💡 ’Twas the night before Christmas… but who really wrote the rhyme?

This week on Cursed Keepsakes, Kristin & Seleena unwrap a festive mystery involving the world’s most iconic Christmas poem. For 200 years, families have recited A Visit from St. Nicholas — but the question of who actually wrote it remains unsolved.

Was it the scholarly Clement Clarke Moore? Or was it Henry Livingston Jr., a jolly Dutch-descended poet who never received credit?

🎄 Authorship battles, forensic poetry, and reindeer name conspiracies — this is one holiday tale you didn’t know was a mystery.

⚡ And for game time? We write our own twisted Christmas rhymes — live.

🎙️ File:008 – What’s Written Isn’t Certain is now open.

In This Episode:

• The mysterious origins of ’Twas the Night Before Christmas

• Clement Clarke Moore’s claim to the poem — and why some say he lied

• The Livingston family’s fight to restore credit to their ancestor

• Literary sleuthing, rhyming clues, and reindeer name mix-ups

• A poetic battle of Christmas authorship

• Game Time: A rhyming improv showdown 🎄

Keywords:

Beautiful Sunday Podcast, Society of BS, Cursed Keepsakes, Christmas poem mystery, Who wrote Twas the Night Before Christmas, Henry Livingston, Clement Moore, holiday folklore, Christmas conspiracy, anonymous authorship, poem dispute, Santa’s reindeer names, poetry mystery, podcast with games, festive folklore, literary whodunit, Not Your Average Sunday

Episode Chapters:

• 00:00 – Welcome to Cursed Keepsakes

• 01:00 – A Christmas Poem Arrives

• 04:20 – Moore vs. Livingston: Who Wrote It First?

• 08:40 – Forensic Poetry & the Reindeer Name Theory

• 11:50 – Game Time: Rhyming Christmas Tales

• 15:30 – Final Theories & Outro

Resources & References:

• [The Story Behind the Most Famous Christmas Poem of All Time – Columbia Magazine](https://magazine.columbia.edu/article/story-behind-most-famous-christmas-poem-all#:~:text=As%20the%20story%20goes%20(and,book%20of%20his%20own%20poems)

• Henry Livingston Jr. Family Website

• Poetry Foundation – Clement Clarke Moore

💡 What if the lights in the sky aren’t stars… but something watching you back?

This week on Weird Science & Wonders, Kristin & Seleena travel to a secluded valley in Norway where strange lights have baffled scientists and locals for over 50 years.

The Hessdalen Lights flicker, dance, and hover with no clear cause — witnessed by hikers, filmed by scientists, and feared by those who see them too closely.

Are they natural electrical discharges? A “natural battery” beneath the soil? Or is it… something else entirely?

⚡ Plus: a game of “Explain the Unexplainable,” where you must invent logic for the illogical.

🎙️ File:007 – A Matter of Light is now open.

In This Episode:

· The 1972 sighting that sparked decades of scientific and paranormal interest

· How the Hessdalen Lights behave — glowing, pulsing, hovering, flashing

· The Natural Battery Theory, Tectonic Strain, and Ball Lightning hypotheses

· Alien theories, eye-witness reports, and a glowing orb that lit up a mountainside

· Kristin’s brain slowly melts from science overload

· Game Time: “Explain the Unexplainable” – you get the weird, you make it make sense

Keywords:

Hessdalen lights, Beautiful Sunday Podcast, Norway UFOs, unexplained phenomena, strange lights in sky, plasma bubbles, natural battery theory, alien sightings, paranormal podcast, Weird Science & Wonders, scientific mysteries, ball lightning, glowing orbs, sci-fi folklore, Scandinavian mysteries

Episode Chapters:

• 00:00 – Welcome to Weird Science & Wonders
• 01:00 – The First Hessdalen Sightings
• 05:15 – Scientific Theories (Battery, Strain, Lightning)
• 10:40 – Alien Theories & Personal Accounts
• 17:05 – Game Time: Explain the Unexplainable

🔗

Resources & References

• Hessdalen Project Official Site
• Hessdalen Light Reports
• YouTube – Hessdalen Sightings Compilation
• Ball Lightning – Britannica

✉️ A letter appears. Then another. Then hundreds.

This week’s Mini Mystery takes us to Circleville, Ohio, where in 1976 a small-town scandal erupted into one of the strangest unsolved cases in U.S. history.

Kristin & Seleena follow the trail of the anonymous Circleville Letter-Writer — a mysterious figure who sent thousands of threatening letters over two decades, implicated a school scandal, and possibly caused a man’s death.

The letters didn’t stop. Not even after someone was arrested. Not even when he was in solitary.

Was this a lone vigilante seeking justice? A clever frame job? Or something darker?

🎙️ File:006 – The Case That Wrote Itself is now open.

🕵️‍♀️ Plus: a mystery mini-game — can you solve the sabotage?

In This Episode:

· The 1976 arrival of the first Circleville letter

· The mysterious death of Ron Gillespie after a cryptic phone call

· Dozens of residents targeted with graphic threats

· A murder attempt using a booby-trapped sign and a gun

· The arrest and trial of Paul Freshour — and why many think he was framed

· The letters that kept coming, even after he was locked up

· A classic Beautiful Sunday game: Solve the Sabotage 🕵️‍♂️

⏱️ Episode Chapters:

· 00:00 – Welcome to Mini Mysteries

· 01:00 – The First Letter Arrives

· 05:33 – The Mysterious Death of Ron Gillespie

· 09:05 – A Gun in a Box: Attempted Murder

· 13:32 – The Trial of Paul Freshour

· 17:15 – Letters from Solitary

· 20:40 – Mini Mystery Game: “Solve the Sabotage”

🔗

Resources & References

· CBS News – The Circleville Letters

· Crime Junkie Podcast – Circleville Letters

· All That’s Interesting – The Circleville Letter Writer

· Medium – The Eerie Case of the Circleville Letters

· Interview with Martin Yant