Nov. 30, 2024

Five Heartwarming Christmas Stories: From Santa’s Digital Partner to Mariah Carey’s Holiday Bar

Show Notes
Transcript

Join Johnny Mac as he shares five uplifting Christmas stories. Discover how Santa Claus has teamed up with the U.S. Postal Service and Toys R Us to enhance the 112-year-old Operation Santa program. Learn about Mariah Carey’s exclusive holiday pop-up bars in celebration of her hit song’s 30th anniversary. Explore the extravagant Christmas decorations at Kava Restaurant in Connecticut, featuring 400,000 lights and 500,000 ornaments. Find out about the quirky tradition of wonky Christmas trees in March town, UK. Lastly, get insights on the top 10 trending Christmas decorations for 2024, highlighting a nostalgic return to classic holiday ornaments.

00:15 Santa Claus Teams Up with USPS and Toys R Us
02:11 Mariah Carey's Holiday Pop-Up Bar
03:05 Kava Restaurant's Christmas Wonderland
04:15 The UK's Wonky Christmas Trees
04:41 Trending Christmas Decorations for 2024

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Callaroga Shark Media. Hey there, I'm Johnny Mack with five

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good news Christmas stories. Santa Claus is uping his game.

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He's got a new digital partner. He's teamed up with

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the US Postal Service and Toys r US, so they've

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been working together. The Postal Service has not Toys r

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US for one hundred and twelve years. The one hundred

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and twelve year old Operation Santa program handles letters addressed

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to San at the North Pole. Santa and his team

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of helpers you know, get the letters and they fill

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the wish list, brightening holidays for thousands. This year, the

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Postal Service began accepting letters from children and families on

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September sixteenth. The president of Marketing as Sheila she told

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USA Today the magic of Operation Santa lies in its

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ability to capture the spirit of giving, to connect people

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and bring joy this year. If you want to help

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Santa out, you can browse and purchase toys from a

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specially curated e commerce Toys are US digital site, making

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it easier for civilians to help Sanna get it done.

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Gary is the VP of Digital for Toys r US

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and says generous individuals who adopt Santa letters can reconnect

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with that nostalgic feeling of being a Toys r US kid,

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sharing that sense of wondering delight with a new generation

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when they receive their gifts from Santa. If you're interested

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in all this, go to USBs Operation Santa dot com.

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There you'll find instructions, even templates, on how to craft

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the perfect Dear Santa letter. One of the big tips

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be specific when submitting a wishless kids all right list

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specific books or game titles or clothing sizes. Santa needs

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to know your first and last name and where you live.

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The guy's busy. You know, if you moved, He's got

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to know where you live. So your envelop has to

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have a postage stamp and be addressed to Santa. I'll

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give you his address here, Santa at one twenty three

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Elfa Road, North Pole eight eight eight eight eight. I

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didn't know you lived on one twenty three all right,

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that's a nice place, I've seen it. Your letter then

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makes its way to Santa's mail room. Santa maintains your privacy,

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uploads your wish list without the information into the Santa

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computer system. There, and then people who want to help

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San out just can work on the list and through

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the magic of Christmas, it all works out without your

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privacy being invaded. Isn't that cool? I like that a lot.

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Mariah Carey has announced an exclusive pop up bar experience

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inspired by Mariah Carey herself, just in time for the

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thirtieth anniversary of her hit song All I Want for Christmas.

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Virgin Hotels as partnered with bucket Listers to open the

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Mariah Carey Black Irish Holiday Bar in Chicago, New York, Dallas, Nashville,

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and New Orleans. We're told guests can step into a

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magical holiday window photo display adorn with a custom All

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I Want for Christmas is evening on sign or sit

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on a festive reate to recreate the iconic album cover.

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You can write a wish list to Mariah. I'm not

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sure she has the infrastructure Santa has, but you know,

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go for it. There's a playlist of her holiday hits

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and a cocktail menu, including the mc martini, which is

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topped with cotton candy and glitter. Oh this isn't free,

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No no no. Twenty bucks gets you a ninety minute

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reservation and a free signature black back Irish cocktail made

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from Mariah Carey's own Irish cream liqueur in Connecticut, Tony

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and the Gang at Cover Restaurant have gone all in

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on the Christmas lights. You gotta see the pictures of

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this thing. Eight thousand square feet of decorations between all

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the rooms, including the new experience room inspired by the

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movie Beauty and the Beast The Enchanted Christmas. The ballroom

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will include decked out Christmas trees, Christmas lights, garland made

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of green and red ornaments. The staircase leads to Santa's Workshop,

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where an animatronic Elf is seen as shooting presidents down

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to an area where they get wrapped. One of the

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Gang of the restaurants says, with a new expansion, we

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added a lot more space to the restaurant for decorations,

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but not so much receding. We wanted to have a

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more enjoyable experience for the guests, so the rooms all

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have less tables of them and we spread them out.

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Guests can see if their names are on a huge

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naughty or nice list? What who's making that call? The

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bar area has been transformed into the Arctic Pub, the

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official bar of the North Pole. The Arctic Pub is

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white with crystal accents and twenty four upside down trees

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made of ornaments. This whole thing four hundred thousand lights,

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five hundred thousand ornaments, thousands of feet of garland at

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nine foot reads, thirty giant nutcrackers for a total of

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one million dollars worth of Christmas decorations. Meanwhile, in the

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UK and Marchdown, they like having what they call wonky

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Christmas trees. Last year's tree kind of leaned and they

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got some social media buzz, so they were like, let's

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do it again. The Marchtown Council said it had been

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inundated with request to replicate the banana tree from last year,

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so it asked suppliers for one. They got one. Daniel

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for Tuna is a tree specialist and said they requested

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a wonky tree and it definitely has got a lean.

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All right, let's take a look at the ten trending

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Christmas decorations for twenty twenty four. Style expert victorious as

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nostalgia's making a strong return, offering a comforting retreat from

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today's fast paced world. All right, what's back crystal glassware.

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There's been over six hundred thousand searches on Google in

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the last year a since October twenty twenty three through September. Great.

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I just got rid of a whole bunch of that

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from my mom's apartment. Why didn't you guys tell me this?

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Number two ceramic Christmas trees. I got one of those

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in the garage. I'll dust that off so I can

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look cool. Christmas village SATs are back. Also back, Christmas

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place mats, wooden Christmas decorations, needle point stockings, Christmas glassware,

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angel Christmas tree toppers. Okay, tinsel trees are back. We're

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told op for a golden one for more traditional look,

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or go all out with a brightly colored tree to

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add some personality. And the number ten thing that's back

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Nutcracker decorations. Man, When I was in Australia over Christmas,

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so it's probably ten years ago now, it was interesting

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to me because it's summer down there, so they were

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all like Nutcracker imagery, not so much with the Santa

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Claus with a big coat. It was all nutcracker. Pretty neat.

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By the way, nothing better than sitting on the beach

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on Christmas Day in Australia. Tell you that. And those

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are your five good news Christmas stories. For today. If

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