Quirky Christmas!!

“Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before! What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more!”EndFragment

Dr. Seuss, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!EndFragment

I was chatting to a friend of mine the other day who’s from Iceland and I’m not all together sure they get the whole Christmas thing, whilst the rest of us talk about Santa and elves and the North Pole, Icelanders have a very dark take on Christmas.

First, you have Gryla a giant troll/ogre amalgamation who lives on a mountain with her sons. She’s on her third husband, having killed the first two husbands because they were boring, tolerant! She likes to capture naughty children in her bag and boil them alive in her favourite stew, perhaps mums shouldn’t go to Iceland!

Gryla has 13 sons, the Yule boys, who visit Icelandic children during the 13 days in the run up to Christmas. The Yule boys leave well-behaved children sweets and little toys in a shoe placed on the windowsill. However, if you’re on the Yule boys naughty list you can expect a great steaming rotten potato stuffed in your shoe – nice!!

Of course, such a scary family have to have an equally scary pet! The family pet is a giant black cat, Yule Cat, who is really non-discriminatory in his tastes. He likes to eat both children and adults and really doesn’t care if you've been naughty or nice. He only gets to eat once per year, so perhaps his undiscerning appetite is due to starvation! The only way to avoid being a Yule Cat meal is to get a new piece of clothing at Christmas. (Now isn’t that a great way of stopping your kids from winging when they open the lovely dress or sweatshirt you’ve picked out specially instead of the latest play station game!)

This revelation led me to see if there are any other bonkers traditions our European neighbours keep. Over in the Netherlands the Christmas season begins with the arrival of Sinterklaas, but rather than arrive in December, he arrives in November and hangs out with those crazy Dutch revellers for a couple of months!

Sinterklaas and his companions (known as Black Peters) sail into one of the Dutch ports from Spain. Sinterklaas is an older gentleman in a bishop's clothing complete with mitre who rides a white horse.

The Black Peters are supposed to be Moors from Spain and have traditionally donned brown faces. Needless to say, the racist implications have caused a lot of controversy in the Netherlands in recent years. The Dutch have been resistant to changing their beloved tradition which has understandably upset the PC brigade no end however, to placate the do-gooders, the traditionalists have come up with an ingenious story which relates to the fact that the Black Peters are dark because they got stuck in the chimney for a long time! Love it!

When Sinterklaas is in town, the children leave a shoe out at bedtime in the hopes of getting a small gift. The kids on the naughty list get the proverbial lump of coal instead, (the kids of Amsterdam should count themselves lucky, they could be in Reykjavík!). Sinterklaas fun culminates on December 5, when he drops off gifts for each child before he heads back to the more temperate climate of Spain. And, in case you were wondering, the canny Dutch have also adopted the more traditional Christmas and still celebrate Christmas Day on December the 25th like the rest of us!

Further North our friends in Sweden celebrate St. Lucy’s Day on December the 13th. This holiday is based on stories told by the early missionaries who brought Christianity to the country. St. Lucy was a Christian girl who was martyred in the 4th century for bringing food to Christians who were hiding from persecution in Roman catacombs. She wore candles on her head in order to keep her hands free to hold the food.

Every year the Swedes picks a lucky girl to be the national St. Lucy. Not to be out done, local towns and villages also pick their own St. Lucys. The competition, to say the least, is fierce. The Lucys are dressed in white gowns and wear crowns of candles on their head. Traditionally, the crowns are made of lingonberries and hold lit candles. Little boys join in the tradition by wearing white gowns and are given a star on stick to be ‘Star Boys’. The Lucys visit hospitals and old people to hand out gingersnap biscuits and sweet raisin buns shaped like St. Lucia’s cats (lussekatter). Such is the level of pride the Swedes have for St. Lucy, you can find recipes for saffransbullar and pepparkakor, (saffron buns and gingersnaps.), on their national website! https://sweden.se/culture-traditions/saffransbullar-and-pepparkakor/

I’m sure there are loads more traditions out there, watch this space and I’ll see what I can dig up 😊

What’s on this week;

Head & Teeth - .LeLutka. Head.Simone 3.0

Eyes - CATWA UN-RIGGED EYE V1.1 - (Custom eye texture)

Hair - [RA] Runaway Hair Salon - Sam - Currently at FaMESHed, (Dec)

Eyebrows - Glam Affair - Katya suggest eyebrows 01

Skin - LURE: Emily (Carnation)

Body, Hands & Feet - Maitreya Mesh Body - Lara V4.0

Nail Varnish - alaskametro<3 "Classic/Solid" Slink/Omega/Maitreya nail polish applier

AO - [Body Language Sweet Lovely Cute] BENTO AO Kisetsu

Physics - 2.- Sutile -Subtle.~ Physics by Temptation

Shape - Custom Made