A quick word before we begin.

This story contains a spoiler about a certain important Christmas character who flies around

on his sled.

If you're listening with young children, be warned.

As a small child in the south of France, Martin Gossein loved a lot of things about Christmas,

but her favorite thing by far were the stories.

Every year, before Noël, my family came out of a vinyl disk and we listened to it all together.

The narrator told the story of Noël with a strong accent of the south.

Martin sat by the record player, listening to the story of Christmas told in the sing-songy

Southern French accent.

To her, all the characters in the story were as real as the people in the room.

She loved listening to the tales of characters in the Nativity scene, or as these characters

are known in France, the Sampton.

In the story, each Sampton had his personality and his little, characteristic,

amusing.

The animals knew to speak.

The year the buffalo was shot with Joseph.

It was a magical and wonderful little world.

A part from a talking donkey and the ox, the buff, there was, of course, another important

Christmas character Martin liked to imagine on these adventures.

Santa Claus, the pair Noël.

Martin loved to think of him flying around the world in his sled, son Trinot.

...