How Long Does the Santa Claus Live?

Santa Claus or Joulupukki as I know him in my own Finnish language has been a continuing presence in my life since my birth during the 1950s in Lapland, Finland. I am a Christmas child myself who was born in a city that resides both the Santa Claus’ Main Post Office at Napapiiri at the Arctic Circle and the long tradition of tourist industry around Santa/Julupukki, including the official University courses in Elf Profession. Just check here to believe it. I am not telling you fibs.

Once in a while, or quite often actually, researchers do tell you that Santa is a lie, check in here and if you still have doubts here it is in Finnish. Every now and then we are also reminded that adults think too much. I mean in no respect to demean the two articles presented here but I am convinced that whatever we believe does construct our reality, including the metaphysical reality of Santa. Check my previous 2010 posting here about what is the history of the Santa tradition I believe in.

This year, like every year, it has come to pass that people are considering Santa and their Christmas traditions, including its political correctness and the commercialisation surrounding the modern practice of giving enormous amounts of presents to everyone. It boosts the economy, say the economists and many, if not all the shops rely on their Christmas sales to cover much of their yearly expenses. This makes it understandable that we keep on staring the Christmas markets earlier and earlier in the year. And who wouldn’t like to boost the economy? Or maybe not.

I live in Australia and find that the Christmas for me starts with the decorations at the shopping center, because otherwise, it is summer. The season comes as a great contradiction to my birth home of Rovaniemi, where the winter snow falls plentiful and it is freezing cold. In Australia, in the heat and the sun, it is quite hard for me to think about Christmas in the way I used to as a child. Now my traditions much come from having fun with the grandchildren and imagining with them how Santa would ride the skis from Lapland to deliver the presents Downunder.

My grandchildren know very well, where the line of the fairy-tale and the reality lies. They think that it is ‘cool’ that they, for example, know exactly where the North Pole is: that it is at Rovaniemi, Finland. And why do they know is because they have been there themselves. My six-year old granddaughter insists on this. “Mummu, I have actually been there twice.” There is no buts about it. She does not think about it philosophically, or in any metaphorical way. For her North Pole is where the Santa lives and because she knows the Santa, Rovaniemi for her is the North Pole. It is possible for children to think about Santa philosophically as well. At the age of five, my elder son asked me how long I thought Santa would live and when I answered: “As long as you believe in him”, he immediately said: “Oh, just like God!” That was also clear at one go and the end of the discussion.

Oh no, my granddaughter thinks about it all as a great potential for performance. She needs the right costume, and the right music and the right atmosphere and we are on. This will be the best Christmas ever performed. I bet it will include the music from the movie Trolls as for her it is the best dancing soundtrack possible to imagine.

The other way, I get my Christmas spirit rising is through technology and internet. I plan on talking to my family situated around the world, especially the other granddaughter in London. We are planning on maybe decorating our Christmas trees together, at the same time, through connecting on Skype. At least we will build Lego Christmas decorations together in our weekly get-togethers. We will show and tell about all the little decorations I have collected and placed in our tree. They come with different memories of my family for generations. Before this tree decorating used to be on the 13^th of December, because the Saint Lucia’s Day was my mother’s day. The family tradition carried to us from Sweden through the WWII when my mother was a refugee as a child there. We remember, I can tell it all to my grandchildren in my mother tongue, in Finnish.

This year, though, like last year, my grandchildren are in a hurry, and so am I. So, we might decorate the tree during the first week of December, already. The artificial trees that last and last make this longer season possible. The positive part is that we can even choose the colour of the tree as we fancy. This year it will be black. And from there on, sitting quietly, watching the lights on that tree reminds me of the Christmases past, present and the future. Baking cookies and the Karelian Pies with kids makes my Christmas real.

Our Christmas or Yule/Joulu traditions as I say it in Finnish might change and adjust into new technology, new environments and blend with new traditions. Still, for us the message of Santa remains the same: compassion, kindness, light, fun and caring. To me, it is no lie, it is a reality worth sharing with my family and friends and passing on to children and grandchildren.

If the spirit of Santa grows into a figure of a jolly old man or a strong grandma like woman, it might not be so bad to imagine that it is the spirit of the ages, all the good parts from Odin to St Nicolaus and many other unimaginable realities blended together into a consideration of others and their plight. It is not always about us. Mostly it is about the truth. So, how long does the Santa live? I still say that wherever or whenever you are, it depends on your own capability to imagine.

An Open Letter to the Christmas in My Heart

So, it is Christmas in my heart.

It is four days of continuous celebration with the family and friends. It is thousands of pictures taken with my camera and iPad and other cameras owned by the other members of the family. It is lots of traditional Finnish Christmas food, loads of new games played on a game-player. It is Skyping and social networking to keep up with the friends and family who did not make it here. What a difference the Internet has made! Most importantly, it is wonderful conversations with the loved ones who are here. It is figuring out where everybody fits to sleep. It is catching up with everyone on everything that the gone year has bought their way.



The ingredients for the perfect Christmas celebration

The first ingredient is gathering the family from all over the world to one place; from Australia, UK and Finland. It is enduring the long flights through China and Amsterdam and then driving the hired cars for hours in the frozen roads to the destination. It is four generations of people speaking tree languages brought together by the ties of love and family. It is complete mayhem and a wonderful mix of personalities from the one year old to the great-grandma.



The second ingredient is building the Christmas tree. This one is a real Norway Spruce (Picea abies) with cones, brought in from the snow by the favorite broughter-in-law. It has the right kind of smell to it. It requires an engineer's touch with mounting the candles to make it safe. It needs everyone's input to become the perfect symbol for the celebration. And it asks for continuous adjustments and attention throughout it's existence until it is taken away in the new year.



The third ingredient is shopping for the right presents for everyone. It is the Secret Santa gone completely wayward as the presents pile up when 'Joulupukki' brings them and gives them away. It is the thought that counts and there are lots of love shared around. It is the little things from the healthy lifestyle to educational toys.

The fourth ingredient is the music and singing. It is a mix of Michael Buble, Karita Mattila, Gurrumul, HeviSaurus and the traditional Christmas songs, sang by the celebrating group in two languages, the goal being to sing every song in the book and succeeding. It is the sound of all the voices in harmony and joy.



The fifth ingredient is the visit from 'Joulupukki' on the Christmas Eve. Everybody knows that all the Scandinavian kids have intimate knowledge of what the Santa and the Elves look like. They do not have to relay on hearsay. It is Joulupukki himself answering those hard questions right then and there, like how did you get here even though there is no snow? The answer being that the rain-deer does fly, so there is no problem, there.



The sixth ingredient is the sauna and dressing up in celebration. It is those who are bros with it having experienced the Finnish sauna tradition from their birth and those who are being introduced to it. However, it is an important part. It is the experience of being clenched in mind and the spirit.




Mixing of the ingredients

In my experience the best way to mix the ingredients for a perfect Christmas is an appreciative attitude and unhurried space. Everyone is eqully responsble for creating the right kind of Christmas cheer which provides the best of everything for everyone.

What is fantastic in it, is that it is possible to take the best of all the Christmas traditions from each one participant and mix them creatively to form new traditions but with the same flavor that the old ones had. Forming new traditions is the exciting part in bringing together people from different cultures and celebrating the best of the best of everything.

In this new age of forming relationships and close connectedness of everybody, it is wonderful to see the young and the old feeling that nothing was lost but lots were gained by it.

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Amongst the Childhood Memories; Christmas Characters Re-visited

Christmas is fast approaching. It is clearly evident that the shopping centers are starting to prepare earlier and at the same time people are too busy to notice and start thinking about it later and later. This is just the best time for the storybook characters to appear in their fancy best.

So, I found this Facebook page called 'Make your profile picture your favorite character until Christmas' and I 'liked' it. It was actually for the last year but who cares. This is cool, I thought and the next thing would be actually to do it. The picture attached to this posting shows where I have come to. My choice for this year will be the White Rabbit dressed as a Christmas character. I actually met him at the local shopping centre and was able to be photographed with him.

Steps to take when choosing your favorite profile character until this Christmas

1. Overall attitude

The first step is to decide if you like a traditional or recently created popular character as a favorite. Are you a traditionalist or a modernist? In the world of possible characters it makes a big difference.

Traditional characters for Christmas time would enhance the compassionate attitude of the season. Then you could also go for the quirky, or you could go for the elves. That would be enhancing the fun of the season. There is also the 'creepy' way.

My choice of the White Rabbit dressed as a Christmas character is somewhere between, a traditional storybook character with a quirky look about him. Mr Carroll could approve that, I think.

2. Following the times or maybe not

Step two is deciding do you what to follow the times or do you want to keep to the old look.

Sitting in a cafe at my local shopping centre observing this year's children's storybook parade I noticed that the characters walk much quicker than before.

The Loony Toons characters that marched past us were very agile. They are also taller and more streamlined and they have long skinny legs. No wonder that they can dance and sing and jump around the stage like anything. The other storybook characters were clearly influenced by Dr Zeuss characters or by the latest Christmas films.

The most alarming observation in my mind was that the Mother Santa and all her elves were so small and skinny. She wore high heals to boot. OMG, I say. They were cute, though. The tiny elves with skinny, skinny legs all dressed in green and red. On the positive side, the number of the little elves has grown. Instead of one round Santa and an elf, there are huddles of them all around the shopping place, including the Cat in the Hat and the Chrich.

Going with the flow is my choice. It allows for full enjoyment of all the new that has been created and lets you be inspired by the moment. If the old is reinvented, all the best for that, too.

3. Being charmed or not

The third step is to decide if you will be charmed or not by this new development.

So, I chose to be charmed by the crowds of tiny Helpers and Storybook Characters. For my favorite character I had three contestants, namely the Moomin Mother, Mad Hatter and the White  Rabbit.                                      
          
                                                           

   

It was a tough choice until I met the White Rabbit in person. This is a point for direct marketing, I was immediately persuaded.

Merry Christmas Season to Everyone! Let's be compassionate in small things as well as the big ones this year!

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Contemplating Santa Claus and the World Christmas Traditions

”Joulupukki, joulupukki,
valkoparta, vanha ukki.
Eikös taakka paina selkää,
käyppä tänne, emme pelkää.
Oothan meille vanha tuttu,
puuhkalakki, karvanuttu.
Tääl on myöskin kiltit lapset
kirkassilmät, silkohapset."





Finnish people are very fond of Santa, ‘Joulupukki’(yo-lu-puk-ki) as we call him. Every year I am asked why I still believe in Santa and what does Christmas mean to me. Most years I end up giving a talk or being interviewed about the Finnish Christmas traditions. Every year I do a little research to the subject of Santa from the metaphysical or perennial wisdom point of view.

I have a special connection with Christmas as I was born just on the verge of the Christmas Eve, which is the foremost celebration day in the Scandinavian Christmas tradition. My grandfather was born just a day before me and a very close friend who then lived right next door right on the Christmas Eve. I always connected the birthday cake as a part of the Christmas tradition. It only occurred to me to ask my mother about in when I turned 40. She assured me that the cake was for me and not for Jesus as I had suspected. I should have known that as our Christmas always started on my birthday with the tree decorating.

Being born right at the Arctic Circle, in the city where much of the the winter tourism is reliant on the experience of Santa Claus and the image we have on the old elfin traditions and where my father was very involved in the development of the representation of the Arctic Circle Cabin (Napapiirinmaja), it is not a wonder why I feel so strongly about Santa and his presented reflection in the world.







The Christmas celebration is a serious business in Lapland. Next year the Rovaniemi University of Applied Sciences will offer a year long course on Christmas Elf profession. The Ear Fell Mountain as a preferred place of home for Joulupukki was already established during the 1920’s through the children’s radio program Uncle Markus, where he declared this location ideal for Santa’s secret abode. From there he could hear if the children would be naughty or nice.





In 1950 the first Arctic Circle Cabin (or Roosevelt’s Cabin) was built in honour of Eleanor Roosevelt’s visit to Rovaniemi and then on served to encourage tourism to Lapland where the war had destroyed everything. I once (1986) organised a Barbie Doll Exhibition at Napapiirinmaja and one year (1994) I was even employed as the Mother Santa up at the Ear Fell Mountain where the eco-tourism brings people to experience an alternative Christmas. I can still smell the smoke on my coat from the hearth and the coffee we served to the appreciative tourists on the -40°C freezing cold mountain.

My metaphysical thought process on the spirit of ‘Yule’ (Joulu in Finnish) or Joulupukki (Santa) started quite early in my life. One boost was a discussion I had with my then 5-yearold son in the early 1980’s. He asked me how long I thought that Santa would live. Since I was on a philosophical mode I answered that as long as he thought to believe in him. His response was: “Ah, that’s just like God!” No more discussions needed on that subject, I thought.




During the 1990’s, I once picked up a book called God. What the Critics Say? One of the quotations that pricked my mindscape is from a writer, P.J. O’Rouke and it states:
“GOD is an elderly or, at any rate, middle-aged male, a stern fellow, patriarchal rather than paternal and great believer in rules and regulations. He holds men strictly accountable for their actions. He has little apparent concern for material well-being of the disadvantaged. He is politically connected, socially powerful and holds the mortgage on literally everything in the world. God is difficult. God is unsentimental. It is very hard to get into God’s country club.

SANTA CLAUS is another matter. He is cute. He’s non-threatening. He’s always cheerful. And he loves animals. He may know who’s been naughty and who’s been nice but he never does anything about it. He gives everyone everything they want without thought of a pro quo. He works hard for charities and he’s famously generous to the poor. Santa Claus is preferable to God in every way but one: there is no such thing as Santa Claus.” (Wroe, 1992)



Interestingly Patrick (O’Rouke) agrees with my son that God and Santa Claus can be discussed in the same context. I myself was shocked to the core the first time, after moving to Australia, I witnessed the Santa Claus singing ‘Hallelujah’ with angels on the Sydney Opera House stage. I have always felt that Joulupukki is a separate but similar spirit. Apparently O’Rouke is also suspicious and skeptical about the possibility of empathy and compassion in the human world as defined by his threatening and powerful image of God. Further on it seems that he is only acquainted with the Coca Cola image of the Santa Claus and doesn’t believe in the possibility of the real spirit underlying the concept. This is all fine but let’s just for the arguments sake discuss the Joulupukki (Santa Claus) I know.

Let’s start with the Finnish and the Scandinavian Joulupukki or Jultomte (in Swedish). The Scandinavian folklore blends into the traditions of ‘Yule Buck’ (Joulupukki), the threatening figure of the Norse god Thor riding the sky in a chariot of two goats demanding cooked goat flesh as gifts from people and the God Odin (the father of all gods) in his long blue-hooded cloak riding the skies on his eight legged horse bearing gifts to the needy.




In Finland ‘Joulupukki’ retained his name while in Sweden he changed to ‘Jultomte’ (Yule Elf) or in Norway to ‘Julenisse’ again blending with the old elemental elfin folklore traditions. In the Finnish tradition sometimes he would be dressed in goat skins as Nuutipukki with horns to frighten people, judge the behavior of the children, sometimes giving them sticks instead of gifts. In December there would be big festivals to ward off him. Nuutipukki who carries on the tradition of killing the goat on the last day of Christmas, is still well blended to the Joulupukki imagery in Finland. In Sweden it is now mostly represented by popular ‘julbock’-decorations made of straw.

The fact that Santa actually visits the homes of the Scandinavian people during the Christmas Eve gives a possibility for everyone to observe his (and possibly his wife’s and elves’) appearance personally and from that evidence state that there are great varieties presented in that field, from the old fur coat tradition to the newest freshly designed and commercial Santa outfits. Even the odd Father Frost representing the Russian tradition might be observed. But whatever the appearance the personal experience of receiving gifts from Santa overrides the possible threat of the unknown.

One reason for the diminishing status of the old Scandinavian pagan traditions came from the long reigning Lutheran Church in Scandinavia, where Martin Luther at the same time as rejecting the Catholic imagery of St Nicolas wanted to strengthen the role of Jesus as a centre of the celebration and as a gift bearer. The tradition tells a tale (not true, but efficient) that Luther was especially fond of the tree as a centre piece. He brought one home and decorated it with candles to represent the stars on the sky.

Clara M Codd wrote in her book The Way of the Disciple:
“Once define an ideal in words and it loses its reality; once figure a metaphysical idea, and you materialize its spirit.” (Codd, 2000)

The development of the imagery of spirit of Santa Claus took a life of its own and slowly changed to what we know now. We can look at that reality from what I know of Santa Claus, Joulupukki, Nuutipukki, Jultomte, Julenisse, St Nicholas, Knecht Ruprecht and others.







While taking into consideration the Christian imagery of St Nicolas, the picture of the Santa we know now in the world is mostly flavored by two popular artists, namely Thomas Nast and Haddon Sundblom, the first a creator of jolly Christmas cards in 1880’s and the second the creator of the red-cloaked Coca Cola Santa of the 1930’s.

In Scandinavia Jenny Nyström was the one single artist who blended the old Scandinavian elfin folklore and the Norse Edda tradition into the popular leading character of the Jultomte during the 1940’s. The modern design of the Arctic Circle’s Joulupukki’s outfits also bears resemblance to the Russian Father Frost’s attire.



The Santa we know has borrowed qualities from everyone of his inspirational ancestors and modelled them to suit his modern day image in whichever country he is residing. It seems though that influential global images are working on the Santa very strongly.
But it is still possible to detect the trends:

• Compassion and gifts come from Odin, St Nicolas and Christ
• The eight reindeer resemble the Odin’s eight legged horse
• The sleigh comes from the Thor’s Chariot
• Riding the skies also comes from the Norse myths, both Odin and Thor (sky gods)
• The intricate attire is from the Odin’s cloak just changed colour
• The elfin tradition carries on from the elementals that build the atoms from the protons and neutrons to create matter and can thus create any gifts, a kind of elemental nano-technology
• The fear the Santa carries on from our respect to the higher spirits or gods that were felt being volatile and from the Yule Buck as a goat pagan tradition
• The Christmas tree is the symbol of fertility
• The red colour of the Santa’s cloak is the colour of fertility
• Excessive eating comes from the great variety of fertility traditions

I cannot really agree that an idea we as humans have spent ions in shaping into an agreeable image for our use, an idea that compasses compassion, charitability, goodwill, generosity, laughter and love towards those who are underprivileged, especially children is nothing. It certainly is something to believe in and develop further. It should be seen as work in progress rather than a non-possibility. Just because it also encompasses our modern day materialistic ideals in the need to actually physically buy gifts, create beautiful luscious and otherwise perhaps useless decorations and live in excess for a while, doesn’t mean that it should be dismissed without deep contemplation.

The conclusion to this comes again in the words of Clara Codd:
“Thus the mind is the creator of thought-forms, symbols. A true symbol – as the Greek derivation of the word suggests – is a pointer, a signboard, indicating where, if we have the intuition to follow, we may discern something of that Reality which the symbol depicts.” (Ibid)

Let’s commemorate the old and create something new in our own Christmas this year. Let the spirit of ‘Yule’ connect us to one another and the world we live in once more.



References:
CODD, C. M. 2000. The Way of the Disciple, The Theosophical Publishing House.
WROE, M. (ed.) 1992. God. What the Critics Say?: Hodder & Stoughton Religious.
http://www.hs.fi/kotimaa/artikkeli/Rovaniemellä+voi+opiskella+tontuksi/1135231558458 accessed 13/11/2010

Also some other worthy sites:

http://www.examiner.com/international-travel-in-orlando/christmas-traditions-europe-odin-and-the-celebration-of-yule?sms_ss=facebook&at_xt=4cfa123dcc18a7ec%2C0

http://www.tunturisusi.com/joulu/kuvittajat.htm

http://www.santatelevision.com/

http://www.santaclauslive.com/

The Santa Pictures in this blog are from:
1. Arctic Circle, Santapark, Finland
2-5. Different types of Santas visiting my home over the years
6. Nuutipukki from Satakunnan museo, Finland
7. Swedish Julbock
8. St Nicolaus
9. Father Frost, Moscow
10. Nast Santa
11. Coca Cola Santa
12. Nyström's Jultomte
13. Santa from Ylläs, Finland