Latest / Centrally Speaking / Celebrating Christmas with Family and Christ in a Consumer Age

Transcript

Celebrating Christmas with Family and Christ in a Consumer Age · Centrally Speaking

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Centrally speaking, is the central strength of the church's podcast.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: It speaks about issues that would be of interest to our society.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: In particular, it addresses how a Christian worldview intersects with Western secular culture.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: In the spirit of the church's founder, we take the perspective of the middle way, which is in agreement with the historic Christian Church.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_02: I'm Dr.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_02: Drake Williams, Minister of Mission and Theology of the Church.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_02: Our website is www.cscfamily.org.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_03: Today we're going to be talking with the senior pastor at Central Schwankfelder Church, uh, Reverend Dr.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_03: David McKinley, uh, on the topic celebrating Christmas with family and Christ in a consumer age.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_03: That's a good topic that uh Dr.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_03: McKinley's uh familiar with uh uh quite a bit.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_03: He's been uh senior minister at Central Schwankfelder Church since 2005, and he's been or in the ordained ministry since 1995, uh, which means uh he's been uh leading people through this season for 28 years.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_03: David, can you believe that?
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_03: But he's also a family man with three children and um has been involved with their lives extensively, so he's well suited to share with us about celebrating Christmas with family and Christ in a consumer age.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_03: David, welcome again to the show.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Drake.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: It's a pleasure.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_03: Always a pleasure to have you.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_03: Let's uh talk about Christmas and how it got started uh as we think about celebrating with family and Christ and community consumer age.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_03: Um, when did the Christian church begin to celebrate Christmas as a special day, uh like a holiday uh on the calendar?
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_03: Uh when did that start?
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that's a that's a great question, Drake.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we do have uh uh the record of an old list of Roman bishops that uh kind of a calendar of sorts that listed uh December 25th in in Latin as Christ born in Bethlehem of Judea.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_01: And this dates back to the early fourth century, actually uh 336 AD is kind of the the um landmark date.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: But um it has been noted by uh Martinus uh Seta Um, who is from the University of uh Sonata Dharma, um uh wrote an article that uh pointed out that um Hippolytus, who was a uh prominent theologian in in the the Catholic Church, um mentioned in his commentary on the on the book of Daniel that Christmas um was recognized as early as the um 204 AD, so uh early third century um as opposed to the fourth century.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: So it's it's either the third or the fourth century that that Christmas was recognized as December 25th.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_03: That's an interesting thing, is uh we read in the Gospels, of course, uh the birth of Jesus uh in the first century.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_03: Uh but then uh as you go to 204, that's uh times of persecution still, uh, but Christians starting to celebrate uh the birth of uh Jesus at that time.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_01: Well I would say in that in that coupled with in my research, uh it I discovered that the birth of a famous person was not nearly as significant as uh his death.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, around uh Easter time uh we recite the famous greeting, he is risen, he is risen indeed.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_01: And so the early church put much more emphasis on Easter uh and um Good Friday and Lent more than Christmas.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't until later that Christmas became uh a feast where we get the the name Christmas, Christ's Mass.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: Uh that's when Christmas really started to be practiced much later.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_03: Much much later.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_03: And um I guess where you're going is uh less important in the minds of early Christians, uh, but it eventually became important um uh then.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: Definitely.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_03: And and as it became uh important to early Christians, uh how'd they celebrate?
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_03: Uh were they celebrating with Christmas trees and lights?
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_03: Uh obviously not lights, uh, but uh how did an early Christian celebrate uh uh Christmas from the uh third or fourth century?
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: It's interesting, Drake, because um at around uh the end of December, uh there were already some things in secular culture at the time that lent itself to partying and uh raucous behavior and uh um observing a time of excess.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um you have the uh the Romans uh who celebrated um the the winter solstice, um, and there was a lot of drinking, a lot of partying.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: It was a time when the social structure was turned upside down and uh gifts were encouraged to be given to the poor, almost like um a Halloween type of environment where if you didn't give gifts to the poor, they would have every right to come and knock on your door and kind of ravage your house.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: And there was a lot of crime that took place um at around the winter solstice.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_01: Another thing that that that happens at this time is that it's a time of year where um uh the cattle uh are are butchered uh because the it's colder outside and the uh the meat could be preserved.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: And then this was also a time when um the fermenting process uh concluded for the beer and the wine.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: So it's kind of a a Mardi Gras slash Halloween type of atmosphere.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: That's how the secular culture celebrated this time of year.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, it has nothing to do with the birth of Jesus, but but it was a festive time of year nonetheless.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: Then the church came along, and the date of Jesus' birth was designated as December 25th, and there's been some controversy over that.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_01: You know, they say, well, would shepherds really be staying with their flocks, you know, in uh uh out in the fields at night in the coldest part of the uh of the year, though one could say that wintertime in the Middle East is different than wintertime in Wisconsin.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: Uh but um so but but the Catholic Church determined that Jesus was born on December 25th, and then after that, there's just this uh uh competition of trying to make this time of year a holier time versus a more secular and sinful carnal time.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: So that's always been in competition, uh, and there's more to to comment on that, of course.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_03: Were there any specific devotional practices that early Christians had though for before the Christmas time?
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: So the Catholic Church in particular, you know, when we we are a Protestant church and we um of course comment on that every year around Reformation Sunday, but we are indebted to the Catholic Church for um emphasizing or highlighting uh uh a time of preparation and a time of devotion.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so the number 40, of course, is important in biblical matters, and so uh when Advent was established as a time of preparation prior to Christmas, and so it would happen around the middle of November through uh the end of December, the Advent season was a time of preparation where fasting and prayer was encouraged, uh special services.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: The uh early church encouraged uh both parishioners and clergy to fast three times a week: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, there were special services.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, um it was noted that uh Ambrose and Augustine, uh, their sermons from this time of year would mention Jesus' birth and exhortations to prepare devotionally to observe Jesus' birth that were very important.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: And then, of course, you have um the legend of Saint Nicholas, who was uh Nicholas was born in 280 AD, and uh he was a rich man by inheritance, but he ended up giving away all of his inherited wealth, uh, giving gifts to the poor, visiting uh the homes of the needy, and so then uh that became a practice among Christians is both to pray and to fast, but also to give generously.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_03: That's good to hear that in the uh distant past as Christians started to celebrate uh the holiday.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_03: Um but uh it's uh over time it then sort of devolved again into feasting and partying.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_03: Um what turned it in that direction as as the years went on?
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_01: I I think that as as uh Stephen Nissenbaum uh states in his book, The Battle for Christmas, he said that the relationship between the secular and the sacred has always been tenuous.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: And um he he states um uh from the very beginning, he says, the church's hold over Christmas was and remains still rather tenuous.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: There was always people for whom Christmas was a time of pious devotion rather than carnival, but such people were always in the minority.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: It may not be going too far to say that Christmas has always been an extremely difficult holiday to Christianize.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_01: Little wonder that the Puritans were willing to save themselves the trouble.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, the Puritans in England and in early America were very much against celebrating Christmas because they felt like it was a very worldly uh holiday.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_01: They saw the secular practices and they said, you know, we as Christians shouldn't be involved in any of that.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um, whereas um if you take church history as a whole, there's this battle between the sacred and the secular.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_03: So when you're reading about uh Puritans and them trying to uh ban the holiday, what do you think?
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_03: Was it uh a good thing they were trying to do?
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_03: Should they have uh done away with uh uh Christmas?
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_03: Throw the baby out with a bathwater?
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's a great question, Drake.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: I think that uh there's always trouble with trying to uh there's challenge, I should say, because everything has its limits, and yet uh there's good reason to uh act uh legislatively in other areas, but it's always hard to legislate morality.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think that the Puritans, both in England and in America, were trying to create a society that was a Christian culture and tried to heighten uh the uh and emphasize the need to follow Christ and to have a relationship with God through Christ.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um but uh people have by nature a rebellious spirit and they don't like to be coerced, they don't like to be told what to do, what they themselves should arrive at on their own conscience.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_01: And so there's always been a struggle there.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_01: But it's interesting.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, this relationship between uh the secular and the sacred.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Hugh Latimer, uh, who was an Anglican cleric in the 16th century, um put it rather succinctly like this, and this comes from Nissenbaum's book.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Latimer was quoted as saying, men dishonor Christ more in the 12 days of Christmas than in all the 12 months besides.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_01: It goes with that idea that um, you know, you are you gonna separate from the culture, or are you going to um operate within the culture and just operate differently?
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: So it's uh almost a are we we're gonna be in the world but not of the world, or are we gonna be completely separate from the world?
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: And and that's a hard discussion to have, it's challenging.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_03: And the Puritan uh uh idea was uh we're gonna get uh away from the world entirely.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_03: Uh was that even practical?
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_03: Um hard to know.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_03: Hard to know.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_03: But then uh Christmas uh in America turned into being more of a family time.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_03: Uh what helped turn it in that direction?
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, um, but I will say, before we get into that, I will say that there were some um traditions that established itself in um in Europe that I think should be highlighted.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_01: For instance, um uh as we've already stated that um Advent uh was being practiced in say the fourth and fifth centuries, it got narrowed down to just four weeks instead of 40 days or six weeks, it got narrowed to four weeks, say in the ninth century.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_01: And then in the 13th century, Christians started singing Christmas carols, uh and that became a common practice.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: Then uh in the eighth century, Saint Boniface um in his mission work in Germany uh emphasized the the evergreen tree as the tree um that represented the life that Jesus brings.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_01: And then, of course, we all know the legend of Martin Luther um putting candles on the tree uh as a symbol of the light of Christ, uh the light of the world.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um then um uh Dutch families in New York City um uh gave gifts in honor of Saint Nicholas, uh, or uh you're probably familiar with uh Sinterklaas, who we now refer to as Santa Claus.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: Uh that was a Dutch practice uh that the families would give gifts in honor of him.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um but the real uh shift that came in uh Christmas becoming a family-oriented time rather than a party, Mardi Gras, Halloween, carnal time was probably in the early 19th century, when um there around Christmas time uh as the raucous behavior would continue.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: There was a large uh riot uh at Christmas in 18 uh 28, I believe, uh, and then things started to shift.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_01: I think that there was a something within the culture that uh said uh that we need to come together as uh a country and as a people.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: And individuals that were instrumental with this, take for instance Washington Irving, who was uh uh an author and uh my understanding a poet.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_01: He wrote a sketchbook of Jeffrey Crayon, which aimed to bring people together across the lines of wealth and social status.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, then uh Charles Dickens wrote his famous A Christmas Carol in 1843.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_01: That was uh instrumental, and then of course, uh uh the movie uh that Jimmy Stewart starred in, um, A Wonderful Life, uh, that was was used.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and Christmas, uh, of course, Jimmy Stewart came you know much later, but before that, in 1870 is when Christmas became a federal holiday.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_01: And it's interesting that in 1870 it became a federal holiday, you know, five years after the conclusion of the Civil War and the assassination of our president.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_01: So it's almost like you know, um, one thing that our country needs to bring everybody together is a family-oriented holiday where there is more emphasis on goodwill, love, sharing, generosity.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_01: And so first 25 years of the 19th century, then carrying that through uh to the mid-20th century, that's kind of the time where Christmas becomes more family-oriented and and more based on those qualities that we know uh of today.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_03: You referenced several things to turn the holiday to being more of a family-oriented uh time.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_03: And one of those things was uh Charles Dickens' uh A Christmas Carol, which they did say uh saved uh Christmas uh in Britain at that uh at that time.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_03: Uh it's interesting that book doesn't uh refer to Jesus, uh, but it does uh bring up a lot of uh good Christian values as well as uh things that are helpful for family life.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_03: Uh could you uh just sort of recall a few of those uh values that are in a Christmas carol?
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yes.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um great values such as um uh generosity, kindness, uh sympathy for the poor and the handicapped, you know, the uh tiny Tim who struggles to walk, uh uh and is um uh a part of the story, the son of one of Ebenezer Scrooge's uh uh colleagues.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_01: And and Scrooge is kind of a, you know, we we use that term today.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Scrooge is kind of a moniker for somebody that's always in a bad mood, always driven by selfishness, uh, does not consider the feelings of others, and then he has sort of an enlightenment being visited by these ghosts uh to uh come to a place where uh of self-realization of what he's been like and what he needs to be.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_01: Now it's interesting, uh Drake.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_01: So so those qualities um of generosity, kindness, sympathy for the poor and the handicapped and the underprivileged, those are all great qualities, almost being born out of uh a background of workaholism, selfishness, and greed.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: And it's a real story of transformation, which I think is is uh in itself um pretty fascinating.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_01: Incidentally, I just attended last night um a play at um my daughter-in-law uh teaches at Grace Christian School in Telford, and they put on a new Christmas Carol, which is uh was a play written by Debbie Roberts that is a Christian version of Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol, and it was uh very well done.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and uh the central person in the story is uh a young, aggressive um lady in real estate that is driven by money and driven by uh self-acclaim.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: And now she realizes that she's in a car accident, and she in while she's in a coma, she is visited by um her grandfather uh and other people, uh angels along the way, trying to point out that the most important things in life are Christ and serving others and being generous and being kind.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I I I loved it.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_01: It was well done.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_01: And so those are some of the qualities that came from both of those plays.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_03: Of course, many today are seeing uh Christmas turning into a time of uh gift giving, uh sometimes extravagant gift giving.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm sure there's Pastor, you'd have uh nothing uh to say about uh uh negative about giving gifts, but uh there is a point in time where it can go overboard and uh become too extravagant.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_03: Since you've been uh sharing with people about the message of Christmas for some 28 years now, do you have some suggestions on uh how Christian families uh might uh turn uh their uh expressions of uh generosity and care to family uh rather than to extravagant gifts?
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_01: Drake, I think that there's always the challenge to be different than the world, to be intentionally different when we see the world going uh awry, when uh they're they're following after um their flesh uh and and and uh being caught up in practices that are not honorable to God or respectful of self.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um a quote from Jim Carrey who uh some people believe have have undergone has undergone uh um a conversion experience he said um it's a horrible thing to celebrate a holiday in which in order to prove our love to another person we must go into debt and so I think really uh what it comes down to is the practice of moderation uh the practice of temperance the practice of living within your means and expressing love and generosity and kindness in ways that are not given over to materialism and overspending we used to live next door to a wonderful Christian couple the Dooleys uh Mark and Karen Dooley they serve the Lord now in Maryland but Karen uh had four beautiful children and raised them in a very godly home she functioned as a mentor to my wife in many ways and Karen had this philosophy and I don't know where she got it but I thought it was pretty fascinating that each child would receive three gifts maybe more but they would certainly receive three gifts in the same um line of thought as the three wise men brought gifts of gold frankincense and myrrh to Jesus um what we know as epiphany um so each child would get at least three gifts one would be fun a toy of some sort something that they could enjoy spending their time with another would be educational maybe it would be a book maybe it would be a globe a map or something that would encourage uh intellectualism and then the third would be a spiritual gift maybe it would be um a Bible maybe it would be um a cross maybe it would be something that or a a commentary of some sort a devotional book something that would encourage spiritual growth or it wouldn't be necessarily confined to material gifts maybe it would be uh a trip somewhere or you know tickets to something or or whatever but the whole purpose behind it is to receive a gift that encouraged fun encouraged learning and encouraged faith and uh we tried to adopt that but again it's the whole idea of of temperance and moderation and um self-control and and uh these things that I think keep Christmas with an overtly spiritual attitude you know my dad was born in 1931 and uh when he was being raised and uh you know the the war started uh the second world war and then concluded my dad remembers that it's not that and he was the youngest of four sons born to my grandparents uh and each child it's not so much that children received individual gifts but there might be a gift given to the the the kids collectively like um checkers or uh a basketball but yeah we've come a a long way from that where now you know couples and families spend hundreds even if if not thousands of dollars on gifts for their kids and um again it's just this challenge of trying to scale it back and emphasize the things that matter the most over and against what the culture is promoting.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_03: That's a good point and uh not only for family but um maybe that can be a help and a direction as uh we think of how uh we as Christians might celebrate uh the holiday too um spiritually might you have some suggestions as to how we as uh Christians might celebrate the holiday as Christians did uh as of old yes Drake um before I get into that though it's interesting how Christmas is observed by Christians and non-Christians alike and there's some very interesting statistics that come from the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention um they recently stated that um four out of five non-Christians in the U.S.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_01: celebrate Christmas four out of five eighty seven percent of Americans who identify as religiously unaffiliated celebrate Christmas eighty seven percent the Pew Research Foundation reports that nearly a third of U.S.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_01: Jewish people will set up a Christmas tree in their home a third uh and roughly three quarters of Asian American Buddhists and Hindus celebrate Christmas and the LA Times reports that even uh some American Muslims not only observe Christmas but they even might observe some of the religious aspects of Christmas so Christmas is a wonderful opportunity to share the gospel with our friends and our neighbors those of us that are coming at this holiday from a Christian standpoint to remind the culture to remind our neighbors and our friends what Christmas is really all about.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_01: And so what are some of the practices um of course attending worship services at many of our local churches there's a heightened uh showing of special services whether it be um regular Sunday services or musical services or concerts um but these things are especially good uh to invite our neighbors and friends uh to also uh I think um just the practice of things that interact with our neighbors having people over expressing love and generosity to those around us practicing the qualities of gratitude love unselfishness and sacrifice you know it's no mistake that Jesus was born to peasant parents and that the angelic announcement came to shepherds who were certainly common people and so I I think taking advantage of opportunities to be especially loving and hospitable these are important practices.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_01: I think something as simple as uh sending notes and cards of encouragement to friends and neighbors and family members uh even you know today is the 15th of December I've already received some beautiful Christmas cards from church members and Christian uh friends this is just a sampling of some of the you know we get a Christmas card in the mail and we have a tendency in our busyness to just see who it's from and then put it off to the side but to s to purposefully slow down and to receive some of the messages that are in some of these communications are wonderful.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_01: Like for instance one card said loves still sends his best to his people another card read this Christmas may God open our hearts to his love our minds to his wonders our ears to his voice and our lives to his presence still another one said May your Christmas be filled with God's overflowing peace his joy that can't be contained in his amazing love and then you know a verse that I think is a really good Christmas verse though we never read it at Christmas time is Romans 1513 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_01: And that's the thing is that um Christmas is a time of hope and joy and peace and love and so those are the the things that we should promote.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm sure uh you might have a word of invitation to our listeners to join us uh for uh Christmas services uh particularly Christmas eve uh might you share about uh the services at the church as we conclude our time today yes well uh this Sunday uh we will have our service of lessons and carols and our traditional service at 9 a.m and so that's always special to hear unique numbers uh of from sacred music uh as well as Christmas carols and readings from the Old Testament and from the gospels that highlight the birth of Christ on Christmas Eve we will have uh three services 1030 is our contemporary worship service uh featuring Reverend Julian Scavetti he'll be bringing the message then 2 p.m is a special uh visit from a shepherd I understand this year um and uh it's a first person narrative uh I won't reveal who's going to be doing that I can just say it's not Julian or myself so it will be a great presentation and it is more of a family oriented service that uh highlights um uh musical uh program from our children as well as um a message that's tailored to both young and old and uh certainly appreciate you doing that Drake and then at 7 p.m on the night of Christmas Eve is our candlelight communion service uh that will feature a broad presentation of our musical program uh as well as a message from myself all three services will offer the Lord's Supper uh and it's sure to be a wonderful day and we would love to have your family uh attend our services on Christmas Eve.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you so much for uh uh sharing with us uh these thoughts uh David on celebrating Christmas so with family in Christ in a consumer age and uh uh since I haven't sent you a Christmas card yet let me uh wish you a Merry Christmas at this time of year.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_01: And a Merry Christmas to you and your family, Drake.