Bratmike here and welcome to another edition of the Art of Manliness Podcast.

With Christmas coming up, you're likely in the full holiday swing of things, decorating

your tree, eating certain foods, listening to particular music, and buying and wrapping

gifts.

But do you ever stop to think about why it is, you're taking part in the slate of often

weird but wonderful traditions?

Brian Earl has traced the back stories of our Christmas traditions in his podcast and

book called Christmas Past.

Take a look at this, he shares some of those back stories with us, explains how many of

our seemingly faded and timeless traditions actually came about fluky and fortuitous ways,

and are a lot more recent than we think.

He first impacts how Christmas went from being a small religious observance to a huge cultural

celebration, and how our idea of Santa Claus evolved over time, with their current conception

of old St. Nick being less than a century old.

We then discuss how it is we ended up taking evergreen trees inside our house and decorating

them, the origins of the most recorded Christmas song in history, why fruitcake became the

butt of jokes, and why hardly anyone roast chestnuts anymore, on an open fire or otherwise.

Brian shares what new Christmas traditions he's seen emerge, in which classic ones are

going away, and I offer an important PSA to future parents about elf on the shelf.

We enter conversation with Brian's tips for getting into the Christmas spirit if you

haven't been feeling it.

You should also check out our shinnets at a-wim.is slash Christmas.

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