The Potter Discussion: Harry Potter, Fantastic Beasts and the Wizarding World Fandom

"Happy Christmas." -Hermione Granger, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

December 18, 2022 Sound Owl Media Episode 161
The Potter Discussion: Harry Potter, Fantastic Beasts and the Wizarding World Fandom
"Happy Christmas." -Hermione Granger, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

In this episode, we talk all things Christmas. Enjoy!

Summary/Topics:
·     3:06 Did Christmas change over time in the story? There’s a lot of contrast between the first and last Christmas we saw. What factors contributed to this change? Voldemort was one of the main ones. Having a safe environment to celebrate was how Harry had his Christmas, which turned out to change. The characters also changed throughout the books which influenced the Christmases. They are different people with different interests which will have some effect on Christmas.

·     8:41 How is a Harry Potter Christmas different from a muggle Christmas? Of course, there is magic in a Harry Potter Christmas. Magical presents and food and events. Muggles do all this much slower. They don’t have access to magic to make their Christmas better. Which parts of which are the best? Wizards have the better gift giving, that’s for sure. Nothing beats a magical gift. However, muggles have the best games. I don’t want to have a huge glob of stink sap in my face with gobbstones or have my cards explode in Exploding Snap. The muggles also have a better Christmas feast. Hear me out! The best dish in my opinion is a Christmas mac and cheese. Did we ever see a Christmas mac and cheese in Harry Potter? No! For that reason, I’ll give the win to the muggles. 

·     17:25 What would the perfect Christmas day look like at Hogwarts? I open all my presents including (but not limited to): 7 Firebolts, five thousand galleons, new quidditch robes for the entire team with anti-wind, anti-cold, and anti-water power, an entire library, and the Elder Wand. Breakfast is delicious. I go outside with a huge mug of hot chocolate and watch the giant squid and skaters on the lake. I have lunch in the Three Brook Sticks, and head back to Hogwarts. The feast is awesome, with piles upon piles of Christmas mac and cheese. For dessert, there are pies and ice cream as far as the eye can see. I play one last game of wizard chess and go to bed. 

·     24:05 Are the Harry Potter Christmas vibes good, or will it take an L? Of course, Harry Potter Christmas is awesome. It has adds a wonderful layer to the story and the characters and is a fun way to read about the wizarding world.

Having anything you want to hear or say? Click here for a voice submission or here for text.
ThePotterDiscussion@gmail.com
@thepotterdiscussion on Instagram
Sign up for The Quill and Ink Newsletter
thepotterdiscussion.com

VO:
Welcome to the Potter discussion.

Oscar:
Welcome back to V Potter discussion discussing Harry Potter Fantastic Beasts new Whizzing World fandom. I'm host Oscar and this is episode 161. Thank you all for joining me today on It's a Wonderful Day. The snow is falling, the sun is out. It is just miraculous. I enjoyed my morning walk. I had a delicious breakfast, and now I am here recording with you. It's just a wonderful day to be alive. So thank you for joining me today. It is the Christmas episode. TPD christmas? So we are here. It has been a whole year since last year's Christmas, if you can believe it. So I am thrilled to be recording today. The Christmas Day is on a Sunday 25th, and an episode would come out that day. However, I'm not going to be in the studio, so I think I'll just throw up a rerun. Or if I don't get to it, I mean, have fun, but that is the plan. So I decided to make the real Christmas episode this week so you would at least have some pot of discussion to make it through the holidays. But I'm very excited today because I am going to be kind of going over the whole Christmas experience. We're going to be designing some gifts. We're going to be talking about how Christmas has evolved over the years. We're going to be seeing if it passes the vibe check, if you know what I'm saying. We're going to be doing all of that fun stuff in today's episode. So make sure you stick around because there's a lot of good stuff coming your way. A bit of a fun announcement, actually. This episode marks the official outweighing of discussion episodes and theory episodes. So I switched to discussion episodes on episode 80, and this is being episode 161. We have officially done more discussions than theories, which it feels like we've been going at discussions for so much longer. But you're in that like a twice a week schedule for Theory. So it was definitely really plowing through episodes before, but now we're on a much steadier pace and we have more discussions on the positive discussion than Theory, so that's pretty cool. And one final thing before we get into today's episode, if you have anything you want to say to me, anything at all, if you have a suggestion for an episode, if you want something to be heard on the show, if you have feedback, if you have anything, you can always send me an email. My email is the Potter discussion@gmail.com. That is the Potter discussion@gmail.com. And of course, you have the contact form and voice submission in these show notes as well. All right, let's get into today's episode. The first thing that I want to get into in today's episode is answering the question, did Christmas change over time in the story? So I think is definitely going to be an important factor into this episode to be discussing the individual Christmases throughout the story and also how they changed throughout the course of Harry's time at Hogwarts and outside of Hogwarts. Because if you look at the very first Christmas in the Philosopher Stone and they look at the very last Christmas in the Deadly Hallows pretty different, you could say that they are pretty different with different people in completely different places under different circumstances with different goals and different traditions. I mean, it is ridiculous how different these Christmases are throughout the story. I mean it is really funny to see the contrast. So let's get into these specifics. How did the Christmases cross Harry Potter change from beginning to end and what were really the factors that led to those changes? Well, I think the factor that we can all agree on is probably Voldemort, lord Voldemort. I mean, his rise to power is, of course, one of the main factors just in the story in general. And as Christmas relies on a safe environment and a comfortable environment at Hogwarts, I'd say the traditional Christmas as we learned to enjoy it with the first and second books was, I mean, absolutely impossible to recreate, if you would, later in the story. So for example, the Philosopher Stone Christmas was like oh my gosh, I have presents. Yeah, you have presents. Let's open them together. Yeah, life is great. They got like a cool invisibility cloak and a bunch of sweaters and sweets and books and all these really fun things and I mean it was great, it was awesome. They had Christmas feast day off of classes, they had snowball fights and all this and that and boom and A and B C one two, three. You know what I'm saying here? It was a fun day. It was enjoy it, have presents, eat a lot of food, spend time with your friends and family. That was essentially Christmas. But then later we look at the Deathly Hollows and Christmas is pretty much spent looking for HoR cruxes and trying to escape from Voldemort and the guinea in Godrick's Hollow. So I think the contrast there is extreme. I mean, first Harry's enjoying Christmas with Ron and hermione I guess technically guys, Hermione is not there but Harry's enjoying Christmas with his best friend and it's a great day and then he is mourning the loss of his parents, looking for Horcruxes and escaping Voldemort in the house in the destroyed house of his dead parents. So you can imagine how horrible that is. I mean just like imagine your Christmas this year, a bunch of plans, you're going to see your friends and family is going to be great but no, actually you have to fly across the country and solve this huge problem that needs fixing right now. I mean just imagine that times like ten. So I mean it is just a huge contrast and like I said, Voldemort is the main factor that really shifts that I think another factor that is probably less extreme but it does change it from book to book is just the characters, just their preferences and their maturity and who they are as people. I think that also influences the Christmas spirit and tradition at Hogwarts and out of Hogwarts because we even see just like the different little situations of what stage of the story we're in. Like for example, the Order of the Phoenix christmas was spent at number twelve criminal place because Arthur couldn't do anything and they wanted to make sure he was well so they went there. It's like those little things that are affected by who Harry, I guess in this case specifically is as a person. And I think besides that, besides all those another factor that I just noticed is that it's just the situation combined with all these factors, a main factor on top of all this that really does change Christmas is just what situation there and you know, what they're doing. At that time, for example, the Yule Ball that was Christmas in the Goblin of Fire. And that was just because there was the Tri Woods Tournament, which happens not a lot, but happened with Harry. And again, the Philosopher stone christmas that was because there was nothing happening and they can enjoy Christmas as it was meant to be enjoyed. And I mean, even in the half foot prints, the Christmas was different just because that's what was happening. I mean it was a Christmas party so he went there and I mean there are a lot of different things that influence the Christmases over the years but I think those are the main factors voldemort, maturity and just the situation as a whole. So now we have a bit of a background on that but with that knowledge let's move on. The next thing that I want to go over is how is a Harry Potter Christmas different than a Muggle Christmas? How is a magical, mystical, magical, mystical, magical field Harry Potter Christmas different from the mundane question mark Muggle Christmas? Mundane? I think not. So that is what we're going to go over just real quick right now how is a Muggle Christmas different from a Harry Potter Christmas and what differentiates the two? And which parts of both are my favorite? So I think let's just get the obvious ones out of the way. Harry Potter Christmas, it's magical, there's magical elements to it and I think that pretty much encapsulates, I mean most of the difference. So for your Harry Potter feast you might have it made by housesells and then float it up through the floor. I'd say that's pretty magical, wouldn't you? And then you're like, floating candles, and then you have the tree being decorated by magic and the ghosts caroling throughout the halls, and people going to the Hogwarts Express that goes from Hogwarts to the magical castle. And of course, the magical gifts are a huge part of it. We have the invisibility cloak and we have these, like, little moving figures and different models and a bunch of different magical gear, like Whittish supplies and, of course, magical books. That's a huge element of HB. Christmas. So there is a lot of magic involved in the Harry Potter Christmas because that is what differentiates it from a Muggle Christmas. So on that note, what is a Muggle Christmas? Well, it is certainly different. I'd say the only difference in the much broader respect in terms of magic or not magic is it's all done much slower. I think that can pretty much bring it all to a good sum up point. The feast is made by just the people enjoying it and the gifts are non magical unfortunately. I wish they were. And you get books that are not telling you how to do spells and maybe it's a story, maybe it's a how to book and then maybe you get like a special coffee grinder and then maybe you get this cool trumpet mute. I don't know, like whatever the heck you want. It's not magical but you might get it. So that is essentially the differences that I see. But now which parts of which are my favorite? I think that is the next element of this kind of talking point is I'm going to kind of have a bunch of different categories, different tiers almost. So we have like gift giving and the feast and presents and magical games. All of these different things that have crossover. Well then not magical games, just games, the snowball fights, what you do outside, all these different things that both Muggles and wizards enjoy. And I'm going to just kind of try to pick out the ones that I would prefer to do. And I think you could probably make a prediction of which one is going to win. But I will try to give the Muggles a chance here. Okay, so let's do gift giving. Let's do gift giving first. Which group of people do you think has the best style of gift giving? Is it the wizards or is it the Muggles? Which gifts are the best? Which ones? I really you know, this is a difficult one I'm going to give to the wizards at this one. Magical, I mean nothing beats magical gifts. Just nothing. It is just a wonderful thing. You can do so much with it. It is, I mean just fantastic. A magical gift. I mean I would love to have something magical that is just amazing. Now how about some games? How about some games? Well, let's think here. I think are there like Christmas games? Does that exist? I don't know. I don't know if there's like Christmas games. Like pin the tail on the Santa. I really don't know if there are any Christmas games. I personally don't play Christmas games. Does that exist in the Muggle world? I don't know. I don't know. I don't think there are any like, obviously Christmas games, but there are certainly games that you can play on Christmas. There are a lot of different things you can play Christmas in the Muggle world. And of course in Harry Potter there's wizard chess, there is Gobstones, there's all these different things, there's exploding snap, a bunch of different things. But for this one, I'm going to have to give it to the Muggles, I think games, absolutely, I'm going to give it to Muggles. And I am excluding quidditch from this. I just want to say that because it's not a Quidditch game, I don't think, you know, it's a summer game, I think. So definitely the Muggles have it here with games. I think chess is the only one that they really went at because I mean, wizard chess, just knight to e five, that whole business is just great. But I think exploding, I don't want to deal with exploding things like Christmas gosh and Gobstone shoots this horrible smelling snap in your face. Like, oh, no thank you, I'd rather just play regular marbles. I say thank you, good night, goodbye. Just, no thank you. So some of those games don't sound that appealing to me. So I think I would definitely have to give the dub to the Muggles in this scenario for the magical games that they just beat so well. So games, absolutely. Muggles dominate that. And now the feast. The feast is definitely one of the highlights of a wizard or a Muggle Christmas. There's turkey and there's all this stuff, it's very Thanksgiving esque, there's a bunch of different stuff and it is delicious, of course, but they're definitely signature dishes that really make it stand out. And I think for that reason, I'm going to give it to the Muggles. I think the Muggles do a feast better than the wizards. Now, before you get mad at me, before you shake your fist and wag your finger and get up and throw your hands in the air and storm away, hear me out. Now, I am absolutely speaking from personal experience more than just general tradition, but I mean, for me, the winner of the Muggle Christmas feast, I'd say is the mac and cheese. This is definitely getting into Gordon Ramsay territory, but the mac and cheese is just awesome. I love a crispy top breadcrumbs, but a cheesy and really warm inside. Just absolutely delicious. And did we see a Christmas mac and cheese ever in Harry Potter? Did we ever, ever see a Christmas mac and cheese? I think not. I think not. We never saw a mac and cheese in Harry Potter for Christmas. So muggles. Absolutely win. And I am being so unfair here because I love mac and cheese. So for that reason I am giving Muggles the win here because a good Christmas mac and cheese is just amazing. And I did not ever read about a Christmas mac and cheese in Harry Potter. So Muggles absolutely they win this round. Better luck next time wizards. So that is my little ranking style. I really put out a lot of categories that the Muggles could absolutely win at but of course there are just countless things that the wizards do so much better. But there are a couple of strong ones that we just listed that Muggles also do pretty well. So it is not a lost cause for Muggles. It is not an easy win for wizards but there are definitely elements that are the better of the two and with that let's move on. So now we've done our research on Christmas. We've talked about the different elements of it. We talked about the wizard versus Mug of Christmas. Now with all this good information I think it is about time that we design our own Christmas day. So I am now going to be kind of making a Christmas day for myself and it is going to be taking place at Hogwarts. So I'm going to be just designing every element of this Christmas and it is going to be absolutely amazing. So dawn till dusk. Let's get going. Okay so it's the morning right? I wake up say like seven, right? Seven. And Ron's already down there. We kind of open all of our presents and I got a new and I got three no no, I got seven fire bolts. So the entire Gryffindor footage team is absolutely stacked for the season. About I am from Harry's perspective if you haven't guessed that already. So seven fire bolts and I get also a loan from the bank that I don't have to pay back where I can build headwig her own little house out of the dormitory window. So I just get a bunch of money randomly. Oh you know, you know what happens. Sirius, Sirius's present is 1000 gallons and I build headquake her own little sleeping place and food trough and a bunch of different stuff right outside the dormitory. So that is the presence from Sirius. Mrs. Weasley of course makes a ton of stuff. She has bunch of pies and sweets and sweaters and all this stuff. She does all this just amazing stuff. So that's what I come from her hermione a three books. Three interesting, informative and amazing books from Ron. An entire set of new quidditch rows for the entire Quidditch team. Yes with state of the art anti wind goggles and similarly state of the art anti cold and antiweather gloves and everything else. So I can't get cold, I can't get wet and the wind doesn't blow in my face when I'm flying. So there we go. Those are all the gifts I get and of course from Dumbledore I get the older one. So now, moving on we go down for breakfast and the smell of bacon and deliciousness and like eggs and toast and fresh everything fills the air. So I fill up my plate and I chow down. It is just absolutely delicious and hits the spot. I'm not uncomfortably full, but I save room for the next meals. Then I bundle up and I go outside. I love the wintertime, so I get a nice big mug of hot cocoa and me and Ron go sit by the lake, the frozen lake with a bunch of people skating on it. And we take a walk around the grounds. We go kind of we walk around the castle. We go into hogs meat because they open it for us, of course. We get a nice butter beer at the Three Broomsticks and Honey Dukes and it is just delicious. Of course, it isn't completely empty because it's only open for us, of course. And it is just a wonderful day. Then we get lunch in the Three Broomsticks, which is delicious. Then you go out into the cold. But it's not the kind of cold that bites through your jacket. It's the kind of cold that wraps around you and makes your breath steam but you're still warm inside. Because, of course, my state of the art protection, anti wind, antielements anti water, anti uncomfortableness, ever clothes, of course, are keeping me absolutely perfectly dry and warm and perfect. So, of course. Absolutely. And then after lunch, we walk back, we meander around the grounds, we have a snowball fight with Fred and George and, of course, we absolutely win every time. And then we go back into the Great Hall for the Christmas feast. We've been looking forward to this for so long because Christmas is a staple at Hogwarts. We are so excited. Our stomachs are rumbling after a long walk back and huge plates of Christmas mac and cheese come soaring out into the Great Hall. And we get platefuls and platefuls and there's green beans and turkey and all this delicious stuff. And there's, like, squash and more mac and cheese. The Christmas mac and cheese came to save the day and it is just delicious. We eat every element of it. It is just we clear the table and it is just delicious. Then, magically, we are not full and dessert comes out and it is huge. Chocolates and pies and ice creams and cakes and mountains of Christmas cookies and cupcakes and all these delicious things and treacle tart and delicious, delicious desserts. We eat a ton of desserts and then we are nice and full. We go up, we play one last game of wizards chess, not a splitting snap. And we go up to the dormitory I say again, to Hedgewig, who is in her personal chamber outside the dormitory window, and I go to bed. There you go. There you go. That is it. That is my perfect Harry Potter day right there. I am pleased with that. I think that could definitely happen. That could definitely be a realistic Harry Potter Christmas for me. So I'm pretty proud of that, especially the mac and cheese allen over the bacon one coming in, but we've got one last thing to discuss. We've got the Vibe check the Vibe test. Is it a pretty viby time or does it take the L? Look at that, look at that. I'm Gen z. So that is coming up next. Let's move on. And for a final talking point, how is the Harry Potter Christians? Like I said, does it have those good vines? Is it a fun time or shall be casted out forever? Well, I think you could probably guess the answer to this one. Harry Potter Christmas is amazing and we will never forget it ever. So I mean of course Harry Potter Christmas is just amazing. There's some of my favorite times in the story. I think it adds a layer of familiarity yet alienness. I think it shows the contrast between the Muglin wizarding world in a comforting way and it is just awesome. I mean Christmas is just a really fun time of year that people all around the world can celebrate. So I think it is a really fun time. And Christmas just for Muggles, for my Christmas with the Christmas mac and cheese is I mean amazing. So I can only imagine with the element of magic in it just how magical he it'll be and of course with the huge feast and the presence and the games and just sitting around talking and the snowball fights and hot chocolate, that is all going to be just a really wonderful time. I mean, Harry Potter Christmas is just absolutely amazing. And I think I would love to experience Harry Potter Christmas. I mean, just like even going to the filming locations or something like that, and just like going up or I mean, going back to the Harry Potter studio. And they had a common room they had the common room set. So it would be fun to go up go up the stairs and then look dad, and say, I've got presents, and then run down and then open them all. Even just doing that would have been fun. But there are a lot of different parts of this that I mean I would have loved. So I think the Harry Potter Christmas is just a really wonderful time and I think it really ties the whole Christmas and the whole Harry Potter together. It is just a leveling of force for the entirety of the wisdom in the world and it is a wonderful plot device. It really works well with all the characters and what they want and also really elevates the story and I think the Harry Potter Christmas is really one of the differentiating factors of Harry Potter. I mean, like as a whole. So I mean on that final note, I am just going to say I love Harry Potter Christmas. It is just absolutely fantastic. And that is it. That is it for today's episode. Again, I want to wish you a wonderful Christmas. Happy Christmas as Hermanni would say, oh, there we go last. I don't know. That's the title for today's episode. I was trying to find the title. Okay. Happy Christmas, Herman. Grandchildren. There we go. And I hope you enjoy it with your family, or if you're not seeing your family or you're not celebrating Christmas time, I hope you will enjoy the holiday, the snow, at least the time alone, the time off from work. So enjoy your wonderful couple of weeks. Coming up. If you enjoy the show, consider leaving a review. Five stars would be appreciated. But if it's not five stars, please tell me how I can make it so you can leave review on Apple podcasts spotify or Pod Chaser. And of course, like I said in the beginning of today's episode, you can send me an email. My email is thepotterdiscussion@gmail.com. That is thepotterdiscussion@gmail.com. Or you can go contact me on Instagram. My instagram is @thepotterdiscussion. All right, again, thank you for listening to today's episode. And remember that happiness can be found even in the darkest of times if one only remembers to turn on the light. I will see you later.

VO: 
This was The Potter Discussion.


Intro
Did Christmas change over time in the story?
How is a Harry Potter Christmas different from a muggle Christmas?
What would the perfect Christmas day look like at Hogwarts?
Are the Harry Potter Christmas vibes good?