Christmas Thread: Santa, Reindeer, Elves & Yule Goats

[Integral]

Oyster crackers?

These guys?

http://www.scottsbt.com/fishids/idcom/phoysta1.gif

Oyster cracker

I am sorry, when I first saw that I it reminded me of something my dog did this morning.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Yet another one of those ancient religious Christmas time traditions.

As a kid this all seemed very simple. We are Borg: You have been assimilated. Any previous meaning is now redefined for our purposes.

I am quite certain that Rudolf is Catholic.

 

[Integral]

As a kid this all seemed very simple. We are Borg: You have been assimilated. Any previous meaning is now redefined for our purposes.

I am quite certain that Rudolf is Catholic.

I thought that was the red nosed Irish priest!

 

[turbo]

That's so COOL!

WANT!

We have slipped a generation, here. I loved cartoons as a kid, but had no patience for marionettes, stop-action animation, etc. Can't tell you why. By the time the Rudolph animation came out, I was a bit old for that kind of thing anyway, and never warmed up to it. No Bah, Humbug! implied or intended. I just never warmed up to that adaptation of the story.

I remember very fondly listening to Gene Autry singing "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" on a 78rpm record on our crank-powered table-top Victrola. I'm really not that old, but we were not well-to-do, and most of our stuff was hand-me-downs, sometimes for more than a generation. I probably drove my parents nuts listening to that song, and the few other Christmas songs we had on 78s, but they never chided me. When I was about 8-9 or so, my great-uncle sold his house and moved into an apartment he had built in that same house. He had no room for his console record-player/radio, so he gave it to my mother along with a little collection of LPs - Ink Spots, Mills Brothers, Johnny Cash, etc. I was in heaven!

 

[Astronuc]

Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer-Burl Ives-Christmas Music Vid




Christmas Lights - Holly Jolly Christmas (Burl Ives)



This one has pretty impressive lights
Christmas Lights - Christmas Shoes

 

[Moridin]

House with some...interesting Christmas lights:

http://www.stupidvideos.com/video/just_plain_stupid/house_lights/#1559

 

[Evo]

Santa Claus is Comin' to Town is on tonight!

 

[hypatia]

A friend of my fathers, was very good friends with Burl Ives. We were invited several times to holiday partys, where he would sing. Those are some great memories.

 

[Andre]

A friend of my fathers, was very good friends with Burl Ives. We were invited several times to holiday partys, where he would sing. Those are some great memories.

Okay, one more then, "A Holly Jolly Christmas", Burl Ives

 

[Ivan Seeking]

A friend of my fathers, was very good friends with Burl Ives. We were invited several times to holiday partys, where he would sing. Those are some great memories.

How cool! How old were you at the time; an adult or very young? Did you ever get to spend time with him and get to know him?

 

[hypatia]

I was around 12 years old, and I thought he and his wife{Dorothy} were the sweetest people in the world. He had the most enchanting smile. He showed me my first guitar chords, and my sisters and I got to sing a few songs with him. Eddie Arnold was often there too.
I never got to know him well, mostly because when he came to Fla. he came to sail. I recall he had a beautiful sail boat. He would get up a regatta, and they would sail from Cape Canaveral to Key West. The wifes and kids would drive down and meet them and have a beach party.

 

[turbo]

Here's a shot of our first snowy December since we moved here. The last couple of years, we've had bare ground right through Christmas. My gardening neighbor's wife made and decorated that huge wreath.

 

[Evo]

It's snowing, I'm not sure how much we're supposed to get. Our third snow storm since November.

 

[turbo]

I hate shoveling snow and snow-blowing, especially in gusty winds, but I hope this snow stays and we get plenty more, so the snowmobilers and skiers will come and spend their money. With little or no snow the past few winters, lots of people have been hurt bad, and they are people who don't show up in the employment figures because typically they can't claim unemployment because they are seasonal/part-time employees. Chambermaids, wait staff, kitchen staff, bartenders, guides, chair-lift attendants, ski patrol members, snow-makers and groomers, etc. Some of the bigger rafting companies have branched out into all-season lodging and snowmobile rentals, just in time to endure several un-snowy winters in a row. They're sitting on fleets of lightly-used snowmobiles that still have to be paid for, and they are operating with skeleton crews. This snow may give them all a merrier Christmas.

 

[Evo]

Had a nice surprise when I got to work (after having driven through the snow. I had 3 cookies with chocolate kisses on them, a beautiful christmas mug, stuffed with packets of hot choclate, candy canes and chocolate dipped peppermint sticks.

 

[Evo]

This was in a letter from Red Rum last night. He's an Irishman living in The Netherlands.

Today is Sinterklaasdag, when the man you interpret as Santa Clause (who is known here as de Kerstman, or Father Christmas) comes sailing from Spain on his white horse with his black and very mischievious helpers, known as Zwart Piet (or Black Peter...How politically incorrect can you get?) doling out presents (cadeautjes), dropjes (candies) and pepernoten (little ginger snaps, I suppose). Dutch kids leave their shoes out for presents. The bold ones get lumps of coal instead of gifts and get kidnapped and taken back to Spain as punishment. This I don't quite understand as enduring the cuisine, climate, language and culture of the Iberian peninsula would hardly constitute punishment for most Dutch citizens.

 

[Moonbear]

Had a nice surprise when I got to work (after having driven through the snow. I had 3 cookies with chocolate kisses on them, a beautiful christmas mug, stuffed with packets of hot choclate, candy canes and chocolate dipped peppermint sticks.

Ooh, that's a nice treat for a snow day!

 

[vincentm]

Hmmm Eggnog and lotsa rum...

 

[Moonbear]

This was in a letter from Red Rum last night. He's an Irishman living in The Netherlands.

I have some Dutch friends, and their version sounds really fun. Zwart Piet is a chimney sweep! How else is Santa going to get down your filthy, clogged chimney without the help of a chimney sweep?

Pepernoten are what we know more commonly by their German name of pfefferneusen. I think there's a slight difference, but they're spice balls (literally, spice nut, I think), those little ball-shaped cookies coated in powdered sugar.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I was around 12 years old, and I thought he and his wife{Dorothy} were the sweetest people in the world. He had the most enchanting smile. He showed me my first guitar chords, and my sisters and I got to sing a few songs with him.

That is just too cool! I guess he was America's Christmas grandpa because he was genuine. AFAIK, everyone loved Burl Ives.

Eddie Arnold was often there too. I never got to know him well, mostly because when he came to Fla. he came to sail. I recall he had a beautiful sail boat. He would get up a regatta, and they would sail from Cape Canaveral to Key West. The wifes and kids would drive down and meet them and have a beach party.

Still, what a treat that must have been. Was your dad in show business related work or was the connection just a fluke?

I got to hang with Michael Landon for a bit at a Rams game when I too was about 12. He happened to be sitting in the next row and right in front of us. I definitely thought that was very cool! It was fun telling my buddies that I was hanging out with Little Joe last Sunday.

 

[hypatia]

My Dad worked for NASA. My Dads co-worker/friend played football with Mr Ives when they were teens.
I did know many of the early astronauts very well. Heheh I would of traded them all for one seat next to Michael Landon:!)

 

[Andre]

Today is Sinterklaasdag, when the man you interpret as Santa Clause (who is known here as de Kerstman, or Father Christmas) comes sailing from Spain on his white horse with his black and very mischievious helpers, known as Zwart Piet (or Black Peter...How politically incorrect can you get?)

Sinterklaas, Heilige Nikolaus, Sankt Nicolaus, is a rapidly declining Mid Europe tradition with one of the last stronghold in The Netherlands. The Black Peter figure however has nothing to do with political, ethnic issues. Indeed, there is little doubt that his skin color has darkened pernamently due to his habit to deliver the goodies by crawling into chimneys into the shoes of the kids and collect the carrots that are left there for the white horse of his master.

However, in Germany "Zwarte Piet" is known as Knecht Ruprecht (knecht (servant)pronounced Knecht - not 'necht' ) and this hint a bit to his real character. He is simply the negative opposite of Sinterklaas, naughty, playful but potentially dangerous. It's the classical good guy - bad guy trade off. Children have to behave and prevent deportation as RR indicated. Other variations for the Knecht Ruprecht figure are Belznickel, Bullerklas, Pelzebock which may orginate from Belzebub, aka Lucifer, Satan although it has also been proposed that Ruprecht originates from German paleo deity Wotan (old german Wuotan - wut = angry) or he may have been a servant of the Goddess Holle.

Nothing to do with politics

 

[Andre]

Glühwein

While eggnog is unknown here in Germany, the traditional Christmas drink here is Glühwein(glow wine) obtainable in about all the stands in the numerous Christmas fairs. Certainly worth trying. The recipe for this "Conditum Paradoxum" goes back to the cooking book of Marcus Gavius Apicius, a Roman "gastronomer" who lived in the first century AD, in which wine and honey are heated with spices.

For a good Glühwein use a sweet red wine, the Germans seem to like using the "Spätburgunder", the Austrians the "Blau Burgunder", the French "Pinot noir" (Don't tell them that those grapes are all the same).

For one bottle of wine use 100 gram sugar, juice of two oranges, two cinnamon sticks, 20 cloves (Syzygium aromaticum)

Slowly bring the wine and sugar to boiling, stick the cloves in a peel of one of the oranges and add to the boiling mass together with the juice and cinnamon. Boil for 10 minutes. Drink warm.

Note that the alcohol has virtually disappeared after boiling.

 

[hypatia]

We make the same drink here, except we call it Glog, we correct the alcohol problem, by adding brandy.

 

[Evo]

Sinterklaas, Heilige Nikolaus, Sankt Nicolaus, is a rapidly declining Mid Europe tradition with one of the last stronghold in The Netherlands. The Black Peter figure however has nothing to do with political, ethnic issues. Indeed, there is little doubt that his skin color has darkened pernamently due to his habit to deliver the goodies by crawling into chimneys into the shoes of the kids and collect the carrots that are left there for the white horse of his master.

However, in Germany "Zwarte Piet" is known as Knecht Ruprecht (knecht (servant)pronounced Knecht - not 'necht' ) and this hint a bit to his real character. He is simply the negative opposite of Sinterklaas, naughty, playful but potentially dangerous. It's the classical good guy - bad guy trade off. Children have to behave and prevent deportation as RR indicated. Other variations for the Knecht Ruprecht figure are Belznickel, Bullerklas, Pelzebock which may orginate from Belzebub, aka Lucifer, Satan although it has also been proposed that Ruprecht originates from German paleo deity Wotan (old german Wuotan - wut = angry) or he may have been a servant of the Goddess Holle.

Nothing to do with politics

I think Red Rum's mention of politically incorrect was referring to how this would go over in the US (I'm American). A caricature like this here and all hell would break loose.

http://www.partyshop.nl/images/Piet%20masker%20plat-l.jpg

 

[Evo]

We make the same drink here, except we call it Glog, we correct the alcohol problem, by adding brandy.

I'm drinking at hypatia's!

Thanks for the info Andre!

 

[Math Jeans]

Has anyone else here been celebrating Hannukah since the 6th?

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Has anyone else here been celebrating Hannukah since the 6th?

We started on the evening of the 5th. I have one of those electric menorahs so I had the change the blessing a little. See if I got this right:
vetsivanu lesovevet et hamenorah shel hanukah
And commanded us to screw in the lightbulb of Hannukah.

My thought for the holiday. If you give an adult a gold coin and they find out that it is just chocolate covered in foil, they will be disappointed. The kids will be disappointed if it's a real coin.

 

[Evo]

We started on the evening of the 5th. I have one of those electric menorahs so I had the change the blessing a little. See if I got this right:
vetsivanu lesovevet et hamenorah shel hanukah
And commanded us to screw in the lightbulb of Hannukah.

 

[Math Is Hard]

Happy Hannukah!

 

[Moonbear]

We started on the evening of the 5th. I have one of those electric menorahs so I had the change the blessing a little. See if I got this right:
vetsivanu lesovevet et hamenorah shel hanukah
And commanded us to screw in the lightbulb of Hannukah.

My thought for the holiday. If you give an adult a gold coin and they find out that it is just chocolate covered in foil, they will be disappointed. The kids will be disappointed if it's a real coin.

Happy Hannukah!

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Happy Hannukah!

Thanks for that. The candlabra at the end was an actual menorah (7 candles) as opposed to the one used during Hannukah (9 candles) which is pedantically called a hannukiah.
The song is ok, but reminds me of a better one from 40 years ago called "When you're in love, the whole world is Jewish".

I've had a lot of thrills in my life
Three kids, a gorgeous wife
(Such looks)
I'm thrilled about my car: a Riviera
My sister Sarah
And John O'Hara's books
But the thrill of thrills that gave my heart a clout
Was the thrilling night when I thrillingly found out

Steve McQueen is Jewish would you believe it?
He's just like you and I, couldn't you almost die?
And Cary Grant is Jewish could you conceive it?
Such a living doll in a prayer shawl
Marlon Brando's Jewish, Pat O'Brien and Richard Conte
Not to mention that lovely couple, Harry and Bela Fonte

Frank Sinatra's Jewish would you believe it?
Sean Connery and Lyndon Johnson too
As a matter of fact the whole world is Jewish
Since I fell in love with you
Rosie McGonegal!
Since I fell in love with you

 

[hypatia]

Yummy cookie baking night!
Ginger bread with lemon frosting
Walnut chocolate chip
Michigan sand bar cookies{my favorit}
Coconut dipped in white chocolate
and last but not least Sugar cookies!

 

[Evo]

Yummy cookie baking night!
Ginger bread with lemon frosting
Walnut chocolate chip
Michigan sand bar cookies{my favorit}
Coconut dipped in white chocolate
and last but not least Sugar cookies!

I make a lemon frosting for my gingerbread cookies too!

 

[Math Is Hard]

Sounds delicious, hypatia! What are the Michigan sandbar cookies?

Can't wait to make a gingerbread house with my siblings when I get to Texas.