Instruments and orchestration that feel Christmassy

It’s that time of year when we gather together with friends from near and far, indulge in seasonal treats, and take a lighthearted look at the stories that are rounding out these past 12 wild months. It’s our annual Christmas extravaganza (🎄🎁🧑‍🎄✨ etc)! And in case you weren’t able to attend the party live over Zoom, not to worry – there’s plenty of revelry to be had in this episode.

This week we discuss two of the lighter news items to cross our messy Q4 desks: the fact that Denmark’s national postal service, PostNord, will soon cease to send letters or postcards, and the rather awkward saga surrounding a statue of opera legend Luciano Pavarotti that has been encased in an ice rink. Then we catch up with Jim Barne, a musician who made his name composing the theme music for a little podcast called The Europeans (wink, blush) and has just opened a smash-hit Broadway show, Two Strangers (Carry A Cake Across New York). Jim and his Two Strangers co-creator, Kit Buchan, are here to answer a burning question of Dominic’s: what is it, exactly, that makes Christmas music so Christmasy?

In the spirit of the holidays, here’s something a little more serious: sometimes it’s hard to believe that an independent podcast like ours has been able to find so many wonderful listeners across the world who have made it possible for us to keep going and growing over the years. You can hear a bit about how far we’ve come over the course of 2025 in this episode. But suffice to say, your generosity is an enormous gift that we don’t take lightly. Thank you.

If you don’t yet support the podcast but you’d like to help us keep making it, you can chip in to help us cover our production costs at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/europeanspodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (in many different currencies). Or you can gift a donation to a superfan this Christmas! We'd also love it if you could tell two friends about The Europeans. We think two feels like a reasonable number.

This week’s Inspiration Station recommendations came from listeners! Attila recommended the recent Catalan film Molt lluny (Away), Anna loved the book When the Cranes Fly South by Swedish author Lisa Ridzén, and Stephen plugged Simon Kuper’s memoir Impossible City: Paris in the Twenty-First Century.

Watch Christiani Pitts and Sam Tutty performing ‘Under the Mistletoe’ here.

Our final newsletter of 2025 will be out tomorrow. Click here to get it in your inbox. 

Produced by Morgan Childs and Wojciech Oleksiak
Mixing and mastering by Wojciech Oleksiak
Music by Jim Barne and Mariska Martina

00:00  Light on the carp, heavy on the Lithuanian liquor
05:01  Good Christmas: Danish memorabilia collectors
15:22  Bad Christmas: An operatic ice rink blunder
22:52  The state of The Europeans' finances in December 2025
28:35  Interview: Jim Barne and Kit Buchan on the secrets of Christmas song-writing
46:46  The Inspiration Station: 'Molt lluny (Away)', 'When the Cranes Fly South' and 'Impossible City'
50:43  Happy Ending: Owls livin' it large in Spain

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