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The Many Faces of Santa Claus
As far back as we have historical records, people in the Northern hemisphere have celebrated during the time of Christmas,
blessing one another with the spirit of Christmas - the joy of giving, the love we have for one another and
our thankfulness for the blessings in our lives. Santa Claus has been with us in one guise or another
bringing hsi special magic to our lives, a magic reflected in our children's eyes during the Christmas season.
It seems that Santa Claus has been with us a long, long time, continually changing as people shared their traditions,
adding and discarding as their societies changed. As you scroll down the page, you are moving backwards in time,
seeing the many faces of Santa Claus that contributed to the Santa Claus that we know and love today.
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Santa Claus
| Appearance: | Full white beard, fat, jovial, ruddy cheeked |
| Clothing: | White fur trimmed red Jacket, red cap and red trousers, dark boots |
| Travel: | Reindeer sleigh |
| Customs: | Comes down the chimney and fills stockings |
| Companions: | Elves. Mrs. Claus |
| Home: | Nast established Santa's official residence at the North Pole in 1885 when he sketched two children looking at a map of the world and tracing Santa's journey from the North Pole to the United States. The following year, the American writer, George P. Webster, took up this idea, explaining that Santa's toy factory and "his house, during the long summer months, was hidden in the ice and snow of the North Pole" |
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Pere Noel
| Clothing: | Long red hooded robe, edged with white fur. His presents are carried not in a sack, but in a basket on his back. |
| Customs: | Children put out shoes in front of the fireplace |
| Gifts: | Candy, fruit, nuts and small toys are hung on the le sapin de noël: Christmas tree, For some good children, he gifts twice; once on December 6th, St. Nicholas Eve (December 6th), and once on Christmas Eve, December 24th. |
| Companions: | Is accompanied by Père Fouettard, a sinister figure dressed in black, who gives out spankings to bad children. |
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Kriss Kringle
| Known As: | Christ Kindl (Christ-child). The German name of the Christ Child is Christkind |
| Appearance: | His messenger is a young child with a golden crown who holds a tiny "Tree of Light." |
| Customs: | Brings the gifts of the Christ Child. |
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Sinterklaas
| Known As: | De Goede Sint - The Friendly Saint |
| Appearance: | A kind and wise old man with a white beard |
| Clothing: | White dress, red cloak, a crosier |
| Travel: | Rides the skies and roofs of houses on his white horse |
| Home: | Spain |
| Customs: | Visits on his birthday, December 5th or 6th |
| Gifts: | Various gifts, if you were good |
| Companions: | Zwarte Piet ("Black Peter"), also called Black Jacks |
| Notes: | The Black Jacks gather information about your behavior for the year. If you were good, you get presents..
If you were bad, the Black Jacks will beat you with their rods or put you in a bag and take you back to Spain |
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Knecht Ruprecht (meaning Servant Rupert)
| Known As: | Black Peter, Pelznickle, Aschen (Ash Nicholas), Rider of the White Horse |
| Appearance: | Fur clad, blackened with soot |
| Travel: | Traveled with St. Nicholas |
| Visits: | Delivered the presents down the chimney for St. Nicholas |
| Customs: | Carried a sack of ashes as well as a bundle of switches |
| Notes: | He was called Black Peter because he delivered the presents down the chimney for St. Nicholas
and became blackened with soot. Over time, Knecht Ruprecht and St. Nicholas merged to form
Ru Klaus (Rough Nicholas) because of his rugged appearance, Aschen Klaus (meaning Ash Nicholas)
because he carried a sack of ashes as well as a bundle of switches and Pelznickle (Furry Nicholas) |
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Saint Nicholas
| Appearance: | A kindly saint, not overweight |
| Clothing: | Wears the robes of a bishop of the Roman Catholic Church. |
| Customs: | Hands out presents to the children. Children also put their shoes in front of the
fireplace to be filled with candy and presents by morning. |
| Travels; | Sometimes travels with a donkey. |
| Companions: | Angels that help St. Nicholas to keep his book of good and bad deeds and help to protect the chldren fom Krampus, the Devil, Père Fouettard who accompany St. Nicholas and punish bad children. |
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Joulupukki
| Known As: | Yule Goat or Christmas Goat |
| Appearance: | Wears warm red clothes and uses a walking stick |
| Travel: | Travels in a sleigh driven by a number of reindeer (but the reindeer don't fly) |
| Home: | Korvatunturi, Lapland, Finland |
| Customs: | Knocks on the front door during the Christmas eve celebration.
When he comes in, his first words are traditionally "Are there (any) nice children here?" |
Companions: Joulupukki has a wife, Joulumuori - Old Lady Christmas
| Notes: | In an old Finnish tradition, people dressed in goat hides, (as nuuttipukki), and went
around from house to house after Christmas eating leftover food. |
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Tomte
| Known As: | Nisse, Tonttu |
| Appearance: | A small, elderly man (varies from a few inches to about half the height of an adult man),
often with a full beard. He is not overweight. |
| Clothing: | Dresses in the everyday clothing of a farmer - typically attired in grey woolen clothes, a red cap. Later turned into the white-bearded, red-capped friendly figure associated with Christmas when a poem illustrated by Jenny Nyström was created. |
| Travel: | Sometimes rides in a sleigh drawn by reindeer or walks around with his sack. His reindeer don't fly |
| Home: | In Sweden he's thought to live in a forest nearby, in Denmark he lives on Greenland, and in Finland he lives in Lapland |
| Customs: | He doesn't come down the chimney at night, but through the front door, delivering the presents directly to the children |
| Companions: | Often with a horse or cat, or riding on a goat or in a sled pulled by a goat |
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Grandfather Frost
| Known As: | Ded Moroz |
| Clothing: | Long fur coat covered by bright beautiful cloth (blue or red) trimmed in fur |
| Travel: | Troika of white horses< |
| Home: | Grandfather Frost lives in the town Veliky Ustug |
| Customs: | Visits on New Year |
| Gifts: | Puts on a New Year party for children as well as bringing them gifts |
| Companions: | Always accompanied by his granddaughter Snegurochka (Snow girl) |
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Yule King
| Known As: | Lord of Misrule, King Winter, Winter King, Holly King, Yule Spirit, King Frost |
| Appearance: | A jolly giant, has a well-fed belly, and sports a burly beard |
| Clothing: | Fur hat or crown, he wears red or green, and a crown of leaves. The Lord of Misrule was a red or green-robed jester |
| Customs: | The Yule King visits at firesides. As Lord of Misrule, he presides over the Yuletide festivities |
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Father Christmas
| Known As: | Old Winter, Old Christmas |
| Appearance: | Well-nourished bearded man, typified the spirit of good cheer |
| Clothing: | Long, green, fur-lined robe, representing the return of spring, fur-lined hood (not a cap) |
| Customs: | An elder man from the community dressed in furs and visited each dwelling. At each house, in
the guise of "Old Winter" he would be plied with food and drink before moving on to the next.
It was thought he carried the spirit of the winter with him, and that the winter would be kind to
anyone hospitable to Old Winter. |
| Notes: | Father Christmas did not bear gifts until he merged with the American version of Santa Claus in the late 1800s |
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Yule God
| Real Name: | Thor, a Norse God |
| Temperament: | Cheerful and friendly, never harming humans but rather helping and protecting them |
| Appearance: | Elderly man, heavy build, long white beard |
| Travel: | Chariot pulled by two white goats, Cracker and Gnashwer |
| Home: | In the Northland, among icebergs |
| Customs: | Comes down the chimney - visits in front of the fireplace |
| Symbols: | The color red, fire |
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Yultid
| Real Name: | Odin, the chief of the Norse Gods |
| Known As: | Pelznickle, meaning Furry Nicholas, and as Rider of the White Horse |
| Appearance: | Old, mysterious man with a beard, may be shown with one eye missing |
| Clothing: | Long blue hooded cloak, carrying a staff and sometimes a satchel of bread |
| Travel: | Rides Sleipnir, a flying horse with eight legs |
| Customs: | Children leave straw filled shoes by the chimney to feed Sleipnir |
| Gifts: | He would sometimes leave the bread as a gift at poor homesteads |
| Companions: | Either a Raven or Crow
| | Notes: | The Vikings believed that Odin visited Earth during Jultid (Yuletide) on Sleipnir |
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