Steve Webb: Hello and welcome back. This is day six of the
2022 encore of the 2009 season of the Lifespring Why Christmas
show hosted by James Cooper, creator of whychristmas.com. And
me, the OG Godccaster, Steve Webb. Every day from now to
Christmas day you'll hear an episode from the 2009 season.
And if you're not yet subscribed or following the show, you can
do that at LifespringWhyChristmas.show. If
you enjoy the show, and you'd like to give back some value you
can do so at LifespringWhyChristmas.show/support.
Welcome to the Lifespring Why Christmas show day six. I'm
Steve Webb and I'll be your host today. I hope you've been
enjoying the shows as much as James and I are enjoying putting
them together for you.
Well, today's a very extra special Christmassy day because
it's St. Nicholas is Day. Today many children around the world
will wake up to find that they've received presents from
St. Nicholas or Sinterklaas. St Nicholas his day is widely
celebrated in Europe, especially in the Netherlands where he's
better known as Sinterklaas. Today he'll be traveling to
Amsterdam wearing his red bishops robes. He travels with
his servant called Black Peter. Last night on St. Nicholas Eve
which is December the fifth children left their clogs or
shoes out to be filled with presents. You know when the song
Santa Claus is Coming to Town it says that Santa is making a list
checking it twice gonna find out who's naughty and nice. Well in
Holland children are told that it's Sinterklaas, his servant
Black Peter, who keeps a record of all the things that they've
done in the past year in a book and that good children will get
presents from Sinterklaas, but bad children will get chased by
Black Peter with a stick.
You know, it's too bad. My kids have gotten too old to be
motivated that way. Now that I think about it, you can find out
more about Sinterklaas on the Holland page of why
christmas.com So you now know about St. Nicholas in the
Netherlands. But how and why did he start delivering presents?
And why is he got so many names? Well, St. Nicholas was
originally a fourth century bishop in what is now Turkey. He
was a very kind man and had a reputation for helping the poor
and giving secret gifts to people who needed help. The most
famous story about how St. Nick started giving presents also
tells of how the custom of hanging up stockings to get
presents first started. It goes like this. There was a poor man
who had three daughters. He was so poor, he didn't have enough
money for a dowry, so his daughters couldn't get married.
One night, Nicholas secretly dropped a bag of gold down the
chimney and into the house for the oldest daughter so that she
was able to get married. This was repeated later with the
second daughter, finally determined to discover the
person who had given him the money, the father secretly hid
by the fire every evening until he caught Nicholas dropping in a
bag of gold. Nicholas begged the man not to tell anyone what he
had done because he didn't want to bring attention to himself.
But soon the news got out. And when anyone received a secret
gift, it was thought that maybe it was from Nicholas. So what
about the stockings? Well, the bags of gold fell into the girls
stockings that were hanging by the fire to dry. In the 16th
century the stories about St. Nicholas became unpopular, but
someone had to deliver the presents to children at
Christmas. So throughout Europe, different people took on the
role in the UK it was the Old Father Christmas in France. Pair
Noel and in Germany, the Chris kin in the early years of the US
have a his name was Chris Kringle. Dutch settlers brought
the old stories of St. Nicholas to the US with them and Kris
Kringle became Sinterklaas, or as we now say, Santa Claus. Good
old St. Nick again became popular in the Victorian era
when writers poets and artists rediscovered the old stories. In
the news stories and pictures about him his Bishop's robes
soon became the hat and coat that he wears today. In 1823,
the famous poem of Visit from St. Nicholas was written in this
is where we first learned the names of his eight reindeer. And
then of course, they became really well known in the song
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, which was written in 1949. Some
people say that Santa lives in the North Pole, but people in
Finland strongly disagree. They're sure that he lives in
the north of Finland in Lapland, which is in the Arctic Circle.
You can find out more about Santa and his connection with
Coca Cola over at why christmas.com So happy St.
Nicholas Day to one and all And remember, be good