Christmas Spectacular w/ Vic & Max! Our Favorite Traditions, Childhood Memories & Holiday Hot Takes

The following podcast is a deer media production. Welcome to RealPod. It's your host, Victoria Garrick Brown, and this is the podcast where we hold nothing back. Oh, so we're getting deep, huh? I've really cried for 12 days straight. Why do I want to be perfect? There's nothing in my life that is perfect. Every week, I'll bring you honest, unfiltered, and eye-opening conversations to help uncover the real in all of us. I crave the type of content that you're talking about. I actually felt insecure. Oh, my God, am I going to cry? Let me just unload everything. New episodes every Wednesday leave those filters at the door, because it's time to get real. OK, welcome everybody to the Christmas spectacular. If we're going to find out what this is alongside me, I got the calendar invite and I had no idea what was going on. And then you walked into the studio and I gave you a Santa hat. Santa hat, I was instructed to have the one forest green item of clothing that I own to wear that. And here we are. I just thought it would be fun to do an episode that helped everyone get into the Christmas spirit and just like further sink in because it is the most wonderful time of year. Christmas is my favorite holiday. What is your favorite holiday? Is it Christmas? Christmas. Yeah, for sure. Say Christmas or Hanukkah, if you celebrate that is just lying to themselves. I think to last week's episode, the cry fest, that was hard. And so I thought a nice, comfortable ease back in would be bringing you on. All right, let's go. And you're my buddy, the elf. I thought for this, we could go into a variety of things like Christmas music, Christmas memories, Christmas traditions, Christmas movies, and just have some laughs along the way. Hi. Hi, everybody for that. We are in the Christmas spirit, not only is the real pod studio decorated. If you're watching on YouTube, you're getting some eye candy today, but we have our Christmas tree up and we have Christmas pillows and we have all of our little decorations. You and I have actually never decorated a Christmas tree together. We've never had our own tree. We have the most LA Christmas tree this year and you've done all the decorating, which hopefully long-term. Why do you say it's an LA Christmas tree? There's literally no leaves. It's entirely white and it's like aesthetically pleasing and it's not going to get the living room dirty and all that and it looks very clean but it is not a traditional Christmas tree. It's a fake light up tree from pottery barn. I would like a real tree. I'm a real tree type of girl and I want us to do that. Exactly, girl. Yeah, sure. But I don't want to go pick it up on myself to decorate it for us to not be home because we're traveling. But when we have kids, I definitely want to have a real Christmas tree. Me too. Me too. I'm getting for that. The other thing that I've just been nonstop blasting is Christmas music and I was actually curious because there's so much I'm going to find out about you in this episode because I feel like we don't really talk about Christmas. We're not even that close, so this will be an opportunity for us to get closer. We barely know each other. But I, like the Mariah Carey Christmas album, is like, I mean, not as the gold standard in my household. Do you even listen to that? I listen to the one song. Name it. I want for Christmas is you. Perfect. You get to run that shit on repeat. You start with music and I could tell you like four Christmas songs. I don't even know. I could give you that many. But it was more just like when you're in the kitchen. I don't know. My mom was like cooking or my dad's cooking or baking or whatever, like put on the Christmas shuffle and like whatever played and played my go to like pound the table Christmas tradition. The national ampune's Christmas vacation, the best Christmas movie, the very first rated R movie that I ever saw. I think my 13 page of the three rated R like from the jump. That's the go to. Yeah. Max's family watches national ampune's Christmas vacation. Every single Christmas eve, every single year. So I've been a part of that tradition now for quite some time and it's a really sweet tradition. At first, I was like, oh, another year, we're going to watch. I feel like I watched it yesterday. You know, Christmas movies. You watch them over here. So many men. I'm 30 right now. So many men age 29 to 40 found out they were straight in the scene where Mary gets out of the pool. Just saying. I found out I was a little gay, you know, I think you're getting spicy when you bring the old husband. You got all the juice out of this episode and great. We'll see you in 2026. That's such a turn for my I who I thought I was going to send this episode to and say, yeah, it's a Christmas episode. We should listen to it. She's smiling right now. But before we get to Christmas movies, I want to talk about Christmas music because I do have a little tangent I would like to talk about. And I'm curious if you have any thoughts, even though I know you're not really a pop culture type of person. But I think it's pretty iconic if an artist creates a Christmas classic. So not like repeating the oldies and doing your own rendition, but having your own original Christmas song. And I actually do think there are three iconic new era. I'm going to say after the 2000s Christmas songs where I would like to give credit where credit is due. The first one is going to be mistletoe by Justin Bieber. I knew. Yeah, classic. That is a classic. Just for Beliebers, it's for everybody. Next, Santa Tell Me by R.N. Agrande, Certified Banger and Classic. And then I hope you agree with me here underneath the tree, Kelly Clarkson, underneath the tree. Yeah, the fact that you know the melody, okay, I want to give some honorable mentions. Now look, I would have loved to say that my girl Taylor Swift has made a lot of love in Christmas tree farm. No, she has Christmas tree farm. She needs to crank out more music. No, she doesn't. And you are just saying that too, get under my skin. But Christmas tree farm, I, in my heart, it's as a swifty, it's a classic. But this is an unbi-- But no one else thinks that. For the general public, that's why I'm saying honorable mention for N-N-N-E-G-M-G-F-I-M. Because it's a good song. And then also I want to give an honorable mention to Snowman by Sia. Creative title. Do you know it? Nope. Well, anyways, I just wanted to kind of get that off my chest about the music. Glad you did. Okay. Next we're going to talk about Christmas memories. So please tell us what was Christmas like growing up for you and I will do the same. Christmas was awesome in the Brown household. Multiple phases for Christmas, like phase one was all of us under one roof. There's a big age gap between me and my brothers. So that was awesome, full Santa vibes. Never forget when we got an Xbox for the first time. I grew up in an anti-video game household, so getting the Xbox, circa 2002, was all time. I'd like to thank Max's parents for that because I couldn't be with the gamer. Yep. Yep. So fun. And then like phase two, more of the middle school phase, it's more like my brothers coming home from college because I, again, think-- You kind of had only child situation-ish because you're nine years younger or seven years. Seven years. When I went into sixth grade, all my brothers were off, like, living their own lives in college, doing their own thing, which was great. And then phase three was like, you know, in college sports, high school sports when you're like playing games that weekend, like basketball or football kind of thing. But no, it was great. We always have crab on Christmas Eve, which is very Pacific Northwestia of us. So good. So good. Absolute feast. Rogue edition in 2019, who doesn't eat crab and then so we have to make her her own chicken breast. But that's a different different topic. But yeah, we didn't travel much. It was always like staying in our little hometown in Samamish, Washington. It's like a 50/50, maybe 30% chance if you get snow or not. The white Christmas is in Seattle are so nice because I never grew up with the snowy Christmas. Unless we spent Christmas in Colorado, which sometimes we did because I grew up skiing. I feel like yeah, I'm down playing our Christmas experience. If all I'm giving you is crab and national lampoon. So sorry, mom, when you listen to this, we definitely had more. I feel like I had so many like quintessential Christmas traditions. We would all decorate the tree together and my mom would have certain ornaments. Like we all had our own ornaments that we would want to put on the tree each year. Wait, so would you guys like set out like a dedicated like Tuesday, December 6th is all like family decorate the tree and you'd like put on Christmas music and yeah, we used to do that. And as we got a little bit older and it was like, you know, we wanted to be with our friends and you're just in high school and you're like a little bit that age. I think I always helped my parents because I always just enjoyed it. But my mom like maybe for Jonathan would leave like 13 ornaments that like are his picture, his this, his golf that and then like he would put those on himself. Remember dinner with my mom and then yeah, like you said, as you as you get older, it faces out a little bit. Yeah. Did you ever look at the Santa Tracker? We used to do that and I would really like be so excited about where Santa was and then every year I would try to think I'm going to stay up and see Santa Claus. I would actually fall asleep so then I would be like, so upset when I woke up but then so happy because like he came and there was a present and actually I was thinking about this recently with just the like whole Amazon and Christmas gifts and all that because I feel like I remember growing up with like one present from Santa, Santa brought us one present. We never had multiple gifts from Santa, obviously we maybe had gifts from our parents and then my brothers would give me a gift that like they bought out with my parents. Santa did not mess around at the Brown House. You got lots of gifts from Santa. Yeah. Santa brought his A game. Yeah, I feel grateful that I woke up with more than just a gift from Santa, which is such a blessing. Maybe you were just on the naughty list. So he was like, all right, we got to give it a one thing, but you know, no, but I feel like we would walk down and it was always by the chimney like by if we had a chimney or a fireplace there would be three gifts and mine was always in the middle because that was our birth order. That's not how Santa operated in the Northwest. - Okay, here's the thing about being a gift giver. When you find something truly perfect for everyone on your list, you almost don't wanna give it away. That's what happened with my Quinn's order. Everything is so soft and well made that I'm like tempted to keep it all for myself, but that just means I know that my fam who I'm giving these gifts to is going to love it. I have so many things from Quinn's now. I have Quinn's Kashmir sweaters. I have Quinn's sunglasses, I have Quinn's shoes. We just actually ordered some Quinn's decorative bedding. I'm really excited. So that's still on its way to me. And I ordered a few colors because I'm not sure what's going to match the best with our bedroom and then I'll return whatever it doesn't work. But I'm so excited because the Quinn's decorative throws and pillows just look so gorgeous and I really want to mix it up on my bed for the new year. Also, the best thing about Quinn's is that they work directly with trusted factories that maintain high standards for both craftmanship and ethical practice. And by cutting out the middlemen, they cut out the markups. So Quinn's is able to pass those savings straight to you and you can get things like Mongolian Kashmir sweaters for just $50 when you'd normally pay $200 or more. So fine gifts, so good. You will want to keep them with Quinn's. Go to Quinn's.com/realpod for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too. That's Quinn's q-u-i-n-c-e.com/realpod to get free shipping and 365 day returns. Quinn's.com/realpod. 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So give your loved ones a unique keepsake you'll all cherish for years. Story worth memoirs. Right now save $10 or more during their holiday sale when you go to story worth.com/realpod. That's story worth.com/realpod to save $10 or more on your order. (upbeat music) What is your favorite gift you ever got from Santa? - The Xbox is the most memorable because it was like, yes, finally. Maybe not finally, but just like, all right, welcome to the big leagues. Like I'm a little longer a kid. I remember getting a DVD, a portable DVD player, which at the time was like big time. Again, like circa 2001, 2002. I got a neon orange Barry Sanders jersey for the male population or college football population listening that I still have, which is amazing all time. But yeah, that, oh, I got, no, I got sick. Jordan, Jordan 10, Jordan 11's that were so sick. They were white with forest green, which was my like high school basketball teams colors. When I was like six grade, my mom and brother waited outside, champs sports at Bell Square to get me them. They were the stairs, okay, they came right now. You'd be like, yo, those are sick basketball shoes. And I rocked him in like six grade. They low key game, my feet blisters, but I was like, I immediately in a better basketball player by wearing these shoes. What's your favorite gift? - I feel like I can remember getting just a really special, I think it was like a polypocket like dream house or something, it wasn't that big. It was like, like this, but I just remember that one, like specifically. And then I remember the days when like the iPod Nano, and iPod was coming out. - Yeah, that was game changing. - That was game changing. I remember one specific Christmas where my brother got me an iPod and obviously he didn't, but he just like my parents were probably like, you can say this is from you, which meant so much because I feel like my cool brother like gave me a pink iPod. So yeah, that was super special. And then in my family, we don't just do gifts, but we also give cards. - And what else? - What? - When you give someone a gift in a car, what follows that? - What is mandatory in your household? - Oh, hug. - A hug. - Yeah. - Okay. - No, no, I'm just cleared like, it's great. It's very warm. That is very much a direct tradition. - Wait, I want to talk about this because I feel like when Max first joined my family, and we were all like reading and writing these long cards for birthday, father's day, Christmas. Like every holiday we do that. And then yeah, we have a hug. I don't know that's just like, how do you not hug someone who gives you a gift? 'Cause we're trying to get this going, man. But no, it's great, honestly, it's great. It does force you to slow down and be like, this is great, and acknowledge the person. Which is awesome. - And I feel like I used to be excited about those moments because you get to show love to someone that you love. And maybe not every day you're hugging or being emotional. But this just goes to show that we'll have different traditions and then we'll merge them together. In the fact that our family will watch national and whose Christmas is vacation every Christmas Eve, I've just known that and you will write cards and give hugs to everybody. - That's so true. And I've only done Christmas with your family once. - Twice. - For couples listening, Max and I have been rotating. So we'll do Christmas with my family when your Christmas is hidden at his the next. And then whatever year we don't spend Christmas with a family, we spend Thanksgiving with them. That's what we've been doing it. Until we probably have kids, in which case we'll say, "Come on, come on, but we might not be traveling as much." So while we are like the single ones without kids, we go and we travel. Have you guys ever had a Christmas disaster or something go crazy? - Yeah, actually, what, four years ago? When my brother had a infection on his ass cheek. - Wait. - We were gonna talk about that. - That goes like dark. - You know, it's good 'cause. - You know, awareness. - My sister-in-law will be laughing. She'll be listening to this and she'll be laughing. He don't care. Yeah, my brother had an infection on his a life threatening infection by way of his ass cheek. - Well, it was a pimple that was popped internally by accident. - Yep. - Which created a flesh eating. - That's probably where we stop it, okay, we're good. He's good, but yeah, that was incredibly scary. That was Christmas day, Christmas eve, our visits. And yeah, that was not fun. That was three years ago. Mine was gonna be one year the tree fell on my dad. And like, we hesitate it, we laugh before we went to help him. - That is not, wait, wait, wait, wait. That is not an emergency on any spectrum. - But it was, you took it really literally. I was thinking of funny memories. - Will you ask, do you, at Christmas disaster, what your Christmas tree fell down? Get out of you. - It was so funny though, like he, like when it fell on him and he was, we could tell he was totally fine from like it, but it was definitely like the tree fell on him. And I remember just, I think my mom and brother started like dying laughing. And of course, my dad was very upset that like no one rushed to help him right away that we like laughed first, but it's a funny memory in hindsight. Another thing I wanna talk about is that we just watched a hilarious Christmas movie that I don't know how, like I didn't know and slash forgot it existed. - You're really a fan of this. - Daddy's home too, was so good. It was so funny. I was literally laughing out loud. I haven't had a Christmas movie in that long that felt like fresh. If we had to rank our top three Christmas movies, what are yours? Mine are gonna be the holiday, Elf. Oh, and I actually think I'm gonna go the OG in 1964 Rudolph. - Interesting, can't, can't remember last time I watched that. I'm going in Christmas vacation, one, four Christmas is two, I mean, Elf three, like in the true spirit of Christmas. I gotta rewatch like Bad Santa and some of the edgy ones. - I'm down, we should do that. - Santa Claus with the-- - We could do one after this. - Yeah. Daddy's home too, is great though. You're looking for a fresh flick when you forgot about Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg. - It's so funny. - Great time. - It was so good. - Great time. What are some of your favorite Christmas memories? What was it like in the Garek household? - We're a huge on family time growing up, so it was just usually our family, maybe Yaya, but we didn't have like other family that lived in the state, so it would just be us. Christmas Eve, we've always done like a nice dinner or whether we went somewhere for a restaurant or honestly my mom maybe made pastichou or like a Greek dish. Then we usually would watch like probably a Christmas movie but not the same one every year. We would track Santa, we would leave out cookies for him and maybe we would do carrots on the rooftop for the reindeer. We never did the matching pajamas, but I just remember going to bed with so much excitement and then waking up like, Santa came like it was just I'm about the magic of that like I missed that so much It'll be so exciting to break out that back in our lives like when we have kids and we get it like told them about Santa And then yeah, we would go down and then the gifts were there from Santa and then from our parents and like from siblings to each other And yeah, it was just super special and then actually Christmas day. We never really did anything Christmas days always interesting. Yeah Oh, no gifts and I guess growing up. It was all just like playing with your own gifts But then as I got older going to movie theater on Christmas day, I was Watching NBA basketball. I think it's a good I think it's a good take I could see us starting a tradition with our family where we do that Isn't it crazy that you just get to like do things and then it becomes a tradition? Yeah, yeah, we would usually do a big breakfast like bacon and eggs Creek style or like French toast Yeah, just a totally like yummy breakfast with no intention of like knowing what lunches Oh, that's another tradition another brown tradition getting cinnabons cinnabons or cinnabons for anyone out there I'm down to adopt that brown tradition Mike Brown getting that deliver on them. That's a great combo go George Garrick Bacon and eggs Creek style and then Mike Brown cinnabons. That would be a that'd be that'd be big time I mean technically. It's the Laney Garrick bacon and X Creek style, but GG has adopted it. Love that. Oh something I forgot to mention that I know Laney Garrick will want to sit on the pod is just How into the Christmas cards she was every year and not into it in that like we didn't do like those dress up in costumes cards, but we definitely have like a full professional photographer coming and then my mom would spend like months on like the fonts and the colors and like it was like her Holy Grail each year was like her Christmas card and I remember one year she came down and she was just like It just says joy. Isn't that perfect and we'd be like sure and then all the Christmas cards would come in and that was actually fun Looking for all the Christmas cards and then my mom just like taking a lot of pride in feeling like you know her Christmas card was the best Dude the Christmas card dynamic is fascinating like I'm always fascinating when I go to my brother Marcus's house Because he lives in you know like tight tight community like some were just you know I'm like They like yeah, there's a whole wall of Christmas cards and you can very much stereo type each couple for like Who is wired in a certain kind of way right? There's very much lanes of Christmas cards that they go in I'm trying to pitch Vic on a I'm not a fan of the scenario you just painted to be honest I think that's like super try hardy. Sorry. No like Leni. I love you, but try hardy to have a beautiful picture of your family that you send out to everybody Yeah, so then you can have the thickest card stock in the pile and show you know Denise through your Is in the PTA conference how awesome your kids are and how oh look at little Johnny's got a nice sweater vest and he looks so good And on the back you write like Johnny had a great year. He He made a little little league all-star baseball team and like Never wrote those perfect perfect perfect. I didn't then love that but if we're being honest There's a lot of Christmas cards. No, it is hey they go to FedEx and they go Hey, what's the thickest card stock you can have let me show up Diane down this tree for how thick my card stock is I think it would be so funny. This is what I want to do. I want to get a Christmas card Where we them it out so like when Game of Thrones was like all time like half the whole family like let's like Let's go to like a rock aesthetic and get in full like Game of Thrones wardrobe and like have it like like Face paint the whole deal like haven't have a moment there and on the back of the card Like literally tell like the the low point for all of them like little Johnny learned how to potty train But before that he shit on the carpet and it was like oh my max actually got laid off That would be so funny and relatable and if you're sending a Christmas card to people you actually like they would laugh at it It's not that deep. It would be so funny and would be reverse psychology where everyone's trying to put on a front with their Christmas card Yeah, this would be so funny. I mean it definitely is like giving it's it's giving the real pot of Christmas cards for sure Yes, exactly, but it's depressing. No, it's not it's hilarious I don't want to read the word shit on a Christmas card this year max lost 2000 strands of hair. He'll never get back and the balding process continues Vic kind of Whatever you said in your real pot episode last time like that would be so funny Yeah, yeah, and it would teach your kids to just roll with the punches and laugh at themselves Yes, but that would be so great. I was thinking it could be funny if we had competitive cards So actually you could do your own card with our family and then I can do mine And I'm also not like a macho hardo. I get that having a nice Christmas a family photo is nice I totally get that dog me wrong. So then maybe that's on one side and then the makeshift fun on the bat on the other side Actually, I knew a family that did that every year like let me tell you my failure of the year That would be so refreshing. I would like to shout out the Georgians and family who I don't even know if anyone listening We'll have any connection back to them But there was a family that we used to get their Christmas card and they did that every year And actually, I wish I had like No, my mom loves his family. Are they still sent in a family card or a Christmas card? Yeah, I don't think we get it anymore He's loose touch with people. I'm not one in charge. I mean, I've never sent out a Christmas card But speaking of that the dynamics two of like removing someone from your Christmas card list one year Or realizing you sent to them and they didn't sent to you and nixing them the next year like that's gotta be drama We're not involved in it yet, but we got a you always cast a wide net I mean, you got a Christmas card is like the perfect time to keep in touch with the person that You know, you send one text to a year. Yeah, not even Yeah, is there you really banking the break in the bank was unless they're scared that they send you a picture of their kid in a button down You're gonna think they're trying hard. I mean, I get the deal and I'm also I am also well aware that the reality is I'll probably have a button up But we don't look a little little Johnny Christmas card. There's nothing wrong. I love a good minted Christmas card Like there's nothing wrong, you know, yeah That nothing wrong. I will probably be there and you guys can clip this off and make fun of me and I totally get it Real pot is brought to you by one of my favorite snacks It's also one of cubby's favorite snacks because she is a gluten-free and crunchmaster is a trusted gluten-free brand for over 20 years So I host a little dinner party with my family for the holiday season and my sister-in-law is a gluten-free And what do you think I put with our delicious bell peppers and hummus on my appetizer plate? 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There are so many incredible flavors I know you're going to find probably more than one that you love So make sure you keep your eye out for crunch master at a store near you enjoy happy snacking I gave my holiday hot take with the Christmas cards. What's uh, what's yours any holiday hot takes This is actually not my hot take, but it's coming to mind Eli Rallo who I just had on the pod you guys love the episode She's amazing if you didn't listen to that one listen to it I saw video that she posted on tiktok that said here's your reminder that if you don't have a label He doesn't get a gift and I was like you don't have a label. He doesn't get a gift One of his label side piece. No, that well, I guess that's a label, but not a good one. Well, get him a gift But I kind of thought it was the tough love people needed. She was like, no, I don't care like no label no gift Wait, sorry. Sorry. Who is debating that? Who's gifting a labelless partner? No, think about it I think there are people who are in like things with people and they really like them and they're like flirting And so they think oh, if I get him like this this alo t-shirt or if I get him this little gizmo I saw he liked it's thoughtful and sweet and she's saying don't do that at all And every guy listening to this is like gosh dang it if she gives me a gift and like I have to get her something Then it becomes serious and you're cranking it up two notches. It's punted towards Valentine's Day Give me a nice extra six and a half weeks to see if this relationship has legs And then let's address it at that point. What's your take on if he wanted to he would speaking of all this I think that's true, but I think there's space for He's not sure what the right move is there and here's the perfect example It's December 8th. I would imagine some people if like you're in a thing and Bobby doesn't give you a gift that then you're like oh Bobby doesn't like me No, there's a very real world where like Bobby's like maybe I don't want to go too fast and The same logic that I just said like I don't want to put like pressure on this I don't want to overwhelm her So I won't give her a gift and like that might be misinterpreted or like oh if you want it to he would You know, yeah I If he wanted to he would I fully believe in that statement. I think if he wanted to he would That goes back to the hot take which I think I'll adopt as my hot take for the podcast for Christmas is if no label no gift I kind of like the savagery of that Knowing your worth of that come yeah, or Maybe I would have one on backup so that if he gave me a gift I would have it ready Which is like cycle behavior, but that's what I would do. I would do that for sure Because then he has one for you and you don't have one, I'd be scared. - Okay, but how it takes, do I get fudge way underrated? Prime rib on Christmas Eve. - Is that it? - Overrated, yeah, if you go to the deli and I'm like, oh, get your orders in the head of time. Stockings underrated. Get some good stocking gifts. What would you get in your stocking? Oh, what is the stocking game like in the Garek household? As I'm looking over and on YouTube, I have my OG stocking that you can stuff this bad boy with a lot of chaps to this. - I brought that thing. - There's a lot of good stuff in there. - You would want chapstick. - No, I would not want chapstick. But like, chapstick is like, I got chapstick in my stockings, and if my brothers see this, they're gonna be smiling ear to ear. I got chapstick in my stocking for 18 straight years. Just a staple and a free movie admission ticket. - And you know what we got in our stockings? - What? - Guests, it's two words. - I'm pregnant. - No. - Or I'm pregnant. - No, that is the stockings of her is crazy. You got. - Belega socks. - Belega socks. That was the only thing in the stockings. - No, but that would be in there. It's not classically. - Belega socks. - The nicest support performance socks. - Yep, that was good. - She'd be like, "You just need a new pair of belega socks." - That's like the first thing I. One of the first things I observed with you when we were dating is your belega sock game, 'cause they had the little tongue out the back. - I know, I actually, I haven't. Now that I don't live under my parents' group, I never buy myself belega socks. I'm just wearing like our Red Sea and Amazon socks. - You had belega socks. - I'd get socks, maybe some boxers, too. - I also feel like. I don't even remember stocking stuffers. It was little things, like a lip gloss. Yeah, cute stuff like that. And to finish off the episode, we're gonna do a Christmas edition of this or that, and we're each gonna give our answers and try to be quick, okay? - Go on. - Real tree or fake tree? - Kick anyone off the pod that says fake tree. Real tree. - Agreed. Hot chocolate or eggnog? Ooh, see, as the years go on, eggnog is fire and put some whiskey in the eggnog, even more fire. I will have eggnog this year before hot chocolate. So might be hot take number two, give me the nog. - Okay, I'm going hot chocolate with marshmallows. Gingerbread cookies or sugar cookies? - Is ginger does molasses fall into the family of gingerbread? That's a fair question. It's a fair question. - Do you have a quick answer? - No, no, no, no, this is a good answer. And there's people listening that I'll appreciate this. Does molasses fall in the family of gingerbread? - Yes, I'm-- - And it's molasses all day long. Starbucks needs to bring back the molasses cookies. Laura Brown's molasses cookies all time. - Also, the Susie Kakes molasses cookies are so good. - Okay, time. - So what's your answer? - I'm gonna say molasses, gingerbread. - No, no, no, you cannot shit on me asking the question and then say molasses. - Yes, I can. Okay, but I'm gonna go with that because sugar cookies you can have any time of year. These are seasonal. - Giving gifts or receiving gifts? - Receiving gifts. - I kind of like giving gifts. I'm gonna say giving gifts. I feel like I'm doing a good job this year. - Giving gifts is stressful. - I love thinking about little things they've told me over the past like three months and then like getting it for them. - If you don't have a little thing though, it's high anxiety. - Cozy sweaters or Christmas pajamas? - Cozy sweaters. - Agreed. White Christmas or warm Christmas? - I mean cold Christmas. I've never done like a desert play golf Christmas. I guess play basketball tournament one time. - A white Christmas is better with snow. - I agree. - A snowy Christmas is better. Okay, home alone or elf? - A lot of people say I look like home alone guy. - You do? - Yep. - They're gonna be new as a kid. I watched it for the first time ever. - Elf to answer your question. Phenomenal flick. - I think home alone is incredible. I'm gonna have to say elf. It was just more present in my life and I can quote the home movie. Christmas eve or Christmas day? - Big quote. - Christmas day when Santa is a real thing in your life and Christmas eve when he's not. - Well, Santa is a real thing for sure. More Christmas eve. You got the anticipation of what's to come. All the family under one roof got a feast. Staying up late. Maybe playing settlers of Catan. Watching Christmas vacation. Eating them molasses. Cookie with some big noggin whiskey and we're good to go. - To get them off the stage. Slayride or snowball fight? - Snowball fight. - Star on top or angel on top? - I grew up with an angel on top of the tree. I grew up with an angel on top of the tree. It looked like a creepy doll though. In the star game, you can get a lot of. A lot of. - I think we could be a ribbon on top of the tree. A big bug. - We're not a ribbon on top. That's no. - Bow on top of the tree is pretty. - Let's go angel, let's go angel. - We'll have to see. But I'm gonna answer star. Okay, build a snowman or make snow angels. Build a snowman. - Build a snowman. - Pumpkin spice latte or peppermint latte? - In Christmas time peppermint. I'm gonna say pumpkin spice latte in general superior. - I mean, I would like kind of agree, but okay, yeah, yeah. - And finally, Santa or Rudolph. - Ooh, Rudolph's got that speed, but Santa is really a glue guy. Like he can, he gets people to play their best, you know. He'll bring a G5 team with the prominence. Give me Santa. - Me too, I agree. - Love that. - Oh, that was fun. Well, Mary Mary Christmas, Max and I will be spending Christmas in California, although Max will be calling a game on Christmas Eve. Everybody better tune in. Tell us about the game, babe. - Yeah, for any football fans, the Hawaii bowl. So when you're doing your Christmas feast or getting ready for church or whatnot, turn on ESPN, I got the Cal Bears versus the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors. Nowadays, good match up in the grand scheme of bowl games. I'll be calling it. - I'm so happy for Max. It'll be the only collegiate football or NFL football game taking place on Christmas Eve. And my guy will be voicing it. So turn that game on tune into Max. That means I won't be with him on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. But it's okay, because I'm so happy for you. And we're watching it at home. We're not gonna go out. We're not gonna do our tradition of a nice Christmas Eve dinner because Garrick's wanna watch you. - I'll be a red eye straight back to LA for Christmas, Christmas Day, though. - Oh, we love you the best Christmas day. - This was fun. Thanks for having me on, Mary Christmas. - Okay, love you, Mary Christmas everyone. And happy Hanukkah and happy whatever you celebrate. We love you. - Thank you so much for listening to this episode of RealPod. If this hit home or helped you in some way, send it to a friend, a teammate, Rumi, share the love, share the realness. New episodes of RealPod come out every single Wednesday. So make sure you are subscribed to this podcast. So you never miss an episode. To leave a rating or review of the show, head to iTunes and let me know what you think. I love hearing from you. Not to mention you can stay connected with RealPod throughout the week, seeing behind the scenes info and sneak previews of upcoming guests by following the @RealPod account on Instagram. All information about today's show and guests will be linked in the description of this episode. Thanks again for listening. I love you guys so, so much. Let's go dominate the day and as always, keep it real. (upbeat music) Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode. (upbeat music) Are you recording me? (upbeat music) We're about to go deep. This is my first time. I'm kind of nervous. (upbeat music) Wait, did you say come together? (upbeat music) You've been spending too much time with me. (upbeat music) Hey, I'm Erin Dana Leachie and this is my husband, Dave. - Hey. - We've been married for over 10 years. 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