Podcast 70 – The Ghost Who Saved Christmas

In Episode 70, Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger head to Boston to the haunted Parker House Hotel in search of the ghost of the man who brought Christmas to America. We learned in last year’s holiday podcast that the Puritans of Boston banned Christmas back in 1659 because they claimed making merry and dressing festive was “satanic.” They’d fine you five shillings if you were caught! Though the ban was lifted in 1681, that doesn’t mean Christmas was celebrated. You still had to go to work and school that day for almost the next two centuries. But something changed in 1867 when a man came to Boston with a story that transformed everything. Be careful, this episode may just squish your inner Grinch!

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CREDITS:
Produced and hosted by: Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger
Edited by: Ray Auger
Additional Voice Talent: Michael Legge and Dave Schrader.
Theme Music by: John Judd

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Boston’s Parker House Hotel circa 1866.

The haunted Charles Dickens mirror at the Parker House Hotel in Boston.

In 1867, Charles Dickens practiced his reading of A Christmas Carol in front of this mirror at the Parker House Hotel in Boston.

The ghost of Charles Dickens poses in the mirror at the Parker House Hotel with cardboard cutouts of Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger.

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