Very Christmas listeners, and welcome to this bonus episode of the Supernatural Current Studies podcast.
So Festively Paranormal.
That's right. I am Jason Knight, and with me as always.
Is Oscar Spector bigudgingly doing a holiday.
Episode producer extraordin there and podcast co hosts Bahumbug.
That's right. I put the hum and Bahambug, sure do yeah, I do.
Well. It's Christmas Eve. It's magical. We wanted to wanted to bring something special to the way. Yeah.
So we're re listening this on Eve, right, Christmas Eve?
Right?
So do you imagine, because we're really listening on Christmas Eve as a bonus episode, do you imagine people as a stocking stuffer? Is a recording of this episode for people to listen to us.
Like they somehow put it onto physical media and put it into us. I hope so hope t work. Maybe some dedicated listeners out there will do that.
I think that's kind of cool.
Share the Supernatural Current Studies pod.
Can you imagine people sitting around at some table somewhere or after they open presents and they listen to this, Ah, dude, I would love that. I mean, I don't think that's happening. But that's guess what. We talk about shit and we swear and you know, so maybe not but like maybe yes, not very holy. I'm not holy. I mean I have holes, but I'm not holy.
I could get the snows falling. The fireplace is crackling, Christmas tree is lit.
I don't have a fireplace.
Little children are sleeping amongst the gift wrapping underneath the tree tucker from the day's events, and the parents just sit back and listen to the show.
With a bottle of something. Absolutely, the bottle of something some calling that's great. Have you been drinking anything festive? By the way, do you drink anything festive for the season? Do I drink agnog starting November until Januy? That's right, you love eggnog. I did only only in November to generate though when I say so, I do like it.
I don't go out and actively hunt it, like if I have to store, I'm like, oh ship, yeah, sure, I'll grab some.
Yeah. But I do like the Jack Daniels egg nog. Do you ever get that? I do like that one. It's a good one. Yes, Sometimes I'm make in my own. It makes my own. But other times I buy pre made already, so I don't any worry. I also like coquito. You make it a perto Rican get over here. Sometimes No, that's or chatta that I make. Coquito is a Puerto Rican is spicy version of it, the creamy one. Right, Yeah,
you're both similar. Maybe maybe I brought your maybe I did remember anyway, but coquito is typically a Puerto Rican thing. Not to say I can't make it because I'm not Puerto Rican, but I've had it from Puerto Rican families, like my sister in law's mother makes it every year. So I would put in a demand give it ten bucks and a bottle, and that's good. I like that. That is good, So I remember you. I did like it. Yeah, especially can put Awrican egnog.
I know my daughter works at Starbucks, and she told me the egg drink is out.
Yeah, it is out, so I have to go get that. Yeah, and then to spice it up. Of course, because I've never liked dignat by itself. I only like it with whiskey. With whiskey, yeah, bourbon whiskey.
Speaking of we are drinking a Penelope architect or Penelope. This is a bourbon whiskey finished with oak. Staves, staves, stiovs stas state, it's good.
Do you like it? I do like it.
It's like what one hundred what is it? A one hundred and four proof.
That's a good proof. It's good on its proof. Yes, I've also had penalope before. I don't know if I have this one before, but I've had it before and it's very good.
I like it.
It's good.
Brant Howiday drinks? You got to cookito? My wife makes her apple pie.
Yes, I still have I still have some. I mean say, I savor it. Yeah, did you bring home a jar?
Did you give you a jar?
Yeah? Last time put the Halloween Yeah.
Yeah, that sh is. That shit is like crack. She makes a caramel one of vanilla one and like a plain one.
And personally I like I like the ol g More apple.
Do you like the plain one? Well, that's awesome.
That's my favorite. I like them all, but that's my favorite. Cool.
Yeah, that shit will toast you quick man, because you don't taste the alcohol.
No, it's so you'll you'll you'll get up from your seat like whoa right.
And it warms you. And those cold winter nights that warm you up quick.
Yeah, it's great for homeless people, yes, right, because they're cold outside, don't.
We support the homeless here on the podcast, and the houseless give them. Oh yeah, you can't say homeless, Yeah you can.
That mean the same thing. It'd be it'd be one thing if it was a different word. But it's the same word. We're using a synonym for home. It's house, Jesus Christ, it's unhoused. It's like dorm undormed. It's like, come on, enough homeless is fine. Oh they don't care either.
It is enough.
Trust. I never got a homeless guy that gave a ship what we call it, you know, Jesus? Yeah, you're right enough. No, I'll get the political stuff in general, but that I think is too far. That's stumb in my opinion. Anyway, moving on, speaking of Christmas, I have this thing, funny thing I can do for you. So I have a friend for another show, Luke. He's never been on the show, I don't think, but he's been in a huge part of my other show that I do.
What show is it, Let's called another movie podcast? Another movie podcast? Right, guess what we talk about? Do you talk about books and sewing? Yeah, anyway, couchang. And he has this thing where he's the he's the money bags in our friend group essentially because he's single and doesn't know a house, so like you know, and he makes really good money. He's manager area. And but one thing he's done year after year after year, well, he does two things. One is that he never waits. He hates waiting.
When he buys a present for somebody, he gives it to him the next day. He gave me his already four days ago. He gave me two new video games. Wow, like like expensive because they're newer, they're expensive. Sixty dollars. And he gave me a trilogy pack of our Criterion collection Blu Rays set of Chris Lawski's Three Colors trilogy. People who know you know it's an expensive thing. Wow, sixty dollars at least there at least I don't know
how much you spent. But he always does this. He always overspends and gives it to me way too fucking early. It's sweet. No, it's a competition. Jay I took it seriously this year, so I went out and I split it with my brother Rob because I can't afford it by myself. We bought him a three hundred dollars Blu Ray set of the West Anderson Collection, Holy shit, and Blu Ray the Criterion with all his movies. Well it's ten movies since that's a Criterion box. It's a huge box.
I just got it in today. I wrapped in myself. Motherfucker is going down this year. This isn't what Christmas is supposed to be about. No, it's fun. It's all in the fun. Yes, of course I appreciate it, and it's all for I don't take it seriously, but that's how I that's the energy I'm coming in with.
Wow, so amazing.
So I did that. Yes, I'm like, nope, he's not winning this year. He's gonna most year's I'm really broke, but not this year he's not. He's not gonna win. What did he get you last year? Do you remember? He got me the NASA the NASA Space Shuttle lego, which is like a two hundred three hundred. I don't know how much. There's a lot of money.
Damn. I gotta settle up more than Luke.
Yeah, he's fucking me up. I was like, dude, I got you like shit, and I know it doesn't matter, and I know it doesn't matter, but I like to complete play, complete, compete with him anyway.
That's awesome. So Luke's a good dude, always liked them.
Yes, yes, good?
Uh? Any special plans for Christmas?
You're going anywhere tonight Christmas Eve? No, there are a few. There's a rave by four, and there's a a rave a rave, and then there's a rave on New Year's Day, but not around Christmas itself. So no, just family, okay, but there is a Christmas Eve rave. There is a Christmas theme brave and I think next week or something.
Said Christmas Eve, no to my bad.
Okay, on pie, gonna watch a movie probably Avatar. I think comes out on Christmas. Oh fire and ash Okay, I'm I to that. I usually watch a movie on Christmas. What are you for us?
Let me see working out. No, we're celebrating christ So my mom has this new position she's had for a little over a year now. She has to work all the holidays, so she works on Christmas, which is what sucks. So we're having our Christmas like a week before with my mom and family, just like we did for Thanksgiving, which we haven't talked about yet. No, we have not the magic of editing. So we're doing the same thing with Christmas. We're having that early. It'll just be us, me,
my wife, the kids. On Christmas Day, Christmas Eve, we're going to my in laws and then we're heading to Florida. So I'll meet up with my mom and stuff when we go to Florida, and we probably have another Christmas after with some other family members. But jumping down to Florida again, it's our Christmas slash your ritual. I already got his uh Discovery Cove tickets swimming with the dolphins, were going to Animal Kingdom and Epcot and the beach,
all that fun shit. So oh man, really looking forward to it. And I just got back from New Jersey like last night as of this recording.
Oh damn, was that like an dare someone dare you to? It should be?
It was for work, right And you know, of course listeners by now know me. I hate flying. I dread flying. So the month and a half leading up to this trip, I've just been a wreck like anxiety that long before. Oh yeah, that's the word. The anticipation of the flight is the worst. Once I'm on the plane.
Why didn't you ask your job to tell you, like three days before by way save yourself some heartache there.
So you try to save money. But girly, you save money.
That's why. Yeah, but it's it's probably better than being stressed for six weeks before, you know. No, they like it short. They don't give a ship. Just get there right, you're right, but you know, and the flights were fine. It was fine. How sure happened?
You know? Taking off from New Jersey from Newark was really bad. Matter of fact, the flight attendant came and stood right next to me. I was on the aisle back of the plane on the aisle. She stood right next to me to make the announcement on how the takeoff from Newark was gonna be really rough, to make sure you're buckled in so you don't get hurt. It's gonna be rough. And I'm like what the fuck? I'm
texting everybody like consistence, could you please said this? Whyn't they just cancel the flight because really windy?
Right? Is that why I got a text me? It's like, oh, you've been a good friend.
There's the code to my safe and sure it was. It was pretty rough taken off Okay, that fucking plane got up and then it made this hard right bank and that left wing went fucking up to the sky and I said, oh fuck. I screamed out, oh fuck, because it looked like you felt like it was gonna.
Roll over like that movie flight.
And then it just, you know, evened out. You got above the clouds and it was fine. So dude, it was bad, but we made it. And here we are recording.
Yeah. Good good. So I have a great little story. It's not a long one today, right.
You know, people got things to do. It's Christmas Eve, they have family to see.
Play this why you're roasting chestnuts, you know, port chet chestnuts.
Okay, this is a little story. It's not not a long one, Okay, but uh it's great. I fell in love with this story, all right, I had me, so ask her. It's it's Christmas Eve, nineteen fourteen, and the world is drowning in war, a war so new, so enormous that no one alive has language for the horror that's unfolding. On a frozen battlefield in Belgium, men huddle in mud filled trenches, shivering, starving, waiting to die. That night, on one frozen strip of mud between France and Belgium,
a proper no man's land of misery and death. Something impossible happened. The air grew unnaturally still, guns went silent. Men who had been killing each other for months stood up, stepped out of the trenches, and met face to face in the moonlight. Some call it a miracle, some call
it mass hysteria. Others call it something else. Entirely because before the spontaneous truce, before the Carols, before the gifts, and before men walked into no man's land unarmed, the soldiers reported seeing things in the sky lights no one could explain, apparitions or verbs, shapes that moved in ways that artillery cannot, voices singing from nowhere. This is the story of the Christmas Truce of World War One and
the eerie, ghostly phenomena that came before it. Soldiers swore that before the ceasefire, something supernatural moved across the battlefield. But what started it? What triggered the most impossible moment of World War One? So let's go back. It's December nineteen fourteen. The First World War is only five months old, but the horrors already feel eternal. The Western Front has
become a graveyard. Trenches filled with waste, deep freezing mud, bodies half buried in the earth, staring with ice crusted eyes, rats feeding on the dead, frostbite eating men alive, and the onslaught of artillery. The smell of death, sulfur, unwashed bodies, and gun oil hung permanently in the air. This hell stretches four hundred miles. Young soldiers arrived at the front thinking that this war would last weeks, that they'd be
home in time for Christmas. Instead, they found themselves trapped in a world of smoke and blood. A diary from a British soldier reads quote, hell cannot be worse than this place. The Germans feel the same, the Belgians, the French, all of them. Here. Christmas means nothing. There was no holiday, just survival. But as Christmas Eve approached, something strange began
to unfold. The first report came just after sunset on December twenty fourth, Christmas Eve, along the quiet sector of the Western Front, near the Belgian town of Epra, British soldiers noticed something rising above the German trenches. At first they think its flares, but flares burned downward. These rose they moved sideways. They hovered and glowed in colors flares cannot produce, described by one soldier as orbs drifting like lanterns, but with no flame. The lights were also described as
white spheres, bluish globes, and stars moving with purpose. A German officer later wrote that the orbs appeared on both sides, observing the opposing trenches from above, While one British private swore he saw three orbs forming a slowly rotating perfect triangle, another insisted they flickered and sink with a face humming sound, a sound no one could locate. At around seven pm on Christmas Eve, the second strange event began. A sound drifted across No Man's Land, a melody, soft and beautiful,
but eerie. British soldiers looked toward the German lines. German soldiers looked towards the British. No one was singing, yet the music continued. A private from the London Rifle Brigade later wrote the sound came from nowhere, from the air itself. Some described it as a hymn, others as a choir. A few claimed it didn't sound like human voices at all. Private Frederick Heath described it as voices without bodies, carried
by no wind. Minutes later the real singing began. This time it clearly came from the German trenches still knocked, Heilig knocked or night in German letters from soldiers note a curious detail. The mysterious music with no identifiable source, stopped precisely when the Germans started singing, as though signaling them to begin. Then, at around eight thirty PM, something happened that should have been suicide. Inside that German trench. A single soldier stood up, He stepped onto the firing
step and climbed out of the trench. And he wasn't holding a gun. Instead, he was holding a lantern, its glow flickering across frost covered mud. British rifles aimed instantly, Officers screamed to hold fire, and miraculously none of the British soldiers pulled that trigger, because at the same moment, one of the strange lights in the sky seemed to shift, as if turning its attention downward, like it was shining and watching the lone German soldier. Just then, the second
German climbed out of the trench. Then a third, British troops remained frozen, but then a British soldier stepped up, and then another. Before long, dozens of men are standing above ground, unarmed. They walked towards each other, guns slung over backs, hands raised, voices calling greetings across the frozen night. They met right there, in the middle of the deadliest place on Earth, no Man's land, and what follows is real,
verified by letters, diaries, military reports. British and German soldiers, enemies, greeted one another. They shook hands, They shared cigarettes and chocolate and brandy. They traded buttons and hats and photographs. They buried the dead lying between the trenches. Some played football or soccer, some saying Christmas carols, and many men prayed together. Many soldiers wrote about something else, something not
mentioned in official records. They wrote that while all this was happening, the air felt charged, electrical and living, and that the sky glowed. A German corporal wrote, it felt as though a great present presence watched us, not God, something older. A British private wrote, I felt hands on my shoulders though none were there, while another soldier wrote it was as if the battlefield itself sighed Some thought these lights were souls of the dead, A few believed
they were divine, some called them omens. Whatever they were, they marked the beginning and end of the most unexpected event of World War One. At dawn on December twenty sixth, nineteen fourteen, a German officer fired a single shot into the air, a signal the truce was over. Men shook hands for the last time, returned to their trenches, and continued killing each other. By ten, a m artillery roared
once more, machine guns chattered. Men who hugged and prayed together the night before were killing each other once again. By the spring of nineteen fifteen, entire units who participated
in the Strange Truce were completely wiped out. Many of the soldiers accounts, especially those mentioning the lights and ghostly music, were quietly suppressed by military command, but enough survived to reveal something extraordinary that soldiers on both sides described the same lights, the same strange music, and the same eerie stillness before that truce began. Whether the cause was supernatural, cyclical, or something else, the truth of the Christmas Truce of
nineteen fourteen remain shrouded in mystery. Today. Historians celebrate the Christmas Truce as a moment of humanity in the middle of horror. But the soldiers who lived it, those who saw the strange lights, heard the unearthly singing, felt the impossible calm settle over no man's land, They left behind another story, a stranger one. Did shared trauma create a shared hallucination? Did the Aurora burialis drift too far south?
Was it ball lightning? Or did something beyond explanation, something ancient, watching, benevolent intervene for just one night. Whatever the truth, the Truce of nineteen fourteen remains one of the most enduring mysteries of World War One. For one night, the battle field itself seemed to live with possibility, with friendship, and something somewhere wanted peace, if only for a moment. Merry Christmas, wherever you are. I like it.
It's not too expensive.
Is it a green monster? It's a no sugar one, but yes, no sugar green. Yeah, really, it's the only one drink. I don't drink sugar anymore.
Man good.
I never I'm like whoa because I like how green? I like to taste of green. But I only thought they made the blues and no sugar.
That's funny. I've only seen well I'm sure I just don't pay attention to the blue. I have seen it and just forgot it. But I've only I've forgotten this. O't that white one if they don't have this one. I tried it. I was like, yeah, it's okay, it's just it's just okay. You're right. It's like going in a pinch. I'll get it, not like my staple.
Yeah, well, when we go on the road trip, that's I will get those. I will look for those because the blues are okay, but.
I don't like the blue. No, the green is better. Yeah, yes, no, you can try it if you want to try to make sure you like it.
I've been sick, like I'm just getting over a cold. My new system is so I want to thank you, but I'm okay, I'm okay.
I appreciate it. I don't get sick like I felt like.
Shit this week in Jersey and I'm like, oh god, I hope my voice is okay.
Well, their first mistake was going to Jersey. Cool, but I'm just saying that I don't be surprised. It isn't much.
That's okay. Yeah, I mean, if it's a regular Carol that you fuck with somehow to make it sound creepy or something.
I was just like, if I gave it somebro hypno and then fuck it.
Oh my god, dude, what this is so crazy? So Katie read this, where is this going matterfest?
Since you said that.
About a year year ago, maybe a little bit longer, two years even, maybe I was no, maybe a year ago. I was at I was at the pediatrician. I was with Nico.
Your height, they thought you were a child stuff.
Okay, uh, because I thought I was a child. And then they looked at all my vitals and said, oh no, you're forty eight. You smoked how much? No doubt. So we're sitting there. It was both the kids. Okay, dentist, That's what it was. We're at the dentist for the kids. Talia went in. Me and Nico were sitting. This guy comes walking in, this guy his little daughter. You know,
he's waiting. I'm waiting. Talia comes out, Nico goes in, the daughter goes in, and this guy starts talking to us, right, and he's like, just killing time, Yeah, just killing time. White guy. I'm assuming looking Wisconsin, looking a little rough, you know, kind of dressed in like, you know, blue collar clothes sort of thing, you know, and we're talking. So he starts talking to Talia and he's like, oh, you know what school you go to, and you know,
what do you want to do? What are you thinking about? And she's like, oh, I'm thinking about maybe forensics or something. I'm like, yeah, you know, she's really into those shows she's. So we strike up this conversation. She's like, oh, well, I know I know so and so on the police department. I know this person, that person I know captain this. And he's like, here, take my number down, all right. So I took his number down, We shook hands, we talked for a while, like we stayed talking for quite
a while. So I come home and I tell Okay, I'm like, it's weird, it's crazy. As a matter of fact, while we were there, he wrote he typed an email to this sergeant with the police copied me, so I know he wasn't bullshitting. I got to copy the email and he's like, hey, I know this girl, her name's Talia. She's looking to possibly do some ride alongs. Could you help him out?
Things like that?
So when I got home, I told, Okay, and I think I still have his I think I still have his number. And it's okay, I met this guy. I gave her a name. She's like, oh my god, I know who that is. And somehow through the mom scene she knew him right like through back through an ex wife. She's like, oh yeah, he's always like.
He's on Facebook. I've talked to him before.
I'm like, oh really, and again then I replied to the email reply all, so I copied this guy on it, and I replied to that chief or whatever the fuck. He was like, Hi, I'm Talia's father, you know. So and so this guy introduced us and anything to do to help, you know, she's really looking to get into the police force and things like that. Never heard back
from any of them. Okay, So flash forward to just today. Okay, she's like looking at her phone and she's like, oh, and I'm like, what's it gonna And she showed me the article. Sure enough, this guy was just busted for running a drug house and selling illegal arts.
Right. He was cutting people's arms and selling them illegally.
Guns, selling like illegal guns and all the like meth and shrooms and acid and GHB. That's what made me think of it when you said rufie GHB. And so this guy who was trying to hook me up was a fucking hardcore criminal the whole time. But how weird is that?
That is weird?
That is very strange. I may have even deleted his number because the cop never got back to me, so like.
Fuck these people fake anyway, Probably it could have been, oh, he probably knows the mess like a criminal. I know it's too right, Yeah, I know that the guy so me writing him, the guy's probably like, well that guy is probably just like this guy, so guilty by association. Yeah that's funny, not funny, good, but funny.
That's funny, no trying to It's really not important what his name is because he's a piece of ship apparently.
But weird. It was just so weird. That is Yeah, that's not good.
So maybe I'm being watched now crazy.
It's like, oh, I know you do do even if I told you not to do it, do you want to do it? You could do it? Oh no, oh no, that's not what I meant. I meant there's I don't want none of us doing it. You could be like what would you?
How would you?
I'm not doing no, no, I cannot perform on cue like that. How would spin? Is that when people ask me to squeak? Almost got it by you? Almost got it that the look? Oh no, my sensor went off. My sensor went off. My sense. That's funny.
What were you?
I don't know, because you're almost racism got me there? No, no, no, I'm not doing it. You're doing it, but I can't. I can't because I'm afraid.
I'm afraid you're judging you.
Oh, I'm always jugging you. I thought you were not already.
Okay, all right, stop stop whatever you're doing that. I'm not even looking at you. It's like you're peeing or something.
Wait, all right, three two marry Christmas. I thought you were calling me a hope. All right, well we're starting. I thought we're going with okay.
Should I don't want Does it sound stupid in you? Hoo?
No, it's not stupid.
Oh no, it doesn't sound it either.
I can't do it. I mean, do you want to sound like Santa? I think you're not gonna sound like sansa am I am?
I set my expectations.
I think you might be I mean, I thought the first one was good. That's the last one was good. But I don't measure ho hos