Advent Calendar - December 6, 2007

Santa Claus

Did you ever send a letter to Santa? Did you ever visit Santa and “make a list?” Do you still believe in Santa Claus?

Here is a brief summary of contributions from fellow bloggers and links to their individual posts:

Many of you were smart enough to figure out that today, December 6th, is the feast day of Saint Nicholas. Leading Santa's sleigh is Randy Seaver who brings us an interesting perspective in Santa Claus at Genea-Musings. He states that there are four phases of Santa: believing in, not believing in, being and looking like Santa in his account of growing up in San Diego, California.

Becky over at kinexxions has donned the season's colors (way to go Becky!)and has a great post entitled Santa Claus. Besides recounting her memories of Santa while growing up, she let's us in on a secret: Santa is a fellow blogger!

Meanwhile, over at Creative Gene, Jasia has a great tale in Santa and Me of Santa and Hudson's department store in Detroit during the 1960's. Besides the great photos (and one with a "va-va-va-voom Jasia" in a little black dress all over Santa's lap!), she tells us of the Polish tradition of Sw Mikolaj Day.

Lori Thornton in Here Comes Santa Claus posted at Smoky Mountain Family Historian talks of visits to Santa in Tupelo, Mississippi. And this fascinating concept: the local paper printing letters to Santa from children so parents would know what the tykes wanted!

From the hilarious to the heartwarming, in the The Oracle of OMcHodoy, Colleen recalls a frightening visit to a department store Santa. It made me remember that the Chicago Tribune is posting funny photos of kids scared of Santa this year.

From Alaska to Holland and back, Miriam presents Santa Claus posted at AnceStories: The Stories of My Ancestors. She regales us with how Santa flew into her Alaskan town in a Cessna and how her family revived the Dutch tradition of Sinterklaas.

Did you know that Santa has an Irish connection? Lisa gives us On Santa and how he immigrated to Ireland posted at A light that shines again and a poem entitled "The Bones of Santa Claus."

A 1926 letter to Santa from his mom and her big sister is recalled in He had an office in the Marquette Building? Who knew?. T.K. at Before My Time brings us great photos and even writing samples in this wonderful post.

Bill West in A Christmas Confession posted at West in New England reveals how he "squealed on Santa." Like so many of us, he remembers how he found out the "truth" and whether or not he used that knowledge for good or for evil.

In Hungary and Croatia he is called Szent Mikulás and Sveti Nikola, respectively, as Lisa tells us at 100 Years in America. In On the eve of Szent Mikulás, we learn what good girls and boys receive and what bad girls and boys are left with on December 6th.

More kids scared of Santa over at Steve's Genealogy Blog. In Christmas Requests for Santa, Stephen tells us of long lists to Santa and then being tongue-tied when it was his chance to talk to Santa in the flesh. And yes, I too remember popping baloons at the Woolworth's lunch counter to find the price of a banana split!

Lisa (gee, there sure are a lot of Lisas, aren't there? lol) presents "We put our shoes on the hearth, hoping St. Nicholas would come" posted at Small-leaved Shamrock. She details the Irish tradition, not unlike similar European traditions, of waiting for Saint Nicholas' visit on December 6th.

I tell you, Jessica at Jessica's Genejournal has all of us beat when it comes to submitting her posts to this meme - I think I already have Day 9 from her. Way to go Jessica! In Letters to Santa, she recalls lists to Santa and visiting him at Hudson's department store.

Diane at CanadaGenealogy, or, 'Jane's Your Aunt' presents Santa Claus. A variety of gifts are discussed as well as those who don't believe in Christmas recieving underwear as a gift!

In Santa Claus at Hill Country of Monroe County, Mississippi, Terry remembers the days before Rudolph came on the scene as that "special" reindeer. Read more and see what was on his list to Santa!

Janet at Janet the researcher gives us Santa Claus and His Helper Peek-A-Boo. If you wonder who Santa's sidekick is, go read the post - it is very interesting!

And, finally, I give you Santa Baby at Destination: Austin Family. You'll learn what my mother got one Christmas from Santa.

As we end this sleigh ride, so many of us have spoken of wonderful department stores that are long gone - I think next year, this would be a great meme: remembering the department stores that you and/or your family patronized. So many of them are no longer around - and are probably called Macy's nowadays (I am still bitter over their renaming of Marshall Field's . . . can you tell?)

I also want to say thank you to all the genea-bloggers who have been submitting these great posts. I know it is a busy time of the year and although I've set a 9:00 pm CST deadline, you should know I am an easy-going kind of guy. I usually post the "roll up," as I call it, around 4:00 am CST. So please don't let the deadline ever scare you from submitting a post.

Check back tomorrow for more submissions on the next topic: Christmas Grab Bag (basically come up with your own topic!