Hey guys! What’s up and welcome back to Hear and Now Podcast! It’s Sophia and ya’ll probably excepted me to start talking about 15 seconds ago, but guess what? It’s Podcastmas and that means all month long I am going to be posting podcast episodes celebrating Christmas. So this is the first episode of podcastmas and I hope you guys enjoyed the little Christmas music in the beginning of it!
It’s literally my favorite time of year and I am super excited to be doing this! I’ve seen youtubers doing vlogmas and bloggers doing blogmas, so what about podcasters? I am doing podcastmas. I don’t know if that’s original or not, but I don’t care! Happy Podcastmas. I have 7 fun filled episodes all planned and ready to go. They’ll just be 5-10 minutes long so you can get in the holiday spirit all month!
I’m still gonna tell you to check out all my socials down below but each episode is only going to be dedicated to podcastmas! Even though I’m still producing content this month, I still feel like I’m giving myself rest by just doing super chill episodes. Then come the new year I am going to be back into the game and have a ton of new content!
So this episode is just an introduction episode and then I kinda wanted to give a little history of Christmas. I did the intro of Podcastmas, but what is Christmas? Imma give you a little history lesson.
Christmas is a worldwide holiday. Christians all over the world celebrate on December 25 the birth of Christ. For two thousand years, we have recognized Christ as our savior and we honor him on December 25. But what about the secular aspect of Christmas?
The English custom of celebrating Christmas was lost during the Revolution, and According to history.com, Christmas only began to be recognized as a federal holiday in 1870. In the 19th century, we Americans began to recognize and embrace Christmas. Charles Dickens wrote the Christmas Carol during this time, which sparked interest in the holiday again.
So what about Santa claus? People all over the world instantly know his name. Legend says that St Nicholas has something to do with it. This popular saint in both Eastern and Western churches is most well known for his association with Christmas. St. Nicholas of Myra was born sometime in the fourth century. Not much is known about his life, except that he became bishop of Myra. He was supposedly imprisoned during the reign of Diocletian and released during the time Constantine the Great. His legacy was that of kindness and miracles – he would give his time, talent, and treasure to those who needed it. Some included giving dowries to young girls who would have had to live sinful lifestyles if not for him. He also is reported to have restored the lives of three children who were killed tragically. His benevolent personality donned him as the “gift-bearer”, and after his death, people began devotions to St. Nick.
The Reformation sparked many changes in the Western church, including the loss of devotion to St. Nick. The only place to keep this faithfullness was Holland, where the legend of Sinterklaas (the Dutch variant of the name St. Nicholas) was alive and well.
Immigrants to the colonies in the 17th century brought “Sinterklaas” along with them. The English-speaking colonists inhabited “Sinterklaas”, who became known as Santa Claus. The legend continued of an older man who would bring gifts to the deserving children in the world.
In America, St. Nicholas became Santa Claus. In the United Kingdom, he is known as Father Christmas. Holland, Belgium, and other northern European countries still know him as Sinterklaas and St. Nick.
It’s so cool! I think that if I had to choose another career, I’d probably study history because its so interesting! So that was an excerpt that I wrote for this podcast and for my advent devotional, and we are into the season of Advent, but make sure you get if you haven’t yet!
Some facts about Christmas:
- 30 million Christmas trees are sold ev ery year in the United States. The average Christmas tree takes 15 years to grow before sold.
- Christmas was outlawed from 1659-1681 in Boston. Can you imagine not being able to celebrate Christmas?
- Salvation Army has sent their donation collectors into the streets since 1890.
- The Rockefeller Christmas tree tradition started in 1931. I love going to New York City and seeing the tree! We’ve been going for the past 10 or 15 years.
I think that is it for today’s first episode of Podcastmas!!! Podcastmas is only going to be 5-10 minutes long. Come back later this week for the second episode!
Bye guys!
It’s December, and that means it’s time for PODCASTMAS!! This is the first episode and I can’t wait for you guys to join me all month long as I do podcastmas.
Transcripts: https://sophialebano.com/category/podcast
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Advent Devotional