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Hilarie Burton: Hi guys! It’s Hilarie Burton and you have tuned in to the Southern Gothic Productions podcast! It’s our look into the inner workings of a production company. So sit back, hang out, and enjoy a sneak peek into our journey.

Candace: Hey everybody at SoGoPro. This is Candace from Kansas City, Missouri, wishing you and yours a very merry Christmas and a happy holidays! Thanks!

SoGoPro fan: I had a little thing I wrote that I want to share with you guys. ‘Christmas time is coming! People are packing! Children are cheering! Everyone rushing. Nobody’s stopping until next year!’ Have a safe Christmas! And have a great one! And happy Christmas!

Denise Gideon: Well, Merry Christmas to everyone who’s listening to the Southern Gothic Productions podcast! It is our holiday special!

HB: Oh, happy holidays everybody! And happy holidays to you, Denise!

Nicholas Gray: Happy holidays! [Hilarie and Kelly laugh]

Kelly Tenney: ‘Tis the season. Happy holidays!

DG: Well, we’re going to have a little fun here on the podcast this week. We’re going to throw everything out the window, and we’re going to talk a little bit about some of you guys’ favorite things during the holidays. Hilarie, I think the first thing we’ve got is a question from a fan off of our Twitter, and we’re doing this because this person is going to win a SoGoPro Swag Bag. We’ve been doing those recently, a few tattoos to sport during the holidays and some wristbands, so I know everyone’s been excited about that and they’re waiting on pins and needles to see who the winner is, and that is Alexandra A and she had a great Twitter question that we’re going to lead off with: ‘I think everyone loves food during the holidays. What is your favorite dessert to eat during the holidays?’

HB: Oh, our favorite dessert, huh? Well, Lisa Burton, my very talented mother, who is the manager at Williams Sonoma, and knows everything there is to know about cooking, is a supreme maker of Christmas fudge. So, we don’t even like to call it just dessert at the Burton house, we eat it for breakfast and…

KT: Is that what’s on the counter?

HB: Yeah!

KT: Oh!

HB: [laughing] Kelly just came over this morning, and I’m like ‘Do you want some fudge? Because I already ate two pieces!’ [Hilarie and Kelly laugh] It’s breakfast, dessert, lunch, whatever! [laughs] Yeah, we love it, man!

KT: Nick, you ready?

NG: I like when people get their just dessert.

KT: Ouch!

HB: [laughing] Coal in their stocking?

NG: But I like pumpkin cheesecake, even though that’s a little bit more Thanksgiving oriented, but I love pumpkin cheesecake.

KT: All right. Mine is more a traditional dessert. We actually spend the holidays with some really good friends in upstate New York, and plum pudding is the holiday treat.

HB: I don’t think I’ve ever had plum pudding!

NG: I’ve never had it either.

KT: It’s an ordeal. I mean, it’s not, like, a simple thing that you go out and buy in a store.

NG: Does it actually have plums in it?

KT: It has dried fruit in it, and every month… you use, like, a batch, kind of like a starter kit. So, you keep that out for the next year, and every month, you pour in, like, a shot of whiskey.

HB: Wait, so you work on it all year long?

KT: All year long.

DG: Wow.

KT: Yeah, it sits in a cool, dark place…

NG: Are you making this?

KT: Actually, my friends do, and it’s a holiday tradition that was handed down by her mother who just died a few years ago. She was about 91, and she would make it religiously, every year. By the time that Christmas comes around, you know, it tastes like Bourbon or whatever whiskey they decided to use.

HB: [laughs] I’m so curious!

KT: So, you know, you pull it out and you bake it, and then, you know, steam it, actually.

HB: Where do you… but how do you keep it?

KT: Because it’s dried preservatives…

HB: Oh…

KT: It’s, you know, it’s good. It stays good.

HB: Wow.

KT: And the terrifying part, of course, is when you bring it to the table, you pour brandy all over it, and you hit a match to it. And it just [fire starting sound] and it’s just a beautiful blue flame.

HB: That sounds, like, really majestic, Kelly! God! [laughs] All right, you win that round!

KT: I’m looking forward to that dessert!

HB: Yeah, that sounds fun! [Kelly laughs] We love fire!

KT: Yeah! [laughs]

HB: [laughing] Nick and I will be in the kitchen…

NG: We’ll see what happens.

DG: We want a Twitpic of that, Kelly!

KT: Okay! I’ll do it!

HB: Yeah, that sounds awesome!

KT: I’ll do it.

DG: I want to see that. All right, we’re going to go on to our list of questions, and we’re going to have a little fun here. Thanks for the question, Alexandra A, and we’ll be getting out that SoGoPro Swag Bag to you and so our first question to all of you guys, since you’re a production company and into movies and creating different project, we gotta ask this question: ‘What is the holiday film that you must watch or it’s not Christmas or your holiday season?’

HB: I always start off. Nick, you go first.

NG: You know, I don’t really have one. I think ‘Brokeback Mountain’ is a new holiday favorite. [Hilarie bursts out laughing]

HB: [still laughing] That is so messed up!

NG: You know what’s good, though? That Garfield… ‘The Garfield Christmas.’ You know, Hilarie and I were just talking about the other day that we really don’t like ‘The Charlie Brown…’

HB: Oh, no.

KT: Oh, I hate ‘The Charlie Brown Christmas.’

NG: Useless.

HB: No, I don’t like it! It’s so… [disgusted noise]. They’re nerds.

NG: But I like that Garfield one. There’s a, you know, craggity, curmudgeon version of a grandma in there, and that’s a good one.

HB: ‘Family Circle’… or

KT: ‘Family Circus.’

NG: [laughing] ‘The Family Circus Christmas Special’?

HB: Yeah! That one’s a good one!

NG: Is it just one panel? [everyone laughs]

HB: No, it’s, like, a whole movie!

KT: I didn’t know there was one.

HB: Yeah, it’s really good! No, our favorite at the Burton house… it’s not even a Christmas movie. Every single year during the holidays we watch the PBS 10^th anniversary special of ‘Les Mis.’ So, it’s not even, like, a video of the production. It’s just, like, the best actors that ever did ‘Les Mis’ standing up singing all the songs, and, you know, all my brothers wanted to be Jean Valjean, [laughs] and my dad thinks he’s Jalvert, and you know, we’ve gone to see it at the national theatre in D.C., but yeah, the Burton family just loves some musical theatre at Christmas time, especially if it’s about, you know, a French Revolution! [laughs] Nothing says Christmas like a little bloody battle! [laughs]

KT: I’m more a traditionalist. ‘A Wonderful Life’ I have to watch. I’m sorry, but I do.

HB: That’s a beautiful film!

KT: It’s a beautiful film. Jimmy Stewart and, of course, one of the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen on the silver screen is Donna Reed. So, I get into it and I probably buy it every other year because I somehow…

NG: Lose it?

KT: Yeah.

HB: Somebody’s stealing it after everyone is drunk on that plum pudding! [Kelly laughs] You know? [evil voice] ‘I’ll take that!’

KT: George Bailey! I love that film.

DG: Do you get mad every time you see Uncle Willie go to the band and put the money in the paper?

KT: Yeah! ‘Dummy! Hey dummy! Go back and get the money!’ Oh…

HB: [laughing] Screaming at the scream?

KT: [laughs] But there’s some funny cast in that. So wonderful, so wonderful.

DG: It’s a great film.

KT: A curmudgeon steals the money. Son of a bitch.

HB: Son of a bitch! [everyone laughs] It’s, like, he’s getting riled up! You should see him right now! He’s hot around the collar just thinking about it!

DG: Well I think that leads me to my next question, which is ‘What’s your favorite holiday song?’

HB: I know what mine is. It’s my brother’s least favorite holiday song. And I think the reason I love it so much is because every time Billy hears it, he freaks out, but it’s that… who sings it? I don’t even know!

NG: I’ve never heard of it until you were singing it, like, everyday.

KT: [laughing] Everyday!

HB: What? No way, Nick! It’s that: [singing] ‘Hey Santa! Hey Santa!’ [stops singing] It’s, like, Bananarama or somebody, singing some song about Hey Santa [singing] ‘Come down my chimney tonight!’ [stops] I don’t know the words, but…

NG: You know the hook.

KT: Yeah.

HB: Billy hates it, and so yeah…

KT: I’ll be playing that tomorrow around the office. [laughs]

HB: Do it! Oh my god, please do! He’ll lose his mind!

NG: Do you have that song?

KT: No, but she will find it.

HB: I’ll find it!

KT: Yeah.

HB: I’ll definitely find it.

KT: And we’ll play it.

HB: [to Nick] What are your favorite songs?

NG: I like ‘Carol of the Bells.’ [Hilarie starts laughing]

KT: All right. Okay.

NG: [to Hilarie] Why are you laughing at that?

HB: [laughing] Because I just envision you, like… you know how, like, the bell ringers wear those little gloves?

NG: No.

HB: Have you ever seen them?

NG: No.

HB: Oh.

NG: I like when people add words to it.

HB: Really?

NG: Yeah.

HB: I don’t know if I’ve ever heard it with words.

NG: I haven’t either. [Hilarie and Kelly laugh]

HB: Okay. So is that what we’re going to be doing Christmas Eve, making up words?

NG: Making up words to ‘Carol of the Bells.’ [Hilarie and Kelly laugh] So what are these people wearing gloves for?

HB: You have to wear gloves when you ring bells so you don’t mess up the… I don’t know!

NG: The authenticity of the bell ring?

HB: Yeah, like your palms are sweaty and… [Denise laughs] We had to be in bell choir when we were growing up in church. My brothers and I were in it and it was the most boring thing ever because you wait five minutes through a whole song just to ring your one bell.

NG: Yeah, but I think that’s… I mean, that’s really precise

HB: [laughing] Yeah, it’s… [makes bell noises]

NG: I like precision.

HB: Yeah, all right. Like, The Transiberian Orchestra?

KT: That’s…

HB: Is that your favorite?

KT: Yeah! ‘Old City Bar!’ That’s, like, my favorite holiday song!

NG: Never even heard of it.

KT: Well…

HB: Transiberian Orchestra?

KT: [to Nick] You’ve never heard of it?

HB: Oh, dude… They’re supreme. They do, like, laser light shows and play, like, rock-and-roll Christmas orchestra music.

NG: Oh, awesome!

KT: And they go on tour! Like, all over the country. It’s kind of fun.

HB: Yeah! And they have long hair and they look like rock-stars but they are playing, like, classical music. I like that gimmick.

DG: I feel like you guys are going to get off of this and play music for each other.

HB: Yeah! ‘Dude, listen to this! Check this out!’

DG: I liked this one. ‘What was your favorite gift as a child?’

HB: Nick?

KT: Oh, here we go. Oh no. [Hilarie and Kelly start laughing]

NG: Uh…

HB: Was it that time you got a pony?

NG: [sarcastically] Yeah!... My favorite gift I received as a child…

HB: I got a broken arm in fifth grade on Christmas morning.

NG: That is a good gift.

HB: Well, Billy got roller blades and I didn’t. So, we had the same size shoe and, in fifth grade, I put his roller blades on in the kitchen to just, like, I don’t know, scope out the situation, and I was roller blading… Not, like, I hadn’t even moved away from the counter. I had the elbow pads on, the knee pads on, the only think I didn’t have were those stupid wrist guards, and I totally broke my arm and nobody believed me so I had to sit there with a broken arm for a couple hours. They just thought I was being dramatic! [Kelly laughs] But when it swelled up, my dad was like, ‘Oh, damn it! Okay.’ So, I made a sling out of a red scarf, and my dad and I hung out in the hospital all day, and I got a really sweet cast for Christmas.

NG: Was it green?

HB: No, it was actually… I was really mad because those were during my goth days. I had been doing high school theatre when I was in fifth grade, so I hung out with all the goth teenagers, and I dressed all in black, and when they gave me my cast, it was, like, this stupid floral, neon, you know, like… it had flowers and crap on it. It had pastels and neon and I was, like, ‘This does not go with any of my black turtlenecks!’ [laughing] It was terrible! I was so mad! It was horrible!

KT: Cut it off early?

HB: No, listen, the first chance I got, I went and got a cast in, you know, the coolest thing I could get which was just plain blue, but my dad still has that stupid flower cast sitting in his garage, I think. [everyone laughs] It’s really funny! Yeah, so, broken arm. Top that, boys!

KT: Yeah, I’ll be number two. That’s pretty good.

NG: I have memory loss. I don’t know.

HB: Yeah, after you got electrocuted the other night, you can’t remember anything.

KT: Yeah.

HB: That was a pretty good Christmas gift!

NG: Yeah, getting electrocuted.

KT: I think mine was… my father built, or made, for me, a musket. A toy musket.

HB: Wow! Cool!

KT: He made it all, you know, he cut the metal out and the wood stock and everything.

HB: That’s awesome!

KT: And he put a plate on it, but this was the kicker. He spelled my name wrong. [Hilarie laughs] He put an ‘e’ in there! ‘K-e-l-l-e-y’

HB: Aw, that’s sweet!

KT: I was like… you know, what do you say?

HB: ‘Oh, thanks dad!’

KT: All this time, he had the wrong spelling of my name! [laughs]

HB: That’s the other family, you know?

KT: Yeah.

HB: If I just name all the kids the same names in both families… [Kelly laughs] Your dad had a secret life!

KT: He must of.

HB: That’s really cool!

KT: The musket’s cool. I’ve had that for a long, long time.

NG: Yeah.

HB: That’s awesome.

NG: Did you shoot and stab somebody with it?

KT: No.

HB: He had to throw it in the river. [Kelly laughs] ‘God, I’d really hate to let this go, but it’s evidence.’ [laughs]

DG: Hilarie, I think you, kind of, have already alluded to your holiday traditions, but we’ll ask it again so we can get the guys involved, so tell me some of you guys’ holiday tradition.

HB: You know, my family has always gone… we don’t go to church on Christmas day. We go to the Christmas Eve midnight service, so we stay up super late, get all dolled up late at night, and then go to the candlelight service and it’s cool, you know? It’s midnight so you’re just hitting Christmas and then we all go home and stay up acting goofy. We’re a wild bunch, the Burton clan, and then we all spend the night at my parents house and wake up the next day and just get crazy eating fudge in the morning and drinking coffee and opening presents and so yeah, the candlelight service… that really is a beautiful thing. I usually get in trouble because I’m usually, like, laughing with one of my brothers during church. Inevitably, like, somebody farts… like an old woman in front of you and you have to pretend like you don’t notice. I found, one year, a letter my mom had written my brother, Billy, that was like ‘I’m so proud of you! Thank you so much for not acting up in church like your sister, Hilarie!’ [laughs] ‘She’s so bad…’ Blah blah blah. And when I told her I read it, she was like, ‘I never wrote that letter! That’s crazy!’ Yeah, Lisa’s a liar! [everyone laughs] So yeah, going to church, beautiful candlelight, somebody laughing, it’s good times. What about you boys?

KT: I don’t have a tradition like that.

NG: I don’t either, but I recently heard about this thing called SantaCon and it terrifies me. [Hilarie and Kelly laugh] And I’m going to make that a tradition because it’s good to do something that scares you.

HB: Well, what is it? It’s just like a bunch of Santas?

NG: I guess people just go and dress up like reindeer and do weird things.

HB: It sounds pervy!

KT: Where? Where does they do this?

NG: All over the country! We had one here this past weekend.

KT: I missed it.

HB: Yeah right you missed it, Kelly! You know Kelly was there like, ‘You weren’t there, were you? Huh? You didn’t see me, did you?’ [Kelly laughs]

NG: I think people just dress up like elves and Mrs. Claus and reindeer and Santa.

KT: Like Halloween.

DG: Well, now I have to ask: What are you guys hoping for or asking for for Christmas this year?

KT: I want warm clothes that I can ride with my bike, because it’s gotten very cold.

HB: It has gotten very cold.

KT: And things get colder, fast.

HB: [laughs] When you’re traveling at fast speeds? Lance.

KT: Yes. So that’s what I’m looking for: warm clothes.

HB: Yeah, but do you wear, like, the bike clothes that are, like, spandex with the neon stripes up the side?

KT: Yeah.

HB: Okay.

KT: I do.

HB: All right. Get you some with, like, some fleece lining?

KT: Yeah, thermal. Thermal.

HB: Okay. Good to know.

NG: It’s cold in the morning.

KT: Yeah, it was like 18 or 19 degrees Saturday morning or something like that.

HB: Gross!

KT: Yeah, it was really bad.

HB: That’s gross! We live in the South. It’s not ever supposed to be that cold.

KT: It’s not supposed to be that cold.

HB: I don’t know. Nick, what do you want for Christmas?

NG: Uh… you know… If we casted Mona Mills, that would be a good Christmas.

KT: Oh! [claps]

HB: Yeah! I was really convinced you were going to say money, because you love money.

NG: Oh, I love money! [Hilarie laughs] I don’t want to restrict that to Christmas.

HB: Yeah. That’s birthdays, Easter, St. Patrick’s Day…

NG: I will say… I’m writing a new play right now and I have some writer’s block. I would really like to figure out what the hell I’m writing about. That’d be good Christmas inspiration, just wake up…

HB: You need to go on an adventure to get rid of your writer’s block.

NG: Yeah, it’s horrible.

HB: Okay. I want… well this is going to sound totally nerdy, but…

NG: World peace?

HB: Yeah, world peace! Or a puppy! No… my brother John is in China and he’s in Shanghai teaching English. I don’t know why he’s in charge of children, because, of all my brothers, he’s the mean one, but I really… [laughs] He’s so funny in his meanness! So, I really miss John. It’s like, when all the Burtons are together we don’t have the mean one that’s picking on all of us, so yeah, I think we’ll probably just Skype him this year and have him throw insults via internet. No, John’s awesome. I really miss him. In fact, he’s like a model now for some outdoors-y magazine. While he’s been over in China, he’s been climbing mountains and stuff, and some boot company got him to, you know, take pictures wearing their outdoor gear, so my outdoors-y mean brother, yeah… it would be cool if he, like, popped out of a box. Is that what people do? [laughs] Yeah, just mail yourself. Get out of communist China. [Kelly laughs]

DG: What about New Years resolutions? Do you guys have any New Years resolutions as we close out 2009?

HB: I’m already great, so… [laughs] I feel great about me! I don’t know. Do we make those?

NG: Well, I actually made 7 last year, and 3 of them became… well, they just weren’t possible because they just weren’t necessary anymore, but I achieved all 4 others, so I’m good for four years.

KT: Wow!

HB: Yeah! Well, I said last year that I was going to quit smoking after my birthday, and we both did! Nick and I both did.

KT: Was that one of yours?

NG: No, it wasn’t!

HB: That was just an added one, so now you’re good for like…

KT: A bonus!

NG: I’m good for 5 years.

HB: That’s incredible!

NG: I’d like to lose 10 pounds.

HB: [laughing] You are such a dork!

NG: There is this, like, mirco-lipo you can do. You go in… [Hilarie and Kelly laugh] and same day, you’re out of there!

HB: You want Stackhouse abs! [everyone laughs] No, New Years Resolution… I’ve got to get better at turning in my blogs! Kelly’s always like, ‘You can handle Friday, right?’ and I’m like, ‘ yeah! Friday! That’s one day a week! I’ve got that!’ [Kelly laughs] But you know, so much happens in between Friday to Friday that it gets really, really hard!

KT: I’ve already got a good one!

HB: Yeah! Kelly’s happy now! Merry Christmas! So what’s yours?

KT: I don’t know. I never fulfill mine.

NG: Then you don’t have to make one.

KT: There you go.

HB: Yeah! You can just say, ‘I’m pretty damn great as it is!’

NG: If you just achieve things all the time, you don’t need to do it. [Kelly and Hilarie laugh]

HB: Nope, once a year! Once a year I’m doing it!

KT: SoGoPro. That’s my goal.

HB: Yeah, man!

DG: Well closing out of the year also brings us to kind of an anniversary for you guys at Southern Gothic Productions. I know you have been working on this country for a while now, but with the launch of your blog this past January and letting people know, kind of, about what you are doing, I myself kind of feel like it’s a one-year anniversary coming up!

HB: Are you going to buy us a present?

DG: I’m the present!

HB: Oh, yes! Naturally. [Denise laughs] Yeah, I mean, the only reason we have anniversaries or birthdays is to get presents, so…

KT: Yeah, gifts.

HB: If anybody wants to give us money for ‘Pedestrian,’ or…

KT: Step up!

HB: Yeah! [laughs] Or anything like that, that would be awesome! No, I mean, we’ve had a fun year. We’ve learned a lot this year and we’ve got a big community that we’re teamed up with, and it’s been a very productive year. We’ve got a lot to be grateful for now that this year is wrapping up. So, looking forward to next year! 2010! That’s going to be our year.

KT: It is.

HB: What was your favorite part of this decade of this century? Of the 2000s not that it’s wrapping up.

NG: Oh, ‘Lost’! [Hilarie laughs] It’s a great show!

HB: Yeah! [laughs] It’s a valuable asset to the decade!

NG: Yeah, I think so! Six seasons. Closing off this year! Whew!

HB: Yeah, and the world didn’t end at Y2K!

NG: Well that’s because, really, it’s going to end 2012. Yeah, well, I think, like, it’s 10 years behind, according to some other calendar, so I think, really, it’s going to be ending in about 30 days. Nobody’s prepared.

HB: That’s cool. I don’t want to be prepared.

KT: No. Me either.

DG: Yeah, it’s always nice to pause for a minute and just have a little fun. I know that everybody loves to hear you guys just kind of converse with each other, and it’s always a  pleasure to have you guys on the podcast, and for me it’s been a true honor to spend the last six or seven months with you guys and hopefully we’ll continue into the next year.

KT: We will!

HB: Yay! Happy Christmas! Happy holidays! Happy New Years!

KT: Happy New Years!

NG: Mazel Tov!

KT: Thank you, Denise!

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