Family Trips with the Meyers Brothers

Episode 19: "The Lost Shmatta & A Booby-Trapped Veg-O-Matic: Holiday Listener Episode"

Release Date: December 23, 2025
Hosts: Seth Meyers & Josh Meyers

Overview

In this special holiday listener episode, Seth and Josh Meyers open the floor to their audience, sharing heartfelt, hilarious, and sometimes disastrous family holiday stories submitted by listeners. The brothers riff on these real-life tales, drawing out themes of reunion, mishap, and the strange traditions that make family holidays uniquely memorable. With the classic Meyers blend of warmth, wit, and sibling banter, the episode runs through lost dentures, missing childhood blankets, pandemic road trips, and explosive kitchen appliances—all under the glow of festive, mildly chaotic, family love.

Main Discussion & Key Insights

Opening Festivities & Family Banter

• The Joy (and Challenge) of Holiday Gifting:
  The brothers joke about inventive (and impractical) gift ideas for their mom, like an entire airplane beverage cart (00:44–01:25).
• On Holiday Travel:
  Running gags about how news only reports disasters at airports; Seth hopes his travel will go smoothly, knocking on wood (02:39–03:30).
• Listener Stories Theme:
  "The great gift that is bestowed upon us is stories from our listeners. I love it." – Seth (00:21)

Listener Stories

1. Olivia's Holiday Trash Chute Dental Disaster

[03:38–06:14]

• Story Summary:
  Olivia’s elderly parents traveled from California to New York. After Christmas breakfast, her mother (with poor eyesight) accidentally threw out her father's new dentures, which ended up in a trash chute clogged with mounds of holiday garbage in their 30-story apartment building. Olivia and the doorman spent hours sifting through trash to recover the lost teeth—never to be found.
• Memorable Details:
  • Olivia: “We spent three hours shaking the trash chute, loosening the log jam, compacting, sorting and praying. ... I clawed at it like a Central Park raccoon maniac…” (04:45)
  • Her father’s reaction: “I appreciate your valiant effort, but even if you found them, do you really think I was going to put them back in my…” (06:00)
• Insights & Jokes:
  • Seth: "I think yours was worse. I think I'd rather have a baby... I think maybe Alexi would maybe say she'd rather, although you know what, Alexi's a neat freak like your husband. ... have a baby in a lobby than have to go through an apartment building's worth of trash." (06:18)
  • The brothers reminisce about losing retainers and how panic-inducing it is for kids.

2. Andra and the Lost Shmatta

[15:31–19:14]

• Story Summary:
  As a child, Andra’s security blanket (shmatta) was left behind in Florida after her parents told her she was too old for it, promising it would be mailed home. Instead, her brother cruelly announced that it was thrown in the dumpster. Decades later, her mom admitted the blanket was only hidden in her suitcase—but since Andra didn’t make a scene, they never gave it back.
• Highlights:
  • “My heart literally broke. The shock silenced me and I went upstairs to my room to cry. I still feel crushed as I recount the story.” – Andra (17:46)
  • The punchline: "My mom started laughing. She explained that she had been hiding the shmata in her suitcase the entire time. They never threw it in the dumpster. But because I had cried in silence... she did not feel obligated to return the blanket to me.” (18:45)
• Meyers Brothers Reaction:
  • Josh: "I would be in the dumpster. I would have words." (19:24)
  • Seth: "It also... feels like it's incentivizing loud crying. Which I got no love for." (20:31)
  • Reflections on the way parents handle childhood attachments, sometimes keeping mementos as keepsakes—or, in this case, not.

3. Daryl's Pandemic Road Trip & The Millennium Falcon

[30:21–32:59]

• Story Summary:
  In peak-COVID 2020, Daryl drives 25 hours from Austin to D.C. to retrieve her daughter (and her daughter’s cat, Posey, and a 7,500-piece Lego Millennium Falcon). En route back, they navigate closed-down cities, creatively sneak a cat into a hotel, and visit Graceland, which turns her daughter into a huge Elvis fan. The trip concludes with Daryl inheriting the massive Lego set.
• Quotes:
  • “I did what any slightly unhinged but loving mom would do. I drove 25 hours to DC to pick her up.” – Daryl (32:21)
  • “The only problem, you can't take a massive LEGO spaceship on a plane. So now I'm the proud owner of a huge, awkward, dust collecting Millennium Falcon..." (32:37)
• Meyers Brothers Reaction:
  • Seth: “That is a good mom.” (32:59)
  • Josh: “20 years old is too fucking old for a Millennium Falcon Lego set.” (33:33)
  • Both brothers discuss the charm of the Peabody Hotel duck parade and the surprise emotional resonance of Graceland.

4. Marnie & The Booby-Trapped Veg-O-Matic

[38:10–41:58]

• Story Summary:
  Marnie recounts a reunion at her aunt’s farmhouse in Iowa. Her mom receives a Veg-O-Matic (after her dad refused a similar pitch 20 years prior). Her dad and uncles attempt to "booby-trap" the device. During the anticipated demonstration, a tomato explodes—soaking the kitchen and guests—leaving everyone laughing for hours.
• Memorable Moments:
  • “After breakfast, the aunts, uncles, cousins, all crowded into the kitchen for the long awaited demonstration. My mom used a tomato and somehow it exploded and sprayed tomato seeds, juice, pulp on everyone. Hours later, it still dripped from the ceiling…” – Marnie (40:37)
• Meyers Brothers Highlights:
  • Seth: “That is the most. I couldn't stop laughing thinking about dad listening to that story.” (40:43)
  • Josh: “That's comeuppance.” (41:20)
  • The brothers are delighted by the family dynamic and the understated delivery of mayhem.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "If it bleeds, it leads, they say in the news business, and they don't want to tell stories about people getting there just as they planned." – Josh (03:00)
• Seth on “Schmatta” revelation: "I feel like I was way too old before I understood what a septuagenarian and octogenarian meant." (10:15)
• Josh on family nicknames: "To those of you who think you can't get a new nickname late in life, just stick with it. ... Never say die." (11:18)
• Seth regarding the Veg-O-Matic tale: "Every event at Marnie's house was, like, fully crazy and nobody raised their voice." (43:04)

Timestamps for Major Listener Stories

| Segment | Story/Key Point | Timestamp | |-----------------------------------|----------------------------------|--------------| | Olivia’s Trash Chute Dentures | Lost dentures in NYC trash chute | 03:38–06:14 | | Andra & The Lost Shmatta | Missing childhood blanket | 15:31–19:14 | | Daryl’s Pandemic Road Trip | Cross-country drive & legos | 30:21–32:59 | | Marnie’s Booby-Trapped Veg-O-Matic| Exploding tomato at reunion | 38:10–41:58 |

Closing Reflections

• On Family & Holidays:
  Seth: "It is just so lovely to hear stories about families who enjoy each other in the holidays..." (43:36)
• A Call to Listeners:
  Josh: “If anything goes wrong, hold on to those stories, call them in for next year.” (44:01)

Episode Tone & Style

Warm, irreverent, and deeply relatable, the episode uses the sparkling chemistry between Seth and Josh to amplify the humor and poignancy of the listener stories while highlighting the often imperfect, but always memorable, essence of family holidays.