Is he Santa Claus or Father Christmas? | FESTIVE WORD ORIGINS

[@larryfontenot9018]

Talking about "The Twelve Days of Christmas" reminded me of joke in my collection. What if a Cajun had tried to do the things listed in the song? Notes: Andouille is a kind of pork sausage. It's made of smoked shoulder meat, which is stuffed into a casing with various spices and then smoked again. The "andouille" you may find in your local food market is not real Cajun andouille. They are usually a hot link that they borrowed the name for. LaPlace, Louisiana, a town on the Mississippi River, has been nicknamed "The Andouille Capital of the World". Bourbon Street is in New Orleans' oldest neighborhood, the French Quarter. It runs thirteen blocks from Canal to Esplanade Avenue. Bourbon Street is best known for its bars and strip clubs. A fais do-do (fay doe-doe) is a Cajun dance party. The name means "go to sleep", which is what Cajun mothers tell their children before leaving to attend one. "Do-do" is a cutesy way of saying "dormir" (sleep), and is used mostly when speaking to small children. It's like saying "beddy-bye". __________ Day 1: Dear Fontenot: Thanks for the bird in the pear tree. I fixed it last night with dirty rice. I don't think the pear tree will grow with all the heat in the summer. -Josephine Day 2: Dear Fontenot: Your letter said you sent two turtle doves, but all I got was two scrawny pigeons. Anyway, I mixed them with andouille and made some gumbo out of them. -Josephine Day 3: Dear Fontenot: Why couldn't you have sent me crawfish? I'm tired of eating those darned birds. I gave two of those prissy French chickens to Leonie over at Grand Bayou and fed the third one to my dog, Phydeaux. Leonie needed some sparring partners for her fighting rooster. -Josephine Day 4: Dear Fontenot: Good Lord! I told you no more %44#*^@ birds! these four "calling birds" were so noisy you could hear them all the way to Napoleonville. I used their necks for my crab traps, and fed the rest of them to the alligators. -Josephine Day 5: Dear Fontenot: You finally sent something useful. I like the golden rings. I hocked them at a pawn shop in Thibodaux and got enough money to fix the shaft on my shrimp boat, and then bought a round for the boys at Patin's in Labadie! Thanks! -Josephine Day 6: Dear Fontenot: You pig! You're back to the birds, you Cajun turkey! Poor Phydeaux is scared to death of the six geese. They peck the heck out of his snout. They are good at eating cockroaches, though. I may stuff one of them with oyster dressing on Christmas day. -Josephine Day 7: Dear Fontenot: I'm going to wring your fool neck next time I see you. Dumont, the mailman, is ready to kill you. The droppings from all those birds is stinking up his mail boat. He afraid someone will slip on that stuff and sue him. I let those seven swans loose to swim on the bayou and some duck hunters from Mississippi blasted them out of the water. Talk to you tomorrow. -Josephine Day 8: Dear Fontenot: Poor old Dumont had to make three trips with his mail boat to deliver the eight maids a' milking and their cows. One of the cows got spooked by the gators and almost tipped over the boat. I don't like those shiftless maids. I told them to get to work gutting fish and sweeping the house, but they say that isn't in their contract. They probably think they're too good to skin the nutrias I caught last night. -Josephine Day 9: Dear Fontenot: What you trying to do? Dumont had to borrow the Lutcher ferry to carry those jumping twits you call Lords a' leaping across the bayou. As soon as they got here, they wanted a tea break with crumpets. I don't know what that means, but I told them they got chicory coffee or nothing. Good Lord. What am I going to feed all these Bozos? They're too snooty for fried nutria, and the cows ate my turnip greens. -Josephine Day 10: Dear Fontenot: You have got to be out of your mind! If the mailman doesn't kill you, I will! Today he delivered ten half-naked floozies from Bourbon Street. They said they were "ladies dancing", but they don't act like ladies in front of the Limey twits. They almost left after one of them got bitten by a water moccasin over by the bayou. I had to butcher two of the cows to feed everyone and had to go buy a shopping cart load of toilet paper. The crowd ran me out, and the Sears catalog wasn't good enough for the noble behinds of those snooty "lords". -Josephine Day 11: Dear Fontenot: Cheerio and pip-pip. Your eleven pipers piping arrived today from the House of Blues, second-lining as they got off the boat. We fixed stuffed goose and beef jambalaya and had a fais-do-do. The new mailman was having a good time dancing with the floozies. He told me the old mailman, Dumont, jumped off the Sunshine Bridge today while screaming your name. If you get a mysterious ticking package in the mail sometime soon, don't open it. Or maybe you should. -Josephine Day 12: Dear Fontenot: I'm sorry to tell you this, but I'm not your true love anymore. After the fais-do-do, I spent the night with Jacque, the head piper. We decided to open a restaurant and jazz club on the bayou. The floozies... pardon me. The "ladies dancing" will be the entertainment and the lords will be waiters and valet park the boats. Since the maids don't have any more cows to milk, I trained them to set my crab traps, watch my trotlines, and run my shrimping business. We will probably gross over million dollars next year. Merry Christmas! -Josephine

[@stevetournay6103]

Haven't seen that Cajun 12 Days before...have many times heard a hilarious narration of an Irish version on radio though, which ends with the beleaguered gift recipient and his mother being driven crazy by the tumult caused by the gifts...

[@EricDavidRocks]

Great one! "Sinterklaas" is in MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET when Santa knows and sings Sinterklaas Kapoentje to a little Dutch girl in the store. The mother apologizes that the girl doesn't know English, and she is amazed he knows both Dutch and the children's song.

[@smithandshortdogs]

English loan words in Swahilli generally are just the english word followed by thi suffix i. My personal favorite is Roundabout, which, in Kenya at least, is a "keep lefti" .

[@helenamcginty4920]

Ive tried to understand the Nigerian version of English. Rather silly really because I still get tripped up by Australian and even US versions. Much as my mother, from east London in England struggled to understand her Lancashire neighbours back in the late 1940s and 50s when she moved north after marrying her handsome soldier during WWll. (He loved his beautiful WRAAF lady just as much). Ps. Shame I, a female, took after my handsome dad rather than my beautiful mother. 😂

[@AndrewPepperstone]

Also, the plural for nouns in Kenya is vi-, so the plural of that kind of traffic thing or a road sign is vipilefti

[@AndrewPepperstone]

I certainly may have misspelled this.

[@WordsUnravelled]

Glorious!

[@Xpian]

​@@AndrewPepperstone As a side note, when Kenya was a colony it was always pronounced 'KEENya' and since independence it's pronounced 'KENNya'... but the spelling never changed. (There's a shibboleth if ever I saw one!)

[@KwanLowe]

Thank you, Rob and Jess, for this wonderful series.

[@WordsUnravelled]

It's our absolute pleasure. And thank you for your continued generosity!

[@markedis5902]

When my son was little we would modify the lyrics of songs and rhymes to make him laugh such as Baa baa black sheep have you any crisps? We modified the 12 days of Christmas to include; 5 old things, 4 falling birds, 3 French men, 2 purple doves and a fartridge up a gum tree.

[@frenchfriar]

My favorite version of "Merry Christmas" in another language is from Hawaiian, "Meli Kalikamaka". "Happy Holidays" simply used to be a way to wish folks a happy Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's, useful from mid-November to at least after Christmas. I'd love for Rob & Jess to discuss Krampus, the Grinch, and the other darker sides of Christmas!

[@shryggur]

A little note: Ded Moroz is Grandfather Frost. He also has Snegurochka as a sidekick. She's his granddaughter, and the name means something like Snowelina (cf. Thumbelina Dyuimovochka, where dyuim is an inch). They usually come together to the kids' feasts on New Year, not Christmas. Great episode, as always! 👏 🎅

[@Thewholetree]

I'm so happy you include Joulupukki, the Christmas goat! I know he's a person, but I have a taxidermy Boc Balear goat, that has been adorned with sparkling silver stars and blue LED lights, to represent the colors of the Finnish flag, and he hangs in my entryway, (this past year he has also served as climbing support for a monstera adansonii plant) his name is also Joulupukki. I wish I could post pictures in the comments because he's cool and I would share his sparkly greatness with everyone. Despite being German, not Finns or Russians, we also celebrate gift-giving on Sylvester (nye for y'all Americans), but we tell our son that his no9dly highness, the Flying Spaghetti Monster slips in through the windows that night, usually when people are distracted by the fireworks and drunk on champagne, and leaves presents. So we do it Russian nerd style. Hyvää joulua!

[@TomiTapio]

Oh no Rob pronounce puk-ki as "pookie"

[@Xpian]

I'm English and old (somewhere between pension and death). On Dad's side it was 'Father Christmas' (who might have still been seen in green garb, though red was winning out). On Mum's it was 'St Nicholas' (and he usually wore a gold mitre). Dad's side of the family were Church of England since 1534; Mum's lot were of 'foreign extraction' and Roman Catholic. 'Santa Claus' was unused in the UK then (though we might have understood it from American films). 6th Jan was 'Epiphany' on Dad's side, and 'Little Christmas' on Mum's or unofficially 'Three King's Day'. PS: 'Happy Holidays!' was indeed confusing, as 'yes' it did seem like someone saying (in American) 'Enjoy your vacation!' BTW In German there's still the word „Julscheit“ (nur das Gebäck allein, kein Holzklotz). And also the word „Julfest“. Happy Christmas to you both!

[@helenamcginty4920]

Ditto re age. Yes it was father Christmas in our house as well. Though mum being, at the time,.devoutly Chtistian and RC emphasised the religious aspect. We didnt put the tree up until Christmas eve. But she had made cakes, puddings and mincemeat in September and spent her nights, after putting us to bed, (at least twice as we kept on playing in our bedrooms), sitting at her treadle sewing machine making matching dresses for us and our pot dolls and something for our brother. When I was 8 I helped her making him a Davy Crocket outfit. Complete with fur hat, with tail, made from a rabbit sking pram blanket.

[@omarjette3859]

Julscheit? sounds kind of "naughty" in English. Hohoho, just kidding - Merry Xmas!

[@neiloflongbeck5705]

Father Christma should be in green with white fur trim.

[@tristanmills4948]

Yes - Season's Greetings is usually the non-religious saying. I do remember some people trying to manufacture controversy over that, but I don't think they got much traction.

[@Bill_Garthright]

Well, I"m American and old (and no pensions here, but there's more than enough death - heh, heh). So it was always "Santa Claus" for me. Everyone I knew, all the time I grew up, was Christian, but I don't think I associated Christmas with religion when I was young. Most people back then were just nominally Christian, as far as I could tell - it wasn't political the way it is now - and I don't remember ever believing that stuff, anyway. But I always loved the holiday.

[@janilledutton139]

You two are a delight! Merry Christmas!

[@Grumpy_old_git-73]

Thanks Rob and Jess. Wishing you both a lovely Christmas! 🎅

[@WordsUnravelled]

And to you to!

[@eugenetswong]

@@WordsUnravelled Merry Christmas to both of you, and Mr. Grumpy.

[@seamussc]

Navidad does come from the Latin word for birth, but the modern Spanish word for birth is nacimiento. In the strictly modern sense, Navidad is more directly like the word Nativity in English.

[@andypartridge800]

Being a Partridge myself, I believe that the pear tree part of the song is a bastardisation of the French word for partridge (perdrix), as partridges are ground dwelling birds...

[@michaelsommers2356]

Saint Nicklaus was probably Greek, though he lived in what is now Turkey. He was not a Turk, because the Turks did not arrive in Turkey for another thousand years.

[@Scott_Forsell]

Istanbul, not Constantinople. It's nobody's business but the Turks.

[@danvernier198]

@@Scott_Forsell He wasn't from Constantinople though, he was from Myra which is present day Demre in Antalya province.

[@ovief]

Saint Nicholas was indeed Greek and lived in the Roman Empire. As far as we know he actually came from Patara (Lycia) and became the bishop of Myra. Much later the relics of his body were taken by Italian sailors to Bari in Italy where you can still visit them. He definitely was not Turkish since the Turks arrived centuries later to the place we now call Turkey.

[@ladyroselie]

The only podcast that makes me audibly chuckle 😄 Merry Christmas Jess & Rob! Still hoping for a "slang" episode or two in the new year, especially Victorian.

[@nicksanchez8294]

The only podcast I’ve ever actually listened to is yours! I look forward to every episode. Have a great Christmas and holiday season!

[@Vim-Wolf]

Christmas trees were available back in the 1500s. Which is when Tesco started putting them on the shelves for this year.

[@j.rinker4609]

Love your sweater, Rob.

[@Effectlife]

In Dutch (and Flemish), Thunder is written "Donder" and Lightning is "Bliksem". Also, the 6th of December here in Belgium and the 5th in the Netherlands, the holiday is called "Sinterklaas", while Christmas itself is called "Kerstmis". Santa Claus/Father Christmas is just called "Kerstman".

[@JulieEnglert-cj1hv]

I am Australian, but when I was young I spent a year in Norway as an exchange student. They also have something similar to elves, called ‘nysse’ or ‘nyssen’. These are usually naughty and mostly play tricks on people. At best they are mischievous. At Christmas time, they have the job of delivering the Christmas presents. They are called “julenysse” or Christmas elves. I thought you might have spoken about them 🤔 For some reason, these “nysse” are usually dressed in red, like miniature santas 😮

[@TomiTapio]

Nisse/nysse/tomte/tonttu house-elves, leave offerings for them, or your sauna building might catch fire... One N for the barn, one for the house, one for the sauna building... None for the outhouse.

[@TomiTapio]

Dressed in cheap grey linen/wool, older depictions

[@joseraulcapablanca8564]

In modern Norwegian reindeer are just referred to as rein with that spelling. Same in singular and plural form. Santa is julenisse nisse is an elf who lives in the barn and must be kept happy with food etc. similar to a boggart in English folk tradition, these nisse can be helpful or mischievous.

[@lakrids-pibe]

Hello from Denmark. Santa is called *"julemanden"* (the yule man) in danish, but he is somehow existing in parallel with another bringer of gifts: *Julenissen* You can mention both as the bringer of christmas gifts, and people don't blink an eye. Julemanden lives on the North Pole (or Thule in Greenland) and has an army of helpers (nisser) The Nisse lives in the attic or the barn, and you're supposed to bring him some food - preferably porridge. I don't know what he's supposed to eat for the rest of the year. Poor fellow. The Nisse was originally a household god. The English translation can be gnome, goblin, hobgoblin or - like Santa's helper - elf.

[@gwjchris]

And in Sweden it is Tomten or The Christmas Gnome a opposed the regular tomtar (plural for tomte) who take care of farm animals in the winter so you had better remember to leave a nice bowl of porridge (oatmeal) for them at Christmas. 🙂

[@joseraulcapablanca8564]

@@gwjchris yes they love their grøt here too, as uasual in Norway with butter and cinnamon, to me as a Scot this is an horrifc way to treat porridge but they think I am crazy here with my salty grøt.

[@hashi856]

Why is Jess the cutest thing on Earth?

[@Spudz76]

42% Elf

[@zinc_ave]

the best gift is the etymological routes we learned along the way

[@johnbackscheider-radiorepa4956]

Merry Christmas And thanks for all the linguistic joys over the past year

[@bebebebe6982]

Thank you for this video. Happy Holidays etymology helped me today at work when it was used at my workplace and didn't rub me the wrong way. I love your back and forth with each other. It's very easy to watch. Happy Holidays!

[@jfu5222]

I think DEVO wrote the most inclusive song for the season, Merry Something to You.

[@otakubancho6655]

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year you guys,I've learned a lot watching you this past year,hope to see more next year!🎉🎉🎉

[@ellium1147]

When you cover Grinch next year, please include Noel, because I'm too lazy to google it and you two make the explanations really fun 😊 Thank you!

[@RobertJarecki]

There's a town named Noel in the USA state of Missouri. The post office there receives many letters addressed to Santa Claus. The post office delivers them to a volunteer organization that looks through them for families that need help.

[@eivindkaisen6838]

"Hail our dear ould friend Kris Kringle, Driving his reindeer across the sky. Don't stand underneath when they fly fly by." - Tom Lehrer, A Christmas Carol (no later than 1959)

[@coachkarl1676]

Thanks!

[@WordsUnravelled]

Wow, thank you, Coach Karl! The generosity is very much appreciated. R & J

[@cbjones2212]

Feeling unheard, having a hot summer Aussie Christmas 🫣☀️🎅

[@TheMimiSard]

And humid and rainy (in Brizzy).

[@marymactavish]

Santa in a singlet in a surfboard!

[@SusanPearce_H]

@@marymactavish "in" a surfboard?

[@WayneKitching]

As a South African, I hear you! We just got out of a heatwave, but now we have thunder and lightning, which are Donder en Bliksem in Afrikaans.

[@cbjones2212]

@@SusanPearce_H 'i' & 'o' are next to each other on qwerty ;)

[@jukeboxjunkie1000]

It's always been Santa where I am in Scotland (Highlands). My mum recalls him always being called that back in the 1950s, although some of her family didn't celebrate Christmas as it was against their faith (Free Church of Scotland)

[@DrWhe-yo8yh]

Always Santa in Northumberland also (at least in the 1970s), albeit often pronounced 'Santie'.

[@kevinmcqueenie7420]

I live in Tokyo and so my kids are basically Scottish seasoned Japanese, and can confirm that the only name they ever use for him is Santa-san.

[@corralescoyote]

My gramma’s house is in South Albuquerque, NM, and I always connected “Santa” with the word for “saint”, except weirdly feminized. There are also tons of people around here with both German and Mexican descent, so when I was a kid, I pictured Santa Claus as an effeminate German patron saint of Chistmas.

[@DrWhe-yo8yh]

Your podcast makes me feel all warm and Christmassy.

[@simonpayne7994]

Number 1 and Number 2. Reminds me of French: "petit oiseau vert" and "petit oiseau brun".- German: Pipi und Aa. Maybe children's words could make a good topic for a future episode. Although usually there is a lot of family-specific language involved. Children's words for relations, animals, genitals, andi all sorts of things.

[@samielkhayri9272]

Another very entertaining and informative episode of Words Unravelled. I love this channel.

[@elizabethL8n]

So look forward to your podcasts! Thank you and have a joyous holiday!!

[@WordsUnravelled]

Thank you so much for your generosity and support, Elizabeth!

[@TeaAndFloppyDisks]

Your podcast is always interesting and fun. :) Enjoy your holidays!

[@DusanPavlicek78]

0:28 "Yule love this Christmas episode" I see what you did there 😉Clever 🎄😁

[@callicordova4066]

Love that sequined Santa hat! You two are so much fun to listen to and we learn so much as the same time. Wishing you both much mirth and look forward to seeing you in 2025.

[@pennysara9814]

I’m so happy to learn the origin of ‘merry’! I assumed that it had something to do with the effects of alcohol, so preferred to wish people a ‘happy Christmas’. Now I know that it’s related to ‘mirth’, I will use it wholeheartedly! 😀

[@TenositSergeich]

Relating to Christkind : Over in Slovakia this particular element of Christmas tradition is called _Ježiško_ ("Little Jesus"), and there is a service to write Little Jesus mail, as you do. One time it was mispelled as _Ježisko_ ("Giant Hedgehog") on the envelope, which became a bit of a meme.

[@peggymccright1220]

We have so many different cultures here in the states: The holidays start with Thanksgiving then there is Hanukkah, Kwanza, Winter Solstice and ending with New Year’s Day! I had a ‘friend’ who would get almost violent when I said “Happy Holidays”

[@dtpugliese318]

You guys are so fun

[@Hopespringseternal]

Thank you for the Festive Warning! How thoughtful ❤💚

[@pierreabbat6157]

To go along with the elves, there should be some zwölves.

[@davemiller6545]

"The Elves have left the building"

[@elainebelzDetroit]

"Festive things, let's GO!!!" -- I might use that in my Church history class. I like to talk about/point out syncretism when I can, since it's been so culturally formative in the West even before the Christian era.

[@ledelste]

This one a pure banger - will be forwarding to friends

[@Anaguma79]

Growing up, I always interpreted "Happy Holidays" as referring to Christmas and New Year's Day. Now it's a political shibboleth. Oh, and Nicholas was Greek, it wasn't Turkey yet.

[@tristanmills4948]

Oh Fox News. They love to stir people up for no reason. You just need to leave your house to see that Christmas is alive and well, at least with their capitalist friends using it to sell more and more crap nobody really needs... And I guess St Nicholas was Roman really ;)

[@ofsinope]

I agree that "Happy Holidays" originated as basically shorthand for "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year." In the 90s or so, it was kind of reframed as something more inclusive.

[@BritishBeachcomber]

4:48 Is Sir Christmas related to the Sir Loin?

[@cliffcohen7020]

Growing up in California, where many cities are named for saints, one quickly learns that santa is female saint and san is a male saint, so it is very curious that there is a guy called "Santa Claus".

[@stevetournay6103]

Perhaps they were way ahead of their time! 😁

[@scwebb]

“Zany hodgepodge of cultural traditions” - writes down for later use…

[@TomiTapio]

Decorations crafted from straw

[@quart-knee-lee]

The Christmas tree doesn't show up until the 15th century in Alsace and Baden. It is a folk custom that as far as we can tell was invented by Christians for Christmas.

[@Blade_Daddy]

Cute hat, Jesse! 😂😊

[@jaded_gerManic]

I was once told that the difference between a reindeer and a caribou is a fence. 😂

[@melodycuthbert4840]

May gods all bless & keep you safe now & in the coming.

[@melodycuthbert4840]

My favorite “carol” or song I actually sing year round “Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer”

[@mybachhertzbaud3074]

As my middle name "Elwin" apparently means "befriended by elves" I have been using that "Elf on a shelf" for years now doing mischievous things about the house for my great- grand daughters. Especially stealing my candy.Lol😜 ⛄Happy Holidays to all 2024

[@BlueFire516]

Merry Xmas Unravellers

[@angiecolwell9596]

I just dressed as the Yule Goat for a Yule party last weekend! Was crowned a Regent of Winter😁

[@kaiying74]

I love this show. Merry Xmas to you both.

[@dhpbear2]

1:53 - 'Christmas' was also 'verbed' in the Carpenters' "Merry Christmas, Darling" :)

[@thekaxmax]

Merry Presentday!

[@dennisestenson7820]

Love the multidimensional pun!

[@donkfail1]

Thank you for this etymological Christmas gift! 🎄 Just what I wanted. 🎁 I wish you both a jolly rest of the year. ❤

[@marymactavish]

I grew up kind of Catholic but accepting of nice people in general, nothing strict. My mom told us that happy holidays, which we did in the '60s too, was to include New Year's. Now, I use it to include other holidays as well.

[@helenamcginty4920]

My mother didnt approve of new year because it was pagan. Over the years her religious fervour diminished, thank goodness, and she died a happy atheist who sat up to see the new year in like everyone else.

[@MichaelJohnson-vi6eh]

Happy Holidays was a popular song back in the 40's so I doubt a lot of "political correctness" was involved. I think because of necessity of travel Christmas celebrations had to be over a period of time not just one day. It really depended on where you lived and what your religious background how "merry" and protracted your celebration was. I do not wish anyone Merry Christmas until the week before and then up until new years.

[@melodycuthbert4840]

My dad’s family is Catholic. My dad used to refer to us as “submarine Catholics” because he only made us go to church @ Christmas & Easter. So we only “surfaced” twice a year.

[@tristanmills4948]

That's it. Being nice to people. I don't understand why people can't just get to grips with that concept. If you feel threatened by Happy Holidays it says more about your insecurities than anything else ..

[@Bill_Garthright]

It's funny, but I always said "Merry Christmas" as an atheist, mostly because everyone I know is either Christian or comes from a Christian background. But then the religious right came out against that supposed "War on Christmas" - one of the silliest of the silly things they say - and I kept wanting to say "Happy Holidays" in reaction to that. But then, I suppose that's what they wanted, huh? The whole point was to manufacture another fake 'controversy'? And they _love_ to feel persecuted, even as they're busy persecuting everyone else. I suppose I wouldn't mind 'persecuting' them that way, but I don't want to give them the satisfaction. :) So I say "Merry Christmas" unless I suspect someone would prefer "Happy Holidays." Admittedly, every atheist I know celebrates Christmas. It's not religious for _us,_ but it's still a family-friendly holiday.

[@merbertancriwalli8622]

9:38 we call what others would call a Secret Santa a Kris Kringle here...

[@smithandshortdogs]

I remember dad giving a sermon about christmas where he pointed out that... We only assume that there were three wise men because there were three gifts (side note about magi and magic). There was probably only two gifts as it appears to have been golden frankincense and myrh if you dig back into the linguistics.

[@DesCoutinho]

Ok so like rock n roll gold n incense. Makes sense

[@smithandshortdogs]

@DesCoutinho kinda sorta... if I say meatlovers pizza and coke did I bring a pizza with meat on it and a drink or a bunch of people a pizza and a coke?

[@DesCoutinho]

@smithandshortdogs when I was courting I used to order a meatblovers pizza thinking it honoured lovers. They matter then again pizza is pizza

[@JeeWeeD]

To be honest, I have never seen the words 'donder en bliksem' spelled in the way as they appear in the poem... That is because it is not "normal" Dutch, but Nieuw Amsterdam Dutch, apparently.

[@simonettacollatina7197]

In Italy, when I was young (now I'm 60) Gesù bambino, aka baby Jesus, used to bring presents, nowadays it's Babbo Natale, Father Christmas, but the original tradition involved no presents around Christmas, it was just a religious holiday. Goog kids would receive small presents and sweets on January 6, Epiphany. They were brought by my favorite figure ever, la Befana, a very old woman flying on a broom that would get inside every house through the chimney, and leave sweets for good kids and lumps of coals for naughty ones.

[@Anne-Enez]

In french mistletoe is called "gui" from the latin "viscum" meaning glue, trough the german influence wiscu, then gwy and guy. Mistletoe forms ball-shaped bushes in trees because it is a parasitic plant having specialised roots able of penetrating the host tree from which they draw water and nutriments. Joyeux Noël Jess and Rob 🎄🎁!

[@user-rh5nu4ku2b]

I was really hoping you guys would cover the roots of the word wassail... which I always understood to be the term for spiced warmed apple cider... but of course there's also the song: Here we come a wassailing... I guess we have stuff to cover next season!

[@tristanmills4948]

It's also a festival (a revival mostly) in some parts of England, where you go wasailing, either door to door with wassail or orchard to orchard. There's lots of regional winter traditions all over. I love finding out about them.

[@gwjchris]

Hot apple cider is a modern version. Original recipes usually involve various combinations of alcoholic beverages often with chunks of stale bread tossed in as in, "Our toast it is white, our ale it is brown." Having tasted wassail from early one recipe, I will stick with more modern versions. 😁

[@ccrb]

At 12 minutes you point out about it being odd that Santa interferes with Christmas Day, being the birthday of Christ. As a professional Santa Claus, and more importantly, a St Nicholas, Father Christmas and Pere Noel, I often have children asking "Did you know Christmas is Jesus's birthday?" and I point out that Santa's work ends of Christmas Eve, that I'm a herald of the coming Christmas, and that "Christmas belongs not to Santa, but to Someone else altogether." and they look at me, and say "Jesus?" and I confirm it, with "He's my boss." which, because I'm a Rev. -- is actually true. Ho ho ho. Happy Advent. (LOL).

[@PhilBagels]

But of course, Christmas is not Jesus' birthday. He was born in the Spring. Christmas was just the day chosen to commemorate Jesus' birth - the feast day for Christ. Just like St. Patrick's Day is not St. Patrick's birthday. The idea of celebrating birthdays (or even keeping track of them) didn't start until many centuries later. December 25 was chosen because the pagan Romans were already used to celebrating that day as the Bacchanalia. This way, they could be persuaded to become Christian and still enjoy the holiday without the pagan practices. "New wine in old bottles."

[@eddokter]

Grew up Catholic: I have heard the religious connotations added to 12 days of Christmas when I was a kid. I didn't remember all of the explanations but I had heard it from a Franciscan Monk in the early 80's.

[@dnkgy]

I like the festive warning❤

[@jamesfetherston1190]

A TON of Christmas lore and tradition and imagery comes from New York City. Santa Claus is from Sinterklaas, “A Night Before Christmas” written by New Yorker Clement Moore, “Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus” written in the New York Herald, there is whole look of Santa was created on Madison Avenue, Miracle on 34th Street, plus a ton of songs written on Tin Pan Alley.

[@whycantiremainanonymous8091]

What about the elves that you find in such names as Alfred (Ælfred, elves' councel) and Elgiva (Ælfgifu, gift of the elves)?

[@SusanPearce_H]

Elvish Presley?

[@RobertJarecki]

This morning, as we do many mornings between Thanksgiving (USA) and Christmas, my little old Jack Russell Terrier and I went on our walk in Christmas regalia. I dress as Father Christmas (in a long vestment costume rather than a "suit") and he wears a red jacket with white fake fur collar.

[@GarySpryJr]

Saint Nicholas was a bishop who attended the Council of Nicea in 325 ad. He famously argued against the heresy of Arianism. Arias taught that Jesus was not fully man.

[@Eric_Hunt194]

I made a Christmas playlist last year. It included the song "Dear God" by XTC. My brother asked why that song was on a Christmas playlist as it didn't strike him as particularly festive... until i pointed out that the music video contains Andy Partridge in a pear tree.

[@merbertancriwalli8622]

32:35 Wenceslas is Vaclav in the original Czech. Maybe harder to pronounce that you think...

[@Eric_Hunt194]

But we all know how Good King Wenceslas liked his pizza... Deep pan, crisp and even.

[@tterrace]

This was probably mentioned somewhere else in the comments, but at least in the US where a holiday is a single day, and especially a day off from work and school, such usages as “the holiday season” and “the holidays” goes back to well before the more recent efforts to become more inclusive, and arose from the singular occasion of two such days being only a week apart. And generally, the “holiday season” in the US includes Thanksgiving, which occurs a month before Christmas. So “holidays” in reference to this time of year arose essentially from the close proximity of three widely-observed and festive holidays.

[@onepcwhiz6847]

I chuckled when she said "That's darling."

[@charlierichardson613]

Even the intro was fun!

[@TomasGradin]

Your pronunciation of Swedish "jul" was spot on!

[@martinstephenson2226]

Great video

[@allengilbert7463]

It's funny that "Happy Holidays" is so divisive both inside and outside of the US. I use it because everybody celebrates at least two holidays during that time; whatever religious or cultural festival you have, and New Year's. And, at this point, "the holidays" means the time between US Thanksgiving and New Year's, short for "the holiday season." It's not uncommon to hear someone ask, "are you enjoying the holidays?" in the middle of December before any holiday has taken place.

[@litigioussociety4249]

The controversy of Happy Holidays in America was primarily caused by the store Target in 2005. There were some people in the prior years pushing for people to say Happy Holidays more, but Target removed Christmas from all promotional material in the store in 2005, and employees claimed they were told they couldn't say "Merry Christmas." Target received a ton of backlash, and lost a huge amount of revenue that year, even though they to push back and claimed themselves they never had that employee policy in any of their stores. Target eventually brought back "Christmas" in their signs, but it didn't matter, because other stores pushed "Christmas" hard after that like Walmart, and the public perception of Target being anti-Christmas, anti-Christian, and woke is still going strong after their removal of the Salvation Army bellringers, the bigger controversy of LGBT clothes for kids in their stores, and some other minor things. Most people don't associate the "Happy Holidays" thing with Target anymore, but with wokeness and anti-religious sentiment as a whole. This is also why in the last ten years people who are pro-Christmas push even harder that this is Christmas time.

[@davemiller6545]

Starbucks came in for a lot of grief over their branding of seasonal drinks too. As Jess and Rob point out, "Happy Holidays" has "holy days" right in it. Saying "Happy Holidays" isn't anti-religious: what it isn't is expressly and exclusively pro-Christian. The uproar was fomented by the American Christian right wing aggressively trying to force everyone to acknowledge the dominance of the Christian faith in American culture. I prefer not to have to quiz acquaintances on their religious beliefs before wishing them the joys of the season. "Happy Holidays" does the trick and if that's woke, so be it. After all, what's the antithesis of being woke? Being somnolent, unaware, ignorant, insensitive?

[@litigioussociety4249]

@davemiller6545 woke at this point means socially progressive, often in an extremist way. It originally was thrown around to mean different things, but in the end social media settled on woke meaning confirming to contemporary culture, and based meaning objective and fact-based.

[@pierreabbat6157]

Where I live, there's a thing up in a pine tree that I thought is mistletoe. I took a picture, and someone said it's a squirrel's nest. So I posted it on iNat, and it turned out to be neither. It's Phytoplasma pini, also known as witch's broom.

[@richardhole8429]

As a kid hiking in the woods I was startled by a partridge taking "flight" as I passed by. The fluttering of its wings did sound like a huge fart.

[@kg4wwn]

"Happy Holidays" meant "Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years" for a long time before it was ever accused of being a way to avoid saying "Christmas". The objections over it were all contrived by people who wanted to be angry at something.

[@jeffworks5802]

It is used by people who do not want to recognise Christmas We say Happy Thanksgiving The season is the Christmas season The Christmas Season goes from after Thanksgiving to New Years day The Holiday has a name Christmas The Holidaybis Christmas

[@kg4wwn]

Found one of the people who just wants to be angry about something!

[@trien30]

There's Hanukah and Chinese New Year, Tét in Vietnamese, and other cultural traditions like Korean New Year. These Asian holidays revolve around the Chinese one so dates might or might not be the same as the original Chinese lunar calendar. Japan no longer celebrate a lunar new year after the Meiji restoration starting in 1873.

[@dennismcdermot647]

Personally, I say happy holidays if the poetic context requires alliterative pentameter.

[@SeeingBackward]

@@jeffworks5802 Have people used it who do not want to recognize Christmas? Sure. But how many of those are there anymore? There was a time when non-Christians were trying to increase awareness of their holidays, or even create them to reference their own cultural history. They of course wish each each other their own holiday greetings as appropriate. But for several decades now, I've not heard a SINGLE person complain about being wished a "Merry Christmas" though I can't seem to go a week anytime throughout the ENTIRE YEAR without some Christian Nationalist complaining about how nobody says "Merry Christmas" anymore. Yet when I go to the mall or restaurants or wherever, I'm constantly being wished "Merry Christmas" by the staff. On the other hand, for my whole life, in my VERY Christian family, anyone who sees others in November who they won't see until January has said exactly one phrase referencing the season when parting, and that is: "Happy Holidays!" You have VERY clearly formed your opinion over twenty years ago, and haven't bothered to pop your head out of your echo chamber of others who've done the same to notice what world you actually live in.

[@caramelldansen2204]

Merry chrimbo, you two!! I'm a proud Father Christmas patriot, fighting the Santa hoards!!! ;)

[@cori11ian]

Yay! Love your show :)

[@franktank334]

9:02 yeah St. Nicholas feast day in the church is December 6 so it makes sense that if the Germans have their own celebration of St. Nick separate from Santa, that it would be on that day

[@WayneKitching]

In Afrikaans, Donner and Bliksem are treated as very mild swear words, so having the reindeer named thusly is hilarious. The names are quite seasonally appropriate for us, as we have summer in the Southern Hemisphere summer.

[@Pocketfarmer1]

Washington Irving was a founder of New York’s St.Nicholas Society, a group that trances their ancestry to the early dutch settlers of the city. So he was poking fun at himself as much as anything.

[@thomasvieth578]

Very many people make the mistake of calling St Nikolaus Turkish, because his place of action was in what is now Turkey. Well, those Central Asian people had not been around yet for quite some time. By the same logic, you could call St Paul Turkish, because he was born in Tarsus, Turkey. - Nikolaus , by the way, is Old Greek from the goddess Nike, whom the Romans called Victoria and the Old Greek word laos, which means basically people

[@eplumer]

So my big takeaway is that the internet is the modern chain letter

[@HarryWHill-GA]

Merry Christmas y'all.

[@MichelleJacobcik]

How about JRR Tolkien's Christmas book? Letters from Father Christmas was a lovely gift he gave to his children each holiday season. I am looking to reading it this year.

[@WordsUnravelled]

It's such a joy to read and interact with!

[@topilinkala1594]

English think reindeer as magical also as they did not want to buy reindeer meat even when the marketer's told that it's all organic. We in Finland eat them because why not. We eat horses also.

[@andrewharris4268]

As always, it feels like you’re less than half way through the possibilities. Love your work.

[@caramelldansen2204]

I like that in a way, it leaves the proverbial door open for future episodes!