Greater Boston · Alexander Danner & Jeff Van Dreason

Presenting: Christmas Diner

December 16, 2025·25 min·2 clips

Buster climbs on a table with a gun, shouting 'Merry Christmas, motherfuckers' as he takes the diner hostage.

The episode opens with Greater Boston's host introducing Christmas Diner, a holiday satire from Jeremy Ellett of Good Point Productions. The first act follows Buster as a child being sent by his father to leave Yule Must for the Tomta, a Scandinavian folk creature represented by a carved gnome figure near the diner's stairs. His father insists the tradition is what protects their family. The Tomta appears to blink when young Buster sets down the offering. The second act introduces Holly and Alex, a couple sitting in a mall parking lot on Christmas morning waiting for a call from an adoption agency. Their prospective birth mother gave birth overnight and has 24 hours to decide whether to sign the paperwork. The couple's anxiety is rendered through Holly's narration and the detail of Alex checking his phone every few seconds. They stop at the Golden Griddle diner because everywhere else is closed. Inside, Kathy the diner owner works the kitchen alone after her employee Gary called in sick. Her waiter Reggie works the floor, and Kathy insists smiles are mandatory. A social media influencer named Erica sets up a tripod to film content and tries to get Reggie to fall on camera for the algorithm. A wealthy man named Douglas arrives in a Rolls Royce, parks across four spots, and interrogates Reggie about the denominational status of the silverware before ordering a Bottomless Lumberjack. Adult Buster sits alone in a booth wearing plush antlers. When he asks for the Swedish Yule Board with Yule Must — a tradition he has kept every Christmas — Reggie checks with Kathy, who says they have never and will never serve Swedish food. Buster accepts this calmly, walks out, retrieves a handgun from his car, returns, climbs on a table, and politely demands the Yule Board again at gunpoint. Douglas makes for the door and is stopped. Erica livestreams the whole thing. The episode ends with the hostage situation just beginning.

As heard by us

A Christmas hostage story that keeps diner banter and folklore in the same uneasy room.

Christmas Diner treats the holiday diner like a place where small annoyances and real danger sit at the same table. Reggie and Kathy's back and forth has the feel of an actual shift, and Buster's Tomta fixation gives the story a stranger, older edge.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

A Christmas shift at the open-all-hours Golden Griddle turns into a hostage standoff, while Alex and Holly wait on the call they think will change everything.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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