All about Christmas

Santa Claus and The Other Gift Bringers

As but of course Christmas won't perhaps be complete without this fat, jolly man with white beard, wearing red who brings children Christmas presents. Santa Clause? Yes! But who is Santa Claus?

Santa Claus is the legendary friend of children.(identified as St.Nicholas.) Santa Claus name, his sleigh and his reindeers we're first mention in a poem entitled "The Children's Friend ", which was published 1821. This poem first brought the name of Santa Claus to people. The myth that Santa Claus climbs up and down chimneys started in 1841 when a Philadelphia merchant named J.W Parkinson hired a man to dress up like Santa and climb the chimney of his store. But Santa Claus being identified as St.Nicholas is the bishop of Myra in Lycia, patron saint of Russia and Greece, and of children, sailors, merchants and pawnbrokers.

But what is Father Christmas?
Father Christmas as the personification of Christmas as a benevolent old man with a flowing white beard, wearing a red sleeved gown and hood trimmed with white fur, and carrying a sack of Christmas presents. Father Christmas is the traditional English name for the personification of Christmas. Although now known as a Christmas gift bringer, and normally considered to be synonymous with the US and international figure of Santa Claus, he was originally part on an unrelated and much older English folkloric tradition. The recognisably modern figure of the English Father Christmas developed in late Victorian period, but Christmas had been personified for centuries before then.
In pre-Victorian personifications, Father Christmas had been concerned essentially with adult feasting and games. He had no particular connection with children nor with the giving of presents. But as Victorian Christmases developed into family festivals centered mainly on children, Father Christmas started to be associated with the giving of the gifts.

What about Grandfather Frost or Ded Moroz?
Ded Moroz is a Slavic fictional character to that of father Christmas. The literal translation is "Old Man Frost", often translated as "Grandfather Frost". Ded Moroz brings presents to children and often delives them in person on New years Eve. Ded Moroz is accompanied by Snegurochka(snow maiden) his granddaughter and helper, who wears long silver -blue robes and afurry cap or a snowflake like crown. Ded Moroz wears a heel-length fur coat, a semi-round fur hat and valenki on his feet. He has a long white beard. He walks with a long magic staff and sometimes rides a troika.

And how a out the Christkind?
The christkind is the traditional Christmas gift bringer in Australia, Switzerland, Germany, the Czech republic, Croatia,Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Portugal, Slovakia, Hungary, parts of northeastern France, upper Silesia in Poland, parts of Hispanic America, in certain areas of southern Brazil and in the Acadiana region of Louisiana. In Italian, it is called Gusù Bambino, in Portuguese Menino Jesus(Jesus Boy), in Hungarian Jèzuka("little Jesus"),in Slovak Jezisko(little Jesus), in Czech Jezisek(little Jesus), in Latin America Niño Dios(God child) or Niño Jesús(Jesus child) and in Croatian Isusic' or Isusek(little Jesus)
Promulgated by Martin Luther,explicitly to discourage the figure of St. Nicholas, at the Protestant Reformation in 16th-17th century Europe, many Protestants changed the gift bringer to the Christ child or Christkindl and date of giving gifts changed from December 6 to Christmas Eve. The Christkind bears little resemblance to the infant of Bethlehem. The Christkind was adopted in Catholic areas during the 19th century while it began to be gradually replaced by a more or less secularized version of Saint Nicholas, the Weihnachtsmann (Father Christmas,Santa Claus) in Protestant regions. The christkind is a sprite-like child, usually depicted with blond hair and angelic wings. Martin Luther intended it to be a reference to the incarnation of Jesus as an infant. Sometimes the Christ child is, instead of the infant Jesus, interpreted as a specific angel bringer the presents, as it appears in some processions together with an image of little Jesus child.