A Liar’s Christmas
Santa Claus in 2014
The Santa Claus myth has four intertwining origin stories: Yule, St. Nicholas, Father Christmas, and Sinter Klaas.
The whole thing pre-dates Christianity. A Germanic-Pagan Lollapalooza-style festival, scholars think Yule took place from what’s now late-November through early January. It was a big, religious thing – there were feasts, there were sacrifices, and there was a whole bunch of drinking.
During this Yule-time, supernatural events supposedly started happening a lot more often than they usually did, which was apparently more often than never. One of these supernatural events was called the Wild Hunt, which was a “ghostly procession through the sky.”
Sadly, cameras didn’t exist yet.
Oftentimes, Odin, a Germanic Pagan God, led the procession alongside his eight-legged horse. Odin was depicted as having a long white beard. He also brought gifts to his people, sort of like another bearded guy we know.
So that’s origin one. This episode, we’ll get deep into all of the rest of it: everything from St. Nicholas to would-be prostitutes, from child bishops to children in barrels. We’ll even (briefly) discuss this guy:
Yeesh, right?
Listen on iTunes or Stitcher, or just click below to listen right here:
I have a funny story that is very, very slightly related to this.
Thomas Nast lived in Morristown, New Jersey, and was good friends with Mark Twain. His house is a historical site.
My grandparents actually lived in Nast’s old house in Morristown, and its where my father and aunts and uncles grew up. They gave tours of the house, and there are stories about them finding secret unseen drawings and things lying around. My father’s childhood bedroom was where Mark Twain stayed when he visited.
Any way, my favorite story that my dad used to tell me about his childhood took place in that house. The third grade class of the local elementary school usually had a tour of the house, led by my grandmother, as a field trip. So when my dad was in 3rd grade he walked to school, then got bussed back to his own home for a field trip. Since he and his friends had obviously been to the house many times, they decided to skip out on the tour and went off on their own. After a little while the teacher noticed that she had some students missing and started to worry. They searched the whole house for the missing children and found them, drum roll, in my father’s bedroom hanging out. The teacher yelled at him and he got in trouble with the school for leaving a field trip, in his own home, because they said it was dangerous.
So that’s my Santa related story. Thought I would share.
You’re right: that is both a hilarious story and slightly related. Haha.
This is still one of my favorite episodes. 🙂