The Advent Calendar House has awoken early from its long winter’s nap to take the Leap Year challenge as prescribed by Dr. Frasier Crane on one unseasonably warm February morning in 1996. On the way we look up the “Frasier” cast’s Christmas connections, explore the world of complicated opera solos and bad Western ballads, and call in to a PBS pledge drive to try and talk to Big Bird.

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Erin Evans (@mserinevans).

Joey O. (Y-Not Radio, @imgonnadj24).

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1. Kelsey Grammer in “Mr. St. Nick” and “The Twelve Days of Christmas Eve.”

2. Our adventures on the mid-1990s internet, when it was All About the Pentiums.

3. “Frasier” episodes ranked on Variety, Frasier Online, and Thrillist.

4. “When You Had Left Our Pirate Fold” from “The Pirates of Penzance,” in which Leap Day becomes a plot point.

5. Oleg Cassini and the worst title card gag.

6. KACL is a real radio station, but not in Seattle.

7. “Rigoletto” and the aria “Ella mi fu rapita / Parmi veder le lagrime.”

8. Kelsey Grammer sings “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the 1996 Major League Baseball All-Star Game in Philadelphia.

9. “Buttons and Bows,” as sung by Bob Hope in “The Paleface” and by Leap Day baby Dinah Shore.

10. Adam “Edge” Copeland talks “Money Plane” on Hey! (EW).

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McDonald’s “Morning Break” Commercial starring Kelsey Grammer, 1995.

Remember That Show?, a podcast journey to explore obscure and forgotten TV series.

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“Frasier” and “Look Before You Leap” © 1996 Paramount Productions.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🎄It’s 1984, and Ebenezer Scrooge is threatening to raise his asking price for a warehouse full of corn.  

This Christmas Eve episode not only drops on a Scrooge Sunday, but it’s also the Advent Calendar House’s 150th episode. To celebrate, I let listeners vote for which “Christmas Carol” to cover, and the winner is the 1984 TV movie starring George S. Scott, along with original “Equalizer” Edward Woodward as a sassy Ghost of Christmas Present, and we even spotted our favorite Alfred Pennyworth, Michael Gough, as a not-so-portly gentleman.  

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Erin Evans (@mserinevans).  

Joey O. (Y-Not Radio, @imgonnadj24).  

Anthony Strand (ToughPigs.com, Movin’ Right Along, @durwoodclapper.bsky.social).  

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1. David Warner in “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze.”  

2. George S. Scott in “Angus” and “Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue.”  

3. “God Bless Us Everyone,” this movie’s theme music by Nick Bicât.  

4. Wikipedia and NO ONE ELSE names one Cratchit child “Michael,” played by Susannah York’s (Mrs. Cratchit) real-life son, Orlando Wells.  

5. Michael Carter (Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come) as Bib Fortuna in “Return of the Jedi.”  

6. “It’s Corn,” and My favorite “Futurama” joke.  

7. Scrooge’s grave, allegedly a real, reinscribed headstone, at St. Chad’s Church in Shrewsbury.  

8. Twelve Hundred Ghosts - A Christmas Carol in Supercut.  

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IBM Sponsored Commercial Break from the original airing of “A Christmas Carol.”  

George C. Scott “Read More About It” PSA.  

The Christmas Podcast Network All-Star Comedy Christmas Show!  

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“A Christmas Carol” © 1984 Travenol Laboratories Limited.  

In memory of Jason Gross (1976–2023).  

“Christmas in Your Heart” (from “A Garfield Christmas Special”) performed by Todd from Vista Blue/Second Saturday.  

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.

🎄It’s 1980, and my spoiled nephew just got beaten in a ski-jumping contest by a bear who’s never seen winter before.  

Join us we fail upward through middle to upper hotel management featuring a simultaneously very mature and very immature conversation about cartoon bears discovering mistletoe. What could be the Jellystone Winter Lodge’s final Christmas carnival manages to wake up Yogi Bear, who hibernates directly underneath it but somehow never knew about it before now.  

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Bill Hanstock (@sundownmotel, “We Promised You a Great Main Event: An Unauthorized WWE History”)  

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1. This special opens with a typo: The sign reads “Yellystone Park.”  

2. Daws Butler’s Snagglepuss voice was a Bert Lahr impression that was so spot on, Lahr threatened to sue when Snagglepuss started endorsing Kellogg’s cereal.  

3. Hanna-Barbera’s Christmas Sing-A-Long album, featuring songs from this special.  

4. Yogi was in “Casper’s First Christmas” in 1979, so this isn’t really Yogi’s First Christmas.  

5. Fruity Pebbles Christmas Commercial episode, 2017.  

6. The Wonkamobile.  

7. ClickHole: “Which One of My Garbage Sons Are You?” Clickhole, 2014.  

8. Eddie the Eagle.  

9. Mickey Mouse’s shirtless (and hatless) Steamboat Willie winter look at Disneyland.  

10. “Mean, Sour, Crafty, and Cruel” in “Oliver and the Artful Dodger” and “Smurfs.”  

11. The Zone of Death in the part of Yellowstone National Park that’s in Idaho.  

12. “Christmas Is Here” in “A Flintstone Christmas.”  

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Cocoa Krispies Snagglepuss “Heavens to Murgatroyd” Commercial, circa 1963.  

Bad Princess Movies, a catalogue of terrible movies about princesses and princesses-to-be.  

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“Yogi’s First Christmas” © 1980 Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc.  

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.