BALTIMORE -- Merry Christmas!
As always, one of the best parts of Christmas is the Penguins' holiday video, which dropped earlier this week.
While the holiday videos typically recreate one holiday movie, this one took a different approach. If you ask me the three stars of the video are Kasperi Kapanen, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang.
The players couldn't agree on a favorite holiday movie... so we decided to make them all. Happy holidays, Penguins fans! pic.twitter.com/P9NUb5hM02
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) December 23, 2021
Brian Dumoulin -- who first said wine when I asked him what his favorite Thanksgiving food was earlier this season -- topped his tree in a predictable way:
Kapanen's mom and sisters were in town. I'm pretty sure a couple of those heart-shaped cookies in the last slide got turned into butts. Why Letang's number got painted on one isn't clear:
Sam Lafferty and John Marino prepared for the holidays by decorating gingerbread houses. Marino had a rough time:
You may call it ugly... We call it 𝒂𝒃𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒕 𝒆𝒙𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒊𝒔𝒎.
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) December 21, 2021
Congratulations to our second Bold Penguin Challenge winner: @SamLafferty18! pic.twitter.com/7xgWNPrXQ6
Earlier in the week the Penguins asked players to name their favorite Christmas movie, with Home Alone being declared the winner. Shoutout to Lafferty for choosing Love, Actually. I also feel like Kapanen's answer was super predictable:
What’s the best Christmas movie? 🎄 pic.twitter.com/j8YeOutcAk
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) December 21, 2021
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton asked its players the same question, with far more players choosing Elf:
What is your favorite Christmas movie? 🎄🧝 pic.twitter.com/bjkWf1oXk4
— WBS Penguins (@WBSPenguins) December 15, 2021
Wilkes-Barre did a number of fun videos like that leading up to Christmas, like this one of players talking about weird or good gifts they've received:
What is the best or funniest gift you've ever given or received? We got some funny answers on this one 😂 pic.twitter.com/jkmc8ym2oc
— WBS Penguins (@WBSPenguins) December 22, 2021
A couple of gingerbread fans down in Wilkes-Barre:
The Christmas favorite continue... what is your favorite Christmas dessert/cookie? 🍪 pic.twitter.com/PK8LnU0VBc
— WBS Penguins (@WBSPenguins) December 20, 2021
"The guy with the red nose:"
Our attempt at naming all of the Reindeer ... Who thinks they could say Rudolph in Finnish? 🦌 pic.twitter.com/6RJ3j9gWM2
— WBS Penguins (@WBSPenguins) December 17, 2021
A lot of Mariah Carey and Michael Buble fans:
What is your Christmas song? 🤔 Which player do you think really sings their favorite song?🎄🎶 pic.twitter.com/iarxQbDwjA
— WBS Penguins (@WBSPenguins) December 17, 2021
Players were also asked to choose a teammate most like Santa and most like the Grinch, and Matt Bartkowski somehow was one of the top answers for both, probably because he's the oldest guy on the team at 33:
If you had to pick, who on the team is the Grinch and who is Santa? 🎅🎄 pic.twitter.com/SHlloD1gP8
— WBS Penguins (@WBSPenguins) December 19, 2021
(Bartkowski is actually tied for the oldest guy on the team with Taylor Fedun. Like, same birthday and everything. Weird.)
Wilkes-Barre also did a fun series asking four players from different countries about their holiday traditions:
Christmas traditions in Sweden! Filip Hallander tells us about his Christmas traditions in Sweden and how he will continue them with his own family! 🇸🇪🎄 pic.twitter.com/3xI7ASgWts
— WBS Penguins (@WBSPenguins) December 24, 2021
Kasper Bjorkqvist tells us about his Christmas traditions in Finland! Watch until the end to see one of his Christmas memories growing up! 🇫🇮🎅 pic.twitter.com/LI5vApNqkp
— WBS Penguins (@WBSPenguins) December 24, 2021
Christmas Traditions around the world! Radim Zohorna tells us about his Christmas traditions growing up in the Czech Republic! 🇨🇿🎄 pic.twitter.com/vg3cuhzi3k
— WBS Penguins (@WBSPenguins) December 21, 2021
Christmas Traditions around the world! P.O Joseph tells us about his family's Christmas Traditions growing up in Quebec, Canada!🎄 pic.twitter.com/aAbPcL2HvA
— WBS Penguins (@WBSPenguins) December 18, 2021
With the MLB in a lockout, the Pirates weren't able to produce any fun holiday videos, because teams aren't permitted to use a player's image or likeness during the lockout. But there's plenty to share from the Steelers.
JuJu Smith-Schuster sat down and interviewed some teammates about their own holiday traditions. The Watt brothers were great.
These guys 🤣@DerekWatt34 | @_TJWatt | Full 🎥: https://t.co/BO4FwlEX7R pic.twitter.com/z30KhOWVcB
— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) December 24, 2021
He got a couple of players to sing, too:
Come to hear how our players celebrate #Christmas 🎄
— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) December 24, 2021
Stay to hear them sing 🎶@Windows | @TeamJuJu | #GoodJuJu pic.twitter.com/wmZuRgOpmk
More players talked about their favorite Christmas movies:
My favorite #Christmas movie is __________. pic.twitter.com/9XlgzpoNx2
— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) December 24, 2021
There was also this moment from Najee Harris' media availability in which he talked about Cam Heyward buying him a Christmas tree:
.@CamHeyward is doing what needs to be done to get @ohthatsNajee22
— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) December 24, 2021
in the holiday spirit 🎄 pic.twitter.com/lApIdfJGtD
I'll keep this file updated with any more fun Christmas posts from the day!