Dec. 19, 2024

The Inflatable Santa Surprise

Show Notes
Transcript

Highlights include an 11-year-old non-verbal boy baking Christmas pies to replace stolen ones, a 4-foot inflatable Santa mix-up turning into a 20-foot spectacle, a four-year-old leukemia patient delivering over 400 Christmas gifts to hospitals, an elaborate 24,000-light Christmas display raising funds for charity, and scientists reconstructing the face of Saint Nicholas. The episode also includes a special segment for parents regarding Santa Claus.
00:00 Introduction and Overview
00:15 Heartwarming Story of a Nonverbal Boy's Christmas Pies
01:13 The Inflatable Santa Surprise
02:23 Four-Year-Old's Generous Christmas Gift to Hospitals
03:04 The Ultimate Christmas Light Display

04:12 Santa's Secret Note to Parents

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Callaroga Shark Media. Hi there, I'm Johnny Mack with five

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good news Christmas stories. A nonverbal boy baked dozens of

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Christmas pies to replace a chef's stolen holiday batch. Yeah.

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A Christmas market called the Saint Nicholas Fair in York City,

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not New York City. York City was said to feature

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a twenty five hundred pies baked by chef Tommy Banks. However,

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the van transporting the pies to the event was stolen.

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Eleven year old Joshi was reading the news with his father,

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and although he's nonverbal, he understood what was happening. That

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a man was sad and that pies needed to be baked.

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Joshi held up an iPad, which he uses to communicate.

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On it, he wrote, I see sad man. Pies finished.

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Josh's father, Dan told the BBC Joshi doesn't speak, but

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cooking and baking is his way of showing creativity. He

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wanted to show, especially Christmas, that these kinds of things

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shouldn't be happening. Since then, Joshi's been busy baking dozens

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of pies and all different flavors and especially his personal

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favorite apple pie. Dad's been in touch with chef banks.

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Any pies that the chef can't use will be donated

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to a local food bank. A man went online and

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ordered a four foot inflatable Santa. Well a twenty foot

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inflatable Santa showed up. Dave said, as soon as it arrived,

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I thought the box was a little bigger than expected,

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but just rolled with it. And as soon as I

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started getting it out, I realized, oh, it was much

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bigger than what we had ordered, and I thought, let's

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go with it, because it's such a pain to send

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these things back. It took ten minutes to a flate,

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and it kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger, and

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then it was taller than the house. So what do

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you do? You post this on social media? Right the

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clip's been seen more than thirty five thousand times. Dave said.

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We were having good laugh with it, and people are

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amazed at how big it kept getting. And then as

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it kept growing, people started to pass by. And our

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road is a bit of a dead end. Usually it's quiet,

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but as soon as we were putting it up, several

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people started passing by. We started getting lots of comments.

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One person walking their dogs said they could see it

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from the bottom of the road. Another neighbor was laughing

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at it as well. There were a few people who

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started taking photos of it, like it was a tourist attraction.

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It's not all fun and games though, with an inflatable Santa.

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Dave says, it's a real dilemma because of the more

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practical side of it. With windy weather, it keeps blowing

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all over the place, and I've got a fear that

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will blow down the street and do some damage. Another

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thing we didn't think about at first is now we

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can't park our cars on the driveway. I personally want

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to keep it, but my wife is being more realistic

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it wants to send it back. A four year old

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boy with leukemia has dropped off more than four hundred

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bags of Christmas presents at the children's hospitals where he

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received care. Elliott and his mother, Harley, decided to give back.

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They set up an Amazon wishless so members of the

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community could purchase gifts. They ended up with three hundred

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and forty six items, including party bags, chocolate, games, bubbles, stickers,

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stationary and more. Harriy said, from what I've experienced, you're

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stuck in a room and you're unable to leave because

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the viruses and it gets very boring. The reception from

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the patients was brilliant. The nurses were all amazed by

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how much there was. We wheeled in this huge creative presence.

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The kids love it, and it's nice to know other

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people are with you, standing along side to you. The

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community's been amazing. It was heartwarming to see how many

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people got involved. Gary and Anna say it takes them

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twelve months to get their home ready for Christmas. They

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have a twenty four thousand light Christmas display. They link

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all them through Gary's laptop and are synchronized in time

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with music. It's not only all the planning. It takes

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six weeks to build the thing. Gary says, as soon

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as one show's finished, we start planning for the following year.

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Even during the time we're running a Christmas show, we

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start thinking about next year, about the songs, the sequences,

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the props. It really does start in January. Over the summer,

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Gary will take us time to build and repair the

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props from the previous year and use his computer programming

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skills to light them up in time with the music.

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Gary says from October it's all I do as soon

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as I finish work, I goes straight into getting it already.

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It's a huge amount of work setting it up. It's

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a thirty minute light show. It plays every Thursday to

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Sunday night through the month of December. They'll also run

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the show on Christmas Eve. Over the past four years,

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they've raised thousands of dollars for cancer research, the British

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Heart Foundation and a local charity. This year they are

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fundraising for Alzheimer Scotland in memory of Anna's grandmother, who

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had dementia. Gary says, every year we get folks saying

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I wouldn't want to have your electricity bill. It's not

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about the cost for us, It's about what we can

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raise for charity, all right, parents, When we come back,

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Sanna sent me another note. You know, Santa has been

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sending me notes. He's working out some stuff for the

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kids for Christmas and he doesn't want the kids surprise

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to be ruined. So let's not ruin Christmas. Okay. So, parents,

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if you listen to this program with the kids, wants

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you hit stop on the episode everybody else, I'll be

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right back. Okay, parents, The kids aren't listening right now,

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are they? If they are hit stop, okay, cause Sanna

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sent me a note and I don't want to ruin

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Christmas and everybody I want to get a note going

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Johnny Mack and your podcast? Are you crazy? How did

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you do that story? Are you nuts? So? Hit stop? Okay?

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All right, here we go spoilers. Scientists have figured out

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the face of the man behind Santa Claus Saint Nicholas

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of Myra, an early Christian. No depiction of the man

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behind the myth survives from his lifetime, with most representations

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of old Saint Nick dating two centuries after his death

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and three forty three a d Now his living face

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can be seen for the first time since the days

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of the late Roman Empire, after experts forensically rebuild his

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features using his skull. Cicero is the lead author of

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the study and said the skull is a very robust appearance,

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generating a strong face as the dimensions on the horizontal

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access are larger than average. This resulted in a broad

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face curiously compatible with the eighteen twenty three poem. This characteristic,

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combined with a thick beard, is very reminiscent of the

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figure we have in mind when we think of Santa Claus.

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Josh Luis Lera is an expert in these things and

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reminds us he was a bishop who lived in the

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early centuries of Christianity and had the courage to defend

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and live the teachings of Jesus, even at the risk

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of his life. He challenged the authorities, including the Roman Emperor,

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for this choice. He helped those in needs so frequently

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and so effectively that when people sought a symbol for

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kindness for Christmas, the inspiration came from him. His memory

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is universal not only among Christians, but among all peoples.

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And those are your five good News Christmas stories for today.

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Normal episode tomorrow. Will keep doing this Christmas episodes on

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the extra four days, and then after Christmas, I'll settle

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back into a Monday, Wednesday, Friday rhythm as I have

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done throughout the year. I appreciate you listening. If you

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enjoy the program, share it with a friend that helps

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grow the show. All right, see you tomorrow. Thank you.