The Dark & Strange History Of Santa Claus

A few weeks ago we were working in the studio, getting in the Christmas spirit, and one of us brought up the fact that it’s weird we have this tradition about a big jolly fat guy who sneaks into our homes and wants kids to sit on his lap. We started wondering where the story of Santa even came. What’s the history and the origin? Who is St. Nicholas and what’s he have to do with Santa? We had already been toying with the idea of putting out a special Christmas episode, so we decided that we’d do some research into the history of Santa, and if it seemed interesting enough, then we’d do a fun history lesson as an episode. Greg started doing the initial research that night and within minutes he texted Joe saying, “Hookers. The story of Santa starts with hookers. We have an episode.” As Greg dove deeper into the research, it became clear that the history of Santa is truly a wild and weird ride that spans centuries and continents. We decided the most fun way to do the episode would be for Greg to have the deep knowledge of the story and timeline of events, while Joe drank wine dressed as Santa and reacted to the information. Joe got a general briefing of some key points so that he’d have an overall sense of the story, but some major details were left out so that he could genuinely find out while filming. You’ll notice the moments. We love the idea of spending way too much time learning about weird shit, so this was perfect for us. Hopefully it doesn’t ruin Christmas for you. Enjoy. - @joesantagato & @gregdybec TRY OUR EVERYTHING BAGEL HOT SAUCE (Yes, Joe and Greg really made this): https://heatonist.com/products/secret... MORE VIDEO CONTENT: https://www.youtube.com/santagatostudios MERCH: https://shop.santagatostudios.com/ Business Inquiries: greg@santagatostudios.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices