More from "Wipe Your Feet, Santa Claus"

What a wonderful image, no?

We couldn't help but to include an image from the wonderful picture book, Wipe Your Feet, Santa Claus, illustrated by the excellent Polish artist, Jozef Wilkon.

Yes, we know, there's no Santa Claus in this picture, but what the heck, it's such a lovely image of a child sleeping on Christmas Eve, dreaming about the forest he lives in, the forest literally entering his dream and his dream transporting him to deep into the forest. What a wonderful image showing the influence the forest has on the European winter tradition of Christmas.

I'm particularly fond of some of the details within the image, like the wide eyed owl perched high above the scene, looking down on the nocturnal activity below. The bear sitting human-like at the foot of the child's bed is a charming, humorous element.

Book Review: The Truth About Santa Claus

We here at Forever Santa highly recommend The Truth About Santa Claus by James Cross Giblin. It's a well put-together informative book, aimed at intermediate readers in the 8 - 12 year old range. It tells the story of the Santa Claus myth in an easy to understand way that not only explains the origins of the story, but also gives us a look at how these myths are born.

Giblin breaks up the story into several useful parts. He starts with the figure of St. Nicholas, a character from the very early Christian church who lived in the eastern Mediterranean.

Next, the legend of St. Nicholas spread from there to Western and Northern Europe, where he was thrown into a mix of other wintertime gift-bringers. Giblin discusses how this version of St. Nicholas became very popular - one of the most popular figures in the Catholic world of medieval Europe.

Last, Giblin charts the most recent chapter of the St. Nicholas story - how it accompanied European settlers across the Atlantic Ocean to the New World. In the melting pot of various European traditions, Santa Claus was born as an American tradition - a fact which indeed may not be widely known.

Giblin's style is simple, easy and clear. Adults and children alike will find a wealth of information here, either as a good place to find useful Santa info, or as a place to start one's investigations into the Santa legend. High recommended!

The Truth About Santa Claus, by James Cross Giblin

Book Review: Wipe Your Feet, Santa Claus!

Wipe Your Feet, Santa Claus! by German author Konrad Richter and illustrated by Polish artist Jozef Wilkon tells a short tale of a boy who finds that he and Santa Claus both need to wipe the snow off their feet.

The story has a simple charm that reminds us of childhood and speaks directly to the life of children. While the story is effective and will resonate with children and adults alike, the illustrations will command your attention, if not center stage!

What illustrations they are. Take the one above with its old style Central European rendering of Santa. Like Santa Claus from A to Z, we get a flavor of the old Northern European origins of the Santa Claus myth, but in the case of Wipe Your Feet..., with a more expressionistic flair.

At any rate, Santa is not the fat, gregarious elf we're used to in the US - rather, he's thin and tall, with a great long coat and staff. As the door of the house out in the forest swings open in the middle of the night, Santa greets us with a not unkind visage, but not exactly jolly either. A black dog accompanying him smiles at us. Isn't this more ambiguous image of Santa Claus an interesting, different take than the typical, all-happy, completely non-threatening version we're used to? At the very least, this book is worth a trip to the library to find and read to your kids as Christmas approaches. The sweet view of childhood it presents, along with its deeply traditional European view of Santa will appeal to those who appreciate this side of Christmas and want to introduce it to their children.

Babushka

Here's another post inspired by Santa Claus from A to Z.

This wonderful illustration from the book is explained like this:

"In some European countries, angels bring the Christmas tree as well as gifts. An old lady named Babushka is the Christmas gift-giver in Russia. In Italy, they call her Befana. People in Russian and Italy believe that Babushka, or Befana, goes to each house to leave gifts for children... In an old legend, Babushka is said to be searching each house for the baby Jesus so she can bring him gifts. She is still searching, so she leaves gifts behind for children instead."

Interesting, no? And I must add that the above illustration really seems to capture the spirit I imagine this legendary figure would have. Such a sweet kind face, brimming with warmth and love. Her basket which we might imagine as being the type that she would carry food and groceries from the market has instead been pressed into service as a way to carry gifts for children. A sack tucked under one arm might hold some winter sweaters, while soft rumpled packages in the other look like gifts of blankets or clothes. Around her left wrist hangs a ribbon attached to a festive wreath of holly, completing the array of items that Babushka carries to the households she visits. And let's not forget her charming outfit - a long, loose-fitting, billowing dress with folk patterns, an apron suited for Babushka's work around her house and a warm-looking dark blue shawl draped over her shoulders. Babushka is now ready for her Christmas duties! Santa Claus look out because here comes Babushka!

This Babushka/Befana figure is a wonderful part of our Christmas stories and legends.

Book Review: Santa Claus from A to Z

6 year old Debbie says: "I like the holly berries. I like the ram. I like toys. I like the bowl of wassail. I like his white beard."

3 year old Barbara says: "I like the ram. I like the holly berries. I like the holly leaves. I like the toys. I like the bell."

This is an image from a book called Santa Claus from A to Z, by Bobbie Kalman and illustrated by Barbara Bedell. It's one of those books for learning the alphabet, where the first letter of various Santa-related items are used to help teach the alphabet.

 

It's an okay book, but my favorite part are the illustrations. Many of them are just wonderful, like this image of Santa riding a ram (or is it a goat?). I'm not sure which tradition of Santa Claus depicts Santa riding a ram, but the fact that he is also holding a bowl of Wassail, a Christmas drink given freely as a way to spread good holiday cheer, locates this Santa within the typical Northwestern European tradition.

At any rate, it's a great picture of an old style Santa that inspires our imaginations and makes us wonder about all the many different Santa Claus stories out there to discover, learn and hopefully pass on!

Santa Claus with Toys, Holly and Bells

6 year old Debbie says about this picture: "I like the pretty colors. I like Santa Claus. I like bells too. I like the toys Santa Claus is carrying in his bag."

3 year old Barbara says about this picture: "I like toys. And I like Santa Claus. I like holly berries. I like bells. I like the holly leaves."

Both girls are right!

This is a charming postcard illustration of Santa Claus (my guess is that this piece is about 100 years old or so) with some of our favorite Christmas-time elements: his sack of toys, always slung over his back, brass bells, and winter time festive holly leaves and berries.

The holly leaves and berries are graphically rendered out of scale to make a nice composition featuring brass bells with the Christmas date contained by them.

Like our last post, Santa's arm is out of proportion - we'll call it a "folk art" touch (as opposed to "poorly rendered"). His face is kind and not unpleasant, but he also seems distant and maybe a bit tired? Poor Santa. It's interesting to see the toys the artist chose to fill Santa's bag: a doll, dollhouse, ball and trumpet. Perhaps these were the must-have toys of the day, or perhaps the sort of "classic" handmade Christmas toys of days gone by were already part of the tradition's canon.

And of course, I have to mention the lettering at the bottom. Awesome blackletter style lettering with very cool initial caps. I especially love the lower case "s."

Santa in a Wreath

This is an old Christmas postcard from around a hundred years ago or so. The composition has Santa placed within a wreath holding device. It's a festive holiday wreath made of holly with bright red holly berries. Santa is sort of looking up and off into the distance, as though planning his Christmas Eve flight. He's smoking his trademark pipe - a small one, perhaps made of ceramic - and holding a thick piece of tasty candy cane, ready to offer it to some lucky girl or boy. And just over his shoulder we can see his bag of toys that he is hoisting around with him. There's a nice detail of black leather strap showing how Santa might carry his bag of toys.

His face is decently well rendered, with pleasing warm eyes. His arm is a bit out of proportion but this adds to the folk art feel of the piece. My favorite part is the scroll at the bottom with very nice blackletter-inspired "gothic"-style lettering. The "h's" in "household" and "heart" are very interesting.