Haunted stores, possessed toys, Santa imposters and a ghost horse - The Holiday Special (Sn. 18 Ep. 24)
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Good evening and welcome to Monsters Among Us. I am your guide, Derek Hayes. Happy holidays, folks, and Merry Christmas. Boy, do I have a gift for you. A special episode. Holiday-themed episode. Now, we do this every year. Or at least have for the last couple. The holiday season episode.

An entire episode full of calls all about the holidays. Mostly Christmas. Because aside from Halloween, Christmas is by far the spookiest of holidays. And you just might doubt that statement now. But something tells me by the end of this episode, you'll be singing my tune. Or Carol. Now there are parts of this program that may spoil certain Christmastime legends for young ones.

Now to simplify things, I've put all of those calls in the same section. And I'll give you another warning when that comes up. But I don't want any letters coming my way next week telling me I ruined any Christmas surprises. Or beliefs. So just a heads up. Now without further ado, stoke the fire in the fireplace. Give those roasting chestnuts a flip. Set aside some milk and cookies for Santa. Finish wrapping those presents and tip some spirits into that eggnog.

Welcome to the MAU Holiday Special. And to kick us off, we begin with a story about hidden messages and a threat to dear old St. Nick. Please welcome Spencer from the state of Ohio.

Hey, Derek. Spencer from Ohio again. Big fan of the show. I'm calling in because I just listened to an episode about a Marilyn Manson tape that screamed at the end. And it reminded me of something that

Kinda was a joke in my family for a while when I was a kid. My mom had this old VHS tape of a movie called "Somersby". Now, I don't ever remember actually watching the movie and that's not the significant part of it. See, when she would play the movie through and she showed us a few times and it kept me up at night. She would play the movie through and when it was supposed to stop and rewind, static would play through.

And there'd be a girl's voice, be some giggling in the background and she'd say some off the wall stuff. Some of it was muttering and the line that stuck with me the most was, "I'm gonna kill Santa."

Now, different from the Marilyn Manson tape, of course, was the fact that this happened every time you did it. So they would joke that someone had added it at the end. So I don't know if it was a technical glitch, but I just know that this happened.

was a nightmare for me as a child because movies aren't supposed to do that. And to this day, I still don't know why that girl was talking through the static or why she wanted to hurt poor old St. Nick. Thanks for listening. And if anyone else has had this experience, call in and tell him about it because I'm genuinely curious. Thanks and have a good day. Thank you, Spencer. Now, be honest, I've never seen that movie and I'm not even sure I've ever heard of it now that I think of it.

Which is kind of strange considering it stars Richard Gere, Jodie Foster, James Earl Jones and Bill Pullman. But it was released in 1993 and I would have been a young teenager at the time. So a romantic period piece likely would not have been on my radar. Now as for the odd messages that Spencer reported. I did a quick search and found no other reports of strange sounds hidden on a VH copy of the film Summersbee.

But that doesn't mean that they aren't out there. If you own a copy, poke around and see if you hear anything weird where Spencer claims you might. And of course, if you do, we definitely want to hear about it. But regardless of how these sounds came about or where they originated from, why Santa Claus? What does he have to do with all of this? What has he done? Thank you again, Spencer, for sharing the phone call.

Now, how many of you are on your way to do some last minute Christmas shopping? Well, if that happens to be you, you better keep your ears open because apparently retail spaces can be haunted as well. Please welcome Urson from Utah.

Hey Derek, this is our son Colin from Salt Lake City, Utah. So this happened right before the Christmas time of the year. I went to the mall and I went into this really kind of expensive sneaker place where they sell Jordans and Nikes, but they're sought after sneakers. You know, this is not like your typical foot locker. So they specialize in this. So I befriended the guy there.

Really good guy. Started hitting it off just talking about shoes, about styles, and about just prices.

Soon enough, of course, customers started to come in. I think I saw a woman come in and then a guy. And I think he approached the gentleman. And when I was talking to him and he left to talk to that customer, I immediately went to browse some shirts. I was near the front desk of this place, but I went to browse for some shirts. And there was nobody behind me. I know that there's nobody behind me because...

because you just know what's around you in your vicinity. And I clearly heard someone say to me, "Sir?" Like if somebody was to approach you and ask you, "Sir?" I thought it was either the gentleman or the person who I befriended who was working there.

Immediately I turned around because it was very clear. So clear was the voice that the employee that was assisting the gentleman, probably like maybe 10 or 15 feet from me, he turned around too and thought I was talking to him.

And so we both looked at each other and he was like, "Did you need anything?" And I turned around at the same time, obviously, and I asked him, I said, "I thought you said something." And he's like, "I didn't say anything, but I heard you say, 'Sir.'" And I'm like, "Well, that wasn't me." So we're both looking at each other like we're crazy.

And the guy that he was assisting wasn't in between us. He was leaving the store when we approached each other. And we thought, we're like, okay, this is kind of weird. Are you sure it wasn't you? And I'm like, I swear to you, I did not say that. I was browsing shirts. And I turned around and

to hear the voice or where the voice was calling from. And he did the same thing. He turned around towards me because his back was towards me. So he turned around to hear who was calling him. And I think the gentleman before he was about to leave, he was closer to the door, which was another 18 feet or 15 feet from where we heard the voice.

And I approached him because I wanted to really make sure. And I know I look crazy when I asked the gentleman that. I went over to him and I said, "Sir, I'm sorry to bother you, but did you say sir by any chance?" And of course he said no and then kind of looked at me like I was crazy.

So we went back, me and the employee, because we were like dumbfound. So we went back and I said, are you sure? Maybe it wasn't the music because there was music going on. And so we played the song over because he has controls over what is being played. So he repeated the song.

And there was nowhere in the song that it said, sir. And it was so clear. Still to this day, I go back to that store and we reminisce about that moment. And we're like, we have no explanation for it.

something really weird happened in that store that day that neither of us could really explain it wasn't the music it wasn't the customer and it wasn't him and it wasn't me but we both heard it anyway Derek I just thought I'd share my story this happened in 2023 like I said in December and I thought it was really weird and I wanted to share it alright bye thank you Urson

Now, that's proof that you never know when or where something strange might happen to you. Now, I am curious, though, Urson. Have any of the employees at that establishment noticed any other strange experiences there in the shoe store? Or was this just a one-off occurrence, regardless of that answer? We're happy that you shared the story here with us. Now, folks, when I return, another Christmas shopping nightmare. I'll be right back.

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Now, as promised, more spooky shopping experiences. And what is worse than a possibly haunted shoe store? How about a definitely haunted toy store? Athanasia, welcome to the program. Hi Derek, my name is Athanasia. I am calling from Victoria in British Columbia, Canada on Vancouver Island.

I was just listening to the finale where the gentleman was talking about the haunted Toys R Us in California and I just wanted to share my quick experience when I was in my early 20s in 2005. I actually worked at a Toys R Us locally that was very haunted. So I worked there and I actually met my future best friend there. She was my boss at the time.

And it's located at a mall locally and the mall isn't too old. The store that we worked at was probably one of the older parts of the mall and it was built, I would guess, maybe in the 70s, so not really that old. But it was pretty run down in some parts. Like, you know, when I worked there, they were renovating the store and you could see retail scarring from where the shelves had not been moved in probably 30 years.

But yeah, so that store, it had like this back warehouse-y sort of area and it was super creepy, dark, not very great lighting. It was almost like a mezzanine sort of style where you had a lot of the storage stuff on the main floor where the bike shop and stuff was in the back area.

And then up top you had a second sort of area and that's where you could do like the cardboard and there was all these like just hundreds, thousands of boxes of stock in addition to the stock that we kept above the shelves in the store. And in that back area there was the compactor, there was the bike repair area, storage, but there was also like this really old creepy sort of fake facade office

that you could tell was probably utilized, I don't know, probably in the 80s or maybe even 70s. And we didn't ever use that office. It had like a really old style computer that we didn't really use at all. I think I did like one of my women's trainings there once because it was the only quiet part of the store. But yeah, it was super creepy, really dusty. You always felt like you were being watched, especially in the office, but also in the like top level mezzanine area.

There were times when we would have to go back there to get things and we would be thinking, okay, we need to look for this skew, like the number on the box, and you would look and you wouldn't find it. You'd turn around and the box would be sitting on the ground where you had just walked.

Or it would be partially pulled out of a group of boxes that you had already looked at that the SKU wasn't there. Or maybe you had missed a SKU and you were getting frustrated and like, oh, I need to find this box. I know that I need to fill this order. I know it's here. And the box would be pulled out for you, which was super helpful. But it was pretty creepy at times. There would be times where we'd be doing inventory up there and it just...

You know, you would hear sounds of people walking, but there would be nobody there. There wasn't a floor above us at all. And I think probably the creepiest thing that ever happened or that we ever witnessed there was I worked in the baby department and we had these rockers that were called gliders because they weren't a standard rocking chair where you lean back and forward. It was you lean back, but it sort of glides forward.

I don't have kids, but if you have kids, you might have seen these kind of glider chairs that have this special motion for kids and babies. Anyways, so we had a few that were like for demo outside.

like right by the desk in the baby department and every so often we would kind of look over and you could see them moving and at first we were like uh you know maybe that's the air con maybe it's like a windy day outside and you know it's got a metal roof so maybe it's somehow affecting the inside

But then we realized it's not just a standard rocker, it's a glider. And so it can't move on itself, you have to have the force moving it in order for it to make that motion. And so we used to joke about our little ghost at Toys R Us, but yeah, it was very haunted. It's now closed.

Although Toys R Us in Canada is still open and that store will be reopening at a different location. It's going to be turned into a Korean supermarket, which I'm excited about, but also I feel bad because I don't know where the ghosts are going to go. Thanks, Derek. Take care. Thank you, Athanasia. You know, it sounds like your local Toys R Us gave the infamous Sunnyvale, California franchise a run for its money as Most Haunted.

And it makes me wonder how many other Toys R Us stores, past or present, also seem to exhibit strange behavior. Now folks, you know I like to drop some statistics here on the Tuesday episodes. And the holiday episode is no exception. So get this. 66% of consumers will spend at least $400 on holiday shopping this year. And I hope at least a few of those were spent in our shop. MonstersAmongUsPodcast.com slash shop.com

44% of people start their holiday shopping in November. As for when people celebrate the holiday, 88% do so on actual Christmas Day, the 25th. 71% party the night before, on Christmas Eve. And the final statistic that drives me the most crazy, 60% of people polled, and this according to a survey performed by driveresearch.com, 60% of people start playing Christmas music

All the way back in November. I'm very disappointed. In at least 60% of you. Now folks, if you have a story you would like to share, maybe a Christmas story or a holiday-themed tale for next year's special episode, give our hotline a call at 888-608-NIGHT. That's 888-608-N-I-G-H-T. Or record your story on your phone and shoot me an email at monstersamonguspodcast at gmail.com.

Now the younger you are, the more you associate holidays like Christmas with toys. Video games, action figures, puzzles, plushies, and plenty of play-doh. Some youngsters spend the entire year dreaming about opening gifts under the tree. And while not getting the toy you wanted from Santa this year is a major bummer, believe it or not, it's not the worst toy-related thing that could happen to you. Your toys could come back to life.

The following block of calls will leave you side-eyeing your kids' toys for weeks. Please welcome Linda, Maverick, Stephanie, and Sandra. All in that order.

Yeah, hi, this is Linda. I'm calling from Ontario, Canada. My story goes back to when I was a little girl and we lived in a house that was owned by a local farmer for many years. I always was afraid of the house and very nervous. So when I would try and sleep at night, I swore that there was a witch on the other side of the closet door because I could hear clicking on the other side of the door and I always thought it was her nails. It could have just been the door rattling in the wind, but you know, when you're little, you think crazy things.

But one night I woke up and we had a rule in our house that we weren't allowed to go into our parents' bedroom at night. So if we needed help, we had to call for help. So I woke up and I swear to this day, all my stuffed toys and my dolls were dancing around the edge of my bed and I was just freaking out. And so I called for my mom and kept calling for her and she finally came in. By the time she got there, they were all back where they were supposed to be. But I swear to this day that that actually did happen.

And another thing that happened was I always hated the basement. It was one of those spooky basements with an old oil furnace and it was just awful. I only went down there if my mom was down there doing the laundry. Otherwise, I never went down. And of course, it wasn't a finished basement, so it was even more spooky.

I used to have a recurring nightmare. I've only ever had it in that house. I never had it once we moved out of that house. But the recurring nightmare was the door from the kitchen to the basement was closed and I would hear something thumping up the stairs, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, and bang on the door to the kitchen.

and then nothing. And then bang on the door to the kitchen. And it just scared the heck out of me. And that is my story. Hope you enjoy it. - Hey, this is Maverick. I have a crazy story to tell. So a few years ago, I had like a little small RC car. It was like a drift car. It had plastic wheels and stuff. And it moved by itself without me touching the controller.

and I thought that was super strange. And I've also been hearing, we have an upstairs room in our house, it's like a guest room, and I've been hearing footsteps up there, and no one is up there. No one's living up there currently. So I figured that might have something to do with the car moving, and so I took the batteries out and turned it on to see if it made any difference, and it still did it. So I'm guessing that this house is haunted.

And there's a whole bunch of weird stuff happening that I can't really explain. So, yeah. It's super weird. I don't know what's going on here. Like, stuff has been moving and tipping over. Like, my water bottle recently tipped over without anyone moving it. So, yeah, I love your show. I just love everything you do. I'll see you. I'm just a kid. Are you trying to, you know, trying to get that little... Nowadays, we do...

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Hello, Monsters Among Us, and hello, Derek. This is Stephanie. I'm calling from the Tampa area, but this is in regards to my brother's house in Milan, Michigan.

He and his family lived in an older farmhouse. And today, while I was listening to season 14, episode 14, where a gentleman talked about a Furby toy that just started talking and moving around for no discernible reason. And it reminded me of my brother's house. I tried to get him to call his story in, but he just told me I could relate it on this podcast.

Anyway, probably about 10 years ago, he was living in this farmhouse with his wife and a couple of stepchildren and his son. And the stepdaughter had a small collection of Furbies and they were kept in the finished part of their basement.

Now this house had some other strange happenings, but on this particular night, he said they had just gone to bed. It was about 10 o'clock at night, and all of a sudden, all these Furbies started going off at the same time in the basement. They were on the second floor.

The children were all in bed. The little girl whose Furbies it were was probably about 10 years old at the time. So they were a little freaked out, and finally his wife just yelled, hey, it's after 10 o'clock, we're all trying to go to sleep, time to go to bed. And all the Furbies immediately shut down, and evidently it never happened again. Anyway, I just thought that was a very unusual happening for a quiet country house.

And he has some other interesting stories I'm trying to convince him to call in about. Anyway, keep up the great podcast. Thank you.

Hi, my name is Sandra Saucedo. I live here in San Bernardino, California, between Lake Highland and Baseline. Okay, my story starts, I have many. I came to San Bernardino in 1983. I was probably like, I don't know, maybe like eight years old. And we moved to this house. We used to live in Los Angeles. And

And we came here, you know, our family, we never ever talked about ghosts or haunting or, you know, things like that, anything like that. We never, so I never knew about stuff like that until we came to this house.

I mean, we always felt things. We always seen things. It was so weird. That house was so weird. Just weird. Sorry. But I'll tell you one of the stories. My dad, one time he brought my mom a cabbage patch doll. And my mom didn't kind of want it, so she gave it to my sister. She was little at the time. She played with it and everything. It was everything for her.

Until one day, I was talking to my other sister. We were in the kitchen while my little sister at the time was with the cabbage patch dog. And my little sister came and told me, you know what? My dog told me to wash your clothes.

I'm like, oh, okay. I just didn't react. I was just like, you know, a little kid. I don't know. Imagination or stuff like that. I went, okay. And then my sister left. My little sister left. And she came back, but more scared. And she told me, Sandra said she told me to pick her up. She told me to pick her up. And she's scaring me.

I'm like, what? So I went and I was dumb at the time, but I was trying to make her feel better. So I grabbed the doll. I just threw her around and I told the doll, leave my sister alone. I don't know. And then that was it. And she felt okay with it. My sister was like, okay. My sister backed me up. My older sister backed me up. That's the way her look was.

Okay, we left it at that. Yeah, when it was time to go to bed that day, that night, I mean. I mean, we were all falling asleep. We all had our own bed and everything. I was tossing and turning, and something catched my eye. I just saw something little walking. And I'm like, what is that? Maybe, I don't know, maybe I'm tired. And I saw her walk up to my sister, my little one, and start making a move like scratching, like the face.

I'm like, you know what? I think I'm tired. So I went to sleep. Next morning, my mom was yelling for us to go to her. Like, what's going on? Why did you do this to your sister? Why you scratch your face? I'm like, what?

No. Then my other sister came up to me. She told me, you know what? Last night I saw this little thing. I think it was a cabbage patch. Went up to her and started scratching her face. And I told her, no way. I saw the same thing. I saw the same thing. So I know it wasn't dreaming. And if we were dreaming, it's impossible for us to dream the same thing.

So, you know, I told my mom. She didn't say nothing. All I knew is that the doll was gone. I told my mom where she took it. She said, I gave it to your other cousin that loves dolls. We left it as that. My mom never told her anything, nothing. And I don't know, maybe like five years later, when I went to go visit my cousin, I asked her, hey, what happened to your doll, the one that my mom gave you?

You know what she told me? She told me, you know what? My dad burned it. I go, what was the reason? Was it too old? No, it was doing weird things. It'll talk to me. It'll walk around. My dad will throw it in the trash. By the next day, it'll be right on my door. So she said that her dad, my uncle, burned the doll. And she said that once it was burned, it got up.

It got up and started running around burnt. And so my uncle had to get the shovel. Yeah, my uncle pinned it down until it was fully burnt. I love, love, love your broadcast. I really do keep up with what you're doing. I mean, it's amazing. And I don't really talk about my story because what's the first thing that people do or think? Oh, she's crazy. But I love it that you're very understanding. And you help people out and, you know,

If it's true now or maybe imagination, I just love that. Thank you. A big thank you to all four of those callers. And that's enough to make you want to get some sage or call an exorcist or something. And that last one, there's a blast from the past. The Cabbage Patch Dolls.

Now the only thing scarier than one of those things running around on its own, terrorizing children, is what parents in the early 80s had to do to get their hands on one in the first place.

If you happen to see a line like this outside a store these days, most likely it has something to do with Cabbage Patch Dolls, or as they say around Buffalo, New York, Cabbage Patch Doll. What is a Cabbage Patch Doll? Oh, it's a little doll that you get adaption papers with, and it has a belly button, and you get a birthday card after the first year.

Now what could be sweeter than all this affection for such cute but sort of homely little dolls? Surely it must be the tender-hearted part of our nature that these creatures appeal to. But look what happened when Hills in Amherst, New York opened their doors this morning. Nothing sweet or tender-hearted about it.

Coleco Industries, the outfit that makes the Cabbage Patchers, has been trying to keep up with this frenzied demand, turning out 200,000 Cabbage Patch dolls a week. That turns out not to be anywhere near enough. Kids want them, and adults will do just about anything to get them. Just about anything. She had it in her hand and she's been standing here. A clip from CBS National News, and it originally aired back in 1983.

Wild stuff. Even by today's standards. Now before we move on to tonight's next subject, the spoiler I was telling you about earlier in the intro, I first have one more haunted toy story to share with you. Joanne from South Carolina, the floor is yours.

Hi, Derek. This is Joanne. I'm calling from South Carolina. I'm calling regarding season 16, episode 18, the haunted dolls story that a woman told about when she was about two years old. And it made me think of an experience I had when I was either three or four. But I've always chalked it up to having some sort of, not hallucination, but being kind of between dreaming and wake and it feeling very real. That's what I've always chalked it up to. So, yeah.

I had an experience where I had a bunk bed and I was on top and I saw a baby doll of mine at the very foot of the bed,

dancing around and I thought it was my dad being silly and it kept dancing and I laughed and I said stop but it didn't stop and it just kept going and going and going and getting really annoying and so I crawled to the edge of the bed and I looked over and when I looked over there was no one there and the doll dropped to the ground.

And it was scary. And I went and, you know, got under the covers as you do. But I don't think I've ever really thought that happened, even though I thought it happened. I think especially at that age and if you have any sleep disturbance issues, things can really seem really real. I also remember being in that bed, again, three or four, and where I had a basket hanging with stuffed animals instead of that being there.

There was a big eyeball looking around, looking at me, and it was super creepy. But again, I don't think my basket disappeared and was replaced by an eyeball. So not that I question the caller. I just have had those kinds of experiences and that's what I think they are. Thanks. Thank you, Joanne. There was no one there and the doll dropped to the ground. That sort of experience is enough to get your blood to stop and restart in reverse.

And I bet you'll be thinking of these tales as you watch your child open gifts this Christmas. Make a little game out of it. Which one of these items will later come to life and try to rake out my eyeballs? Now folks, I have to take another break, but when I come back, we'll explore visits from the man in red himself. Don't go anywhere. All the holidays you can't...

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Now one last warning, the following 12 to 15 minutes may not be suitable for young children, especially children who still maintain certain beliefs about certain holiday figureheads. If you catch my drift, that will be your final warning. Now picture yourself just watching TV in the dark,

And suddenly you hear heavy bass-filled laughter emanating from the chimney. At that point you can only hope and possibly pray that it's Santa Claus squeezing down the chimney pipe. Because I'd shudder to think what else could be making these sounds. Eileen from Pennsylvania, please elaborate.

Hi, my name is Eileen and I'm in New Jersey. I wanted to let you know about an occurrence that I experienced when I was about 15. I was babysitting for a family mostly every weekend or so. And they always had a strict rule that at nightfall, I go up with the two boys that I was babysitting.

and watch TV in their bedroom until it was time to put the little boys to bed. Now, this house was circa Revolutionary War era. So this was a very old stone farmhouse.

The night I experienced nothing before and nothing after, mind you. But this one particular night, I was sitting on the bed. The boys had gone to sleep. I was sitting on the bed watching The Love Boat. And it was the opening scene of The Love Boat where they sing the song, you know. And just out of nowhere, I heard this terrible, horrible, terrifying laugh that came down through the

the chimney into the fireplace there was a fireplace in the bedroom

and filled the room with this laughter. It was deep, guttural, horrible. I never forgot it. It chilled me to the bone. I jumped up off the bed. I ran out into the hallway on the second floor there, and I just sat there for the rest of the night until the parents came home. I never told them what happened. I never experienced it again, even though I babysat for them continuously for another two years.

But I just thought it was the strangest thing, and I will never forget the sound of that laugh. Whenever I tell this story to anybody, any of my friends, I can hear it. I can hear that laugh. It was the worst, most terrifying sound I've ever experienced.

This happened in an area of Pennsylvania called Bluebell. Like I said, it was a revolutionary and free revolutionary war area. So anyway, I really like your podcast a lot. I listen to it when I'm going back and forth to work. And I hope you can use this experience of mine. I've never made a call like this. I've never told anybody before.

other than close friends about it because they thought they would think I was crazy. Anyway, thank you for listening and have a really good and spooky night. Thank you, Eileen. Now again, the best case scenario here is that a jolly old fat man with a bushy white beard is breaking into your home to leave a couple of gifts. But truth be told, it sounds like whatever Eileen experienced might be a little more sinister than that.

But you know what's worse than hearing something strange coming down your chimney? Well, that would be seeing something startling under your tree. Please welcome the following anonymous caller.

Hey, Derek. This is Elise's mom. Elise and I have been talking about her Santa visit on Christmas Eve. Elise is my daughter. At the time, we were living in Wichita, Kansas, and Elise was about seven or eight years old. And I've since talked to Elise this past week before calling this story in.

And I asked her, hey, Mama, do you remember telling me the story about the time that you saw Santa Claus? And she said, vaguely. And I said, do you remember you told me he was wearing a red outfit and some black boots and that when he was putting something behind the Christmas tree, his hat kept jingling like it had a bell attached to it.

And she said, "Yeah, but I think that was you and dad doing something." And I said to her, "Your dad never owned anything like that. Like, he wouldn't have done that." I said, "What else do you remember about it?" And she said she had to get up whatever time, typical middle of the night, she had to get up to go to the restroom, and she shared a room with her sister.

And it was like the folding doors, like two folding doors. And she said that she opened up one side and she went out. Second grader, you know, she's a little bit groggy. But as she stepped out, on the left side was our Christmas tree. So it's kind of our living room and TV, couch, whatever. And on the left side in the corner, our Christmas tree was tucked there. That particular year, both my daughters had gotten Trek bikes. My oldest daughter, Elise,

received a purple bike, and then my youngest daughter, Carrington, received a pink bike. Anyway, so she says that she opened up the door, and as she was getting ready to walk out, on the left side, Santa stood there, and Santa was tucking something back behind the tree. I used to have this little basket that this...

A European woman had given to me, gosh, back when I was 18, 19 years old and I was working at a hotel. And what you're supposed to do according to her tradition is you put something in there and every morning you're supposed to check the little basket. Occasionally you would have like a gold dollar piece or 50 cents or whatever I would remember to put in there. And so they would always check it in the morning. And she said that he was reaching back behind it because I would intentionally hide it all over the tree in different positions and that he was checking back behind there

and that he was tucking something in it. And she said she didn't want to startle him or scare him. And so she saw that he was there. She peeked around the corner. She saw him, and then she slowly closed the door and went back to bed. And like I said, I talked to her recently, and I asked her, tell me more, like, what do you remember? And she's now 26.

And she said, I vaguely remember this. Like, when you talk about it, I vaguely remember telling you. She said, but I always thought it was my dad, you know, doing something like this. And I'm like, but your dad didn't have white hair. I didn't have any red outfit for your dad or boots like that. And she's like, yeah. And she said, so...

I kind of feel like I do remember it, but I also feel like it was something that you and Dad would do. So, anyway, the reason I'm calling this is I was listening to, I think it's episode 13, 7, and a gentleman had called about a previous episode where a woman had called about seeing the Tooth Fairy, and he said,

And he had seen something, and I remember talking to my daughter this week about, hey, do you remember when you saw Santa? She recently had a baby, and so we're recalling a lot of childhood memories. And so this came back up. I thought you could use this for a Christmas special or something, but...

I'm getting ready to be a Patreon member, and I just want to tell you, thank you so much. I love your voice. It reminds me of the top 40, Casey Kasem's top 40, but it's like the Casey Kasem top 40 of creepy stories. So keep doing a great job. A hater's going to hate, as Taylor says. Go Casey Chiefs. But you're doing a fantastic job, dude, so keep on rocking on. Take care. Bye.

Thank you, caller, and thank you for considering joining us in the beyond. Our after show that can be found on Patreon and Apple subscriptions. Five bucks a month gets you ad-free and bonus content. Days worth of bonus content. And Casey Kasem, huh? Not the first time that I've heard that one. But I'll take the compliment and we'll go back to the countdown. Now there's no denying that hearing strange guttural laughing from your chimney is unsettling.

and having your daughter tell you about seeing Santa Claus under your tree. Okay, that's unnerving. But what do I call it when two cat burglars invade on Christmas night? No, it's not Home Alone. This is Cindy's story out of Indiana. This is Cindy, and we had this true experience back in the early 1970s.

My brother and I used to love Christmas, and we would have Mom make cookies for Santa Claus and give him other presents because we wanted to look good and be on our best behavior all month because we wanted surprises. So that particular night, it was close to Christmas Eve, and we didn't know it as kids, but Mom had told us,

later, there were burglaries in the neighborhood. There were two men that were responsible. So that particular night, we were upstairs, and we were dreaming about Santa Claus and all we were going to get the following week for Christmas. And our little dog, Sandy, the Dachshund, was sleeping under my bed with her mother. And

Presently, we heard a strange noise coming downstairs. It sounded like somebody was ransacking the house. And I crept to my brother's room with the two dogs following me. And I said, "Brian, would Santa Claus do that?" And he said, "Let's go see." It sounded like somebody was slamming the doors.

And so we thought, boy, was this Santa Claus? And so we went down into the living room and we saw two men, one dressed as Santa Claus, he was talking to a drunk boy. And he told me that I didn't see anything and go back to bed. I said, are you Santa Claus? And he wouldn't answer me. He said, don't bother me right now, I'm busy.

And so we watched him as he was putting our stuff into a sack, and his partner was helping himself to what he wanted. Anyway, he was looking for cash and didn't find any. My dad said he was too late. He already paid the bills. He turned on the light and saw the two people ransacking our house. Well, anyway, at that

point, the guy dressed as Santa Claus screamed when our dog Sandy bit him on the leg. And I said, this is the day my dog bit Santa Claus on the leg. Now he won't get anything at all for Christmas. I started crying. And my brother was throwing a temper tantrum and throwing stuff at the guy dressed as Santa. And so at that point, they shrieked with

when the dogs were chasing them and ran out the front door. And my brother Brian says, I always thought Santa Claus used a chimney. And mom says, hon, this isn't Santa Claus. This is a monster of a different kind. So anyway...

The only thing that guy dressed in Santa Claus, this was a real burglary that we had. We thought it was Santa Claus for a long time. But anyway, he stole a brand new cereal that my mom and got our family. Then as he ran out the door when the dogs chased him, she said, well, I'll get you a new one. And the other guy, the only thing he stole was a loaf of bread and a sack full of toilet paper. Now, why would I know what?

Happy Halloween, Cindy. And thanks for the phone call. Seems like Cindy here was the original Kevin McAllister. And it's impossible for me to picture this story without the thieves looking exactly like Harry and Marv.

And you know, speaking of Christmas movies, you didn't ask, but here are the films that I catch each and every holiday season. The Mothman Prophecies, Gremlins, the first two Home Alone movies, The Night Before, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Krampus, and of course, my favorite, Christmas Vacation, just in case you were looking for some recommendations. Now once more, a big thanks to all three of those Santa-related storytellers.

I feel like each of those tales could be turned into their own Christmas horror film or something. Now, folks, I'm going to take one more quick break because Santa doesn't pay the bills around here. But I'll be back with more mayhem in a moment. Oh, and it's safe to bring back the kids if you want, though I can't promise that it won't get spooky. Don't touch that dial. This candlelight thing, I think they do it every year. Regular because, again, he just was his own character. He was...

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Alright folks, the night is winding down. The candles are burning low. Some slow Christmas music plays on a distant record player. The tree and the tinsel twinkle as the snow starts to fall outside. This holiday party is winding down, but it ain't over yet. Old Derek Claus has one more story for your stocking.

And for this one, we take a trip overseas, to the UK specifically, where we hear a tale of a horse that haunts a holiday season. Kelly, welcome back to the program. Hi Derek, I just thought that I would ring in with another experience that I had recently. So I live in a farmhouse and I have got pet horses and sheep.

We don't keep them at home, we keep them, I think it's about a mile as the crow flies from the house. So if you were to drive by road, it's about a mile and a quarter. But if you walk across the fields behind the farm, it's a mile and a straight line.

So if I walk from home with the dog to the stables, all of the fields between the house and stables are farmland. But on the back of somebody else's house, there is paddock that has a great big black horse in there. And that horse is always breaking the fence. And I think because he's kept on his own and he's obviously quite lonely because horses are herd animals.

He'll break through the fencing and he'll walk down to the farm and stick his head over the hedge and the sheep keep him company. He is quite aggressive, which is probably the reason that he's kept on his own. And he is really well known locally for chasing dog walkers, children, whatever. So we call that walk from the house to the stables, me and my other half call that running the gauntlet.

because if you don't see the horse before you leave the house it might catch you out halfway to the stables yeah so sometimes we run the gauntlet and sometimes if we see the horse is out in the fields where he's not supposed to be we'll walk the road or we'll get in the car

So on Christmas Day, this Christmas just gone, we said, oh, we can have a drink with Christmas dinner. You know, let's go and walk up the public footpath and go and do the horses. And then we haven't got to think about, you know, what time we can have a drink because we've got to drive all of that.

So we looked out of the upstairs window and we could see that the horse was on the public footpath. So he said, right, okay, let's not do that. We'll just go via the road. So anyway, fast forward, I don't know, about two weeks ago, so middle of January, I was talking to a local lady and she said to me, haven't seen you for ages. That horse that was in the accident, I really hope it wasn't one of yours.

and I said what horse that was in an accident and she said there was a big black horse that had got out um he's really well known locally for getting out and he'd got onto the road and been hit by a car and I don't think anybody realized that the horse had been in an accident initially whether it was a hit and run or what I don't know because I wasn't there but

All horses in the UK are supposed to have a microchip with the registered owner's details so that if horses are stolen or get hit by a car or whatever, you know, the vet can scan that microchip and contact the owner. So when somebody called the vet to come out and do that, he was just loose wandering up the road in the middle of the night. Anyway, so the vet came out and realised that the horse had got a head injury and put him to sleep on the roadside.

This is my neighbour that's telling me the story and she sort of said, she said, yeah, it was right outside my house and I've been thinking of you ever since and I haven't seen you for ages. I'm just hoping and praying, you know, that it wasn't in too much pain and that it wasn't one of your horses. And I said, none of my horses are black. And so she said, oh, he's from the top of So-and-So Road.

and I know that you live on that road and I said no no when did it happen I've not heard anything about it so she looked through her phone in front of me and she said somebody had messaged me because it was outside my house and she hadn't been around but her husband was the one who had called the vet and so when she looked through her whatsapp messages that accident happened and the horse was put to sleep on the 26th of November

And we 100% definitely, definitely saw that horse on Christmas Day and chose a different route because we saw it. And I said to her, are you sure it wasn't the 26th of December? She was like, pointed a phone at me. No, no, no, look, it was back in November. I was away at the time. It was my husband that dealt with it. So I'll send you a photo of that kind of landscape later.

But it's all quite bleak. There's no crops on it at the moment. It's all just sort of soil and hedges and one or two oak trees. There's nothing that you could possibly mistake for a black horse with a white face leaning over a hedge.

I've seen it a thousand times before and I work with horses so it's not like I don't know what they look like. It couldn't have been a bin bag or anything like that. Everything's clean and tidy and if it was rubbish somebody would have picked it up because it's on the public footpath. I just cannot imagine what I could possibly have seen and mistaken for a horse unless it really was.

that horse and so I've since inquired to double check that it was the same horse and it's not another person's black horse and the fella up on the gauntlet is actually still alive and well but no it was definitely that horse

And as I say, he was kept on his own. There's no other horses within probably a mile of here. It's not like somebody else's horse might have got loose onto our farmland that happened to be black with a white face and looked exactly like the one that's been terrorising dog walkers for the last 10 years. Yeah, I don't know what else would explain that other than it being the spirit of the horse that used to live there.

Anyway, yeah, hope everybody's well. Thank you again for the show. Love what you do. Take care. Bye. Thank you, Kelly. That poor guy. He just wanted to goof around with his buddies. Hopefully the suffering was brief. And how odd that you and your partner both saw the horse weeks after the accident on Christmas Day of all days of the year. And it's a bit of a coincidence that this took place in the UK as well.

because back that way they have a long-standing holiday tradition. The two involves a dead horse. Of course, I'm speaking of the tradition of, and the entity known, as Mary Lloyd. Here's a fun description of this unusual costume, courtesy of Monstrum and Dr. Emily Zarka.

Picture a small town on the coast of 19th century Wales. A family gathers around the hearth, a pan of butter toffee bubbling on the embers. The house is decorated with branches of fragrant pine and the glow from small candles perched on the limbs of a Christmas tree lights the room. Through a window, they see torchlight coming up the path towards the cottage accompanied by chanting. Suddenly, three hard raps at the door.

It flies open and a possibly tall and terrifying figure looms over the family. Draped in dirty white linens, its head is a horse's skull with glass baubles in the eye sockets. Ribbons tied about the skull are streaming in the wind behind it like the hair of some horrific sea monster. Then all at once, the group begins a merry tune, stomping and clapping in time with the grim horse's head bobbing along.

The family responds with a joyful verse of their own, and before long, the whole gaggle has made their way into the cottage and are clanking tankards together. Sounds like we just stepped into a scene from A Nightmare Before Christmas, when in fact it is a centuries-old tradition from Wales called Merry Llywyd, one it seems of many to blend a bit of scary into their Merry Christmas. So if you see a horse skull peering into your window this Christmas Eve, fear not, just sing it a song.

And folks, that's going to do it for this holiday extravaganza. I hope you had as much fun as I did. And remember folks, if you have a story that involves Christmas, Hanukkah, New Year's, or any other winter holiday, send that thing in to us now so that we have it for next year. The more of you that share your stories, the better these episodes will be. So give us a ring, 888-608-NIGHT, or shoot me an email at monstersamonguspodcast at gmail.com.

Now, Monsters Among Us is written and produced by me, Derek Hayes. Copyright Red Crow Media. Additional support is provided by Sarah Carter Hayes and Delaney Powers. All media used in this production is done so under the protection of fair use. Catch our accounts at Instagram and Facebook. And don't forget we have a Discord, which you can access by joining us on Patreon or Apple subscriptions.

Don't forget you can catch the show every Saturday evening at 11 p.m. Eastern on the Unexed Digital Network. Just visit Unexed.com to learn more. Be sure to watch our film Shadows in the Desert High Strangeness in the Borrego Triangle. Visit BorregoTriangle.com to learn more. Don't forget about Monsters Among Us Junior. We have a new episode tomorrow. Can't wait to see you there.

And finally, tonight's score was provided by Iron Cthulhu Apocalypse, Co.agmusic, Carl Casey at White Bat Audio, Mayu, and Avado Elements. Alright folks, it's time for me to board my sleigh and fly off into the night. It's been a real treat to hang out with you here this evening. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Now I'll be back here on Thursday with a brand new episode. So if you have the post-Christmas blues...

I'll be there to cheer you up. Until then, happy holidays, merry Christmas, happy winter solstice, and whatever else you might celebrate. Keep it spooky, and have yourselves a safe evening. Ho, ho, ho, ho!

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