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12-09-2011, 06:17 PM
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I said it, so I feel it, dick
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Here
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Tell me about your Gift Bringer
Aight, Kiddo is full on asking about Santa even though we don't even do Santa.
I want to discuss all the different traditions and folklore and origins, and thought it might be cool to start with current views.
We know about Sinterklaas from that other thread, so tell me about Father Christmas, Papa Noel, Babbo Noel or whatever...interchangeable with the American Santa or different?
ETA: This blog post is pertinent http://purpleblancmange.wordpress.co...her-christmas/
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12-09-2011, 10:58 PM
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liar in wolf's clothing
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Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Frequently about
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Don't forget Krampus. Also Gryla.
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12-10-2011, 12:54 AM
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Projecting my phallogos with long, hard diction
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Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Dee Cee
Gender: Male
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Re: Tell me about your Gift Bringer
Also Hanukkah Harry!
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12-10-2011, 01:04 AM
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California Sober
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Silicon Valley
Gender: Bender
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Re: Tell me about your Gift Bringer
Mrs. Claus sends one present that you can open on Christmas eve night. It's always jammies, but don't let on that you know. She likes to pretend it could possibly be something else (but it never is ).
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12-10-2011, 03:59 AM
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Re: Tell me about your Gift Bringer
"Well it is a German myth."
--Prof. BYRON OrPHEus!
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12-10-2011, 04:32 PM
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A fellow sophisticate
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Cowtown, Kansas
Gender: Male
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Re: Tell me about your Gift Bringer
Apparently, the gift-bringers at my house were my parents, not the mythical guy in the red suit.
__________________
Sleep - the most beautiful experience in life - except drink.--W.C. Fields
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12-12-2011, 02:07 AM
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Re: Tell me about your Gift Bringer
Completely stolen without any regard to human decency from grayman:
Quote:
Originally Posted by grayman
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--J.D.
Last edited by Doctor X; 12-12-2011 at 03:56 AM.
Reason: [Edited to redact to the Textus Receptus.--Ed.]
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12-12-2011, 08:48 AM
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Astroid the Foine Loine between a Poirate and a Farrrmer
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Join Date: Feb 2011
Gender: Male
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Re: Tell me about your Gift Bringer
We have Sinterklaas. He has a load of servants who wear colourful tights and are made up in blackface make-up. If you are good, he brings you presents on the 5th of december. If you have been bad, you get a "roede", a bundle of twigs tied together for the purpose of spanking you with. Or if you are REALLY bad one of the Black Pete's ,as the servants are called, will put you in the same sack the prezzies came in and take you away.
He arrives by steam-boat from spain, apparently, and he has a beautiful white horse.
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12-12-2011, 10:12 PM
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Admin of THIEVES and SLUGABEDS
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Re: Tell me about your Gift Bringer
Babbo Natale (literally "Daddy Christmas") is Santa in Italian. He delivers presents on Christmas Eve, but so does Baby Jesus. Then there's a witch called La Befana who brings presents on the Epiphany. If you're bad, she brings you a lump of coal. You can buy "lumps of coal" that are made out of sugar to give to the naughty kiddies.
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12-12-2011, 10:29 PM
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It's however you interpret the question...
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Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: On A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream
Gender: Bender
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Re: Tell me about your Gift Bringer
My parents always labelled half the presents from Santa and the the other half (usually the best stuff) from themselves, so that they still got some credit.
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12-12-2011, 10:41 PM
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I said it, so I feel it, dick
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Here
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Re: Tell me about your Gift Bringer
Please to tell me about Babbo Natale v Santa Claus
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12-12-2011, 10:48 PM
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Admin of THIEVES and SLUGABEDS
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Re: Tell me about your Gift Bringer
There's no difference that I know of. You know how they call Santa "Father Christmas" in England? It's like that only in Italian.
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12-12-2011, 10:57 PM
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I said it, so I feel it, dick
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Here
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Re: Tell me about your Gift Bringer
I was reading somewhere that there are total differences between Father Christmas and Santa Claus. Those differences weren't really spelled out, but I assume them Brits think we Americans have ruined it.
Does Babbo Natale live at the North Pole, use reindeer to fly his sleigh, go down the chimney, fill stockings, etc.?
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12-12-2011, 11:09 PM
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Admin of THIEVES and SLUGABEDS
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Re: Tell me about your Gift Bringer
All of those things. The reindeer even have the same names, or as close as they could get to them in Italian (Cometa, Ballerina, Fulmine, Donnola, Freccia, Saltarello, Donato, Cupido).
I think there's more overlap than difference between the regional Santas because the character we know today was popularized by A Visit from St. Nicholas (aka 'Twas the Night Before Christmas). Clement Moore wrote that in 1823 and it's like the patient zero of contemporary Santa traditions.
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12-13-2011, 12:07 AM
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Fishy mokey
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Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Furrin parts
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Re: Tell me about your Gift Bringer
There are also regional Sinterklazes, like what they have in Luxembourg. The Belgians (at least the Dutch speaking Flemish) share the Sinterklaas we have with us. But in Western Germany too they had a tradition of a Sint Nicholas who came around on the 5th/6th of December. Not sure if they still do. Regional cultures are under pressure from the dominant culture in every country though and the dominant cultures are under pressure from US culture.
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12-13-2011, 12:11 AM
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Astroid the Foine Loine between a Poirate and a Farrrmer
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Join Date: Feb 2011
Gender: Male
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Re: Tell me about your Gift Bringer
The x-mas tree seems to be germanic in origin, and it used to be suspended from the ceiling upside down. You may notice that there is something slightly sinister about all the gift-bringers... perhaps because midwinter also takes the old and the very young away with them unless they are strong.
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12-13-2011, 12:22 AM
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California Sober
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Silicon Valley
Gender: Bender
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Re: Tell me about your Gift Bringer
Ooooh! Dark!
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12-13-2011, 01:42 AM
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Re: Tell me about your Gift Bringer
Quote:
Originally Posted by Watser?
There are also regional Sinterklazes, like what they have in Luxembourg.
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--J.D.
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12-13-2011, 02:25 AM
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I said it, so I feel it, dick
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Here
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Re: Tell me about your Gift Bringer
My German (Trier) friend talked about Christkindle (whatever, baby Jesus) and some kind of demon (Black Pete-ish guy I guess) but not Father Christmas/Santa.
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12-13-2011, 04:56 AM
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Projecting my phallogos with long, hard diction
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Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Dee Cee
Gender: Male
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Re: Tell me about your Gift Bringer
In Sweden they have the tomten*, who is kinda like Santa, but he's a kind of gnome or elf and so quite a bit smaller than Santa Claus and has various other differences. Apparently he replaced the older Yule Goat that brought the presents partly due to influence from Santa Claus. And the jultomten has gradually come to resemble Santa Claus more and more over the years.
We apparently had a Christmas book featuring the tomten when I was little, but I don't really have any memories about it, so we generally only experienced the American Santa. Although, come to think of it, we have a lot of Swedish Christmas decorations, some of which are tomtes. And I guess it makes more sense to me now why goats are part of Christmas decorations**, after reading about the Yule Goat.
*technically, tomten already means "the tomte" but if you say tomte, you might be referring to the type of gnome, rather than the jultomte, the Christmas gnome.
**They look like this, pretty much:
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12-13-2011, 06:17 AM
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NeoTillichian Hierophant & Partisan Hack
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Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Iowa
Gender: Male
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Re: Tell me about your Gift Bringer
Given that in "A Visit From St. Nicholas" Santa is described as a "right jolly old elf" and his sleigh is pulled by "eight tiny reindeer" it think it is quite likely that Moore (or Livingston) envisioned something much more along the lines of the Swedish juletomte than anything resembling the modern depictions of Santa Claus.
__________________
Old Pain In The Ass says: I am on a mission from God to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable; to bring faith to the doubtful and doubt to the faithful.
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12-13-2011, 08:09 AM
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I read some of your foolish scree, then just skimmed the rest.
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Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Bay Area
Gender: Male
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Re: Tell me about your Gift Bringer
I like my Christmas slightly demonic,
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12-13-2011, 09:04 AM
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Astroid the Foine Loine between a Poirate and a Farrrmer
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Join Date: Feb 2011
Gender: Male
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Re: Tell me about your Gift Bringer
I vote that we declare Jerome the FF Christmas-Gnome. If you are bad, he brings no prezzies, just little piles of temperature and co2 graphs.
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12-13-2011, 09:21 AM
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Re: Tell me about your Gift Bringer
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ari
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--J.D.
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12-13-2011, 05:24 PM
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Vice Cobra Assistant Commander
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Indianapolis, IN, USA
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Re: Tell me about your Gift Bringer
Quote:
Originally Posted by Vivisectus
I vote that we declare Jerome the FF Christmas-Gnome. If you are bad, he brings no prezzies, just little piles of temperature and co2 graphs.
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And HIV done up in bright festive holiday colors!
__________________
"Trans Am Jesus" is "what hanged me"
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