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You’d better watch out! You’d better not cry, and I’ll tell you why:
Santa Claus is coming to town!
He comes from the North Pole, on the 25th of December, in a sleigh drawn by reindeer. And while you’re sleeping, he’ll come down the chimney with the presents you have requested for. He is jolly, rotund, red-faced, with a merry twinkle in his eyes, and a deep belly laugh – Ho, Ho, Ho.
Wait a minute, wasn’t he here already in Germany, in the Netherlands, in Poland on 5th December – this fellow with the long white beard and the long red robe, bringing goodies for children who have been good. He came on a horse, in a sleigh, went from door to door or down chimneys. The Italians call him San Nicola, the Poles, Swiety Mikolaj. He is known as Sankt Nikolaus in Germany, and Sinterklaas in the Netherlands. (See Christmas Part 8 )
So who is this Santa Claus, or Father Christmas as children in the British Commonwealth countries call him, who comes on Christmas Day?
The Santa Claus, as he is portrayed in a red snow suit with a white fur-lined hood, a broad black belt around his big belly and black boots lined with white fur, bushy white beard and eye-brows, and looking benevolent with glasses, has little to do with St. Nicholas though he has his origin in the Dutch Sinterklaas. And while Sinterklaas lives in Spain, Santa Claus, who is as American as Apple Pie, lives in the North Pole.
Apparently, the first Dutch settlers in what is today known as New York State, brought their tradition of Sinterklaas, the gift-giver, with them. But it was a German immigrant from Bavaria, a caricaturist called Thomas Nast, who was responsible for the modern image of him that we see in innumerable films and Christmas greeting cards today.
“Father Christmas” or “Old Father Christmas”, a name known as far back as 15th Century England, wore a green robe and came as a harbinger of the Birth of Christ, not as a gift-bringer. It was not until the 17th Century that he was portrayed as a bearded man in a green fur-lined robe symbolizing good cheer at Christmas. The Second Spirit of Christmas in Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” was still green-clad. Although the British still persist in calling the modern red-clad gift-bringer Father Christmas, he has long since become synonymous with Santa Claus.
In Germany, while it is the Christ Child who brings gifts for children on Christmas Eve and not Santa on Christmas Day, there has been a growing tendency and trend to portray the gift-bringer as the jolly transatlantic Santa who is a more commercially attractive figure. Even the German Postal Service delivers letters of requests from German children to Santa’s North Pole Address!
HOW TO SURVIVE CHRISTMAS EVE
In Germany, 24th December is the long awaited day of the coming of the Christ Child who brings presents for children. The Christmas Tree is set up late in the afternoon and decorated, with gifts piled under the tree. Traditionally, a simple meal is served in the evening, for example white sausages, a specialty from Thuringia, accompanied by boiled potatoes. This makes good sense as the housewife. who has been frantically shopping in a crowded supermarket that is open only half day on Christmas Eve and has to stand in line for up to two hours to be checked out, would be too exhausted to whip up a feast. This happened to me some years back. I never shop anymore on Christmas Eve. If an ingredient for a dish is missing, the dish can do without it. Who’s to notice? Unless it’s the main ingredient of course.
As I do not like sausages, I do a COLD PLATE accompanied by bread – white, dark, and Pumpernickle, which is a heavy, sourish but very tasty bread, and a salad or two, including of course my easy-to-make-and-always-appreciated Waldorf Salad.
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