Good Old St. Nicholas

Welcome back everyone! Time is flying so fast. I mean, it’s already: 12 days (!) till Christmas! 12 days doesn’t sound like a lot, but that’s really two weeks minus two days. So everyone still has time for Christmas shopping. Time flew since last Thursday in my opinion. I can’t believe I actually managed to finish the next face-off: “Animal Face-Off: Tarantula vs. Scorpion” in time for this Thursday.

As the days get closer and closer to Christmas, I thought it would be good to pull out some more Christmas songs from the book, “The Dinosaurs’ Night Before Christmas”. Go and get your siblings, parents, friends, other family members and sing Dino-Christmas carols. Here is one more songs from the book:

Deck the Halls with Stegosaurus (sung to the tune of "Deck the Halls")

Deck the Halls with Stegosaurus,
Fa la la la la la la la la.
Jolly dinos never bore us,
Fa la la la la la la la la.
Go put on your tux or ball gown,
Fa la la la la la la la la.
Dance with Steg and rock
the hall down!
Fa la la la la la la la la!

Merry Raptors join the party,
Fa la la la la la la la la.
Appetites are big and hearty,
Fa la la la la la la la la.
Games must end in time for dinner,
Fa la la la la la la la la.
Or the T. Rex will eat the winner!
Fa la la la la la la la la!

Where's desert? The guest are
waiting!
Fa la la la la la la la la.
Eggnog is refrigerating,
Fa la la la la la la la la.
Oh, too bad, the Gobisaurus,
Fa la la la la la la la la.
At the cake - there's no more for us!
Fa la la la la la la la la!

Gather round the Songlingornis,
Fa la la la la la la la la.
Strike a merry dino chorus,
Fa la la la la la la la la.
Sing ye loudly, wake the neighbors!
Fa la la la la la la la la.
Calm them down with party favors,
Fa la la la la la la la la.

Stop the music! Stop the jumping!
Fa la la la la la la la la.
Stop the dino-tails-a-thumping!
Fa la la la la la la la la.
Party's over, dawn is breaking
Fa la la la la la la la la.
Just in time, our heads are aching!
Fa la la la la la la la la!

Wow, I enjoyed singing this one, with all the Stegosaurus, and raptors and T. rex and . . . Let’s sing another one! Here it goes:

The Allosaurus Chorus (Sung to the tune of the "Hallelujah Chorus" from Handel's Messiah)

Allosaurus! Allosaurus!
Allosaurus! Allosaurus! Allosaurus!
Allosaurus! Allosaurus!
Allosaurus! Allosaurus! Allosaurus!

For the great 'Dinosauria reigneth
Barosaurus! Carnotaurus! Hadrosaurus!
Stegosaurus!
For the great 'Dinosauria reigneth
Pachysaurus! Maiasaurus! Fabrosaurus!
Rocasaurus!

For the great 'Dinosauria reigneth
Gasosaurus! Gryposaurus! Gorgosaurus!
Gobisaurus!
Longosaurus! 'Poposaurus! Sellosaurus!
Technosaurus!
Ultrasaurus! Adasaurus! Dryosaurus!
Spinosaurus!
Allosaurus! Allosaurus!

The rulers of the paleo world, is become
A kingdom of creatures both big and
bold - both big and bold,
And they shall roam for all thy years .

Dino kings
For all thy of years - Allosaurus!
No-more-us!
Mighty and strong
For all thy years - Stegosaurus!
No-more-us!

Dino kings
For all thy years - Hadrosaurus!
No-more-us!
Mighty and strong
For all thy years - Maiasaurus!
No-more-us!

Dino kings
For all thy years - Ultrasaurus!
No-more-us!
Mighty and strong - dino kings -
might and strong.

And they shall roam for all thy years.

Dino kings
For all thy years - mighty and strong
Allosaurus! No-more-us!

Their bones preserved for eons and eons and eons.
Fossil kings
For all to see.
Fossil kings
For all to see.
Their bones preserved for eons and eons.
Fossil kings
Preserved in stone.
Pachysaurus! Dryosaurus! Spinosaurus!
Allosaurus! Allosaurus!

Alright, after singing two Dino-Christmas carols, you must be pretty winded, so let’s break!

“You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout I’m telling you why! Santa Claus is coming to Town!” Since the 1800’s, people have been singing this verse in the song Santa Claus is Coming to Town. We all know who Santa Claus is: he’s the plump guy with a big white beard and a red coat and says “ho, ho, ho”. To most people, he seems like he’s just been around forever and ever, and ever, and ever. While Santa Claus himself doesn’t do this, Santa is often blamed for distracting people from the true meaning of Christmas, the birth of our savior Jesus Christ. However, I don’t believe that Santa Claus has a distraction from Christmas’ true meaning, instead, I firmly believe that Santa Claus can be used to direct people toward Christmas’ true meaning. I think most people don’t understand how Santa Claus and Jesus Christ can be related because most people don’t know the origins of this fellow. (Yes, Santa Claus has to start somewhere too) So let’s go on a mental trip back in time, to the time when Santa Claus was young. Oh, and forget this young Santa Claus living at the North Pole, he actually started his life in Greece.

Here comes Santa Claus!

Yes, you read right! Santa started his life in Greece. But his name at the time wasn’t Santa, it was St. Nicholas (but the “St.” part comes a bit later). Nicholas was born in the last century of the third century AD. His parents were a Christian couple (imagine that!) by the names of Theophanes and Nonna. Before his birth, they desperately wanted a child, so they prayed and wept until finally, a baby boy was born. They named him Nicholas. They chose this name to honor the boy’s uncle, also named Nicholas. Nicholas’ parents were quite wealthy and yet they weren’t boastful. It is also said they had plenty to support themselves and give to the poor. Young Nicholas had definitely had a good childhood . . . that is until one day, his parents got very, very sick and . . . they died.

A little girl talking to Santa Claus

You can believe that Nicholas must have been grief-stricken! He lost his parents when he was a preteen/young teenager! They died from a great plague that swept through the town. After the death of his parents, he went to live with his uncle Nicholas at the abbot where his uncle was the abbot where his Uncle took great care of his beloved nephew and young Nicholas learned to love and serve the Lord.

After Nicholas matured, there was a man who had once been very, very rich. However, when hard times hit, he lost a great deal of money. The man had three daughters that were marriage-age. What’s so bad about that? They can just find a wealthy husband right? Not exactly . . . See, back in the 3^rd century AD, a young woman with some type of dowry was more likely to find a husband, whereas a poor woman without dowry was more likely not to find a husband and even possibly be sold into slavery, or worse! As you can see, this is much more serious than it sounds. Nicholas heard of the man’s plight and wanted to help. What was his plan? Well, let’s look at the circumstances: A poor man with three unmarried daughters and a very rich Nicholas with loads of money. The most natural thing to do in a situation like this is to give the man some money. But this next move of Nicholas was completely unselfish – he didn’t want anyone to know that he was giving the poor man some money so he went under the cover of darkness. He snuck up to the house, and through the money into an open window and it landed into a stocking that was hanging by the fireplace to dry (sound familiar?). Soon after that, the first daughter was wed. Then, a little while later, another bag of gold appeared and the second daughter was wed. The poor man was interested in who on earth would be giving his family gold, so one night, he stayed awake. When a bag of gold came flying through the window, the father leapt forward and caught the “giver” in the act. He apparently knew Nicholas, as he said, “Ah, Nicholas, it is you! You have saved my daughters from certain disaster.” Nicholas thought wasn’t interested in being known, so he said, “You must thank God alone for providing these gifts in answer to prayers for deliverance.” And as you might have guessed, this is the origins of how Santa Claus started to deliver gifts at night.

St. Nicholas sneaking gold through the window

I could go on and on about the stories of Nicholas and how he became a bishop (which is why his name is “St. Nicholas”), traveled to the Holy Lands, and many other of his deeds. But today I wish to stick to the topic of how he and Christmas became intertwined. Now where were we? Oh yes, I remember: after a while, tales of a “gift giver” coming at night covered the world. Santa Claus has some very different looks in different countries (he must have to change costumes a whole lot!). But they are all the same man: Santa Claus, Sinterklaas, St. Nicholas, and these are just a few. But how on earth did we get from St. Nicholas to Santa Claus? Well, the Dutch brought stories of St. Nicholas to many parts of the world. In Dutch, St. Nicholas was called “Sinterclaus”. Washington Irving wrote about “Sinterklaus” in a story, but he changed it to “Santa Claus”. Did you know that the original day that Santa Claus visits the houses of boys and girls all over the globe was on December 6^th? This day was called St. Nicholas Day. In parts of England they still celebrate St. Nicholas Day today, but in other parts of the world, this day was blended together with another day later in December when people commemorate Jesus’ birth. This “Holy Day” aka “Holiday” is called the “Christ-Mass”, or better known as “Christmas”.

So there you have it, the origins of Santa Claus! Now we know where his life started out, in Greece of all places. And we also know how this man devoted his life to Christ at a young age and carried on with the work his parents did before their deaths. This Christmas season, instead of thinking of Santa Claus in a negative way, let’s think of his true self – the selfless man who’s actions changed the world forever and helped to bring many people to Christ!

Wow! After reading that, you’ll never think of Santa Claus the same way again! Well, let’s move on to the moment you’ve all been waiting for: “Tarantula vs. Scorpion”! So what would be some important things to know about each of these amazing creatures?

Spiders . . . not many women like spiders! Spiders actually aren’t really all that bad once you get to know them, but that’s a whole other topic. Today, we’ll just stick with the species of spider fighting in today’s face-off - the Red-kneed Tarantula. The Red-kneed Tarantula can be found in the southwestern portion of the United States and Mexico. It grows roughly four to six inches long and it gets its name from the red bands on its hairy legs. Unlike most spiders, tarantulas don’t spin webs; instead, they used their silk to make trip lines on the outside of their burrows. This way, they can feel the vibration their prey makes as they approach. Contrary to popular belief, tarantula venom isn’t nearly as bad as the venom from other spiders (say, the black widow spider). It’s actually less potent than the venom in a bee’s sting, in humans that is! To its prey, the venom is very potent. You might think the spider is quite defenseless, and they would be if not for those hairs on the abdomen. These spiders actually have a use for their hairs: when a predator approaches the tarantula, the spider will flick these little hairs at the predator (kind of like what porcupines do in movies, however porcupines can’t do that in real life). The hairs are really irritating, as they get into the predator’s nose and eyes and you can bet the predator will never want to bother a tarantula again!

A female Red-Kneed Tarantula

The scorpion in today’s face-off is the Arizona Hairy Scorpion. Now I had a choice of multiple scorpions to use in the face-off, but in the end I chose this one. Why? Well because it’s the largest of the scorpions living in the area that the red-kneed tarantula lives in. The smaller scorpions living in the areas are more venomous, but at seven inches in length, the Arizona Hairy Scorpion makes a great combat partner for the tarantula. Scorpions and spiders are in the same group of invertabrates, called arachnids (this is the same word we derive “Arachnophobia”, the “fear of spiders” from). Other famous member of the arachnid group is the tick. If you think that at seven inches, the Arizona Hairy Scorpion is huge, think again. This little scorpion is a pipsqueak (actually, humans would be considered pipsqueaks too) compared to a prehistoric scorpion called Pterygotus (pronounced Tear-ee-goat-us). It was the size of a crocodile.

An Arizona Hairy Scorpion

Now that we’ve learned a bit about each animal, I’d say it’s time to watch the face-off: “Tarantula vs. Scorpion”! Let’s see who wins:

If I were a betting person (which I’m not), my bet would be that most people who saw this face-off were surprised about who the winner is! How did you like the video? Please! Be sure to post a comment about the video! This would be really appreciated! (Instructions on how to post comments are in a PS down near the bottom of the page).

Well, we’ve reached the end of this post. I sure hope you enjoyed today’s reading, songs and video. Please be sure to come back next week for my latest stop-motion film: “Tyrannosaurus vs. Spinosaurus” and we’ll be sure to have a fun time, as Christmas comes upon us. See you next week and God bless!

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