Welcome to another installment of Christmas in quarantine, and today is day 17 of this impromptu mini-series of daily episodes.

It's all about keeping our spirits up during the COVID-19 crisis.

And if you're listening in real time, it's also the start of the weekend.

I know when we're mostly inside all of the time with

limited options for activities, the idea of a weekend loses some of its meaning.

But just the same, I hope that you can make some time for keeping the Christmas spirit alive with a good book or a good movie,

or another trip with me back to the Golden Age of Radio.

Before we get to any of that, I hope, as always,

that you are staying safe and healthy, that you're practicing all of the common sense guidelines

and treating the situation with the seriousness it deserves and taking your advice only from

trained medical professionals. Now, today's story was described by Orson Wells himself as,

A delicious and utterly delirious rigadoon of a thing entitled, The Plot to Overthrow Christmas.

It's fun to say rigadoon. I had to look that one up.

Turns out it's a French baroque dance.

Now, the plot to overthrow Christmas first aired on Christmas Day in 1938.

As you're about to hear,

it's told entirely in rhyming verse, and it has a plot that's not unlike that of A Kidnapped Santa Claus by Frank L. Baum. I read that one for you last month. But this story is quite a bit

darker, but I'm sure you'll enjoy it. It's really a classic piece of Christmas writing and acting

and broadcasting that's largely lost on a modern audience, despite the fact that it's freely

available online. So let's make our descent to the underworld and see what kind of a plot

the fiends down there are cooking up. I'll be back at the end to say goodbye, but for now,

please enjoy the plot to say goodbye, but for now, please enjoy

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