Christmas Special 2025

Christmas Special 2025

From Cognitive Recalibration by Cognitive Recalibration

December 22, 2025 · 1h 7m · Episode 185

About this episode

The Cognitive Recalibration Annual Christmas Special features a humorous debate on what qualifies as a Christmas movie.

t’s that time of the year 🎄 — the Cognitive Recalibration Annual Christmas Special is back! Sravan and Tarun are joined once again by Bhaskar and Kireeti for our most chaotic, funniest, and most festive episode of the year. Each of us brings a Christmas-themed pick and puts it through our Christmas Movie Test™ to decide what really qualifies as a Christmas movie (see below). 🎬 Movies discussed this year: The Polar Express (2004) Miracle on 34th Street (1947) My Secret Santa (Netflix) Man vs. Baby (Rowan Atkinson) We debate: What actually makes a Christmas movie Nostalgia vs rewatch value Uncanny valley nightmares Santa Claus on trial in court Netflix Christmas logic Rowan Atkinson doing Rowan Atkinson things Expect hot takes, derailed plot explanations, Christmas scoring chaos , and a lot of laughter. 🎅 Let us know which one you’d watch (or rewatch) this Christmas! Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/DuxZI1h3llY ⏱️ TIMESTAMPS 00:37 – Welcome to the Christmas Special 🎄 00:44 – Christmas Movie Test explained 01:41 – Bhaskar: The Polar Express 03:10 – Christmas Movie Test scoring 04:25 – Box office, cult status & uncanny valley 06:29 – Tom Hanks & motion capture madness…

People in this episode

Hosts: Sravan, Tarun

Guests: Bhaskar, Kireeti

Topics covered

  • Christmas movies
  • movie analysis
  • nostalgia
  • humor

Keywords

  • Christmas Special
  • movie test
  • hot takes
  • laughter

Mentioned in this episode

Products: The Polar Express, Miracle on 34th Street, My Secret Santa, Man vs. Baby

Books & works: The Polar Express, Miracle on 34th Street, My Secret Santa, Man vs. Baby, the Christmas Special

Places: Uncanny valley

More episodes of Cognitive Recalibration

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Cognitive Recalibration podcast page.