I saved Latin. What did you ever do?

Welcome to your wrong about. I'm Sarah Marshall, and this week we are getting our

ho-ho history on with friend of the pod's Sarah Archer,

who is guiding us on her one-horse open sleigh through the history of Santa Claus.

Where did he come from?

Is he American?

If not, why does he work here?

How long has he been around?

Who is St. Nick? And how is he

ethically producing all of those toys? This episode, I think, will please the Christmas

enthusiasts among you. And I think also is good for people like myself who are a bit more

ambivalent about Christmas, because it is a very complicated and

emotionally fraught experience that we all have to, I mean get to share if we live in a society

that celebrates it, which as Americans, we can't get away from that Paul McCartney song.

So this is an episode that I loved doing

because Sarah and I get to talk about the history of Christmas, how it became a holiday

intended for children and theoretically about children, even if it ends up in adults fighting

in toy aisles. And how the history of Christmas in many ways is a history of people being nostalgic, for other

people being nostalgic, for other people being nostalgic for a time that never really was,

and how nostalgia can be a lovely thing and also a dangerous thing. And in the end, we talk about

what presents you should get if you're very

burned out on presents. We also have a bonus episode up in Bonusland on Patreon and on Apple Plus

...