This month’s Common Practice episode occurs one or two days before the annual Christmas celebrations, depending on where you live. We have some very interesting conversations and interviews coming up in the next few months, but we worried about whether people would have the time and energy to listen to one while preparing the holiday season.

After much discussion we decided to put out a lighter festive podcast featuring Sherlock Holmes. The Night Before Christmas formed the 17th episode of season 6 of the American radio series The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, first aired on the Mutual Network (WOR-MBS) on December 24 1945, starring Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson. While not a direct adaptation of an Arthur Conan Doyle story, it derives from the 1892 story The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle.

Petri Wine sponsored the series and you might note the way in which the wine relates to the story. Instead of having advertisements in which the actors step out of character, Petri opted to use one of the first examples of product placement in radio. The man to whom Watson tells the story offers him a glass of wine and they comment on it as part of the narrative.

Interesting and entertaining in its own right, this vintage radio show also serves as an old-fashioned festive greeting from everyone at Miaaw.