‘Billie the Brownie’ is back for the 2026 Christmas holidays

It’s never too early to get in the Christmas spirit. Here goes:

A Wagnabbit post from December 2025 traveled all the way to Oxnard, Calif.

I was delighted to hear from a reader living there who said she enjoyed a Christmas season column about “Billie the Brownie.” 

Her name was Doris, and she graciously provided a treasure chest of additional information about the fictional character…who was created about 100 years ago.

We’ll get there…but first, here is a modified version of the original column that ran on Dec. 20, 2025…to reset the stage.

 

Folks need to know this story, because Billie the Brownie is already memorialized in the “National Bobblehead Hall of Fame,” located in Milwaukee, Wis., alongside iconic holiday season figures like The Grinch, Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Ebenezer Scrooge.

 

Billie the Brownie was created as a holiday season mascot to help sell toys at Schuster’s Department Store in Milwaukee in the early 1920s. He was “inspired” by the literary characters from the stories of Canadian author and poet Palmer Cox.

 

Cox’s “brownies” were wee creatures who originated during the Victorian era within the British Isles. Cox’s grandmother told him Scottish folk tales about the “mischievous but invisible little people” with special talents. Cox wrote his first brownie story – “The Brownies’ Ride” – in 1883 for St. Nicholas Magazine, a monthly children’s publication.

 

Ed Schuster, a German immigrant, also arrived in Milwaukee in 1883 and began to build the Schuster’s chain of department stores.

Schuster’s advertising/marketing department created Billie the Brownie to build even more awareness for the Schuster’s brand. The character evolved from a sprite to a pixie to an elf-like being. 

By 1927, Billie the Brownie was featured in Schuster’s annual Christmas Parade in downtown Milwaukee.

Beginning in 1931, Billie joined Santa on a 15-minute radio program that aired weekdays on WTMJ at 5 p.m. and on Sunday mornings. 

This print ad contains a typo. The Sunday show came on at 10:30 a.m.

They talked about the upcoming holiday, told Christmas tales, discussed yuletide traditions and read letters from children to Santa.

Dave Begel, a former newspaper reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, remembered growing up in the 1950s. He said: “There was no Christmas tradition that could match Billie the Brownie.”

 

Begel said that Billie and Santa always chatted a bit about whether the boys and girls listening had been good. Santa would comment about how work was progressing inside the toy workshop at the North Pole.

“Then came the biggest thing,” Begel said, “Billie reading letters to Santa sent by children from all over the area.” There were thousands and thousands of letters to pick from.

Begel and his younger brother Danny sat on the floor in front of the radio, listening carefully, while their grandmother watched over them.

“The first time I actually sent a letter, I asked for my own record player. That year the magic took on a new dimension,” Begel wrote. 

One day, Billie said, “Our first letter is from little David Begel in Whitefish Bay. David says he’s been a good boy and would like a record player.”

“It was like a bomb going off in our house,” Begel said. “On my feet, I was hollering at the top of my lungs. I couldn’t wait for my mom and dad to get home so I could tell them.”

As it turned out, Dave Begel was tagged as “the luckiest kid in the Milwaukee area at Christmastime. 

For some reason, each and every year, his letter to Santa Claus was the first one selected to be read on the radio by Billie the Brownie, and brother Danny’s was always second.

That’s the way it went for about seven years. “My friends were very jealous,” Begel said.

“When I was 10 or 11, my mom told us one night that she wanted to talk to me and my brother. I remember this so vividly, it’s like it happened yesterday. ‘Boys,’ she said, ‘I have something to tell you.’”

“She closed her eyes for a second, and I could see her swallow. She opened her eyes and looked at the two of us,” and said: ‘I am Billie the Brownie.’”

“It explained how my letter got read first every year,” Begel said. “It explained why my mom disappeared every afternoon and left us in the custody of our grandmother. It explained why mom and dad helped us write our letters to Santa well before Christmas.”

“And I remember being amazed at my mother, whose name was Carol Cotter,” Begel wrote. “I’m sure lots of little boys are amazed by their mothers. But Danny and I are the only ones who had Billie the Brownie for a mother.”

It’s true, Carol Cotter worked in radio. She was performing as “a magician’s assistant” in Chicago when she was “discovered.” 

She had an uncanny ability to mimic a child’s high-pitched voice, and this is what enabled her to break into broadcasting, voicing children’s parts on radio soap operas.

After Cotter moved to Milwaukee, her skill landed her a job that attracted thousands of fans – including her own children – who never knew her name. Cotter was the voice of Billie the Brownie for seven years.

She was there for the final show, on Christmas Eve in 1955.

There were other Billie “voice actors” who preceded Cotter, but she had the longest tenure.

 

Her “next career” was as a television producer who specialized in documentaries. 

She died on Nov. 8, 2011, the 80-year anniversary of very first Billie the Brownie radio show. Cotter was 92.

Her elder son Dave Begel died earlier this year at age 82.

 

Dave Begel's high school senior photo.

We don’t know for sure if Santa brought that record player to young Dave all those many years ago, but Dave did love music and had a great memory for song lyrics. 

Begel was part of a local rock’n’roll band, Granite, playing his a guitar and serving as lead vocalist.

 

“He liked to entertain, he liked to inform,” said brother Dan Begel. “He liked to plumb the world for information.”

As for Billie the Brownie, the rights to the character were acquired by Gimbels department store when it merged with Schuster’s in 1962. Several attempts to revive the character failed to gain traction in the 1960s and ‘70s.

In 1984, Gimbels donated its Billie the Brownie collection to the Milwaukee County Historical Society.

“Every year, people called or visited to ask about Billie the Brownie,” said Mame McCully, who formerly served as the historical society’s executive director. “He was and always will be a part of the magic of Christmas in Milwaukee. He was in the hearts of so many children, and they have passed on those stories from generation to generation.”

 

Indeed they have. In 2006, Jim Peck, a veteran Milwaukee broadcast journalist, hosted a special “I Remember” documentary for PBS on the 75th anniversary of Billie’s first radio broadcast. It’s a treat and available on PBS YouTube.

Finally, the World Series ‘plays ball’

Who are you picking in baseball’s World Series – the Milwaukee Brewers or the Tampa Bay Rays?

 

It should be a barnburner, as Major League Baseball’s two best teams this year have survived the early playoff rounds.

The best-of-seven championship round started Oct. 23. If the series goes the distance, Game 7 is slated for Saturday, Oct. 31 – Halloween. 

(FYI: The latest date that any World Series has ended was Nov. 5, 2022, when the Houston Astros topped the Philadelphia Phillies in six games.)

This a crazy time of year, with the end of Daylight Saving Time looming on Sunday, Nov. 1. All at the same time, we have professional sports going on in all four major sports – baseball, football, hockey and basketball.

Here’s what you need to know about the World Series.

 

In 2026, the Brewers, as National League champions, get the home field advantage to potentially host four games, because Milwaukee had the better record, 103-59, compared the 98-64 record posted by Tampa Bay in the American League.

 

The home park of the Milwaukee Brewers is American Family Field (formerly known as Miller Park) in Milwaukee. It has a seating capacity of 41,900.

Tampa Bay’s home park is Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, which can accommodate 31,042 spectators.

What makes this year’s World Series extra special is that neither the Brewers nor the Rays has ever won the World Series.

Founded in 1970, the Brewers have appeared in the World Series just once. 

In 1982, Milwaukee lost to the St. Louis Cardinals, 4 games to 3.

In the beginning, the Milwaukee Brewers (formerly the Seattle Pilots) were placed in the American League. 

The team was switched to the National League, however, in 1998 to balance out the composition of the two leagues.

The move was prompted, in part, due to the expansion of Major League Baseball…and the decision to award a new franchise to Tampa Bay, also in 1998.

(This realignment is rare. In the modern era of MLB, only two franchises have switched leagues. The other team to do it was the Houston Astros, moving from the National League to the American League in 2013.)

For the first 10 seasons, Tampa Bay’s nickname was the Devil Rays. New ownership in 2008 brought a rebranding to just call ‘em the Rays, with the focus shifting to rays of sunshine (in the “Sunshine State”), while still keeping a small stingray image to honor the team’s history.

The Rays have played twice in the World Series, losing both times – in 2008 to the Philadelphia Phillies (4 games to 1) and in 2020 to the Los Angeles Dodgers (4 games to 2).

The only holdover from that 2020 Rays squad still on the team roster is Yandy Díaz; he is listed primarily as the designated hitter. 

Díaz is one of the team’s offensive leaders, along with Junior Caminero, the regular third baseman. 

On the mound, Drew Rasmussen is the ace of the Rays’ pitching corps.

The premier hitters on the 2026 Brewers’ team are Andrew Vaughn (shown above), the first baseman, and Jackson Chourio (shown below), who usually plays leftfield, but the team has a lot of firepower through the entire lineup. 

Milwaukee’s pitching rotation is anchored by Jacob Misiorowski.

 

Two players in the MLB Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., spent a portion of their careers in Tampa Bay. They are Wade Boggs and Fred McGriff.

Milwaukee’s long history as a “great baseball town” was rewarded in 1953, when the Boston Braves became the Milwaukee Braves.

Playing in the National League, the Milwaukee club won the World Series in 1957, defeating the New York Yankees (4 games to 3). 

The two squads faced off again in the 1958 World Series, but the Yankees prevailed that year (4 games to 3).

Management accepted lucrative incentives to move the Braves franchise from Milwaukee to Atlanta in 1966.

Five MLB Hall of Famers spent time with the Milwaukee Braves: They are Hank Aaron, Eddie Mathews, Warren Spahn, Red Schoendienst and Enos Slaughter.

 

Warren Spahn

Since professional baseball returned to Milwaukee, when the Brewers were established in 1970, nine players have been inducted into the MLB Hall of Fame. They are: Hank Aaron (again), Rollie Fingers, Trevor Hoffman, Paul Molitor, Dave Parker, CC Sabathia, Ted Simmons, Don Sutton and Robin Yount (shown below).

 

So, the difference-maker in this year’s World Series, in my humble opinion, is going to be “the spirit of late and great Bob Uecker.” He was regarded by many as “Mr. Milwaukee.”

Uecker died in 2025 at age 90, after a “baseball career” that spanned more than seven decades, first as a professional player and then as a broadcaster.

 

Bob Uecker came up as a catcher, managing to land a contract with his hometown team, the Milwaukee Braves. He was called up from the minor leagues by the Braves in 1962 as the third-string catcher behind Joe Torre and Del Crandell.

 

In all, Uecker spent six years in the majors (from 1962-67), but it was his charisma, sense of humor and wit that led him into the radio broadcasting booth in 1971. He quickly became a beloved announcer for the Milwaukee Brewers. 

His career behind the microphone spanned 54 seasons, next to the longest all time (after Denny Matthews, broadcaster with the Kansas City Royals, who started in 1969 and is still active).

Uecker boasted about his .200 career batting average, putting him on par with the legendary Don Carter, who averaged 200 over a 10-year period. Carter was a bowler.

With the Atlanta Braves in 1967, Uecker was the personal catcher for knuckleball pitcher Phil Niekro. “I was more like the personal chaser,” Uecker said. “I set a major league record for 27 passed balls in 1967.” (Niekro was responsible for 25 of them.)

Uecker joked that the only sure way to “catch” a Niekro knuckleball was “to just wait until it stopped rolling and pick it up.”

As a spokesperson for Milwaukee’s own Miller Lite beer. he was featured in tons of commercials in the 1970s and ’80s. In one commercial, Uecker was seen preparing to watch a baseball game when an usher informs him that he is in the wrong seat. Uecker pompously remarks, “I must be in the front row.”

Uecker’s seat was actually in the nosebleed section. Today, there is a section of $1 seating called the “Uecker seats” in Milwaukee’s ballpark, referencing where Uecker sat in the Miller Lite commercials. 

These seats in Section 422 have an “obstructed view” (in the upper grandstand above home plate). 

It is here where the Brewers decided in 2014 to put a statue of Uecker in the very last row.

 

Statue designer Brian Maughan…included an extra seat next to the seated Uecker. The idea was that fans who made a donation to the Brewers Community Foundation or the Make A Wish Foundation would get to take their picture made alongside the likeness of Uecker.”

 If you listen real closely, you can hear Uecker’s voice raining down on the home plate umpire: “He missed the tag! He missed the tag!”

Linus waits for ‘the Great Pumpkin’ in Floydada, Texas

Linus Van Pelt, the “Peanuts” comic strip character who is “a great believer,” has traveled to Floydada, Texas, to camp out in hopes that “the Great Pumpkin” will appear at the iconic Assiter Punkin Ranch this year.

 

For many families, the big red Assiter barn and grounds are an autumn destination. The place is buzzing during October with people buying various kinds and sizes of pumpkins, while children enjoy a petting zoo, train rides, hayrides and other activities.

Created by cartoonist Charles M. Schulz, Linus believes the Great Pumpkin will rise out of a pumpkin patch on Halloween, carrying a large bag of toys to deliver to believing children. 

Linus wants to be the first to welcome the Great Pumpkin.

 

While the other boys and girls go through neighborhoods trick-or-treating, collecting candy and other treats, Linus stands firmly planted in the field, patiently waiting. It’s been a constant vigil for Linus since 1959.

The relationship between Sally Brown and Linus Van Pelt in the “Peanuts” comic strip is a classic, lopsided romance defined by Sally’s persistent, unrequited crush.

According to Linus’ good pal Charlie Brown, there have been three reported “official sightings” of the Great Pumpkin over the years – in Connecticut, New Jersey and Texas.

So, it makes perfect sense for Linus to be stationed in Floydada, the county seat of Floyd County…and “Pumpkin Capital USA.” Floydada is located at the base of the Texas Panhandle, about 50 miles northeast of Lubbock.

An article appearing in Authentic Texas magazine, published by Texas Heritage Trails, LLC, of Austin, noted that the first pumpkin farmers in Floyd County were B.A. “Uncle Slim” and Grace Robertson, who began selling pumpkins from a roadside stand in the 1950s.

 

Uncle Slim taught Tommy Assister (below) the art and science of pumpkin growing.

Freelance journalist Loretta Fulton wrote: “Texans historically relied on pumpkins to feed their livestock in winter months and have used pumpkins to ‘cure’ both freckles and snakebites.”

 

Now, the pumpkin is also recognized as a good food for people to eat, an excellent source of Vitamin A, potassium and fiber, she said.

Data from Texas A&M University at College Station indicate that Floydada is the epicenter of the pumpkin growing region in West Texas, producing about 50 million pounds annually. 

Harvesting is done by hand, and Pumpkin Pyle, a 1,000-acre, family-owned farm, is the county’s largest employer.

 

As a wholesaler, Pumpkin Pyle grows 63 varieties that yield 15 to 20 million pounds of pumpkins each year.

“Around Labor Day each year, Pumpkin Pyle starts shipping 15 semi-trailer loads of pumpkins to the Dallas (Texas) Arboretum for its fall pumpkin village,” Fulton said. “Pumpkin Pyle supplies 75% of the pumpkins on display each year in the Autumn at the Arboretum event.”

Floydada’s annual Punkin Days Festival is always a highlight of the season. (Photo highlights follow.)

Thankfully, here comes college basketball!

While I may be grumbling over the end of Daylight Saving Time on Sunday, Nov. 1, there is something else going on that day that will help occupy my mind.

Nov. 1 is the start of college basketball season.

It’s a new dawn…especially if your college football team (like mine) is toast.

The first college basketball games out of the blocks should offer plenty of entertainment…in the Eternal City Tip-Off Doubleheader being played in Rome, Italy.

 

Men’s and women’s teams from Notre Dame and Villanova are involved. 

The men’s game will air on FOX at 9:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, and the women’s teams take the court at 12 noon, to be broadcast of FS1. (Church schedules may need to be juggled on Nov. 1 to accommodate parishioners who are also viewers.)

“The doubleheader at the 3,500-seat Palazzetto dello Sport will bring together two of the sport’s most storied Catholic universities in a city layered with religious and historical significance,” wrote Clemente Lisi, executive editor at Religion Unplugged, a nonprofit news organization based in San Diego, Calif.

 

“The event also carries an added layer of connection through Pope Leo XIV, a Villanova graduate and the first American-born pope,” Lisi said. “His election last year drew widespread attention to his alma mater.”

 

Organizers of the sporting event are still hopeful that that student-athletes from both schools will have an opportunity to meet the pope ahead of the games – “a rare moment for college athletes to meet the pontiff just before taking the court to open their season,” Lisi said.

(At age 71, Pope Leo XIV is expected to recover fully from successful lung cancer surgery that was performed on Oct. 13 and resume his regular duties by Oct. 20.)

 

“Both schools’ Catholic affiliations make them a natural pairing for an event explicitly centered on the intersection of faith and athletics,” Lisi wrote.  

The Rev. Peter M. Donohue, Villanova’s president, emphasized that the basketball games are part of a broader experience that “offers our student-athletes and communities the chance to witness how sport can inspire unity, shared purpose and compassion.” 

 

The Rev. Robert A. Dowd, Notre Dame’s president, pointed to his university’s existing ties to the Italian capital as part of what made the trip a natural fit. Notre Dame has maintained an academic center in Rome, Notre Dame Rome, since 2014, giving the school an established institutional presence in the city.

 

“We are honored to join Villanova for what is sure to be the experience of a lifetime for our student-athletes and fans,” Dowd said.

Interestingly, both Villanova and Notre Dame were founded in 1842. 

Villanova now has an enrollment of about 10,300 students at its main campus in Villanova, Pa. (a suburb of Philadelphia). 

The Villanova Wildcats athletic teams compete in the Big East Conference.

Pope Leo XIV (born as Robert Francis Prevost in 1955) grew up in Chicago, Ill., and enrolled at Villanova in 1973. He earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics in 1977.

 

Notre Dame, in South Bend, Ind., has an enrollment of about 13,050 students, and the Fighting Irish teams are members of the Atlantic Coast Conference…except when they aren’t. Notable exceptions are men’s football (independent) and men’s hockey (Big Ten).

So, what should we expect to see on the hardwood come Nov. 1? The Villanova men, coached by Kevin Willard, should be decent this season. The squad is knocking on the door of having a top-25 preseason ranking.

 

Notre Dame’s men’s team, on the other hand, under the leadership of coach Micah Shrewsberry, is expected to have a tough season, due to a lot of volatility within its roster.

 

ESPN’s fearless prognosticator Joe Lunardi anticipates that “Notre Dame will keep it close but not quite pull off the upset.”

 

On the women’s side, both Villanova and Notre Dame are included in ESPN’s preseason Top 25. 

Villanova, coached by Denise Dillon, is ranked No. 20 in the polls and is picked to challenge perennial powerhouse Connecticut for the Big East title.

 

With head coach Niele Ivey, Notre Dame starts the season ranked No. 14 in the country. 

The team is led by senior guard Hannah Hidalgo, who was picked as the ACC Preseason Player of the Year.

 

And then, on Monday, Nov. 2, there’s more men’s basketball – all day and all night long.

The first game starts at 12 midnight as part of The “Field of 68 Opening Day Marathon,” which includes eight games that will be played at two sites – Rock Hill, S.C., and Sioux Falls, S.D.

 

The 16 teams involved are all classified as “mid-majors,” representing leagues that are just a notch below the “power six” conferences.

Six games will be played at the Rock Hill Sports & Event Center. The arena can accommodate about 1,500 spectators. Here’s the lineup of games:

12 midnight: High Point vs. Liberty

3 a.m.: Grambling vs. Northern Illinois

6 a.m.: Appalachian State vs. Merrimack

9 a.m.: Winthrop vs. Queens (of Charlotte, N.C.)

5:30 p.m.: UAB vs. McNeese State

8 p.m.: Furman vs. Bethune-Cookman

Two other contests are scheduled for the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, which has a seating capacity of 3,250:

11:30 a.m.: Murray State vs. Tennessee State

2 p.m.: UTEP vs. Northern Kentucky

Field of 68 Opening Day Marathon is presented by the Field of 68 Media Network, which is part of the On3/Rivals platform, based in Nashville, Tenn.

All games will be streamed on The Field of 68’s YouTube channel and X account.