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Santa Claus / Father Christmas: The Magic Of The Holiday

Spudrick68

Spudrick68

Justified & Ancient
Joined
Jun 8, 2008
Messages
3,646
I remember when I was a kid trying to lie awake to hear Santas sleighbells in our roof (which was sloped!) I remember wanting to see Santa, but at the same time thinking that he was actually a bit scary. I don't know if that makes sense or if anyone esle remembers thinking that. Of course as a kid you have no knowledge of its pagan origins.
 
Actually, kind of related to that, I went to visit my mum in Leyland a couple of weeks ago. Near the market there was a sign saying 'visit Santa'. And Santa was indeed sat there, in the Popemobile! I wish I had a camera. Of course it was built in Leyland so I suppose it must be at the motor museum or somewhere local.
 
I always used to look out to try and see his sled fly past, there was also a household legend that my elder sisters had heard his sleigh bells once. The mince pies and milk were always gone the next morning too.

I was scared of most things as a kid, strangely never about the thought of waking up to find a strange man in my room. I guess the assumption was if you woke up he would be neat and give you extra presents I suppose.

Never worked out how he did get all round the world in one night, the guy is just pure magic.
 
I distinctly "remember" looking out of my front door as a young child (early to mid -80's) and seeing a sleigh fly overhead, and my brother swears he saw the same thing at the same time.

No idea if this is some sort of confabulation/mask memory/auto-suggestion or what, but its there in my head and has been for over a decade.

I used to lay boobytraps and trip wires for him, or those build it yourself or 'spylabs'* infra-red alarms.




*kids toys that included a directional mike, infra-red beam, walkie-talkies etc.


I Miss those days.
 
searinglight2 said:
I distinctly "remember" looking out of my front door as a young child (early to mid -80's) and seeing a sleigh fly overhead, and my brother swears he saw the same thing at the same time.
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Interesting. I'm sure there's a thread about people actually seeing Santa around here somewhere. Your story would fit right in there.
 
You know that traumatic transition kids are supposed to make when they realize Santa isn't real and their parents were lying to them? I never had that. By the time I was nine and my mom tried to have a serious talk with me, I knew he was pretend and I was good with it.

The cookies, milk, and raw vegetables (carrots and celery for the reindeer; I think sometimes they had apples) were always gone; but Mom and Dad liked cookies, milk, and celery, too, so I appreciated that as a neat bit of verisimilitude. Realistic detail is important in fiction, and food was important to my dad.
 
I remember looking out my bedroom window on Christmas eve and 'seeing' santa and the reindeer flying past. I was on the second floor and the house next door was maybe 3 metres away. Boy, were those reindeer close!

Must have been a dream, right?
 
I used to set traps on the roof for Santa. Only ever caught seagulls and pigeons :(
 
Those with a Santaphobia had better avoid the French movie called "The City of Lost Children."

Another rather dark Santa Claus interpretation was Old Father Christmas, a 1994 Channel Four film, effectively a miniature opera by Richard Sharples. This seems to be a real obscurity now - just ten hits on Google and no DVD or video. Hard to market short films, I suppose. 8)
 
My wife and I used to get up to all sorts to make things magical on Christmas morning. I used to lay sheets of newspaper near the fireplace, then make footprints with my wellies on them. The carrots were bitten off part way up, and Santa's can of lager was always empty. I've seen us shaking bells outside their bedroom windows when we knew they were still whispering away, and the sound really did encourage them to close their eyes, because it was bad luck to see Santa, and maybe he would leave early, or forget to leave a gift.

I'm not known for great sentimentality, but I so miss those days, with the laughter and giggles, then the tramp of feet along the hall to our bedroom and the sheer joy on their faces as they trooped in with a stocking each filled with silly little toys, and most importantly a juicy tangerine wrapped in tissue and a shiny Macintosh's red apple. These would be spilled out onto our bed as the excitement built. Then, it was downstairs for the main event, an inspection of the fireplace, excited chatter about Santa's bootmarks and of course the gifts! Bags were marked with names and laid out so they each had a bit of the floor to lay their things.

As I type this, I have a lump in my throat and more than a tear in my eye. Our youngest child, and only daughter is now 18, and soon will leave home. I also realise just how much I miss those mornings. Our boys too are grown up, all living away from home and while we do get together and do have such a laugh at Christmas, something of the magic of Christmas day is lost as childhood comes to an end.

For those of you with young children, you must cherish each and every day of their lives, but those special Christmas mornings are the stuff of the happiest memories, and you have to keep them in your hearts forever. You don't have to spend a fortune either, just plan ahead, buy something here and there, but above all have fun. They may be noisy and waken you at 6am or earlier, but just enjoy the moment, because it seems to have all passed so quickly, and then you will realise as I do, how special this time of the year can be.

I have read this over, and realise that one or two of my children may read this and squirm a bit with embarrasment, but if they do, they should read it again when they have children. Then they will understand what the love of a child on Christmas morning is, and how magical this day is.

Merry Christmas to all of you
 
I'm getting a lump in my throat too!

The pure magic and joy of Christmas (as a non-religious type) definitely slowly faded over the years, I'm only 33 but I know it will never feel the same again.

I love Christmas, and as I live a coupla hundred miles away from my folks and in a different country from the in-laws it is always great fun when we get together...but it's not that sheer Christmas Eve excitement any more, is it?

As someone who will never have kids (through choice) I think it's gone forever, eh? :cry:
 
I don't remember the momeny I *knew* santa didn't exist - I think it was a gradual realisation but certainly not a trauma. My ex's parents refused to tell tell him or his sister about santa because apparantly it was "lying to them" (knowing his parents, this was incredibly ironic that they would be so moral over lying)

I remember one year, after I knew it was dad, lying in bed and distinctly hearing sleigh bells - for a moment I had a crazy image of my dad standing outside our bedrooms jingling some bells but realised it was coming from outside. I did mention it the next day but no one really believed me.
 
My Mum says the excitement of Xmas returns when you have kids, I for one have not felt Christmassy for a long time :(

Even watching Santa Claus The Movie doesn't help anymore :(
 
Ginando said:
My wife and I used to get up to all sorts to make things magical on Christmas morning. I used to lay sheets of newspaper near the fireplace, then make footprints with my wellies on them. The carrots were bitten off part way up, and Santa's can of lager was always empty. I've seen us shaking bells outside their bedroom windows when we knew they were still whispering away, and the sound really did encourage them to close their eyes, because it was bad luck to see Santa, and maybe he would leave early, or forget to leave a gift.

I'm not known for great sentimentality, but I so miss those days, with the laughter and giggles, then the tramp of feet along the hall to our bedroom and the sheer joy on their faces as they trooped in with a stocking each filled with silly little toys, and most importantly a juicy tangerine wrapped in tissue and a shiny Macintosh's red apple. These would be spilled out onto our bed as the excitement built. Then, it was downstairs for the main event, an inspection of the fireplace, excited chatter about Santa's bootmarks and of course the gifts! Bags were marked with names and laid out so they each had a bit of the floor to lay their things.

As I type this, I have a lump in my throat and more than a tear in my eye. Our youngest child, and only daughter is now 18, and soon will leave home. I also realise just how much I miss those mornings. Our boys too are grown up, all living away from home and while we do get together and do have such a laugh at Christmas, something of the magic of Christmas day is lost as childhood comes to an end.

For those of you with young children, you must cherish each and every day of their lives, but those special Christmas mornings are the stuff of the happiest memories, and you have to keep them in your hearts forever. You don't have to spend a fortune either, just plan ahead, buy something here and there, but above all have fun. They may be noisy and waken you at 6am or earlier, but just enjoy the moment, because it seems to have all passed so quickly, and then you will realise as I do, how special this time of the year can be.

I have read this over, and realise that one or two of my children may read this and squirm a bit with embarrasment, but if they do, they should read it again when they have children. Then they will understand what the love of a child on Christmas morning is, and how magical this day is.

Merry Christmas to all of you
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:sob:

Damn snow getting in eyes and all that...
 
Vaporised reindeer and a Santa smoothie.......things don't look good for Father Christmas!
And that's before he even gets to the Milk and cookies!
Yipes.
 
Trevp666 said:
Vaporised reindeer and a Santa smoothie.......things don't look good for Father Christmas!
And that's before he even gets to the Milk and cookies!
Yipes.
Click to expand...
Hey, it's magic, ok!? Rationality is not a high priority when explaining Santa.

I remember as a kid seeing Santa at the mall before Christmas, then of course at Christmas Eve and then again when the local labour union where my father was a member, held childrens Christmas parties for the members in January (December is of course too busy for most people to attend it).

Children are not able to see it doesn't make sense until they reach 7 or 8 years old.
 
Stop it, I’m getting all sentimental reading these posts. My youngest is nine, and this will probably be his last year in believing, so I’m milking every drop if you don’t mind. :)

I remember at his age, I was asked what I wanted for Christmas, and I said one thing and one thing only “strimmer wire”

I’d seen the older kids in the local Arcade, put a 10-inch length of strimmer wire in the gaming machine slots, yank it a few times and dozens of credits would appear - ha free gaming. It only worked with the older types of slots though, so you couldn’t scam every machine.

Ahh, happy days.

And before any of you think, miss spent youth, well you’d be right. I could get up to a 76 break at snooker by the age of 14. :D
 
Dick Turpin said:
Stop it, I’m getting all sentimental reading these posts. My youngest is nine, and this will probably be his last year in believing, so I’m milking every drop if you don’t mind. :)

I remember at his age, I was asked what I wanted for Christmas, and I said one thing and one thing only “strimmer wire”

I’d seen the older kids in the local Arcade, put a 10-inch length of strimmer wire in the gaming machine slots, yank it a few times and dozens of credits would appear - ha free gaming. It only worked with the older types of slots though, so you couldn’t scam every machine.

Ahh, happy days.

And before any of you think, miss spent youth, well you’d be right. I could get up to a 76 break at snooker by the age of 14. :D
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My niece's older child (about 7) had the great idea of asking Alexa whether Elves can move on their own.
 Niece thought 'Uh oh, 'ere we go, rumbled!' but Alexa's reply was that the Elves can only move when nobody's looking as their job is to watch and listen to everything that goes on.

I tried asking Google and the answer was the same.
Good enough for me. Can recommend. :cool:
 
escargot said:
My niece's older child (about 7) had the great idea of asking Alexa whether Elves can move on their own.
Niece thought 'Uh oh, 'ere we go, rumbled!' but Alexa's reply was that the Elves can only move when nobody's looking as their job is to watch and listen to everything that goes on.

I tried asking Google and the answer was the same.
Good enough for me. Can recommend. :cool:
Click to expand...

Ah, I still do that for my boy Scargy. Since the tree and decs have gone up, he comes down each morning to find the Elf has moved to another part of the tree. Yesterday morning he came down and shouted that the Elf has gone. Look on the hallway mat I shouted back. He did, and there it was. His letter from Father Christmas, telling him that he will be getting presents on Christmas morning.

I packed him off to school a very happy boy. His school bag in one hand and his letter from Father Christmas in the other, all to show his little school mates.

In fact, I’m going to have to make this one of the last years with the Santa letter…………….otherwise he’s gonna get the shit kicked out of him in a few years’ time. :(
 
My friends made a cardboard cut-out of a large shoe sole, then after their son had gone to bed, used it as a mask to create a series of footsteps from their fireplace (real fire!) to the Christmas tree by sprinkling 'snow' over the cut-out (I think they used flour).
 
I saw Santa in Dec 1976, a few days before xmas.
I was coming home from school (may have been the last day before holidays) and there was a light covering of snow on the ground - not much and it would probably have melted away by next day. Anyway, as I turned into a street that was just around the corner from home, Santa in his sleigh drew up alongside - he waved and threw me a packet of sweets, I stooped to pick them up - and when I straightened up - he and the sleigh were gone.
Now this was just round the corner from the old Co-op coal merchants, so I would assume this was someone from there off to some organised event dressed for the part.
Couple of problems with the "common sense" theory however- far as I know the coal merchants didnt have horses and, especially as the street was cobbled I don't see how it could've dissapeared so fast and out of sight.
I don't belive in Gods, but I might believe in Santa.....
 
We didn’t make a huge thing about Santa Claus when I was young, but I definitely felt the ‘magic’. I loved decorating the tree and my favourite thing was the traditional advent calendars with the lovely pictures, all glittery and the little doors had pictures behind them; might be just a bit of holly or a star or something, but every day felt like opening a door into a magic world. I ordered one this year but it got lost in the post :( they said. Sometimes I can feel that magic, if I delve deep.
 
Like the start of the topic I used to listen out for his Bells on the Sleigh when I was young ( same with Halloween going to bed hoping to hear cackling Witches zooming around on the Broomsticks) but sadly would wake up to a bright mild day BAH HUMBUG while apart form 1976/1981/1994/1995/2009/2010 and last year for White Christmas.
 
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