Giant Nutcracker Steals the Show

Giant Nutcracker Steals the Show at Spruce Meadows’ New Enchanted Festival

Calgary, Dec 9, 2025 – If you scrolled YouTube this weekend and saw KassDays’ viral Short of a massive, glowing Nutcracker looking like he’s ready to fight the Grinch himself, you’re not alone. That epic soldier is the breakout star of Spruce Meadows’ brand-new walk-through holiday event: The Enchanted Festival.
After years of the beloved Christmas light drive-through, Spruce Meadows switched things up in 2025 for safety and a more magical vibe. Now you park once, bundle up, and wander through millions of lights, fire pits, s’mores stations, and jaw-dropping displays. Opening night (Friday, Dec 5) was packed, and KassDays perfectly captured why: that Nutcracker, decked out in a shiny red coat and boots bigger than most toddlers, lit up against the snowy sky like a scene straight out of the ballet—only ten times bigger and a million times cooler.
Tickets are only $20 for adults, $12 for kids/seniors, and the whole family gets 30% off for groups of four or more. Bonus: every ticket helps the Leg Up Foundation support local food banks and animal rescues.
You’ve still got a few weekends left (Dec 12–14 & 19–24) to see the Nutcracker flex under the stars, get lost in the indoor light maze, grab a spiked hot chocolate, or let the dog run wild in the holiday puppy park.
Grab tickets quick at sprucemeadows.com/enchanted before they sell out, and tell KassDays we said thanks for the perfect 15-second hype video. This is the new Calgary Christmas tradition you don’t want to miss. 

European Kids Joy on December 6th

Why European Kids Wake Up RICH on December 6th (and North Americans Are Still Waiting for Santa)

Move over, December 25th—there’s a sneaky little holiday that’s been dropping presents TWO WEEKS early across half of Europe, and it’s gloriously chaotic.
Meet December 6th: Saint Nicholas Day! While the rest of us are still untangling Christmas lights and stress-eating advent chocolate, kids in Germany, Austria, Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, and beyond are waking up to boots and shoes STUFFED with candy, oranges, chocolate coins, and little gifts. Yes, actual presents. On the 6th. Santa’s basically doing a warm-up lap.
Here’s the deal: the night of December 5th, kids scrub their boots (or sneakers, no judgment) sparkling clean and leave them by the door or fireplace. Saint Nick—real beard, real bishop vibes, zero reindeer (he’s got a horse or sometimes just walks like a boss)—sneaks in with his… slightly terrifying sidekick.
In some countries that sidekick is Krampus, a horned demon who literally carries a sack for naughty kids. In the Netherlands it’s a whole squad of mischievous “Zwarte Pieten” (Black Petes) who climb roofs and chuck cookies down chimneys. Europe said “cute Santa” and then cranked the chaos to 11.Good kids = treats. Bad kids = a potato, a lump of coal, or the looming threat of Krampus yeeting you into his basket. Motivation? Crystal clear.
So while Canadian and American kids are still writing their letters to the North Pole, European kids already cashed in round one and are basically flexing on us until Christmas round two hits. Double-dipping legends.
Moral of the story? Be born in Europe… or just leave a boot out on December 5th and see what happens. Worst case, you get a potato. Best case, Saint Nick thinks you’ve been nice and you beat the Christmas rush.
Happy (early) gift-grabbing, you beautiful boot-stuffers! 
(Full 60-second explainer in the YouTube Short—go watch before Krampus finds you.)

Why Country Christmas Markets Will Forever Own My Heart

 

 

Frost on My Lashes & Magic in My Hands: Why Country Christmas Markets Will Forever Own My Heart

(a very cozy, slightly sugar-high love note from the prairies)It’s officially That Time of Year again, the one where I trade fluorescent lighting for fairy lights and parking-lot rage for gravel-crunch under my boots. Millarville’s 2025 Christmas Market has packed away its reindeer and its 300+ artisans for another year, but my soul is still wandering those heated barns, humming along to a slightly off-key fiddle and trying to decide if I really need a fourth jar of saskatoon-berry jam.(Yes. Yes I do.) If you’ve never been to a real country Christmas market, let me paint it for you with the sugar still stuck to my fingers from the mini-donut stand: You arrive, cheeks already pink from the cold. Someone greets you with a smile and a paper cup of something warm that definitely has a little “extra cheer” in it. The air smells like pine, woodsmoke, cinnamon, and fresh waffles. A kid in a snowsuit the size of a marshmallow runs past clutching a candy cane like it’s Excalibur. You buy a hand-turned wooden bowl from the guy who literally felled the tree himself. You pet an alpaca wearing a Santa hat (Granary Road, I’m looking at you). You cry a little when the high-school choir starts “O Holy Night” beside a bonfire. And you leave with bags full of treasures that have stories instead of barcodes. Compare that to the mall and… yeah, no contest.So for everyone who missed Millarville’s magic this year, here’s your official permission slip to skip the big-box chaos and head straight for the countryside. These beauties are still happening before Santa slides down the chimney: 

Market	Dates (2025)	The sugar-coated reason you need to go	Where exactly
Granary Road Christmas Market	Dec 6–7 & 13–14	Alpacas in festive attire, heated greenhouse glowing like the North Pole, tractor rides & a million lights	Foothills sparkle
Once Upon a Christmas at Heritage Park	Dec 6–7, 13–14, 20–23	Wagon rides, heritage houses decked in real greenery, the smell of woodstoves and fresh bannock	Heritage Park, Calgary
Saskatoon Farm Christmas Market	Dec 5–7	200 vendors, berry everything, fresh wreaths bigger than your head, and the coziest farm vibes on earth	De Winton (just 15 min south of Calgary)
Cochrane Christmas Farmers’ Market	Dec 13–14	Small-town hugs, hot cider, and the kind of bakers who slip an extra cookie in your bag	Spray Lake Sawmills Centre, Cochrane
Authentically Indigenous Christmas Craft Fair	Dec 5–7	Gorgeous beadwork, art, and stories that make every purchase feel sacred	The Confluence, downtown Calgary

 Put on your cutest toque, grab the biggest travel mug you own, and go fall in love with Christmas all over again. I promise the cold is worth it when you’re standing under a string of mismatched lights, snowflakes melting on your lashes, holding a gift that was made with someone’s actual hands and heart. I’ll be the one in the red coat with powdered sugar on my scarf and a Lindor wrapper in my pocket.Come find me. First hot chocolate’s on me.  — Kass (currently powered by mini donuts & pure holiday feels)Full length video here. 

Kass Drops the Ultimate Teaser Original Content

 

 

Kass Drops the Ultimate Teaser: 60 Seconds That Feel Like a Secret Handshake

In a sea of recycled dance challenges and reaction spam, one YouTube Short just quietly raised the bar for what “original content” can mean in 2025.Kass (the creator who somehow makes curiosity look effortless) just uploaded the smoothest, most addictive promo I’ve seen in months. No screaming. No text-to-speech voice. No “like and subscribe or I’ll cry” energy. Just a velvet-voiced minute that whispers: “Something real is coming. Stay close.” The video opens on a single glowing question mark pulsing against deep space, then cuts straight into Kass’s calm baritone: “What will you discover next?” From there it’s pure mood: flickering archival footage, half-lit notebooks, neon thumbnails that haven’t dropped yet, and a lo-fi beat that feels like driving through a city at 3 a.m. looking for answers. In sixty seconds flat he manages to promise hidden histories, speculative deep-dives, and stories “nobody else is telling” without ever sounding like every other hype merchant on the platform. It’s the rare teaser that leaves you leaning forward instead of reaching for the skip button. Early comments are already feral:

• “This is the first Short in weeks that made me actually subscribe.”
• “Kass, I hear you!.”
• “Finally, content for people who are tired of being yelled at by 19-year-olds.”

With YouTube Shorts now pushing 70 billion daily views, standing out is brutal. Most creators fight noise with louder noise. Kass fights it with stillness, mystery, and the quiet confidence that curious people will find him. And they are. If you’ve been doom-scrolling for something that respects your attention span instead of assaulting it, watch this one with the sound on. Then hit subscribe before the rest of the internet catches up. Kass is consistently working on upping his skills and hoping to find a home in the hearts of many.