Unknown Speaker  0:02  
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.

Unknown Speaker  0:54  
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.

Unknown Speaker  1:06  
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.

Unknown Speaker  2:05  
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

Transcribed by https://otter.ai