THE WOMANLY ART OF CHRISTMAS - DAY 2 SANTA CLAUS

Here we are Day 2! Thankfully the spirits are lifting, my boiler parts are arriving, the car is on the mend and yes it's time for the Christmas hair do! Ah asides from that I did mention that we will be focussing on the symbols of Christmas, last night I had the wonderful pleasure of bestowing my mum's home with her tree and decorating it over a Martini! An unusual choice maybe but none the less a refreshing start to more festivities                                                                                                                                       So while decorating my mum's toppling tree(it did happen to fall over 4 times) I was discussing with my mum and daughter the meanings behind the Christmas symbols. Yesterday we touched upon the meaning of the tree and Christmas cards, today's revealings disclose Father Christmas aka Santa Claus.

It was only trailing rolls of lights onto mother dearests tree that my daughter Finn bounded through the living room door and pronounced -"Do you know what Santa says?" to my mother, my mother replies "no what does Santa say?" - Finn triumphantly announces "F**Ks Sake", ahhh keen to dash the phrase being repeated while holding in my gulumps of laughter(it was pretty funny - Hey Santa has his moments too!). My revolving mum, and the revolving granny alert both went into overdrive... "Santa says that? - I don't think so sweetie and then my research comes to life! If Santa Claus heard you saying that he would be devastated, never to deliver toys again, especially to beautiful 3 year old girls with such a RANGE of vocabulary.(and bad language courtesy of Mums tantrum moments). 


Of course the REAL Santa Claus was Saint Nicholas a fourth century Bishop in Turkey, famous for acts of kindness, especially towards children, he was sometimes depicted as tall and thin, wearing green or brown. Santa's present appearance was created by Swedish artist Jenny Nystrom in a series of Christmas cards, then fellow Swede Haddon Sundblom helped universalise the new image when he adopted Nystrom's ideas for Coca-Cola's advertising campaign, Santa matched Coke's red and white logo. Sundblom also refined the character, making his body a little fatter and giving him his herd of flying reindeer! Later children in Holland would leave out their wooden shoes in hopes that St Nicholas would fill them with goodies!


So there you have it folks, the Father Christmas folk tale, if only to pacify my daughters language gymnastics at least a little bit of Christmas history in the making!


Until tomorrows tale


Caoimhe