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Get to Know Your Christmas Characters
Mr and Mrs Claus

- He brings gifts to the homes of every good child on 24th December.
- The modern Santa Claus is a combination of the Dutch figure of Sinterklaas whose name came from Saint Nicholas (a Greek bishop and gift giver). It is then thought that this figure then absorbed elements of the god Odin during the Christianisation of Germanic Europe. God Odin was associated with the Germanic pagan midwinter event known as Yule and led a Wild Hunt described as a ghostly procession through the sky. Traits of this historical character mixed with the British folklore character of Father Christmas resulting in our modern day internationally recognised Santa Claus.
- Since the 20th century and largely down to ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’ (1934) Santa Claus is thought to make a list of good and bad children.
- He has a team of elves that help him make and deliver the presents on Christmas Eve and has a workshop that is hidden in the North Pole – especially from non-believers

Reindeer
One of the kids favourites in most part because of the fun of learning all of their names and feeding them carrots on Christmas Eve. In traditional lore there are eight reindeer that pull Santa’s sleigh and those are:
- Dasher
- Dancer
- Prancer
- Vixen
- Comet
- Cupid
- Donner (Or Dunder/Donder)
- Blitzen (Or Blixem/Blixen)

Christmas elf
Christmas Elves were another character to emerge from the ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas’ poem in 1823. On line 45 the poem calls St Nicholas himself a ‘right jolly old elf’. The name stuck to the little helpers rather than the well rounded character of Santa Claus himself. The modern children’s folklore of Santa Claus will now always include green-clad elves with pointy ears, long noses and pointy hats as the hired workers of the toy workshop in the North Pole. They are responsible for making toys and working to a very strict schedule. The role of elves as Santa's helpers has continued to be popular and one of the most popular movies of all time is now the movie Elf.

The Snowman
The British always approach Christmas with a small dream that they do not expect to come true but once in a while it does. That dream is a white Christmas. The country decorates their windows with snow spray, hang up snowflakes, sing about a white Christmas and admire the different media recreations of the snowman. There are so many depictions of the snowman these days that it is tricky to choose a favourite. Of course, some are a little darker than others: • Frost the Snowman – film and television • Jack Frost (1996 film) - a horror movie which transformed a serial killer into a snowman. • Jack Frost (1998 film) - a movie where a man wakes up as a snowman after a car accident. • The Snowman - British picture book (1978) by Raymond Briggs and animation (1982). A classic directed by Dianne Jackson about a boy who builds a snowman that comes to life and takes him to the North Pole. On every Christmas without fail. • A Winter Fairy Story called The Snowman by Hans Christian Andersen • The Snowmen – a 2012 Christmas Special of the BBC’s Doctor Who featuring snowman-like monsters • Olaf – the living snowman in the 2013 film Frozen who is featured in the 2014 Sky advert Whatever outfit you choose to don this Christmas do not forget the wealth of history, lore and tradition that you are making yourself a part of. We have cherished most of these characters for over a century – so do them proud and party hard!
