Dec. 5, 2025

A visit to North Pole, New York

Show Notes
Transcript

First, a new board game, 'Christmas Union,' highlights elves unionizing against Santa for better working conditions. Next, Oyster Bay, Long Island, aims for a record 50,000 toy donations with their annual Toy Drive. North Pole, New York, a year-round Christmas theme park established in 1949, continues to delight visitors, allegedly even inspiring Walt Disney. Meanwhile, the post office in Santa Claus, Indiana, famous for its special Christmas postmark, sees over 400,000 mail pieces each December. Mack also gives holiday gift ideas, including advent calendars for Pokémon and Star Wars fans, a LED Bluey decoration, and a horror-themed Christmas sweater.

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WEBVTT

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Caloroga Shark Media. Hey there, Johnnie Mack with five good

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news Christmas stories. I haven't cut back on the regular content,

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so on the days where you would normally get five

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good news stories, you're still getting five good news stories.

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This is all extra for the month of December. Let's

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kick off today with a Christmas board game that's all

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about unionizing against Santa Claus. That's right, we're told Santa's

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elves get a crumy deal. Three hundred and sixty four

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days a year spent making La booboos and Nintendo switches

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in one years the pit crew for a supersonic reindeer sledge,

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and what do they get? Nothing? Well, there's a new

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board game called Christmas Union. In Christmas Union, the elves

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go on strike. Here's how it works. Elves want to

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see different kinds of improvement in Santa's workshop. Better pay,

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improve working conditions, more recognition for their work, a more

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solid retirement plan. Achieving these goals requires you to get

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the elves out of the factory floor and into a

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union meeting, and then agree on a plan for collective

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action at the assembly. Boy, this just sounds like board

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game fun. How does it work? You have dice. Total

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of the two dice gets marked into one of four

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strake columns connected to your demands. Fill out the card

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and you win. There are gems and snaff foos that

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get you negative oh my dear points deer spelled with

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two e's. But the good thing about the game there's

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no direct competition between players, so unlike Monopoly, you might

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get through it without a fight. Santa Claus is coming

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to town the town of Oyster Bay, Long Island, where

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residents are trying to pull off the community's biggest toy

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drive yet. Town supervisor Joseph says the generosity has grown

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every year. Nineteen thousand toys in twenty twenty, and that

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was the pandemic year, then twenty five thousand, then thirty

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four thirty eight, last year forty two thousand. He says

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this year Santa will need a bigger sleigh. We want

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to hit fifty thousand. For the first time they've partnered

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with Toys for Tots. The event takes place tomorrow, December sixth,

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Burns Park and Massive Peak Weell Long Island from ten

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to three. Sanna is gonna be there. Missus clause activities

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for kids, high school teams show up in uniform, some

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bowling leagues show up, car and motorcycle clubs by the dozens.

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Sounds like a really fun time in Oyster Bay, which

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is a great town. He used to live out that way,

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so help them out. Up in the Adirondacks in New York,

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there's a place called North Pole, New York. And for

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more than seventy five years, Santa's Workshop has been charming

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kids and adults with what many consider the first true

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theme park in America. It opened to July first, nineteen

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forty nine, which is when you would open a Christmas

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team park. That makes sense. Only a couple hundred people

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came through the gate that day. Today, thousands visit to

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experience a park built entirely around Christmas at twelve months

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a year. Santa's Workshops is at the base of Whiteface Mountain,

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just minutes from Lake Placid. According to Lore, Walt Disney

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himself sent his engineers there to, you know, take some notes. Hey,

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you know, I don't company that. You know, don't ask questions.

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Santa lives on the site year round and makes appearances

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throughout the day, which makes a big draw for most kids.

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You can expect a full late of live events, musical performances,

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magic shows, comedy acts, parades, animal encounters, costume characters, elves, snowmen,

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ice princesses, dancing bears. In nineteen fifty three, the US

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Post Office even designated a special North Pole post Office

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at the park. More than a million letters to and

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from Santa I've gone through the tiny building, each one

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postmarked North Pole, Santa's Workshop three twenty four white Face

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Memorial Highway in North Pole, New York. Meanwhile, in Santa Claus, Indiana,

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a completely different town, the world's only post office with

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that name is once again offering its annual holiday postmark.

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Each December, the tiny Spencer County Post Office receives more

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than four hundred thousand pieces of mail from across the

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country and around the world, all from people hoping to

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get the special cancelation stamp. This year's stamp as always

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designed by a local high school student. This year, Christopher

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Schurer of Mariah Hill School is the designer. And as

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we make our way through the month, I've been sharing

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some holiday gift ideas. As I've mentioned before, no affiliate

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sales here. I'm not making any extra bucks other than

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the commercials I'm just telling you some stuff that exists

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in case you need to get somebody something. And by

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the way, speaking of the commercials, if you'd like those

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to go away, open up the Apple podcast app. Click

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the banner. It says uninterrupted listening, and then for five

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bucks a month, you'll get this show and just about

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everything else on the Calaruga Shark Network ad free. That

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includes daily comedy news which I host seven days a week.

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And if you just want to try it out, see

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if you like it, see if it's worth five bucks

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to you. There's a thirty day free trial, So do

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that click the banner. Why not? All right? How about

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a Pokemon tc G Gleacian and a Lowland Vulpi's Holiday calendar, John,

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you have no idea what that means now, I don't.

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Apparently it's some sort of advent calendar for Pokemon cards.

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Each window conceals a new surprise, including exclusive variant cards, accessories,

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and booster packs, making it a daily December ritual four

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card collectors. That sounds fun. Are you into Bluey? You

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can light up your home with the led Bluey blow mold,

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a cheerful yard or indoor decoration featuring the beloved Australian

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pup dress for the holidays. Meanwhile, if you chuse Star

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Wars you can get the lego Gingerbread at at Walker,

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which includes a Gingerbread style Darth Vader to command the

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confectionery machine. Are you into horror? How about the Led

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or the Clown Christmas Sweater which blends the ugly sweater

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tradition with the cult horror franchise. Lights and All. And

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another advent calendar that's also another Star Wars thing. It's

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the Star Wars Miniature Legacy Lightsaber Hilts Countdown Calendar. That's

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a lot to say. It's a twelve day advent calendar

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featuring ministure replicas of iconic hilts from across the franchise.

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Each day reveals a new lightsaber from Luke Skywalker's return

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of the Jedi hilt to Count Dooku's curved blade, creating

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a compact but impressive display for devoted fans. How that

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ties to advent, I don't know. And those are your

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five good News Christmas stories for today. Have a great day.