The Kitchen’s Open – A Christmas Feast (Hour 2)

Good morning, Wisconsin. Morning, world. It's a new day. Thanks for kicking it off with this here at WFHR.

Got your host, James behind the mic. I am joined by our Head of News, our co-host, Melissa K.

Good morning.

Head of production, co-host, Seth Havanger. Good morning. And the best listeners in radio.

Thanks so much for joining us, everybody. We hope you're having a fantastic Monday up there.

We got some entertainment news coming up for you in a little bit. We're going to talk about the weirdest Christmas movies of all time.

We got that all coming up, but it is a Monday in the 9 o'clock hour. You know what that means.

Good morning and welcome to the kitchen's open on WFHR for this Monday, December 22.

I really can't be.

Baby it's Christmas time. No cookies or cake. But baby it's Christmas time.

I have a big meal to get prepared.

At least some pie sure be nice.

All the days we cook a feast.

Let's have some prime roast beef.

This whole segment is going to be music.

No, but maybe one day I'll write the kitchen's open the musical.

Some of us can't sing.

When we think of Christmas, we usually think and have visions of cookies and candy canes and other sweets in our heads.

That the poem says visions of sugar plums danced in their heads.

Oh, details, details, details.

The holidays may be associated more with sweet treats we enjoy, but we gather with our loved ones and it's more than just about the baked goods and candy that we have fun with.

Scrooge even went beyond the sweets to get a Christmas turkey.

Turkey became the traditional main dish for many English-speaking countries following the popularity of Charles Dickens, a Christmas Carol.

However, that's not the only dish that family serve.

Erica Young in an article on the Taste of Home website, TasteofHome.com.

From January 30th, 2024, shared a U-Gov poll asked 1140 people to choose the better of two Christmas foods in a series of head-to-head match-ups.

The holiday dish that won the most match-ups might surprise you.

It wasn't turkey or even ham.

The number one pick is roast potatoes.

With a winning percentage of 76%.

Mashed potatoes came in second at 75% and turkey was in third at 73%.

By the way, that was the only protein in the top five.

Bread rolls and stuffing rounded out the top five with 70% each.

Other top dishes included prime rib, roast beef and steak.

We recently had Angie Horken from the Wisconsin Beef Council on Midday Magazine.

She shared some great beef tips about how to choose the right cut and prepare the beef just right.

Her biggest tip was to use a good oven meat thermometer thermometer.

That is a good tip. You don't want to accidentally give the gift of food poisoning.

That one's not returnable.

Making sure you prepare the meal correctly is key in having a great holiday meal.

Hosting, to boiling, to smoking and frying.

Taking the time to review the recipe and check your equipment will help keep everyone safe and healthy.

And prevent a fire from starting.

Many of us just prepared a big Thanksgiving meal and may not want to have turkey again,

unless it's provided by Mr. Scrooge or another guest.

So, what else is good to make?

Oh, okay.

You know, my mom always kind of made turkey again.

I think we just kind of did the traditional meal.

But my brother Mitchell and I, recent, in recent, like the last few years together,

we made a beef Wellington for Christmas.

Oh my gosh, was that fantastic?

It was a lot of work.

It was a lot of work.

Yeah, that's time consuming.

But it was fantastic.

Now, a very good friend of mine said recently,

is the corn dog just the beef Wellington of another socio and economical society?

That's a good question.

And I had to agree with her.

But also, I'd like to challenge all chefs out there.

Why can't we have at least, you know, a layer of baloney and yellow mustard in our packed into our corn dog?

Ooh, a little different.

Yeah, right?

Yeah, not bad, not bad.

Corn dogs are Christmas.

I am a fan.

Oh, that is fabulous.

Well, I've pontificated on Swedish meatballs.

A couple of times on that.

I'm not going to get into ludifisc this time.

I've done way too much of that.

Oh, thank you.

But especially if you're talking about stuff you like.

But yep, the Swedish meatballs.

For me, on one side of the family, we always had that with the ludifisc, the other side.

We would mix it up a little bit.

We'd do ham.

We'd do sweetish meatballs sometimes.

So it wasn't always the same.

But because with two Scandinavian families, they were around a lot.

Right.

So that was certainly something we did.

Right.

Very consistently.

Well, we hear ham a lot.

That's one that we had.

We also would do the Pennsylvania Dutch hogma, which I've talked about before, which is basically just pork sausage seasoned with margaram.

And then some potatoes go with it and cabbage.

So you've got that whole pen dutch using the whole hog thing.

You can use the pig's stomach to cook it in, or not.

I choose not.

If you do, it becomes like a roast.

You have to have it in a roaster or a cooker.

And it takes most of the day to make.

Right.

I do it stovetop.

And it only takes about 20 minutes to do it that way.

And it tastes pretty much the same.

That's good.

You would don't.

Well, my dad, who I served it for, who grew up on hit.

I mean, he used to joke that it was a condition of the marriage that my mom learned how to make his grandmother's recipe for his pig stomach.

I served him my deconstruct, what I call deconstructed hogma.

He said it tasted just like he remembered growing up.

Oh, there you go.

Perfect.

That's a win.

Yeah.

Any traditions from your house, James?

I said it a billion times.

I always have pasta.

There you go.

Well, coincidentally, all of these sound wonderful.

And pasta is something that we don't usually think of.

But what about also Christmas soup?

I found a couple of the recipes.

So when I did a quick search for Christmas meal recipes at foodnetwork.com,

I found a recipe by Rachel Ray for Christmas pasta that uses pancetta, ground pork,

ground beef, and ground veal, and paired it with pene regatta noodles.

It sounded wonderful, and she shares that it's a great reheat as well.

Is that something similar to what you would have, James?

No.

No.

No ground pork in there for you.

No, no.

But it does sound all right.

It does sound good.

If Rachel Ray's making it, I'm trying it.

There you go.

Well, Alton Brown has a recipe on that site for Christmas soup that uses kilbasa as its meat.

Nice.

And pairs it with kidney beans, chicken broth, red bliss potatoes, and kale.

If you're interested in this one, it does take a bit more prep work, though.

You might want to check it out today.

It does sound good, though.

And we can't forget Hanukkah.

In addition to the well-known potato latkes, did you know that there are Hanukkah donuts?

Jonah O'Leary shares in our article on the Northern No Share website,

MyJewishLearning.com.

Quote, like their forebears, Jews in the New World embrace the fried dough.

As per the American way, they forge their own spins on tradition, such as making the presence of a whole,

the rule, rather than the exception.

The dipping, and dipping the finished product in syrup or glaze.

Oh, see, how do you say that?

Cifaganiat?

Cifaganiat?

Cifaganiat?

I don't know.

That's a tough one.

Cifaganiat?

Cifaganiat?

Cifaganiat.

Have been the official food of Hanukkah since 1920, when the Israeli labor federation declared them as such.

These wholeless wonders can be made with yeast or baking powder.

The former preparation is more standard on holidays.

And come in a spectrum of flavors besides their traditional jelly, including Adose Lache,

Vanilla or chocolate cream, and increasingly creative flavors like cereal and milk.

Israeli is consumed more than 20 million per year, and the Israeli army alone is supplying over 1 million.

Wow.

So I guess we do get to have some sweet treats as part of our holiday meal after all.

My mom would often make Christmas tree bread for breakfast on Christmas morning.

It too is a doughy treat of deliciousness.

One was red, and one was green.

I always had the two.

I don't know why she did that, so you can't have them same color.

Well, and with Hanukkah, what I found, and I think it ties into the whole celebration of having oil that lasted longer than they expected.

A lot of the foods that they make over the eight days are fried foods.

They use oils in a whole bunch of different ways.

And so it's easy to go online and find different types of donuts, because often donuts are fried, not baked.

Lockas, obviously, and there are all sorts of different toppings and flavors that you can add to your lockas.

Have there been any unique ones that your mom's used?

No, no.

But that's kind of in part because of sticking to the tradition that she has that's been handed down.

Right.

And wanted to keep that solid.

You'll see this in a lot of religions and a lot of creeds and everything, but with Jewish culture it's a little bit more intentional.

Because of the telling of history and how much of our history was torn from the history books, and in order to keep it alive, you inserted it into certain things, into foods, into recipes, into folk stories, and such.

So that almost it was a way of kind of keeping the recipe alive, keeping these things aground, because they couldn't be written down or anything like that and everything.

There's an interesting layer to it when you think about it and it didn't mean I'm pun intended.

Is there food that you look forward to every Hanukkah that it's not Hanukkah unless you have this particular food?

No, not really.

No.

That being a traditional Jewish household, we didn't necessarily have some of those things.

And we didn't honestly have the money for some of the ingredients and some of the products and stuff that we needed to bake.

I do associate, though, this time of Hanukkah with cookies, Christmas cookies and some of that, because that was something that we would do during the eight days of Hanukkah oftentimes was making Christmas cookies.

So many times it comes before Christmas, right?

And that's a great time period to do that, right?

Yeah, well, it was interesting going back to the survey that they did.

Some of the other foods on here that you wouldn't think of, like number 12, the 12th most popular dish to have for Christmas, is lasagna.

Hey, there we go.

Simon would make that.

Yeah, my mom would make that every now and then for Christmas.

That's good. I like that.

Potato salad is in here brisket, kind of blending two cultures again.

That was a 56% deviled eggs.

How many of us have that as appetizers?

If you think of your Christmas table, my grandma Ruth always said that.

I associate that more with Easter, actually.

Oh, yeah.

I don't remember them showing up on Christmas.

Yeah.

I know this is silly coming from me because I bring up the pasta thing every Christmas or whatever.

But lasagna seems to make more sense to me, actually.

Go for it, man.

Well, something that was lower on the list that surprised me because it seems very Midwestern to me is Jell-O.

I think of how many Jell-O molds that we've seen.

It's all in Minnesota. I swear to God.

It has to have either a fruit or a vegetable in there, right?

Either shaved?

It's called a salad.

Yeah, to call it a salad.

There you go.

Or like mandarin oranges in green Jell-O.

That's what my grandma would always make.

Ah, carrot shavings and lime Jell-O.

Yeah.

No, thank you.

It was at every get together.

I swear to God.

So what?

It would look like a Reese?

It was at the point?

Yeah, I was right over there.

What?

A Reese around, not pointed.

Yeah.

Sorry.

My grandma always made him round.

Exactly.

You said it's at the point.

Oh, boy.

Yeah, that one kind of felt terrible.

But the last two on the list in this survey kind of threw me off a little bit.

The first one was plantains.

Ooh.

That is not often one that you would think of.

They're banana-like, but they are much starched here than bananas.

I think this would be a good one for with Hanukkah because they're great if you fry them.

Yes.

Make a little fried.

Yes, they're very good.

And then just sprinkle a little bit of salt on.

Oh, plantain chips are great.

The last one is tofu.

Yeah.

What you could do for anything, yeah, basically.

And it will take on just about any flavor depending on how you do it.

So if you use your traditional seasonal flavors, it could taste just as good as your roast beef ham or turkey.

There you go.

That would work perfectly.

Well, if nothing else, the holiday meal is one that will bring loved ones to the table and create lasting memories that will be passed down from generation to generation through this shared story.

If you'd like to share your story by being featured as our segment sponsor, let us know.

Just give us a call at 715-424-1300-424-1300 and speak with Pam.

She'll put you in touch with Ashley to work out all the details.

That number again is 715-424-1300.

And with that, we'll close the kitchen.

Yeah.

Very nice.

Very good.

I don't know if this is your last one of the year or not, Beth.

But we really appreciate you taking the time, stopping by doing this every week.

We really, really love this segment.

Not as much as our audience does.

Love this segment.

Very good.

Thank you for all the work and picking up the baton here with us.

Thank you.

We're picking up the baton.

I plan to be here next week to do one more per year.

All right.

We'll see what it turns out to be.

All right.

Okay, wait.

Be listening next week for another opportunity.

Everybody here in the kitchen is open.

We'll be back with more show coming up on the morning show at WFHR.

Tell me something good.

Welcome back, everybody.

Morning show here at WFHR.

Locally grown radio.

Have a hungry jolly Christmas.

It's the best time of the year.

I don't know if there'll be snow.

But have a cup of cheer.

Have two cups.

Go one.

Melissa, Seth and James here with you.

Hope you're having a good one out there.

Everybody getting in some entertainment news now.

And it was an animal kingdom cage match sort of over the weekend with the box office

with you.

You had a hedgehog going up against a lion.

Right.

Yeah.

I'm glad these weren't real animals.

How do you work for a second?

Well, it was live action Lion King.

That's true.

So the live action Lion King prequel Mufasa went up against Sonic the Hedgehog 3.

And they can look for the top spot.

And it was not even close really.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 pulled away with the win.

Domestic box office gross of 62 mil.

Pretty good for a before holiday weekend.

The latest in Disney's string of live action remakes reboots and prequels to the classic

animated films.

Meanwhile, finished its opening weekend with just 35 million in domestic market.

But did do well overall globally with 122 million.

Oh, wow.

So it actually did better globally than it did locally.

Okay.

And that doesn't happen very often.

No, that's interesting.

Yeah.

Part of the issue was locally at least a lot more people going to still see wicked.

That is still, you know, just strong.

Yeah.

Just wrecking in people.

And Molana 2 is still doing very well in box office as well.

Okay.

It's an interesting week.

Yeah.

Interesting to see.

And, you know, I don't know about anybody else.

I know this has been my wheelhouse and I'm a little crazy about this stuff.

But I'm really thankful to be seeing the Christmas weekend movies back.

It really seems that way, yeah.

And seeing like the Hollywood and all that making a big deal of these weekends.

You know, the December weekends and having those big Christmas movies, those movies.

Yeah.

Wicked 2 came out right before Thanksgiving, but it was lined up as a Christmas movie.

That was always the goal.

Christmas season.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Because now it's when they're having the single longs.

Right.

That's right.

Yeah.

And I think even the movie has some placement in Christmas or something or something like that.

And maybe it was a long time ago I read the book.

But yeah.

So it's not surprising to see it still in box offices and doing well.

Yeah.

I think it's a little surprising to see like some of the fan, not the award fair that's going

being associated with it.

It's going to be nominated for a lot of stuff.

Cool.

So that part I thought was interesting.

I didn't see that part coming necessarily, but it makes sense.

Good points.

You know, I want to hear it and see it, I guess.

But yeah, it's a big weekend.

Has anybody seen any of the live action Disney remakes?

No.

Has any?

I have not.

Because like I've asked, I didn't a little bit of a survey over the weekend just asking random people.

Not just my brother and sister.

But like, you know, I'm in the gas station waiting in line and I'm asking people, which I do this all the time.

And I just want to thank this community.

And the Steven's point community I should say as well.

Because I've never gotten a funny look.

I've never, I did this this weekend and I realized like I've been doing this a long time.

And I never necessarily get like, I've had some weird answers that I don't share on the air.

But I've never necessarily had somebody say to me, what?

That's kind of cool.

Get out of here with that.

Yeah.

Right.

So big thank you to everybody for that.

Thank you for putting up with me.

But I'm running away from you.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

So before I answer that question though, I have a question myself.

Does Cinderella count?

Ooh.

That's a good question.

I guess I'm thinking of like the recent trend of Disney doing this and everything.

But I don't see it doesn't count.

I don't think it doesn't.

Because there have been a lot of remakes in that one.

That one's true.

But that was also a musical too.

True.

By Roger and Hammerstein.

But of course, but Snow White is coming up too.

All of them are musicals.

That's true.

That's true.

Yeah.

Look at Blinking.

Yeah, that's true.

I mean, that is one that my grandma said I absolutely have to see before I die.

It hasn't happened yet.

So neither of those things have happened yet.

So there's still time.

There you go.

There you go.

I'm just sneaking into the last minute.

Carpool Cariochi, the series, is getting into the holiday spirit on the past Sunday.

Apple TV plus series dropped a surprise holiday episode.

It featured Lady Gaga, Dua Lupa, and Chapel Rome.

Wow.

Wow.

That's a combo.

I just, I don't, like, they're all amazing singers.

I just think that, like, so this looks like it was done in the same car.

Yeah, they were all in the car at the same time.

Wow.

Like, that's, that's pretty impressive.

That's pretty cool.

That is pretty cool.

I got it, man.

Yeah.

And to see that the, you know, the lack of ego there.

That they, that they all did this together.

Yeah, they're all in the car together doing this and everything.

I love it.

That's great.

Yeah, that's pretty cool.

That's pretty cool.

Not bad.

There's a side note.

These three, Laney Wilson, some of the other younger, up and coming stars and everything.

All very different than I think that what we used to see.

Where it was like Prince and Michael fighting for the top pop spot.

Or Madonna and insert name.

You know, like, it almost didn't matter and stuff.

Now you're seeing this more.

You're seeing this more and more.

Sabrina Carpenter and Chapel Rome, apparently, our friends.

Yeah.

They're saying names.

I don't really know these people.

I'm too old to know any of these songs.

That's fine.

They're famous for it.

But I know who they are.

I've seen them on SNL and some of them.

And they're all very talented.

But they all also are very adamant about, like, we're supporting other women.

Like women supporting women.

That is becoming more and more a common thing.

And that is beautiful to see.

Yeah.

And I think you're right, though.

I don't think, I'm sure there's some rivalry there, too.

But maybe it's more friendly than it used to be.

That's a cutthroat like it was back in the day.

Yeah.

Well, because we also realize that nobody else is going to build us up.

We have to do it.

Mm-hmm.

You were absolutely right.

Mm-hmm.

And just one more entertainment story I had.

This is a great one.

I came across at WisconsinLife.org.

WisconsinLife.org.

I want to send a thank you to Annie Marie Yanny for writing this one back on December 17th.

I encourage you to check out the complete article.

But it was just a really cool article about the Dungeons & Dragons player celebrating the

50 years of friendship and fantasy in Wisconsin.

Yeah.

Excellent.

We've talked about this a couple of times.

Of course, the history of Dungeons & Dragons coming from Wisconsin and being, you know, started

here and everything.

Also a connection to your hometown, my friend Gary Guy-Gak's family moved from Chicago when

he was 10 or 11, I believe, to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.

That's where it all kind of started.

And that was the headquarters for many years of TSR, the company that made Dungeons & Dragons.

So, yep.

It's a Midwestern through and through.

It's cool.

And, you know, knowing my fellow Midwesterners how we take pride in things like that.

I've been really enjoying seeing the more and more people as this has become more and more common knowledge,

more and more people taking pride in Dungeons & Dragons.

Absolutely.

And there's people that do this.

They may not even play this game.

They may not even do that, but they're really, they're proud of that.

And the idea that it's, there is, I would say that there is a niche with everything,

but the niche with things like this is getting bigger and bigger as we speak.

Like, the idea of seeing some of the people, like, we've got a couple of places here and here in Wisconsin,

the Rapids and Nakuza where they have board game centered build, you know, business.

Yeah, exactly, yep.

And they get together, they're huge.

Like the, and the people that you see playing these are not your typical what you would might imagine in your head.

Right, what you, the traditional idea of what you thought they were.

Right, exactly, exactly.

It's got to be much more universal and more mainstream.

Yeah, I think that's the best way of putting it in Melissa.

I think mainstream, it really has.

And more and more people are getting, not only getting into this,

but the, the gatherings of it are getting bigger and bigger.

And a couple, Thursdays ago, a group gathered at Misty Mountain Games.

Great name.

Great name.

Excellent.

Over in Madison and had one of the bigger turnouts that they've seen in this.

Yeah, in this.

And it's only, again, getting bigger and bigger.

And more and more kids are getting involved in it too.

Which, there's a lot of things that we talk about these days.

Car shows, snowmobiling, certain things that we want more younger people to get involved with so they stay around.

They stay relevant and everything.

This is one of those ones they don't, they're not worrying about.

Like this is doing, this is very healthy.

It's doing very well.

And that's got to cool, I think.

The biggest thing about this that stands out in the article is while people love the game,

they get competitive, they get into it.

They have a lot of creative fun with it.

The camaraderie.

The idea.

That was the important thing.

Always.

It's all about that.

It's all about getting together with friends, hanging out, seeing people you don't get to see very often.

And I think the coolest thing I found in this article for older people, especially,

was making new friends, was running into people.

And how do you make friends in your thirties and your forties and stuff?

Here you go.

Especially if you don't want to go to a bar.

Yes, yes.

Where are the social places to go?

And this is a great example of one way you could do.

Yep.

It's, it was pretty cool.

That's really cool.

That was pretty interesting.

And again, you can find the complete article at WisconsinLife.org.

WisconsinLife.org.

Be sure to check that out, everybody.

We got some great news coming up for you from Alyssa K.

We'll also get into some sports.

And plenty more, checking in with our partners and a lot more.

And then when we get back, everybody, we're talking.

We got, or a holiday haul.

I want to get into that.

Got a bunch of stats for you as far as the holidays go.

Very good.

Got that one.

And the weirdest Christmas movies released from 1984 to 2024.

Weirdest.

1984, wow.

Okay.

Coming up on the morning show at WFHR.

Welcome back, everybody.

Morning show here at WFHR.

Locally grown radio.

Such a clear voice.

You heard every syllable she would sing.

I'm hearing that so much more and more now.

I never really paid attention to that before.

She was such a remarkable singer.

Yeah, really, really.

Melissa, Seth and James here with you.

Hope you're having a good one out there, everybody.

We got some leftover stuff for the holidays here.

We want to get to before it expires.

And we've got a huge holiday poll that looked at all the various activities

we've got planned this month.

So here's how this is broken down for the majority of us as we're wrapping up

and getting closer and closer to the end of the month.

86% of us will celebrate Christmas Hanukkah or another winter holiday.

86.

That's pretty high.

That's decent number, yeah.

It's a chunk of us.

Yeah.

I don't know if, because today is Festivus.

So I don't know if people are celebrating that one or not.

But that might be included in that other category.

87% of people celebrating will put up some sort of decorations.

So a higher amount of people will put up decorations in their celebration.

They're actually celebrating.

Wow.

I guess, well, I get again.

Gotta keep up with the Joneses.

That's right.

Hey, they're celebrating.

I got to put up my lights.

Gotta think, yeah, maybe that's what it is.

I don't know.

That's interesting.

I will say that that is something that was really important to my mom and dad,

because they knew right away that we weren't going to have a traditional upbringing

and we were going to have it very different than most kids.

So they were very certain.

You guys, make sure that when as much as people know you're Jewish,

that you're also celebrating Christmas.

It was really important so that we felt, quote, unquote, normal.

It didn't work for me, but that's not really their fault.

That's not really on them.

It's a little more to do with the, you know, maybe not.

Let's see here.

75% of us will listen to Christmas music.

Okay.

I know there's a lot of people who like, there's a number of people out there

that really like Christmas, but don't like Christmas music.

So I wanted that.

And it's not like you have a choice when you walk into a store.

No, you're right.

Yeah.

I wonder.

I wonder.

So I wonder if that's, they're at this being specific to people choosing to listen to or not

because that's a good point.

Yeah.

That could be.

I more so.

I want to hear from anybody out there.

715-424-2600.

Do you listen to Christmas music any other time of year?

I know some people who definitely do.

I know.

I know one.

Usually over there in that chair.

70% plan to go look at lights.

70%

Yes.

That's a fun thing to do.

It really is.

It is.

Because I don't put them up myself.

So I like to go and see you.

Yeah.

The other people put in.

Driving to a plover last night.

We saw, I was checking out the houses on the way there.

It's, man, it's, it's a fun thing to do.

I don't know why, but it, it's a lot of fun.

60% hope to have at least a one cup of hot cocoa.

Can you stop at just one?

Yeah.

That's taught.

I couldn't.

I would not be able to do that.

48% will attend at least one holiday party this year.

Okay.

Well, we got our one in.

We did.

We got ours checked off.

Checkmark.

Yeah.

Yeah.

A big shout out to the, our friends over at Wisconsin

Service Community Theatre.

Let it go.

Use this in their space.

Use this in their space.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We had our holiday party over the weekend.

And that was fun, guys.

That was a lot of fun.

It was a lot of fun.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We really enjoyed it.

Really had a blast.

It was really good for all.

Just everybody was a lot of fun.

I do believe Pam afterwards went looking at Christmas lights.

Oh, she did say she was doing that.

Yeah.

Excellent idea.

And just to update our listeners, guys, I got my microwave.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Like it wasn't planned.

I did not plan this.

This was not the reason that I asked for it on air or anything.

That's totally not the plan, you know.

But sometimes wishes come true, you know.

Some ideas for next year.

Yeah.

So you gave me a great idea because it's not like all I want for Christmas

is to be on the Simpsons.

That's not it.

Well, you know.

Yeah, that's a tale.

I don't think any of us could help provide you with that one, bud.

Sorry.

I mean, we can try.

I could write a law letter recommendation, if you'd like.

Yes.

Don't.

44% will send at least one card.

Okay.

Just one.

Yeah.

Just one.

Yeah.

I'm just going to send one card this year, just totally stranger.

Yes.

Yes.

Better.

If you didn't get that out, you'd better get it out there.

Oh, man.

I don't know if you got time now.

I don't know.

42%.

There's always email.

That's true.

Yeah.

42% will attend a religious service.

Okay.

That's still relatively high, actually.

I mean, it is kind of, you know, I mean, the Christians kind of took over Christmas.

So.

I have to say.

True.

I've only done this once.

But it was really important to my not as a one year.

Me and my sister and brother went to midnight mass.

And there is something about that ceremony.

Like I did not have the religious ties to it or anything, but I was still blown away.

And it still stays with me.

Yeah.

It was a beautiful moment.

It was a lunatic in the music.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I'm with you.

Even if you're not a religious person, I think you can understand while it couldn't be a meaningful experience.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

I don't know if this is intended or not, but I do think that one of the most beautiful parts of the holiday is the encompassing of,

hey, whoever you are, whatever your faith, or you don't have faith, come one, come all, you can enjoy this.

Absolutely.

That is a beautiful thing.

We need more of that.

Right.

I think one of the things that they got wrong when they got the whole, all they're trying to cancel Christmas, all they're trying to get rid of Christmas.

All this jargon and all this hoopla that didn't do anything.

It was just a bunch of people trying to sell newspapers or or get ratings or something like that.

Um, manufacture outrage.

Yes.

Yes.

Very true.

That's it.

It's the exact opposite.

It's such an welcoming holiday and can be for everybody and doesn't belong to any, while there are parts of Christmas that certainly, like the way you celebrate it's such that do belong to certain things, quote, unquote, belong.

The idea of the day, the holiday and what has become, you know, yeah, that has nothing to do with the religious aspects of it.

Right.

No, some traditions originated in different places, but it's all a wonderful way to celebrate the season.

Absolutely.

22% hope to kiss someone under the mistletoe.

Yes.

That poisonous parasite.

Yes.

For some reason, Melissa, you should not be calling people you kiss that.

That is just me.

Wow.

Well, to be fair, Seth, most of them in my experience personally have been that.

Oh, hey, oh, rough.

That was good.

Hence why I'm single.

19% will build a snowman and 14% plan to make a snow angel.

Yeah.

Brittany said today was the day for it.

I'm going to try to get out there.

Do a snowman or snowman?

Yeah.

Snowman.

Oh, okay.

Good luck.

It might be a snowwoman, but it will be a snow person.

It will be a snow mound.

Okay.

I might do a recreation of a Calvin and Hobbs snow building extra against it in my yard, because I have loved those.

That's my absolute favorite.

Some of the best ever.

Yes.

Oh, my God.

No monsters.

No stuff, man.

Top five of all times.

Great comic strip.

I will still read those if I see them.

Number one.

Number one.

I have almost all of them.

That's great.

Most Christmas mornings will have fewer than 10 people in attendance.

39% said that less than five, so just immediate family 5% said more than 20, though.

Wow.

Big gatherings.

That's a lot.

Yeah, no kidding.

Two thirds of family will hang stockings for Santa 2 Phil.

All right.

That's a pretty good on number.

Yeah, there you go.

And 45% of people will leave out milk and cookies on Christmas Eve as well you should.

Mm-hmm.

That's right.

Yeah, I did hear, though, that Santa doesn't really like skim milk.

Oh, he doesn't.

Okay.

Yeah, yeah.

It's a good milk.

Nothing against you, you know, drink whatever you drink and you enjoy whatever you join.

But to me, I just believe that skim milk is lying to you.

It is not milk.

It is water.

You're not alone.

It is water that is my friend.

You're not alone, my friend.

Just with a little hue to it.

It's a white colored water.

And we heard if you were listening and a big thank you everybody that listened and called into our Elf call center.

Oh, that's right.

Yeah.

Everything.

We found out that Santa prefers his cookies a certain way.

Mm-hmm.

He did.

We did.

Soft in the middle.

Chocolate chips soft in the middle.

That's what Mr. Claus likes.

I also got a notice that he might have been a little bit jealous of our Elf call and center.

And he might have done something special for our next community stories on Thursday.

Oh, good on Santa.

He can't help it, can he?

No, he can't.

No, he can't.

Be listening for that, everybody.

And be listening.

When we get back, we're going to get into our 30 hours of Christmas lineup.

We'll let you know what's coming for you there.

And we got plenty of more coming up for you on the morning show here at WFHR.

A lot of other ringies.

You know you're the mastermind.

Run, run, Rudolph.

Run, I'll be too far behind.

Welcome back to the show, everybody.

Melissa, Seth and James here on the morning show at WFHR.

Thanks so much for joining us and kicking off your holiday week with us.

Get into our 30 hours of Christmas in just a moment.

But we started our show talking to you.

What you put on top of your tree.

Well, the animal welfare league of Arlington had something interesting to get this topic going for me.

They had a beard owl decided to play Santa and drop in literally through the chimney of a local home.

And declared himself the newest star on top of their Christmas tree.

I saw this headline in the picture.

It looks so cool.

Oh, look at that.

I saw this headline in the picture.

It looks so cool.

Oh, look at that.

Oh, my gosh.

It looks amazing.

It does.

What a picture.

Like there should never be anything else on top of the Christmas tree besides an owl.

A live owl.

I don't know if it was Disney or who did it.

But whoever made owls like wise, you know, to us in our heads.

Like you look at that and it looks so stoic.

Yeah, it does.

And I think you got something like it like this family needs to like get a fake owl and start doing this every year.

So like that.

That's so awesome.

And it looks like it belongs.

It does.

It totally works.

My gosh.

That might bring the same owl back again to regain his perch.

Because it didn't the owl, like rip off what was on top of that tree and then perch there.

Yes.

Get off my tree.

It found a spot it liked.

I love the idea of the owl getting stuck in the house and be like, oh, here's a tree.

They got this.

Oh, so nice of them.

It's like it's like that chair that you always sit at whatever you go to somebody's house or something like that.

That's always your chair.

Right.

Yeah.

Or a secret side story.

It was the owl's tree to begin with.

Oh, yeah.

And they took it out of the forest and it was searching everywhere and it found it.

Like this is a movie in the making guys.

It is totally.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You're welcome, Pixar.

You're welcome.

Yeah.

And then the owl somehow manages to save Christmas.

Exactly.

Exactly.

And it's voiced by the rock.

Perfect.

See, we've done it already.

We've done it again.

Already written.

Already written.

There you go.

The owl was ultimately released, but this is not the first time that an owl decided to rest atop a Christmas tree in recent months.

In October, an owl found its way into a Georgia mansion and found refuge on a tree in October.

That's interesting.

That's good.

That's good.

That's good.

You do want to send a shout out to our listeners and appreciate them sending those one.

That one over.

That was fun.

Very good.

Very good.

As we're wrapping up, I do want to get into our 30 hours of Christmas, but we've got plenty of show going on tomorrow.

We'll get into a couple of fun ones.

I had for us here the weirdest Christmas movies.

We'll get into that one tomorrow.

Oh, that one.

We'll have time for that tomorrow.

I'll have fun with that tomorrow.

That's going to be fun.

That was going to be cool.

Listen, I'll be diving into that.

But we do want to make time for 30 hours of Christmas line up that kicks off, of course, on Christmas Eve.

Mm-hmm.

That's right.

About tomorrow.

It'll be coming up at noon.

It'll go from noon to two, kicking things off.

We'll be the polka show.

Yes.

Hey, Tim's put together another great one.

Yes.

Not one, but two full hours.

Yes.

Tim was with us at the holiday party to appreciate him and Wendy being able to be there and talk to him a little bit about this.

And he gets so excited about these special shows.

It's great.

It's so much fun.

At 2 p.m., Proctor and Gamble, a Christmas hour.

That's very good.

Fun to be able to be playing that.

It's an old time, old time radio, Christmas stuff.

I love it.

Mm-hmm.

At 3 o'clock, the NBC Hall of Fame Christmas with Walt Disney.

All right.

Very cool.

At 4 o'clock, a classic, Fibber McGee cuts his Christmas tree in Christmas music.

Don't open that for me.

That closet, McGee.

One of my favorites that we do every year.

At 5 o'clock, Jack Benny, Jell-O X-Miss show, a Jell-O X-Miss show.

Christmas show.

And Christmas music.

Mm-hmm.

Which obviously means there won't be a community stories on Tuesday.

No, there will not be.

Yeah.

Keep that in mind, everybody.

Mm-hmm.

And, of course, at 8 o'clock, I'm sorry, 6 to 8, we have Seth Faces in the music.

Christmas show.

Yeah.

Christmas show.

Whoa.

It's fun.

Listen.

There's no word yet on if there is any Christmas song that involves holler monkeys.

I'm waiting to see that connection.

I really, really.

You know, I've gone in for that.

Oh, it's my favorite commercial we did all year.

Easily my favorite commercial we did all year.

At 8 o'clock, directors got.

Mm-hmm.

Join us from 8 to 9 for that one.

Brand new one.

We're recording today, everybody.

Yeah.

Special just for 30 hours of Christmas.

Mm-hmm.

We're looking forward to that.

One of the things we'll get into is who played Santa the best.

Who, or who is our favorite Santa?

Who's your favorite Santa?

Yeah.

We'll get into that one a little bit later.

At 9 o'clock, night before Christmas, that special will play.

Mm-hmm.

At 10 o'clock, the Christmas Carol.

Always a classic, yes.

And as is tradition here at WFHR, at 11 we'll start the Messiah and go right until midnight and, of course, continue until 1 a.m.

That's right.

The whole thing.

The Messiah.

I don't even know how many decades we've done that, but we've done that for so long around here.

But it always gets me every year when I first talk about it.

And I mentioned it on over the back fence on Saturday.

And yes, this is the one with the special introduction by Carl Hilke.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's a beautiful one.

Be sure to check that out starting at 11.

Everybody on Christmas Eve.

Christmas Day from 1 to 6.

Civic Media at Christmas Music.

Yes.

Hey.

Kids gonna be fun.

Keep it locked in there.

That's perfect.

Yeah.

Okay, that's good music for you.

6 to 8, we bring back the polka show.

So you need to, when you're getting up there and your kids wake you up at 6 a.m.

Yeah.

To open presents, you'll have a nice polka show to keep you company while you're doing that.

It's perfect.

It's payback for the kids.

That's right.

I hadn't thought of that, but that's perfect.

And speaking of having a great background music and everything, we got your cover when it comes to that

because again, 6 to 8, polka music.

And then from 8 to 2, Civic Media is going to have our Christmas Music Plan.

Yep, that's right.

Excellent.

10 o'clock, Fred Allen, Jack Benny, CBS Town Hall, Christmas.

Nice.

Jack Benny.

My favorite.

At 3 o'clock, Red Rider, W.R.R. Radio Net, Christmas Music.

Cowboy show.

Red Rider.

That's right.

More Jack Benny at 4 o'clock with Jack and Mary go shopping and Fibre points his, paints his tree.

That's such a good one.

Those are both classics.

Jack going shopping at Christmas was something they did every year.

And Frank Nelson, who did the, that was always the clerk and get exasperated.

Yes, that was Frank Nelson.

And then of course, Mel Blank, who literally like goes crazy.

Yes, it's hilarious.

I don't know how much Mel Blank was acting.

You know, he was so good.

He was so good at everything.

I believe that Mel Blank believed he was Daffy Doc.

He believed he was a, he was a, he was a, he was a, he was too good.

He was too good.

And Jack Benny, one of the greatest of all time.

Yeah.

I love that bit.

I think it still holds up too.

I really believe it does.

I really do.

And then Jack Benny's Jello Christmas show will be coming up after that with Fibre McGee cutting his own tree.

That'll be at five o'clock on Christmas Day.

At six o'clock, Seth faces the music again.

An hour for that one.

Yeah.

And then at seven, we'll play our director's cut that we've been working on.

We're going to be working on today.

And then from eight until midnight, we'll have civic media Christmas music playing.

All right.

Wrap up the day.

Yeah.

And then on the 26th, we'll be back at it with our regular programming.

Mm-hmm.

So everything will kick right back into gear at midnight on the 26th.

And we will let you know that we will have a new morning show for you on the 26th.

Katrina, hit her from family and not your foods will be sitting in with us.

Oh, very nice.

Very nice.

We thought that'd be a fun way to bring everybody back from the holidays and everything.

And get you all ready for the, you know, the, the new years.

You're coming up with, and stuff.

So a great boxing day.

Yes.

Oh, don't keep in mind everybody.

Hanukkah begins on Christmas day this year.

Yes.

So you got the, you got still some celebrating to do after Christmas.

That's right.

Plenty of things.

You can enjoy that.

It's going to be a lot of fun.

Looking forward to all of that.

And thank you so much to our listeners out there supporting these 30 hours.

Yes.

We really do back these 30 hours have fun with it with us.

We really appreciate that.

It's a great tradition.

Sure.

Be sure to join us today for Midday Magazine from four to five.

Got a good one lined up for you.

And part one, our friend Lacey Elling from the Heart of Wisconsin Chamber of Commerce will be in with us.

Very nice.

Looking forward to that.

In part two, we'll look at here.

Our friend's family, really.

Family, natural food.

Stephen and Katrina and Ruby and in 1030.

Even better.

Oh, yeah.

A beforehand after.

We're looking forward to them joining us.

We'll have plenty to talk about with them as they've got great deals for you going on right now.

Oh, yeah.

And last minute shopping plans.

There aren't many better places to go because not only will you go there and see a million different things in that store

that you could do.

But they'll help you.

They love working with you.

Oh, yes, absolutely.

Now, if you're not sure what to get.

And you're saying, well, my so-and-so has struggles with this.

Or they would like something more for this or whatever.

They'll help you find it, everybody.

Absolutely.

And be sure to join us from five to six for playmakers.

We got one on Monday, one on Friday this week.

We'll be here today at 5.30 in GM.

If you're a Wisconsin Rapids River Kings coach Paul Peckman will be joining us.

All right.

Looking forward to talking to coach Paul.

A successful weekend for the River Kings.

And we're going to talk about that.

Man.

And plenty more.

I'm going to ask Coach, if he's got any favorite holiday movies.

Hey, that's awesome.

I'm going to ask him about that.