St. Nickolaustag

Tomorrow is the Feast of Sankt Nicholaus here in Germany. It is the first of the Christmas visitors to this country, and the children are all excited. Sankt Nicholaus (or our Jolly Ol' St. Nick), as I described before, is the common man's saint for bringing gifts. Here, they celebrate his coming during the night on the date the Catholic community recognizes him for his good deeds, Dec. 6th. By tradition, St. Nick will bring small gifts and goodies to put into the good children's boots tonight. Children can also leave a note for St. Nick to pass along to the Weihnachtsmann, better known to us as Santa Claus. And yes, Santa does come to Germany, but what we didn't know in America, is that Santa has helpers that also deliver presents in other parts of the world. In Germany, the children believe that either the Weihnachtsmann (Santa Claus) or the Christkind, an angel or sprite-like child that is often shown in drawings as having blond hair and wings, will deliver the gifts on Christmas Eve. For us, and it seems for some Germans, it is very confusing separating out all their Christmas figures. St. Nicholas for many Americans, has been associated with Santa Claus because of the nature of the gift giving and the fact that he wears a red robe (church bishop's robe) and has a flowing, white beard. He also carries a sack in which he carries his gifts of fruit, nuts and small items. But locals here tell us that St. Nick is a different person altogether than Santa. And as every child knows, Santa comes on Christmas Eve, not Dec. 6th! But here in our part of Germany, Santa works together with the Christkind to help make his load easier. That might help explain how Santa can make it all the way around the world in one night! He just might have many helpers, like the Christkind here in Germany!!


Santa, though, has many, many names throughout the world. And Germany seems to be the winner in my book of the single country that has the most names for him. In northern Germany, prior to the late 1800s, he was known as the Pelznickel. This is important, because although we have not seen Santa in person because he comes in the night when we are all sleeping, the image that we think of as Santa we owe to a man named Thomas Nast. Thomas Nast was born in Landau in der Pfalz, Germany, in 1840. As a child, he moved to New York City, where he learned to be an artist. He was asked by Harper's Magazine to draw some pictures of what he thought Santa might look like. He used the images he knew of the Pelznickel from his homeland, and his drawings were published in their magazine during a series on Christmas that ran during the Civil War. He was also the person who drew other famous images, such as the American icon of Uncle Sam and the symbols for the democratic and republican parties.


The name we call Santa comes from a reference to the Dutch name for him, Sinterklass. He was described as a Dutchman flying over New York in 1812 by Washington Irving. In America, he is also associated with St. Nicholas from the famous poem, "Twas the Night Before Christmas". The popular image we really think of when thinking of Santa comes from the Coca-Cola ads that were used in the 1930s. They were an adaptation of the original drawings from Nast. In 1939, Montgomery Ward learned the name of one of Santa's reindeer, Rudolph, and about his funny nose. They liked him so much, they used him for their main ad campaign that year. Through the ad, we then all got to know that lovable reindeer.


As you can imagine, for us having St. Nick, Santa Claus, Kris Kringle, etc. all rolled into one, it was very confusing for us to figure out just when Santa would pay us a visit over here. We told our children it was St. Nicholas day, but then we learned otherwise. We gave Santa a call on the Santa hot-line and explained our situation to him, and he completely understood. So tonight for our kids, Santa is making a special little trip from the North Pole to bring us our goodies early. He said it would be nice to stop in an have a kaffee anyway with St. Nick since it had been a while since he had seen him. We were very thankful. So as you can imagine, our kids are VERY excited that Santa will be arriving TONIGHT!!


My words for today are going to be a bit different. Given our confusion, I just wanted to share with you some of the many names for Santa and his helpers. I'll start first with all the German names I could find, then I will give a few of the other names for him throughout the world. He is one really incredible figure, no?


German names for Santa and his helpers: Weihnachtsmann, Nickel, Klaus, Niglo, Christkind, Sankt Nicholaus and his helpers Knecht Ruprecht or Krampus or Klausen, and Pelznickel (and his other names of Benznickel, Strohnickel, and Storrnickel). Kris Kringle is an American mispronunciation of Christkindl, sometimes also spelled Christkindel. This is a lesser form of Christkind.


Names for Santa in other parts of the world: Australia - Santa Claus, United Kingdom - Father Christmas, France - Père Noël, Italy - Babbo Natale, The Netherlands - Sinterklass or Kerstman, Spain and most of South American - Papá Noel, Norway - Julenissen, and parts of Japan - santakurosu (I did not put it in the actual language characters).


The question for the day is "Does Germany have winter hurricanes?"


Auf Wiedersehen,
Frau Spitzer