Father Christmas and festive fun!

Rick Johnson   Mon Dec 12, 2005 10:49 pm GMT
It's amazing how many different names one man can have; Father Christmas, Santa Claus, St Nicholas, Kris Kringle, Papa Noel, or in Germany Weihnachtsmann- which sounds like some mythical character of the third reich.

Kids ideas of what he might look like differ from country to country. In the US he is a kind old man who likes milk and cookies whereas in Britain he's an old blotchy faced alcoholic with a penchant for sherry and mince pies.

A new festive word entered my vocabulary this year- "turducken", which in the southern states is apparently a turkey stuffed with a duck stuffed with a chicken!
Uriel   Tue Dec 13, 2005 2:14 am GMT
I just read about that concoction myself for the first time, Rick! Never heard of it before.

Don't forget Sinter Klaas. Sander will feel left out!
Brennus   Tue Dec 13, 2005 8:18 am GMT
Rick Johnson ,

Weihnachtsmann - It looks very Teutonic though not necessarily 'Nazi'. There was an East German (Communist) movie made in 1969 called "Der Weihnachtsmann heist Willi" (The Santa Claus (Father Christmas) :
Willi. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065201/

I haven't seen it yet but would like to someday just for historical reasons alone if nothing else.

I've always liked the Romanian equivalent of "Santa Claus", Mos' Crãciun (pronounced moh-sh kruh-chewn) too. It means "Old Man Christmas."
Laura Braun   Tue Dec 13, 2005 9:40 am GMT
You don't know that in some countries communists exchanged the name of Santa Claus with other name , because they didn't want something to be connected with X-mas. They even didn't celebrate X-mas. X-mas days were working days.
Rick Johnson   Tue Dec 13, 2005 10:42 am GMT
Anyone know the root of "Xmas" instead of Christmas?

Anyone actually eaten a turducken or anything similar?
Travis   Tue Dec 13, 2005 10:45 am GMT
Note that "X-mas" actually is not due to some attempt to de-Christianize Christmas, but rather is quite the contrary, as the "X" refers to the greek letter chi, which has been commonly used as a symbol to refer to Jesus Christ.
Sander   Tue Dec 13, 2005 2:44 pm GMT
=>Don't forget Sinter Klaas. Sander will feel left out! <=

'Sinterklaas'.... is not the same as 'Santa Clause' :) although 'Santa' is based on the story of Sinterklaas they aren't the same.

The Dutch variant for 'Santa' is 'de Kerstman' (Litt. The Christmas guy/man)
Travis   Tue Dec 13, 2005 8:28 pm GMT
>>It's amazing how many different names one man can have; Father Christmas, Santa Claus, St Nicholas, Kris Kringle, Papa Noel, or in Germany Weihnachtsmann- which sounds like some mythical character of the third reich.<<

I just *had* to make the line quoted above my signature (with the proper citation) on the Zompist BBoard for whatever reason. ;)
Tiffany   Tue Dec 13, 2005 8:43 pm GMT
Italian: Babbo Natale, which is pretty much Father Christmas. Any other countries have characters related to the holiday season that are not like "Santa Claus" or "Father Christmas"?

Italy has "La Befana" who is a good, but ugly witch and kind of judges girls and boys to be good or bad, kinda like Santa Claus. She arrives the 6th of January, which is Epiphany, but La Befana is heavily associated with the "holiday season"

I know Sweden has St. Lucia - Dec 13th I think...
Rick Johnson   Tue Dec 13, 2005 9:57 pm GMT
In England until a generation ago there used to be a character called Father Time, who came on New Years eve and left small presents; a sort of thrifty Santa Claus I guess!!