hasbro's didn't really put out many, you know i mean? If you really look back on the grand scheme of things, dude, Hasbro didn't put out a whole lot of product for, the amount of time they had the WWE line, whereas Jax was just pumping stuff out. I want to say, i think 96 was the first, ah like the late 96 was that first year that like Jax series one, series two were dropping. So I think that Christmas 97 dude, by that time they were really humming. I want to say I had just like straight up bonanza dude of,
01:16:46
Speaker
wrestling figures man i think i got the black raw ring and like i'm talking like i had like a whole starter starter federation dude i think i got like 13 14 figures that year for christmas because that's all i wanted man was just wwf stuff so i'd say that one or 92 i got the sega genesis man and that me me and the sega genesis had some good times dude that's really where i became a gamer i had a nintendo before that that i played a little bit but i got hardcore Well, i was going to say, mine was probably, mine was a SNES. Did you not have, did you not have a Super Nintendo, did you have a Super Nintendo before the, I had a Genesis first, and i got Super Nintendo after. Okay, because I had a Super Nintendo, and then, or maybe i had a,
01:17:22
Speaker
we're genesis was our we were we went from the n nes to the genesis dude yeah now i went from nintendo to super nintendo and then got a sega genesis um i had to get that we could have got either war and we wanted the genesis though because they had blood on mortal kombat mortal kombat was like our obsession at the time and we knew they were coming out and it was i don't know i don't think they were already out i because i want to say like i got mortal kombat for our birthday when it came out but back then you know you have like you like trying to get me monthly and the other game magazines and Somehow or another, you know, how like kids just had knowledge of everything back then somehow like yeah magic did like through the kid news network. We knew that on Sega Mortal Kombat was going have blood. The Super Nintendo wasn't. And I think that's why we wanted the Sega so much more.
01:18:01
Speaker
Sound like Brit. Yeah. I think mine was the Nintendo 64. I think that's probably the the like longest lasting gift i ever had. And it was it was my favorite thing. And yeah I didn't expect to get it either. So like I think I just was like in shock when I got it. So yeah, that's probably my favorite gift of the ninety s Yeah, I think mine was definitely ah the Super Nintendo.
01:18:26
Speaker
I remember, because I played the freaking dog crap out of that thing. And ah I remember we lost power. We had a big, huge ice storm. I can't remember. It was like that year or the year after we had a big, huge ice storm. And we packed up the Super Nintendo and went to a hotel. And we just, like, sat and played the entire time, you know, because everything was closed down. There was nothing to do, know. Those game consoles were life-changers in the 90s, man. It was such a big deal when you upgraded game consoles, dude. Like, now, like, if you just... The kids are playing video games right now. if you went in there, dude, and kind of squinted, you wouldn't be sure if you were looking at an Xbox 360, Xbox ah One, or Xbox Series game on there. You know what i mean? Or, like, PS3, PS4, PS5. Like, it's... you know The differences are there. There's improvements, but they're not as readily apparent as it is. If you go look at games on NES and Super Nintendo, or look at games on Nintendo and Sega Genesis, or going from Super Nintendo to n sixty four it's ridiculous, man. yeah and yeah That's one thing that we're definitely missing for modern gaming. I think that's why it's not quite as big a deal for kids to get the new systems yeah as it used to be.
01:19:23
Speaker
You can totally get by with a PS4 or an Xbox One right now and totally be getting by just fine, dude. there's there's very I feel like there's very little that you're missing out on if you're still on the last-gen consoles, which is crazy because we're we're freaking five years deep into this generation now. You know i mean? And the old consoles are still holding up just fine.
01:19:44
Speaker
What will happen, though, is they'll do the same thing they've done with everything. They'll just stop supplying support to those systems, and that's going to for the favorite it. Yeah, that's going to be it. Yeah. That's going to be it.
01:19:56
Speaker
Cool, man. Well, dude, this was another fun one, man. We thought this was going be, think last year, I don't think we did a full week episode. think it ended up being about 35, 40 minutes. Well, you had a full blown extra man on deck. We had Christmas Miracle with Sheena jumping in as the third pod warrior.
01:20:11
Speaker
Jordan, you got to do the honors, man. You do it every time for Pod Warriors Day. This was some closing and thoughts before we get out here. Yeah, as always, ah from me, Seth, Sheena, we wish you guys a Merry Christmas. And thanks for hanging with us this year. It's just ah been a crazy year and looking forward to 2026. So have a good Christmas.
01:20:34
Speaker
Merry Christmas. Happy Holidays.