The Very First ‘Merry Christmas’

The Tenth Very Terry Christmas

For ten years now, I have saved the Christmas morning episode for my good friend Terry Dimonte. The 10th anniversary of gathering around the mic to talk about life, radio, and the small pleasures that keep us sane. Terry and I wandered through the evolution of podcasting—how it’s gone from niche experiment to a wonderully busy and democratic landscape where sound quality and human connection still cut through the noise. We talked about YouTube b…

The Very First ‘Merry Christmas’

In one of those many ironies of history, it came as news to me that the first recorded use of the greeting ‘Merry Christmas’ was from Bishop John Fisher to Thomas Cromwell. Of course, the irony is that Fisher had been imprisoned by Cromwell, the ruthless bully-boy henchman of Henry VIII, for denying the King’s claim to ‘supreme authority’ over the church in England, both temporal and spiritual, as well as denying Henry’s right to marry Anne Bole…