# Kiriakou on Christmas

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "Kiriakou on Christmas," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/kiriakou-on-christmas/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*John Kiriakou's account of finding Christmas so depressing since his two divorces that he does not decorate or mark it at all — and of the year he replaced it by taking his children to every station on the New York City subway system in a single day.*

- **Position:** Does not decorate or put up a tree; treats it as an ordinary day
- **Reason given:** Twice divorced; too depressed to function otherwise
- **As a child:** Christmas was wonderful
- **The alternative:** Every station on the New York City subway, in nine and a half hours

Kiriakou is unusually direct about disliking Christmas. He finds it very depressing, does not decorate, puts up no tree or ornaments, and pretends it is a normal day like any other, because otherwise he gets too depressed to function.[1] Asked whether he was always like that, he says he was not — Christmas was wonderful when he was a child — and attributes the change to being divorced twice.[1]

The substitute he found is characteristic. One year he told the children they would open their presents and then get on the subway and visit every single station on the New York City system. They did it in nine and a half hours, with one break where they came up at the zoo for lunch and then went back down to finish. He notes that the route takes a lot of planning because of the backtracking; a man written up in the *New York Times* had done it in what Kiriakou calls a record-fast twenty-five hours.[2][3]

## See also

- [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)
- [Kiriakou on travel](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/kiriakou-on-travel)
- [Kiriakou's Abraham Lincoln collection](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/abraham-lincoln-collection)

## Sources

1. DMZ America Podcast (2025-11-19), at 56:21. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YixkmCXIDpU&t=3381s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-11-19-dmz-america-podcast-dmz-america-podcast/
2. DMZ America Podcast (2025-11-19), at 56:51. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YixkmCXIDpU&t=3411s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-11-19-dmz-america-podcast-dmz-america-podcast/
3. DMZ America Podcast (2025-11-19), at 57:24. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YixkmCXIDpU&t=3444s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-11-19-dmz-america-podcast-dmz-america-podcast/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/kiriakou-on-christmas/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt