Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Christmas is my favorite time of year, not because of all the presents but because of the energy that seems to exist at this time of year. As much as I think the gift giving part of the holiday season has become too commercialized, I love the Christmas music and the gorgeous decorations in all the stores. I’m not one of those people though that makes myself crazy buying gifts, to me that loses the whole purpose of the holiday. I don’t make myself stressed out running all over the place or go into debt to buy tons of gifts. To me, the holiday is about spending the day with my family, eating too many desserts, listening to Christmas music and watching all the kids go crazy ripping open their gifts. Another thing I love about this time of year is New York City. Every year I go into the city to see the tree, look at all the decorated store windows, watch the people ice skate in Rockefeller Center and Bryant Park and sometimes fit a Broadway play into the day’s festivities. It’s a great way to spend a day during the holiday season.

I was trying to recall my favorite childhood memory from this time of year. I think it would have to be the family vacations to “The North Pole”. For a few years as a child, my parents brought me and my sister, along with 2 other families, which totaled 13 people altogether. The North Pole was really upstate New York but as a kid I really thought I was going to the place where Santa lived…there was even an actual pole in the middle of the “resort” made out of snow! I don’t’ remember a lot about those vacations but I remember staying in what I think was a log cabin, seeing Santa and his elves walking around, doing lots of kid oriented activities like decorating a Santa hat with my name in glitter and making various Christmas things out of those fuzzy wire pipes. That was a really nice vacation for us kids so I have to say “thank you” to my mom and dad for giving up what could have been a more “adult friendly” vacation to make memories for me and my sister at “The North Pole”.

Now, switching gears but staying in the Christmas theme, I thought I’d share some interesting fun Santa facts. Here in America, whenever we think of Santa, we think of a red and white older man with a bushy white beard and big belly who “Ho, Ho, Ho’s” down the chimney with presents in the middle of the night. Although this symbolic image is known around the world, many countries have a different image associated with the tradition of Christmas and gift giving. In Italy, La Befana is a good witch who dresses all in black and brings gifts to children on the Epiphany, 6th January. In Holland, Sinterklaas sails in on a ship arriving on the 5th of December carrying a big book which tells him how the Dutch children have behaved during the past year. Good children are rewarded with gifts and his assistant, Black Peter, takes the bad ones away. In Germany Saint Nicholas also travels with an assistant, known as Knecht Ruprecht, Krampus, or Pelzebock, and comes with a sack on his back and a rod in his hand. Good children receive a gift, but naughty children are punished by the assistant with a few hits of the rod. In many Spanish countries; Spain, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and South America, the children wait for the Three Kings to bring their Christmas gifts. In France, Father Christmas or Pere Noel brings gifts for the children. Switzerland has the Christkindl or Christ Child who bears gifts. In some towns children await the Holy Child and in others, Christkindl is a girl-angel who comes down from heaven bearing gifts. The Scandinavian countries celebrate with an elf, called the Julenisse or the Juletomte who bears gifts. And in England Father Christmas, a more serious and thinner version of Santa Claus brings gifts. North America is really the only country that associates the red and white jolly man with his sled and reindeer flying throughout the night of December 25th.

Do you know how the St. Nicholas image came to be this image? Well, depending on your age, you may already know this, but truth be told, I had no idea until I researched it. The American Santa was done mainly by Coca-Cola, the soft drinks company. Coca-Cola was struggling to sell cold drinks in the winter season and wanted to figure out a way to associate their product with the holiday season. Santa Claus had this enormous task facing him every Christmas Eve to go around the world distributing gifts to children everywhere. Obviously from all the flying and climbing in and out of chimneys all night, Santa would get tired and thirsty, so what better idea than to have Santa taking a break in his rounds to enjoy a Coca Cola? The scene with a red and white, round belly Santa drinking a Coca-Cola became synonymous with the winter season advertisements.

So as I “wrap up” (pun intended) my blog, I thought I’d share this short but nice Christmas poem I came across.

Christmas Poem ~ by Oren Arnold
Christmas gift suggestions:
To your enemy, forgiveness.
To an opponent, tolerance.
To a friend, your heart.
To a customer, service.
To all, charity.
To every child, a good example.
To yourself, respect.

Wishing all of you a wonderful Christmas Day! I hope that everyone has a place to keep them warm, enough food to keep them from being hungry and family/friends to enjoy their day with.