North Pole Radio: Recent Episodes
Matt Spaulding
Each week podcaster, life long Christmas nerd and professional Santa Matt sits down with one of his fellow Santa performers or Christmas lovers and talks about all things Christmas including the art of representing Santa, movies, music, decorations and more.
I published my Christmas book, "Santa In His Own Words" and I'm reading a few excerpts from it to grab your attention, then telling you where you can get it if you're interested!
Matt is joined this episode by one of Santa's favorite photographers, Jessica Rosa! Hear her journey and learn about how you, too, can get magical photos for your Christmas performer business!
This episode, Matt is happy to welcome Shawn White to talk about being a working solo Mrs. Claus.
Matt is joined this week by returning guest Myke Hutchings and new guest David Milmine to discuss working as a duo as Santa and elf Phineus!
This week, Matt is joined by another wonderful Santa and Mrs. Claus as part of his "couples who work together" series.
In this "tough love" episode, Matt is joined by seamstresses Angie Landerman and Barbara Emery to discuss the rough treatment the costumers in the Claus community have been experiencing from Christmas performers.
This episode, Matt is joined by Bruce and Kathy Norred, who have been portraying Santa and Mrs. Claus together since the beginning of their performing journey. They share their story and their views on the strengths of working together.
This episode, Matt is joined by Dan Greenleaf to discuss the thing every Christmas performer wants to talk about but no Christmas performer wants to talk about: business. How to market, what to charge, etc. Dan ran a Santa agency and he knows his stuff!
This episode, Matt is joined by Chris Kennedy, who responded to a hateful letter from a neighbor by becoming Santa and spreading unconditional love and joy.
On the first episode of 2024, Matt is joined by a very special guest, Kevin Curtin, who stared as Santa in Coke's very popular "Anyone Can Be Santa" ad.
North Pole Radio is sponsoring Christmas Performers Workshop "Performing Fundamentals" in South Burlington, VT March 8-10
Merry Christmas Eve! Can't believe it's here already! On this bonus episode, I read a few chapters from the book I wrote this year, "Santa In His Own Words". I only get to three different chapters, but I just wanted to share a little bit of what I have been working on and the lore I have created.
Have a fantastic Christmas!
Matt and Anthony are back after life got in the way to finish reviewing season two of "The Santa Clauses"! What did we think overall? What parts did we like? What didn't we like? It's all here as we talk about the remaining four episodes.
Matt is joined once again by his friend Stuart Deacon Jr., but this time Matt is the one being interviewed! Stuart asks Matt all about his Santa journey and a few other fun things!
"The Santa Clauses" is back on Disney+, so Matt and Anthony are back to review it just like they did last year! Hear what we think of the first two episodes: "The Kribble Krabble Clause" and "Floofy".
Happy Christmas Podcast Day! This year, the shows of The Christmas Podcast Network are celebrating Christmas Podcast Day by cover different versions of "A Christmas Carol"! So, on this special bonus episode, Matt is joined by Gerry of "Totally Rad Christmas", Ashley of "Magic of the Season" and Robert of "Behind the Bells" to discuss the classic film "The Muppet Christmas Carol"!
It's the second annual North Pole Radio Halloween Special! This year, Matt is joined by returning guest, "Advent Calendar House" host Mike Westfall, to discuss the classic special, "Garfield's Halloween Adventure"!
This week Matt is joined once again by Ed Taylor, this time to discuss the idea of "we don't know what we don't know" in an attempt to give Christmas performers new ideas of types of jobs they can do, skills they can learn, etc.
This week Matt is delighted to be joined by Santa and Christmas music collector Ramsay Cowlishaw, who curates a Spotify playlist titled "Digital Fruitcake" which collects all sorts of underappreciated and forgotten Christmas songs!
Matt is joined this episode by the first elf he has had on the show, Myke Hutchings, Phineas the elf, who tells him all about what it is an elf does and how it helps Santa.
Get your notebooks ready, this week Matt is joined by Matt Feeney of Reindeer Acres farm who teaches us all kinds of facts about the amazing creatures that pull Santa's sleigh!
Matt is joined by Mrs. Claus Robin Ferra this week who tells him about being a solo Mrs. Claus who does a lot of work in a hospital!
Matt is joined by the wonderful Jeff McMullen who talks about clowning, building a Santa house, and his Kringle University.
This week Matt is joined by John Schimmel to offer some tough love to the Christmas community by addressing the problem of LGBTQ+ intolerance. It's a touchy subject for some, but I promise you we come at with all the respect and love in the world.
This week Matt is joined by Allan Siu, who talks about becoming Santa after being raised by Chinese immigrants who didn't celebrate Christmas, working at the Mall of America, and how Santa being diverse really does make a difference.
Matt is joined on this episode by Jenny Watt and John McCarty who are here to talk to him about their new book "A Hippopotamus For Christmas".
This week Matt is joined by his friend and fellow New England Santa Society member Nicholas Gillotte who talks all about his Santa journey, his after-Christmas "ski with Santa" gig, how he came to star in his own special copy of "The Night Before Christmas" and which mega-star's grandchildren he got to be Santa for!
This episode, Matt welcomes back Santa True, who lays out some potential futures for the art of Christmas performing. Some are great, some are not so great, and we talk about ways to make the great reality and avoid the not great.
It's time to go to music class as Matt is joined once again by his friend Bruce Kotowich who, this time, brings his expertise as a music professor to the podcast to teach us all about Christmas music, why it's important and how we can use it when performing as a Christmas character.
Matt is super excited this week to sit down and talk with official Rankin/Bass biographer Rick Goldschmidt, who had the distinct pleasure of being friends with Arthur Rankin, Jules Bass, Paul Coker and more of the Rankin/Bass crew and has written several books on the subject.
Matt is joined by his friends Gerry Davila from Totally Rad Christmas, Mike Westfall from Advent Calendar House and Charlie Ague from Closer to Christmas to count down each our top five favorite Christmas commercials!
On this episode Matt welcomes his pal Chris Parada who not only built his own beautiful Santa shack complete with custom sleigh, but keeps the spirit of classic Santas like Charles W. Howard and Jim Yelig alive and well.
Matt is joined on this episode by another U.K. Santa, Mike Facherty, who very cheekily waited to almost the end of the episode to share that he wrote some fun Christmas storybooks! Ho ho ho! Plus, he teaches Matt about a Christmas song that apparently doesn't exist in the U.S.
Matt is joined this week by U.K. Santa Ian Thom who talks about not only being Santa in England, but in Denmark and Japan as well!
This episode, Matt welcomes another young Santa, Liam Grob, who at 18 has already been Santa for four years and is fortunate enough to have a mentor who is an amazing, well-known and respected Santa.
This week, Matt is joined by Pro Santa Shop and Pro Santa School founder Doug Eberhart, who talks about his beginnings as Santa at a very young age all the way up through starting a company that makes high-end Santa suits and a school to help Santas up their game.
After some time off for post-Christmas recovery, Matt is back with an exciting new episode for you! In this episode, Matt's friend Brendan is back after his first season being Santa, and they are joined by Santa True of Christmas Performer's Workshop for a little crash course in starting out as Santa. Lots of good information here for beginners, but hopefully some good stuff for seasoned Santas, too!
On this very special bonus episode Matt welcomes Master Sergeant Benjamin Wiseman, one of the many people at NORAD who track Santa each and every Christmas Eve and make sure his journey is shared with believers everywhere!
Matt and Anthony wrap up reviewing the first season of Disney +'s series "The Santa Clauses".
Matt is super happy to be joined by his friend Brendan Low, who has always loved Christmas and Santa and who has recently been inspired to start his own Santa journey.
Matt is joined once again by his friend Anthony to discuss episodes three and four of Disney +'s "The Santa Clauses". Spoiler alert, we're really enjoying it!
Tis The Podcast's Anthony Caruso joins Matt once again (and for the next few weeks!) this time to recap the first two episodes of Disney+'s brand new series "The Santa Clauses"!
This week Matt is delighted to have on Jeff Campagna, who was born mostly deaf and eventually went completely deaf, but thanks to the wonders of science can now be a fantastic Santa for both hearing impaired and hearing people alike!
On this special Halloween bonus episode, Matt and his special guest Robert of the "Behind the Bells" podcast discuss the oft-forgotten but Emmy Award winning animated Halloween special "The Halloween Tree".
Matt is joined by Garrett Case, an American ex-pat who now lives in Japan and is Santa for Universal Studios Tokyo!
Matt welcomes his second Claus couple, the Degennaros, to talk about becoming Santa and Mrs. Claus together and working as a pair.
This week Matt is so happy to welcome his friend Michael Beurer to the show to talk about being Santa, Herbie the Elf and a teacher of fellow Santas as well as the joy that is using your imagination to look at things with a Santa eye.
This week Matt is joined by Greg Swiech, who is using technology and imagination to up the digital Santa visit game and take children on full tours of the North Pole!
This week, Matt welcomes Pat Moss of Black Santa EFX to talk about being a Santa of color and having a fun, unique Santa wardrobe.
Matt has his first ever Santa and Mrs. Claus duo on the show! We talk all about working as a pair and how even Santas and Mrs. Clauses who aren't married in real life can make great couples when they out performing together!
Matt is joined by the Dean of Northern Lights Santa Academy, Santa Rick Rosenthal, who tells Matt all about the creation and courses of the school
Matt is joined this week by Kimmie, a newer Mrs. Claus who is spreading her wings and finding new, fun things for Mrs. Claus to do!
Matt is joined by Becki Stratton, who is not only a Mrs. Claus, but a teacher of other Mrs. Clauses!
Matt is joined by Sabrina Halvorson, a wonderful Mrs. Claus, who chats with him about the growing role of Mrs. Claus in Christmas lore.
Matt is joined by his Christmas Podcast Network Pals Gerry and C.J. to talk about the 1979 Rankin Bass movie "Rudolph & Frosty's Christmas in July".
Matt is joined this week by Hunter Woodson who started as Santa rather uniquely young and had the neat experience of coming up in the Santa world with some Santa Claus Hall of Fame mentors pretty much right out the gate.
On this week's episode, Matt is joined by Kat Imhausen, a Mrs. Claus who teaches American Sign Language to Santas and Mrs. Clauses across the country!
This week, Matt is joined by a new Santa who made a splash in the Santa world by daring to be different and bring his own twist to the Santa legend, Rosario Smirne, better known as Santa Maverick!
This week, Matt is joined by his friend Bill Barnsley, who talks about how he loves to create memories and traditions with the families he sees.
Mat is joined by his friend Chris Elzinga, who plays Santa on a local access show in his town and has a story about being on the set of one of, if not THE best, Christmas specials of all time!
Matt is joined by one of the leaders of SatBOBS (Santa and the Business of Being Santa), Bob McMasters!
Matt is joined by the Head Elf at Hire Santa, Mitch Allen, to talk about how he helps people find the best Santas around and get Santas gigs.
Matt is joined by his friend and first Mrs. Claus guest, Carol Nickles, to discuss her journey to becoming Mrs. Claus and her upcoming first novel!
Matt welcomes his very first British Santa, Sammy Brooks, to the show! Sammy Created and toured his very own Santa show around England and tells us all about it.
This week, Matt is joined by Joey Marsocci, who performs as The Grinch and Krampus, taking pain from Christmases past and turning it into performances that help others find joy in the holiday who may otherwise not have by showing them they are not alone.
Professional storyteller and head of the Christmas Performer Workshop Santa True joins Matt on this episode to talk about the art of storytelling and how all Santas can improve our art to benefit those we serve as well as how we can bring more people into our community instead of waiting for them to come to us.
Matt is joined by Santa Bruce Kotowich, who brings his wealth of knowledge and the traditions of his personal heritage to the show to discuss St. Nicholas, Santa Claus, and the joy of having a season full of celebrations.
This episode Matt welcomes another Matt to the show, Matt Marberry, who had the fun and unique experience of performing Santa in Dubai.
Three of Matt's podcasting pals join him to talk about the strange Rankin & Bass special that is "The Easter Bunny Is Coming To Town." Kind of a sequel, kind of a remake, completely weird.
Matt is joined by his good friend and fellow Christmas podcaster, Anthony Caruso of 'Tis The Podcast, to discuss all things Santa on film. What makes a good movie Santa? Who are the best ones? Who has the best North Pole? The best sleigh? All the important stuff!
Matt is joined by Santa Derek Dugan to discuss some wonderful memories of portraying Santa, the importance of Santa to families and Derek's awesome "casual Santa wear" company, Sleighdriver Apparel.
Merry Christmas 2, listeners! In this episode, Matt is joined by Gerry D, host of the podcast "Totally Rad Christmas" to look back on the underappreciated 1985 film "Santa Claus: The Movie".
Celebrate St. Patrick's Day as Matt is joined by his friend Michael Lyons to discuss the forgotten Walt Disney classic "Darby O'Gill and the Little People".
Matt is joined by fellow Santa performer and good friend Michael Howe to discuss the benefits of continuing to learn new things in the Christmas community, as well as the benefits of passing on what you have learned. As Michael, and the title of this episode, says, together, we're better.
Matt is joined by his friend Santa Zeb to discuss how he created a fantastic Santa experience for his community on his farm in Virginia.
Magical Santa Randyl joins Matt this episode to talk about how being a magician and a clown can bring a different element to portraying Santa.
In this episode, Matt chats with his dear friend Santa Melissa Rickard, a woman who portrays Santa Claus, and gets to the heart of what it really takes to be Santa.
Matt has a nice chat with the first friend he ever made in the Santa community, Santa Stuart Deacon Jr. Topics they cover include designer beards, "The Santa Clause", and Stuart's online Santa school.
Find Stuart on
Instagram: santastuartclaus
YouTube: Santa Stuart
Matt has a talk with his friend and mentor Santa Ed Taylor of the Worldwide Santa Claus Network. They discuss the importance of always learning and the rise of the virtual Santa visit.