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Wait, don’t think the holidays are over! They don’t have to be. It may be the end of the 12 Days of the Christmas, but the Festive Fans want to keep the party going, all year! We are starting off 2026 with a visit to jolly old England, the granddaddy of the Christmas holiday. It is so merry, we needed an expanded two-part episode, with special guests, extra movies, and more general celebration. Just what we need for our post-Christmas blues!

Can we think of an international location more Christmas cozy than Great Britain? When we think of an idyllic holiday vision of carolers, crackling fires, and snow tapping at the window, what we are picturing is Victorian England. We wanted to start the new year off here, because we consider it one of the preeminent Christmas places in the world. It is picturesque, with its candlelit churches, village greens, frost-softened mornings, and the pubs glowing with warmth. And while it may be the ideal backdrop to set the holiday mood, it is not without meaning, which lingers well beyond the parties, gifts, and meals.

More importantly, it is Dickens, and his native land, who are mostly responsible for not only adding ghosts to the holiday (which we appreciate!), but also reimaging Christmas as a season of warmth, generosity, and redemption. Ebenezer Scrooge showed us that moral responsibility to mankind is essential to a just society. We saw this same spirit reflected again in England through the charitable efforts of Band Aid, when local musicians mobilized global attention in the 1980s to raise millions of dollars to combat world hunger during the Ethiopian famine. Like Scrooge’s experience, the efforts of Band Aid demonstrated how empathy can spark actual change. These examples show how the English don’t just express the Christmas spirit; they personify it.

Recall how Dickens encouraged readers to carry the spirit of compassion forward beyond the holidays. He reminds us that generosity is not limited to a single season. Focusing on these charitable lessons and their real-world impact is a powerful way to begin a new year. As 2025 transitions into 2026, it provides us a valuable opportunity for personal reflection and motivation.

Starting the new year with a renewed commitment to purpose and social responsibility, sets a hopeful tone and can make the new year feel more purposeful and full of possibility. So come join the Festive Fans over the next two episodes to celebrate and appreciate how England embodies the true spirit of Christmas through its history, literature, traditions and emphasis on compassion and goodwill. No other place can deliver Christmas and bring it to life with such timeless charm.

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Better late than never. We missed our episode drop date by 10 days. That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown. It’s so much fun packed into a few short weeks. Plus, the way the Festive Fans pine away for this holiday all year, we have to squeeze the most out of our season. We’ve barely had time to make our Christmas lists. You know that anticipation can sometimes make things better by building excitement before the event actually arrives. So now that this episode is finally dropping, it carries the weight of all that expectation, which should make it feel more rewarding and memorable. However, that’s not the case here.

The Festive Fans visit Georgia this episode. No, not that Peach State. We are talking about the country that is framed by the snowcapped Caucasus Mountains and the warm shores of the Black Sea. It is a place known for being at the crossroads of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. We view only our second documentary in three years. It explores another aspect of the Christmas commercial trade -- the transnational Christmas tree industry. Despite it being the holiday season, we are still left at the end with the same feeling of angst.

This film is framed in the shadow of a child’s murder who we meet in the documentary. It also tackles the socio-economic conditions between the working-class Georgians who risk their lives climbing trees to harvest pinecones and the upper-class Danes who buy them. This financial dichotomy over the production of Christmas trees creates a strong sense of emotional overload. When the world outside is glowing with lights and songs about hope and joy, this stream of real-life drama is raw and cuts more deeply. In this way, a sad documentary during Christmas doesn’t just tell a story—it intertwines with the season’s emotions.

Above all, this movie carries emotional depth, especially at this time of year. While not pleasant or festive, it still is deeply human and part of the shared Christmas experience. When the season is stripped down to its true essence, it can still be deeply spiritual and meaningful. So it is important during our celebrations, that we recognize that understanding, gratitude, and humility always lie at the heart of Christmas.

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Working in Alaska in the 1980s was no place for the fainthearted. It demanded perseverance and fortitude. Work began before dawn. The tasks were repetitive, backbreaking, and physical. Bears wandered close enough that you could hear their breath in the dark, or if the boom on the ship knocked you overboard, they weren’t coming back for you. A seasonal job in the Alaskan wilderness reshaped you in ways that you couldn’t anticipate. It was raw, demanding, and difficult. But you also learned what it meant to be strong—and to be truly, vibrantly alive.

It was in this environment that the Festive Fans forged their personalities and became the true Christmas fans they are today. For our special Thanksgiving episode, the boys return back to the Last Frontier to explore Christmas in this vast wilderness. Alaska is the largest U.S. state and not contiguous to the lower 48 states. It has impressive landscapes, towering mountain ranges, and expansive forests, tundra, and glaciers.

As our favorite season approaches, Mark and Bob take a trip down memory lane to revisit a pivotal time in their lives that they spent in the pristine wilds of Alaska. Although not a festive foreign place, it still has that untamed feel that makes it both unique and awe-inspiring. Alaska, with its breathtaking scenery, sweeping majestic mountains, ice-blue rivers, and dancing northern lights, is something sacred.

Come join us as we reminisce on our time spent in this favorite state and discuss the 2020 Mel Gibson film “Fatman”. At the same time that the lights begin to twinkle on our Christmas trees at home, we recall a place where the night sky was ablaze with stars illuminated by the midnight sun, no matter if you were watching from an oil rig or a fishing boat. Our wish for Christmas is that Alaska forever remains this beacon of hope and promise, with its deep Indigenous heritage. We want future generations to enjoy how we felt when we both stood on ground that seemed untouched, and embraced that fierce, unbroken, and wild freedom that Alaska offers to the young at heart.

It is Thanksgiving 2025 today, and Mark and I are so grateful not only for our fans, but also for our shared experience in the rugged landscape of the 49th state. This is another common element that we share in our soul, just like our love for movies and Christmas. Alaska deserves the special callout we give it here and we hope you enjoy it. Although not its own country, we still can honor its vastness and recognize how it serves as an irreplaceable gift to the world. Alaska is that rare reminder of how the Earth once was, and how it still should be allowed to be.

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