Podcast Introduction
Merry Christmas! It’s finally arrived. Christmas Day. James and I are excited to play this encore edition of the 2022 encore of the 2009 Christmas Day episode of the Lifespring! Why Christmas show, hosted by James Cooper, creator of whychristmas.com, and me the OG Godcaster, Steve Webb, of lifespringmedia.com.
During the episode, you will hear the answers to the quiz questions and the drawing we held for 2009’s winner.
What’s that? You want to know who this years winner is? Ok then. Let’s do it.
I have made a numbered list of all the names of people who have sent in the correct answers for the quiz. And I am using an online random number generator from random.org to select the winning name’s number. On the website it says, “RANDOM.ORG offers true random numbers to anyone on the Internet. The randomness comes from atmospheric noise, which for many purposes is better than the pseudo-random number algorithms typically used in computer programs. People use RANDOM.ORG for holding drawings, lotteries and sweepstakes, to drive online games, for scientific applications and for art and music.”
The winner of the autographed Bryan Duncan’s A NehoSoul Christmas CD is…Bryan Kennedy! Congratulations, Bryan! I know you’ll enjoy it.
Thank you so much for listening to the show this month. I’ve enjoyed bringing back the 2009 episodes. If you would like to hear more, every episode from every season of the show is at lifespringwhychristmas.show.
Design: Steve Webb. Christmas tree character: James Cooper
Notes
Merry Christmas everyone!!!
Steve and James join you for the final day of the 2022 encore of the 2009 Lifespring! Why Christmas Show and find out a bit about the birth of Jesus, the real reason for Christmas!
The 2022 winner of Bryan Duncan “A NehoSoul Christmas” CD Bryan Kennedy! Congratulations!
Find out more at: http://yxmas.com/birth
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Transcript
Steve Webb 0:01
Merry Christmas! It’s finally arrived Christmas Day. James and I are so excited to play this encore edition of the 2009 Christmas Day episode of The Lifespring White Christmas show for you hosted by James Cooper, creator of whychristmas.com and me the OG Godcaster Steve Webb of Lifespringmedia.com. During this episode, you’ll hear answers to the quiz questions and the drawing we held for 2009 winner. And you probably want to know who this year’s winner is. So let’s do that right now before we play the episode, what I’ve done is I’ve made a numbered list of all the names of people who have sent in the correct answers to the quiz and I’m using an online random number generator from random.org to select the winning names number. On the website, it says random.org offers true random numbers to anyone on the internet. The randomness comes from atmospheric noise, which for many purposes is better than the pseudo random number algorithms typically used in computer programs. People use random.org for holding drawings, lotteries and sweepstakes to drive online games for scientific applications. And for art and music. So let’s see who our winner is. The winner of the autograph Bryan Duncans A NehoSoul Christmas CD is Bryan Kennedy. Congratulations, Bryan. I know you’ll enjoy it. Thanks to everybody who participated in set in answers to the quiz. And before I play the episode, I do want to say thank you so much for listening to the show this month. I’ve really enjoyed bringing back the 2009 episodes for you for James Cooper of whychristmas.com. and me… Merry Christmas.
Steve Webb 2:06
Hello, and Merry Christmas. Welcome to the Lifespring White Christmas show for Christmas Day. I’m Steve Webb. And I think that James is on the other line. James, Merry Christmas.
James Cooper 2:17
And Happy Christmas to you, Steve and a very happy Christmas to all the listeners of the Lifespring Why Christmas show.
Steve Webb 2:22
So obviously all your gifts are probably open now. Did does Santa Claus bring what you wanted?
James Cooper 2:27
Uh, yes, he did. Thank you. He was very good to me this year.
Steve Webb 2:31
Yeah, Santa is like that.
James Cooper 2:32
Well, yes, he is a personal friend, sort of running the Christmas site. So you know, he kind of has to or he’s in trouble.
Steve Webb 2:38
You know, I suppose he probably drops off at your place every once in a while during the Christmas season.
James Cooper 2:44
One…why, you know, he’s quite busy. So I mean, I get the odd text and things. Yeah. Just so, he has to keep it like that, really.
Steve Webb 2:52
Yeah, that’s true. He’s a pretty busy guy. But he does have your your number and you text back and forth. But that’s cool. Yeah, not many people can say they have Santa’s personal cell phone number so that they can text him.
James Cooper 3:04
Yeah, you know, special contact.
Steve Webb 3:06
That’s pretty that’s pretty cool. You know, I’m just a lucky guy to know James Cooper.
James Cooper 3:12
Well, how about you have you and your family had a good Christmas day so far?
Steve Webb 3:16
We had a great Christmas thus far. We woke up early this morning and the boys came out and around the tree and you know, they opened up their their gifts. And my oldest boy Matthew is coming over with his new bride later on today, and we’re going to have Christmas dinner. And in just a little bit. I think we’re gonna go see the new Sherlock Holmes movie.
James Cooper 3:36
Ooh, the Old Guy Ritchie,
Steve Webb 3:38
Guy Ritchie?
James Cooper 3:40
He directed it.
Steve Webb 3:41
Oh, I didn’t know that.
James Cooper 3:42
So it’s like, “Sherlock Holmes is like this innit?”
Steve Webb 3:46
Very good. Yeah, well, you know, I’ve seen the previous for the movie that looks like it’s gonna be a pretty good one. So I’ve always been a Sherlock Holmes fan. I’ve read all the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle books and
James Cooper 3:56
oh, yeah, me too.
Steve Webb 3:57
I really enjoy him. Yeah. So anyway, it’s Christmas day. What do you think we should do on the show today?
James Cooper 4:02
Well, you never know. I think we should hear about the birth of Jesus.
Steve Webb 4:06
That’s a great idea. That’s what it is all about.
James Cooper 4:09
Indeed. And the story is in chapter two of the book of Luke, and says, In those days, Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. This was the first census that took place while Quirenius was governor of Syria, and everyone went to his own town to register. So Joseph went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea to Bethlehem, the town of David, because he belonged to the house and the line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room in the inn.
Steve Webb 4:52
You know, this is always such an amazing story to me, God coming to earth as a weak and helpless baby. It’s incredible. But we don’t really know many details of Jesus’s birth we’re not told his weight or even the date that he was born on. We do know that Mary and Joseph had to travel to Bethlehem to take part in a Roman census and not because of its reputation for maternity care. The census was the first of its kind and was taken so that the Roman government could tax everyone in the empire correctly. Jewish families had to register in their historical tribal town rather than where they actually lived at the time. Joseph and the pregnant Mary lived in Nazareth. But since Bethlehem was Joseph’s tribal town, it was also the town of the royal family of David, they had to travel to Bethlehem, which was a journey of about 70 miles or 112 kilometers.
James Cooper 5:41
The journey would have taken about three days on foot or donkey, and they might have one arrived in the evening, because if they’re there arrived earlier in the day, it’s more likely they’d have found some way to stay. In those times, motels, hotels and inns didn’t really exist, you normally stayed with your extended family. And most families also shared their houses with the animals they kept. The people slept on an upper level within the house, and the animals lived on the ground floor, and were used as a kind of central heating,
Steve Webb 6:06
Bethlehem would have been very crowded for the Census because it was the home or historical town for many people. So all the houses or certainly the upper levels would have been full. So Mary and Joseph had to sleep with the animals either in a very crowded and smelly lower level of a house or out in a stable or a cave or even a covered market stall that sold animals for food, not exactly hygienic hospital conditions. And with no proper crib available, the new baby boy was placed in a manger or a feeding trough.
James Cooper 6:36
So that’s some of the history of the birth of Jesus. If you’d like to know some more, head on over to the story section of whychristmas.com.
Steve Webb 6:58
Now it’s time James for the big announcement. The Yeah, the result of our Christmas trivia competition, we’re lucky listener will win a signed copy of our good friend Bryan Duncan’s Christmas album, A NehoSoul Christmas. Thank you to everyone who’s taken part in sent us their entries. Now before we announce the winner, let’s hear the answers to the 10 questions. And over to you, James.
James Cooper 7:26
Okay, here are the 10 questions and their answers. Number one. What famous Christmas classic did Bing Crosby recalled in 1942? And the answer was White Christmas. Number two, what was the name of Mary’s cousin she went to visit when she was pregnant. And that was Elizabeth. Number three, who invented the first electric Christmas lights for Christmas trees. And it was an American telephonist named Ralph Morris. Number four. What’s the name of the Jewish festival that celebrated around the same time as Christmas and that’s Hanukkah. Number five. How many other reindeer helped Rudolph Paul Santa sleigh? And that’s eight. Number six. What sweet bread is eaten for Christmas Day breakfast in some parts of Belgium. And that’s cougnou. Number seven. What town was Jesus born in? We just heard about it. It was Bethlehem. Number eight. What coin is traditionally lucky to find in your portion of Christmas pudding. That would be a silver coin or a silver six pence. Number eight. Sorry number nine even. in what country would you sing the carol Sambasamba Zanahary? That’s Madagascar. And finally, number 10. What ancient religion might the white men have belong to and that’s Zorastrian ism.
Steve Webb 8:48
So I’ve got a Santa hat here with all the correct entries. And I’m going to pull one out and we got to get them all mixed up here. Okay, here we go. Drumroll please.
Steve Webb 9:05
Excellent. The winner is Rhonda Evans. Rhonda. Congratulations. I will be going over to Bryan’s house later today even and we’ll get the CD signed. And I’ll get that in the post to you as quickly as I possibly can.
Steve Webb 9:26
To everybody who sent in an entry thank you so very much. We appreciate your participation. Hope you had fun. If nothing else just learning about cougnou. I mean who knew?
James Cooper 9:37
Well the Belgians.
Steve Webb 9:38
Well that’s true. Yeah. So anyway, James, anything to say?
James Cooper 9:41
Congratulations to Rhonda as well. I know you’ll love the album. It’s a great one. I’ve had it playing away in the build up to Christmas and it’s great fun. If you didn’t win and you’d like to buy a copy for yourself, which I thoroughly recommend. Then go on over to Bryan duncan.com where you can order a real CD from the man himself or you can buy it digitally as I did from indieheaven.com The links are also in the show notes at lifespringwhychristmas.com.
Steve Webb 10:06
Well, James, it has been so fun doing this again this year. Obviously I couldn’t do without you. And it is is just great fun. I enjoyed talking to you. And you know, one of these days, we have to figure out a way to meet in person.
James Cooper 10:19
Yes, that would be good. We’ve wept camped foot. We’ve never shook hands.
Steve Webb 10:22
That’s true. I’m looking forward to that someday. And you know, if not on this side of heaven, I know that we’ll get to meet in heaven.
James Cooper 10:28
Absolutely. And you’ll be able to say, wow, you’re shorter than I thought.
Steve Webb 10:33
You know, my brother in law, Steve O’Brien, who’s a pastor my church is, well, let’s see, vertically challenged.
James Cooper 10:40
Yeah, that would be it,
Steve Webb 10:41
as is some other of my friends that we’ve even talked about today. And so you know, I’ve gained some sensitivity to that.
Steve Webb 10:51
Well, Merry Christmas, everybody. God bless you. I hope that this day is the most special Christmas you’ve ever had.
James Cooper 10:58
And for me to a very happy Christmas one and all .
James Cooper 11:01
Alright, so
Steve Webb and James Cooper 11:02
Merry Christmas
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
The post Lifespring! Why Christmas Day 25 – 2022 first appeared on Lifespring! Media.
