The Christmas Tree

0:03 Welcome. Well go well do Para Truth Truth. How's it going, Paratruthers. We are doing another throwback episode to a episode we did on Paratruth Radio where we talked about the different traditions that we have when it comes to Christmas trees. Is entitled the Christmas Tree.

0:54 We hope you enjoy it. Did a full episode on the history of the Christmas Tree, and I ended up finding that there's a couple of sites out there that cover the history of the Christmas Tree, I think starting fifteen ten. But nonetheless it's pretty vast because there's a lot of different beliefs behind the Christmas Tree, and there are beliefs or opinions as to what the tree actually represents. So I think without much further ado, we should just probably jump right into it. Yeah. The one thing, as I was looking through the article, like what we are led to believe is that the Christmas Tree kind of comes from paganism, which in a sense it does, but this article kind of goes in a little more depth as to like different cultures competing as to who actually created the Christmas Tree as well.

1:56 Right, And I guess that's probably where we should start. Yeah, Yeah, let's do. It all right, so just for reference, and of course we'll have the link in the show notes. But this is at least this article that I'm starting with is coming from National Geographic dot Com. Obviously we're not sponsored, which we were, but I love nat geo. There's just so many things that you can learn through them. So with that said, there are competing claims in Northern Europe about who adopted the Christmas tree first. Those two places are Latvia and Estonia. They both claim to have been home to the first Christmas tree, and Lativia traces Christmas tree traditions back to fifteen ten, when a merchant guild called the House of the Black Heads interesting name, carried a tree through the city, decorated it, and later burned it down. Meanwhile, Estonia has countered those claims, saying that it has evidence of a similar festival hosted by the very same guild in its capital capital city tall In in fourteen forty one, so significantly the amount of time earlier.

3:16 Almost one hundred years. Yeah, I'm sorry, sixty years. It's like yeah to lat Fia. Now. Historians have actually casted doubt on both of those claims. A person by the name of Gustava's Strenga of the National Library of lat Fia and Riga Latvia in Riga, I think it's Riga, maybe it's Rigil. Absolutely no idea, folks. No Idea told New York Times in twenty sixteen that the guild's festivities were likely unrelated to Christmas. But that hasn't, of course, stopped these two countries from fighting for bragging rights. Now. We do see that quite a bit within historic claims for various traditions, you know, just because they used an item that we currently use today for one reason, in this case, Christmas people. You know that the people have come forward in the past who have stated that they used it first, but out of context, they use it for something completely different. It's just a tree in this case that seems to look similar to our modern version of the Christmas.

4:29 Tree, right well, and I think that's where a lot of the all of us kind of loses context, because the Christmas tree as we know it today is kind of what they're they're going towards, right. Yeah, that's the focus within this article. And according to the beliefs of let's be A and Estonia, that's what they cl you know, is what led it to our modern version of the tree. Well, what's interesting is it goes into the next part is Christmas tree origins in Germany m h. And it's looking through this article when you send it to me, I just started laughing because it's like every almost every country you can think of in history prior to the US wants to lame claim to it. So this this part is interesting that instead, Cuzak says, it's more likely that the Christmas Tree as we know it was actually born in Alsace region during the sixteenth century, now part of France, but it was German territory at one point.

5:59 Historical records indicate that a Christmas tree was raised in Strasbourg Cathedral in fifteen thirty nine. Now take note of that because it's actually late later than than a Latvia, and that the tradition has grown so popular throughout the region that the city of Freyburg banned felling trees for Christmas in fifteen fifty four, meaning they outlawed cutting down Christmas trees because people were getting so into the tradition. Now, folklore offers a number of different explanations for the meaning of the tree. Some suggest that it was inspired by the Paradise Tree, a symbol of the Garden of Eden that featured in a medieval play about Adam and Eve.

6:46 Others believe the Christmas tree evolved from Christmas pyramids, wooden structures decorated with evergreen boughs, and religious figures. Jusak doesn't believe there's any substance to those theories. Instead, she says the Christmas tree was intended to be religiously neutral in the context of Christianity, so the tradition caught on among German on among German families solely evolved through the years to what we know today. Kuzak says that the Protestant reformer Martin Luther, if you guys don't know who, that is, a very prominent person in the Christian religion, is often credited with being the first to put lights on the Christmas tree with candles rather than today's electric lights, which were invented in eighteen eighty two, after a night time stroll through the forest with twinkling stars above. German emigrants took these traditions with them as they resettled in other countries.

7:53 By the eighteenth century, Kusak says Christmas trees were all over Europe. So right now it looks like Germany has the claim. That's what it seems. Now. What's interesting though, is like with with the folklore, I mean, this something indicates two pieces of folklore in which this tree represents. And that is, of course, as you had said, the idea of the symbol of garden of the garden of Geez, the garden of Eden, I keep on said, the garden of evil, which I mean technically is probably right, yeah. And then the other being the Christmas tree evolved from Christmas period pyramids.

8:38 There's yet a third belief in Christian tradition that the Christmas tree is actually a representation of the prelude to Christ's sacrifice on a tree, because the scripture says that his arms are outstretched upon a tree, and so a lot of people will use that. There's also belief that the Christmas tree represents Holy Trinity in that it takes the form of a triangle three points, the Father's Son, and the Holy Spirit. A couple more things there that wasn't included in this article, and I think it's important to know in terms of just I guess the history and what people believe the tree to represent. Now the trees. Actually, despite supposedly being I guess having its origin within Germany, it didn't really take full because it says that in Germany it kind of spread throughout Europe. But that's not entirely accurate according to this article either, because it claims that the United Kingdom didn't really become trending with trees until a little bit later. Now, Queen Charlotte, the Princess of Germany of German Duchy, who married King George the Third in the middle teenth century, is thought to have introduced the first Christmas tree to the royal household. But it was another British queen who made Christmas trees the

10:08 seasonal icon that they are today. That person was Queen Victoria in eighteen forty eight and her husband Prince Albert, another German transplant by the way, who captured the imaginations of royal watchers around the world when the Illustrated London News published an illustration of their family gathered around a decorated Christmas tree. Now, Queen Victoria was actually a transsetter of her time, and so naturally when people saw this, the tradition took off around the world. Now, of course, the most famous Christmas Tree is in London, which is the one that lights up. I think it's Trafalgar Square every winter. This tree, of course, has rich global history of its own, because in nineteen forty seven Norway started the tradition of giving the UK a Christmas treat every year as a token of gratitude for its allyship during World War Two when the Norwegian government took refuge in the UK after the Nazi invasion. HM.

11:19 So kind of like how France gave the Statue of Liberty to the US. Right, except you know they do it every year one. Yeah. Can you imagine we just had. Like new statue of liberty every year, one. Statue of liberty in every city of America. New York or New York Bay would just be filled with statues of liberty. There wouldn't be no more water. That's all it is. It's just a monument. New York City is just a monument, not a place of business. Oh man. So you know with that tradition from from Germany and the UK adopting this, of course, that came to the US in the eighteenth century with the immigrants from Germany coming here and then bringing this tradition along and I think everybody can say the most famous Christmas tree in the US is the Christmas Tree in Rockefeller Center, and I think to this day, I still haven't been able to see that tree in person. But I think every person watches the lighting of this tree, even if you have to catch it on YouTube or something, just because of how fascinating it really is. The first lighting something that I found really interesting. It talks about New

12:53 Year's trees in Russia, but I scrolled down and found and Antarctica's scrap metal Christmas tree and I was like, I mean, the South Pole gets doesn't get the the notoriy to the North Pole does this time of year. So it's so fascinating to me that Antarctica has has its own Christmas tree tradition. So in this article it says even Antarctica has had its share of Christmas tree traditions, although there are no trees to be found in the South Pole. In nineteen forty six, crew members aboard a US Navy expedition to Antarctica celebrated Christmas at sea by tying a spruce tree from Canada to their mast. More than half a century later, researchers based at the US a munths in scott South Pole Station created a Christmas tree out of scrap metal, complete with custom ornaments, although tradition believe briefly carried on the iron workers adding new adorments each year at the National Science Foundation says the scrap metal tree is no longer part of the Christmas celebrations at the Antarctic Research Station, which makes sense because who knows how many people were getting frostbit er freezing trying to keep this thing up.

14:24 Or who you know, I mean, Antarctica. Down at these stations, there's I mean, in this case it was based in the US Humminson, but I'm sure there was like a I don't know, some sort of thing in regards to discrepancy on people's beliefs, and so because there's so many different kinds of people that are working down there, that might have been one reason why they got rid of them. That could be whoever, one other thing that I thought was really I mean, there's a lot of things that I thought was interesting, but this next one actually originally in my research kept coming up as being the first official segue into the Christmas Tree. Now that, according to this article and one other, has kind of been sidelined.

15:14 But you guys kind of decide for yourself. Because there were once Christmas boats in Greece and now people believed Scientists believed initially that Christmas boats or boats that were decorated kind of like Christmas trees, were the original form of the Christmas tree before being docked on my end and becoming what we know today now. In Greece, people once decorated Christmas boats rather than trees, in honor Saint Nicholas, the country's patron saint and protector of sailors. Not only would families play small wooden boats inside their homes to symbolize a welcome return from life at sea, but lighted boats took the place of honor in public squares of such as Okay. Now, of course, in modern days, however, the Christmas boat has been eclipsed by the Christmas tree, as I've stated, but such boats can still be spotted in some island communities. On top of that, you know, depending on where you go. You go to any large city country that's bordering you know, a lake, a river, a large river, the ocean, you're bound to see multiple boats that are just decked out in lights. Now maybe they don't take on the same meaning as what these Christmas boats did, but I'm fairly confident that it transitioned

16:48 over to this. Just this pretty kind of some would say, romantic way of taking a boat ride with that's decked out in lightning these days. And I know I've seen a couple of those down in Savannah when I was When I was down there, they just up and down the river. You see boats like that. And so here's the question. And I don't know if you saw this in the other article that you saw this on. Does this kind of happen more in more warmer climates? The boats, Yeah, the the decorated boats.

17:30 Like originally or like nowadays. Just even today. Yeah, yeah, I mean. I mean, I don't know. I can't see that for sure. I mean, I know there's nothing in Cleveland that I know. Well, that's why I'm asking, because I know we don't do it here in North Dakota here just because the frigid temperatures. So yeah, no, I don't know, you know, it's I mean, definitely nothing here. Like I said, I've seen them in Savannah, but I think it's really just I don't know. I guess it's where I'd imagine that there's more of it in huge ports or waterways, so Savannah being one of the huge ports of the US. You might see the same thing in New York also, I would say possibly on the West coast, especially maybe around San Francisco, But I know I haven't seen much in the La area, so I don't know.

18:28 Well, this article just goes kind of HAPs all over the place, folks, so bear with us, because that's kind of how we're doing it too. I'm gonna skip the Scandinavian one right now because I found this one and it's so much more hilarious than the Scandinavian plundering of Christmas trees. It's called pooping locks of Catalonia and one tree adjacent tradition. In Catalonia's Teoda nadoll a hollow log with a painted face that families bring into their homes in the weeks leading up to Christmas. Children are expected to care for the Teo day nadal by wrapping it in a blanket and leaving food and water out at night.

19:25 Then on Christmas Day they beat the log with sticks to make it defecate presence and treats from a hole in its rear end. According to NPR, this unusual tradition may have evolved from a Pagan ritual in which people set tree trunks on fire to keep warm through the winter. I don't know how this relates to lighting a log on fire. Let's see if it gives us any more info. But why does the log have to poop out treasures? Cuzak says that may be related to the Kaganer, the figure of a defecating peasant and Catalan Nativity scenes who represents the world turned upside down when it's at certain times, the poor or disenfranchise are celebrated and the lofty brought low.

20:30 Cusack explains the idea is that the feces fertilizes the earth and the Kaganer embodies civil virtues. But the true origins of this Catalan ritual remain shrouded in mystery, and much like other Christmas tree lore, may be lost time now that they're talking when when they're talking about lighting the log and being connected to Pagan ritually, that's the Yule log if you guys don't know, But it fascinates me that somehow somewhere it got translated into this tree should poop things out because in other low, in an nativity scene, there's this guy just pooping.

21:25 Like I imagine, just like, let me go set up my Nativity scene on my mantle or something. Oh, here's a little guy with a little turn hanging from his buttle. Who's going to place him right here next to Jesus? That should work? Odd? Yeah, and we're not laughing at people's traditions, folks, But that that's the first time I've ever heard of that. I don't know about you, but. I mean, I know I see little versions of it, and I don't know if you can just buy these because I kind of want to pooping glog now. I mean it's a happy looking log.

22:09 Well, I mean yeah, they paint a super happy face on it. But the picture that they show though, isn't like a hollow log. Almost looks like a bench or something. Well, well, we don't know, because it's being respectful and not showing us as back end. I guess, so I don't know, you know, I mean, that'd probably be too much for the for this particular version of the Internet that is National Geographic can't show a deprecating log. That would be you know, there's children who come under this website. The last thing we'll talk about then is the tree plundering in Scandinavia. So since the seventeenth century, Scandinavian families have dedicated a feast day to plundering their Christmas trees for weeks before throwing them out, Observed on January thirteenth.

23:04 Saint Cannutt's Day is named for King Canot, who ruled in the eleventh eleventh century. Primarily celebrated in Sweden, the holiday is considered the twentieth and the last day of Christmas, unlike other countries where the Christmas period is twelve days long. I mean, for the record, they say it's twelve days along in the US. But this this shit started in September. Guys. Okay, I was on my beach vacation. I stopped at a store. There were Christmas stuff, and I was like, this is not cool. I'm trying to like wrap up my summer and already given us Christmas. Anyway. To celebrate Saint Knut's Day, families hang Christmas or hang cookies and other treats on their Christmas trees for children to raid. Once a family has finished the tree of its decorations, people sing while tossing it ceremonially out the door. In Norway the tree is chopped up and thrown it in the fireplace instead.

24:12 It's just it's so brutal, like, here's this pretty little tree, We're gonna strip it naked and they're gonna beat it, chop it up and throw it the fire. What. Yeah, some of these traditions that it baffles me. But yet this article never really, like you said, comes to the conclusion who started the tradition of the Christmas tree other than Germany? Yeah, I think, I think, I think, in my opinion, it really originates in Germany because only because Latvia, Latvia and Estonia there is no facts backing up their claims.

25:09 They seem to have the same claim in two different periods, so six years apart. But it's just word of mouth. Apparently there is no evidence that like, no hard facts that prove which country or if either or which city I should say, had started it. So I do think that we stating that it origin originates in Germany is probably a fair fact or a fair assumption, but that the UK was the one who really just made it widespread throughout the world.

25:50 So since we brought out the twelve Days of Christmas. I decided to look this up because I've actually never done research on this, know, the whole tradition of the twelve Days of Christmas. No, but I was thinking about the Twelve Days of Christmas song the other day because there was it was on the radio, and I realized, because you know, I always thought like, oh, day one they get partridge and pear tree, and day two they get whatever it is. Well, do you you know Day one is actually Christmas Day, okay, and it represents the birth of Jesus Christ, So it would make sense that the partridge in a pear tree or I do believe Christ was also represented by a dove at one point, which is a part or yeah, something connected to God, Jesus and Christmas. So that that does make sense then because it's supposed to represent the birth of Christ. Day two good.

27:08 Oh no, Well, what all I was gonna say was the thing that I noted because I didn't finish before letting you go on. There was that on the first day Christmas, my tree love sent to me a partridge in pair tree. Right on the second day of Christmas, two trolled doves and a partridge in a pair tree, and I started realizing, do you know how many partridges in a pair trees this person has? By Day twelve twelve? Do you know how many five golden rings they have? They have thirty five. I started thinking about that, like, wait a second, is it really saying on the eleventh day of Christmas they you know, they get ten or whatever eleven pipers piping and then it just counts down as to the other gifts that they got, or on the eleventh day of Christmas already getting eleven pipers piping plus the ten lords of Lee, I mean that they already have, plus the nine ladies dancing that they already have.

28:05 Like it's crazy. I think it's just a retelling of what they got for each day. Because I don't know if I can agree with that, like the context says otherwise. So this article is from a website called Christmas Genius dot com. The second day celebrates the life and martyrdom of Saint Stephen. Not sure who he was, so if you folks know who he is or have looked up, let us know. Day three is dedicated to Saint John the Divine because Jesus reportedly loved him most out of all of his disciples. Day four is one of the few days which doesn't celebrate a saint. Instead, it marks the feast of the Holy Innocence, a day to mourn the babies killed by King Herod. Day five celebrates Saint Thomas Beckett and his courage in opposing King Henry the Second's attempts to make the monarchy more powerful than the Church.

29:17 Day six is dedicated to Saint Egwin of Worcester, who legend says, brought forth a stream when lost in the Alps and doubted by his derisive companions. Day seven is New Year's Eve, a time of joyous celebration both today and throughout history. Is also a time to commemorate Pope Sylvester the First, a Catholic leader renowned for his generosity, patience, and willingness to work alongside the monarchy in Germany, Israel, Austria, Slovenia, Hungary, Croatia, Poland, and many other Eastern nation European nations. This day is sometimes referred to as Sylvester Day eight. New Year's Day is traditionally a time to celebrate the life of Mary Magdalene, mother of Jesus Christ. No Mary Magdalene wasn't the mother of Jesus Christ. That's not correct. Day nine remembers the deeds of two saints, Saint Gregory Nazianzen and Saint Basil, the great close friends and doctors of the Church who spent their lives tending to the sick. Day eleven is special because it was the day of Jesus naming ceremony, or christening as it were, as we'd refer to it now.

30:46 On this day, Jesus was officially named the Jewish in the Jewish Temple. It is widely celebrated and different churches commemorated on different days, though January third is ought to be the original naming day. Day eleven, January fourth celebrates the life of the first American Saint Elizabeth Seton. She is the patron saint of Catholic schools, widows and seafarers. And Day twelve January fifth, also known as Epiphany Eve or Twelfth Night, is the final day of festive celebrations. It remembers Saint John Newman, the first American bishop. He is known for his tireless efforts to bring Catholic scriptures and teachings to wider audiences.

31:38 So what I find most interesting about this is that pop culture or even just modern bleep I guess or whatever, indicates to twelve days of Christmas leading up to Christmas, so that would be December fourteenth to the twenty fifth, but according to your article, it's actually begins on Christmas the twenty fifth. That's the most modern traditions. But the main points of the twelve Days of Christmas, which is still a part of this article, it says the twelve days of Christmas is the span between the birth of baby Jesus and the visit of the Magi, so it was twelve days to get to him.

32:22 Which again just mine, sorry, mindful of every to everybody, because even though January, you know, they talked about New Year's January first, and of course New Year's Eve, but again Christ wasn't born in December, and theologians believe that he was born in the springtime at some point. Sorry, so that is something to also just just a side note, you know, because there's a lot of people who still believe that Jesus was born on December twenty fifth, which is not accurate. And the fact is that the Church pretty much just through Christmas on the twenty fifth, to align with pagan holidays so that it would be easier to basically convert them.

33:09 Right, But even still, Yeah, even though what I read is kind of like the modern day of what the Twelve Days of Christmas represents, this article still says, even though you know, we're saying the twelve Days of Christmas is the span between the birth of Baby Je's and the visit of the Magi, his birth is celebrated on the twenty fifth, so that, even though pop culture wants us to believe otherwise, this is saying, yes, it actually starts on the celebrated day of Christ's birth. It doesn't say it's his actual birthday, but it doesn't really go into anything more than that as far as the main points, because it just kind of reiterates a lot of stuff it says. Also known as the Twelve Tides, the Twelve Days of Christmas is a facivity to celebrate the nativity of Jesus. The Twelve Days of Christmas usually begins on the twenty fifth day of December and runs till the sixth day of January. The last day of the Twelve Days of Christmas is known as the Epiphany. It is also called the Day of the three Kings. Sometimes during the twelve days of Christmas, some families like to observe other feasts or other days set aside for the saints.

34:36 So to me, truthfully speaking, we should just be celebrating the birthday. But that's just my personal opinion, of course, because I mean, I do see what it's getting at. You know, it's not just celebrating that he was born, but that the Magi showed up and basically crowned him king in a sense by by bringing him these gifts and everything. So I don't know, I still don't understand the twelve days of Christmas even after reading this article.

35:20 But I see it as a day of basically TV shows that I can watch an ABC Family for twelve days and then it's over. I yeah. And you know, the more we do research on Christmas for the show, the more it really makes me question, you know, what is Christmas really about? Because as we've just read today, it's more about vanity and commercialism really, because we're celebrating twelve days money that we need to on gifts basically, and then the vanity part meaning the claim as to the original Christmas tree.

36:22 Right, and that's something that's going to continue. Oh, definitely, nothing's going to change that. It's been that way since the dawn of Man as far as I can tell, quite to the history books. But so out of all of the stuff we've talked about, I mean me personally, the pooping log and then the metal Christmas tree and Antarctica or the two that are the most fascinating to me, just because I've never heard of any of it or even like not even in normal conversation have we heard anything about these things?

37:06 I think, Yeah, again, guys, I keep doing that thing because I feel like I got a cough, had a really nasty head cold last week, which is why we kind of skipped a week. But the pooping long, for sure, is one that was new. And then I think the other thing for me was probably the the decorating of boats because initially when I when I had read that article not that article, but a different article about the decorating of boats last week when we were originally originally going to do this episode, I had thought that the boats were just boats that were on water, and I hadn't realized that people would decorate small boats that they would then put above the fireplace or on the table or something like that. I still don't fully understand how it represents anything related to the Christian but I get that it's at least some sort of I guess it's similar because the boat is made out of wood and his lights and the trees made out of wood in his lights.

38:12 Yeah, I mean, I think that's a logical conclusion because one thing that I mean most people don't realize is Greeks were known for their the decorations that they would put on their boats as a whole. I mean, they're not the original ones that started decorating their ships, but the Greeks are one of the many that I find fascinating because of how much decoration was on their boats. Right, So it doesn't surprise me at all that there was some type of tradition like that for the holiday season.

38:55 And I believe it was last episode you talked about Saturn being the original or one of the original traditions. I can't remember the name of the day. It wasn't Saturn Day. M h. I can't remember these a conversation actually, like I recall the Saturn thing, but I can't remember what it was. The actual day is recognized as are called, but turna something like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, which is actually Roman not Greek. But if if you know your history, those two cultures were so close in their mythology because the Romans adopted the Greek religion. So so yeah, any anything that comes to mind for how we decorate Christmas trees today, not necessarily any research you've done, but just through the past years of doing this tradition, have you noticed anything that is different now compared to many years past, like when we were kids.

40:26 I mean, I think the biggest thing for me is just the expansion of what a Christmas tree looks like in terms of shape, color, types of lighting, what time of year they're used. Because there's a house near my parents where my parents live, they have a tree year round and they decorate for Christmas and Thanksgiving and New Year in Easter and Dealton's Day in the fourth of July. So the tree always has something for the holiday, whatever it is for. Is it green or is it I mean it's. Yeah, the tree itself is green. It's just you know, Fourth of July. It's decorated with red, white and blue and has stars all over it. Valentine's Day, it's a bunch of pink hearts and cupids that are all over it.

41:14 Things like that. Don't fully understand it. But I guess some people just love Christmas trees, I guess, or holiday trees. I guess you'd call it at that point. Well, I actually made that suggestion to Shelley one year because it was February before we had even taken our Christmas treet down, that's how busy and everything we were. But I think a lot of people kind of leave it up late into January. I know we do. I leave mine up probably about at least a week maybe two weeks after January. First for me though that that kind of tradition. You know, it always stays up a little longer growing up, That's how it always was. My mom always kept it up for about a week or two after New Year. But I don't know. One of my favorite things, like I put my tree up a few days are early this year, and the one thing for me is like the first or set about the second week of January when it comes down is kind of like even though it's still very much winter because as of the recording of the show Winter Solstice, so happy Winter, everybody. You know, when the tree comes down, It's kind of like the step forward into spring. It's like, Okay, here we go. No more decorations coming out until March.

42:39 You know, when we're getting ready for spring, We're getting ready for Easter, for Saint Patty's Day, things like that. So I love. That's probably one thing that I'm always kind of nostalgic for as well, is when it comes down, I'm like, cool, here we go. Only, you know, a couple of months away from summertime again. Really, I mean in the North, like you and I are you even more so nowadays, you know, summer isn't really a few months but like several months from within January. But nonetheless, there's just a feeling to it. It's like sweet, here we go. Yeah, North Dakota, it's winter and summer. There's no spring or falls. That's our two seasons. Yeah. And we actually didn't even put up a Christmas tree this year, just that's how busy we've been. We really even haven't even been able to decorate a whole lot for Christmas either, but usually we do. And the other part of that too is I don't know about everywhere else in the US, but North Dakota has been getting slammed with horrible weather for the past at least two to three weeks, so before I could even get to my shed to get my Christmas decorations, I couldn't get to my shed. So

44:11 but yeah, it's something that I think about every year because our Christmas tree, I love decorating it, but it's gotten to the point that there's so much on the tree that you don't even really see the tree anymore, even though ours is fake and it's a white tree. But I think we worry more about how many ornaments we can get on there, or the intricacy of the ordnaments that we're putting on our tree, that we kind of lose the true tradition of doing putting that up, and really what that boils down to is families coming together to decorate the tree together as a part of a tradition.

45:09 Yeah, but I feel like my mom has a ton of Christmas ornaments and I see it more. As you know, the more ornaments you gain over the years, the more memories you have, and each of those ornaments on a tree can represent a memory or memories of past years. That's very much the case with my mom's tree. You know, you look at it and see things from when we were you know, babies, first Christmas. One of my ornaments, you know, stuff that I made when I was in like you know, elementary school, stuff like that. You know, you see all those history animals that we have on their pets. Even my Christmas tree, I only have like two or three ornaments that are becoming part of tradition, but there are memories the last three years since I've had this tree, and I look at it and think, you know, yeah, some of those things are gone, like some of those elements that were in my life at one point, but it's still a reminder like that was there.

46:12 I remember those years. Those are good years. And I think that's the most important part to the Christmas tree tradition for most people is looking at their tree. Yes, there's a beauty behind it, but in my opinion, despite that the tree is supposed to represent whatever you know, christ in Christian tradition or just the joy of the holiday spirit. I think it's really just the joy and reminder of past traditions and what you've experienced over the years. Yeah, I mean that's a good point too, But in that case, why don't we just get just a raw tree and the ornaments on it, worry about the bristles and all the other stuff that kind of makes it a little annoying to decorate the tree. I'm not saying that's what we would do. It's just it gets to the point that, especially if you have a real tree, getting stabbed by needles every year kind of gets annoying at certain points. But no, yeah, what you're saying doesn't make a lot of sense. It's just it seems like I shouldn't say all people, but certain people lose that even that part of it to make it a competition or something like that, like who's got the better tree?

47:42 Well, yeah, I mean in this year, I've seen two or three competitions around the city. But there's you know, six to twenty trees and you can vote on which one's the best. And you know, I think tradition like that has always been around there. Aways there's competition and everything, but I do think that there's a time and place for it, and I think like in terms of the I mean, for me, I don't know anyone who's posted a tree and said, hey, look my tree is better than everybody else's. You know, it's just push a Tree because hey, it looks pretty and that's it. So you Jesus, I promise I'll be getting off air here soon. Guys. You know I'm drum annoying everybody with the coughing and having trouble talking. But I don't know. I guess I don't see it. I guess you know. I can't agree with you because I don't see what you see. So uh, maybe it's different up in Indie, you know. I don't know.

48:38 No, I'm just talking in general across the US, but the specifically. But we hope you've enjoyed this episode of the Christmas Tree that we did when we were a Paratruth Radio. We hope you guys have a great and safe week and we will see you at the same time, same channel. Talk to you guys later. Kh