EPISODE · Dec 19, 2017 · 13 MIN

A Christmas Story

from Farming God · host Steve Ray

A historical Christmas story featuring everyone’s favorite deer. Stay informed at https://farminggod.org/ Long before the historical Jesus and Black Friday, stories held special significance during this part of the year, the darkest days of winter, the solstice, a time to celebrate the coming of light.  In the 4th century Pope Julius I declared that the 25th of December be the celebration of Jesus’s birth. The timing worked nicely for evangelists, presumably making the pagan to christian conversion an easier sell. When Christianity came to America, the puritans banned Christmas for dislike of decadence.  From 1659 to 1681, Boston residents were fined for displaying Christmas spirit. Contemporary American Christmas is an entity of its own, resting on the shoulders of Charles Dickens and department store jingles. Rudolph originally appeared in a 1939 advertisement for Montgomery Ward, a department store. If we are, after all, living according to a story, we may as well choose a fantastic one.  Public Domain Audio files found at: https://librivox.org/character-building-by-booker-t-washington/ https://librivox.org/the-wind-among-the-reeds-by-william-butler-yeats/ https://librivox.org/ogura-hyakunin-isshu-by-fujiwara-no-teika/ https://librivox.org/search?q=farming&search_form=advanced https://archive.org/details/78_rudolph-the-red-nosed-reindeer_spike-jones-and-his-city-slickers-rudolph-himself_gbia0018975b