What Makes a Christmas Movie? Plus, a Toast to New Beginnings

This week, Robbie and Chuck talk about Christmas traditions, from sweaters and trees to classic holiday movies and music. They dive into various light-hearted hot takes, holiday preferences, gift-giving etiquette, and more. Along the way, they review a Cream of Kentucky bourbon, discuss JavaScript and API challenges, and share Robbie’s big announcement—twins on the way!

In this episode:

• (00:00) - Intro
• (01:49) - Whiskey intro and rating: Cream of Kentucky
• (07:59) - Bing Crosby vs Frank Sinatra
• (09:31) - Real vs fake Christmas trees
• (13:59) - Christmas Story vs Christmas Vacation
• (16:34) - Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?
• (18:09) - Are gift cards a good present or just lazy?
• (20:50) - Robbie’s big news
• (21:32) - The state of EV
• (27:45) - Investments and crypto
• (33:40) - The results of the State of JS Survey
• (38:00) - Podcast merch
• (39:21) - Futbol and food
• (44:58) - Robbie on Learn with Jason
• (50:11) - Everybody likes Vite
• (53:13) - Representing your brand
• (55:02) - Holiday plans

Links

• Cream of Kentucky: https://creamofkentucky.com
• Bing Crosby: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bing_Crosby
• Frank Sinatra: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Sinatra
• Jack Daniels: https://www.jackdaniels.com/
• Balsam Hill Christmas Trees: https://www.balsamhill.com/c/artificial-christmas-trees
• A Christmas Story: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085334/
• Christmas Vacation: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097958/
• Die Hard: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095016/
• Arnold Schwarzenegger: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_Schwarzenegger
• Hallmark: https://www.hallmarkchannel.com/
• VW Buzz: https://www.vw.com/en/models/id-buzz.html
• Doug Demuro’s review of the VW Buzz: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tX1TsmhSv5k
• Rivian: https://rivian.com/
• Chrysler Pacifica: https://www.chrysler.com/pacifica.html
• Tesla: https://www.tesla.com/
• Shiba Inu: https://shibatoken.com/
• Donald Trump: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump
• Ethereum: https://ethereum.org/
• XRP: https://ripple.com/xrp/

• Hawk Tuah Coin: https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/hawk-tuah/
• State of JS Survey: https://stateofjs.com/
• Chris Manson: https://x.com/real_ate
• Jonathan Creamer: https://x.com/jcreamer898
• Syntax: https://syntax.fm
• WordPress: https://wordpress.org
• Django: https://www.djangoproject.com/
• Rails: https://rubyonrails.org/
• Typecraft: https://typecraft.dev/
• Primeagen: https://x.com/ThePrimeagen
• DHH: https://x.com/dhh/
• Telemundo: https://www.telemundo.com/
• Manchester United: