The Real Stories Behind Our Cherished Christmas Traditions
Our American Stories
iHeartPodcasts
4.6 • 817 Ratings
🗓️ 26 December 2022
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this episode of Our American Stories, in the first half of the 19th century, Christmas was a very different kind of holiday than it is today. By the time it was established as a federal holiday—on June 26, 1870—the ways they chose to celebrate Christmas would almost be completely foreign to what we practice today. Here’s Greg Hengler with the real story of our cherished Christmas holiday.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an IHeart podcast. |
| 0:14.3 | This is Lee Habib, and this is our American stories. |
| 0:18.7 | And welcome to our very special Christmas episodes and we love doing this |
| 0:23.7 | at this time of year every year to remind everybody why we're celebrating this season. Here's Greg |
| 0:29.9 | Hangler with the real story of our cherished Christmas holiday. Ah, Christmas. |
| 0:40.6 | Up goes the tree and on go the lights. |
| 0:45.2 | An exciting season of presents and parties only as Scrooge could hate. |
| 0:47.7 | But where did all our traditions start? |
| 0:51.5 | Why do we bring huge evergreen trees into our homes? |
| 0:54.9 | How did we get Santa and his eight tiny reindeer? |
| 1:00.8 | We are about to pull back the curtain to unveil the hidden history of our cherished holiday. |
| 1:07.4 | These days, cities and towns seem to be dressing up earlier and earlier for the Christmas season, and there are lights. Lots and lots of lights. |
| 1:12.6 | 250 strands of light. 100 individual bulbs per strand for a grand total of 25,000 imported |
| 1:20.1 | Italian Fuego Lights. |
| 1:21.1 | Hey! |
| 1:22.1 | 25,000. |
| 1:24.1 | Drum roll, please. |
| 1:26.1 | Here's Ace Collins, author of Stories Behind the Best Loved Songs of Christmas |
| 1:31.3 | and Stories Behind the Great Traditions of Christmas. |
| 1:36.1 | Christmas trees would not be the same without Christmas lights. |
| 1:39.0 | And yes, for hundreds of years, there were Christmas trees with no lights on them. |
| 1:43.2 | As a matter of fact, a man named Johnson who worked for Thomas Edison realized that there was another way to use the light bulb other than just illuminating a house. |
... |
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