17 Weeks / 121 days until Christmas (Instrumental Christmas Song Battle)

[00:00:02] This is a Bramble Jam Podcast I'm from the North Pole, it's time for Christmas Morning, the daily show where every day is Christmas. Here are your hosts, Bran and...

[00:00:32] Well, well, well, ho, ho, ho and Merry Christmas everyone. Hopefully you're doing well today. Welcome to another episode of Christmas Morning. I'm Bran here per usual with my good friend Scott Scott. Merry Christmas, bud. Merry Christmas, Brandon. We are six days away from the Burr months. Wow. You can almost smell the pumpkin spice. Isn't that exciting? It sure is.

[00:00:59] I don't want to say we've made it because it's still hot outside. It's still summer. But let us have this victory, right? I'm looking at that extended forecast though, Scotty, and I'm not encouraged. I'll say that. Mother Nature didn't get the memo about the Burr months. I thought September 1st, it was supposed to... All the trees turn instantly red and orange and the temperatures go down. You know what I'm really excited for? What's that? It doesn't apply to you in Greenville, but back in Denver, I'm excited for when the low temperatures at night hit the 40s.

[00:01:28] Seeing that number is a very visceral thing. Like, wow, it's happening. Yes. I mean, we're getting not cool mornings, but nice. You can feel just a little tinge of chill. It's like the, you know, it's like the idea. It's a different hue of chill. It's not quite chill, but it's close. Yeah. We're getting there. Little victories, right? It's a step-by-step.

[00:01:57] Absolutely. We got to step-by-step our way into the mailbag because once again, it's full. Yeah, let's do it. Okay. So the major news right now, Brand, is that I was able to see the bottom of the mailbag. After we got through the party episode yesterday and today's, I think I have less than 10 items in there finally.

[00:02:23] And it stresses me out. I'm an inbox zero boy and that's not where we've been living. And other good news for you. Every email today is about Christmas in the wild sightings. Oh, God. The first is from Jennifer Clemmer. Jennifer says, here are some pics of my Hobby Lobby on August 3rd. There were a couple more aisles and end caps that I didn't take pictures of. It was a lot. And the tree area had toppers and ornaments and empty places for trees. And she says, we've got this.

[00:02:51] And she included some great photos. I didn't put them all on our Instagram. I don't know how interested people are in seeing pictures of other people's stores, but it filled me with some serious joy. Of the Hobby Lobby so far, I think this one is in first place. Yeah, this one is fantastic. The amount of Christmas. This is a good amount of Christmas right here. I've got an email from listener Mary. Mary says, I found Christmas at a Dollar Tree

[00:03:17] in Roanoke, Virginia. And I included this one because that's another store we haven't even thought of. And this is one that my wife loves to frequent, the dollar stores. We all love a bargain around here. And seeing the Christmas there, it's another high watermark. Really great stuff. Thank you, Mary. I love that. Good for them. Then I've got, I'm combining three or two emails and one text message into one here. Wow. This is from Dave in Utah, Jack Undreferth and you, Bran.

[00:03:47] Yeah. All these people found Christmas at their local Costco's. That's right. That's right. I actually did not see it at the Costco. My wife did. And she sent me a picture knowing that I would be excited about this. Yes. But still your Costco has it. I don't like to go to Sam's Club and Costco in the same weekend. It's just too much. Sam's Club is, is just bulk Walmart. It's a step down from Costco. So I did

[00:04:11] my Sam's Club drudgery last weekend. Next weekend, I'm planning on the Costco. I'm going to have a slice of pizza. I'm going to have my Coke zero, but I'm looking at the photo that Jack Undreferth sent here and they've got the Grinch Christmas tree, which even my coworker mentioned was pretty cool. And he's not a Christmas fanatic. That's a cool Grinch. I don't think I've ever seen that one before at the Costco. I've seen something like it, but I've never seen it at Costco. The funny part about

[00:04:37] it is behind it is that gigantic skeleton that's coming out of the ground. It's a confusing time right now. It really is. It comes to decorations. If y'all happen to go to your Costco's and you want to share in the joy with me, we probably won't keep reading them all on the air, but you can send them to christmasmorningpodcast at gmail.com. I'll be excited with you. It's great stuff. That's right. And then I got an email from Lance Garman and Lance says, looks like Christmas will soon be showering down from the top shelves at Lowe's on the Eastern shore of Maryland. And he sent me photos

[00:05:07] of their top stock at Lowe's. And also listener Tony Dixon did this, uh, sent me a text with the same thing here. It's happening brand. All right. I mean, in the next month or so at the Lowe's and Home Depot, no doubt. Yeah. And this is the best part. This is like when you walk in the house and you smell dinner and you know, it's coming. I think that's almost more exciting than the, than the event itself. Absolutely. And then I've got this nice email here from, uh, Jill and Xavier

[00:05:34] from the UK and Jill, we haven't heard from you in a long time. Glad you're doing well. And Jill says, hello, Christmas chums across the pond. I know, I know you've seen a few Christmas in the wild spots by now, but this is the first I've actually laid eyes on here in England. I've attached a few photos of what I found. It's still the very beginning of the stock being put out. And there are a few pallets still heavily wrapped up, but it's a start and we all have to start somewhere.

[00:05:58] I'm so excited to see Christmas trees for sale and that questionable light up Santa blowing bubble gum, uh, sending love as always. And she sent some great photos here. I agree that this picture of Santa blowing a bubble is just bizarre. This is weird. Is this something that we don't know about across the pond? Is this something that comes out every year or is this like a new thing? It's

[00:06:23] like Santa with a pink cowboy hat on. It's weird. It's a pink cowboy hat and a pink, uh, bubble, uh, blowing a big bubble, uh, bubble gum. You know what I was excited about in these photos though was the candy section. I can't partake in the candy, but I love seeing it. And my dad was in candy wholesale all my childhood. So I used to get to go with him to the office once in a while. And the smell,

[00:06:47] I can smell a candy aisle and it instantly takes me back. I love all of this Jill. And we have a, um, a PS from Jill. Okay. It says, can you please wish Xavier a happy sixth birthday for the 7th of September? So we're a week early on this. We could do it next week, but I want to do it right now. So we don't forget Xavier. Happy birthday, buddy. Happy birthday. Six. That's a big one. It's a big

[00:07:13] one. Happy birthday, bud. Hope you get all the paw patrol or whatever you're into these days. Absolutely. And that's it for the emails brand. But I think you can agree that that was a lot of Christmas in the wild sightings. That was a lot of Christmas in the wild. And part of me, Scotty, even more than I wanted to before, I want to catch up so that I can like know at the moment when it's happening. You know what I mean? Yeah. People that send stuff now,

[00:07:37] it's not a month old anymore. Okay. Great. I love that. Uh, well I got bad news, I believe. Yep. I just confirmed it. Bad news. No new reviews, Scotty. I'm not surprised. Hanging out around 315. It's fine. Yeah. You got a joke for us now? I do. And boy, did this joke make me laugh. Oh, okay. Now, you know, I have questionable taste in jokes and I bring some and there's a lot of groaning. Absolutely. Yeah. I think this one's going to catch you. Are you ready? Okay. All right. I'm ready. What do you call a snowman

[00:08:07] that plays piano? I don't know. Milton John. I do like that. That was submitted to us by Lenora Gilbert. Thank you, Lenora. That was really great. I really liked that. That's great. I love that. Let's do the countdown. 121 days into Christmas. Three weeks, three weeks away from

[00:08:34] the hundred mark. All right. Okay. I'll take that. That's only 17 weeks until Christmas, but I don't even care about the 17 weeks until Christmas part right now. It's, we're just getting into the thick of it. I say, I don't need a countdown. Of course I need a countdown and that's part of the show, but I'm smiling ear to ear right now. This is fantastic. We're getting into it. We're getting into it, bud. And it's also only 36 days until October 1st.

[00:09:00] How about that? And that's only five weeks from now. Yeah, man. It's going to be here before you know it. I can't wait. It sure will. Let's do the news. Let's do it. Today is August 26, 2026. Here's the news. Scotty Hallmark is on the lookout for the merriest

[00:09:26] Christmas town. This is a new contest that they launched earlier this summer and have now announced the 25 finalists that you can vote on until midnight of September 4th. A few listeners have written in about this brand and said, Hey, have you heard about this? And I kept meeting to mention it to you, figuring it would become a news segment. So it finally has.

[00:09:51] Yes. Don't you, don't you worry. Who are the 25 finalists? Well, are we going to read all 25? That's a lot. I don't know if I'm going to read all 25, but I will say Hallmark's website for it, which I'll link in today's merriest Christmastowncontest.hallmarkchannel.com. You can see all of the entries. They have like a picture showcasing the entry, and then you can click see entry and scroll to see more pictures and a little bio about

[00:10:21] the town and some traditions that they have and whatnot. Now this is a fan voted thing, Scotty, which I got to be honest. I don't love. Why not? Because if you have like a bigger town, you can get all of your people to vote and then you win where I would rather send some judges like they do on great Christmas light fight, experience the town's traditions, see it in real time, and

[00:10:50] then crown a winner. But that's not what we're getting here, but we are getting 25 pretty cool towns. Any that I'd be aware of or probably been to? Well, there's Conway, South Carolina, which is relatively close by, I suppose. Let's see. Where else could you have been? I'm looking in Florida. Winter Garden, Florida is on the list. I don't know if you ever went there. Yeah, I've been there. Florida doesn't hit me as a Christmassy

[00:11:18] place though. It's always so hot. That's why I moved away from Florida. Yeah, it doesn't hit me either. There's one of these, which is North Conway, New Hampshire. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And the but the picture of it is just it's not like this is what I'm saying. You need to see this picture. It's just a picture of a mountain. And then they have one other picture and it's just two people kissing nothing Christmassy about this. And I think that there's some shenanigans here. They got everybody in

[00:11:43] their town to vote to get them on the finalist list. I want this to be a true, a true election here to vote for the most Christmassy town in America. I think it's pretty cool. Yeah. Unfortunately, you're asking for like a Christmassy town electoral college and that's problematic. I know. I know. It has its roots in bad things. But I will say the prize is they're going to win the title, obviously, of Hallmark's Merryest Christmas Town

[00:12:09] and will have the opportunity to serve as a filming location for a future Hallmark movie. Oh, that's cool. Yeah. We're not promising anything. No, we'll look at the tax breaks first and then we will, you know, see. I mean, if we can get if we could do it, we could do it. If not, you know, you still get the title. All right. Let's take a break. We'll come back. We'll get to the Christmas music battle. And of course, the daily or I'm sorry, the Christmas TV minutes here on

[00:12:37] Christmas morning. Welcome back, everybody. Oh, brand good news. I just I just heard you. You won the award for most awkward break introduction. Yes, I did. All right. I did it. It only took six years now. However long it's been. Let's get to the Christmas TV minute because I'm curious as to what's going on in the TV right now in the end of August. Yeah, I think I picked a

[00:13:05] few good items that you might want to catch on the TV. So here is your Christmas TV minute courtesy of MostlyChristmas.com. Wednesday, 12 p.m. on Turner Classic Movies, The Shop Around the Corner. 6 p.m. on Turner Classic Movies, Bell Book and Candle. And 11 p.m. on TV One, Sanford and Son, Ebenezer Sanford. Thursday, 4 a.m. on Hallmark Family, Highway to Heaven, Bassingers, New York. And 10 a.m. on Up, The Waltons, The Best Christmas. Friday, 6 p.m. on Hallmark Family,

[00:13:31] Christmas Joy. That's from 2018. 6 p.m. on Hallmark, Never Kiss a Man in a Christmas Sweater. 8 p.m. on Hallmark Family, Hitched for the Holidays. That's from back in 2012. Yeah. And 8 p.m. on Hallmark, We Met in December. Saturday, 5 30 a.m. on Antenna, Sabrina the Teenage Witch. It's a hot, hot, hot, hot Christmas. 7 30 a.m. on E, How I Met Your Mother, How Lily Stole Christmas. And 9 30 p.m. on Nick at Night, Friends, The One with the Creepy Holiday Card.

[00:13:57] Couple more Sunday, 1 30 a.m. on Aspire, Family Time. The episode is called Scrooge. 12 p.m. on Hallmark Mysteries, Murder She Baked, A Plum Pudding Mystery. And 6 50 p.m. on Fee TV, SWAT, Silent Night, Deadly Night. Finally, Monday, 7 a.m. on ION, NCIS, Humbug. 2 55 p.m. on ION. Who starts a show at 2 55 p.m.? But it's Chicago Fire and the episode is called Winterfest. And finally, 11 p.m. on Hallmark Family, Little House on the Prairie.

[00:14:26] The episode is called Blizzard. And that was your Christmas TV Minute, courtesy of MostlyChristmas.com. Thank you, TV Scotty. Let's get to last week's Christmas music battle of It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas. In fact, it is, folks. That's your stories. It's beginning. It's beginning. It's not here. It's beginning to look. Let's get to the results. Only 16.6% of the vote went to the version by Polythea. That was mine.

[00:14:55] I don't know. I don't know. Bran, you took a big swing on this one. And I totally give you credit for that. It's not for everybody. You even said, I don't think I've ever heard this as a trap song. Well, probably because nobody wants that. But I want it. I loved the variety of it. It's something I've never heard. And that's what I want sometimes. It is very fun. All the credit, Bran. Very fun.

[00:15:19] With 28% of the votes, Ghost Town Remedies version, which was brought by the listeners, Scotty. Yeah. It's beginning to look a lot like Shred Mist. Right. This was brought to us by listener Drew Basic. Drew, great pull. Another one that not everybody wants this, but it has like a discount Reliant K feel to it. I like the album cover, too. It's like a Yeti shredding. Shredding. Yeah, pretty cool.

[00:15:46] But that means first place, 55% of the votes. Scotty pulled it out this week with his version by Brad McNett. Yep. Don't know who Brad McNett is, but he's got that crooner vibe going. And I think the other one suffered because this one is pretty universally approachable, maybe, is the word. Sure. Yeah, yeah. But that means, Scotty, that you and I are once again tied at 10 wins apiece. The listeners down there at eight, so they're still in it.

[00:16:16] But it's getting down to crunch time here. Sure is. Only, you know, probably like two handfuls worth of battles left. But nobody is the clear winner. There's no runaway. At this point, it is still anybody's game. How exciting is that? Absolutely. Let's get to this week's battle, which is an instrumental battle. Well, and let's see what we are able to come up with. Up first, we have God Resty Merry Gentlemen by David Knight Project.

[00:17:41] Brad and I really enjoyed that version for a couple reasons. One, you don't hear a lot of harpsichord. No, you don't. Sometimes it's a good thing because it can be a very shrill instrument. But because of all of the Halloween I've been seeing, it was giving me Halloween vibes because it had that little spookiness to it. So fantastic. And looking at the album cover, it is, I guess it's Christmas. Christmas Night is the album. David Knight is the musician. But it's like a night theme.

[00:18:10] And you can kind of hear that like, I'm sorry, a K-N-I-G-H-T. Yeah, K-N-I. I knew it too because I could see it. You know, like a little medieval even. A medieval Christmas. Yeah, I really enjoyed that. Yeah, that was fun. You know what else I've been enjoying, Brian? Are those Instagram posts. And yeah, they're not real. They're all kind of AI generated. But it looks like a street scene and it's fall. And you know, like the leaves will be blowing through or it's a candle in the window. I have finally gotten my algorithm to show me basically.

[00:18:40] That's all I need to see. And that's what social media is for. I don't need to see your family. I just need to see some Christmas. Unless they're in North Conway, New Hampshire or something. Sure. Yeah, absolutely. I don't know what this band's name is about. It's Shiny Ribs. Scary, but this is Linus and Lucy.

[00:20:05] That was a cool version of Linus and Lucy with a little heavier percussive beat. Yeah. I kind of want to check out the rest of that album, but that is Shiny Ribs from his album, The Kringle Tingle. The Kringle Tingle. I have a Kringle Tingle, Brian. I got to go see the doctor. Oh my gosh. You should cut that. Last but not least, we have Santa Claus is Coming to Town by Denver Horn Authority.

[00:21:36] Brian, put some stank on the tuba. Man, that is, I mean, in their defense, they are the Horn Authority. Yeah, Denver Horn Authority. I'll have to open my window and see if they're coming down the street or something. Fantastic. I felt like I was inside the tuba. Yeah, that one needs to be experienced with headphones. So if you're in the car, put a little pin in it. You might want to check that one out later. Go back. Check that out. Oh, Brian, we need to play that at Bramble Fest with the big PA system. Boom, boom, boom.

[00:22:05] I got to be honest with you, Scotty, this is a battle. I think this is a great battle. This is a great battle. I think anyone could win this one this week. I had so much fun with all three songs today, and we got a ton of listener submissions. We got submissions from Mike Trulock, Jack Unverfurth, Lance Garman, Mary Pulte, Kim Gazarek, John Rice, Jeff Dale, and Michelle Byerly. Thank you all for submitting. Very good. Let's pick a song for next week. I guess it's me? Yeah, I think it's back to you, bud. I just don't know. I looked for Like It's Christmas, the Jonas Brothers.

[00:22:34] I didn't feel like there was a lot of versions. Yeah, you're probably right. And then I don't know those other three songs. I'm like Lesson, like Stay Another Day, A Spaceman Came Traveling. Those are all from Adam Parker from the Merry Britzmas podcast. Those are very popular UK songs that are just not popular here. I mean, but should we do one? No. No, we should not. Okay. Let's do, we've got some songs that we've battled, but the listeners have not. So let's just do Joy to the World. I was looking at the same one, Brandon. I think that's fantastic.

[00:23:03] So go to Bandcamp, find a version of Joy to the World that you like, and if possible, go to our website, christmasmorningpodcast.com slash songs, and make sure that we haven't submitted it already. I'll filter out any that have already been done, but find one you like and email it to me at christmasmorningpodcast at gmail.com. Find some good ones. Joy to the World. What a joyous song. When I said we shouldn't do those others, we will eventually.

[00:23:30] What I mean is I don't want to take the mood down to a melancholy song. I want to keep this train rolling with Joy to the World. Absolutely. Absolutely. So send in some songs, christmasmorningpodcast at gmail.com. Also continue sending some stuff in. We love the Christmas in the Wild stuff. We love hearing about how you're beginning to prep for the holiday season. So feel free to email us and we'll be back next week with another episode. Anything else, Scotty? No, not at all. Just continue to take it in.

[00:24:00] Take a deep breath of Christmas. And we finally made it to the point where we can start seeing it. And I think, I can't speak for everybody, but this is a great time for us. Absolutely. Great time. Great time. All right. We'll be back next week with another one. Until then, Merry Christmas. You're about to hear some ads that help pay for our trip back and forth to the North Pole.

[00:24:30] Feel free to listen. Feel free to bail now. But either way, thanks for being here. Ho, ho, ho. Ho, ho. HOne Nine Hill House.