Christmas: Punk, Polka & Parody Collide in a Chaotic Compilation

The fourth episode of The Theme Show, “Christmas,” initially aired on Winamp on December 23, 1999.

In hindsight, I thought having a double-length episode was the right approach for this one. I’ll chalk it up to the fact that I had grandiose visions of people sitting down to open presents with my playlist as a soundtrack.

Of course, that vision didn’t quite match reality. Not every song here is family-friendly. But what can I say? Like many 20-somethings at the time, I thought loading up on swear words and explicit material made me an edge-lord.

This set also breaks from the original format—no contest, no requests taken—and with enough polka songs to spread throughout.

Eventually, this unrestricted format would become the norm.

This demo has been recreated for your enjoyment at:

Variations on the Christmas theme would return in the podcast format as:

Episode 13: Snowy, Icy, Winter

and

Episode 14: Christmas

Additionally, the theme appears in the social media playlist format as:

Episode 84: Not Your Average Christmas Mix

Setlist

Photo by Deidre Schlabs on Unsplash