FOR DOREEN
Contrary to popular belief, it is not disrespectful to abbreviate Christmas to Xmas. The X represents the Greek letter chi, the first letter of Christos, meaning Christ. Xmas has been in use since the sixteenth century.
Contents
1 Title Page
2 Dedication
3
4 SECTION 1 – HERE COMES SANTA CLAUS
5 Chapter 1 – Little Saint Nick
6 Chapter 2 – Santa Claus is Coming to Town
7
8 SECTION 2 – CHRISTMAS TRIMMINGS
9 Chapter 3 – We Three Kings of Orient Are
10 Chapter 4 – Deck the Halls
11 Chapter 5 – Pull the Other One
12 Chapter 6 – Christmas Wrapping
13 Chapter 7 – The Great Escape
14 Chapter 8 – Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree
15
16 SECTION 3 – BEARING GIFTS, WE TRAVERSE AFAR
17 Chapter 9 – A Time for Giving
18 Chapter 10 – A Time for Receiving
19
20 SECTION 4 – NOT A CREATURE WAS STIRRING
21 Chapter 11 – Barking Mad!
22 Chapter 12 – When a Child is Born
23 Chapter 13 – O Little Town of Bethlehem
24 Chapter 14 – Oh! What Fun it is to Ride…
25
26 SECTION 5 – I SAW THREE SHIPS WASSAILING IN
27 Chapter 15 – Good Tidings We Bring
28 Chapter 16 – Mum’s the Word
29 Chapter 17 – Custom-a-Relations
30 Chapter 18 – Myth Story
31 Chapter 19 – Christmas Czech-list
32
33 SECTION 6 – OH, BRING US A FIGGY PUDDING
34 Chapter 20 – God Feast Ye Merry Gentlemen
35 Chapter 21 – Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire
36 Chapter 22 – The World is My Oyster
37 Chapter 23 – Ding Dong! Merrily on High
38
39 SECTION 7 – RING OUT, SOLSTICE BELLS!
40 Chapter 24 – Bing Bong! Merrily on High
41 Chapter 25 – Do They Know It’s Christmas?
42 Chapter 26 – Do They Know It’s Cliff-mas?
43 Chapter 27 – Hallelujah!
44 Chapter 28 – Let the Games Begin
45
46 SECTION 8 – MAIDS A-MILKING
47 Chapter 29 – The Twelve Days of Christmas
48 Chapter 30 – On the First Day of Christmas…
49 Chapter 31 – ’Twas the Night Before Christmas
50 Chapter 32 – We Wish You a Merry Christmas
51 Chapter 33 – On the Feast of Stephen
52
53 SECTION 9 – CHRISTMAS PAST
54 Chapter 34 – Christmas Leftovers
55
56 About the Author
57 Copyright
ST NICHOLAS, known throughout much of the world as Santa Claus, is, amongst many other things, the patron saint of children, merchants, archers, sailors and thieves.
He first became popular in America in the eighteenth century, having arrived from Europe along with the Dutch; the Dutch name for St Nicholas, Sinterklaas, over time becoming Santa Claus.
At first dressed in green, wearing a broad-brimmed hat, a huge pair of Flemish ballooned breeches and smoking a long pipe…
…Santa later evolved into the image of a joker, with red waistcoat, yellow stockings and a blue three-cornered hat – a colour combination well-deserving of a visit from the fashion police.
The present-day image of Santa Claus is thought to have partly come from Clement Clarke Moore, an Episcopal Church minister who, in his poem, An Account of a Visit from St Nicholas, described a portly figure who flew from house to house on Christmas Eve in a sleigh pulled by eight reindeer.
Squeezing down chimneys, St Nicholas would leave presents for children, but only if they had been well behaved.
In 1881, caricaturist and political cartoonist Thomas Nast, believed to be the creator of the all-American ‘Uncle Sam’ image, gave Santa a bushy white beard, pot belly and red clothes.
With Santa already dressed in the colours of their logo, in 1931 Coca-Cola commissioned artist Haddon Sundblom to illustrate Santa Claus drinking a bottle of the fizzy beverage for their Christmas advertising campaign.
Although Sundblom’s illustrations finally gave us the image most popular today, the claim that this image of Santa was created by Coca-Cola is, in reality, little more than successful advertising.
Sinterklaas
Saint Nicholas, good holy man! Put on the Tabard, best you can; Go, therewith, to Amsterdam.
Christmas comes early in the Netherlands and many other European countries. Having spent the year noting the behaviour of children in his special red book, Sinterklaas, dressed in Bishop’s robes, sets sail from Spain by steamboat, arriving