The Battle for Santa Claus

The Battle for Santa

It's that time of the year when Santa's show up on every street corner and eagerly avail themselves for any photo opportunity, selling Christmas. Even the most cynical of sort will smile at seeing Santa - the first time, that is; after seeing your tenth Santa, you are ready to knock him on the nose.

For years a milder battle has ensued over the origins of this large-bellied, chimney-clambering man. the battle is this: who exactly owns Santa? This Christmas, a German museum has applied for Father Christmas, in his specifically German form (the real Weihnachtsmann, the German Father Christmas, wears a big coat with a hood, not necessarily red - it could be yellow, green or brown; he is usually holding a Christmas tree with candles and, more importantly, he is not always smiling and is allowed to punish children as well as give them gifts), to be added to the official Unesco list of 250 items that make up our Intangible Cultural Heritage. I don't know about you, but I have never heard of this list recognizing cultural traditions that are either at risk of disappearing, or traditions important to certain communities. A rival application to make the Dutch festival of Saint Nicholas on December 6 a part of the intangible cultural heritage has also been lodged by the Saint Nicholas Society of the Netherlands.

When Dutch settlers took Sinterklaas across the Atlantic with them and arrived in South Africa in 1820, he soon became Santa Claus; and in 1822 Clement C. Moore, a New York Minister, wrote The Visit of St. Nicolas more commonly known as The Night before Christmas. This story speaks of reindeer called Vixen and Prancer, a sleigh full of presents, a sack overflowing with toys and a rosy-cheeked, white-bearded, chubby old man.

I want to point out this seems some sort of beauty contest to me. Appoint me as judge, and I would take the smiling, red-coated, jovial, animal-hugging Santa over Santa-stern-face, grumpy and green-coated, but that could be because I would take anything American over German any day of the week. This is a slippery situation indeed for Mr Unesco especially when folk tradition start fusing Christian saints with pagan folklore.

Midwinter festivals from the dawning of time have celebrated the imminent takeover of approaching Spring over the wintery darkness; the Romans celebrated Saturnalia during the third week of December - evergreens were brought into homes and gifts exchanged; the Norse custom of Yule (foregoing the blood-letting ceremony) lent much to our traditional Christmas' of today. As the centuries passed, vague impending father figures began emerging to conduct ceremonies. Father Christmas arrived on the scene in England during the 1600s, bearded with a fur cap.

I dug around the Internet in an attempt to find Santa. Legend has it our jolly little man with the rotund abdomen began as a Saint Nicholas, a 14th century bishop in Turkey who rescued three boys from a wicked innkeeper who had been trying to sell the youngsters off as pickled pork. The Saint threw three bags of gold down a chimney to help an old man who had been forced to sell his three daughters into prostitution. St Nicholas's Day has been celebrated in Germany and the Netherlands on December 5 every since: children put out shoes next to the fire for fat Santa to place gifts in. Sinterklaas has a black-faced sidekick called Black Peter, who punishes or kidnaps mischievous and badly-behaved children. The racial implications are rife, but the Netherlands insist Peter is black because of the soot from the chimney he dives down each Christmas morning.

George Bernard Shaw 120 years ago wrote: "Christmas is forced on a reluctant and disgusted nation by the shopkeepers and the press: on its own merits it would wire and shrivel in the fiery breath of universal hatred; and anyone who looked back to it would be turned into a pillar of greasy sausage."

I love Christmas; I love the family camaraderie and Christmas cheer; I love the smiles and delight in my children's faces as they tear open their pile of presents from Santa who came down the chimney and didn't quite manage to get stuck; I love Christmas for the turkey and stuffing and Doris puddings set on fire just before it is cut into pieces and shared with one and all. I think Father Christmas and Santa Claus are cool guys who hand out presents for free, even if it is at the expense of my pocket. Merry Christmas!

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