0:00

Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve

0:02

Camray. It's ready. Are you welcome

0:06

to stuff you should know from

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house Stuff Works dot com?

0:15

Ho ho ho, and welcome to the podcast.

0:18

I'm Josh Clark with me as always

0:20

is Charles W. Shuck. I heart

0:23

Christmas time, Briant, Yours

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is way better than mine. Mine. Sounded like a

0:28

an Irish priest leprin.

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Yeah, terrible, going

0:35

great, Yeah, this should

0:38

be coming out right at Christmas.

0:40

Yeah, we're gonna We're gonna plan for

0:42

that. So if it is, it's

0:44

all of you listening out there in podcast land.

0:47

We hope you're having a great holiday season.

0:50

Yeah, yeah, and safe

0:52

and well and with family and

0:54

and uh we wish you all a merry

0:57

Christmas and Hanukah and Kwanza

0:59

and whatever each used to celebrate ted what's

1:02

that? I think that's a Buddhist New Year.

1:05

Um, there's all sorts of stuff going on this time of year.

1:08

Yeah, big time. Yeah, but we chose to talk about

1:10

Christmas. Chuck was brought Baptist,

1:13

I was raised Catholic. It's

1:15

what we know. And it's a pretty interesting story

1:18

too. And if you're Jewish and you hate Christmas.

1:20

You're gonna stick around because you're gonna love this one,

1:22

right, Yeah, and you know what, next year, we will do one

1:24

on Hanakah. Okay, deal,

1:27

Yeah, I actually know a significant amount

1:29

about Hankka. Well, let's do it next year, and then

1:31

a book it and we'll eventually do Quansa

1:33

too. Yeah, we'll do that in eleven maybe,

1:35

or maybe we'll do like a holiday extravaganza.

1:38

Buddy. If if we're still around in two thousand eleven,

1:40

then we're either doing something right or something wrong.

1:44

Haven't decided which. Okay, all right,

1:46

Josh Chromas, is

1:48

that what we're calling it? Christmas? Okay?

1:50

So, Chuck, have you

1:52

ever engaged in um Christmas?

1:55

Yes, Josh, what's a year? I've engaged

1:58

in thirty eight of them? Wow? That pretty

2:00

nice, Thank you? That was my int alright, let's

2:02

talk about this man. It's so ubiquitous.

2:04

There's um people who

2:07

are usually drunk, dressed up as Santa Claus,

2:09

ringing bells asking for donations.

2:11

There's little kids like screeching in the

2:14

middle of aisles and toy stores.

2:17

There are um minds like elbowing

2:20

one another in the face. To get to that last

2:23

line,

2:25

and then there's people who are um

2:27

punching Walmart greeters in the stomach for

2:29

saying Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas.

2:32

It's the most contentious time of the year.

2:34

Do you know where I am. I'm at home

2:37

and I am shopping online. Dude, it

2:39

is the way to go. Never again. And you know

2:41

what we got to Ohio. I just had the gifts ship straight

2:43

to my in law's house. Very smart, no

2:45

must, no fuss. Yeah, it's as long as you

2:48

order early enough to make sure you're not spending

2:50

the last week biting your nails when they arrive in

2:52

time. I can tell you, um

2:55

by experience, that people

2:57

are very forgiving if their gifts aren't there. All

2:59

you do was you get a little card, you right it inside

3:02

like you're getting this, or you print out a picture

3:04

of it. It's like it's coming, I

3:06

promise, and then a coupon for a free

3:08

BackRub. I did do coupons

3:11

once. One year. I was so broken.

3:13

I had a friend take a picture of me standing

3:15

there with my pockets turned out, me going like

3:19

it's like, no, it wasn't last year. It was like five

3:21

years ago. And um that was

3:23

that, Like everybody kept it. No one turned

3:25

it in. They just like they're sure tickets

3:27

so much. I made birdhouses one year when

3:29

I was broken. They were good to sure,

3:32

they're nice alright. So let's talk

3:34

about Christis How do this? How did this jam get started?

3:36

Well, Josh, the roots of Christmas

3:39

are varied, to say the least.

3:41

You cannot riotously very You cannot point

3:44

to one single thing and say Christmas

3:46

was born out of this Jesus's

3:49

birthday on December. You can't even point

3:51

to the aspects of Christmas and say

3:53

that each one was born out

3:55

of this. You can't. Basically, Christmas

3:57

is a bunch of different groups

4:01

that are from antiquity brought

4:04

together, right, Yeah. Like,

4:06

Uh. Most of these early um

4:09

versions of Christmas, I guess, if you even want to call

4:11

it that were festivals

4:13

that marked the winter solstice

4:16

in Europe, mainly Uh and um

4:18

Rome. True Rome had a big one called

4:20

Saturnalia German pagans.

4:24

They honored Odin, who was a god

4:27

who flew over settlements at night, blessing

4:30

some houses and cursing others.

4:32

Sounds like coal and switches or treats

4:35

to me. So that was a

4:37

pagan god. Yeah,

4:40

yeah, Germanic um

4:42

and then also you have the

4:44

Druids who like to contribute

4:47

um things like garland and holly

4:50

to the whole mix. Kissing under the mistletoe

4:53

actually is apparently a um

4:56

euphemism for some of the sexual

4:58

practices that went on to the Druidic

5:01

Winter Solstice festivals. People probably

5:03

didn't think they were going to hear those words in the Christmas podcast.

5:05

Yeah it's true though, Oh yeah, um, Christmas

5:08

was rife with sexuality and one

5:10

could even say perversion and

5:13

and just crazy parties and in some cases,

5:15

are you're talking about Rome? That? Yeah,

5:17

the Druids were big into it too, apparently the Celts

5:20

right, But in Rome they celebrated

5:22

the pretty Rockets festival called

5:24

the Saturnalia from

5:27

December seventeen. Is that now

5:29

how you pronounce it? Okay? I

5:31

thought you're gonna correct me. And that honors

5:33

Saturn, the god of agriculture. And

5:35

they had a big carnival and they feasted

5:37

and gambled and gave gifts

5:40

and corrals and got drunk wasted

5:43

for days. This is Rome, Yeah, one

5:45

party like they did. They also apparently

5:47

love to stuff um Jews

5:50

with food until they were like

5:52

so full that they could barely move and then make

5:54

them raise each other naked through the streets for

5:56

everyone else's enjoyment. So there's Christmas.

6:00

Um, these are the roots of it. And then,

6:02

of course, um, you have Christianity,

6:04

which effectively took it over in the fourth century

6:07

a D. Yeah, they say, we need our own

6:09

holiday to rival all these winter solstice

6:12

shenanigans, right the fourth the fourth

6:14

century a D. Really and we are ce

6:16

depending on who you are, Um, really

6:19

kind of change things. This is when Christianity stepped

6:21

it up a bit. That's been saying Augustine was supposedly

6:24

issuing all these proclamations. Um.

6:27

Basically, the Church just made some moves and

6:29

it it worked. And they chose

6:31

December, the day of the Feast

6:33

of the Nativity is what it was originally

6:35

called. And since they said, hey, pagans,

6:39

you come over to our religion, we've got something over

6:41

here. Uh. It celebrates the birth

6:43

of our savior and all that. But you can

6:45

still throw down. We're just gonna

6:47

this is gonna be the last day. Much like um,

6:50

fat to ash Wednesday, right right right

6:52

fat to Marty gral leads up to ash Wednesday

6:54

and the party stops on ash Wednesday, but they

6:56

go crazy ahead of time, very much

6:58

the same thing. And it can any like this for

7:01

many many centuries. Yeah, and and initially

7:03

it wasn't um. It still

7:05

wasn't the big daddy, I mean, Eastern Good Friday

7:07

still ruled in the feast, and the Nativity

7:10

was kind of the lesser of the three. And

7:12

um, the Puritans had

7:14

some problems with this though they

7:16

did pretty much any group that was

7:19

very doer about um

7:21

about religion. And we're Christians,

7:24

uh outlawed or banned Christmas

7:26

festivities because yeah,

7:29

he did when he took Christmas in and

7:32

the Puritans in New England outlawed it.

7:35

Uh what from

7:37

sixteen fifty nine to sixteen eighty one in Boston,

7:40

no Christmas none And actually Cromwell

7:42

um had soldiers patrolling

7:45

the streets to make sure there was no

7:47

revelry whatsoever. And we're

7:49

told to arrest anybody they found celebrating

7:51

Christmas when he outlawed it, um.

7:54

And still today Jehovah's witnesses,

7:57

Christians Christian sect um

7:59

don't sell lebrate Christmas because

8:01

they clearly see it as or they see

8:03

it as a clearly pagan holiday. And

8:06

that all of these roots have have all

8:08

these pagan roots have come together and

8:10

just got a Christian stamp of approval. But it ain't.

8:13

It's really just pagan, right. Yeah. So,

8:15

uh, let's move forward a little bit in our

8:17

in our time machine to the eighteenth and nineteenth

8:20

century. This is when things start to calm down a little bit

8:22

and it becomes a little bit more like the Christmas we

8:24

know and love, including

8:27

eighteen forty six when Queen

8:30

Victoria's German husband Albert,

8:32

Prince Albert, he introduced a Christmas

8:34

tree to the castle and they

8:37

essentially got their picture made in front of it. It was

8:40

an engraving at the time. Of course they had to

8:42

stand there for four weeks. Yeah, but it was their children

8:44

in them in front of the tree, and that's kind of

8:46

may have been the first Christmas card like

8:49

we do today. That's nice. You send Christmas cards.

8:52

No, I don't even know. I'm such a slacker. I've

8:54

never sent Christmas cards. Yeah, so

8:56

don't be offended. Friends who listened. None of my friends

8:59

listen to this. But when I don't

9:01

see Christmas cards, I just don't do it. I haven't

9:03

done it. I'll do that one day. Um,

9:05

okay, So Chuck, let's talk

9:07

about gift giving. Okay. In

9:09

two thousand seven, Consumer Reports

9:12

said that they issued

9:14

an article in November of two seven,

9:17

I said twelve million Americans were still paying

9:19

off Christmas from the year prior. Just a

9:21

year later, twelve million Americans

9:23

were still making payments on their credit card gifts.

9:26

So in addition to hearing is

9:28

that Santas slagh and jingle bells, I hear Josh

9:31

flying overhead? I think you're hallucinating, am

9:33

I. I don't hear anything. In addition to that, do

9:35

you know what I hear is the sound of credit card

9:38

machines being

9:40

well, yeah that's old, but yeah, the swipe of the credit

9:43

cards over a number of things. Thank

9:45

you. That's what I hear. It is decidedly

9:47

commercial now and one of the reasons why people

9:49

are still paying it off is, um, we

9:51

spend an ass load of money on Christmas presents

9:54

and decorations, eight billion dollars

9:56

on lights alone. Nuts.

9:59

Listen to this dude in the

10:01

National Retail Federation, which likes

10:03

to come out with their annual forecast of how

10:05

much Americans are going to spend on

10:07

holiday gifts and just

10:10

anything that has to do with the holidays. They forecasted

10:12

a hundred and seventy three billion in nineteen

10:14

ninety eight. Wow,

10:17

this is this is the height of the

10:19

dot com bubble and everybody was

10:21

rich back then. Everybody

10:25

You weren't rich either, should uh?

10:27

Two thousand nine, this year, the National

10:29

Retail Federation projects that

10:31

we will spend four hundred and thirty seven

10:34

point six billion dollars in

10:36

a recession. That's not Yeah,

10:39

I don't drop that much on Christmas. We're

10:41

gonna spend half a trillion dollars

10:43

on Christmas in a recession. That's

10:46

a bad year. I know. And you know what,

10:48

I think. They've said that during recessions even sometimes

10:52

you go out of your way to make Christmas special because

10:54

you've pinched all year long, So that might infinitely

10:56

do it. You've done what because you pinched your

10:58

pennies all year long? You pinched all year

11:01

long? Yes, I didn't hear that. Okay,

11:04

But gift giving, Josh, what is this? Where did

11:06

it come from? Well, like I said, a lot of these pagan

11:09

rituals they gave gifts, but uh,

11:11

the roots almost all of them did, Strange,

11:13

Lena, But the roots are generally traced to

11:16

Um the Bible and

11:18

Jesus being born and the Three Kings, the

11:21

Magi that traveled to Bethlehem with their

11:23

three gifts of gold. Frankinsincein

11:26

mur right and actually um Eastern

11:28

Orthodox Christians tend

11:30

to celebrate Three Kings Day in January

11:32

six, which is the day they think that

11:34

the magi arrived with their gifts. Yeah,

11:36

okay, because it took them a while. Sure, yeah, yeah,

11:38

everybody's writing mules back then, answer forever.

11:41

Things kind of progressed like this for a while, and then

11:44

in eighteen twenty, do you know what first

11:46

appeared? Josh stores began placing

11:49

Christmas themed ads and

11:51

newspapers and magazines. Yeah, and for the first

11:53

time even before then, though, um Macy's

11:56

stayed open I think for the first time until

11:59

midnight Christmas Eve in eighteen

12:01

sixty seven. That was after that. But yeah,

12:04

I thought you said, I'm

12:06

sorry, that's losing my mind here, But yeah, in eighteen

12:09

sixty seven, they they stayed open for those

12:11

last minute Christmas shoppers. So

12:13

by the by eighteen sixty seven, it was already

12:15

a frenzy. Should we talk about Boxing

12:18

Day real quick? Sure? Just cover that

12:20

for all the Brits out there, if

12:23

you're in England, Australia, Canada

12:25

or New Zealand. Uh, Christmas

12:27

does not end on No,

12:31

it continues on to the twenty six Boxing

12:34

Day. So what is that, Josh?

12:36

Well, apparently it grew out of a tradition

12:38

where servants who had to work on

12:41

Christmas all day serving

12:43

the rich families of New

12:45

England or New Zealand, Australia and

12:48

Great Britain and Canada. Um, they

12:51

were given the next day off, the twenty six.

12:53

They have their own Christmas, their

12:55

own servant version of Christmas. And

12:57

apparently that was taken over by the rich at

13:00

cats as well. Right, so there's

13:02

a Boxing Day and Christmas, I take it in

13:05

those countries. That's the way I understand it, Chuck,

13:08

Josh, let's keep going on with this origin stuff.

13:10

This stuff is very interesting. Can can

13:13

we talk about St Nick for a second? Yeah?

13:15

So you know there really was a St. Nick? Right? I

13:18

do know? School

13:21

me. Uh he was actually canonized

13:23

in the I think nineteenth century.

13:26

But he was born in two seventy

13:28

CE in Turkey.

13:31

Uh. He was a Mediterranean dude. Turkish

13:34

was he He was Turkish? And I think

13:36

he died in three forty, so

13:39

he was old. Um.

13:42

He was worshiped by a

13:44

group of sailors who formed a cult

13:46

around him, the St. Nicholas Cult or the Nicholas

13:49

cult. Before he was canonized, a group of sailors,

13:51

a group of sailors just idolized this guy, like

13:54

literally, so these sailors,

13:56

actually, I guess, sailed to Turkey and said, we're

13:59

gonna take Nick's bones where they're

14:01

being kept in a shrine in Turkey, bring his

14:03

bones out exactly, okay.

14:06

Or they went in and got them themselves,

14:08

one of the two. Uh, and then they take it back

14:10

to They take the bones back to Italy

14:13

and place him in a shrine. But

14:15

when they do so, they displaced this pagan

14:17

idol known as the Grandmother capital

14:20

T capital g. The

14:22

Grandmother had a reputation

14:25

for placing um gifts

14:27

in children's stockings. St.

14:30

Nick, who was who was a real person,

14:33

was a Christian martyr I believe takes

14:36

over this lady's shrine and

14:38

the association with gifts and

14:41

him giving gifts and even gifts and stockings

14:43

her. Her reputation goes to

14:45

him. So it originally started with a woman

14:48

huh in ten seven. That's

14:50

when the sailors went, we're not done yet here. My friend

14:52

Santa Claus has a very long, in circuitous

14:55

route. But it's amazing how it all comes together. I'm

14:57

roasting chestnuts, by the way, while I'm listening to this.

15:00

Because the in the Nicholas Colt gave

15:02

each other gifts, right um.

15:04

And since they gave, they were known for giving gifts.

15:06

They were one of the more popular cults around. So

15:09

when they spread north, people were like, hey, you're

15:11

kind of cool, let's hang out. And um they

15:13

were converted. They were a very powerful cult.

15:16

And when they moved into Germany or the Germanic

15:18

areas. Uh, Odin remember you mentioned

15:21

him earlier, Long white Beard blew

15:23

over houses, right. Uh.

15:26

Santa Claus as we know it today is the collision

15:28

of Odin and St. Nick and

15:31

the Grandmother. Technically I had something to do with Germany.

15:34

I remember hearing that one. So Santa Claus

15:36

was um I think a Dutch word for

15:38

this conception. But it wasn't

15:41

until eighteen o nine that Washington Irving

15:43

wrote a satire of Dutch

15:45

culture and said, um.

15:48

He used the name Santa Claus, the Dutch name

15:50

which introduced the name to the English.

15:53

A few decades after that, guy named Thomas

15:55

Nast, an illustrator, starts drawing

15:58

his conception. Santa Claus. Adds the

16:00

the north pole, the elves,

16:02

the workshop, all that stuff, and

16:04

then finally Santa Claus, who we

16:06

know and love today, the jolly fat man

16:09

with the red coat and the white trimming.

16:12

All these things have accumulated up to

16:14

this point, and then our image are

16:16

iconic image of Santa Claus was

16:19

thanks to an illustrator who was

16:21

contracted by the Coca Cola company in

16:24

n and seen,

16:26

there's Santa Claus and that crazy.

16:28

That is crazy. What a cool history?

16:30

I think, so too and slightly disappointing a

16:32

little bit. Where's the magic? There's

16:35

no magic? No, al right, Okay, so go

16:37

ahead, Chuck. I've talked way too much for

16:39

now. I guess we should

16:41

talk about trees a little bit. Um

16:44

evergreen trees and garlands. We're

16:47

used to decorate symbols of

16:49

eternal life by everyone

16:51

from ancient Chinese to Hebrews

16:53

and Egyptians and European

16:56

Pagans even worship these trees. Yeah,

16:58

I remember we talked about the ruids and u

17:01

sexual proclivities right, So

17:03

fast forward a little bit. When Western Germans used

17:05

fir trees to represent the Tree

17:08

of Paradise and plays about Adam

17:10

and Eve. They decorated these trees

17:12

with apples and wafers and stuff, and

17:15

that got more and more popular

17:18

until they were introduced in North America in the seventeenth

17:20

century, and then people started

17:22

decorating them with mistletoe

17:24

and holly and stuff like that, and like you said, they

17:26

really took off thanks to Prince Albert and that engraving.

17:29

Yeah, and in Christmas lights clearly,

17:32

which were introduced in eighteen ninety

17:34

or in the eighteen nineties. And also, as

17:36

I understand that gingerbread men, Yeah,

17:39

that is based on a Saturnalia

17:42

tradition from the ancient Romans where they would

17:44

eat human shaped biscuits.

17:48

Yeah, I think about that's what a ginger modes.

17:50

Yeah. I love ginger cookies. Do you like those? Yeah?

17:53

Are you with us? Okay, I'm having trouble

17:55

enunciating during this one. I know it's strange,

17:58

So Chuck, I think we've reached the uh,

18:00

the big finish, the finale

18:04

it was Jesus born on December is

18:06

that we're gonna talk about and also, do you want to pop into

18:08

quick facts. Yeah, So where's

18:11

the word Christmas come from?

18:13

Uh? It comes from Mars. It comes from

18:15

an old English word or term

18:18

Christ's mass right

18:20

um or put together Christmas?

18:22

And do you know where xmus came from? No,

18:26

X was the standard abbreviation

18:29

of capital X was the standard abbreviation to represent

18:31

Christ. So really it's not taking Christ

18:33

out of Christmas when you say x mess was

18:36

an abbreviated version of christs.

18:38

Did not know that because a lot of people take offense when you

18:40

write xmus. People get really runtled

18:43

up about this stuff. They do. They just need to

18:45

drink a little egg nog, right, yeah, with

18:47

rum, right delicious

18:49

rum. So, Josh, let's talk about December

18:52

and was Jesus really born on

18:54

December. There is a

18:57

one in three hundred and sixty five

18:59

or one and three hundred and sixty six

19:02

chance, depending on whether or not it was leap

19:04

here, that he was born on December twenty Yeah,

19:07

because the Bible doesn't say that Jesus was born

19:09

on December twenty one. Thing I learned from

19:11

this wonderful article written by our colleague

19:13

Sarah Dowdy, who hosts Stuff You missed in history

19:15

class um is that

19:17

the early Church didn't care much

19:20

about the Nativity about Jesus

19:22

being born, that there was no celebration,

19:24

didn't pick up, like we said, until the fourth century a

19:27

d. Right, right, So yeah, there wasn't a lot

19:29

of effort made to really date his

19:32

birth early on. Yeah. Uh. There's

19:34

some clues though that it was probably not on December.

19:38

Uh. In the chapter of Luke, they

19:41

say that the shepherds are keeping watch

19:43

over their flock by night day in night.

19:46

Well, no, it just says they're flocked

19:48

by night in the Bible. Whatever. Don't

19:50

challenge me on the Bible, buddy, I know my Bible. But

19:53

this suggests that it may have been actually in the spring,

19:56

during spring lambing, because that is

19:58

the only time of year where they you keep watch

20:00

today and night. Otherwise it's just during

20:02

the day, so day and night in

20:04

that case, yes, okay, and you're

20:06

waiting on that. So this one Bible scholar,

20:09

his first name was Dionysus, I can't remember his

20:11

last name. Uh, he calculated

20:14

that, Um. I think he was

20:16

the one that calculated December twenty Yes,

20:18

Josh, chronographers. Here's another

20:20

theory here that chronographers reckon

20:23

that the world was created on the spring

20:26

equinox, and then four days

20:28

later, on March, light

20:31

was created because the earth was created then

20:33

got created light according to the Bible in Genesis,

20:35

and since the existence of Jesus UH

20:38

signaled the beginning of a new era of Christianity

20:40

or creation Uh, the chronographers

20:43

assumed that jesus conception would

20:45

have fallen on March twenty five, which

20:47

nine months after that would be which

20:52

would be his birthday. Yeah, there's a

20:54

modern Bible scholar who has gone

20:57

a little broader trying to hammer out the

20:59

extra a year and

21:01

um by his reckoning, thanks to

21:04

Um the presence of Herod King Herod

21:06

was still alive. He dated

21:08

it back and figured out that Jesus

21:11

is probably born in four BC.

21:14

Four BC, so not too

21:16

far off as far as the year goes. Not bad. And

21:19

again we should remind people that this December

21:22

twenty thing was largely an attempt

21:24

to steal um the winter

21:26

solstice from the Pagans to convert them over

21:28

to Christianity, So no one knows

21:30

when Jesus was born. Yeah, and you know we're not saying

21:33

all this to Pooh Pooh Christmas

21:35

or the fact that Jesus may or may not have been born

21:37

on December twenty. None of that matters.

21:40

The origin doesn't matter. What matters is is

21:42

that is the day that we celebrate it. And

21:45

uh, all over the world, they're different traditions.

21:48

Some people open their gifts and Christmas

21:50

Eve, some people do it Christmas Day. Some people

21:52

don't do Christmas at all. Some people don't celebrate

21:54

it at all. You know, there's other religions out there.

21:57

You heard about these, yeah, and and we're gonna

21:59

cut over these at some other point. But

22:02

this one is about Christmas. Yeah. Um.

22:05

And if you think about it, from the true

22:07

origins of Christmas, all of these disparate

22:09

cultures being brought together and molded

22:12

into this. Sure, you know it was done

22:14

surreptitiously and a little sneakily,

22:17

but it kind of reminds you, at

22:19

the very least, it explains how this whole season

22:22

it's based around Christmas in the United States.

22:24

Um, kind of touches everybody.

22:27

Sure, So that's Christmas, Chuck,

22:30

Do we have any listener mail today? Oh? Yeah? If

22:32

you want to know more about Christmas, you can type

22:34

the end the handy search bar at how Stuff Works dot

22:36

com uh, which then I guess

22:39

leads us to listener mayo. Indeed,

22:41

Josh, we have a couple of requests which we don't

22:43

often honor here on the show. We're

22:46

gonna this year. We love turning down people's requests

22:48

because I feel bad for people that are born right around

22:50

Christmas. Do because that just thinks.

22:53

So, Hey, Josh Chuck and Jerry Chucker

22:55

and Jerry, I have a sad

22:58

Christmas story followed by a huge favor. My

23:00

story starts almost twenty four years ago, the day

23:02

after Christmas.

23:06

That was the day my husband Ian was born. The

23:08

unfortunate timing of his birth has caused a

23:10

ton of bitterness over the years. It's

23:12

all the gloom that comes after the presents are open.

23:15

We are faced with the fact that Christmas is gone

23:17

for a whole year, and then it's his birthday.

23:20

What a let down? Uh. He

23:22

absolutely hates his birthday as a result, and often

23:24

refers to it as the most disappointing day

23:26

of the year. It's awful. Uh.

23:28

He is constantly played by

23:30

the yearly Christmas Birthday present, of course,

23:33

having his birthday gifts wrapped in Christmas paper.

23:36

Just last year, he received a birthday gift

23:38

with a candy cane tape to the front of it. That's

23:41

awful. Uh. And he has never even had

23:43

a birthday party in his whole life because no one ever wants

23:45

to go out the day after Christmas. He's

23:47

a complete afterthought. So

23:50

here's my huge favor. Uh. He is

23:52

a huge fan of your you guys, and

23:54

I mean huge. He watches your

23:56

live video cast every week. He must be the fan.

23:58

Then he watches the pobcast and

24:01

listens to the podcast every Tuesday and Thursday.

24:04

And he also does his best to spread

24:06

the word of stuff

24:08

you should know to everyone, including me. So,

24:11

by the way, now I'm Cloked's what she said. So I'm hoping

24:14

you could make this the best birthday ever.

24:16

From Ashley the birthday Fairy.

24:19

Ashley, we're gonna give your husband a huge

24:21

happy birthday here, Happy birthday,

24:23

Happy birthday. And we're sorry you were

24:26

born on the be glad you

24:28

were born at all. That's what I say. But

24:30

I'm sorry, dude, that stinks. And we're sending you

24:32

like a T shirt or something. And she wanted

24:34

to sign T shirt but with a candy cane

24:36

tape to it. Yeah, we should totally do s

24:39

Ian. You've got something coming your way, but it's not gonna be there

24:41

by, But a happy birthday anyway,

24:43

Ian, Josh, we have another one. Okay,

24:45

this from Karen. I just wanted to ask for a huge

24:47

favor. My partner, Tristan is

24:49

a big fan of your show. In fact,

24:51

thanks to you guys, he now has opinions on a range

24:54

of subjects and it drives me crazy. He

24:56

turns thirty on Christmas Eve, and

24:58

that is today, if I'm not mistaken, and

25:01

I'm trying to make it a little special by surprising him

25:04

with thirty gifts, and it would freak

25:06

him out if he was listening to your podcast

25:08

and you wish him a happy birthday? Could you

25:10

help me out? That would be awesome. So,

25:13

Tristan, today actually is your birthday.

25:16

Happy birthday, Happy birthday, Tristan. Are

25:18

you freaked out thirty gifts? Yeah?

25:23

So hopefully you're freaked out there in Australia,

25:26

Tristan, Chris, Tristan,

25:28

we're talking about you right now, Tristan.

25:31

Yeah. Uh. And Josh,

25:33

beyond that, do you want to say a few

25:35

words here? I do. Actually, I want to wish

25:37

my darling five ft one and a

25:39

half inch half okanow and girlfriend you

25:42

me happy

25:44

birthday too. Her birthday is December,

25:48

so she's one of those poor afflicted people born

25:50

around Christmas time. Happy

25:53

birthday, shortcake, Yeah, happy birthday.

25:55

You mean you call a shortcake? I call a sugar

25:57

little sweet. Yeah. So

25:59

John here, we are close to the

26:01

end of the year, and we'll go ahead and say our

26:03

salutations here on Christmas Eve to everyone

26:06

raise a toast of eggnog. Stuff

26:08

you should know, Army. We're proud

26:10

of you, guys. We're proud of each other. Jerry,

26:13

we had a great year. It's been awesome. Great

26:16

response has been a really big year.

26:18

Yeah, it's just been awesome, and we feel

26:21

great about it. And we feel awesome about

26:23

the stuff. You should known. Army coming together

26:25

and being so involved and donating tens

26:28

of thousands of dollars, that's

26:30

good stuff. As Josh says on the Keyva thing,

26:33

what the finest people that have never

26:35

met. That's close. That's

26:38

what I feel like we are. Yeah. Well,

26:40

thanks to all of you out there in s Y s

26:42

k Land. We hope that your sugar plum

26:44

dreams are all fulfilled,

26:48

that you're all tucked in tight in

26:50

your warm beds with somebody you

26:52

love and who loves you. And we'll

26:54

see in after two

26:56

more episodes, and we

26:59

will see to it that we keep you as

27:01

informed and entertained in as

27:04

we did in two thousand nine. We ain't going

27:06

nowhere exactly. Um,

27:10

Happy holidays? Is

27:12

that it is that we're going to end this? Is that heartfelt? Enough?

27:15

Yep? Okay?

27:23

For more on this and thousands of other topics,

27:25

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