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