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Something You Should Know
Secrets of Christmas Classic Movies & The Curious Story of Eggnog – Bonus Holiday Episode
00:28:52
The surprising history of eggnog, hidden stories behind classic Christmas movies, and why your holiday tree may trigger allergies.
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A
I'm Alex Honnl, professional rock climber and founder of the HONL Foundation. I wanted to let you know about a brand new season of the Planet Visionaries podcast in partnership with the Rolex Perpetual Planet Initiative. This is the podcast exploring bold ideas and big solutions from the people leading the way in conservation. Join me in conversation with the likes of climate champion Mark Ruffalo, biologist and photographer Christina Mittermeier, and one of the most successful conservationists of our time, Chris Tompkins. Join us on Planet Visionaries wherever you get your podcasts.
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Today on Something you should know our second Christmas Holiday Bonus episode and it's all about holiday movies. You've seen all the films hundreds of times. You can quote the lines and hum the music. But you may not know that some of the most beloved holiday classics have behind the scenes stories that are fascinating, including White Christmas, Home Alone, and It's a Wonderful Life.
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C
It's sometimes erroneously stated that It's a Wonderful Life was a big box office bomb. It just didn't do that well. It was a last minute decision to release it in December 1946 at Christmas time. It was nominated for several Oscars. A year or two later it did win a technical Oscar for its inventive use of fake snow, which became an industry standard.
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So grab some popcorn, settle in, and let's explore the hidden world behind the films we watch every December on a special holiday bonus episode of Something youg Should Know.
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Something YOU SHOULD know Fascinating intel, the world's top experts and practical advice you can use in your life. Life Today Something you should Know with Mike Carruthers.
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Do you like eggnog? It is the topic we're going to start with today on this special holiday bonus episode of SOMETHING YOU SHOULD know. I have to say, I'm not a big fan of eggnog. I like to taste a little bit of it, but a little goes a long way for me. And it does make you wonder, though, why a drink made of eggs, milk and spices shows up every December. Well, here's the surprising story. Eggnog actually dates back to medieval England, where people drank a hot, milky ale punch called a posset. Since milk, eggs and sherry were expensive, the drink became a symbol of wealth and celebration. You would only break it out on special occasions. But when that tradition crossed the Atlantic to colonial America, something very interesting happened. Suddenly, those expensive ingredients were everywhere. Farmers had plenty of fresh eggs and milk, and thanks to the Caribbean trade, there was a lot of cheap rum. So Americans adapted the recipe, swapped in rum and made it a festive drink. So why Christmas, though? Well, in farming households, winter was peak egg surplus season and people were gathering indoors for holidays and feasts. So eggnog became the perfect warm, rich drink to serv.
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Over time, the association stuck, and what started as a fancy medieval treat became a classic holiday tradition. And that is something you should know.
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Every year between Thanksgiving and Christmas, you have the chance to watch a lot of Christmas movies. They are everywhere. They're on tv, they're on streaming services, or maybe you even bought the DVDs to a couple of your favorite Christmas movies. And if you're like me, I suspect you really look forward to watching some of these movies because maybe they have a special meaning or they bring back memories or. Or I don't know what it is, but there's just something about holiday movies. Jeremy Arnold is a film historian, commentator and author who, along with Turner Classic Movies, has released a great book called Christmas in the movies, 30 classics to celebrate the Season. And he's here to talk about some of the backstories and some of the interesting little facts about some of your Favorite holiday movies. Hi, Jeremy. Welcome.
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C
Thanks, Mike, for having me. Great to be here.
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B
So what do you think it is about Christmas movies, particularly the real classic Christmas movies? What is it that makes them so universally appealing?
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C
When we see a movie at Christmas time that has a Christmas element, I think we're primed already by the season, by society, to want to accept characters transforming, to want to see the season win out in the end somehow and resolve a story with love and kindness and compassion. Those types of things that we all want so much at Christmas.
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B
So one of the things, in fact, I was just talking about this with someone the other day, that there are movies that are considered Christmas movies that, in my view, aren't really Christmas movies, like Die Hard. Die Hard has become a Christmas movie in many people's opinion. But I don't think of it as a Christmas movie just because, you know, it's violent and people get shot and die and things blow up. I mean.
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It'S not very Christmassy in the traditional, warm, gushy, Christmassy sense.
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C
Well, I would push back a little bit against that. I do defend Die Hard as a Christmas movie. The reason I think Die Hard is a Christmas movie is because it's an action film that takes conventions of Christmas movies and transforms them into action variations. And Die Hard, it's an action film with violence and killing and so forth, but it's not cruel or unpleasant. It's actually a very joyous, joyful. There's a scene where the thieves finally break into this vault they've been trying to open for half the film. And the way the movie presents it, it's as if they're opening the world's biggest Christmas present. And when they finally see what's inside all this treasure, you know, it's the greatest present they could want. And we hear Ode to Joy on the soundtrack. And it's a very Christmassy moment. You know, it's a scene that is transformed into a Christmas scene through the craft of filmmaking. So I do think Die Hard qualifies.
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B
So before I tell you my favorite Christmas movie, what is your favorite Christmas movie and why?
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C
It's a Wonderful Life. That might be a rather obvious choice, but, you know, it really holds up. And I think for me, it comes down to, well, first of all, the level of craftsmanship. I mean, Frank Capra was one of the top directors in Hollywood at the time, and it's just a beautifully made film. The writing, the cinematography, the editing, music. It even has some singing in it. And it turns into something of a horror movie during the alternate reality sequence. And that is important because it speaks to the idea that Christmas time is not just about the positives. It's also about negatives. We all feel to varying degrees at some point. Despair, despondence, wistfulness, reflecting on loved ones who are no longer with us. To time of reflection and taking stock. And Christmas movies that do explore the so called dark side of the holiday are quite honest. And it has a joyful ending, It's a Wonderful Life. But there's an awful lot of trauma along the way for the characters and the audience even. And I do think that has made it really hold up.
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B
And yet it wasn't much of a hit when it came out, right?
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C
No, it wasn't. You know, it's sometimes erroneously stated that it was a big box office bomb. That's really not true either. It just didn't do that well. And it was a last minute decision to release it in December 1946 at Christmas time. It was only because the studios planned Christmas release. Sinbad the Sailor ran into some delays and they needed something to fill the slot. It's a Wonderful Life wasn't supposed to open until January 1947. And in fact, that is when it went wide. Might sound strange, but they didn't really look at Christmas elements in movies dictating release as, you know, as strongly as we do today, where it's really now an industry. It was nominated for several Oscars. A year or two later it did win a technical Oscar for its inventive use of fake snow. They invented a new type of snow to use in this film, which became an industry standard for several decades. But it was really in the 70s and 80s when it started showing on television ad nauseam, that audiences rediscovered it and rescued it from oblivion.
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B
And when you watch that movie in those scenes that show the main street of Bedford Falls, that's a set, right? And they made that set for that movie.
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C
Indeed they did. It was one of the biggest sets ever built for a Hollywood picture at the time. It was extremely big. When Jimmy Stewart is running through the snow at the end, Capra is really showing off his great big set. It was built in a studio ranch facility in Encino, north of la. And it was shot in the summertime. And much of the film was shot on 90 degree days, which is actually a pretty good endorsement of the fake snow that they use because it looks quite real.
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B
Well, it's interesting that you say that that many of the scenes were shot on 90 degree days, because when I look at that movie, when I see him in the snow and on the bridge. I can feel the cold. I can feel how cold it is. And yet you're saying that it probably was 90 plus degrees.
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C
Yeah. And you can also notice Jimmy Stewart sweating. And it's meant to be sweating with, you know, angst and fear. But I think he was helped by the real heat of the moment.
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B
My favorite Christmas movie, and I think it's because it was my mother's and she always used to watch it is A Christmas Carol with Alastair Simm. And to me he is the quintessential Ebenezer Scrooge. But I was surprised to read that that wasn't much of a hit when it came out either.
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C
It really wasn't. And in fact, it was meant to have a big grand premiere in New York at Radio City Music Hall. And when the organizers of that event finally actually saw the film, they saw that it was so bleak and really it turns into a horror movie even more than It's a Wonderful Life at a certain point that they just thought they couldn't really.
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Tote it as a Christmas movie. And so they canceled that premiere. I guess it just had a more ordinary premiere somewhere else. But it too, like It's a Wonderful Life, it didn't really catch on until the 70s when it was shown on television all the time in America.
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B
Let's talk about meet me in St. Louis because to me that's not much of a Christmas movie. But Judy Garland sings have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, which kind of makes it a Christmas movie. But what do you think?
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C
Well, this is where it gets interesting in the issue of Definition. Most of meet me in St. Louis is not set at Christmas time. The whole story takes place over a one year period and it's divided into chapters by seasons. And in fact, there's a great Halloween sequence. You could actually call it a Halloween movie for that. But the Christmas sequence, it does take up about the last 25 minutes or so of the picture, which is not insignificant. And you have Judy Garland, as you say, singing have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. To me, that's enough to make it a Christmas classic because that is one of the great iconic Christmas songs.
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B
Let's talk about White Christmas. You know, I don't know which is more famous, which is more well known, the movie White Christmas or the song White Christmas.
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C
The trajectory of the song White Christmas is really fascinating. It was first introduced in Holiday Inn. Well, I mean, it had first been introduced to the public a few months before on Christmas Day 1941. When Bing Crosby performed it on the radio. And then in 1942, he sings it in Holiday Inn to Marjorie Reynolds. And the way it's presented is as a romantic ballad. It's linked to romance and love. Sure, the lyrics still have wistfulness and longing and nostalgia in them, but it's presented through a romantic prism. By the time of White Christmas, a dozen years later, it's not linked to romance at all. It's 100% linked to nostalgia and longing for home. And we first hear it in the opening of the film when Bing Crosby is performing it on the battlefield to troops during World War II. And then at the end of the film, it's performed again in a stage setting to an audience in the film of veterans who presumably were even in the opening scene during World War II. And so you have this, you have layers of nostalgia. It's almost a meta quality because you have Veterans in the 50s hearing the song and remembering hearing it during World War II and the 40s when it made them think of their home life. So now they're sort of remembering all of that at once. And of course the audience in 1940 was filled with veterans. It was only a decade after the war had ended. And that is why I think this film became by far the biggest commercial hit of 1954.
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B
I know there's an interesting backstory to this movie that Danny Kaye wasn't even supposed to be in it. I want you to tell that story in just a moment. I'm speaking with Jeremy Arnold, a film historian and author of Christmas in the Movies 30 classics to celebrate the season Introducing your new Dell PC. Powered by the Intel Core Ultra processor, it helps you handle a lot, even when your holiday to do list gets to be a lot because it's built with all day battery plus powerful AI features that help you do it all with ease, from editing images to drafting emails to summarizing large documents to multitasking. So you can organize your holiday shopping and make custom holiday decor and search for great holiday deals and respond to holiday requests and customer questions and customers requesting custom things. And plan the perfect holiday dinner for vegans, vegetarians, pescatarians and Uncle Mike's carnivore diet. Luckily, you can get a PC that helps you do it all faster so you can get it all done. That's the power of a Dell PC with Intel inside, backed by Dell's price match guarantee. Get yours before the holidays@dell.com deals, terms and conditions apply. See Dell.com for details.
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C
White Christmas was conceived as a way to reunite Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby in a loose reworking of Holiday Inn. But Fred Astaire declined and Bing Crosby at first declined as well before he changed his mind. And in the meantime, they offered the Fred Astaire role to Donald o'. Connor. O' Connor agreed to do it, but just before production he became ill because he contracted something called Q Fever from working on all these Francis the Talking Mule movies. He actually got this disease from the Mule, and so he was replaced by Danny Kaye.
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B
And.
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C
And since it was the last minute, Danny Kaye was able to ask for and receive quite a hefty bonus check because the studio needed to start production immediately. So that worked out well for Danny Kaye. And of course, Donald o' Connor did recover, thank goodness.
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B
Let's fast forward a couple of decades, several decades to Home Alone. I mean, there's a movie that came out. As I recall, it was a hit when it came out. It's still very popular. People love to watch that movie. What do you think is the magic of Home Alone?
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C
The magic of Home Alone, I think, is the line it skirts between realism and fantasy. You see this so often in Christmas movies. You see it in Miracle on 34th Street. You see it in A Christmas Carol, It's a Wonderful Life, which has this fantasy sequence in it and as sort of this air of magic about it from the very beginning where we see angels in heaven talking about George Bailey. Home Alone has fantasy in the way that the Macaulay Culkin character is fending off these dim witted burglars through a bunch of hilariously cartoonish and brilliant set pieces where he uses the house as a weapon. In fact, Home Alone is kind of like Die Hard in a house with a kid. You know, we get to know all the rooms of this house, we get to know how all the architectural features of this house can be used as a weapon in a comic way. And it actually, you could say, is almost as violent as Die Hard. It's just done through totally cartoonish violence where, you know, we don't. Well, we actually do feel the pain, but it doesn't repel us because able to stay in that world of comedy so strongly. And I also think that like A Christmas story from several years earlier, you know, it takes us on a journey through a child's perspective and that makes it a strong Christmas movie. There actually aren't a lot of holiday movies that really are centered on kids.
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B
I just watched Elf with my boys the other night and I just. I love that movie. I like Will Ferrell, I like Bob Newhart. But there's something more I can't quite put my finger on. It's magical. The innocence of it is just real special.
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C
Well, yeah, I think the innocence of it is in there and that's very appealing. But it's tempered with comic cynicism. You know, the James Caan character, his father not wanting anything to do with this view of the world and of Christmas time. And of course he transform. Transformation is a big part of the history of Christmas movies, thanks to Charles Dickens. I think it also combines fantasy with reality. I mean, we're in the North Pole and we see elves and Santa and we're in New York City where it's presented realistically. But in the end, the innocent sort of child centered excitement of Christmas, that kind of outlook on Christmas wins out. Otherwise, it's also just funny. I mean, it's great script, brilliantly played by the actors. And that is the first takeaway that any audience I think would take from that film. It's just how funny it is.
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B
Of all the movies that you looked at, which one would you rate as the most underrated? Like maybe people haven't really seen it. Much, and it's probably worth a look.
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C
The one that first comes to mind is my second favorite Christmas movie, and that's Remember the Night. Now this is a film that is known to real classic movie aficionados. Why it's not known more widely is beyond me because it stars Fred McMurray and Barbara Stanwyck, who of course would co star in Double Indemnity four Years later, which is widely known. Very different film, but it is so funny and heartfelt. He plays a New York prosecuting attorney who is prosecuting Barbara Stanwyck on a shoplifting charge. Christmas time is coming, so that the judge delays the case till after the holiday. And when he realizes that she's gonna spend Christmas in jail, he bails her out, out of compassion. And then when he finds out that she's from Indiana, where he's from too, he offers to drive her home to her parents house. She has horrible parents in a horrible house. He has lovely parents in a lovely warm house. And so he invites her to his house and they slowly start to fall in love. But after the holiday, he's going to have to still prosecute her. So what's going to happen? It's a story that really blends romance and comedy and drama really well. And it's a real hidden gem and it's not hard to find.
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B
You know, every year I watch or I start to watch Christmas Vacation because I remember it as being very funny and every year that I watch just doesn't seem as funny as it used to be. I don't know why.
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C
You know, I would hazard that that is a film that is particularly enhanced when you see it with an audience.
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Because it's that kind of humor and it's infectious and, you know, yeah, there's a lot of stupid humor in there. Stupid humor isn't necessarily not funny humor, but it's the kind of comedy that if you're in a theater and people are starting to giggle at it, then it sort of gives you license to do the same. You know what I. At home alone and you're seeing Randy Quaid with the whole septic sewer storyline. Yeah, you might not really find it that funny on your own. I do like the film and the reason I think it has remained so popular is because the characters are exaggerated versions of familiar characters to us, Randy Quaid as Cousin Eddie. Okay, we hopefully don't have real Cousin Eddie's in our lives that do exactly what he does, but we tend to have the equivalent of a crazy uncle or aunt or distant cousin. Someone who's just a little out there and.
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Not quite with his head screwed on right. That is what has kept that movie relevant.
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B
And it is, I think, probably the best role Chevy Chase ever played just because he is Clark Griswold. I mean, it is hard to imagine anybody else pulling that off as good as Chevy Chase did.
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C
Well, one interesting thing about how National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation came together is that John Hughes, who was the writer and producer of all the vacation films, he offered the job of directing to Chris Columbus, and Columbus started directing it. But he and Chevy Chase didn't get along. And at a certain point, Columbus just couldn't go on anymore. So Hughes replaced him with Jeremiah Chechek. But as a consolation prize, Hughes gave Columbus the chance to direct Home Alone, which was about to start production, which Hughes also wrote and produced. And Home Alone, of course, became, you know, it became what is still the most successful live action comedy in terms of box office, adjusted for inflation, that Hollywood has released. So that worked out pretty well for everyone.
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B
I know a lot of people like the Christmas Story movie, Ralphie and His Rifle. It's not a movie I ever got into that much. I've seen it, and I never thought it was that special, but a lot of people really like it. I know some TV stations play it repeatedly, like over and over and over again on Christmas. So it certainly has found an audience.
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C
I agree with you. As a movie, it's actually a very ordinary film. Technically.
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It'S not dissimilar from a television movie of the time, but its characters and its story situations have really resonated. When that film opened, Roger Ebert gave it a very strong review, and he said something like, either no one's going to see this movie, or millions of people are going to see this movie. And he was right on both counts because it did not do well at all in theaters. It wasn't even playing anymore. When Christmas finally came. It had opened in November, was barely playing at Christmas time. But then years later, as you say, it started showing on television all the time, and it became a true classic.
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B
I did want to ask about Miracle on 34th street, because I know it's a lot of people's favorite movie at Christmas time. And it's been remade, I think, at least a couple times. And why do you think that's such a classic?
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C
I think it's because of its combination of cynicism, realism, sentimentality, and fantasy. It sort of skirts both sides of a coin. You could say that the film is a fantasy, but there is not one frame of fantasy that is ever shown on screen in the original miracle on 34th Street. If you believe that this character really is Kris Kringle is Santa Claus, you see that in your mind, but you don't see him do anything in the film that could not be explained logically in reality. So there's as much of that in the film as there is of little Natalie Wood slowly starting to believe that this character is Santa Claus. And that back and forth, I think is sort of the secret of that film.
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B
Well, it's fun to talk about these movies and to hear some of the stories and your take on some of them because, you know, a lot of them feel like old friends that come back every year for Christmas and to get some insight into that is really interesting. I've been speaking with Jeremy Arnold. He is a film historian and along with Turner Classic Movies has a new book out called Christmas in the 30 classics to celebrate the season and there is a link to that book in the show notes. Thanks Jeremy.
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C
Merry Christmas, Mike. Thank you so much. It's been great to talk to you and I wish you and everyone a very merry Christmas and a happy holiday season.
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B
There's nothing like taking in that aroma of a freshly cut Christmas tree in your house this time of year. But after a few weeks, the mold count on that tree starts to skyrocket, which could trigger a flare up of allergy symptoms for you. Researchers at the American College of Allergy put evergreen trees to the test and found that mold counts hovered around the normal range for the first two weeks, but after day 14 they went up as much as eight times higher. Mold starts to grow on needles, the branches and the trunk as soon as a cut tree starts to decay. And if you start to experience those symptoms, scratchy throat, itchy eyes, fatigue whenever you're near the tree, it's time to get rid of it. And that is something you should know. Do tell your friends about this podcast since you like it. I suspect they would like it too and I would appreciate you spreading the word. I hope you enjoyed this Christmas bonus episode. I'm Micah Ruthers. Thanks for listening today to something you should know.