This Paranormal Life - #346 The Terrifying Lost Christmas Ritual

Episode Date: December 19, 2023

Christmas may be a time of festivity, peace, and goodwill among men but that does not mean the paranormal does not abound…In fact, Christmas is home to some of the most ancient and insane paranormal tales. For thousands of years, in the dead of winter, humans have gathered in the night around the fire of the yule log to keep themselves warm, but also to tell stories about ghosts. That’s why this Christmas we’re reviving this tradition by bringing you some of winter’s most terrifying tales - so sit back, relax, and enjoy these festive fables!Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTubeJoin our Secret Society Facebook CommunitySupport us on Patreon.com/ThisParanormalLife to get access to weekly bonus episodes!Buy Official TPL Merch! - thisparanormallife.com/storeIntro music by www.purple-planet.comEdited by Philip Shacklady Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Santa's sled is obviously a UFO, so what planet is Saint Nick from? Is it actually a poltergeist, eating the mince pie and drinking the milk? Answers to these questions and more, this Christmas, on... THIS PARANORMAL LIFE! Ho ho ho! Come in and know me better, man! Welcome! What? I think that's what the nice spirit says when visiting Scrooge.

For sure. Definitely seen that one. Hello and welcome to a very festive edition of This Paranormal Life. If you're listening to this on your podcast app of choice, hopefully you're hearing some jingle bells thrown in there somewhere. If you're watching this on YouTube.com hopefully you're seeing our insane surroundings of santa hats woolly jumpers and tinsel thanks to rory you've done a great job with the place thank you so much we're both wearing festive jumpers as you said really not

breaking the stereotypes of guys christmas jumpers. Mine is just a black sweater that has a bunch of Guinness pints on it. Yep. And yours is a green jumper that says Rain Beer and has what looks like a can of Corona with antlers. Yeah.

Is that the best they could do for a Christmas pun? I mean, yeah. It's either that or beer-mas. Yeah, that's not that good, is it? Yeah. Okay, I'm going to workshop it's either that or beer-mas. Yeah, that's not that good, is it? Yeah, okay. I'm going to workshop it mentally, but yes. As much as it pains me to put on this Christmas jumper,

I do have to do it. I have to get into the festive spirit. You got to! You were listening to this, hopefully, deep in the month of December. This is coming out on the 19th, I believe. We are within punching distance of Christmas, and we couldn't be more excited here on this Paranormal Life.

Hey, we know that people are listening all around the world and are, of course, celebrating any number of different traditions and backgrounds at this point. We've just become because where we happen to be, we do Christmas. So we have made a thing every year of doing a little bit of a Christmas celebration except for 2020 and 2021. Don't know why we... Yeah, we were a little down in the dumps. I think the pandemic got to us because I look back and apparently we didn't really

do anything for Christmas. But most years we do something for Christmas, whether that be investigating Krampus, investigating the dark side of Christmas. And this year is no different. It's nice to just do

something different, isn't it? I think in the years that we missed it uh i was still celebrating the season having quite a few glasses of alcoholic eggnog hold the egg just just nog just nog on the rocks uh it's an interesting question you said at the start there about whether it's a poltergeist eating the milk and cookies that are left out for Santa Claus. Because I know this is the thing that's different depending on how you were raised, what your family did. Did you as a child leave out snacks and drinks for Santa Claus? Yes, as is customary, we would leave out a plate of, I think a mince, I understand cookies is done, but I think we did a mince pie. Yeah.

A little glass of milk and potentially a couple of carrots for reindeer and co. That's what I was going to say, because some people get Rudolph involved. They're feeding the whole crew. But I swear there was someone I spoke to who growing up was like, we left out whiskey. Yeah, yeah. For Santa. Okay. whiskey yeah yeah for santa okay we left out a playboy a jack daniels and ice and a small cuban right yeah a carton of smokes you know he's had a long night he's had a long night he deserves it

yeah like let's face it if you hit 12 joints in a row and every single one is milk and cookies milk and cookies sorry if you hit 12 joints in a row i don't know if you'll be able to find the next house no i mean like oh yeah go to the houses you know he's got a long night ahead so i bet he is hitting 12 joints 12 blunts too the 12 blunts of christmas he's not he's definitely not see when we were growing up it was one step further santa would leave a lot of physical evidence at the scene of the crime. Oh, really? It wasn't just nibbling the cookies and drinking the milk, but there would be footprints, like suit footprints coming from the chimney towards the tree. Wow. Yeah, we didn't have that.

Yeah. For us, it was the most I ever saw was just the nibble. Just the nibble. Bit of crumbs. Okay. I will say when it comes to leaving evidence, the footprints are about as far as you want to get. If you're having to kind of scan the surfaces for blood and semen,

that wasn't Santa. Right. Something else. Yeah. I know. I wonder is there, you know, that's an investigation from another day. Is there ring cam footage of the big man? I don't know. I don't know.

And I mean, the other intro question I think is equally tantalizing where is he from the North Pole I don't know man we've studied a lot of UFOs there's a lot of UFOs

look I'm I'm saying I know he does a lot of good I'm just saying ready to get that sled though there's a lot of unanswered questions

about Santa a lot of interesting technology where is he from isn't one of them. I think it's, they're pretty explicit. Okay, well, let's say he's from Earth. Let's just say for sake of argument, he's from Earth. Sure.

Sled isn't. Where to get the technology for the sled? I don't want to get bogged down this early in the episode. I don't want to, you know, suck any joy out of the day. Right. But I'm just saying, I think Bob Lazar would have a few things to say about the propulsion mechanism of that day. Right. But I'm just saying, I think Bob Lazar would have a few things to say about the propulsion mechanism

of that sled. Okay. It might have come from a New Mexico facility. Rory, are you excited for Christmas? We are mere days away. I can't wait.

I genuinely can't wait. I'm feeling festive and I'm just, I'm ready to lean into the world of the paranormal, but the world of Christmas as well. Well, as you know,

this is This Paranormal Life, a weekly comedy podcast where we bring you the most terrifying and true paranormal tales the world has to offer. Now, Christmas may be a time of festivity, peace and goodwill among men, but that does not mean the paranormal does not abound. In fact, Christmas is home to some of the most ancient

and insane paranormal tales. Like I say, some of which we've covered on the pod. Krampus, the legend of Cold Christmas Church and a number of the legends we got into last year. Father Whipper. Because I was hoping not to bring him up. Don't forget him. Hans Trapp, the Christmas scarecrow.

Yeah, we heard too much about Hans very recently. After all, Christmas has its roots in ancient pagan festivals and beliefs. Long before the Bible, people celebrated the winter solstice, the passing over of the planets and moons that marked the beginning of winter and the beginning of longer days. The sun returning. Just like God's son returned to Earth.

But y'all ain't ready for that conversation. I wish my son would return my freaking phone calls I'll settle for that Yeah, you abandoned him and the others It's always been a time for reflection and prayer Because it was believed that at this point in December The veil between our world and the next Became the most thin

The most porous Meaning spirits, ghosts and creatures from the other side Could walk the earth again. One of the festivals that became Christmas was the Germanic Yule Festival. Oh yeah. And people think that might have been a festival of the dead. So for thousands of

years in the dead of winter, humans have gathered in the night around the fire of the Yule log to keep themselves warm, but also to tell stories about ghosts. Ah, and it survived until pretty relatively modern times. You might think this sounds strange, but you listening will have heard of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, or at the very least, The Muppets' Christmas Carol. Isn't it strange that the most famous Christmas story of all is

a ghost story? story yeah let me tell the tell you the veil between the living and the dead was pretty thin that night because three of them got through yeah three little spirits came to visit at the party yeah you might have thought dickens himself was in liverpool the way he time slipped he didn't just time slip you know on a banana peel he was time tumbling through wormholes, past, present, future. So yeah, I can see this. This is interesting. You know, when people think about Christmas, they think about the colorful lights and the presents and family and love. They should be thinking about the dead. They should be thinking about ghosts and demons and nighttime.

And reindeer piss. Did I bring that up last week? Too often. Way too often. You are absolutely right, Rory. That's why I thought this Christmas, here at This Paranormal Life, we'll revive the ancient tradition and have a real Christmas. A spooky Christmas where we gather around the fire at night on Christmas Eve and tell some of the spookiest real paranormal tales of winter. What do you say? Let's do it. So normally we'd investigate a paranormal tale and decide whether it's real or not.

But this time listeners sit back, relax, grab a jumbo XL glass of Baileys, ideally big enough for your family to worry that you're going to ruin Christmas again and enjoy these winter fables. After just a couple words from today's sponsors. Remember every episode of This Paranormal Life, even the Christmas ones, available ad-free at patreon.com forward slash thisparanormallife. It's 1970 on a dark and freezing winter's night in Chicago. We're inside St. Michael's Church in Old Town, Chicago, where the parish priest is conducting a midnight mass.

Have you ever been to a midnight mass before? Oh, yeah. Really? Have you? No, I don't think so. This is a church service that goes at midnight so that it bleeds into Christmas. Is that the idea? The idea goes, I think, in general, that Catholics are not good

at being Christians. Just, we're kind of lazy. I mean, I'm not practicing, but I was raised that way. And that is to say, I'm obviously being facetious, but the idea being that we're a bit lazy and a bit, you know, more laid back about the whole practicing thing. And generally trying to cut

corners, at least in the Irishish catholic church so the problem is everyone loves christmas mass no one doesn't no one said they don't love christmas mass the problem is it's christmas day you want to lie in you've probably been drinking the night before so getting up for that early service it's a bit of a push so why not technically if you go to mass at midnight, you've done it on Christmas Day. You're kind of good for the next day.

So I actually don't know if that's how it started, but that seems like a good logic. And so the idea being, you know, you would get it out of the way for the following day. And, you know, if you want to get crazy, you could probably hit the pub a couple hours before the service, you know, get a couple drinks. And then, you know, just stumble into the service, you know, hit the pub a couple hours before the service you know get a couple drinks yeah and uh and then you know just stumble into the service you know the father son

as long as you're in at 11 59 yeah you just have to kind of pop your head in hear the the church bell ring out and you're blessed for the year i'm pretty sure that's how it works you know maybe one of those pints of guinness makes it under your wool coat on the way into the, and you're sitting at the back of the church just having a couple of cheeky sips. Who knows? Who knows? Head down in prayer, sipping gently from a fresh Guinness. I mean, that's kind of similar to my church experience on Christmas day. My mom, obviously, bless her heart, angel on earth, loves to go to church every single Christmas.

Me and my brother brother we're more on the lazy side you know we've usually woken up just an hour earlier and have already started tucking into the cadbury selection box that santa left us as a present under the tree so i'm not gonna say that i'm eating chocolate bars during christmas service But you best believe I got a couple of twicks up my sleeve. I got a couple of twicks betwixt my forearm and my bicep, just hidden in there. It's like, Rory, are you flexing at the back of the church? I'm just holding them still.

The parishioners all shuffled into the church's creaking pews. The old timber looked worn and ancient, but few in the congregation had any idea just how lucky the walls of the church were to still be standing, let alone the wooden benches. You see, Rory, because almost exactly 100 years previously, in 1871, the Great Fire of Chicago roared through the city. Rumour and legend says that the fire originated in Old O'Leary's Hay Barn, but wherever it started, it was far from the Hay Barn now. It decimated large parts of southwestern and central Chicago,

but unfortunately, being the Windy City, the wind carried the blaze north too. People spilled out into the streets, fleeing their homes, terrified they'd be caught in the blaze, and trying to find shelter where they'd be safe. It's coming this way! Run! Leave your things! There's no time! And so people hid, terrified, inside the Catholic Church of St. Michael's on North Cleveland Street until it seemed inevitable that it too would be destroyed. So the priests and parishioners loaded the church's treasures onto a cart and fled. Quick, brothers and sisters, help me load treasure onto this cart for as long as possible, and then, if there's time at the end, run for your lives. And so they fled

into the night, leaving everything to be destroyed. But when the smoke finally cleared and the ash settled, the residents of Chicago saw something unbelievable among the ruins. The Church of St. Michael's was completely untouched. I mean, of course, the outside looked like a f***ing Whopper burger, double char grilled. Right. The inside and the structure were completely intact and it was the only building still standing in the old town area we've seen that kind of thing before occasionally haven't we the idea of a building or a thing potentially being protected yeah from

disaster that's why i say anytime any natural disaster is occurring in your proximity, you need to tie a priest to your back. Hang him from your neck like a charm. Right. Because the man upstairs isn't going to hurt this guy. So you think there's a kind of force field. I think so. That surrounds them. Like you'll be, you know, you could be in a biblical flood and a borderline Zorb ball would just appear around you, keeping you both dry.

I'm going to be like, what are you going to do now, God? I'm next to the priest. A lightning bolt kills me immediately and lifts the priest up to safety. What are you going to do now? Hard cut to heaven. God's got an angel with a sniper. And he's like, God, I got a clean shot.

He's like, give the order and I take him out he's like take the shot shoots you in the head with a thunder thunder they're like he's such a bad man it's worth losing a couple priests to get him right they do that shit in the gangster movies where they like shoot the priest through the leg to get you. He's like, oh, I understand though. You don't want to be the guy that arrives at the pearly gates with a gun to a priest's head. Say, let me in! Let me in, I'll blow his brains out!

It's like, they're not going to let you in. Taking hostages. You're for sure going to hell. A human shield yeah that's when you got no cards left to play i'm sure that's happened before though it's like a guy you know in the queue at the pearly gates which i assume is just immigration at the airport right um checking your papers checking the paperwork asking you you know your intentions and there's definitely a guy up there who's like trying to blag it.

He's lived a life of terrible sin, but he's trying to blag it. And then it's just once he sees that the interview is going south, the interviewer at the gate is like, you know, we do seem to have a couple of sins here unrepented for. Did you clear those up before you died? Or this guy just looks super shifty, just grabs someone, takes out a gun. Oi! F*** this! You guys let me in! You don't want to be the guy waiting in line to get into heaven who is basically like your friend at school who didn't study for the test

and you're all kind of filing in and he's like well who's the main character in that in the chapter four again guys anyone anyone and you're grabbing all the other people just being like what which one of the ten commandments is the most important is that the murder one guys i in chapter four again. Guys, anyone? Anyone? And you're grabbing all the other people just being like, which one of the Ten Commandments is the most important? Is that the murder one? Guys, I didn't study for this. I thought I had like 20 years left. Do you remember that moment,

like having to let your boy down? You're just like, bro, I'm sorry, man. You're stressing me out, man. You didn't study. I don't know, man. I don't know what to tell you. Yeah, you had to cut him off. Dude, run through the key motifs in The Great Gatsby with me real quick. It's like, dude, sorry. I don't know what to tell you. Yeah, you had to cut him off. Run through the key motifs

in The Great Gatsby with me real quick. He's like, dude, sorry. I don't know what to tell you, man. You walk off. I mean, I did disappoint him by saying, I didn't study either. Right. We're both going down.

So maybe it was the building's survival that made these churchgoers feel so safe back in the present day. But that midnight mass in 1970 would contain more than they bargained for. The priest cleared his throat and all the parishioners took their seats. But right as the service began, the door behind them all swung open. There was a latecomer. This was no local. Shrouded in black hooded robes, face hidden, the tall figure entered silently and sat at the back. Now this was strange, but a church has to be open to all, so everyone tried to ignore it.

Then later in the service, the communion rites began and everyone started to line up to receive the body of Christ. A mysterious figure at the back rose and joined the queue. The mysterious figure at the back rose and joined the queue. It's only then, in close proximity, that the other churchgoers noticed the robed figure's raspy, grunting breaths. As the figure reached the altar, the priest was now inches away from this shadowy presence. Filled with adrenaline, he held up the communion wafer. At this point, the priest looked down and noticed, poking out from under the robes, were not shoes, but hooves!

Okay, all right. The priest didn't panic, but probably did a small whimper. Maybe the wafer would protect him. But his mind raced, was this a demon or the devil himself whatever it was the creature didn't take the body of christ made one last goat-like grunt and disappeared into thin air that is what's written in the story i don't know if they really disappeared into thin air maybe they ran ran away. That is an alarming encounter. I knew this story seemed kind of familiar because I believe this was the story that you hosted when

we were in Chicago at our world tour. That is exactly right. What a story. I could see why you brought it back. The idea of the devil showing up to a church service at Christmas. That's spooky stuff. I mean, I don't know why the priest was so nervous. He seems like the one person you wouldn't want to be nervous. Like if his whole message is like, hey, God is super strong. He is all powerful. He is all knowing.

And then the devil shows up and he's like, oh, f***. And you're like, what's, father, right? We're fine though, because he's, he's, because God's the strongest one. You're like, yeah, yeah we're fine though because he's he's because god's the strongest one you're like yeah yeah yeah i'm just gonna i think i left my car double parked so i'm gonna i'm gonna head out you guys are safe though you guys are safe you're like well i think you said we were safe yeah you know he should be the one that's not worried about it i don't know man i think if he's in the church, I think the protections didn't work. I think the priest would be hoping that if the devil was in Chicago,

he'd be kind of like looking through the stained glass, maybe smoking a cigarette, but ultimately frustrated he can't get inside. Right, I see. No, if anything, this kind of feels like a mafioso moment where the devil leans into the priest here and is like, you know, you're not safe. You know, no one could keep you safe. You keep this shit up. You'll be hearing from me and my boys again.

Now, this is something we haven't seen before in an episode of this podcast. You're saying this wasn't a demon. This was supposed to be the devil himself taking human-esque form. That is exactly right. We've heard of the devil showing taking human-esque form that is exactly right uh we have we've heard of the devil showing up at a couple of places allegedly uh we have uh the hellfire club in dublin where the devil allegedly showed up i think just before the place burned down we have the cavern club cavern club in liverpool we covered that very recently where the devil i believe it was the devil showed up for a seance.

Oh, that's right, yeah. But it is infrequent, actually. For how much of a kind of, you know, fiction trope that could be, it doesn't happen that often. Right. Now, this is by far the most dramatic incident to be reported from St. Michael's. But it is rumoured that every so often, on a bitterly cold winter's night, a hooded figure would appear again from time to time, remaining hidden in the shadows at the back of the church.

Well, some think it may be to do with the name of the church, or at least the person it's named after, St. Michael. Because the Bible describes Michael as an archangel, a spiritual warrior in the battle of good versus evil. And in the book of Revelations, Michael is depicted holding a sword, fighting Satan in hand-to-hand combat. Damn! This church even has a statue of him holding that sword. Is it possible Satan has beef with Michael? That's why he comes here. Right, this is why he keeps coming back.

He's a sore loser, essentially. Well, Rory, we may never know. It's only one of many Christmas fables. Hmm. I think that is a perfect place to start our journey today because this just goes to show that even in the supposed safety and familiarity and tradition of a winter's church service in Chicago in modern times, you're not safe from the paranormal.

Because not only did the devil himself show up that night, but allegedly on nights since, creepy demons or other things have shown up in that church. demons or other things have shown up in that church. Yeah. If you get reports that the devil is coming to church services, look into that church. Look at that church. Cause I don't know what the message they're spreading.

I think if we learned anything from the cavern club, it's like lift the floorboards, dig up the floorboards because last time we checked there was a satanic temple underneath a music venue right i think i said when we were in chicago this is kind of like if you're a presidential candidate that's uh you know a little controversial but you think you're in the right and nazis start cheering you on from the sidelines reconsider your values and your message right because you're clearly not doing something right so if you're a priest and you're like and that's uh that's kind

of the lesson that we're gonna cover today and then at the back you hear hell yeah preach brother it's like oh is that okay so that's the devil back there and he's really connecting with some of the shit i'm saying so maybe I'm in the wrong here. I don't know. He's clicking every time I say something. Priest is like flipping the book back and forth. He's like, am I still reading the damn Bible? At least keep an eye on the ratio.

What's your demon to human ratio? But this is, I mean, as I say, it's really pushing the limits of the kind of founding principles of the church that all should be welcome. Yeah. Is the devil welcome? That's a good question.

That sounds like an intro question. What if he's, you know, at the back of the room in a trench coat, top hat, sunglasses, and he's like, yeah, I'm just a dude who lives in Chicago, just, you know, trying to keep an open mind, you know. I'm going to be honest with you, in a pretty dark place in my life, I've actually been in a dark place ever since I've been born about 16,000 years ago. Okay, I think that's when you're not welcome in the church anymore.

Because you should have passed on and been judged by now. I'm just trying to find community, you know. But needless to say, even if this had happened in one of our childhood church services we attended rory we wouldn't have caught it we would have been too busy drinking from a hip flask or trying to eat a twix stuffed up our sleeves i can also think of several individuals that match the description and voice of the devil in today's story who live in our hometown right right we're not talking about steve-o from jack. Now, Rory, we have more Christmas fables ahead. But in the spirit of talking about some of these traditions of whether it's going to the church service on midnight

or if that's on the day with the celebration box firmly cracked open, it's got me wondering, what else makes up the Powers household family Christmas? What are those? What is the routine going like on Christmas Day? On Christmas Day, I actually have more traditions on Christmas Eve. Okay. Well, preach. You wrap up your presents on Christmas Eve because I'm always very late to it. There's nothing under that tree before then. Right. Then you got to put them under. We usually

then go to our neighbors the Dually's Christmas Eve party we've been going there for about 20 years now the eggnog is flowing the Pikachu branded N64 makes an appearance and we have a tournament every year where we compete

at Pokemon Stadium 1 2 Smash Brothers and I believe some very ancient WWE video game, which is just incredible. So this is really, this is really, you know, I don't want to say this is a recurring theme of your life, but this is a party that is by all accounts completely frozen in 1998. 100%. Yeah, very little has changed. If someone so much as tries to pull out their smartphone at the party, it's like, dude, not cool.

Slapped out of the hand, yeah. It's not authentic. And then every Christmas Eve, we watch the greatest Christmas movie of all time, which is, of course, Muppet Christmas Carol. We've watched it once already this season. That's insane. So early. It is very early. Yeah. We're only allowed to watch it once a year and that's Christmas Eve. I'm not even allowed to

listen to the songs or my siblings would disown me, but that's pretty much all of the Christmas Eve traditions. Oh, interesting. Okay. Short, but sweet. Yeah. And Christmas Eve, of course, is, uh, it's a strange one in this part of the world because in other parts of the world, Christmas Eve's the big one. I mean, they don't call it Christmas Eve,

but just the 24th of December is the big one. Yeah. And they do the presents and so on and the big feast and then, you know,

their 25th is a bit more of like what our boxing day is. So, it always surprises me the kind of different traditions around the world. There's places in Europe where, I think we've covered it before, but they, I don't know, the presents turn up in your shoe and stuff like that. Very unorthodox.

Unless your Christmas present is a sock, it shouldn't be turning up in your shoe. What about you? Any Christmas traditions you're looking forward to? Well, I think I mentioned last week that, of course, I kind of refuse to get anyone anything. I refuse to engage in the season of goodwill. Yeah. It's a capitalist nightmare. And, you know, I just don't really see why I should do anything for anyone else.

Kind of a bad attitude to have around the holidays. But as I said, usually, you know, my family stages an intervention around Christmas Eve saying that I'm going to ruin Christmas again, that my wife is going to finally leave me, that I'm kind of ruining my daughter's childhood. So usually then that kind of the guilt kicks in enough for me to then panic, panic, panic, go shopping on the 24th. Get in a few things for the big day, you know. Instead of ghosts from the spirit world telling Kit how to appreciate Christmas, it's really just all of his friends and family telling him he's a bad person yeah and he's like oh so you want me to

change and they're like no we want you to leave we we gave up on change a long time ago right some of us are here to kill you tonight right yeah but me at me at the dinner table with my wider family just like rolling my eyes and everything like, God, Christmas sucks. This is so boring. Like my dad snaps and is like, you weren't invited. You weren't invited. You just came. You came.

No one wants you here. You've been doing this for years. I'm like, nah, yeah, whatever. They cook like an enormous turkey. You're like, guys, I'm vegan. You swipe it off the table onto the ground. They're like, f***ing hell. That was four hours of cooking.

They're right at the end of jingle all the way. Tears in their eyes and you run into the room. Turn it off. Boring. My two-year-old daughter is unboxing her presents in the morning. I've got her stocks in Tesla. I'm like, analysts actually say it's pretty overvalued. Personally, I think it's going to be worth a lot someday.

Oh, God. Okay, so you're going to have a good Christmas, whether anyone wants you to or not, by the sounds of it. I always do. I always do. Like I say, we have more fables to get into right after a couple of words from today's sponsors. I'm not ready to go to the ads yet. I'm not ready, you know,

because you got me thinking about Christmas now. And here's an interesting thing about Christmas. Christmas is when I consume... Sorry. Can we pause it until after the ad? No, I really think this is like an important talking point and I think people are going to want to hear it. And I don't know if we'll get back to it after the ad so i think we should talk about it now so christmas

is when i it depends how long you keep interrupting me for you know and it's an interesting thing i think we should talk about and i don't like the way that you're just trying to keep it short then christmas now i'm kind of trying to remember what it was because it felt really important at the time okay well sounds like... Why don't we do the ad break? No, no, no. Because I'll lose it. I'll lose it.

If we don't say now, I'll lose it. So give me a second to find it. No, play the ads. And I'll... No, here's what I'm going to say. Christmas is the only... Is the day... I think Christmas is...

Here's the funny thing about Christmas. The funny thing about Christmas is... You can't remember. I can remember. I can. I think Christmas is the day I drink the most different types of liquid. You know, just thinking about it. Like what liquid?

I don't know. I felt like this was more of a point. If there's like three liquids that's not like impressive or good yeah like milk water and juice how nuts is that in 24 hours you know i'm just because i i don't really what are my liquids every day it's always water and like two other things right a coffee max that's it i can't believe you paused the hour so but think about christmas you know you're having water in the morning usually maybe a coffee then to get ready then hey oh we having breakfast i'll have a glass of oj with that this is a normal day so far completely normal oh the family's here. Time for more water. That's right.

Back to where we started before Christmas. You don't want to start too early, but you're going to want to follow that up with a hard juice. A little do you know, Uncle Eric has brought the Christmas water. Oh, yeah. And he's been brewing it all year. What is this Christmas water? oh yeah and he's been brewing it all year so what is this Christmas

water it's Christmas water is kind of a f***ed up mix of water and OJ because I

can't can't have straight OJ it's too strong for me the f***ed up thing is do you ever drink Bucks Fizz

on Christmas day I've been known to drink Bucks Fizz which is juice. Juice and sparkling water. Prosecco or champagne. I'm not done yet, so watch it. Then Christmas comes around, the meal, right?

You have some Schler, perhaps. Maybe a glass of red wine. Boom, we're up to five liquids. Gravy. Schler is basically juice. Gravy. Liquid beef. Not a drink. Liquid beef. I said liquids. I didn't say I was drinking it. You eat it. Youvy. So it's basically juice. Gravy. Liquid beef. Not a drink.

Liquid beef. I said liquids. I didn't say I was drinking it. You eat it. You don't drink it. You gobble it. You know, that counts. I think that's six liquids we're up to now.

Then afterwards, maybe you want to go for that little dessert drink. You have your Baileys. And then possibly towards the end of the night, your Prosecco's to kind of celebrate and toast together. We're up to eight liquids in 24 hours. That's insane. For me, that's insane. I think it makes sense. People usually feel very ill by the end of the day.

Oh, my God. Yeah. You throw a beer in there for good measure. You're up to nine. I might see if I can hit 10 this year. That is a witch's brew. Ten liquids in 24 hours. All right. Leave that with me. I'm going to see if I can hit 10 this year. I thought there was a witch's brew in your stomach. 10 liquids in 24 hours. Alright, leave that with me. I'm gonna see if I can do it.

Let's pay some bills. Okay, we're back and all Rory's talk of drinking made us have to go get some beverages. Oh, yeah. There it is. I'm about to crack into a Christmas water. Oh god, it went everywhere! God damn it. I knew this was a bad idea. Oh god. It went everywhere. Oh damn. I knew it God's sake we need towels Phil. Can you get towels or cloth? This is Rory nine times a day on Christmas Day. Oh, I need towels. Oh my Christmas water Jesus

Okay, we're just gonna keep going This is You're making this A dreadful experience Can I say that? Is this what you do On Christmas day? My

My quest To consume 10 liquids Has gone very bad Even The first one exploded And I'm I'm not even One Christmas water deep

This is going Just like a family Christmas Off the rails Quickly Okay We got two We got more stories Breaking the fourth wall We have got other water deep this is going um just like a family christmas off the rails quickly okay um we got two we got more stories breaking the fourth wall we have got other stories oh here we go phil's got the phil's got this stuff all right hey thank you phil are you done interrupting can you just like do it quietly or something i'm just gonna clean this up so you tell the story though

yeah all right i'm probably just to wait and then edit this out. No, no, no, it's fine. You can do it. Yeah. You can tell the f***ing story, man. There's too much dead space. You know we can edit the podcast. No, tell the story.

We're not editing this one because it's going to be really close to Christmas, so we're doing it all in one thing. We are editing. We're obviously editing. There's no time. It would be terrible if we didn't edit it. There's no time. I got ten f***ing liquid... Hey!

I wonder if there's any more Christmas ghost stories out there. Are there? I'm trying to do a segue so we can kind of get back into the story. Rory, we talked about St. Michael's Church in Chicago, and while that story is known by many people in the area, our next fable is probably never before told, as it's a tale from Reddit. Self-posted by user Brian...

I think that's one... Nine N's. Brian with nine N's. On the Paranormal subreddit. Are you ready for a more personal paranormal tale, Rory? I absolutely am. Brian writes, this happened in the winter of 2009 or 2010. I was home from college and sleeping at my mom's place. I was on the third floor in the house she grew up in with her brother that she

still owns in South Boston. The house has been passed down through the family since we emigrated from Ireland in the early 1910s and bought it whenever my great-grandfather or great-great-grandfather had enough money, at some point pre-World War II. I was trying to sleep during a winter storm and I had been staying up late playing Call of Duty, so it was maybe midnight or 1am. All the windows were shut.

As I was laying in my bed and trying to drift off, I thought I heard something. Yes, I was definitely hearing something. I could hear an old radio, like something out of the 1950s. It had a distinct, like, old radio sound. I listened to a lot of Boston sports radio at the time, but this sounded like something out of an old movie or something along those lines. Kind of warm, tube sounding. I owned tube amplifiers at the time, and it had a similar warmth to that sound. Hmm, this is weird. I couldn't tell where it was coming from laying down, so I got up.

What was weird was, when I got up, the sound would go away. I walked around the floor probably 3-4 times confirming there wasn't just a radio on, but that it could be heard in my bed. It was just all very strange. Eventually I went to bed. Back then I used to listen to rain recordings when I couldn't sleep, so I probably did that. The next day I told my mom about what happened and she tells me that my great uncle used to sleep in my exact room and every night before going to bed,

he'd listen to the radio when he was a kid. I don't like that. It was my first 100% first-hand experience with something like that. Something paranormal. Oh, that's creepy. I don't like that one at all. Wow, what do you think? A ghost radio in a snowstorm.

Yeah, I mean, what, did he hear anything discernible through the transmission? No, I don't think so. I think because it was almost so faint. He was like, am I hearing something? And then kind of was like listening. Because he was like, yeah, definitely. Stands up. It stops. Lies back down. Here's it again.

Yeah. It's tough, isn't it? I mean, if this is a house that they've had through generations presumably there is a lot of stuff from the olden days still in the house and i do know on storms i don't know how the science behind this but storms can like activate electronics they can you know like thunder i remember being a kid once no no you're making that up no no definitely not what are you talking about storms can activate electronics i'm pretty sure you know, like thunder. I remember being a kid once. No, no, you're making that up. No, I'm not. Definitely not. What are you talking about?

Storms can activate electronics. I'm pretty sure. This isn't the X-Men. Wind doesn't make a radio start. Don't make me look it up. It can do shit. It's electric. I don't even know what I'm going to text to find this.

Can storms turn on electrics? Because I remember remember very specifically as a child a wicked thunderstorm sweeping through savannah georgia and a thunder strike blasting right by the house and one of my little toy fire trucks essentially becoming sentient like optimus prime and blasting across my bedroom floor. It went Lenin mode. Must destroy capitalism. I don't think this is an urban legend.

You've never had this happen before? No, of course not. Also, this was like a blizzardy storm. Not like, we didn't say there was like thunder crashing. I can't hear the sound effects they're added in post i don't know what the f**k's going on there could be thunder crashes uh yeah there's nothing here that you're gonna wanna i knew it i knew it you totally just went off at the same time that's not a thing lightning near your house can call cause voltage spikes in the ground

affecting the ground wasn't plugged in wasn't plugged into the wall it's all cattle uh you know so it's the jury's still out on that one the jury has decided or not your toys can come to life during certain storms what What happened to Buzz and Woody? The jury called this one an open shut case. All right, that might not be a good reason as to why he heard an old-timey radio, but there could have been an old-timey radio playing that he hears through the walls. I will say this one got me very interested in the idea of spirits of Christmas, ones that come out on the solstice to mingle with the living,

like I said earlier, because the veil between the living and the dead is that much thinner. Is it a coincidence that he's maybe lived in this house for some time? But it's at this winter period that he then hears, potentially, the ghost of his great uncle. Thankfully, this one was a kind spirit, or at least a neutral spirit, but not all of them are. Another user, deadhead underscore zero zero, posted a more disturbing story. So I'm posting this here to see if anyone else has had a similar experience,

because my research into what's happening hasn't really left me with anything. My family and I used to set up a nativity set all the time for Christmas. It sits right on the table under the TV in the living room. There's no easy way to say this. Every year that we have had the nativity up, Joseph always ends up getting turned to face completely away from mary whoa how are your parents doing bud they still together the full back turned towards her my mother and i used to think it's one of these things where like the kid asks he's like dad why

is joseph turned away from m? And Dad's like, huh? No, I don't understand. I guess, I don't know. Maybe Mary doesn't listen to him. Maybe Mary doesn't do the things Joseph asked her to do, even when he said how important it is to her. And then their mom's just like, well, maybe Mary's feeling a little unappreciated at the manger.

And you're like, okay, I'm sorry I asked. It's like, oh, unappreciated at the manger. You're like, okay, I'm sorry I asked. It's like, oh, unappreciated? Maybe Mary shouldn't have gone out and f***ed her personal assistant. Huh? It's like... Completely losing the drape of Christmas. Maybe if Joseph wasn't such a little broke bitch,

we could afford to live in an actually nice house that wasn't a manger. Maybe Joseph's wondering why nine other dudes are showing up to the birth of his child. What about that, Mary? My mother and I used to always think it was my stepfather moving it just to mess with us, but he would never admit to it. Now, for the past two or three years, however, we for some reason just never got around to setting it up for the holidays. Well, this year I was cleaning out the basement and I came across it and decided to set it up in our living room again. I completely forgot that Joseph used to be moved pretty much

every night. That is, until about a week or so ago. I was heading to bed and I happened to look over to see that Joseph had been turned completely away from Mary. My stepfather no longer lives in the house, so it obviously could not be him. I know it's something small and obviously not something that's causing

actual harm, but it does kind of sketch me out. When is this from? Recently, right? A couple years ago, yeah. Man, you gotta get some CCTV camera on this thing. You gotta get some night vision cameras. If it's happening consistently, you should be able to capture it. Again, Rory, not possibly

a tale that we would ever have enough evidence or information on to possibly come to a conclusion on, but just enough to give our listeners the willies this Christmas. The idea between these three fables that as cozy as it is, and as lovely as it is,

and as much of a time of goodwill amongst men as it is, maybe they have to be careful out there because the spirit's still a bond at Christmas. I like the idea of the grandfather's record player, you know, activating while he was asleep. Because that's kind of a nice thing. If it's Christmas, and as you said, it's easy enough for spirits to kind of join us for a little bit.

At least they're coming back at quite a nice time. I'm sure a lot of them just want to hang out with the family for one more night. As you said, just spend some time in their room listening to the records. If the spirits are turning up on Halloween night, they have a different agenda, I'm sure. So it's nice to know that even when spooky stuff happens at Halloween, it's done with some good intentions by the spirits at least. Right, you're saying this is a kind of Disney Pixar's Coco,

where, you know, it's Christmas time, little kid lays his head on the bed and just hears, Remember me. Right, yeah. Every time you, stands up, silence. Yes, it's the ancestors speaking through and saying, Hey, we want a seat at the table. Right. You know, even the ghosts that visited Scrooge,

they were allowed back on earth, but they were there to teach a man about the value of Christmas. It would have been a whole nother story if one of the angels was like, God, we got a problem. The ghost of Christmas present, he's gone AWOL. We think he went to see his kids. We shouldn't have given him 24 hours back on earth. He's scaring people at a church. This is where a prisoner gets like a day off to go to a funeral

and they just like don't come back. Right, yeah. They just start a manhunt. So, yeah, this is nice to hear. Some of them are behaving themselves. Rory, as I say, this is a Christmas special after all, which is why at the end of this episode we're not going to come down as something as banal as a yes or a no as to whether these cases are real or not.

Although between you and me, I wouldn't want to be telling the devil he's not real we just wanted to tell some christmas stories to celebrate with you guys and continue to bring you paranormal tales all through the festive season absolutely and i hope that everyone is having a lovely time celebrating and if you're thinking about doing rory Powers' 10 Liquid Challenge on Christmas Day, then there's no better way to fulfill one of your quota with a nice, delicious, refreshing box of Christmas juice. No, absolutely not. Christmas juice, also known as Christmas water. You can pick it up.

It's available in all stores now. Christmas water by Rory Powers. It's not quite juice. It's not quite water. So check it out. Check it up. It's available in all stores now. Christmas Water by Rory Powers. It's not quite juice. It's not quite water. So check it out. Check it out. All of you, go check it out. I actually tried to fob my daughter off with Christmas juice the other day.

She wanted some juice. There was only a dribble of it left, so I mixed it with a bit of water. She was not having it. As you say, Rory, we hope that everyone listening has a fantastic holiday period. Wherever they are in the world whatever they're celebrating hopefully they're at least getting a little bit of time with family with loved ones have a good time this winter

staying inside staying cozy or summer if you're in the southern hemisphere and if you find yourself in the midst of the festivities which some people do where let's face it after about 35 minutes sick of your family sick of your friends you know it's all it's all nice for about 20 minutes and then you're like

no i need some me time that is why we're going to keep you guys stocked with paranormal episodes and what a stock we have today the one you're listening to is only the beginning because we have a a roster of episodes coming out over the Christmas and the new year to keep you entertained. We got some great stuff coming up. Next Tuesday is our annual best of episode where we take some of our favorite moments from this year and compile them into one big episode as a way to look back on an incredible year of this paranormal life. But don't fret, Thank you. and make it able for us to create this bonus content. One of our favorite episodes is going to be going out for everyone for free on that very same week. And speaking of Patreon.com, if you want some extra, extra bonus content this Christmas season,

or are looking for a way to just treat yourself or a loved one, why not head over to Patreon.com forward slash this paranormal life? Because in just under a week, maybe two weeks before new year's Eve, we're doing our huge annual Q and a bonus episode where we answer God, it looks like it's going to be over a hundred questions from the community about our favorite cryptids about our favorite stories, our own paranormal experiences. our favorite cryptids about our favorite stories our own paranormal experiences and uh i don't want to say things get boozy when we record this but let's just say you know we don't have to worry about the old 10 liquid challenge when we're recording that episode so uh check it out if you want to we've also got after parties as well rolling out all throughout Christmas and the new year.

Tons of stuff over on Patreon, but tons of stuff right here also on the main feed. So tune into those. Head over to patreon.com to get access to those episodes. Head over to youtube.com to see the video here of our slightly festive themed studio.

We're going to be bringing you videos all through the festive season as well and of course follow us on the usual places to see some of the best bits cut out every week on tiktok on instagram and so on rory i think it's about time we let these good people go on into the night to have their own christmasol, wonderful time. Absolutely. Get wild. Get wonderful. Eat, drink and be merry. And we will see you next week on the other side of Christmas for that best of episode.

In the meantime, Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas! Ho, ho, ho, ho! Merry Christmas!