Steve Webb: Merry Christmas! It's finally arrived Christmas
Day. James and I are so excited to play this encore edition of
the 2009 Christmas Day episode of The Lifespring White
Christmas show for you hosted by James Cooper, creator of
whychristmas.com and me the OG Godcaster Steve Webb of
Lifespringmedia.com. During this episode, you'll hear answers to
the quiz questions and the drawing we held for 2009 winner.
And you probably want to know who this year's winner is. So
let's do that right now before we play the episode, what I've
done is I've made a numbered list of all the names of people
who have sent in the correct answers to the quiz and I'm
using an online random number generator from random.org to
select the winning names number. On the website, it says
random.org offers true random numbers to anyone on the
internet. The randomness comes from atmospheric noise, which
for many purposes is better than the pseudo random number
algorithms typically used in computer programs. People use
random.org for holding drawings, lotteries and sweepstakes to
drive online games for scientific applications. And for
art and music. So let's see who our winner is. The winner of the
autograph Bryan Duncans A NehoSoul Christmas CD is Bryan
Kennedy. Congratulations, Bryan. I know you'll enjoy it. Thanks
to everybody who participated in set in answers to the quiz. And
before I play the episode, I do want to say thank you so much
for listening to the show this month. I've really enjoyed
bringing back the 2009 episodes for you for James Cooper of
whychristmas.com. and me... Merry Christmas.
Hello, and Merry Christmas. Welcome to the Lifespring White
Christmas show for Christmas Day. I'm Steve Webb. And I think
that James is on the other line. James, Merry Christmas.
James Cooper: And Happy Christmas to you, Steve and a
very happy Christmas to all the listeners of the Lifespring Why
Christmas show.
Steve Webb: So obviously all your gifts are probably open
now. Did does Santa Claus bring what you wanted?
James Cooper: Uh, yes, he did. Thank you. He was very good to
me this year.
Steve Webb: Yeah, Santa is like that.
James Cooper: Well, yes, he is a personal friend, sort of running
the Christmas site. So you know, he kind of has to or he's in
trouble.
Steve Webb: You know, I suppose he probably drops off at your
place every once in a while during the Christmas season.
James Cooper: One
One...why, you know, he's quite busy. So I mean, I get the odd
text and things. Yeah. Just so, he has to keep it like that,
really.
Steve Webb: Yeah, that's true. He's a pretty busy guy. But he
does have your your number and you text back and forth. But
that's cool. Yeah, not many people can say they have Santa's
personal cell phone number so that they can text him.
James Cooper: Yeah, you know, special contact.
Steve Webb: That's pretty that's pretty cool. You know, I'm just
a lucky guy to know James Cooper.
James Cooper: Well, how about you have you and your family had
a good Christmas day so far?
Steve Webb: We had a great Christmas thus far. We woke up
early this morning and the boys came out and around the tree and
you know, they opened up their their gifts. And my oldest boy
Matthew is coming over with his new bride later on today, and
we're going to have Christmas dinner. And in just a little
bit. I think we're gonna go see the new Sherlock Holmes movie.
James Cooper: Ooh, the Old Guy Ritchie,
Steve Webb: Guy Ritchie?
James Cooper: He directed it.
Steve Webb: Oh, I didn't know that.
James Cooper: So it's like, "Sherlock Holmes is like this
innit?"
Steve Webb: Very good. Yeah, well, you know, I've seen the
previous for the movie that looks like it's gonna be a
pretty good one. So I've always been a Sherlock Holmes fan. I've
read all the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle books and
James Cooper: oh, yeah, me too.
Steve Webb: I really enjoy him. Yeah. So anyway, it's Christmas
day. What do you think we should do on the show today?
James Cooper: Well, you never know. I think we should hear
about the birth of Jesus.
Steve Webb: That's a great idea. That's what it is all about.
James Cooper: Indeed. And the story is in chapter two of the
book of Luke, and says, In those days, Caesar Augustus issued a
decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world.
This was the first census that took place while Quirenius was
governor of Syria, and everyone went to his own town to
register. So Joseph went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee
to Judea to Bethlehem, the town of David, because he belonged to
the house and the line of David. He went there to register with
Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting
a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be
born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped
him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no
room in the inn.
Steve Webb: You know, this is always such an amazing story to
me, God coming to earth as a weak and helpless baby. It's
incredible. But we don't really know many details of Jesus's
birth we're not told his weight or even the date that he was
born on. We do know that Mary and Joseph had to travel to
Bethlehem to take part in a Roman census and not because of
its reputation for maternity care. The census was the first
of its kind and was taken so that the Roman government could
tax everyone in the empire correctly. Jewish families had
to register in their historical tribal town rather than where
they actually lived at the time. Joseph and the pregnant Mary
lived in Nazareth. But since Bethlehem was Joseph's tribal
town, it was also the town of the royal family of David, they
had to travel to Bethlehem, which was a journey of about 70
miles or 112 kilometers.
James Cooper: The journey would have taken about three days on
foot or donkey, and they might have one arrived in the evening,
because if they're there arrived earlier in the day, it's more
likely they'd have found some way to stay. In those times,
motels, hotels and inns didn't really exist, you normally
stayed with your extended family. And most families also
shared their houses with the animals they kept. The people
slept on an upper level within the house, and the animals lived
on the ground floor, and were used as a kind of central
heating,
Steve Webb: Bethlehem would have been very crowded for the Census
because it was the home or historical town for many people.
So all the houses or certainly the upper levels would have been
full. So Mary and Joseph had to sleep with the animals either in
a very crowded and smelly lower level of a house or out in a
stable or a cave or even a covered market stall that sold
animals for food, not exactly hygienic hospital conditions.
And with no proper crib available, the new baby boy was
placed in a manger or a feeding trough.
James Cooper: So that's some of the history of the birth of
Jesus. If you'd like to know some more, head on over to the
story section of whychristmas.com.
Steve Webb: Now it's time James for the big announcement. The
Yeah, the result of our Christmas trivia competition,
we're lucky listener will win a signed copy of our good friend
Bryan Duncan's Christmas album, A NehoSoul Christmas. Thank you
to everyone who's taken part in sent us their entries. Now
before we announce the winner, let's hear the answers to the 10
questions. And over to you, James.
James Cooper: Okay, here are the 10 questions and their answers.
Number one. What famous Christmas classic did Bing
Crosby recalled in 1942? And the answer was White Christmas.
Number two, what was the name of Mary's cousin she went to visit
when she was pregnant. And that was Elizabeth. Number three, who
invented the first electric Christmas lights for Christmas
trees. And it was an American telephonist named Ralph Morris.
Number four. What's the name of the Jewish festival that
celebrated around the same time as Christmas and that's
Hanukkah. Number five. How many other reindeer helped Rudolph
Paul Santa sleigh? And that's eight. Number six. What sweet
bread is eaten for Christmas Day breakfast in some parts of
Belgium. And that's cougnou. Number seven. What town was
Jesus born in? We just heard about it. It was Bethlehem.
Number eight. What coin is traditionally lucky to find in
your portion of Christmas pudding. That would be a silver
coin or a silver six pence. Number eight. Sorry number nine
even. in what country would you sing the carol Sambasamba
Zanahary? That's Madagascar. And finally, number 10. What ancient
religion might the white men have belong to and that's
Zorastrian ism.
Steve Webb: So I've got a Santa hat here with all the correct
entries. And I'm going to pull one out and we got to get them
all mixed up here. Okay, here we go. Drumroll please.
Excellent. The winner is Rhonda Evans. Rhonda. Congratulations.
I will be going over to Bryan's house later today even and we'll
get the CD signed. And I'll get that in the post to you as
quickly as I possibly can.
To everybody who sent in an entry thank you so very much. We
appreciate your participation. Hope you had fun. If nothing
else just learning about cougnou. I mean who knew?
James Cooper: Well the Belgians.
Steve Webb: Well that's true. Yeah. So anyway, James, anything
James Cooper: Congratulations to Rhonda as well. I know you'll
to say?
love the album. It's a great one. I've had it playing away in
the build up to Christmas and it's great fun. If you didn't
win and you'd like to buy a copy for yourself, which I thoroughly
recommend. Then go on over to Bryan duncan.com where you can
order a real CD from the man himself or you can buy it
digitally as I did from indieheaven.com The links are
also in the show notes at lifespringwhychristmas.com.
Steve Webb: Well, James, it has been so fun doing this again
this year. Obviously I couldn't do without you. And it is is
just great fun. I enjoyed talking to you. And you know,
one of these days, we have to figure out a way to meet in
person.
James Cooper: Yes, that would be good. We've wept camped foot.
We've never shook hands.
Steve Webb: That's true. I'm looking forward to that someday.
And you know, if not on this side of heaven, I know that
we'll get to meet in heaven.
James Cooper: Absolutely. And you'll be able to say, wow,
you're shorter than I thought.
Steve Webb: You know, my brother in law, Steve O'Brien, who's a
pastor my church is, well, let's see, vertically challenged.
James Cooper: Yeah, that would be it,
Steve Webb: as is some other of my friends that we've even
talked about today. And so you know, I've gained some
sensitivity to that.
Well, Merry Christmas, everybody. God bless you. I hope
that this day is the most special Christmas you've ever
had.
James Cooper: And for me to a very happy Christmas one and all
.
Alright, so
Steve Webb and James Cooper: Merry Christmas