Human Events Daily with Jack Posobiec - The Truth About Christmas

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00:00:25.780 The Poso Daily Brief.

00:00:30.000 This is what happens when the fourth turning meets fifth generation warfare.

00:00:40.500 A commentator, international social media sensation, and former Navy intelligence veteran.

00:00:47.260 This is Human Events with your host, Jack Posobiec.

00:00:49.880 Christ is King!

00:01:00.000 I want you to tell her the truth.

00:01:19.540 What's your name?

00:01:20.760 Miss Kringle.

00:01:21.580 I'll bet you're in the first grade.

00:01:23.100 Second.

00:01:24.020 I mean your real name.

00:01:25.660 That is my real name.

00:01:26.560 I say name.

00:01:27.820 You say Scott Calvin.

00:01:32.620 Name?

00:01:34.960 Chris Kringle.

00:01:37.300 Name?

00:01:38.720 Sinterklaas.

00:01:40.420 Name?

00:01:41.640 Père Noël.

00:01:43.080 Babo Natale.

00:01:45.180 Père is Nicole.

00:01:46.580 Papa Gisjo.

00:01:47.960 Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho. 0.61

00:01:50.440 Ha, ha, ha.

00:01:51.340 Ho, ho, ho, ho. 0.87

00:01:53.920 Uh-oh.

00:01:56.040 Get him out of here.

00:02:05.060 Hello, sir.

00:02:06.640 Oh, how do you do?

00:02:08.700 Would you like to come and sit on my knee?

00:02:11.020 Good.

00:02:11.460 Oh, here you go.

00:02:12.520 There we are.

00:02:13.500 Now then, what's your name?

00:02:14.820 Susan Elizabeth Walker.

00:02:16.800 What's yours?

00:02:17.880 Mine?

00:02:19.960 Well, I have lots of names.

00:02:22.680 Chris Kringle, Santa Claus, Father Christmas, or Nicholas.

00:02:26.720 If you were in Holland, I'd be Sinterklaas. 0.70

00:02:29.360 Or in Italy, La Bifana.

00:02:31.860 Who the heck are you?

00:02:33.380 What are you talking about?

00:02:34.340 I'm Santa Claus.

00:02:35.260 No, you're not.

00:02:36.360 You disgust me.

00:02:37.640 How can you live with yourself?

00:02:39.020 Just cool it, Zippy.

00:02:41.000 You sit on a throne of lies.

00:02:43.000 Thank God.

00:02:44.880 Oh! 0.60

00:02:45.360 He's a monster!

00:02:47.680 Yeah, it's Christmas time, pretty baby.

00:02:52.280 And the snow is falling on the ground.

00:02:56.420 Yeah, it's Christmas time, pretty baby.

00:03:01.440 And the snow is falling on the ground.

00:03:06.900 And Merry Christmas!

00:03:08.160 All right, ladies and gentlemen, welcome aboard, and Merry Christmas Eve.

00:03:25.600 Today on Human Events Daily, I want to talk about the true essence of Christmas, where Santa Claus, of course, plays his part.

00:03:34.300 And we know, though, the real star of the show is Jesus Christ.

00:03:37.980 Now, Santa Claus is a beautiful figure, derived from St. Nicholas, and he embodies the spirit of giving and goodwill.

00:03:48.220 But Christmas fundamentally celebrates the birth of Christ, the cornerstone of Christian faith.

00:03:54.220 And all of this stuff is, you know, kind of mixed up, and it is complicated, so I wanted to go through that quite a bit.

00:04:00.620 We know Jesus was born in a humble major in Bethlehem, came into the world not with pomp or power, but in simplicity and humility, teaching us that true greatness lies in love and service to others.

00:04:12.020 Jesus' message is one of peace, love, forgiveness, and charity, values that resonate deeply within the spirit of Christmas.

00:04:20.600 And so when we keep, when we talk about keeping Christmas alive, we're not just talking about keeping Santa relevant, we're speaking of preserving the message that Christ brought into the world.

00:04:30.640 His life, his teachings are the bedrock of why we celebrate his season.

00:04:34.880 Santa Claus, derived from St. Nicholas, in his own way, reflects those same teachings.

00:04:40.660 The gifts he bring symbolize the gifts of Jesus to humanity, a reminder of unconditional love, and also, by the way, building off of the gifts of the three wise men.

00:04:50.020 However, the commercialization of Christmas can sometimes overshadow this core message, and that's where we need to be careful.

00:04:56.460 And we can use Santa to teach children about generosity, just like Jesus taught through parables and actions.

00:05:01.920 But we also have to educate them that the greatest gift of all was Jesus himself, who gave his life for the love of mankind.

00:05:10.600 The joy of Christmas is not found in the wrapping or the gadgets, but in the act of giving, in the spirit of forgiveness, in the love shared among family and friends, and the love that Jesus showed.

00:05:21.500 And we need to show that love, and we need to show that as well.

00:05:26.120 And a great way to do that, an important way to do that, to keep the magic of Christmas lasting beyond the season, but also something that lasts in our day-to-day lives, is telling the true story of Santa Claus.

00:05:38.960 And that's something that I wanted to do here on the program today, not only explaining the origins of Christmas the way that we celebrate it, but also talk about the origins of one of, not the central, but one of the central figures of the Christmas holiday today, Santa Claus, who was, of course, based on the very real Saint Nicholas, whose tomb, by the way, may have actually been found earlier this year.

00:06:07.760 And so, here on today's program, we're going to give you the truth about Christmas and the truth about Saint Nicholas.

00:06:17.240 So, I hope you will enjoy. Our guest for the full hour will be the great Dr. Taylor Marshall. Stay tuned. We'll be right back.

00:06:37.760 All right, Jack Posovic back live Christmas Eve.

00:06:59.720 We're talking about the truth about Christmas and the truth about Saint Nicholas.

00:07:07.200 And I knew that the way to really tell this story was to bring the man on who literally wrote the book.

00:07:13.340 His name is Dr. Taylor Marshall. He joins us now. Taylor, how are you?

00:07:17.600 Jack, I'm great. Merry Christmas to you.

00:07:21.640 Merry Christmas. Let's go. Let's go.

00:07:25.340 By the way, remind us all that Christmas Day is actually the beginning of Christmas Tide.

00:07:32.340 The 12 days of Christmas begin on Christmas Day. Is that right?

00:07:36.260 That's right. The 12 days of Christmas run from December 25th till January 5th.

00:07:41.440 There's a famous Shakespeare play called Twelfth Night.

00:07:44.300 Twelfth Night.

00:07:44.840 That occurs on January 5th, celebrating the twelfth night of Christmas.

00:07:49.020 So some people get that confused. But yeah, December 25th begins, does not end, the Christmas season.

00:07:57.020 Well, and this is a huge, actually, it's so great that you brought up Shakespeare because, you know, people know Twelfth Night.

00:08:02.020 But it's like we have this sort of, it's almost like the detritus of Christmas traditions and culture all around us.

00:08:12.400 And people know the song, the 12 days of Christmas. People know about Twelfth Night.

00:08:17.360 My kids love the chipmunk version of the 12 days of Christmas.

00:08:20.600 But it's like we don't know how to put it all together because, you know, and Catholics, okay, you know, Advent, and we have the four candles, and that's the season, and then Christmas starts. 1.00

00:08:31.660 But it's like we kind of seem to have forgotten that it actually does all fit together, that these are not just, you know, random pieces of traditions that have carried on.

00:08:43.020 And at one point, it was very common for Christians to, in fact, celebrate all of these things in concert, wasn't it?

00:08:51.240 Yeah, I mean, I think the modern-day Christian living in a postmodern context says Christmas is about Jesus Christ. 0.75

00:08:58.920 It's all about Jesus. Jesus is the reason for the season.

00:09:01.640 And then there can be, among certain groups, a rejection of everything that is not obviously connected to Jesus Christ.

00:09:10.920 And as you just said, there's this giant puzzle.

00:09:13.600 There's this matrix that's built around Christmas with Advent and the 12 days and Epiphany, and that's been broken apart.

00:09:21.100 And so these pieces are kind of lying on the table.

00:09:23.940 And what we want to do today, especially with St. Nicholas, is show that there is a cohesive, not only preparation with Advent, but a season of Christmas.

00:09:33.880 And that the traditions, and especially the tradition of St. Nicholas, known in our culture as Santa Claus, is deeply rooted in Jesus Christ, who is the reason for the season.

00:09:45.360 And I think those of us with kids and families and everyone who's a Christian can better incorporate and see how all of this used to fit together without all of the commercialism and secular appropriation.

00:09:58.260 So it's not about giving it up.

00:09:59.980 It's about taking it back and finding out, for example, St. Nicholas is perhaps one of maybe top 10 most heroic Christians in the last 2,000 years.

00:10:10.920 But people don't know about him.

00:10:11.880 They don't know that he delivered young women from sex trafficking, that he is the patron of sailors and mariners, that he gave gifts to children, that he was imprisoned during the Roman persecution and was rotting in a jail cell, that he was part of the renovation of the Roman Empire under Constantine, that he was a fighter against heretics.

00:10:34.360 So many great, true historical stories about St. Nicholas are lost and sort of reduced towards commercialism, which is all about buying stuff at the mall and giving it to other people.

00:10:46.540 And there's a root of truth in St. Nicholas as a gift giver.

00:10:50.880 But I hope today that we can show that Jesus is the reason for the season and St. Nicholas is one of the greatest Christians, greatest bishops in the history of the church, pointing people to Jesus Christ.

00:11:04.840 And that's why he's situated around Christmas.

00:11:08.700 And let's address that one right on then.

00:11:11.320 So the main tradition, even beyond nativity scenes and the 12 days and Advent and all the rest, the main thing that everyone around the world associates with Christmas is the tradition of gift giving.

00:11:30.860 This is the one central thing that is held true for the entirety of the history of Christmas.

00:11:38.200 So here's a question that I have, because every year when this happens, and you and I did that fantastic and award-winning documentary episode about the history, the true history of Halloween, where we debunked the idea that Halloween was pagan in its basis.

00:11:55.820 Well, people will tell me as well.

00:11:57.080 They say, oh, this is Saturnalia.

00:11:58.800 This is a Roman feast, a pagan feast that the Christians came along and co-opted. 1.00

00:12:04.160 And that's really all it goes back to, and it was tied to the winter solstice and things like that.

00:12:09.760 So let me ask you that question.

00:12:11.340 Is this tradition of gift giving Christian or pagan?

00:12:16.220 Well, the tradition of gift giving at Christmas is not originally tied to St. Nicholas, who also was a gift giver, and we'll talk about that today.

00:12:25.340 The tradition of gift giving is seen in the canonical Gospels, right?

00:12:31.180 When you read the Nativity story in the Gospel of Matthew, the Gospel of Luke, but in Matthew, the wise men, the magi come from the east.

00:12:39.640 They're following the star, and they bring gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and they present them to Jesus Christ literally as birthday gifts.

00:12:49.180 And so the notion of gift giving actually went from the first day of Christmas, as we discussed earlier, December 25th, all the way to January 6th, which in historic Christianity was called the Feast of the Epiphany or the manifestation to the three kings, the magi.

00:13:06.660 And gift giving was done all 12 days.

00:13:09.480 It wasn't just on December 25th in honor of the birth of Christ and the coming of the wise men.

00:13:15.900 So the gift of giving is actually in the Bible.

00:13:18.580 It's not pagan.

00:13:19.440 It's right there on the pages.

00:13:20.760 And then when we turn to Nicholas, we really get into a gritty story.

00:13:25.180 And this is the story that I retell in my book, Nicolaus.

00:13:28.200 It's the origin story.

00:13:29.500 People like origin stories of like Marvel movies.

00:13:31.900 This is the origin story of Nicolaus.

00:13:34.220 And as people might rightly know, if you've seen like Gladiator 2 or any recent films about the Roman Empire, human sex trafficking was a big deal.

00:13:44.960 Still is today, but back then especially was.

00:13:47.100 And for poor families that could not afford to place their daughters in society, provide dowries, et cetera, you know, these young women, it wasn't just like go be a barista or go to get a BA in journalism.

00:13:59.960 These young women often were turned out into the streets, were sold sometimes by their family. 1.00

00:14:05.460 And in the original story of Nicolaus, he as a young pastor is aware of girls from poor families having to go into this horrible lifestyle.

00:14:16.740 And so he identifies a certain family and he sneaks into their house, doesn't mention the chimney, doesn't come down the chimney, but he does sneak in the house.

00:14:25.300 And he leaves a certain amount of money as the oldest daughter is coming of age, which provides their family to place their daughter in society and for her to get married.

00:14:34.900 And the man who's poor has three daughters and Nicholas sneaks into the house and is leaving this gift of money to prevent these girls to being sold into sex trafficking, prostitution.

00:14:46.320 And on the third daughter, the dad stays up and he catches Nicholas in the house because he's curious on who's doing this.

00:14:53.220 And it reveals to the father and to all of history that the anonymous sacrificial giving to preserve chastity and to promote matrimony is this humble pastor, this bishop named Nicholas of Myra.

00:15:09.900 And he has great concern, he himself came from a very wealthy family, so he was a man of means and he chose to become poor, celibate, chaste, and to give away his fortune rescuing young girls in this case.

00:15:28.740 And from this story comes the idea, you know, you have the three wise men bringing gifts to Jesus, but then this idea that this generous Christian pastor is sneaking into the homes to benefit children.

00:15:42.680 And that's the origin story that gets developed over time.

00:15:46.360 He becomes the patron of children.

00:15:47.860 He becomes the patron of gift giving and he died.

00:15:51.560 This is also very important.

00:15:52.780 He died on December 6th in the year, what was that, 343 AD.

00:16:01.500 And in the Catholic Church, often when a saint dies, they're given a saint's day on the calendar of usually the day of their death.

00:16:08.480 And so because he died on December 6th, the feast of St. Nicholas is December 6th, which is at the beginning of December.

00:16:16.240 And so over time, the church and Christians began to associate the feast of St. Nicholas on December 6th as at the beginning of the preparation of Advent, preparing for Christmas, and also reminded the church and the faithful that Nicholas is a gift giver.

00:16:34.500 The wise men are gift givers.

00:16:36.420 And they kind of create the bookends, December 6th, St. Nicholas, January 6th, the feast of the epiphany, the feast of the wise men.

00:16:44.800 And between those 30 days is a period of gift giving, self-sacrificial giving.

00:16:50.840 So you can see there's deeply Christian roots to St. Nicholas and to this whole phenomenon of this time of year being gift giving.

00:17:00.540 And think about that, by the way, now.

00:17:05.900 We live in a world surrounded by OnlyFans culture. 0.99

00:17:09.520 We have this influencer and she's, you know, 100 guys in a day. 0.98

00:17:14.160 And she's like an OnlyFans influencer. 0.55

00:17:17.320 And now they do it themselves.

00:17:19.200 It's not even something that is done to them.

00:17:21.700 And you have the parents celebrating it.

00:17:24.720 The mom and dad, they're the business managers of that individual.

00:17:28.020 And so when I look at the true story of St. Nicholas, Nikolaus, and the book is Nikolaus, by the way, everyone should go and get this thing.

00:17:38.340 It actually teaches us something far deeper than just, oh, I'm going to give gifts to people.

00:17:44.620 It's I'm giving gifts to people as an act of charity.

00:17:47.500 And I should want to do that charity because of the goodness that it turns myself into and as a way to show the goodness of the Christians.

00:18:00.360 And in fact, this has always been in times of tragedy, in times of plague, in times of real pandemics, by the way, that it was the Christians who always stepped up. 0.92

00:18:12.020 And this was a key reason that people switched from the paganism to Christianity very early on.

00:18:18.520 Constantine didn't force people to convert.

00:18:21.340 They did of their own accord.

00:18:23.280 We're going to be right back.

00:18:24.200 The truth about Christmas, St. Nicholas and Santa Claus.

00:18:29.660 Jack Posobiec, Dr. Taylor Marshall.

00:18:42.020 All right, Jack Posobiec, Dr. Taylor Marshall, the truth about Christmas, the origin story of Santa Claus and St. Nicholas.

00:19:05.480 And just as we were leaving the last segment there, I couldn't help but think that, you know, the direct tie between Nicholas and how he was saving girls from trafficking versus we live in a society today where OnlyFans and the Lily Phillips culture are prevalent.

00:19:23.860 And you hear people celebrating it and then they'll still go and celebrate Christmas without seeing the, you know, you know, the glaring, you know, the glaring contradiction in terms between the two.

00:19:36.200 And so, you know, Dr. Taylor Marshall, St. Nicholas, it's not just about giving gifts, is it?

00:19:42.180 No, it's about, in his case, redeeming young women.

00:19:47.580 But if you look at the whole scope of his life, it's redeeming culture, it's redeeming the Roman Empire, it's redeeming politics, it's redeeming everything.

00:19:56.760 And it's these small acts of charity.

00:19:59.460 And in the book, it retells, it's a historical novella, and it retells how gritty and ugly ancient Roman culture was

00:20:09.340 and how Christians like Nicholas were these bright and shining lights of hope and of redemption for people who were given over to idolatry, sexual immorality, slavery, all kinds of degenerate behaviors.

00:20:24.700 And so I think it's absolutely fitting.

00:20:28.220 It's a divine miracle.

00:20:30.020 It's providential that St. Nicholas on December 6th is positioned there at the beginning of December

00:20:35.740 for Christians to begin their focus on how do I bring redemption to my culture, my family, my town, my neighborhood,

00:20:46.520 because that is how the culture war is won.

00:20:49.440 It's exactly how St. Nicholas did it.

00:20:51.600 He was doing small acts of charity anonymously.

00:20:55.120 I think that's another key about Nicholas.

00:20:57.000 He wasn't like a Pharisee on the street corners saying, look how holy, look how righteous I am.

00:21:02.600 He did all of this in secret because he wanted the credit from God, not from man.

00:21:09.380 And as I said earlier, he was a very wealthy man from a wealthy family.

00:21:12.920 He gave all that up.

00:21:14.660 And during the persecution under Diocletian, he was imprisoned and he was on death row.

00:21:21.920 Most of the bishops during this time, most of the pastors in the early 300s were all being martyred.

00:21:28.040 They were dying to be baptized was a very good chance to be killed by the Roman Empire.

00:21:32.960 But to be ordained, to be amongst the clergy was almost a certain death sentence.

00:21:36.720 So Nicholas was in prison and they were saying, deny Christ and you can go free.

00:21:41.940 And he would not.

00:21:43.060 So he goes from one of the wealthiest men to rotting in a jail cell on death row, condemned to be killed.

00:21:50.300 And then Constantine arrives and Constantine makes Christianity tolerated and legal in the Roman Empire.

00:21:58.780 And it's because of Constantine that Nicholas gets out of prison and gets a second half to his life.

00:22:05.420 He gets another chance in this world to extend the kingdom of Jesus Christ.

00:22:10.560 And because of Constantine, Nicholas goes back to his pastoral work and he becomes very important in the controversy over whether Jesus Christ is truly the son of God, which also roots Nicholas back to Christmas and fighting the Arian heresy.

00:22:25.200 And there's a famous story where they're at the Council of Nicaea in 325 and Arius, the heretic, is there.

00:22:31.600 And Arius is saying Jesus is not truly the son of God.

00:22:34.300 And Nicholas was so perturbed and so upset, he stood up and slapped Arius across the face in front of a whole assembly of bishops because of the blasphemy.

00:22:46.360 So we see here, I think there's definitely a masculinity, a presence.

00:22:52.480 He doesn't put up with heresy.

00:22:55.120 He stands for the truth and he stands for Jesus Christ, true God, true man, which ultimately is the message of Christmas, that the baby lying in a manger is not just a cute prophet, but that is the son of God, light of light, true God of true God.

00:23:14.420 So there's a lot of theology there.

00:23:16.180 There's a lot of history there.

00:23:17.460 And this is why Nicholas has been so popular for almost 2,000 years.

00:23:23.660 And the sad thing is, is basically the red and white ho, ho, ho, Santa was just a, it was an appropriation by the Coca-Cola company to sell Coca-Cola.

00:23:34.920 And that's the association with the red and white.

00:23:36.980 And it became a marketing scheme, a marketing plan.

00:23:41.300 And unfortunately, as our culture became less and less Christian.

00:23:44.160 Yeah, actually, actually, just on that real quick, that the, in, because, you know, as, as everyone knows, my wife comes from the Orthodox world, that the Orthodox, and they call him Ted Moroz, which is like Father Frost.

00:23:59.320 He was essentially the same character in some ways.

00:24:02.480 He's got a, a granddaughter in, in that tradition, and he always wears blue.

00:24:08.400 So the red is very much a Western marketing tradition.

00:24:14.540 Even, even traditional Santa Clauses, you can find nutcrackers and things that'll be green or more elf-like.

00:24:19.580 You know, it really, and, and again, in the Orthodox world, you'll see blue a lot.

00:24:23.420 Not always, but you'll see a lot of it.

00:24:25.160 So the idea then that the red and white, that's really a modern marketing tradition.

00:24:30.880 But I guess one of the questions that I have is, let's, so let's say folks are watching and they've got little kids or little grandkids.

00:24:39.040 And, you know, they want to, you know, keep the idea of Santa Claus still alive for them, but they want to connect Santa Claus to Christ.

00:24:48.160 And one of the things that I hear a lot is, you know, well, it's simple, the magic of Santa Claus, it's, you know, he's able to do what he does because of God, because he's been given the job by Christ.

00:24:59.800 And that's something that you just, you never see.

00:25:01.960 And then in every single adaptation, every year, there's like a new adaptation of Santa right now, but I've never seen one where they say, yeah, it was Christ who gave him that gig.

00:25:10.740 What would you recommend to, to folks like that?

00:25:13.580 Well, I'm working on a screenplay right now on.

00:25:16.280 Oh, here we go.

00:25:19.180 He's pitching.

00:25:20.100 He's pitching on human events, folks.

00:25:22.500 Here it comes.

00:25:23.260 So hopefully that film is coming to you in maybe 2026.

00:25:28.480 But yeah, that film, that film does not yet exist.

00:25:31.260 And I think, you know, Joe and I, we have eight children.

00:25:34.280 We've been doing this a long time.

00:25:35.260 And one of the things we did when the kids were young is we had a Byzantine, like an Eastern Orthodox icon.

00:25:41.160 That's pretty large.

00:25:42.880 And we hung it on the wall near our Christmas tree.

00:25:45.360 And we just taught our children that is St. Nicholas.

00:25:48.460 So it sort of shows them that this, this is a true saint.

00:25:52.900 He is a bishop.

00:25:53.900 And then I think it's important to tell these stories to your children.

00:25:58.140 You can, you know, you can give them the full, if they're older, the full kind of gritty edition of, man, there was, you know, a really bad culture at that time.

00:26:06.420 And St. Nicholas was, was a powerful influence against it for Christ.

00:26:10.060 But you can also tell them these stories about, and there's kids books of this as well, of, of Nicholas being a gift giver, of Nicholas being a champion for Jesus Christ, of Nicholas being a pastor.

00:26:21.600 Just as you would tell of any other story of a Bible figure or a saint or an important person in our history, like telling our kids about George Washington or whatever.

00:26:31.860 And that way, their understanding of Nicholas is rooted in truth.

00:26:38.000 And of course, you can still have magical moments and, you know, St. Nicholas can still bring gifts.

00:26:43.460 You know, we did, we did all that as our kids were young, but all of our kids along the way knew that Nicholas, like, again, do you believe in Santa?

00:26:51.500 There's that magic.

00:26:52.540 All of our kids, even as they got older, like, of course, Nicholas is real.

00:26:57.060 He may not, he doesn't live at the North Pole.

00:26:58.760 He lives in heaven.

00:26:59.680 And I think teaching our kids that, I think the Eastern Christians have maintained that in the West, as we become more secular, the whole Coca-Cola, red and white, ho, ho, ho, Santa has taken over. 0.98

00:27:10.720 I think it's very important that young children realize that St. Nicholas is a disciple of Jesus Christ.

00:27:19.100 He is a servant and teacher and preacher of Jesus Christ.

00:27:24.140 And that's why he was a gift giver.

00:27:26.240 So I think that's how we take it.

00:27:29.800 Just as we were talking about Halloween, like Halloween is All Hallows' Eve.

00:27:33.160 It's a celebration of all saints.

00:27:36.140 And as long as you can keep the true history, you know, the true theology connected to it, I think it's great for your kids.

00:27:44.900 I think it's great for the family.

00:27:46.280 I think it actually is very enriching to see that not only is gift giving part of the Bible, it's part of our Christian tradition to redeem culture by gift giving.

00:27:57.560 And that kind of guts out the commercialism of Christmas.

00:28:01.280 It shows you that really gift giving should be something that is culturally powerful, reclaiming.

00:28:11.480 You know, I had a funny kind of, I guess, situation where I took the boys out to go Christmas shopping.

00:28:21.660 And Tanya was sort of doing a girls' night, Tanya Tay, and was with them.

00:28:26.340 So I took the boys out, and I said, boys, let's go, and we're going to go get some Christmas presents for the rest of the family, so for the grandparents and the aunts and uncles and, you know, and for mommy.

00:28:40.500 And, of course, we go out.

00:28:42.120 And the six-year-old, you know, he was totally cool with that.

00:28:44.700 He was a mission.

00:28:45.500 It was great.

00:28:46.000 But little AJ, who just turned four, he got really upset as we were leaving because we got something for almost everybody on the list, actually.

00:28:54.300 But he was saying, but, Daddy, we didn't get anything from me.

00:28:58.500 Where's my Christmas present?

00:29:00.720 And so in his mind, he's young, so I'm trying to teach him that you will get something, but you're not going to get it right now.

00:29:08.040 But the point is that we're doing this for them, and we can't wait for them to find out.

00:29:15.620 And it was rough.

00:29:17.400 I mean, he was bawling.

00:29:18.340 I mean, he was, like, ugly crying at one point.

00:29:20.580 But the point is you've got to push through it, and we did push through that.

00:29:25.440 He may have got some candy afterwards at the Wawa.

00:29:30.660 But the point is we have to push through that because you just have to instill it very, very early on.

00:29:37.740 And hopefully that – I think that come Christmas morning when he sees them opening the presents, that he'll see the process put together.

00:29:47.260 We'll do that.

00:29:48.400 We'll go to church.

00:29:49.960 We'll look on the night before.

00:29:52.360 And I think at that point he will understand the process.

00:29:57.720 And putting all the pieces together is what it's all about.

00:30:01.740 Yeah.

00:30:02.440 And, you know, we've done with our kids too.

00:30:04.420 You know, there's children in foster care, and they have these angel trees.

00:30:07.100 And, you know, for the last 10 years or so, each of our kids have picked out an angel off the tree.

00:30:11.900 And they're usually younger kids, and you get them, you know, a coat and a pair of clothes and a toy.

00:30:18.240 And it's good for kids to give charitably in that way.

00:30:24.400 And I think it's a great analog to say this is what St. Nicholas was doing, and we are going to be like St. Nicholas,

00:30:31.060 and we are going to give gifts to those who are poor, those who are less fortunate.

00:30:35.160 And so, you know, as Christians, you know, we have to think about how do we raise our kids to have the spirit of St. Nicholas,

00:30:42.780 and that right there is it.

00:30:46.520 Folks, we'll be right back. 0.69

00:30:47.920 The Truth About Christmas, St. Nicholas in St. Nicholas.

00:31:05.160 All right, Jack Posobiec, Dr. Taylor Marshall, The Truth About Christmas here on Human Events Daily this Christmas Eve.

00:31:31.280 So, let's get into that, Dr. Taylor Marshall.

00:31:33.640 This idea of, you know, is it possible to say, look, we want to keep Christ in Christmas.

00:31:41.960 This is the big push this time of year, of course.

00:31:44.760 You see the bumper stickers.

00:31:45.980 You see the magnets.

00:31:46.960 People have it around.

00:31:48.560 You put up the creche.

00:31:49.580 You put up the nativity scene.

00:31:51.360 Everybody loves those.

00:31:52.560 Advent calendars, by the way, are something that have never really gone away.

00:31:56.040 They're very, very well received.

00:31:58.800 But, you know, what would you say to folks?

00:32:01.460 And they say, look, I'm not advocating for throwing out Elf on the Shelf.

00:32:06.280 Maybe not yet.

00:32:06.940 Maybe we will.

00:32:07.920 But not on religious grounds.

00:32:09.920 Just on cringe grounds.

00:32:11.420 Because people just take it a little bit too far.

00:32:13.580 Take it a little bit too far.

00:32:14.720 And actually, no.

00:32:15.440 You know what?

00:32:15.740 I am going to say that.

00:32:17.100 Stop taking Elf on the Shelf too far.

00:32:20.140 All right?

00:32:20.540 It is fun.

00:32:21.640 It is a nice thing to do with your kids.

00:32:24.020 That's all right.

00:32:24.780 But people take it way too far.

00:32:27.140 It's not supposed to be about you.

00:32:29.280 It's supposed to be about Christmas.

00:32:32.700 Same deal with Santa Claus.

00:32:35.100 You know, that's fine.

00:32:35.840 Put out the milk and cookies.

00:32:36.980 All for it.

00:32:38.000 But leave it at that, okay?

00:32:39.360 Just leave it at that.

00:32:40.640 But let's also suggest that rather than restricting Christmas, how can we do a little...

00:32:48.520 Actually, in this segment, let's talk about...

00:32:50.180 Yeah, yeah, I'm thinking it's time we do a little Christmas maxing.

00:32:53.500 What about people who want to go full on, that want to do the 12 Days of Christmas, that want to do Epiphany?

00:32:59.960 How can we practice Christmas maxing?

00:33:02.660 Other than buying the book, of course.

00:33:05.040 But what other things can folks do out there that really want to bring these Christian traditions?

00:33:11.960 And a lot of them, by the way, are very fun.

00:33:15.520 Yeah, absolutely.

00:33:16.680 You know, I think before we go into those suggestions, people kind of begin Christmas on Black Friday or even before.

00:33:24.320 And by the time they get to December 25th, they are exhausted with all things Christmas.

00:33:29.220 Christmas music, Christmas decorations.

00:33:31.360 And that's not how it's supposed to be.

00:33:34.120 Historically, amongst Orthodox, Catholics, Protestants, there was a season of Advent, which was a season of restraint.

00:33:41.060 It was kind of like Lent.

00:33:42.740 And so I think if we can be more mindful of Advent and restraint, then when we get to December 25th is really the time to throw huge parties.

00:33:52.580 And so I think for families, I mean, here we are on Christmas Eve, but Christmas itself should be a religious holiday.

00:33:59.820 You need to go to church, people.

00:34:02.100 December 25th is a time to worship Jesus Christ as a community.

00:34:08.080 And that means going to church.

00:34:09.500 So I think skipping out on church sends a bad message to your own soul and to your family.

00:34:15.740 You need to come together and offer true divine worship to God with the community at church.

00:34:21.400 So, you know, it's called Christ Mass.

00:34:24.800 Christ, we know the word Christ, and Mass.

00:34:26.960 That's the traditional Catholic service of the Holy Eucharist.

00:34:30.420 So that Christmas is Christ and it's going to Mass.

00:34:33.340 Now, beyond that, there's the 12 days.

00:34:36.700 And we mentioned the 12th night, and it was, I'll kind of jump ahead.

00:34:39.240 12th night was a time for people to kind of come together, you know, drink something warm, sort of say goodbye to Christmas.

00:34:47.040 So I think there was a tradition of 12th night parties where people would have a big fire and maybe consume the end of all the leftovers and the celebration and sort of say goodbye to Christmas on 12th night.

00:34:57.600 So that's a good idea.

00:34:58.400 But also within those days, traditionally, there's a celebration of St. Stephen, who's the first martyr.

00:35:04.980 There's a celebration of the Holy Family, Joseph, Mary, and Jesus.

00:35:09.340 And it can be a good opportunity in the evenings to continue to read the biblical stories, to read spiritual reflections, sacred scripture.

00:35:19.740 And then also New Year's Day, what is a holy day?

00:35:23.000 It's the eighth day after Christmas.

00:35:24.820 That's the day on which Christ would have been circumcised, circumcised on the eighth day. 0.55

00:35:28.320 And also in the Catholic tradition, it's a day honoring the Virgin Mary, saying, here's the mother of Jesus and everything she went through, pondering these things in her heart.

00:35:39.780 So there's a reflection there as well.

00:35:41.860 And some people give a gift every day in the 12 days of Christmas.

00:35:46.240 That practice has died out.

00:35:47.880 Maybe we need to bring that back.

00:35:49.060 I know kids would be really excited if they were getting a gift for 12 days, even if it were something small.

00:35:55.280 And I think also probably the biggest thing, Jack, is to keep the spirit of Christmas and the joy of Christmas to leave up your decorations.

00:36:06.880 And that's becoming much more popular now amongst Christians.

00:36:10.540 It used to be like a day after, a couple of days after Christmas, take down everything.

00:36:14.660 People are now leaving it up till January 6th to sort of extend the festive season.

00:36:20.200 And that communicates to your children and to your friends and to your family.

00:36:25.280 Hey, we are still celebrating the incarnation, the virgin birth of Jesus Christ.

00:36:32.240 So, you know, be a little bit more strained up to December 24th.

00:36:36.480 And then after that, pull out all the stops and do a lot of partying.

00:36:40.860 At our house, my favorite day is December 26th.

00:36:43.960 That's the day after everybody's left.

00:36:45.740 There's still amazing leftovers.

00:36:47.380 And I'm putting batteries into toys and playing with the kids and reading their new books and, you know, lying around in our pajamas.

00:36:56.120 And December 26th to me is just sort of like a great afterglow of Christmas.

00:37:02.080 So there's a lot of things you can do there.

00:37:03.900 And I think the most important thing is don't give up.

00:37:07.940 Keep the festivity going for 12 days.

00:37:11.000 You've got it in you.

00:37:11.680 You can do it.

00:37:12.680 It's worth it.

00:37:14.060 Did you all do that, Jack?

00:37:14.740 Do you all kind of keep things going, keep the decorations up?

00:37:18.140 No, we do that.

00:37:19.180 Actually, Tanya Tay loves that because so we sort of as a kind of a small attempt, you know, people say this.

00:37:32.000 And we – well, actually, no, people don't say it.

00:37:33.640 I say it – that we make our small attempt to mend the schism every year.

00:37:38.040 And people say, well, what do you mean, you know, Western Catholic and she comes from the Orthodox world.

00:37:43.260 And I say, well, and we raise the kids Catholic.

00:37:44.920 But one thing that we do, because for her whole family, celebrates the Orthodox Christmas, which is, of course, held on January 7th, so which is the day after Epiphany, also known as Old Christmas.

00:38:02.760 Now, this, of course, is held this way because of the difference in the Julian calendar versus the Gregorian calendar.

00:38:11.300 Basically, they stayed on the original calendar.

00:38:15.180 And by the way, you do see this with a lot of stuff in history.

00:38:18.020 You know, even when we – you know, when we did the series a year ago about the communist revolution in Russia, they call it the October revolution.

00:38:28.440 And that's great.

00:38:28.880 And so when did the October revolution start?

00:38:30.600 I said, well, it started in November.

00:38:31.860 I said, well, wait a minute.

00:38:32.720 What?

00:38:33.320 How did the October revolution – it's this huge – you know, the communist takeover of Russia, but it started in November.

00:38:38.440 I said, well, yeah, because they changed the calendar and, you know, they did this.

00:38:42.000 They did that.

00:38:42.600 And so it's – you know, but one thing that we do is we actually keep the tree up until Old Christmas, which was sort of around for a little bit of time after the calendar change came up.

00:38:58.080 And I believe in England they celebrated Old Christmas for some time.

00:39:02.200 And it's just something that we do, so it's at least going to be up until then.

00:39:06.460 And then the kids will – the kids will usually get a little something else.

00:39:09.300 We also do, of course, the St. Nicholas with the shoes.

00:39:11.760 We do that on December 6th.

00:39:13.900 We were actually in Florida this time around because we had a Turning Point event.

00:39:17.260 But St. Nicholas found us even down there in Florida, which is a great way of introducing St. Nicholas to the kids, by the way.

00:39:26.500 And so all of these are great traditions that people can do throughout Christmas, throughout Christmastide, meaning the name of the various days of the 12 days of Christmas, and it all falls under that.

00:39:39.840 And it's fun, right?

00:39:42.820 It's actually supposed to be fun.

00:39:44.520 There are things that you can do.

00:39:46.880 There are things that you should do that we should all be doing in order to keep this together.

00:39:52.600 And so the other piece –

00:39:55.980 I'm glad you mentioned your wife because it takes a lot of the stress.

00:39:59.180 If you're going to put everything on one day, that is stressful.

00:40:04.040 Yes.

00:40:04.860 That's a great point, actually.

00:40:05.840 That's a huge point, actually.

00:40:07.240 We're going to go 12 days.

00:40:08.740 It's much more manageable.

00:40:09.840 It's much more chill.

00:40:10.740 It's much more fun.

00:40:11.680 Yeah, it's a lot more chill as opposed to like Thanksgiving is – in the American tradition, of course, it's just one day, which is funny, by the way, because Tanya, not coming from the United States, she's like, what is this food and why do you only eat it one day of the year?

00:40:24.760 But also why is it mandatory to eat it on that day of the year?

00:40:29.360 She's like, it just is, okay?

00:40:31.160 It just is.

00:40:32.600 It just is.

00:40:33.620 And why is July 4th?

00:40:34.920 And eat the turkey.

00:40:36.240 The turkey – actually, we had some really good – we had some like honey turkey this past year.

00:40:41.140 It was really good.

00:40:42.460 And you can have family over in those days.

00:40:46.360 You can get together and –

00:40:47.460 During the time.

00:40:48.520 Exactly.

00:40:49.320 There's a lot of time off the work.

00:40:52.800 Quick break coming up, but I want to get into that.

00:40:56.660 Some of the different Christmas traditions that we, as Christians, should be just going all in because we're Christmas-maxing with Dr. Taylor Marshall here on Human Events Daily, the truth about Christmas.

00:41:11.320 Christmas Eve.

00:41:11.780 Christmas Eve.

00:41:11.800 Christmas Eve.

00:41:13.880 Christmas Eve.

00:41:15.720 Christmas Eve.

00:41:17.720 Christmas Eve.

00:41:19.720 Christmas Eve.

00:41:21.720 Christmas Eve.

00:41:23.720 Christmas Eve.

00:41:24.720 Christmas Eve.

00:41:25.720 Christmas Eve.

00:41:26.640 Christmas Eve.

00:41:56.620 And, folks, go and support our sponsors because they allow us to provide this type of content to you.

00:42:05.260 And so today's sponsor is Allegiance Gold for this episode.

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00:43:36.380 All right, Dr. Taylor Marshall, final segment here.

00:43:40.160 This is the question that I've got, and Producer Angelo in the chat was pointing it out, and he said,

00:43:46.820 this is a good one.

00:43:48.920 So it's not just all fun and games this Christmas, and we talked about charity towards others,

00:43:54.460 but what about charity towards family, and not just charity towards strangers, but we just had a massive election.

00:44:03.260 We had a huge situation where people were at each other's throats.

00:44:08.680 Mark Halperin has talked about families that were literally torn asunder in 2024 over whether you supported Trump or whether you supported Kamala Harris.

00:44:20.420 And then in the wake of all that, we get Christmas.

00:44:24.780 How do families that are dealing with this, that are truly suffering through this, how do they navigate Christmas?

00:44:31.380 Yeah, I mean, this question goes all the way back to our medical crisis, you know, when there's masks and debates on, you know,

00:44:41.100 should you get the injection or not get the injection?

00:44:43.260 This has kind of been creeping up for years now.

00:44:45.520 And, you know, in sacred scripture, and you also see with Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus, a hospitality towards visitors.

00:44:55.920 In this case, the three wise men, gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

00:44:59.360 And in the biblical tradition and the Christian tradition, the wise men, the magi, they're from the East.

00:45:05.820 They're not Jews, right? 0.99

00:45:08.380 They're not from the same culture, ethnicity, religion, language of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus.

00:45:16.340 And yet they are, they're coming with gifts and they are welcomed.

00:45:19.960 And that shows, you know, it's called the Feast of the Epiphany because it's the epiphany or the manifestation of Jesus to the nations.

00:45:27.220 And the call of Jesus Christ to his apostles was to go to all nations.

00:45:32.020 And that entails a reconciliation of all of mankind, you know, not just the ancient Jewish people, not just the Old Testament,

00:45:40.820 but a reconciliation of all men, peace to men of goodwill.

00:45:46.280 And so we as disciples of Jesus, we as Christians need to exercise that generosity, that care.

00:45:54.340 And in the Bible, it's interesting, one of the spiritual gifts listed in the Bible is hospitality.

00:46:00.400 Sometimes we forget that being hospitable and welcoming to people is a spiritual gift.

00:46:06.640 And a spiritual gift is something that leads people to Jesus Christ, that leads them to forgiveness in God through the Holy Spirit.

00:46:13.820 So, you know, this is not the time to bash, to booyah, our guy won, he did win, thanks be to God.

00:46:21.300 But to extend the olive branch and to focus on Jesus as the prince of peace.

00:46:31.920 I mean, do you agree with that? Do you think that's on the money?

00:46:35.720 No, I think that makes sense.

00:46:37.540 You know, it's the idea being that just, and look, if you're on the side that won,

00:46:42.220 and I imagine most of the folks listening to me are Trump supporters,

00:46:46.200 and, you know, if anyone out there wasn't, then, hey, there's a seat at the table for you too.

00:46:51.500 And that's kind of the point of Christ, is that there is a seat for everyone.

00:46:57.300 The family that couldn't find a room at the inn is the family that welcomes all to their table.

00:47:05.140 Joseph, Mary, and the Christ child.

00:47:08.140 And the Christ, Christ being the king of kings coming through, and we mean that when we say that.

00:47:14.240 You know, I start every morning on X, I say, I say, GM, Christ is king.

00:47:17.980 And I say, wake up, pray up.

00:47:19.140 And people think, oh, that's just a, you know, that's just like a phrase that you guys use, Christ is king.

00:47:24.500 No, we actually believe it.

00:47:26.280 We actually believe that we are all in his kingdom, and that we are all working towards his kingdom.

00:47:31.640 And part of that is bringing as many people as possible into that kingdom with us.

00:47:37.840 And if the way to do that, you know, if there's a disagreement over politics, then okay, fine.

00:47:43.140 Right?

00:47:43.380 There's a disagreement over politics.

00:47:44.620 But that doesn't supersede the fact that it is our duty to bring people into Christ's kingdom.

00:47:51.580 It's just that simple.

00:47:52.620 And so, look, you say, you know, I had a, you know, rough year, but, you know, at least it's Christmas time.

00:47:58.940 We can kick back and, you know, hopefully try to find some commonality through Christmas.

00:48:04.460 Use Christmas as a way to try to rebuild some of those familial ties, and we are called to do so.

00:48:11.860 This is part of our duty as well as Christians.

00:48:15.640 Dr. Taylor Marshall, I wanted to say thank you for this round-robin episode.

00:48:20.240 Christmas Maxing, The Truth About Christmas, Santa Claus, and Saint Nicholas.

00:48:26.500 Tell people again the name of the book and where people can go to get it.

00:48:30.380 The book is Nikolaos, which is the original Greek name of Saint Nicholas.

00:48:34.240 You can get it on Amazon.com.

00:48:35.740 It's a number one bestseller last Christmas.

00:48:37.800 Probably will be another number one bestseller again this Christmas.

00:48:40.460 It's a great fireside short read, and it'll give you the authentic, beautiful story of the real historical Nicholas named Nikolaos.

00:48:52.740 Go to Amazon.com.

00:48:53.740 There's also a great, dramatic audio version if you want to listen to it with your family.

00:48:58.500 I recommend that.

00:48:59.940 Nikolaos, go to Amazon.com.

00:49:01.180 But did you do it?

00:49:01.940 But did you do the audiobook?

00:49:03.800 I did not.

00:49:05.440 Ah, I'm trying to do mine for Bulletproof.

00:49:08.160 We'll see.

00:49:08.540 Next time.

00:49:09.060 It's hard with fiction, and you have female voices.

00:49:11.280 It's a little...

00:49:11.620 It's tough.

00:49:12.340 It takes talent.

00:49:13.180 Yeah, but I really recommend the audible version.

00:49:16.940 It's beautiful.

00:49:17.660 It's really glorious.

00:49:19.320 It's a great thing to sit around for your family.

00:49:20.840 Here's hoping you have an incredible Christmas.

00:49:23.500 To you, Dr. Taylor Marshall, the entire Marshall clan, and to everyone out there, Merry Christmas.

00:49:28.900 Ladies and gentlemen, as always, you have permission to lay short.

00:49:31.100 Thank you, Dr. Taylor Marshall, and to everyone out there, Merry Christmas.

Human Events Daily with Jack Posobiec - December 24, 2024

The Truth About Christmas

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