Saint Nic is back in the country

Dear Bloggers,

The steamship was again recently reported in the Dutch waters.
And it would not be long before Saint Nicholas will again set foot in our little country.
This morning at 06:30 my youngest daughter was waking me up.
Asking if she could go downstairs to have breakfast.

I mumbled: “Yeah, yeah that's fine.” All of a sudden I realize that she is up so early because Saint Nicholas is arriving today.
She is of course afraid that she will mis it.
When I am coming downstairs the television is on and she is sitting in front of it.
I explain to her that we have plenty of time to eat breakfast as the live broadcast will start at noon.
She looks at me like I am a lunatic, but today I am saved by the morning news programme.
One of their subjects is as you can guess the arrival of Saint Nicholas in the Netherlands today.

It is not much that she is eating this morning, there are so many things going on in her head.
Finally the clock is telling the right time and the rest of the family got out of bed as well.
When the show starts they start with singing on of the typical Saint Nicholas songs and of course everyone is singing along, but it is not that loud yet.
Fully excited she is coming to me and says: Luckely the storm has not given too many problems, dad.
Earlier this week the television had a special report on the steamboat that they were in a very bad storm. (even some of the presents went overboard.)

As the hosts are suggesting to sing another song my kids are singing full power, the tension has made way for happines.
There is nothing nicer then seeing these little happy faces.
It is still a side to a lovely and very old tradition which fortunately has not lost to the ever-popular Santa Claus in other countries.
Yet as the Saint cannot run away no longer from the commercial part, but it's not as crazy as what they do in England or the United States for example.
In most shops there, you are bombarded with Christmas offers and a lot of you don't really need stuff.
There are even free bustrips organized for the older people to get them to the shops as they are a great target.
In itself there is nothing wrong with the fact of free transport for pensioners, but specially those people are very susceptible to the so-called bargains.

I come with some regularity in a mall.
And when I compare the goods with the prices elsewhere, I inwardly need to laugh.
As the bargains are not really bargains.
I think it is a nice time anyway, the dark evenings when you go shopping gifts have a certain mistical atmosphere.

Even that they are a bit afraid of the fact that they are coming at night to fill their shoe with a small gift or some chocolate.
Many parents have to lie to their kids again.

I played once the role of the holy man, and the funny thing is once all make up and accessories have been placed, the role of Saint Nicholas is born.
What I also found a very nice experience that is both large and small in his own way, the magic of this man is there again a great experience.
Cars that you come across full of adults, flashing its lights, and drive past you all happily waving to you.
This is pure encouragement to play this very special role in a hot suit with an awkward mustache and beard.
I think that he has still many years to visit our country and the tradition will be kept alive.
Allthough our little country is becoming more multicultural it is still a marvelous feast.



I hope that everyone will have a nice "Sinterklaasfeest" or Christmas, what ever it will be in your case make sure that the gifts are coming from the heart and not because of material matters.

The Old Sailor,

Sinterklaas or Santa Claus

Dear Bloggers,

Every year again I have to explain the story about Sinterklaas and I think everybody should know this.
It is simply part of our ancient history and Saint Nicholas is the patron of the sailors, so it is a mistery to me that my fellow sailor's have not more knowledge of the facts and that is why I am going to explain them to all of you.
Let's start with the story how Santa got invented in the new world.



The History of Santa Claus

17th century: Dutch immigrants brought with them the legend of Sinter Klaas.

1773: Santa first appeared in the media as St. A Claus.

1804: The New York Historical Society was founded with St. Nicolas as its patron saint. Its members engaged in the Dutch practice of gift-giving at Christmas.

1809: Washington Irving, writing under the pseudonym Diedrich Knickerbocker, included Saint Nicolas in his book "A History of New York." Nicolas is described as riding into town on a horse.

1812: Irving, revised his book to include Nicolas riding over the trees in a wagon.

1821: William Gilley printed a poem about "Santeclaus" who was dressed in fur and drove a sleigh drawn by a single reindeer.

1822: Dentist Clement Clarke Moore is believed by many to have written a poem "An Account of a Visit from Saint Nicolas," which became better known as "The Night before Christmas." Santa is portrayed as an elf with a miniature sleigh equipped with eight reindeer which are named in the poem as Blitzem, Comet, Cupid, Dancer, Dasher, Donder, Prancer, and Vixen. Others attribute the poem to a contemporary, Henry Livingston, Jr. Two have since been renamed Donner and Blitzen.

1841: J.W. Parkinson, a Philadelphia merchant, hired a man to dress up in a "Criscringle" outfit and climb the chimney of his store.

1863: Illustrator Thomas Nast created images of Santa for the Christmas editions of Harper's Magazine. These continued through the 1890's.

1860s: President Abraham Lincoln asked Nast to create a drawing of Santa with some Union soldiers. This image of Santa supporting the enemy had a demoralizing influence on the Confederate army -- an early example of psychological warfare.

1897: Francis P Church, Editor of the New York Sun, wrote an editorial in response to a letter from an eight year-old girl, Virginia O'Hanlon. She had written the paper asking whether there really was a Santa Claus. It has become known as the "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus" letter.

1920's: The image of Santa had been standardized to portray a bearded, over-weight, jolly man dressed in a red suit with white trim.

1931: Haddon Sundblom, illustrator for The Coca-Cola ™ company drew a series of Santa images in their Christmas advertisements until 1964. The company holds the trademark for the Coca-Cola Santa design. Christmas ads including Santa continue to the present day.

1939 Copywriter Robert L. May of the Montgomery Ward Company created a poem about Rudolph, the ninth reindeer. May had been "often taunted as a child for being shy, small and slight." He created an ostracized reindeer with a shiny red nose who became a hero one foggy Christmas eve. Santa was part-way through deliveries when the visibility started to degenerate. Santa added Rudolph to his team of reindeer to help illuminate the path. A copy of the poem was given free to Montgomery Ward customers.



In my country he is still arriving by steamboat and brings his helpers with him, the so called black pete's.

I consider that they should all be arrested as we see the tradition slowly sliding into a commercial feast, and that was absolutely not the meaning of the Sinterklaas celebration.
It is about small gifts and surprises, and not about gifts of hundreds of euros.



Whenever a folk tradition becomes popular, you can be sure that a large company will try to appropriate it for itself.
McDonald’s is masterful at co-oping the latest street trends in music.
Disney has built its empire on claiming ownership in fairy tales and classic children’s literature.
The question of the season is whether Coca-Cola is responsible for our modern-day images of Santa Claus.
This is a common mythology in many circles.
“until 1931, the old saint was a thin, dark man dressed in drab green or brown.

His reincarnation as a plump, twinkling, jolly, white-bearded old chap in a red suit originated in a Coca Cola advertising campaign.
Fortunately for North American children and commercial culture, the Coca-Cola Company did not claim trademark rights or copyright in the figure.
At the beginning of the 1930s, the burgeoning Coca-Cola company was still looking for ways to increase sales of their product during winter, then a slow time of year for the soft drink market.



They turned to a talented commercial illustrator named Haddon Sundblom, who created a series of memorable drawings that associated the figure of a larger than life, red-and-white garbed Santa Claus with Coca-Cola.
Coke’s annual advertisements – featuring Sundblom-drawn Santas holding bottles of Coca-Cola, drinking Coca-Cola, receiving Coca-Cola as gifts, and especially enjoying Coca-Cola – became a perennial Christmastime feature which helped spur Coca-Cola sales throughout the winter (and produced the bonus effect of appealing quite strongly to children, an important segment of the soft drink market).

The success of this advertising campaign has helped fuel the legend that Coca-Cola actually invented the image of the modern Santa Claus, decking him out in a red-and-white suit to promote the company colors – or that at the very least, Coca-Cola chose to promote the red-and-white version of Santa Claus over a variety of competing Santa figures in order to establish it as the accepted image of Santa Claus.

Coca-Cola has happily built an ongoing public relations campaign around this mythology.
The advertisements of Coca-Cola were printed in colour, in magazines and that made the difference and turned him into what he is now.
(Everything else newspapers and television were only available in black and white).
This Christmas season the company is celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Sundblom Santa images, complete with an exhibit of past ads, at Lincoln Center in New York City.



And so it goes, that large entertainment and retail corporations falsely claim to be the proper stewards of Santa Claus folklore.
It’s all a fight over whether Santa is the Real Thing…or the real thing.
Well let them claim whatever they want but Santa was just a spin off.
He is an invention of the new commercial world, but please tell your kids the real story, behind this well known personality.
I know which Santa I believe in! Have a nice "Pakjesavond" or should I say a Merry Christmas?

The Old Sailor,