Christmas 2024: Episode 22

​Listen to the Christmas in Wyoming 2024 episode here, or search for Wyoming My 307 wherever you listen to podcasts. ​

Merry Christmas to you! I hope it’s filled with love and music, and that 2025 brings you all the best. This third Christmas episode really leans into the music and poetry of the season. In it I share a scene from a classic Western Christmas story, some vintage audio from a 1987 Wheatland WY radio show, a Christmas poem I wrangled off the internet, as well as contemporary music by a young Mennonite choir in my community. 


For more Owen Wister, check out the full audio version of A Journey in Search of Christmas. 



Learn more about Peggy Anderson-Simson “a renowned Wyoming native writer, scholar, educator, and a loving wife and mother. She is most famous throughout Colorado and Wyoming for being a historic poet, fiction writer, novelist, and an English teacher at Casper College for over 25 years. She grew up in the West roping and riding on a small ranch in Colorado, and then Wyoming. Her childhood growing up on a ranch inspired her to write incredible stories and she made an entire career out of writing unique characters into pictures of the west from early 1950 to 1987. Peggy’s crowning achievement, and what she’s known best for, is being named Wyoming’s First Poet Laureate in January 1980-1981 by Wyoming Governor Ed Herschler, who was a personal fan of Curry’s work in Wyoming.” From the Peggy Simson Curry Papers.  Enjoy the 1983 Wheatland WY radio show where Kevin Utter with Peggy Simson Curry was a guest. 

Peggy Simson Curry, first Poet Laureate of WY

I’ve been playing with Chat GPT, an Artificial Intelligence platform and was curious whether it could write a poem about the holiness of deep winter in Wyoming. I tweaked the “poem” a little, but found the whole process quite satisfying!

The snow lies thick on the hills,
its weight soft as a whisper,
silencing the world

The pines hold their breath,
Branches cradling the stillness,
while the wind
weaves hymns through the valley.

Holiness feels like this—
A quiet presence,
settling softly into the soul.

​T​he biggest gift you could give me is to share this episode. For more Christmas Spirit check out the 2023 and 2022 Christmas episodes! Stay in touch on Instagram, Facebook, Threads and email​; at WyomingMy307 on the socials, and wyomingmy307@gmail.com.

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