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How Christmas Worked · Stuff You Should Know

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Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
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Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff you should know
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Speaker 1: from house Stuff Works dot com? Ho ho ho, and
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Speaker 1: welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with me as
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Speaker 1: always is Charles W. Shuck. I heart Christmas time, Briant,
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Speaker 1: Yours is way better than mine. Mine. Sounded like a
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Speaker 1: an Irish priest leprin. Yeah, terrible, going great, Yeah, this
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Speaker 1: should be coming out right at Christmas. Yeah, we're gonna
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Speaker 1: We're gonna plan for that. So if it is, it's
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Speaker 1: all of you listening out there in podcast land. We
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Speaker 1: hope you're having a great holiday season. Yeah, yeah, and
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Speaker 1: safe and well and with family and and uh we
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Speaker 1: wish you all a merry Christmas and Hanukah and Kwanza
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Speaker 1: and whatever each used to celebrate ted what's that? I
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Speaker 1: think that's a Buddhist New Year. Um, there's all sorts
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Speaker 1: of stuff going on this time of year. Yeah, big time. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: but we chose to talk about Christmas. Chuck was brought Baptist,
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Speaker 1: I was raised Catholic. It's what we know. And it's
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Speaker 1: a pretty interesting story too. And if you're Jewish and
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Speaker 1: you hate Christmas. You're gonna stick around because you're gonna
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Speaker 1: love this one, right, Yeah, and you know what, next year,
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Speaker 1: we will do one on Hanakah. Okay, deal, Yeah, I
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Speaker 1: actually know a significant amount about Hankka. Well, let's do
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Speaker 1: it next year, and then a book it and we'll
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Speaker 1: eventually do Quansa too. Yeah, we'll do that in eleven maybe,
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Speaker 1: or maybe we'll do like a holiday extravaganza. Buddy. If
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Speaker 1: if we're still around in two thousand eleven, then we're
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Speaker 1: either doing something right or something wrong. Haven't decided which. Okay,
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Speaker 1: all right, Josh Chromas, is that what we're calling it? Christmas? Okay? So, Chuck,
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Speaker 1: have you ever engaged in um Christmas? Yes, Josh, what's
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Speaker 1: a year? I've engaged in thirty eight of them? Wow?
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Speaker 1: That pretty nice, Thank you? That was my int alright,
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Speaker 1: let's talk about this man. It's so ubiquitous. There's um
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Speaker 1: people who are usually drunk, dressed up as Santa Claus,
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Speaker 1: ringing bells asking for donations. There's little kids like screeching
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Speaker 1: in the middle of aisles and toy stores. There are
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Speaker 1: um minds like elbowing one another in the face. To
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Speaker 1: get to that last line, and then there's people who
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Speaker 1: are um punching Walmart greeters in the stomach for saying
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Speaker 1: Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas. It's the most contentious
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Speaker 1: time of the year. Do you know where I am.
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Speaker 1: I'm at home and I am shopping online. Dude, it
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Speaker 1: is the way to go. Never again. And you know
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Speaker 1: what we got to Ohio. I just had the gifts
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Speaker 1: ship straight to my in law's house. Very smart, no must,
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Speaker 1: no fuss. Yeah, it's as long as you order early
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Speaker 1: enough to make sure you're not spending the last week
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Speaker 1: biting your nails when they arrive in time. I can
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Speaker 1: tell you, um by experience, that people are very forgiving
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Speaker 1: if their gifts aren't there. All you do was you
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Speaker 1: get a little card, you right it inside like you're
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Speaker 1: getting this, or you print out a picture of it.
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Speaker 1: It's like it's coming, I promise, and then a coupon
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Speaker 1: for a free BackRub. I did do coupons once. One year.
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Speaker 1: I was so broken. I had a friend take a
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Speaker 1: picture of me standing there with my pockets turned out,
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Speaker 1: me going like it's like, no, it wasn't last year.
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Speaker 1: It was like five years ago. And um that was that,
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Speaker 1: Like everybody kept it. No one turned it in. They
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Speaker 1: just like they're sure tickets so much. I made birdhouses
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Speaker 1: one year when I was broken. They were good to sure,
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Speaker 1: they're nice alright. So let's talk about Christis How do this?
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Speaker 1: How did this jam get started? Well, Josh, the roots
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Speaker 1: of Christmas are varied, to say the least. You cannot
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Speaker 1: riotously very You cannot point to one single thing and
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Speaker 1: say Christmas was born out of this Jesus's birthday on December.
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Speaker 1: You can't even point to the aspects of Christmas and
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Speaker 1: say that each one was born out of this. You can't. Basically,
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Speaker 1: Christmas is a bunch of different groups that are from
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Speaker 1: antiquity brought together, right, Yeah. Like, Uh. Most of these
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Speaker 1: early um versions of Christmas, I guess, if you even
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Speaker 1: want to call it that were festivals that marked the
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Speaker 1: winter solstice in Europe, mainly Uh and um Rome. True
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Speaker 1: Rome had a big one called Saturnalia German pagans. They
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Speaker 1: honored Odin, who was a god who flew over settlements
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Speaker 1: at night, blessing some houses and cursing others. Sounds like
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Speaker 1: coal and switches or treats to me. So that was
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Speaker 1: a pagan god. Yeah, yeah, Germanic um and then also
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Speaker 1: you have the Druids who like to contribute um things
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Speaker 1: like garland and holly to the whole mix. Kissing under
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Speaker 1: the mistletoe actually is apparently a um euphemism for some
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Speaker 1: of the sexual practices that went on to the Druidic
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Speaker 1: Winter Solstice festivals. People probably didn't think they were going
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Speaker 1: to hear those words in the Christmas podcast. Yeah it's
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Speaker 1: true though, Oh yeah, um, Christmas was rife with sexuality
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Speaker 1: and one could even say perversion and and just crazy
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Speaker 1: parties and in some cases, are you're talking about Rome? That? Yeah,
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Speaker 1: the Druids were big into it too, apparently the Celts right,
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Speaker 1: But in Rome they celebrated the pretty Rockets festival called
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Speaker 1: the Saturnalia from December seventeen. Is that now how you
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Speaker 1: pronounce it? Okay? I thought you're gonna correct me. And
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Speaker 1: that honors Saturn, the god of agriculture. And they had
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Speaker 1: a big carnival and they feasted and gambled and gave
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Speaker 1: gifts and corrals and got drunk wasted for days. This
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Speaker 1: is Rome, Yeah, one party like they did. They also
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Speaker 1: apparently love to stuff um Jews with food until they
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Speaker 1: were like so full that they could barely move and
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Speaker 1: then make them raise each other naked through the streets
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Speaker 1: for everyone else's enjoyment. So there's Christmas. Um, these are
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Speaker 1: the roots of it. And then, of course, um, you
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Speaker 1: have Christianity, which effectively took it over in the fourth
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Speaker 1: century a D. Yeah, they say, we need our own
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Speaker 1: holiday to rival all these winter solstice shenanigans, right the
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Speaker 1: fourth the fourth century a D. Really and we are
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Speaker 1: ce depending on who you are, Um, really kind of
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Speaker 1: change things. This is when Christianity stepped it up a bit.
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Speaker 1: That's been saying Augustine was supposedly issuing all these proclamations. Um. Basically,
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Speaker 1: the Church just made some moves and it it worked.
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Speaker 1: And they chose December, the day of the Feast of
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Speaker 1: the Nativity is what it was originally called. And since
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Speaker 1: they said, hey, pagans, you come over to our religion,
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Speaker 1: we've got something over here. Uh. It celebrates the birth
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Speaker 1: of our savior and all that. But you can still
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Speaker 1: throw down. We're just gonna this is gonna be the
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Speaker 1: last day. Much like um, fat to ash Wednesday, right
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Speaker 1: right right fat to Marty gral leads up to ash
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Speaker 1: Wednesday and the party stops on ash Wednesday, but they
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Speaker 1: go crazy ahead of time, very much the same thing.
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Speaker 1: And it can any like this for many many centuries. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: and and initially it wasn't um. It still wasn't the
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Speaker 1: big daddy, I mean, Eastern Good Friday still ruled in
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Speaker 1: the feast, and the Nativity was kind of the lesser
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Speaker 1: of the three. And um, the Puritans had some problems
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Speaker 1: with this though they did pretty much any group that
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Speaker 1: was very doer about um about religion. And we're Christians,
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Speaker 1: uh outlawed or banned Christmas festivities because yeah, he did
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Speaker 1: when he took Christmas in and the Puritans in New
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Speaker 1: England outlawed it. Uh what from sixteen fifty nine to
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Speaker 1: sixteen eighty one in Boston, no Christmas none And actually
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Speaker 1: Cromwell um had soldiers patrolling the streets to make sure
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Speaker 1: there was no revelry whatsoever. And we're told to arrest
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Speaker 1: anybody they found celebrating Christmas when he outlawed it, um.
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Speaker 1: And still today Jehovah's witnesses, Christians Christian sect um don't
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Speaker 1: sell lebrate Christmas because they clearly see it as or
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Speaker 1: they see it as a clearly pagan holiday. And that
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Speaker 1: all of these roots have have all these pagan roots
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Speaker 1: have come together and just got a Christian stamp of approval.
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Speaker 1: But it ain't. It's really just pagan, right. Yeah. So, uh,
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Speaker 1: let's move forward a little bit in our in our
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Speaker 1: time machine to the eighteenth and nineteenth century. This is
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Speaker 1: when things start to calm down a little bit and
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Speaker 1: it becomes a little bit more like the Christmas we
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Speaker 1: know and love, including eighteen forty six when Queen Victoria's
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Speaker 1: German husband Albert, Prince Albert, he introduced a Christmas tree
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Speaker 1: to the castle and they essentially got their picture made
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Speaker 1: in front of it. It was an engraving at the time.
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Speaker 1: Of course they had to stand there for four weeks. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: but it was their children in them in front of
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Speaker 1: the tree, and that's kind of may have been the
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Speaker 1: first Christmas card like we do today. That's nice. You
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Speaker 1: send Christmas cards. No, I don't even know. I'm such
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Speaker 1: a slacker. I've never sent Christmas cards. Yeah, so don't
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Speaker 1: be offended. Friends who listened. None of my friends listen
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Speaker 1: to this. But when I don't see Christmas cards, I
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Speaker 1: just don't do it. I haven't done it. I'll do
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Speaker 1: that one day. Um, okay, So Chuck, let's talk about
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Speaker 1: gift giving. Okay. In two thousand seven, Consumer Reports said
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Speaker 1: that they issued an article in November of two seven,
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Speaker 1: I said twelve million Americans were still paying off Christmas
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Speaker 1: from the year prior. Just a year later, twelve million
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Speaker 1: Americans were still making payments on their credit card gifts.
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Speaker 1: So in addition to hearing is that Santas slagh and
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Speaker 1: jingle bells, I hear Josh flying overhead? I think you're hallucinating,
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Speaker 1: am I. I don't hear anything. In addition to that,
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Speaker 1: do you know what I hear is the sound of
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Speaker 1: credit card machines being well, yeah that's old, but yeah,
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Speaker 1: the swipe of the credit cards over a number of things.
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Speaker 1: Thank you. That's what I hear. It is decidedly commercial
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Speaker 1: now and one of the reasons why people are still
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Speaker 1: paying it off is, um, we spend an ass load
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Speaker 1: of money on Christmas presents and decorations, eight billion dollars
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Speaker 1: on lights alone. Nuts. Listen to this dude in the
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Speaker 1: National Retail Federation, which likes to come out with their
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Speaker 1: annual forecast of how much Americans are going to spend
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Speaker 1: on holiday gifts and just anything that has to do
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Speaker 1: with the holidays. They forecasted a hundred and seventy three
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Speaker 1: billion in nineteen ninety eight. Wow, this is this is
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Speaker 1: the height of the dot com bubble and everybody was
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Speaker 1: rich back then. Everybody You weren't rich either, should uh?
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Speaker 1: Two thousand nine, this year, the National Retail Federation projects
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Speaker 1: that we will spend four hundred and thirty seven point
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Speaker 1: six billion dollars in a recession. That's not Yeah, I
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Speaker 1: don't drop that much on Christmas. We're gonna spend half
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Speaker 1: a trillion dollars on Christmas in a recession. That's a
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Speaker 1: bad year. I know. And you know what, I think.
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Speaker 1: They've said that during recessions even sometimes you go out
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Speaker 1: of your way to make Christmas special because you've pinched
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Speaker 1: all year long, So that might infinitely do it. You've
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Speaker 1: done what because you pinched your pennies all year long?
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Speaker 1: You pinched all year long? Yes, I didn't hear that. Okay,
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Speaker 1: But gift giving, Josh, what is this? Where did it
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Speaker 1: come from? Well, like I said, a lot of these
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Speaker 1: pagan rituals they gave gifts, but uh, the roots almost
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Speaker 1: all of them did, Strange, Lena, But the roots are
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Speaker 1: generally traced to Um the Bible and Jesus being born
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Speaker 1: and the Three Kings, the Magi that traveled to Bethlehem
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Speaker 1: with their three gifts of gold. Frankinsincein mur right and
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Speaker 1: actually um Eastern Orthodox Christians tend to celebrate Three Kings
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Speaker 1: Day in January six, which is the day they think
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Speaker 1: that the magi arrived with their gifts. Yeah, okay, because
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Speaker 1: it took them a while. Sure, yeah, yeah, everybody's writing
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Speaker 1: mules back then, answer forever. Things kind of progressed like
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Speaker 1: this for a while, and then in eighteen twenty, do
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Speaker 1: you know what first appeared? Josh stores began placing Christmas
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Speaker 1: themed ads and newspapers and magazines. Yeah, and for the
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Speaker 1: first time even before then, though, um Macy's stayed open
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Speaker 1: I think for the first time until midnight Christmas Eve
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Speaker 1: in eighteen sixty seven. That was after that. But yeah,
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Speaker 1: I thought you said, I'm sorry, that's losing my mind here,
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Speaker 1: But yeah, in eighteen sixty seven, they they stayed open
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Speaker 1: for those last minute Christmas shoppers. So by the by
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Speaker 1: eighteen sixty seven, it was already a frenzy. Should we
12:17
Speaker 1: talk about Boxing Day real quick? Sure? Just cover that
12:20
Speaker 1: for all the Brits out there, if you're in England, Australia,
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Speaker 1: Canada or New Zealand. Uh, Christmas does not end on No,
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Speaker 1: it continues on to the twenty six Boxing Day. So
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Speaker 1: what is that, Josh? Well, apparently it grew out of
12:37
Speaker 1: a tradition where servants who had to work on Christmas
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Speaker 1: all day serving the rich families of New England or
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Speaker 1: New Zealand, Australia and Great Britain and Canada. Um, they
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Speaker 1: were given the next day off, the twenty six. They
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Speaker 1: have their own Christmas, their own servant version of Christmas.
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Speaker 1: And apparently that was taken over by the rich at
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Speaker 1: cats as well. Right, so there's a Boxing Day and Christmas,
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Speaker 1: I take it in those countries. That's the way I
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Speaker 1: understand it, Chuck, Josh, let's keep going on with this
13:10
Speaker 1: origin stuff. This stuff is very interesting. Can can we
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Speaker 1: talk about St Nick for a second? Yeah? So you
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Speaker 1: know there really was a St. Nick? Right? I do know?
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Speaker 1: School me. Uh he was actually canonized in the I
13:24
Speaker 1: think nineteenth century. But he was born in two seventy
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Speaker 1: CE in Turkey. Uh. He was a Mediterranean dude. Turkish
13:34
Speaker 1: was he He was Turkish? And I think he died
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Speaker 1: in three forty, so he was old. Um. He was
13:43
Speaker 1: worshiped by a group of sailors who formed a cult
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Speaker 1: around him, the St. Nicholas Cult or the Nicholas cult.
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Speaker 1: Before he was canonized, a group of sailors, a group
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Speaker 1: of sailors just idolized this guy, like literally, so these sailors, actually,
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Speaker 1: I guess, sailed to Turkey and said, we're gonna take
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Speaker 1: Nick's bones where they're being kept in a shrine in Turkey,
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Speaker 1: bring his bones out exactly, okay. Or they went in
14:06
Speaker 1: and got them themselves, one of the two. Uh, and
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Speaker 1: then they take it back to They take the bones
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Speaker 1: back to Italy and place him in a shrine. But
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Speaker 1: when they do so, they displaced this pagan idol known
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Speaker 1: as the Grandmother capital T capital g. The Grandmother had
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Speaker 1: a reputation for placing um gifts in children's stockings. St. Nick,
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Speaker 1: who was who was a real person, was a Christian
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Speaker 1: martyr I believe takes over this lady's shrine and the
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Speaker 1: association with gifts and him giving gifts and even gifts
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Speaker 1: and stockings her. Her reputation goes to him. So it
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Speaker 1: originally started with a woman huh in ten seven. That's
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Speaker 1: when the sailors went, we're not done yet here. My
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Speaker 1: friend Santa Claus has a very long, in circuitous route.
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Speaker 1: But it's amazing how it all comes together. I'm roasting chestnuts,
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Speaker 1: by the way, while I'm listening to this. Because the
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Speaker 1: in the Nicholas Colt gave each other gifts, right um.
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Speaker 1: And since they gave, they were known for giving gifts.
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Speaker 1: They were one of the more popular cults around. So
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Speaker 1: when they spread north, people were like, hey, you're kind
15:11
Speaker 1: of cool, let's hang out. And um they were converted.
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Speaker 1: They were a very powerful cult. And when they moved
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Speaker 1: into Germany or the Germanic areas. Uh, Odin remember you
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Speaker 1: mentioned him earlier, Long white Beard blew over houses, right. Uh.
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Speaker 1: Santa Claus as we know it today is the collision
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Speaker 1: of Odin and St. Nick and the Grandmother. Technically I
15:32
Speaker 1: had something to do with Germany. I remember hearing that one.
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Speaker 1: So Santa Claus was um I think a Dutch word
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Speaker 1: for this conception. But it wasn't until eighteen o nine
15:42
Speaker 1: that Washington Irving wrote a satire of Dutch culture and said, um.
15:48
Speaker 1: He used the name Santa Claus, the Dutch name which
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Speaker 1: introduced the name to the English. A few decades after that,
15:54
Speaker 1: guy named Thomas Nast, an illustrator, starts drawing his conception.
15:58
Speaker 1: Santa Claus. Adds the the north pole, the elves, the workshop,
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Speaker 1: all that stuff, and then finally Santa Claus, who we
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Speaker 1: know and love today, the jolly fat man with the
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Speaker 1: red coat and the white trimming. All these things have
16:13
Speaker 1: accumulated up to this point, and then our image are
16:16
Speaker 1: iconic image of Santa Claus was thanks to an illustrator
16:21
Speaker 1: who was contracted by the Coca Cola company in n
16:25
Speaker 1: and seen, there's Santa Claus and that crazy. That is crazy.
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Speaker 1: What a cool history? I think, so too and slightly
16:32
Speaker 1: disappointing a little bit. Where's the magic? There's no magic? No,
16:36
Speaker 1: al right, Okay, so go ahead, Chuck. I've talked way
16:39
Speaker 1: too much for now. I guess we should talk about
16:42
Speaker 1: trees a little bit. Um evergreen trees and garlands. We're
16:47
Speaker 1: used to decorate symbols of eternal life by everyone from
16:51
Speaker 1: ancient Chinese to Hebrews and Egyptians and European Pagans even
16:57
Speaker 1: worship these trees. Yeah, I remember we talked about the
17:00
Speaker 1: ruids and u sexual proclivities right, So fast forward a
17:04
Speaker 1: little bit. When Western Germans used fir trees to represent
17:07
Speaker 1: the Tree of Paradise and plays about Adam and Eve.
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Speaker 1: They decorated these trees with apples and wafers and stuff,
17:14
Speaker 1: and that got more and more popular until they were
17:18
Speaker 1: introduced in North America in the seventeenth century, and then
17:22
Speaker 1: people started decorating them with mistletoe and holly and stuff
17:25
Speaker 1: like that, and like you said, they really took off
17:27
Speaker 1: thanks to Prince Albert and that engraving. Yeah, and in
17:30
Speaker 1: Christmas lights clearly, which were introduced in eighteen ninety or
17:34
Speaker 1: in the eighteen nineties. And also, as I understand that
17:37
Speaker 1: gingerbread men, Yeah, that is based on a Saturnalia tradition
17:42
Speaker 1: from the ancient Romans where they would eat human shaped biscuits. Yeah,
17:48
Speaker 1: I think about that's what a ginger modes. Yeah. I
17:50
Speaker 1: love ginger cookies. Do you like those? Yeah? Are you
17:53
Speaker 1: with us? Okay, I'm having trouble enunciating during this one.
17:56
Speaker 1: I know it's strange, So Chuck, I think we've reached
17:59
Speaker 1: the uh, the big finish, the finale it was Jesus
18:05
Speaker 1: born on December is that we're gonna talk about and also,
18:08
Speaker 1: do you want to pop into quick facts. Yeah, So
18:10
Speaker 1: where's the word Christmas come from? Uh? It comes from Mars.
18:15
Speaker 1: It comes from an old English word or term Christ's
18:18
Speaker 1: mass right um or put together Christmas? And do you
18:23
Speaker 1: know where xmus came from? No, X was the standard
18:28
Speaker 1: abbreviation of capital X was the standard abbreviation to represent Christ.
18:32
Speaker 1: So really it's not taking Christ out of Christmas when
18:34
Speaker 1: you say x mess was an abbreviated version of christs.
18:38
Speaker 1: Did not know that because a lot of people take
18:40
Speaker 1: offense when you write xmus. People get really runtled up
18:43
Speaker 1: about this stuff. They do. They just need to drink
18:45
Speaker 1: a little egg nog, right, yeah, with rum, right delicious rum. So, Josh,
18:50
Speaker 1: let's talk about December and was Jesus really born on December.
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Speaker 1: There is a one in three hundred and sixty five
18:59
Speaker 1: or one and three hundred and sixty six chance, depending
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Speaker 1: on whether or not it was leap here, that he
19:05
Speaker 1: was born on December twenty Yeah, because the Bible doesn't
19:08
Speaker 1: say that Jesus was born on December twenty one. Thing
19:10
Speaker 1: I learned from this wonderful article written by our colleague
19:13
Speaker 1: Sarah Dowdy, who hosts Stuff You missed in history class
19:16
Speaker 1: um is that the early Church didn't care much about
19:20
Speaker 1: the Nativity about Jesus being born, that there was no celebration,
19:24
Speaker 1: didn't pick up, like we said, until the fourth century
19:27
Speaker 1: a d. Right, right, So yeah, there wasn't a lot
19:29
Speaker 1: of effort made to really date his birth early on. Yeah. Uh.
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Speaker 1: There's some clues though that it was probably not on December. Uh.
19:38
Speaker 1: In the chapter of Luke, they say that the shepherds
19:42
Speaker 1: are keeping watch over their flock by night day in night. Well, no,
19:46
Speaker 1: it just says they're flocked by night in the Bible. Whatever.
19:50
Speaker 1: Don't challenge me on the Bible, buddy, I know my Bible.
19:53
Speaker 1: But this suggests that it may have been actually in
19:55
Speaker 1: the spring, during spring lambing, because that is the only
19:58
Speaker 1: time of year where they you keep watch today and night.
20:01
Speaker 1: Otherwise it's just during the day, so day and night
20:04
Speaker 1: in that case, yes, okay, and you're waiting on that.
20:07
Speaker 1: So this one Bible scholar, his first name was Dionysus,
20:10
Speaker 1: I can't remember his last name. Uh, he calculated that, Um.
20:15
Speaker 1: I think he was the one that calculated December twenty Yes, Josh, chronographers.
20:20
Speaker 1: Here's another theory here that chronographers reckon that the world
20:24
Speaker 1: was created on the spring equinox, and then four days later,
20:28
Speaker 1: on March, light was created because the earth was created
20:33
Speaker 1: then got created light according to the Bible in Genesis,
20:35
Speaker 1: and since the existence of Jesus UH signaled the beginning
20:39
Speaker 1: of a new era of Christianity or creation Uh, the
20:42
Speaker 1: chronographers assumed that jesus conception would have fallen on March
20:46
Speaker 1: twenty five, which nine months after that would be which
20:52
Speaker 1: would be his birthday. Yeah, there's a modern Bible scholar
20:56
Speaker 1: who has gone a little broader trying to hammer out
20:59
Speaker 1: the extra a year and um by his reckoning, thanks
21:03
Speaker 1: to Um the presence of Herod King Herod was still alive.
21:08
Speaker 1: He dated it back and figured out that Jesus is
21:11
Speaker 1: probably born in four BC. Four BC, so not too
21:16
Speaker 1: far off as far as the year goes. Not bad.
21:19
Speaker 1: And again we should remind people that this December twenty
21:22
Speaker 1: thing was largely an attempt to steal um the winter
21:26
Speaker 1: solstice from the Pagans to convert them over to Christianity,
21:30
Speaker 1: So no one knows when Jesus was born. Yeah, and
21:32
Speaker 1: you know we're not saying all this to Pooh Pooh
21:34
Speaker 1: Christmas or the fact that Jesus may or may not
21:37
Speaker 1: have been born on December twenty. None of that matters.
21:40
Speaker 1: The origin doesn't matter. What matters is is that is
21:43
Speaker 1: the day that we celebrate it. And uh, all over
21:46
Speaker 1: the world, they're different traditions. Some people open their gifts
21:50
Speaker 1: and Christmas Eve, some people do it Christmas Day. Some
21:52
Speaker 1: people don't do Christmas at all. Some people don't celebrate
21:54
Speaker 1: it at all. You know, there's other religions out there.
21:57
Speaker 1: You heard about these, yeah, and and we're gonna cut
22:00
Speaker 1: over these at some other point. But this one is
22:02
Speaker 1: about Christmas. Yeah. Um. And if you think about it,
22:06
Speaker 1: from the true origins of Christmas, all of these disparate
22:09
Speaker 1: cultures being brought together and molded into this. Sure, you
22:13
Speaker 1: know it was done surreptitiously and a little sneakily, but
22:18
Speaker 1: it kind of reminds you, at the very least, it
22:20
Speaker 1: explains how this whole season it's based around Christmas in
22:23
Speaker 1: the United States. Um, kind of touches everybody. Sure, So
22:28
Speaker 1: that's Christmas, Chuck, Do we have any listener mail today? Oh? Yeah?
22:32
Speaker 1: If you want to know more about Christmas, you can
22:34
Speaker 1: type the end the handy search bar at how Stuff
22:36
Speaker 1: Works dot com uh, which then I guess leads us
22:39
Speaker 1: to listener mayo. Indeed, Josh, we have a couple of
22:42
Speaker 1: requests which we don't often honor here on the show.
22:46
Speaker 1: We're gonna this year. We love turning down people's requests
22:48
Speaker 1: because I feel bad for people that are born right
22:50
Speaker 1: around Christmas. Do because that just thinks. So, Hey, Josh
22:54
Speaker 1: Chuck and Jerry Chucker and Jerry, I have a sad
22:58
Speaker 1: Christmas story followed by a huge favor. My story starts
23:00
Speaker 1: almost twenty four years ago, the day after Christmas. That
23:06
Speaker 1: was the day my husband Ian was born. The unfortunate
23:09
Speaker 1: timing of his birth has caused a ton of bitterness
23:11
Speaker 1: over the years. It's all the gloom that comes after
23:14
Speaker 1: the presents are open. We are faced with the fact
23:16
Speaker 1: that Christmas is gone for a whole year, and then
23:18
Speaker 1: it's his birthday. What a let down? Uh. He absolutely
23:22
Speaker 1: hates his birthday as a result, and often refers to
23:24
Speaker 1: it as the most disappointing day of the year. It's awful. Uh.
23:28
Speaker 1: He is constantly played by the yearly Christmas Birthday present,
23:32
Speaker 1: of course, having his birthday gifts wrapped in Christmas paper.
23:36
Speaker 1: Just last year, he received a birthday gift with a
23:39
Speaker 1: candy cane tape to the front of it. That's awful. Uh.
23:42
Speaker 1: And he has never even had a birthday party in
23:44
Speaker 1: his whole life because no one ever wants to go
23:45
Speaker 1: out the day after Christmas. He's a complete afterthought. So
23:50
Speaker 1: here's my huge favor. Uh. He is a huge fan
23:52
Speaker 1: of your you guys, and I mean huge. He watches
23:56
Speaker 1: your live video cast every week. He must be the fan.
23:58
Speaker 1: Then he watches the pobcast and listens to the podcast
24:02
Speaker 1: every Tuesday and Thursday. And he also does his best
24:06
Speaker 1: to spread the word of stuff you should know to everyone,
24:09
Speaker 1: including me. So, by the way, now I'm Cloked's what
24:13
Speaker 1: she said. So I'm hoping you could make this the
24:15
Speaker 1: best birthday ever. From Ashley the birthday Fairy. Ashley, we're
24:19
Speaker 1: gonna give your husband a huge happy birthday here, Happy birthday,
24:23
Speaker 1: Happy birthday. And we're sorry you were born on the
24:27
Speaker 1: be glad you were born at all. That's what I say.
24:30
Speaker 1: But I'm sorry, dude, that stinks. And we're sending you
24:32
Speaker 1: like a T shirt or something. And she wanted to
24:34
Speaker 1: sign T shirt but with a candy cane tape to it. Yeah,
24:37
Speaker 1: we should totally do s Ian. You've got something coming
24:40
Speaker 1: your way, but it's not gonna be there by, But
24:42
Speaker 1: a happy birthday anyway, Ian, Josh, we have another one. Okay,
24:45
Speaker 1: this from Karen. I just wanted to ask for a
24:47
Speaker 1: huge favor. My partner, Tristan is a big fan of
24:50
Speaker 1: your show. In fact, thanks to you guys, he now
24:53
Speaker 1: has opinions on a range of subjects and it drives
24:55
Speaker 1: me crazy. He turns thirty on Christmas Eve, and that
24:58
Speaker 1: is today, if I'm not mistaken, and I'm trying to
25:02
Speaker 1: make it a little special by surprising him with thirty gifts,
25:05
Speaker 1: and it would freak him out if he was listening
25:07
Speaker 1: to your podcast and you wish him a happy birthday?
25:10
Speaker 1: Could you help me out? That would be awesome. So, Tristan,
25:14
Speaker 1: today actually is your birthday. Happy birthday, Happy birthday, Tristan.
25:18
Speaker 1: Are you freaked out thirty gifts? Yeah? So hopefully you're
25:24
Speaker 1: freaked out there in Australia, Tristan, Chris, Tristan, we're talking
25:29
Speaker 1: about you right now, Tristan. Yeah. Uh. And Josh, beyond that,
25:34
Speaker 1: do you want to say a few words here? I do. Actually,
25:36
Speaker 1: I want to wish my darling five ft one and
25:39
Speaker 1: a half inch half okanow and girlfriend you me happy
25:44
Speaker 1: birthday too. Her birthday is December, so she's one of
25:48
Speaker 1: those poor afflicted people born around Christmas time. Happy birthday, shortcake, Yeah,
25:54
Speaker 1: happy birthday. You mean you call a shortcake? I call
25:57
Speaker 1: a sugar little sweet. Yeah. So John here, we are
26:01
Speaker 1: close to the end of the year, and we'll go
26:03
Speaker 1: ahead and say our salutations here on Christmas Eve to
26:05
Speaker 1: everyone raise a toast of eggnog. Stuff you should know, Army.
26:10
Speaker 1: We're proud of you, guys. We're proud of each other. Jerry,
26:13
Speaker 1: we had a great year. It's been awesome. Great response
26:17
Speaker 1: has been a really big year. Yeah, it's just been awesome,
26:20
Speaker 1: and we feel great about it. And we feel awesome
26:22
Speaker 1: about the stuff. You should known. Army coming together and
26:25
Speaker 1: being so involved and donating tens of thousands of dollars,
26:30
Speaker 1: that's good stuff. As Josh says on the Keyva thing,
26:33
Speaker 1: what the finest people that have never met. That's close.
26:38
Speaker 1: That's what I feel like we are. Yeah. Well, thanks
26:40
Speaker 1: to all of you out there in s Y s
26:42
Speaker 1: k Land. We hope that your sugar plum dreams are
26:46
Speaker 1: all fulfilled, that you're all tucked in tight in your
26:50
Speaker 1: warm beds with somebody you love and who loves you.
26:53
Speaker 1: And we'll see in after two more episodes, and we
26:59
Speaker 1: will see to it that we keep you as informed
27:02
Speaker 1: and entertained in as we did in two thousand nine.
27:05
Speaker 1: We ain't going nowhere exactly. Um, Happy holidays? Is that
27:12
Speaker 1: it is that we're going to end this? Is that heartfelt? Enough? Yep? Okay?
27:23
Speaker 1: For more on this and thousands of other topics, is
27:25
Speaker 1: it how stuff works dot Com? Want more how stuff works?
27:29
Speaker 1: Check out our blogs on the house. Stuff works dot
27:31
Speaker 1: com home page. Brought to you by the reinvented two
27:37
Speaker 1: thousand twelve Camray. It's ready, are you