Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented twenty twelve Camri. It's ready.
Speaker 1: Are you welcome to you stuff you should know from
Speaker 1: HowStuffWorks dot Com.
Speaker 2: Hey, and welcome to the podcast Mark here the bells
Speaker 2: a Christmas podcast. Yeah, this is a Christmas podcast, the
Speaker 2: Holiday Special. Uh huh. Lots of glad tidings here. Yeah,
Speaker 2: your ear buds are gonna be bursting with them.
Speaker 3: We have real muppets.
Speaker 2: I wish, I so wished.
Speaker 3: You just look so disappointed.
Speaker 2: Really for a second, what do you yeah, surprise, I wish. No,
Speaker 2: there's no muppets. Thanks for the letdown already, it's like
Speaker 2: thirty seconds into this thing. No, instead, chuck, this is
Speaker 2: it's our higher Holiday Special where we put together some
Speaker 2: little Christmas podcasts that we're going to do. Get some shorties,
Speaker 2: some longies.
Speaker 4: We're gonna dispel some myths, we're gonna enforce some myths.
Speaker 2: That's right, and we're gonna explain the origins of some things.
Speaker 2: And if you're all very good boys and girls, we
Speaker 2: may even read a story at the end. How do
Speaker 2: you like that? That's exciting? Yeah, So this is a
Speaker 2: little different. It's a little a little it's packed with
Speaker 2: at least one hundred and twenty percent more holiday cheer
Speaker 2: than our typical episode. Yes, like shrunken heads, right, maybe
Speaker 2: that one is up to like one hundred and eighty
Speaker 2: percent more, And this.
Speaker 4: One will come out I believe on what like the
Speaker 4: twenty second Yeah, just.
Speaker 2: A it's Christmas Eve, Eve Eve, that's right.
Speaker 4: But you should be off work as far as I'm
Speaker 4: concerned already and like roasting chestnuts.
Speaker 2: But even if you're not, it's that time of year
Speaker 2: where like you're going to work and you feel absolutely
Speaker 2: great about things, you know what I'm talking about. Have
Speaker 2: you ever worked retail on the holiday season? Yeah, even
Speaker 2: in retail right before Christmas, you can feel terrific work
Speaker 2: as a gap. I worked at American Eagle. Really Yeah?
Speaker 3: What was on your heavy rotate?
Speaker 2: There?
Speaker 3: Santa's got a brand new bag? James Brown?
Speaker 2: Over and over ours? Was that Chrissy hind one about?
Speaker 2: It is a good one except when you hear eight
Speaker 2: hundred times. Yeah, it was a good mix, but y end,
Speaker 2: it was the same mix over and over again. What's
Speaker 2: my favorite Christmas song of all time? Yeah? Gosh, that's tough,
Speaker 2: So I would have to say Chuck my favorite Christmas
Speaker 2: performers are Johnny Mathis and Fronte and Tyscher. Excellent Christmas album.
Speaker 2: Bing Crosby's Christmas Album is possibly the greatest Christmas album
Speaker 2: ever released Carpenters. Maybe that's a good one. Definitely. Bing
Speaker 2: Crosby is at least tied with the Charlie Brown Christmas
Speaker 2: Special Soundtrack, the Vince Giraldi Trio soundtrack, Classic Jazz Vince,
Speaker 2: and of course William's Last Christmas. That's a good one.
Speaker 2: I'm not kidding like it's good. It's probably the best
Speaker 2: can temporary Christmas song of all time if you ask me.
Speaker 4: I haven't gotten it yet, but my morning Jacket has
Speaker 4: a Christmas EP they just put out, which I'm gonna get,
Speaker 4: and then I think it's.
Speaker 3: The waitresses Merry Christmas.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's Emily's favorite and has since become one of
Speaker 4: my favorites.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a good one too, very upbeat. When at
Speaker 2: the end of like the Gong Show or something, you just.
Speaker 4: Said, no, no, no, it's the horn break and Merry
Speaker 4: Christmas by the Waitresses.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a good song.
Speaker 3: So is that enough pilabor for the beginning?
Speaker 2: I think, So let's get to it. We're doing this
Speaker 2: a little differently. There is gonna be a little bit
Speaker 2: of Christmas cheer between some of the segments, and we
Speaker 2: hope that this finds you with a nice cup of cocoa.
Speaker 2: You're a warm fire or scotch that too. If you're
Speaker 2: a night watchman, sure that there are. You're surrounded by
Speaker 2: people you care about who care about you. Yeah, or
Speaker 2: at the very least, you're having a good time with us.
Speaker 4: Regardless of how you choose to celebrate this time of
Speaker 4: the year. We're going with Christmas because that's what we do.
Speaker 2: That's a great point, Chuck.
Speaker 4: Yeah, But we respect all religions and stuff like that, right.
Speaker 2: We wish glad tidings to all. So let's get it started,
Speaker 2: shall we. Yes, let's.
Speaker 3: So Josh to kick this extravaganza off, this cheer fest as.
Speaker 2: You call it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, let's let's talk a little bit about Christmas caroling.
Speaker 2: You ever do that I have as a child, that
Speaker 2: going door to door singing like Christmas songs, Narco ballads, whatever.
Speaker 2: As long as you're doing a door to door and
Speaker 2: it's winter, you're in the clear as a carol. I
Speaker 2: don't know about that, but you know, originally they started
Speaker 2: out as very secular. They weren't religious necessarily.
Speaker 4: Well, that's true, and in fact, the word carol itself
Speaker 4: lies not in song, as Sam Abramson, our old little
Speaker 4: buddy has to say, but in dance. An old French
Speaker 4: Carol with an e at the end means a kind
Speaker 4: of dance. In Latin carola means a dance to a flute,
Speaker 4: and in Greek caroleas means a.
Speaker 3: Flute player who accompanies the coral dance.
Speaker 4: So it was all about dance early on, and some
Speaker 4: were religious early on, but generally there were secular dance
Speaker 4: tunes American.
Speaker 2: Bandstand, the Eleven Lords of Leaping, you could consider them caroling,
Speaker 2: especially if there was a flute that they were leaping
Speaker 2: to good point. So, like a lot of Christmas traditions,
Speaker 2: which if you go back and listen to last year's
Speaker 2: How Christmas Worked, I think it was in past tense
Speaker 2: for some reason. Really episode yeah.
Speaker 3: Because we killed Christmas.
Speaker 2: I guess. Yeah, Silent night, deadly night happened. And you'll
Speaker 2: find that there is a lot of I guess stealing
Speaker 2: going on through Christmas traditions from pagan holidays, specifically Northern
Speaker 2: European pagan holidays, specifically the winter solstice festival of Yule,
Speaker 2: which is where we get Yule tie, Yule log, all
Speaker 2: that stuff, all the mules. But they think that caroling
Speaker 2: originally has its roots in the Yule festival, where a
Speaker 2: lot of Northern Europeans got together and said, let's sing,
Speaker 2: let's dance. Maybe there's a flute, maybe there's not, but
Speaker 2: there's probably wassale. Yes.
Speaker 4: Wassale is a thick, hot, spicy beverage that they would
Speaker 4: give travelers, you know, to keep them warm and to
Speaker 4: wish them well. And it became a holiday staple obviously
Speaker 4: because of the weather.
Speaker 2: Have you ever had it? Now? Have you no? But
Speaker 2: I want to. Typically it's like cider, brandy, yeah, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, oranges, apple, sure, honey,
Speaker 2: sugar yum, and hot orange. Just take a take a crockpot,
Speaker 2: an ancient pagan crock pot if you can. That's customarily
Speaker 2: how it's how it's heated well.
Speaker 4: And from that word, uh, jolly, bands of churchgoers would
Speaker 4: go door to door and it's.
Speaker 3: An old Norse term. They would call it watling or
Speaker 3: was sailing?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Is it what's sailing?
Speaker 2: I think so?
Speaker 4: And they would spread the joy through hymns Christmas hymns, right,
Speaker 4: and that was although see I thought that would have
Speaker 4: been the origin of caroling, but Sam says here, we
Speaker 4: don't really know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Sam kind of bounces all over the place in
Speaker 2: this mini article. But it's Sam. I wonder if he listens,
Speaker 2: you know, if you if you're listening, Sam, we miss you, buddy,
Speaker 2: glad tidings to you.
Speaker 3: Sam used to work here, by the way, If you
Speaker 3: haven't picked up on that.
Speaker 2: So chuck it. It's possible. There's well, there's different aspects
Speaker 2: to it. So you have the carrols, right, Yes, a
Speaker 2: lot of carrols like oh come all, ye faithful guy,
Speaker 2: rest ye married gentlemen. I saw three ships of sailing,
Speaker 2: that kind of stuff. Silent night, silent I. They're very
Speaker 2: very religious, very very Christian. They are talking about the Nativity, right,
Speaker 2: the birth of Christ exactly. Like I said, carols were
Speaker 2: originally secular, although I'm not exactly sure what they were
Speaker 2: singing about necessarily, right, maybe like it's cold, it's really cold.
Speaker 2: Come we have some wacle right, and that was a carol, sure,
Speaker 2: But in about the fourth or fifth century AD, carols
Speaker 2: were written in Latin. They were very solemn, serious, not
Speaker 2: necessarily associated with Christmas. It wasn't until the thirteenth century
Speaker 2: when Saint Francis of ASSISI said, you know what I
Speaker 2: need to jazz up my congregation. I'm going to make
Speaker 2: some upbeat, up tempo carols. They're going to be about
Speaker 2: the Nativity, but they're going to be happy, and I'm
Speaker 2: going to make everybody sing them on Christmas. And that
Speaker 2: was the birth of the Christmas carol.
Speaker 4: As we know it exactly. And they were very energetic,
Speaker 4: as you said, and that spread through across Europe, and
Speaker 4: of course anything that spread across Europe was eventually going
Speaker 4: to root down here in the New World. That's right,
Speaker 4: the United States. And eventually little Chuck's gonna find himself
Speaker 4: as a fifteen year old going door to door in
Speaker 4: Snow Mountain.
Speaker 3: With his youth group.
Speaker 2: That is nice, Chuck, It was nice. I'll say, you're
Speaker 2: such a supportive like fellow youth group member. Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: you really nailed that, Carol. I've been paying attention to
Speaker 2: you at practice and you really nailed it. Oh I
Speaker 2: didn't ever do it though, that's the key. Well, that's
Speaker 2: not overdoing it. You mean it.
Speaker 3: These days, a lot of groups do this for for charity.
Speaker 4: Like I said, churches, and I didn't get for charity
Speaker 4: though they hit people up for money or something.
Speaker 2: I think that people sometimes give him tips in lieu
Speaker 2: of wasasle because it's kind of hard to come by
Speaker 2: sometimes in the average house in Michigan. Sure, they don't
Speaker 2: necessarily have wacle there, so sometimes people give people money.
Speaker 2: There's like an exchange of something. It's almost like a
Speaker 2: Halloween Well, you're actually giving somebody something in the form
Speaker 2: of like well wishes or glad.
Speaker 4: Tidings exactly, but you're earning your keep. As Sam pointed out,
Speaker 4: this could have come from the feudal tradition of singing
Speaker 4: for your supper. Another idea of possibly where Carolyn.
Speaker 2: Began, or going door to door, especially singing for your supper. Right, sure,
Speaker 2: because it's not just the caroling. There's a thing of
Speaker 2: going door to door. Why are people going door to door?
Speaker 2: Why don't they just stand in a central location make
Speaker 2: everybody come to them. Yeah, you can, but you're not
Speaker 2: really doing the whole thing.
Speaker 4: There's another legend, Sam says, probably isn't true. There's no
Speaker 4: basis for it, but there was a young girl named
Speaker 4: Carol Poles, and she was a little English girl who
Speaker 4: went missing very sadly in London during the holiday season
Speaker 4: the nineteenth century. They went door to door looking for her,
Speaker 4: singing to declare their good intentions, like, hey, don't shoot
Speaker 4: us in the face, We're really just looking for little Carol.
Speaker 4: But Sam goes on to say that there's really no
Speaker 4: basis in fact for this. It might just be legend.
Speaker 2: So you want to talk about a few Carols, A
Speaker 2: couple of twelve days of Christmas? I mentioned eleven Lord's
Speaker 2: a leaping. A lot of people say that this is
Speaker 2: a means of secretly teaching children the Catholic symbols and
Speaker 2: values and beliefs from a time when you couldn't practice it,
Speaker 2: and that's bunk.
Speaker 4: Well, or teaching them memory at least, and how to
Speaker 4: recall things. Well, that's true, that's true, But the Catholic
Speaker 4: parts fault.
Speaker 2: Right, right, And twelve Days of Christmas came about around
Speaker 2: eighteenth century in England, so it makes it something of
Speaker 2: an old one, but definitely not the oldest. What about Tenembaum,
Speaker 2: that's one of my favors.
Speaker 3: That's a classic.
Speaker 2: Aka Christmas Tree.
Speaker 4: That's right, that is a German in origin, and we're
Speaker 4: going to pick up on that in a later story.
Speaker 2: By the way, the exact roots.
Speaker 4: Are not known, but the melody might be familiar to
Speaker 4: you if you live in Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, or New Jersey,
Speaker 4: because your state anthem is sung to the tune of
Speaker 4: Christmas Tree.
Speaker 2: Who knew, Chuck, Let's get to the bottom of probably
Speaker 2: one of the great mysteries. I know what you're gonna Christmas? Yeah,
Speaker 2: what is figgy pudding?
Speaker 4: If you're in England, you're gonna say, of course we
Speaker 4: know what piggy pudding is, right, but it's it's British
Speaker 4: in origin.
Speaker 2: If you're in America and you're familiar with the carol
Speaker 2: we wish you had married Christmas and the line we
Speaker 2: won't go until we get some, We won't go until
Speaker 2: we get some. Now bring it right here. I think
Speaker 2: that are e figgy pudding.
Speaker 4: Comes after bring us some figgy pudding? I believe is
Speaker 4: the more on the nose line. Okay, which precedes it?
Speaker 2: Right? Sure, I said, are e figgy pudding? Oh okay, yeah,
Speaker 2: sorry about that.
Speaker 3: It is British. It's a dessert.
Speaker 4: It is uh sort of like carrot cake meets custard,
Speaker 4: but it's got chopped figs in it and spices and things.
Speaker 2: I don't know. Does it sound good to you? Yes?
Speaker 2: Oh really, yes. I love carrot cake, but I love custard.
Speaker 3: I'm not a big custard guy.
Speaker 2: I would definitely try it, all right.
Speaker 4: They said it's unique in the texture and taste, and
Speaker 4: I'm not gonna that.
Speaker 2: So while you're sitting there by the fire, maybe now
Speaker 2: that we've kind of given you roughly the recipes for
Speaker 2: wassle and figgy pudding, you go make this. We'll be
Speaker 2: right here.
Speaker 3: Someone should send us figgy pudding.
Speaker 2: They should, all the way from England. Chuck, Josh, I'm
Speaker 2: sure you, being a sentient person, have noticed that there
Speaker 2: are there's a plant, a Christmas plant, as it were,
Speaker 2: like probably the official flora mascout of Christmas, the cactus.
Speaker 2: Uh no, no, the points said to you, Yes, the
Speaker 2: very brilliantly colored red leafed plant that you see everywhere
Speaker 2: this time of year.
Speaker 3: Did you say red leaf?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 4: Well that's good that you said that, Josh, because a
Speaker 4: lot of people, because the leaves are so gorgeous and
Speaker 4: red and shaped like stars, think that that is the
Speaker 4: flower and the flowers, in fact, the little yellow thing
Speaker 4: in the center.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and the flowers like oh orh somebody would pay
Speaker 2: attention to me. I know, but I'm small and yellow.
Speaker 2: So what this is? You agree then that probably the
Speaker 2: official plant of Christmas besides missiletoe. And really that's just
Speaker 2: a cutting the official plant with a root ball of Christmas.
Speaker 4: To the tune of about two hundred million dollars in
Speaker 4: sales every holiday.
Speaker 2: But the crazy thing is as much as it's associated
Speaker 2: with Christmas and snow and sleigh rides and things like that. Sure,
Speaker 2: the point Setti is native to Mexico. I had no idea,
Speaker 2: did neither. No. It grows to heights of about twelve feet.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a shrub, a tropical shrub.
Speaker 2: Yeah, in southern Mexico. And actually it turns out that
Speaker 2: it's a Christmas It's associated with Christmas thanks to America's
Speaker 2: first diplomat to Mexico, a guy named doctor Joe Roberts.
Speaker 2: Point set were they named after? Okay?
Speaker 3: Yeah, he in the nineteenth century.
Speaker 4: He went down to Mexico eighteen twenty eight, discovered the
Speaker 4: point Setia and thought, hey, this is really really pretty.
Speaker 4: I bet this would look great on my mantle in
Speaker 4: my heart in December.
Speaker 2: In South Carolina? Is that where it was?
Speaker 4: Yeah, South Carolina, And so he brought it back and
Speaker 4: it wasn't initially, it didn't catch on like wildfire initially,
Speaker 4: but over the years throughout the twentieth century, it became
Speaker 4: the mainstay of Christmas.
Speaker 2: It also suffered some indignity in what it was called
Speaker 2: before it finally landed on point Setia, like, oh really,
Speaker 2: the lobster flower or the Mexican flame leaf, like lobster flower.
Speaker 2: And then well, actually down in Mexico they considered it
Speaker 2: a holy plan as well. It's called the florist de
Speaker 2: Nocee Buayna in Mexico. That's Spanish for Flowers of the
Speaker 2: Holy Night. Yeah, And that's based on a Christmas story
Speaker 2: that's told down Mexico way about a little girl who
Speaker 2: is very, very poor and who was there at the
Speaker 2: birth of Jesus and all she had was weeds to
Speaker 2: bring him. As she showed up, the weeds bloomed into
Speaker 2: the beautiful point Setia plant.
Speaker 3: Hey, that sounds like a good story.
Speaker 2: It's a great story.
Speaker 3: I don't buy it.
Speaker 2: It's better than the lobster flower. Story because in that
Speaker 2: version it turns into an angry lobster.
Speaker 4: So that is generally where people think that they got
Speaker 4: the Christmas tie right.
Speaker 2: Well, that and the fact that they bloom in December.
Speaker 4: Right, And another interpretation is that it's a symbol of
Speaker 4: the Star of Bethlehem because the leaf looks like a
Speaker 4: star in a way.
Speaker 2: And then the real interpretation is that they bloom in
Speaker 2: December exactly right. So is that it Well, no, there's
Speaker 2: a lot of a lot of scorn heaped on points
Speaker 2: set he is that they are in fact poisonous. It
Speaker 2: turns out that they will give you diarrhea if you
Speaker 2: eat leaves which are called bracts the upper portion of
Speaker 2: the which why would you do that because you're a
Speaker 2: little kid and it's red. Okay, you will get a
Speaker 2: little case of diarrhea, you're telling me, will hurt, but
Speaker 2: you won't. It's not fatal. Apparently scientists somehow figured out
Speaker 2: that a little kid would have to eat about five
Speaker 2: hundred point seati of bracts for it to become a
Speaker 2: toxic dose. So you want to keep them away from
Speaker 2: the points that he is anyway, just so they don't
Speaker 2: have diarrhea. This Christmas. But you don't have to worry
Speaker 2: about them dying at least.
Speaker 4: And as my wife pointed out, oh, but they're toxic
Speaker 4: to cats.
Speaker 3: I look that up. They are somewhat toxic to cats,
Speaker 3: but I don't know if they're deadly.
Speaker 4: And the website I found said cats aren't gonna really
Speaker 4: like the taste that much anyway, so you really don't
Speaker 4: need to sweat it. But if your leaves drop off
Speaker 4: on the floor and you got cats, you might as
Speaker 4: well pick it up and put it in the trash
Speaker 4: because you don't want to make kiddy sick.
Speaker 2: It's true.
Speaker 4: Ever, Laurn and the Wizard are point Setia free.
Speaker 3: Although my house is riddled with them.
Speaker 2: With Lauran and the Wizard, no with point Setius. Well, Chuck,
Speaker 2: we missed it this year, but next year, well now know. Also,
Speaker 2: December twelfth is National point Setia Day in the United States,
Speaker 2: aka go.
Speaker 4: Out and buy some point Settias. Yes, so that's point
Speaker 4: Setia it is.
Speaker 2: And I want to take this opportunity to wish merry
Speaker 2: Christmas to the Wizard and Lauren. Thank you. They have
Speaker 2: their stockings.
Speaker 4: What I'm hoping is that because of this podcast, there
Speaker 4: will be tens of thousands of people all over the
Speaker 4: country saying, Hey, did you know the point Setti is
Speaker 4: actually from Mexico?
Speaker 3: I hope that happens around dinner tables all over the world.
Speaker 2: Chuck, it's time for probably my favorite Christmas story.
Speaker 3: My favorite, You like this one? My new favorite?
Speaker 2: You weren't You weren't familiar with this until recently.
Speaker 4: Well I sort of was. Here's the deal. I saw
Speaker 4: the movie at midnight. Clear Have you ever seen that?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I know, yes, I have been not for years.
Speaker 2: I forgot about that.
Speaker 4: Really good movie and uh, not so much based on
Speaker 4: but inspired by this story.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it was always one of my favorite movies.
Speaker 4: But there was actually another movie that hits this one
Speaker 4: on the head from five years.
Speaker 2: Ago, cannon Ball Run. What it's called.
Speaker 3: It's a foreign film called joyex Noel, which means Merry
Speaker 3: Christmas Noel. Yes, and it tells this story straight.
Speaker 2: Up, does it? So? The story that you're talking about,
Speaker 2: I want to explain to you is called The Christmas Truth.
Speaker 2: It is so great and it is a true story,
Speaker 2: as you're saying, and it took place in World War one.
Speaker 2: World War one, Chuck, humans have gotten pretty good at
Speaker 2: war by the time World War World War one came around.
Speaker 4: World War One, the more I hear about it, it
Speaker 4: sounds like perhaps the most brutal of the world wars.
Speaker 2: It gave us our first understanding of PTSD, which we
Speaker 2: used to call shell shock. Yeah, it gave us mustard
Speaker 2: gas posgen gas, chlorine gas. Chemical warfare is another way
Speaker 2: to put it. Powers, yeap tanks, machine guns that could
Speaker 2: spit out six hundred bullets a.
Speaker 4: Minute, airplanes in combat, mass bombing, dropping bombs on civilians.
Speaker 2: And most pertinent to this story, trenches. Trench warfare. Yeah,
Speaker 2: this is nutty. The trenches made their debut along the
Speaker 2: Western Front in Europe apparently too great success. Too great
Speaker 2: of a success. For example, the Battle of Verdun lasted
Speaker 2: nine months, there were three hundred thousand deaths and almost
Speaker 2: no changes in the positions between the two trenches.
Speaker 4: I mean, war was so enthrallingly basic back then. It
Speaker 4: was literally just like gaining ground foot by foot.
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, but this was the first step toward modern warfare.
Speaker 2: It was that. Yeah, but it was the first step
Speaker 2: toward modern warfare where you could kill a bunch of
Speaker 2: people at once, and a lot of people did die
Speaker 2: from World War One. Eight point five million people died
Speaker 2: from the war, including civilians as well.
Speaker 4: Well, you make a really startling point in here, and
Speaker 4: this is your article, right, Yes, with the trenches. Sometimes
Speaker 4: these things were as little as thirty yards apart from
Speaker 4: each other. And out of all the hundreds of miles
Speaker 4: of these trenches, there was an average of four soldiers
Speaker 4: or no, a soldier every four inches.
Speaker 2: That's the average, that's what I read. Wow, isn't that astounding? Boy?
Speaker 4: That is some close quarters. It is exped well, and
Speaker 4: it's not just close quarters. Boy that it's inconvenient close
Speaker 4: quarters to be scared out of.
Speaker 3: Your mind, yeah, or wounded and dying.
Speaker 2: Yeah, crazy to see somebody next to you. It was horrific.
Speaker 2: And one of the one of the things that naturally
Speaker 2: comes about when you dig two trenches and are fighting
Speaker 2: one another is a space in between with a lot
Speaker 2: of dead guys. And that's yes, that's called no man's land. Yeah,
Speaker 2: the space between two trenches called no man's land.
Speaker 3: Is that where that term originated?
Speaker 2: Really? Yes? So cool? And so World War One was
Speaker 2: already in full swing by the time Pope Benedict the
Speaker 2: fifteenth was elected. Pope and one of the first things
Speaker 2: he did was say, hey, hey, hey, let's have a
Speaker 2: truthless Christmas Day. Yeah, good idea. Apparently the Germans said, okay,
Speaker 2: all right, we'll think about it, and the Allies said,
Speaker 2: no way, We're not going to give up any fortification
Speaker 2: or even a single antwer. We just got to keep going.
Speaker 4: Right, I get the idea. That word got around though
Speaker 4: at least.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he had called for it, sure right, and that
Speaker 2: it was turned down. And for the most part, for
Speaker 2: almost everywhere in the world, there wasn't a truce on
Speaker 2: Christmas Day, sept for one little part of the trenches
Speaker 2: in Flanders, Belgium. Chuck, this is such a great story.
Speaker 4: If you've seen the movie, you know that what the
Speaker 4: Germans did well. First of all, they all got gifts
Speaker 4: brought to the front line soldiers did tobacco puddings, maybe
Speaker 4: figgy pudding at times, chocolates, just.
Speaker 3: Little tokens of appreciation.
Speaker 4: That the Germans got their little tannem bombs with these
Speaker 4: little small Christmas trees. And in the middle of the night,
Speaker 4: these Germans.
Speaker 3: Put up their little.
Speaker 2: Trees on Christmas Eve.
Speaker 4: On Christmas Eve lit their little candles and the dudes
Speaker 4: I don't know if it was thirty yards, but the
Speaker 4: dudes acrossing the other trench the Allies were like, well, hey,
Speaker 4: that looks kind of nice. And then all of a
Speaker 4: sudden they saw these signs from the Germans said you know, fight,
Speaker 4: we know fight.
Speaker 2: That's adorable, and the British held up signs that said
Speaker 2: Merry Christmas.
Speaker 3: He said, what the heck are you talking about?
Speaker 2: But I think what originally got them was the Germans,
Speaker 2: with their little Christmas trees on the tops of their
Speaker 2: trenches everyone could see, started singing carols, and carols are
Speaker 2: kind of universal. They're pretty old, sure, and I imagine
Speaker 2: they were probably singing oh ten and bomb, which sounds
Speaker 2: to the English like oh Christmas tree, and the British
Speaker 2: soldiers started singing back to them football fight songs. Yeah.
Speaker 4: The Germans then sang steel a nacht yea, and they're like,
Speaker 4: you're not picking up on what we're trying to do here, guys.
Speaker 2: Put the whiskey down.
Speaker 4: But what ended up happening was little by little, they
Speaker 4: started poking their heads up, saying, yeah, you're not gonna
Speaker 4: shoot me, are you.
Speaker 2: They're like, uh no, I'm not gonna shoot you.
Speaker 3: If you don't shoot me. And then they met up
Speaker 3: in no Man's land and partied down.
Speaker 2: Yep, they had Christmas celebration and No Man's Land in
Speaker 2: the trench was like Christmas nineteen fourteen.
Speaker 4: They shared tobacco, yeah, I imagine they shared their puddings.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they exchanged them as gifts pretty much. The soccer
Speaker 2: match broke out, yeah, and the Germans won three to two.
Speaker 3: I bet as cheery as it was.
Speaker 4: Anytime England and Germany gets together to play football, it's
Speaker 4: not a very pleasant, So I bet you there was
Speaker 4: some elbows being thrown, maybe a.
Speaker 2: Little bit, although I'll bet it was kind of like hey, sorry.
Speaker 3: Sorry, but they still wanted to win.
Speaker 2: Yeah. There was a juggler at one point along the
Speaker 2: front and he put on a nice little show German guy, right. Yeah.
Speaker 2: And for in a lot of circumstances, there were places
Speaker 2: where fighting did continue, and in some circumstances, commanding officers
Speaker 2: like established a formal impromptu truce with the opposing commanding officer.
Speaker 2: In some places, commanding officers said you need to keep fighting,
Speaker 2: and soldiers from both sides just defied their orders and stopped.
Speaker 2: I love that. And then in some commanding officers just
Speaker 2: kind of looked the other way or didn't do anything
Speaker 2: about it. But soldiers were there in the middle of
Speaker 2: no man's land, who they've just been shooting at just
Speaker 2: hours before, were now playing soccer with and making jokes
Speaker 2: and smoking with and hanging out.
Speaker 3: That's pretty awesome.
Speaker 4: Yeah, because you think, I mean, I don't know, it's
Speaker 4: crazy for our generation to think about these world wars
Speaker 4: in Europe because if you ever traveled around Europe just
Speaker 4: to imagine these what would be equivalent of our states
Speaker 4: just going at it when in fact Europe is you know,
Speaker 4: it's its own, small, smallish place. They're right there across
Speaker 4: the border and they're like, you know, hey, dudes, we're
Speaker 4: not so far apart.
Speaker 2: It could be like Tennessee fighting Kansas.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's great.
Speaker 2: Or Georgia. No, I'm just saying, like Tennessee and Kansas
Speaker 2: can fight too.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 2: Sure, I was trying to keep us out of it, Okay,
Speaker 2: more Switzerland.
Speaker 4: I just thought you were giving a Kansas shout out.
Speaker 2: No, okay, no, but I should huh yeah, sure, Merry Christmas, Kansas.
Speaker 4: So the sad part about this is that, of course
Speaker 4: there was a war to be fought. At the end
Speaker 4: of this truce in nineteen fourteen, they had to go
Speaker 4: back to fighting and killing each other.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the same dudes.
Speaker 3: They were just playing soccer within hugging and drinking.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And sometimes the shots picked up, you know, on
Speaker 2: Christmas or the day after Christmas. But in some places,
Speaker 2: some of this this troops went on beyond New Year
Speaker 2: to the New Year. That's awesome, It is very awesome,
Speaker 2: But it's crazy, Chuck, if you ask me, is not
Speaker 2: that the Christmas Truth happened on that Christmas in nineteen
Speaker 2: fourteen in the trenches Long Flanders, Belgium, but that they
Speaker 2: ever went back to fighting again? Agreed?
Speaker 3: And that is a story of the nineteen fourteen Christmas Truth.
Speaker 4: Is enough, hiding enough?
Speaker 5: You're going from Napy' clocket.
Speaker 2: It is.
Speaker 5: Oh so josh, that is uh?
Speaker 3: Part three? Was that Part four?
Speaker 2: In the fog of the Christmas spirit? Chuck, I can't
Speaker 2: even count. I'm so giddy.
Speaker 4: Let's move on to one of my favorite parts about Christmas.
Speaker 4: It's not the big gifts, but the stocking stuffers.
Speaker 3: Right, one of my favorite parts.
Speaker 4: Growing up was getting up on Christmas morning, going downstairs
Speaker 4: Scott Michelle Chuck each had her own individual stockings. They
Speaker 4: were not like they weren't even the same. They were
Speaker 4: styled differently. Oh okay, yeah, and seeing what was in there,
Speaker 4: and because it was my family, it was the occasional
Speaker 4: small action figure or babble, but generally it was things
Speaker 4: like toothbrushes and the deodorant in stocks and these like
Speaker 4: necessities of life that my family should have been providing
Speaker 4: me with anyway. Sure, but they were stuffed in the
Speaker 4: stocking and I always get a good crack up about
Speaker 4: that thinking about that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's the odorant. My family had matching stockings.
Speaker 2: They were all macro made by a family friend. Oh sure,
Speaker 2: but yeah there would be stuff in They're like little
Speaker 2: thing like chapstick or something like that. An action figure
Speaker 2: was great stocking stuffer. But we always got an apple
Speaker 2: and an orange.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah, we got candy and stuff.
Speaker 2: We get candy as well, And I'd be like, why
Speaker 2: is there an apple and an orange in here? Who
Speaker 2: wants this apple and orange? This is not candy? So
Speaker 2: I would give mine away, right, And I'm probably less
Speaker 2: healthy today because it didn't eat that apple and that
Speaker 2: orange on Christmas more, but you're eating them now I am.
Speaker 4: My faves were the little hollowed out plastic candy canes
Speaker 4: with the little tiny eminem like things inside.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, but they weren't m and ms. They had
Speaker 3: a very distinct flavor.
Speaker 2: Which was not eminem flavor exactly. But Chuck, I remember
Speaker 2: being a young lad and getting my stocking down and
Speaker 2: being so excited and then just stopping and being like,
Speaker 2: this is insane. Where did this start?
Speaker 3: You remember thinking that?
Speaker 2: And now I know, Now I understand why where the
Speaker 2: idea of stockings came from.
Speaker 4: Well we have the answer, Josh. Saint Nicholas. Originally St.
Speaker 4: Nicholas goes back to the third century.
Speaker 2: You remember we talked about him and the how Christmas worked.
Speaker 3: Yes, so a brief recap.
Speaker 4: The ancient town of Myra and what is now Turkey
Speaker 4: is had a shrine dedicated to Bishop Nicholas. Over the centuries,
Speaker 4: tale sprung up about how generous Bishop Nicholas was, and
Speaker 4: this is where we first got the idea of Saint
Speaker 4: Nick being a gift giver. So that's where it starts.
Speaker 4: The actual stocking part of this whole story is Nicholas
Speaker 4: would go by the homes of these ladies that were
Speaker 4: too poor to have a dowry, which is the dough
Speaker 4: that your family has to give to your husband goat which.
Speaker 2: I got no dowry. Are you going to get a dowry? No, no,
Speaker 2: I don't believe so. My dowry's in happiness exactly.
Speaker 3: That's what Emily always tells me.
Speaker 4: And then the bishop would throw these gold coins down
Speaker 4: to these poor maidens down the chimneys, and they would
Speaker 4: fall into the stockings which were already hanging there to
Speaker 4: dry out of fire, and boom, there's your little of trivia.
Speaker 2: And I went back and looked, and I was like,
Speaker 2: were there stockings in third century Turkey? There may have been, sure,
Speaker 2: if you consider sock stockings, but they would have been
Speaker 2: a new invention, because socks were invented by the Romans
Speaker 2: in about the third century.
Speaker 3: And stockings they didn't proceed that at all.
Speaker 2: Of it was an offshoot of socks.
Speaker 4: In my opinion, I would have thought socks would have
Speaker 4: been an offshoot of stockings, but I don't think.
Speaker 2: The other closer to home temporally idea is that we
Speaker 2: put stockings out because we're mimicking little Dutch children who
Speaker 2: for their center claws, who rides a horse. They tend
Speaker 2: to leave in their little wooden shoes. Hey for the horse,
Speaker 2: for center clauses horse.
Speaker 3: Is that why we leave out cookies and stuff for Santa?
Speaker 2: Yes, for the reindeer. We left beer. We left old
Speaker 2: Milwaukee and Christmas cookies and a carrot.
Speaker 4: And your family did yeah really, ye see, beer wasn't
Speaker 4: allowed on our households.
Speaker 2: We left milk and cookies. My father strongly encouraged us
Speaker 2: to leave beer for Santa. I wonder why an old
Speaker 2: Milwaukee tall boy. But so Dutch children would leave their
Speaker 2: little wooden shoes out with hay, and then Santa would
Speaker 2: take the hay and feed it to his horse, and
Speaker 2: in exchange leave presence in the little wooden shoes. And
Speaker 2: they think that it started in America in the early
Speaker 2: nineteenth century and it was from emulating this Dutch custom.
Speaker 2: Pretty cool. That's where we get stockings.
Speaker 4: So let's just roll this one right in. I consider
Speaker 4: this next one almost a companion piece.
Speaker 2: Oh you do, because we're.
Speaker 3: Talking about Christmas Day.
Speaker 4: So we're going to talk about an odd thing that
Speaker 4: happened in Atlanta last year. We actually had our first
Speaker 4: white Christmas in a long long time.
Speaker 2: We did didn't we It was very very cool. It
Speaker 2: was very sweet. Well, Chuck, white Christmas. You know, I'm
Speaker 2: dreaming of a white Christmas. It's a song that was
Speaker 2: written by Irving Berlin in January of nineteen forty. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so he's obviously still in the Christmas It's in the
Speaker 2: Guinness Book of World Records for selling one hundred million copies,
Speaker 2: which is a lot of copies. Wow. Remember I was
Speaker 2: telling you that I think Being Crosby may have the
Speaker 2: best Christmas album ever.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a great version.
Speaker 2: Yes, this popularized it. He's the one who really kind
Speaker 2: of got it on everybody's radar. But the carpenters you mentioned,
Speaker 2: Willie Nelson, God, what a great Christmas ell I Fitzgerald,
Speaker 2: Louis Armstrong, pretty much everybody's done white Christmas. He did it. Yeah.
Speaker 2: And Noah, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency.
Speaker 3: What what's that got to do with Christmas?
Speaker 2: They got in on the white Christmas thing. If you
Speaker 2: search white Christmas and Noah, you're going to come up
Speaker 2: with a pretty cool map that shows your chances of
Speaker 2: having a white Christmas based on weather data from nineteen
Speaker 2: sixty one to nineteen ninety.
Speaker 3: I think so it's just a historical record, that's all
Speaker 3: it is.
Speaker 2: It's a prediction based on that. Yes, so like here
Speaker 2: in Atlanta we have a less than five percent chance.
Speaker 3: Yeah, shows how lucky we were.
Speaker 2: But if you live in Calumet, Mishiga on the Upper Peninsula,
Speaker 2: and that's I think the upper Upper Peninsula, right, you
Speaker 2: have a greater than ninety percent chance of having a
Speaker 2: white Christmas. Ohio.
Speaker 4: This is where I go every year to Akron. Obviously
Speaker 4: there's always snow on the ground. Whether or not it
Speaker 4: snows or not is kind of hit or miss.
Speaker 2: I remember those though as a kid growing up in
Speaker 2: Toledo pretty great. But white Christmas was it didn't matter
Speaker 2: how much snow is on the ground. If it was
Speaker 2: snowing on Christmas, it was insanely comfy. You know where
Speaker 2: it stinks La like one percent. I think I.
Speaker 4: Didn't even look, but I lived there for you know,
Speaker 4: five years, and it's you know, they do their best.
Speaker 4: In fact, LA kind of goes overboard with the decor
Speaker 4: from what I remember. Yeah, I think because it's you know,
Speaker 4: sunny and has palm trees and stuff like that. But
Speaker 4: it's really really tough to get it going out there
Speaker 4: in a Christmas sense.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I always told it when I came home.
Speaker 2: It's like that in Apache Junction or something too Chuck.
Speaker 2: In London they take bets on whether it'll be a
Speaker 2: white Ristmiths and I looked it up. Sky Bet is
Speaker 2: giving odds and the odds are eleven to two for
Speaker 2: white Christmas for London this year. I bet London is
Speaker 2: lovely in the snow. Yeah. And then every once in a while,
Speaker 2: no matter what your bet is, no matter what Noah predicts,
Speaker 2: no matter what Bing Crosby and Irvan Berlin say, there
Speaker 2: is a fluke, a fluke white Christmas. And that happened
Speaker 2: in two thousand and four in New Orleans. New Orleans
Speaker 2: had its first white Christmas in fifty years. Though, Wow,
Speaker 2: that's crazy. And then in two thousand and six, Chuck.
Speaker 2: Two years later in New South Wales and Victoria, Australia,
Speaker 2: there was a freak snowstorm on Christmas morning that brought
Speaker 2: nearly a foot a foot of snow to some areas
Speaker 2: in Australia. And the reason why this was such a
Speaker 2: strange occurrence was because Christmas falls on Australia's summer. Yeah,
Speaker 2: because they're in the Southern hemisphere. Sure, so that really
Speaker 2: was a weird white cross. That is weird. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I bet they were partying it up that day.
Speaker 2: I'll bet they were too, you know the assis. So
Speaker 2: that's the that's white Christmas. You can go to search
Speaker 2: noah n O A A and white Christmas slash stockings.
Speaker 2: Well that's works one.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, okay, No, I mean that arch story was.
Speaker 2: Like, don't forget to put the slash stockings dot HDM
Speaker 2: for your Search.
Speaker 5: Of Love on.
Speaker 2: Chuck Josh. I believe that everybody has been good enough
Speaker 2: listening to this oh yeah episode that they should get
Speaker 2: a story of some sort.
Speaker 3: On Donner on Dancer.
Speaker 2: Yeah all right, But what we're going to read here
Speaker 2: is called twas the Night Before Christmas, alternately titled A
Speaker 2: Visit from Saint Nicholas, and it was written by a
Speaker 2: guy named doctor Clement C. Moore who loved his kids
Speaker 2: and loved writing poetry, and one Christmas in I believe
Speaker 2: the early nineteenth century, he put the two together and
Speaker 2: wrote A Visit from Saint Nicholas for his kids as
Speaker 2: a poem, and it caught on and was printed in
Speaker 2: a newspaper first and then a magazine school readers, and
Speaker 2: then it was turned into its own little story book
Speaker 2: with very cute drawings. It was translated into French, German, Braille, Swahili.
Speaker 2: Probably it's probably the greatest known Christmas poem of all time.
Speaker 2: So Chuck agreed, you're really good at this. You're very
Speaker 2: good at reading stories, as everybody who's ever listened to
Speaker 2: the Halloween episode knows. I think you should start this
Speaker 2: off all right.
Speaker 3: So we want to encourage everyone.
Speaker 4: Turn it up, gather the children around the fire, pour
Speaker 4: up a hot toddy or some wasael if you got
Speaker 4: some on hand, and let us take you away to
Speaker 4: a different time and place.
Speaker 2: And we want to say to everybody listening, thanks for
Speaker 2: joining us. Merry Christmas, Happy holidays, clad tidings to every
Speaker 2: one of you. We hope this Christmas finds you safe
Speaker 2: and happy.
Speaker 4: Absolutely twas the night before Christmas went all through the house,
Speaker 4: not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. The
Speaker 4: stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes
Speaker 4: that Saint Nicholas soon would be there. The children were
Speaker 4: nestled all snug in their beds, while visions of sugar
Speaker 4: plums danced in their heads. And Mama and her kerchief,
Speaker 4: and I, in my cap, had just settled our brains
Speaker 4: for a long winter's.
Speaker 2: Nap, went out on the lawn. There arose such a clatter.
Speaker 2: I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Speaker 2: Away to the window, I flew like a flash, tore
Speaker 2: open the shutters, and threw up the sash. The moon
Speaker 2: on the breast of the new fallen snow, gave the
Speaker 2: luster of midday to objects below. When what to my
Speaker 2: wondering eyes should appear but a miniature sleigh with eight
Speaker 2: tiny reindeer.
Speaker 3: With a little old driver.
Speaker 4: So lively and quick I knew in a moment it
Speaker 4: must be Saint Nick, more.
Speaker 3: Rapid than eagles. His coursers.
Speaker 4: They came, and he whistled and shouted and called them
Speaker 4: by name. Now Dasher, now Dancer, now Prancer, now Vixen,
Speaker 4: on Comet, on Cupid, on Donner, and blitzen. To the
Speaker 4: top of the porch, to the top.
Speaker 2: Of the wall.
Speaker 3: Now dash away, dash away, dash away, all.
Speaker 2: As dry leaves that before the while hurricane fly. When
Speaker 2: they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky. So
Speaker 2: up to the housetop the coursers they flew with the
Speaker 2: sleigh full of toys, and Saint Nicholas too. And then
Speaker 2: in a twinkling I heard on the roof the prancing
Speaker 2: and pawing of each little hoof. As I drew in
Speaker 2: my hand and was turning around down the chimney, Saint
Speaker 2: Nicholas came with a bound.
Speaker 4: He was dressed all in fur from his head to
Speaker 4: his foot, and his clothes were all turnished with ashes
Speaker 4: and soot. A bundle of toys he had flung on
Speaker 4: his back looked like a peddlar just opening his pack.
Speaker 4: His eyes, how they twinkled. His dimples, how merry. His
Speaker 4: cheek were like roses, his nose like a cherry. His
Speaker 4: droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow, and
Speaker 4: the beard of his chin was as white as the snow.
Speaker 2: The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
Speaker 2: and the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath.
Speaker 2: He had a broad face and a little round belly
Speaker 2: that shook when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly.
Speaker 2: He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf.
Speaker 2: And I laughed when I saw him in spite of myself.
Speaker 2: A wink of his eye and a twist of his
Speaker 2: head soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.
Speaker 4: He spoke not a word, but went straight to his
Speaker 4: work and filled all the stockings, and turned with a jerk,
Speaker 4: and laying his finger aside of his nose, and giving
Speaker 4: a nod up the chimney.
Speaker 3: He rose.
Speaker 4: He sprang to his sleigh, to his team, gave a whistle,
Speaker 4: and away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
Speaker 4: But I heard him exclaim, Harry drove out of sight.
Speaker 4: Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night.
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