#780 Let me bore you to sleep - FUN CHRISTMAS FACTS - Jason Newland (23rd DECEMBER 2021)

We wish you a merry Christmas. We wish you a merry Christmas. We wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year.

Good tidings we bring to you and your king. We wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year. Hello everybody.

Welcome to Let People Eat Asleep. My name's Jason Newland. Yeah.

Yeah. Please only listen when you can safely close your eyes. I suppose I should just mention my website as well.

jasonnewland.com. That's with the three W's beforehand. So hey. Hello.

Hi. It is indeed Thursday the 23rd of December 2021. Hello my darlings.

How you all doing? Are you well? Is you happy? Is you happy? Good. Ever so pleased. Ever so, ever so, ever so pleased.

I'm just going to take my glasses off and put on the right ones so I can actually see something. Oh, that's better. Oh, I feel myself now.

I'm feeling myself. So. Hope you're well.

Bloody, bloody, blah, blah. Oh, so it's 11.06 in the evening on Thursday the 23rd of December. And I thought I would just do a little vlog thing.

Podcast. I thought I'd do one. You know, I feel like I've really lost my way a little bit with this stuff with because I like doing the regular recordings.

I like, you know, having a little bit of consistency. And I haven't been very consistent of late. And I want to correct that because.

Well, I'll tell you why. I mean, those that. No, already know this, obviously, if you know it, you know it, don't you? The reason is because the 1st of December, I think it was.

My podcast host said, I can't have music. Predominantly music podcast. It has to be has to be spoken word.

Can't have lots of music added to spoken word. You know, so I deleted lots and lots of my recordings. Many, many, many, many, many, many recordings.

And then I decided to. Well, actually, I can do the recordings that I've already got, but with background sound for the duration of the recordings. So I spent many, many, many, many, many days editing and uploading those.

And then I thought maybe because, you know, I'd had a bit of feedback and then not having the long recordings was a bit of a disappointment to some people. Because it's for some, for some, it's nice to listen to a recording, fall asleep, maybe and. Have that music go in all night long or all day long or whenever you're asleep.

So have a 10 hour recording or a five hour recording of music. It's that continuous and it's very mild and gentle and it's, you know, it's calming and some people say they'll wake up and they'll hear the music and I'll just drift back to sleep again. Now, I'm not able to provide that anymore, but I thought, what if I. What if, what if I put together some recordings, made some recordings that were very long, very, you know, a lot of counting down and other things like body scans and relaxation.

But very backgroundy, not something that you'd necessarily need to actually listen to, although they are, they are things that you could have done as actual recordings in the past, those kinds of things. So I did, I made a recording and I made another recording, made another recording and I found a couple of other recordings from the past that kind of fitted in with what I wanted to do. And then what I did is I made a 10 hour recording out of that with the background music that I already had last in 10 hours and I had basically those recordings with the background music and then I was going to add them on to the end of the recordings with music that I've already got.

If that makes sense. So let's say a daily relaxation session lasting 43 minutes. I'll have a recording with music and one without.

So I had to get the one with music and just add the extra stuff onto the end and, you know, edit it so it ends before the 10 hour is up. So I can't release anything more than 10 hours or over 300 megabytes. Anyway, I did all that.

I spent I think two days putting that together and it sounded distorted and it didn't work. So I gave up. But I only gave up for a day.

And then I thought, ah, let's try something different. So instead of trying to add it all together, I made individual recordings with background music and then I added those together to make up the 10 hours and the five hours or 10 hours. There's two different ones.

And that worked. It worked, baby. I couldn't believe it.

So just shows you never give up ever, ever. Unless it's smoking, you know, obviously then do give up. But, you know, just don't ever give up on something like that because you have to keep going.

Eventually, eventually we find a way. And I did. But what that left me with was, do I just make my new recordings with the, you know, one without music, one with just the background music for the duration of the recording, then a five hour recording, then a 10 hour recording and just do it for the new recordings? Or do I go and re-edit the old recordings like I had before, the ones that all before had five and 10 hour recordings and upload those again, but in a way that isn't breaking any rules, that has me speaking all the way through.

Although very gently and a quieter volume than the actual main recording. Slightly, not hugely, but a bit, a fair bit quieter. And I thought, okay, well, I might as well just do that.

I might as well, at least then everything's back to where it was. But you know what, it's a hell of a lot quicker to delete stuff than it is to upload, to edit and upload, to create and upload. It's just, it's, it's not a quick process.

And so although I have uploaded some stuff, so I decided to get going on that. But then the problem is, what about the new stuff? Now, technically, I could say, well, the Deep Sleep Whisper, I've not got a way about recording new stuff, because I'm uploading, there's 400 recordings to upload with music, five hours and 10 hours. So probably not, no need to worry about doing the new recording until that's done, until I've uploaded those.

And the same with the daily relax and sleep hypnosis daily. The same maybe with the Boring Objects and with the, you know, the other podcasts. But this podcast is different, because I'm probably not going to, well, at this point, I'm not even considering re-editing the old recordings and uploading those with music.

Even though there was hundreds that had music, and even more that didn't, because there's 780 recordings or something on the Let Me Bore You To Sleep spectrum. But then I thought, well, okay, I'll just make a recording every day doing this while I'm doing the other stuff. But it's going to get lost.

It'll be on the Let Me Bore You To Sleep podcast. But on all the other podcasts, as soon as I put it on there, and I start uploading all the other stuff, no one's even going to know it's been uploaded. It needs to be, you know, a good few hours gap between me uploading this podcast, a new podcast, and then uploading edited new versions of the old recordings.

So I just haven't done it. I haven't made one of these. It's only been a couple of days.

I think it's because I've spent so much time doing this stuff that I forget that it's actually only been a couple of days. The last recording I did was 21st of December, so 23rd today. So it's not, you know, it's two days.

The one before that was the 19th of December. The one before that was the 15th. The one before that was the 14th, 13th.

So it's not really a big, huge gap between, you know, the previous ones. But there was a big gap. So it took me about 10 days to upload all of the recordings with background music.

So 10 days kind of solidly doing it. So because I'm doing double that work, it's probably going to take maybe 20 days. But I want to get it done by the end of the year.

So that I can start the year fresh and just be doing new recordings and never have to look at the old stuff again. Just move forward fresh, new stuff, new recordings for each podcast. And also I'm going to be doing some stop smoking stuff.

I'd like to do more chronic pain recordings. I'd also like to do some stuff on phobias and things like that, you know, a bit more, a bit more creative and have a bit more fun with it. And set it up for what's another year, isn't it? It's a new year.

I don't want to do is I don't want to just do the same thing all the time. But you know, I do these recordings, but they're not gonna, you know, I don't want it to be always the same. Because maybe I know they're supposed to be boring, but there's a limit isn't there to the boredom.

Come on. So what I thought we'd do is I feel be good if we looked at try and find some funny facts of Christmas. Sure.

Or fun facts. You ready? Let's do that. Let's just have a said that that's kind of what's going on me.

But there's no point elaborating upon it. I just just telling you now we can get on and have a look at some fun facts. Fun stuff.

I'm just drinking. I thought about going and getting some alcohol. The garage is closed now.

But don't normally drink ever. But I just started thinking perhaps I could perhaps I could have a few lagers or something. So I might, I might tomorrow as it's Christmas.

Blimey, it's Christmas Eve tomorrow. So I might do is get myself some beers for Christmas Eve, maybe, maybe enough for Christmas and stuff, but I'm not really drinker. I much prefer to go to the pub, if I'm honest, and just have a few drinks in the pub.

I just think it always tastes better than from a can. So here's some. This is a website called Best Life Online.

And some fun Christmas facts. Sweden celebrates Christmas with a giant straw yule goat. It's big.

It's as big as a tree. Of course, a tree might not be very big, but it does look there's nothing next to it to really get an idea what it looks like, but it looks as big as a house. In Scandinavian countries, the yule goat figures into the Christmas decor of many homes.

So in Norse mythology, the two goats pulled Thor's flying chariot. Really? The same way reindeers do for Santa's sleigh. On top of that, there's also a festive tale that focuses on an invisible yule goat that checks in on holiday prep before the big day.

Checks in on holiday prep. So an invisible yule goat checks in to make sure that you're what? Put decorations up? You got enough mince pies? I don't know. Prep that the vegetables are cut properly? I don't know.

Isn't it interesting though that Thor, his chariot was pulled along by two goats. Now, the Santa's sleigh pulled by reindeers is a relatively new thing compared to Thor. Thor mythology.

That's a long time ago, isn't it? Thousands and thousands of years ago. So this says, in 1966, the Gavlegort was created in an effort to draw shoppers to the Swedish city where it resides. Okay, so that's the goat I was looking at.

It's 42 feet high, seven meters in length, weighing 3.6 tons. Wow, that's big, isn't it? 46 feet high. That's like three times my own height there.

Blimey, that's a lot. Okay, let's look at the second weird story. Ralphie from A Christmas Story was also in Elf.

I don't remember a Christmas story. Do you? A Christmas Story. Has anyone heard of that film? I haven't.

In 2003, Billingsley then popped up in another seasonal classic, Elf, and as Ming Ming, the toy-making supervisor in Santa's Workshop. Oh, he's also appeared in other festive and non-festive films. Four Christmases, Iron Man, and Spider-Man Far From Home.

I suppose if he was a little kid, because he is a little kid in that, so 83. He couldn't have been more than 10. 93, 2003, 2013.

So 10 still makes him nearly 50. Wow. Here's the next one.

Two of Santa's reindeers originally had different names. No, no, that can't be right. Don't mess with my brain, man.

Wow. So, oh, blimey. Apparently, the 1823 poem, A Visit from St. Nicholas, which originally introduced the world to Santa's reindeer.

Two of the flying creatures had slightly different names. Whether it's true or not, I don't know. Might be a lie.

Donna and Blitzen were instead Dunder and Blixem, which is a Dutch way to refer to thunder and lightning. Dutch. I'd like to go to Dutchland.

I have been to Dutchland. I went to Amsterdam. Wow.

It's honestly about 19 years ago. 19 years? No. It was 2000 and... Blimey.

It was, yeah. It was November 2003. I went to Amsterdam.

And what is it now? December 2001. No, 2021. So yeah, nearly, it was 19, less than, over 19 years ago.

Time. Really, really. You know, my friend said to me the other day, no, like yesterday, he said to me, oh yeah, he said, you've probably got about six years left.

Six years? Isn't that like the worst thing anyone's ever said, ever? You've got six years left to live. Like, what? Now, I'd understand it if I was really unwell or, you know, really having a lot of problems. Still, it's a horrible thing to say.

It's something, you know, even doctors don't say it like that. And it's like, what a disturb. Oh, really annoyed me.

Keep it light, Jason. Keep it light. OK.

OK. Right. Back to Christmas.

The longest running Santa Claus parade happens in Illinois. Illinois. So that's in America.

And I wonder if it is noisy there. Illinois. Plenty of communities hold Santa Claus parades and each one is special in its own way.

What are you talking about? However, the parade that happens each year in Peoria. Peoria. I don't know how to pronounce this word.

Peoria. P-E-O-R-I-A. Peori.

Is it Peori or Peoria? Anyway, in Illinois is the oldest parade of its kind in the United States. It's taken place every holiday season since 1888. I like to get this little bit when it says next year.

That's well over 100 years. Well, thanks for that. I mean, you know, I'm not a mathematician.

I'm really not. But I could have figured that one out. Blimey.

So, by the way, you might not know this, but in England we call Santa Claus, well we used to, Father Christmas. It's an interchangeable. You can use Santa Claus or Father Christmas.

In America, it's Santa Claus. I don't know if the term Father Christmas is ever actually used anywhere else in the world. I don't know.

I've not done that survey yet. I'm starting it tomorrow. I'm going to be travelling around the world finding out.

I'll keep you contacted. I'll keep you updated in about 40 years when I've finished and completed it. One of the oldest Christmas markets dates back to 1600s.

Well, that's not going to be in America, is it? Was America around in the 1600s? I can't remember when they first started. It's 1600s. That's just the other, you know, we've got houses older than America in England.

Seriously, we've got some really old houses. Do you mean the castles? No. But now you mention it, the castles.

Obviously, if you go all the way back to how old, what is the oldest castle in the UK? Oldest castle. What is the oldest inhabited castle? No. Blimey.

Really? When was the first castle built in England? 1066 by the Normans. Basically, it was built following the Battle of Hastings. 1066.

So 1066, 1166, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19. So that's 900 years. Takes us up to 1966 for the World Cup.

So 900 years before England won the World Cup, the first castle was built in England. How's about that, eh? That's pretty... What is the oldest surviving building in the UK? Like a normal house. Apparently, a place in Bath, Somerset.

Now, if you ever visit UK, England, there are... I mean, this is a grumpy country, you know, to live in. But to visit, there's some amazing places to go to. And I imagine that's the same for every country.

Everywhere's got somewhere nice, and nice places. And, you know, when you're visiting somewhere, you're seeing things with different eyes, aren't you? You're seeing things through fresh eyes. And there's probably things that I walk past.

Well, I never go out. But if I go out, and I live in one of the... I live in the oldest recorded town in the world, in the UK. This is the oldest recorded town.

So, this used to be the capital of the country. In the past, before London came and took it away. I remember that very well.

I was sitting there. I was watching reruns of Dallas on telly. And I remember seeing on the news, newsflash.

Oh, London's now stolen the capital. Everyone has to call London the capital of England now. I was infuriated.

Because when I was watching Dallas, I was trying to, you know, interrupt it. So, I spilt a biscuit that was dinking in some tea. We used to call it dinking.

Now they call it dunking. But, um, dunking... that's like a girl's name, is it? Dunking. And we used to call it dinking, if you're dinking it in your tea.

Oh, he lost his biscuit because he was dinking it in his tea. He was dinking. Yeah.

Saltford Manor House, near Bath, Somerset. It claims the title, but you know, we don't really know, do we? You can't really know what's the first, the oldest building. Um, it's basically a building that survived.

You know, there's lots of old buildings that look old and they are because they've been renovated and to almost look older. But this is a manor house, dated around 1148. Completion, the same time as the Hereford Cathedral, has Norman features.

So I think the Norman features are those wooden, wooden kind of planks out the side, I think. I don't know. But, so we have some very old buildings.

They're the oldest. I mean, we've been here a long time. Wow.

I found some really old buildings. No, that's not a passage grave. That's not a building, is it? Orkney type of chamber.

Wow. There's stuff here. This is Scotland, Orkney.

A large stone. That was a wispy. Honestly, I've got like a tornado in my mouth that just pops out every now and then.

So that was loud. I'll edit that to be a bit quieter. If I remember, a large stone built Neolithic village, mainland Orkney in Scotland.

3180 BC to 2500 BC. Oh. Oh.

I'm confused now. So I don't know how old that is. I don't know when that is.

How can it be? How can it? I don't understand those dates. It's like people who actually die before they were born. They're born, you know, 3180 and they die 2910 or something like.

Well, you can't. How do you die before you're born? Like, huh? So it's very old buildings. This is a very old country here.

And of course, every country is old. Pretty much apart from pretty much all countries. I imagine the same age ish, because this is one big continent, wasn't the whole world at one point, I think.

So places like America, Canada, Australia. Of course, they already had their own people living there. And but those people were kind of part of all of us because we're all living together as one big happy family.

And originally, and then different, you know, parts of the continent split and left and moved to different parts of the world. I remember that as well. Very shaky.

It wasn't I thought it was an earthquake, but it wasn't. I remember when Australia broke away. And it's like, oh, very shaky.

I remember because I was trying to balance on a log at the time. And I don't quite well because I managed to stay on one leg on this log upturned log for about 14 seconds, which was my longest time ever. And then suddenly the, you know, it's like, oh, no, it's wobbly, wobbly.

And but I didn't let go. So some people say, Oh, do you remember what do you remember when? I remember when Australia, Australia broke away from our land and, and, you know, just traveled to the other side of the world and just floated away. I said, Of course I do.

I was balancing on a log. So yeah, it's amazing what you remember, isn't it? So really like when we say, Oh, I discovered that country. I didn't know you didn't.

It was already there. You can't discover something that's already there. I discovered that there's other people already living there.

Yeah, but I mean, I could just say the same. I discovered Amsterdam. There was, you know, probably another 700 people on the train or boat or whatever with me.

I can't remember how I got there. I could just say I discovered it. Just because, you know, you know what I mean? But it must have been so annoying.

Imagine if whoever felt thought that I discovered New Zealand or Australia or Africa or America, Canada, England, wherever, you know, everyone, I guess, with their boats. Lots and lots and lots of different people thought they discovered different places. You know, quite a few people thought they discovered America.

I'm sure quite a few people thought they discovered Scotland or England or, you know, I don't know, Germany or wherever, India, China. Yet no one really discovered them because they were already there. And they're already inhabited.

I think really you need to it needs to be a place that is uninhabited for it to be rediscovered. Maybe I don't know. I don't know, really.

Imagine how annoying it would be thinking that you discovered something, telling everyone I discovered this place. And you're just going for a walk. Maybe you're doing it for us.

Have a quick wee on the grass. And suddenly you see in the distance, some people walking towards you. And it's not part of your boat, part of your crew, part of the people that came with you.

I suppose you'd partly want to hide them, wouldn't you? Let's get rid of them. Let's not tell anyone about that. Let's hide.

That's really so disappointing to realize that we haven't really discovered anything. It was already here. You can't be discovered unless maybe things can be discovered by lots of different people.

I don't mind that. I discovered Bulgaria. I did.

I discovered it. It was already there. I had millions of people living there.

500 people on the plane with me. But I discovered it. But everyone else discovered it as well.

I don't care, but I discovered it. See? Works in my mind. I wonder what other buildings there are.

Wow. It is weird though. I've been to a few castles over the years.

Over the years I've been to a few. And I'm always amazed at how cold they are. Of course not all of them have roofs.

But just inside, very... because stone is what they're made of, isn't it? Stone isn't... it's not a very warm material to use for walls. I mean it's clearly a really good one because it's lasted much longer than any of the houses that have been built since. Well, a lot of the houses that have been built since that use, you know, like red bricks or whatever they use now.

Or have been using for a long time. Very cold. Oh, look at this.

There's... right, if you think about this, there's a lot of churches, right? I'm always focusing on castles. There's a lot of churches that are very old. There's a church here, All Saints Church in Bricksworth, Northamptonshire.

650 to 870. So, I mean, to be fair, they're not sure. They're just sort of putting down a date.

That's a big difference though, isn't it? 650 to 870. That's like... I mean, if someone said to you, oh, do you want to come for my birthday? It's my 54th birthday. Do you want to come to the pie? I said, OK, when is it? Well, it's between February the 4th and December the 16th.

You would get so angry, wouldn't you? You're like, what do you mean? What do you mean, February the 4th, December the 16th? What date is it? You know, and they're doing that with like a 200 year buffer. There's one here, Abbey Church of St. Mary the Virgin. Wouldn't it be annoying? If you think about it, if you gave birth to the Son of God, you gave birth to the Son of God, and people still kept talking about you, calling you a virgin.

Being known as Mary the Virgin, not Mary, the mother of the Son of God. No, Jesus's mum. I mean, if there was ever a higher profile female in the whole world, you know, there's not many, is there? I mean, to be the mother of Jesus.

And all they keep calling her is a virgin. Not the Church of the Mother of Jesus. Nope.

Church of St. Mary the Virgin. Keep going on about her. It's very personal, isn't it? It's a very personal thing.

Yeah, but it was a miracle, wasn't it? It's a miracle. This just seems a bit rude. This is a bit rude to me.

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm wrong. I've been wrong four times before.

So, you know, hold me hands up. Okay, right. Oh, here's one.

If you do, if you like shopping, right? If you go to the Christmas market in Nuremberg, Germany, you'll be taking part in a tradition that's hundreds of years in the making. The proof of that can be found in a small box that the... Why don't you say the National Museum? They've used all these words. Germany's National Museum.

Keep safe. So it's a national museum in Germany. The simple treasure holds an inscription that reads, sent to Regina Susanna Habdorferin, a word I can't pronounce and I don't think anyone could the way it's... I don't know what it says.

Habdorferin by Miss Susanna Elena Erbsin on the occasion of the Christmas market of 1628. I don't know. I don't know.

Here's one. Did you know the rocking around the Christmas tree was actually sung by Brenda Lee, which was a 1958 hit. It was actually recorded when Brenda Lee was, it was, she was 13 years old.

She was 13 years old. Wow. That's quite surprising.

I can't imagine there'd be that many children singers in the 50s. Maybe I'm wrong. I might be completely, I've been wrong at least three times before.

So there's a chance. Oh, here's something. Do you want a bit of another one? Another one? Another bit of a trivial.

Here we are. In the past, most things are in the past, aren't they? Artificial Christmas trees were once made with goose feathers. That must have looked ridiculous.

Can you imagine a Christmas tree with goose feathers instead of green? I don't know what it was, you know, twigs, twigs, green. What are they on Christmases? Christmas trees? What are those things? Because they fall on the floor, don't they? They're quite spiky. Anyway, can you imagine your Christmas tree looking like a goose? This giant goose standing in the corner, flashing.

Where's me presents, mum? They're under the goose. Go and help yourself. No, I'm scared.

He might peck me. When these fake trees were first displayed in Germany around 1865, they were made of goose feathers. Oh, they were dyed green.

Okay, fair enough. Now, I'm not surprised at this next bit. Do you know the Christmas films made by Hallmark? I mean, you might really like them, so I won't point out how awful some of them are.

The Hallmark holiday movies that you see at Christmas, there's so many of them. I've watched some and I've liked it. I reckon that the first year that I lived here, I watched every Christmas movie that the television provided me.

Every movie it presented me with, I just sat and watched it. And it was Christmas movie after Christmas movie. And they started probably September all the way through up to Christmas.

I was watching at least two Christmas films a day, all that time. And some of them were good. They were.

They didn't have the budget for comedy, for anything exciting, no special effects, no original dialogue, really. You know, there wasn't anything amazing about them. They were nice, they were quaint, they were gentle, very Disney-ish in a sense of you're unlikely to get offended by them.

And they're just gentle. And I quite like that. I like that.

Sometimes. Sometimes. And so this next little bit of trivia does not surprise me.

Hallmark holiday movies only take two weeks to film. I'm not surprised at that. I'm really not.

I'm not. I mean, they just look... I would say, and for some reason I want to defend them. And if you're making a film that is very similar to a previous film and the previous hundred films you've made, and it's just going to be another version of that film, and it's going to be set in a little town in America, and it's going to be quaint.

And it's probably going to be based around maybe a coffee shop or a bakery or a bookshop or something like that. Or someone that gets trapped in a town because there's been a snowstorm or their car's broken down and then they fall in love with the waitress or with a man that owns the shoe shop or something like that. I imagine they can just film for a whole month and then just pick and mix and take it apart and make maybe 10 different films out of it.

But I might be wrong. So it's probably because they're really organized, which is how they can get it done so quick. So, you know, wow.

But two weeks. I've seen filming of a movie for one day. I think it might have been two days.

I was an extra. And just one small scene where two men were talking to each other was re-recorded and re-recorded from different angles. At one point, both of them were talking to no one.

They were just talking into the camera almost. And then there was cameras from behind their head filming it, cameras from the side, from the right, from the left. Now, it was a low budget film.

But what I mean by that is, I guess if it was a high budget film, they would already have more cameras to film, you know, so they'd be able to probably do a scene less time. Something that's very basic, they wouldn't have to keep filming it because they'd have lots of different versions, I guess, from different angles. I don't know if that's true or not.

But when I watched that, I thought, I'm not going to bother being a film star because that would just annoy me. I've never been so angry. 9. Brazil set the record for the world's largest floating Christmas tree.

Why? Why? It's huge. It's really big. 278 feet tall.

That's like 9 times my height. And 10 inches tall. Huh? Oh, 278 feet and 10 inches.

Why even mention the 10 inches? 278 feet. Why mention any inches after that? It's hardly worth it, is it? It's not, is it? I mean, like, how many people were on your plane? 500. It's a 500 seat plane.

It was full. Okay, well, there was two, there was two seats. 498.

Why mention it? The tree continues to be brought out each year. It set a world record in 2007. It's part of the Rio de Janeiro Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon.

I remember that movie, Lagoon, Blue Lagoon. Do you remember that? Wow, look at this. This is a bit of stuff I didn't know.

A long, long time ago, Pope Julius I decided that Christmas should be celebrated on December the 25th. Ah, so it wasn't because, so it wasn't before that. Doesn't say what year it was.

Before that, it wasn't celebrated because it's not Christmas. It's not Jesus's birthday. Jesus wasn't born on December the 25th.

How dare you? It's true. December the 25th had nothing to do with Christianity. It's supposed to be because of the solstice, which was pagan.

This is because we were a pagan country. Because this all comes from us, from England. And we were a pagan country.

So the 25th. History points out it wasn't because that was the day that Jesus was born. Well, yeah, anyway.

Instead, many people believe it was to overshadow a pagan festival called Saturnalia. Saturnalia aren't the mad girl that was into that once. Which also happened on that day.

In fact, Jesus may have actually been born during the spring. No one's going to know. No one knows.

But he definitely wasn't born Christmas Day. Well, that explains why there was no hotels free. Jingle Bells was the first song played in space.

Hey, see, look at all this knowledge you're getting from this recording. When you're having your Christmas dinner, and you know, when there's a little bit of a lull, people are all full up, they're really stuffed full of food. And maybe, you know, everyone's had enough chat for now.

Let's calm down a little bit. That's when you can come in and say, you know what? Jingle Bells was the first song played in space. And just sit back and look around at the amazement in people's faces.

Not only the amazement, but that special look that only means, could only mean one thing. Tell me more. I need more information.

This is amazing. Tell me more. And then, yeah, I don't know after that.

I don't know what more there is. It was the NASA's Gemini 6A spaceflight. So they got into Christmas spirit.

It was December 16, 1965. The thing is, it earned Jolly Jingle. Jolly Jingle.

Oh, the Jolly Jingle. Guinness World Records. So they got into the Guinness World Records for being the first song ever played in space.

Now that is not what the Guinness World Record is for. The Guinness World Record is for holding a record. If it's the first time it's ever been done, it's not really a record, is it? I suppose you've created a record.

But I thought, you know, it's like, well, what can I think of that hasn't been done before? What record hasn't been broken? How many times I can fart in the bath? I mean, what, you know, is that a world record? It's not currently a world record. So can I set that world record? Seven. You know, I mean, what? I don't know.

Jingle Bells was originally composed, the song, as a Thanksgiving tune in 1850 in Savannah, Georgia. And it was first performed at a Thanksgiving costume, concert rather. And it was written by a Unitarian Church organist, James Lord Pierpont.

So it had nothing to do with Christmas. Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way. How much fun it is to ride a red horse in a prudent sleigh.

Hey, how? Okay, the words, the words of Jingle Bells. So they're saying it was a Thanksgiving. Nothing to do with Christmas.

Yeah. Nothing to do with Christmas. Yeah.

Okay. What fun it is to ride and sing a sleighing song tonight. Oh, jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way.

Oh, what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh. Hey, jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way. Oh, what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh.

Now the ground is white. Go it while you're young. Take the girls tonight.

Sing this sleighing song. That sounds a bit bad. I'm going to be slaying the girls tonight.

Get a bobtailed bay. Oh, jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way. Oh, what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh.

Hey, jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way. Oh, what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh. Oh, what fun it is to ride in one horse open sleigh.

Oh, what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh. Oh, what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh. Oh, what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh.

It originates from a tale of a poor widower who worried that he wouldn't be able to marry off his three daughters because of his lack of wealth. But fortunately, St. Nicholas was wandering through the town where the man lived and heard villagers discussing that family's plight. He can't get rid of his daughters.

No one wants to marry his daughters. We feel so sorry for him. Pass on the gossip.

He wanted to help this man, but knew the man would refuse any kind of charity directly. So instead, one night, he slid down the chimney of the family's house and filled the girls' recently laundered stockings, which happened to be drying by the fire, with gold coins. And then he disappeared.

In the morning, the family found the gifts and the daughters became eligible to wed. Twas a Christmas miracle. So basically, they... Oh, it's all to do with the dowry system, isn't it? A dowry, so you basically pay someone to take your daughters away from you.

That's how it used to be. If someone married your daughter, you would pay money to them for some reason. I thought it'd be the other way around, but I suppose it depends on... So they're going on about, oh, the Christmas stockings.

Well, it's not just that that comes from that, isn't it? It's the chimney bit as well. Climbing down the chimney. So it's not just the Christmas stockings.

It's almost a whole tradition of Father Christmas or Santa climbing down the chimney and filling up your stockings. Because, you know, St. Christopher, that's where it came from, isn't it? So, OK. I bet the girls thought, oh, this is nice, but we only had two stockings drying, but it's five there.

Five there now. All fill up, all fill up, and not just for coins either. So, yeah, so he went through the drawers to find the stockings.

Yeah, good Samaritan. The Norred center tracker was created due to a child's misunderstanding. I don't know anything about that, so I'm going to skip it.

So, that is something. If you gave all the gifts listed in the 12 days of Christmas, it would equal 364 presents. So, that is a lot though, isn't it? That's a lot of presents.

If you had 364 presents, you wouldn't actually be able to open them all before dinner, before lunch. It would be too many. That's why you have to have some big presents.

I'm not going to be opening any presents on Christmas. I'm not bothered. I don't care.

I don't need presents at all. I'm not, oh, yeah. Well, I'll finish on this one.

There is a Christmas tree in Spain worth 15 million dollars. I don't know how many potatoes that is. Or do they have Euros in Spain now? Most of our 15 million.

Blimey. That's an expensive tree. I've got to finish on this one.

There's a new one there. I've never heard of the Christmas tree pickle. Have you? No, I've never heard that.

So, okay. I don't understand that. Eggnog dates back to medieval times.

The Statue of Liberty is the largest Christmas gift ever given. Where was it given from then? France. Oh, someone said that earlier.

I saw that on a film. France gave America the Statue of Liberty. 225 tons.

It was a holiday gift given to the U.S. by France in 1886. Officially the largest Christmas present in the world. How did they get it there? So the Statue of Liberty, which actually is one of the... Why? Why did they give it to them? Why did they... I'm not saying they shouldn't have done.

I think it's lovely. Just a lovely gift. I mean, it's amazing, isn't it? I'm just wondering why.

I wonder what the reason for it... It must have been something, a gift to say thank you or something, surely. It's a very extravagant gift. I've never seen it.

I've seen it on film, pictures and stuff, but I've never... That's why I want to... It's not the only reason, but I'd like to go to New York. I think I'd quite like to live in New York for a while. Maybe just go out there and stay there for a year or something.

Just rent a flat or an apartment for a year. And hang around the comedy clubs and stuff like that. Just spend a year there.

Just, you know, get to know my way around and that. Yeah, I think that'd be quite cool. Anyway, I hope you... I hope you enjoyed all the new knowledge that I've shared with you.

It's not my knowledge, it's just stuff I've seen online. But I will be back again tomorrow, Christmas Eve. And I will also be back again on Christmas Day.

Now, I'm thinking maybe I should try and do a live broadcast. Maybe even on Facebook. Maybe.

That sounded wrong. Maybe. I don't know.

We'll see. It just means I've got to brush my hair. My hair is the longest and curliest you'll ever have seen it.

Honestly, it's getting long. It's curly. I don't know how long, but it's probably got to be a good five inches long.

If not more. So, you know, considering I normally have my hair bald, I have it really shaven to the... really, really, really short anyway. And even when I had my hair before, at it's nicest it was still shorter than this.

But I'm thinking of growing it long. Like proper long, long. Like Keanu Reeves in The Matrix.

That's what I'm thinking. Yeah. So thanks for listening.

Remember, be kind to yourself. Especially this time of year. It's not everybody's favourite time of the year.

Some people absolutely love it. And good for you. Some people have got a lot of people to be around.

They love being around other people. And they've got family they love to be with or friends and stuff. And other people don't have that.

Maybe because they don't want it. Or maybe because they just don't have access. For whatever reason.

And I think it's a good time of the year to maybe remember that not everybody is perhaps enjoying themselves. Not everybody is celebrating it either. And I've got a neighbour that I just I went out and bought him some chips.

There's a chip van coming round, a fish and chip van. So I went out and bought him some fish and chips for his just as a little Christmas present. And he was really pleased.

He was really happy. And just reaching out, you know. I did want to spend time talking to him.

But sounds awful, doesn't it? But I just I'm not in the right place. I've not been in the right place to have conversations with anyone lately. I've been a bit grumpy.

But, you know, I needed to get back in. I had things to do but I stopped. I did have a chat with him outside for a little bit.

As we walked home. But maybe there's someone that you can reach out to. If you want to.

I mean, I feel good when I do stuff like that. Just say hello. Merry Christmas.

Or not. It's, yeah. But you need to try and be gentle with yourself.

I think being gentle is highly undervalued. Gentleness. This world, this society maybe that I'm living in it's not a very gentle society.

There's I think being gentle is much more valuable than perhaps a lot of people realise. I think it is I would say it's almost a twin. It's the twin brother or sister of being kind to yourself.

They go together. Anyway, I'm going now. Take care and I shall speak to you tomorrow.

Lots of love. Bye. Bye.