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Steve Webb: Hello and welcome
back. This is day six of the

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2022 encore of the 2009 season
of the Lifespring Why Christmas

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show hosted by James Cooper,
creator of whychristmas.com. And

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me, the OG Godccaster, Steve
Webb. Every day from now to

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Christmas day you'll hear an
episode from the 2009 season.

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And if you're not yet subscribed
or following the show, you can

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do that at
LifespringWhyChristmas.show. If

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you enjoy the show, and you'd
like to give back some value you

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can do so at
LifespringWhyChristmas.show/support.

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Welcome to the Lifespring Why
Christmas show day six. I'm

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Steve Webb and I'll be your host
today. I hope you've been

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enjoying the shows as much as
James and I are enjoying putting

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them together for you.

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Well, today's a very extra
special Christmassy day because

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it's St. Nicholas is Day. Today
many children around the world

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will wake up to find that
they've received presents from

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St. Nicholas or Sinterklaas. St
Nicholas his day is widely

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celebrated in Europe, especially
in the Netherlands where he's

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better known as Sinterklaas.
Today he'll be traveling to

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Amsterdam wearing his red
bishops robes. He travels with

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his servant called Black Peter.
Last night on St. Nicholas Eve

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which is December the fifth
children left their clogs or

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shoes out to be filled with
presents. You know when the song

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Santa Claus is Coming to Town it
says that Santa is making a list

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checking it twice gonna find out
who's naughty and nice. Well in

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Holland children are told that
it's Sinterklaas, his servant

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Black Peter, who keeps a record
of all the things that they've

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done in the past year in a book
and that good children will get

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presents from Sinterklaas, but
bad children will get chased by

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Black Peter with a stick.

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You know, it's too bad. My kids
have gotten too old to be

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motivated that way. Now that I
think about it, you can find out

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more about Sinterklaas on the
Holland page of why

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christmas.com So you now know
about St. Nicholas in the

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Netherlands. But how and why did
he start delivering presents?

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And why is he got so many names?
Well, St. Nicholas was

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originally a fourth century
bishop in what is now Turkey. He

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was a very kind man and had a
reputation for helping the poor

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and giving secret gifts to
people who needed help. The most

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famous story about how St. Nick
started giving presents also

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tells of how the custom of
hanging up stockings to get

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presents first started. It goes
like this. There was a poor man

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who had three daughters. He was
so poor, he didn't have enough

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money for a dowry, so his
daughters couldn't get married.

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One night, Nicholas secretly
dropped a bag of gold down the

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chimney and into the house for
the oldest daughter so that she

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was able to get married. This
was repeated later with the

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second daughter, finally
determined to discover the

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person who had given him the
money, the father secretly hid

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by the fire every evening until
he caught Nicholas dropping in a

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bag of gold. Nicholas begged the
man not to tell anyone what he

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had done because he didn't want
to bring attention to himself.

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But soon the news got out. And
when anyone received a secret

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gift, it was thought that maybe
it was from Nicholas. So what

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about the stockings? Well, the
bags of gold fell into the girls

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stockings that were hanging by
the fire to dry. In the 16th

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century the stories about St.
Nicholas became unpopular, but

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someone had to deliver the
presents to children at

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Christmas. So throughout Europe,
different people took on the

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role in the UK it was the Old
Father Christmas in France. Pair

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Noel and in Germany, the Chris
kin in the early years of the US

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have a his name was Chris
Kringle. Dutch settlers brought

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the old stories of St. Nicholas
to the US with them and Kris

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Kringle became Sinterklaas, or
as we now say, Santa Claus. Good

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old St. Nick again became
popular in the Victorian era

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when writers poets and artists
rediscovered the old stories. In

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the news stories and pictures
about him his Bishop's robes

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soon became the hat and coat
that he wears today. In 1823,

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the famous poem of Visit from
St. Nicholas was written in this

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is where we first learned the
names of his eight reindeer. And

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then of course, they became
really well known in the song

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Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer,
which was written in 1949. Some

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people say that Santa lives in
the North Pole, but people in

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Finland strongly disagree.
They're sure that he lives in

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the north of Finland in Lapland,
which is in the Arctic Circle.

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You can find out more about
Santa and his connection with

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Coca Cola over at why
christmas.com So happy St.

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Nicholas Day to one and all And
remember, be good