#Christmas Lore
Text
I evoked before how Père Noël's incarnations varied between a "drab" version in brown or dark clothes ; and a more colorful one of varying colors. But this isn't just something specific to France.
Today all the incarnations of the Christmas "gift-giver" are associated with the color red, thanks to the mass-spreading of the American Santa Claus, who himself became exclusively associated with red thanks to the Coca-Cola advertisement campaign that solidified the modern appearance of Santa in people's minds.
However, before this Coca-Cola Santa appeared - before the American Santa even existed - the figure of "Father Christmas" wore numerous cloaks and coats of varying colors, a tradition that is still maintained today in Europe. Be it in France, in England or in Germany, the Father Christmas of the 19th century usually wore green or blue - but other colors were possible. You've got brown, purple and white ones...
And the immense variety of colors is perfectly reflected by this collection of chromos of the end of the 19th century which shows the same Father Christmas/Père Noël with coats of various colors:
#christmas#santa claus#father christmas#christmas lore#père noël#colors#the fashion of santa#european folklore
423 notes
·
View notes
Photo
I started a collection of Christmas characters last year (though I didn’t post ‘em on tumblr), and I'm gonna add to it this year), posting one per day through the 23rd.
COMPANIONS OF CHRISTMAS 1: SANTA CLAUS, or Saint Nicolas (“Santa” means “Saint,” and “Claus” is short for “Niklaus/Nicolas)!
Born to wealthy parents in a small port city in Asia Minor, Nicolas became a gift-giver at a young age when, upon learning that three sisters who wished to wed their loves could not do so because they had no dowry with which to pay their future husband’s family, he tossed coins through their window in the dead of night. Finding that he could so easily change lives for the better and bring hope to those who had little through these small acts of generosity, he sold his property and belongings and used the money to continue helping those he found in need. As he was already following his god Jesus’s order “sell what you possess and give the money to the poor,” it was only natural that he would adhere to the next dictate “then come, follow me,” which he did, becoming first a Christian priest, and, soon after, the bishop of Myra.
While Nicolas, a noted brawler even during his bishophood, never backed down from a fight in service to others. He frequently found himself rescuing the innocent from execution, saving children from those who would exploit them, and battling monsters and creatures long viewed by the Christians as servants of evil. But instead of killing these foes, Nick would recruit them. Using both force and Christian magic, he would make them accompany him on his errands and missions of mercy, and the exposure to his generosity and kindness changed their perception and their hearts, turning them from forces of destruction to forces of good, though few lost any of their wildness.
Nicolas was born a mortal man, and died one, at the age of seventy-three, on December 6, 343. His devotion to his faith and service to his neighbors ensured his place in heaven, but heaven was no paradise for Nick, who fretted constantly for the children of the world. He petitioned the three aspects of his god for a charter, to return to earth and bring joy and comfort to its children through acts of charity and joy. His charter was granted, and he returned to earth one year later, and he has done his good works each December since.
#Christmas#Santa Claus#SchweizerCraft#SchweizerCraft Christmas#CompanionsOfChristmas#Saint Nicolas#Christmas Lore#Christmas Traditions#Christmas Legends#Folklore#St Nick#St Nicolas
168 notes
·
View notes
Text
Excerpt from The Mistletome (John Dee Translation):
Santaforms can take on many shapes in order to tighten the hold the Hag-son of Zurline has over the collective consciousness. This quadrupedal variant can be found nesting inside chimneys and pine trees, but leaves the nest in order to latch on to the heads of those wearing the vestments of the Jolly One, hiding themselves underneath the red cap.
Stay safe this Christmas.
2 notes
·
View notes
Text
christmas lore is weird because it feels like one of those group projects where you and your partner are on completely different pages... like on one hand you've got this historical / religious lore about the birth of jesus and all that and then out of nowhere there's also all this lore about a dude in a red suit that flies a magical sleigh around the world FASTER THAN THE SPEED OF LIGHT! and also he has a bunch of deer that are also magical and can ALSO fly, and one of these deer has a bright red glowing nose. why? he just does. and this old bearded guy also has an army of elves who hand craft toys for all the children in the world. did they consent to this? nobody knows. and get this, the big red guy is also ALWAYS WATCHING YOU to determine whether or not you are worthy of his magical gifts, and if you aren't he just gives you rocks.
#christmas#not watcher related but I HAD TO GET THIS OUT#like whoever created the santa lore was not fucking around#it's insane and unhinged and we need to appreciate that more#santa claus#christmas lore#rudolph#rudolph the red nosed reindeer#what do i even tag this it isn't watcher related
12 notes
·
View notes
Photo
Smellcast Chrimma Special With The Chickens!
Sassy wants to record Toppie’s chickens to hear what they will say at the stroke of midnight on Christmas Eve!
Write to Toppie at [email protected]. Leave a comment on Toppie’s blog! Follow him on X. Friend Toppie on Facebook by emailing him YOUR FB name and link, then Toppie will find YOU and friend you!
1 note
·
View note
Text
Cool Santa Lore Idea - Santa's Elves are made out of wood
Think about it! Santa's elves are natural-born craftsmen, it makes complete sense that they wouldn't reproduce so much as they would literally just Make More Elves. Like, they pick a nice tree, cut out a log, and painstakingly carve it into a brand new elf, and it soon just comes to life.
1 note
·
View note
Text
Flash Fiction: The Candy Wars
PHOTO PROMPT © Roger Bultot for Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers. Other stories featuring the prompt can be found here.
Disgruntled Christmas elves decided to franchise — candy stores all year round. Their marketing campaign targeted grandparents.
With zero intent to reward children with sugar goodness, they aimed to punish naughty parents.
Grandparents from around the world loaded their…
View On WordPress
#Children#Christmas#Christmas Elves#Christmas Lore#Creative Writing#Fantasy#Fiction#Friday Fictioneers#humor#Humour#Parenting#Photo Prompt#Writing Prompt
0 notes
Text
Can we expand the Christmas lore?
not the biblical stuff or anything, but like, the Santa stuff.
for example:
what if santa puts coal in people's stockings as a threat that he will burn your house down if your behavior does not improve by next year
#santa claus#christmas#christmas lore#xmas#santa#holiday season#coal#saint nicholas#saint nick#santa claus is terrifying
0 notes
Text
Rudolph was written in 1939
A Reindeer typically lives at most 20 years.
There have been at least 5 generations between Rudolph and now.
Santa would probably have a whole team of shiny nosed reindeer.
1 note
·
View note
Text
#I JUST LOGGED ON FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MONTHS YALL WHAT IS HAPPENIN????#vanilla extract#polls#vanilla poll#tumblr polls#meme#internet culture#im too fucking old and im only 24#tumblr lore#rabbit hole#late 19th century#vanilla#help im confused#queer#nightmare before christmas#jack skellington
5K notes
·
View notes
Text
When talking about the French Père Noël, one has to evoke a variation of his that is NOT Saint Nicolas. I already evoked several times the various names of the Christmas gift-giver (Père Noël, Bonhomme Noël) and how he was tied to the gift-giver of the beginning of December (Saint Nicolas). But there was also a gift-giver at the end of the year... A gift giver of New Year's Eve or New Year's Day. Remember when I talked before of "Père Etrennes" or "Bonhomme Etrennes"? The "étrennes" are a French tradition whose closer English equivalent would be the word "handsel/hansel".
The étrennes were originally gifts that were given to friends, family and other next of kind at the beginning of January to celebrate New Year. Today the tradition has massively evolved - étrennes are given at the end of December rather than early January, it is money rather than gifts, and they are now a gesture of kindness destined to those employed by you or that work for the community (the fireman, the mailman, the housekeeper, the garbage collector...). But despite this evolution, "étrennes" stayed associated with an appreciative and kind giving gesture around New Year. And where there's gifts, there's a gift-giver...
This website presents us with this picture, a 1930s postcard, and says it could be the Père Fouettard... or the Père Janvier (Father January).
In the French region of Bourgogne, there was no "Père Noël" or Father Christmas in the early 20th century: rather there was Father January, Père Janvier, who came around New Year to give the étrennes - the gifts. By the 1930s the tradition was still very strong, especially in the Morvan and the Nivernais - as well as in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais (Father January had moved to the North of France when in the mid 19th century a lot of people from the Morvan went to work in the mines there). And from the 1930s to the 1960s, in all those areas, there was a transition from Père Janvier to Père Noël, resulting in the children of those three decades to have the benefit of two mysterious supernatural benefactors coming at the end of the year... Before Père Janvier stopped coming by the 60s, definitively replaced by Père Noël (the Americanized one of course, remember post-50s Père Noël is just Santa Claus with a different name).
This other website goes into more details about the world of Père Janvier - or rather of Bonhomme Janvier (Old Man January/The January Man).
Le Père Janvier, or Bonhomme Janvier, existed for a very long time in the tradition of the Berry region, before the Père Noël was even introduced. Not just in the Berry, but also in the Morvan and in all of Bourgogne - and even in many others areas of France! Lyon knew of him, the Haute Marne, Saône-et-Loire, Ardèche - they all had records of Father January, this white-bearded old man that brought gifts to children on the 1st of January. In the Berry region, the Père Janvier usually left sweets inside in their slippers for New Years Day, and on New Years Eve chimneys were carefully cleaned up so he could enter the house unsoiled.
And just like Saint Nicolas or Père Noël, Bonhomme Janvier ALSO was followed by Père Fouettard, with his wicker basket filled with "martinets" (beating/whipping tools for naughty children):
While sometimes Bonhomme Janvier brought many toys or sweets (found in the children's shoes or "sabots" placed by the chimney), there was one tradition according to which Janvier only ever brought one item per person, not more - with sometimes a sweet or candy to accompany it (often it was a pipe made of sugar). Tradition claimed it was because Père Janvier hated greedy or gluttonous children - but more realistically, it was probably just a tale invented by poor families to justify the lack of gifts...
And of course, as Père Noël arrived in the 20th century, Bonhomme Janvier slowly faded away...
#french folklore#christmas lore#père janvier#father january#father christmas#new years eve#new years day#new year folklore#père noël#père fouettard
86 notes
·
View notes
Photo
Companions of Christmas 4: The Krampus!
The Krampus was a rural giftgiver who would deliver presents to good alpine children, but the naughty ones? Well, he'd stuff them into his basket and take them back to his lair, where they would be forced to spend the next year making toys for good kids. They'd be released the following Christmas, but even so, a year of forced labor in captivity is not ideal for anyone, much less a child.
Kids from this area, terrified of the Krampus, started writing St. Nicolas (already widely known for defending children from harm) letters asking for his intercession, and the saint obliged. He and the Krampus had a rumble, and St. Nick successfully shackled the Krampus with the chains that had once held St. Paul of Tarsus.
Bound by the magic of this holy relic, the Krampus had to accompany St. Nick for the next few years, and in observing his captor came to see that his punitive approach to kids wasn't the best way to ensure their good behavior or long-term character betterment after all. Thus reformed of his kid-beating, kid-stealing ways, the Krampus was released by St. Nick, though he asked to retain the chains so that they would always remind him of how NOT to help put right kids that are straying from the path of goodness, kindness, and charity, but to instead practice those tenets himself in order to best right wrong behavior.
He still has his avuncular sense of humor, and likes to put milder scares into wee ones, so expect to get a light whap with his bundle of switches, and a short ride around the room in his basket.
133 notes
·
View notes
Text
It’s almost time! The Gavle Goat watch officially begins tomorrow December 3rd. Please remember to turn on time stamps since old posts celebrating the goat burning do inevitably circulate around this time of year.
While we wait for the watch to begin, it’s poll time!
You can check the wiki for a list of every year it burned, and how it burned!
#2005 is my personal favorite#gavle goat 2023#gavle goat#gavlebocken#christmas#let the gavle goat burn#Gavle goat lore
841 notes
·
View notes
Text
finished drawing(s)
The god of the hypercode has some weird friends.
#yandere male#yandere oc#original character#yandere boy#original art#merry christmas to everyone!#I guess posting seth sketches on christmas#is accurate to the lore
726 notes
·
View notes
Text
Pirates SMP ended today, as did Decked Out. Secret Life is definitly ending next week (where the hell is my sweater im so upset please it hasn't even been shipped yet aaaaAAAAAA-) and Hermitcraft Season 9 is winding down. New Life flopped HARD, and the holiday season is coming up.
In summary, we're entering MCYT drought season. Buckle up, this'll be a while.
#i might actually put effort into catching up to QSMP#who knows#here's to that dainsleif quest coming soon to feed my genshin lore addict#praying for krisis christmas content (copium)#also percy jackson releases in 10 DAYS hopefully that will be good so i can hyperfixtate on it for a few months#im fine#mcyt#mcytblr#traffic life#secret life#hermitcraft#pirates smp
859 notes
·
View notes
Text
some domesticated Beasts in pareidolia... moar info below
fatfin perch:
the fatfin perch is derived from perca fluviatilis perch, and has been bred to be both larger, fatter and more docile in order to make herding, breeding and keeping them easier for sjörå. sjörå usually section off a section of a lake they inhabit and keep their perch there in order to keep them safe from other predators. and also with the help of their guard pikes...
guard pike:
derived from the northern pike, the guard pike is unmistakeable. selectively bred to be intelligent and loyal, these pikes are kept by sjörå as guarding/herding animals. every sjörå collective usually keeps a fair amount of these pikes in order to ensure the safety of their perch population.
tomteget:
a goat breed which has been bred by tomtar, its a very large animal for a goat and is used by gnomes as mounts and livestock. very robust and several other breeds derived from this one exist which have been adapted for different purposes (such as milk, meat, etc.). its possible that the idea of a "christmas goat" may stem from the tomtar's tendency to travel with these goats.
gloson:
a domesticated version of a relative of the wild boar, the gloson is both huge and striking in its appearence, fitting for the trolls. their wild equivalent is essentially exctinct and its current population are entirely kept by trolls at this point. used mostly as a guarding animal, but sometimes as livestock - it depends on the region (northern trolls tend to use them as the former, southern as the latter). humans have wrongfully interpreted their mane as "sharp" and able to be used to slice the gloson's target, but this is a misconception - while the gloson has quills, they aren't what is used for this manner of attack. instead, the trolls tend to provide them with sharp back armour if they choose to utilize their gloson for battle.
#worldbuilding#fantasy#lore#creature lore#pareidolia tag#spec bio#bestiary#the pike is inspired by that furred salmon folklore creature LOl#the goats are from the christmas goat ofc (bring that shit back here tbh...)#the choice to make them long furred is supposed to call to the goat costumes that existed back in da day hihi#perch isnt based on anything its just part of the sjörå lore in here lol#gloson is a folklore creature but its probably my first directly non sapient take on one
270 notes
·
View notes
Last Seen Blogs
derekitsune
max verstappen apologist
hidari219
hidari log
lucyintheskywithdiapers-blog
Untitled
anatina2208
Sem título
funyasm
ad astra per aspera