In Answer Me This! Episode 329, one questioneer wrestles with the ethics of breeding Christmas-truther children who ruin everything for the other kiddos; another introduces us to the Catalan Christmas tradition we now desperately need to appropriate. Listen to find out about those, and also these:
free coffee
safety curtains
Caffe Nero loyalty
the internet on disc
caganer
dehumanising apps
phosphor burning
Elf: The Musical
festive NORAD
and
the shitting uncle.
Plus: Olly rode the carousel we all dream of riding; at primary school, Helen reined in her Junior Richard Dawkins; and Martin the Sound Man manages to ruin Oral-B for everyone, thanks Martin.
In today’s Bonus Bit of Crap on the App, the talk of free coffee fraud turns to a far graver offence: Toys R Us fraud. To hear, fire up the app on your iThings, Android and Windows devices.
Thanks very much to today’s sponsor Squarespace.com, who’ll give you 10% off their website-building and -hosting services for a year if you invoke the code ANSWER.
Thanks also to everyone who has supported the show by buying the Answer Me This! Christmas album. If you haven’t yet, this is really the time of year to do so. April, not so much. It’s available at answermethisstore.com, as well as some of the online retail behemoths – links and further details of the contents are available at answermethispodcast.com/christmas.
We are now collecting your questions for AMT in 2016! Leave voicemails on the Question Line – call 0208 123 5877 or Skype ID answermethis – and send emails to answermethispodcast@googlemail.com. Befriend us online at facebook.com/answermethis and twitter.com/HelenAndOlly.
We’ll return with the Best of AMT 2015 on 24th December 2015.
Helen & Olly
••• AMT329 Child-Friendly Rating: 5%. Some swears; some bawdy references; and the greatest peril of all: THE ADMINISTRATIVE PROCESS OF CHRISTMAS GIFTS IF YOU KNOW WHAT WE MEAN AND WE THINK YOU DO. So, beware! Also, Olly encourages your children to break the airport rules, which will probably get them tasered. •••
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Tags: African fabric, air travel, airports, apps, Babar, baggage, baggage carousel, baggage handling, baristas, belief, bodily functions, brand loyalty, cafes, Caffe Nero, caga tio, caganer, Catalan, Catalonia, Catalunya, chain coffee shops, childhood, China, Christmas, Christmas gifts, Christmas traditions, coffee, coffee shops, computation, computers, conveyor belts, CRT, curtains, customs, deceit, dental, dental hygiene, devices, early days of the internet, electric toothbrushes, Elf, Elf The Musical, faith, families, family, Father Christmas, fibs, fire safety, freebies, gifts, good luck, honesty, internet, inventions, Jar Jar Binks, JJ Abrams, lies, life spoilers, logs, loyalty cards, luggage, lying, lying to children, mistletoe, musical theatre, musicals, nativity, news, NORAD, nostalgia, old technology, oral hygiene, Oral-B, parenting, parents, phosphorescence, planes, prawn, presents, Pret a Manger, religion, ringtones, safety, safety curtains, Santa Claus, screens, screensavers, shitting, shitting uncle, Spain, Spanish, Starbucks, teeth, the administrative process of Christmas, theater, theatre, tio de Nadal, toothbrushes, uncles, Xmas
Answer Me This! Podcast 
December 20, 2015 at 4:18 am |
I really feel the need to discuss the Santa “truthers” segment but there doesn’t seem to be much of a discussion going on here so I’ll just write what I want to say to no body in particular…
I don’t have children but I’ve always known (I dare say since I found out Santa wasn’t real) that when I do have kids I won’t bring them up to believe in Santa.
Reasons being:
* I may have been a sensitive child, but I felt sort of cheated when I found out it was all a lie
* I don’t want to teach my kids to intensely love a stranger just because their expecting a present from them
* I want to teach my kids the “true meaning of Christmas”. Which is giving, not the ‘be good or else you won’t get a present’ attitude that the whole Santa thing seems to imply.
* I honestly think kids don’t care too much about Santa, it’s the gifts they care about. Kids don’t care about Santa in Febuary
* And finally, I want my children to know their gifts would thoughtfully chosen by loved ones especially for them, and I guess teach them the cultural practice / etiquette of exchanging gifts with other people.
I know children who grow up believing in Santa generally turn out to be well functioning members of society. I know it’s just a bit of fun. But still, I kind of resent that I’m expected to toe the line and teach them to believe all this even though that’s not how I’d want to raise them.
Anyway, that’s what I think…
December 13, 2015 at 3:14 am |
Kids can Google “Is Santa real?” and the first result is “17 Adults Painfully Reveal How They Found Out Santa Wasn’t Real.” But kids can know that Santa is a fictional character and still love the imaginary magic, just as kids can know Disney movies are fictional and still know they’re magical. You can keep the festivity without that “My parents lied to me” moment by just saying that parents all around the world play Santa Claus for their kids as a Christmas tradition. Santa movies will still be fun.