Happy holidays Solo Fam! (☞ﾟヮﾟ)☞ I'm FOREVER GRATEFUL that you stopped by to learn some crazy new history with me! Your views, likes, comments, and subs all help the channel grow and allow the Messed Up Origins™ team continue looking into the _messed up origins_ of your favorite myths and folklore! ▼ Podcast Links! ▼ » Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/jon-solos-messed-up-origins-podcast/id1631064271 » Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/0zC1NxCX576HHQUoYCuGDo » Google Podcasts: www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vbWVzc2VkdXBvcmlnaW5z » Amazon Music: music.amazon.com/podcasts/e2ab5016-5166-4670-b0a3-7c6ade06947d/jon-solos-messed-up-origins-podcast » Stitcher: www.stitcher.com/podcast/jon-solos-messed-up-origins-podcast » iHeartRadio: iheart.com/podcast/99117988/
@Jon Solo Sorry to inform you, but Santa has already given all the Lego Medieval Blacksmith sets because I have the good physical blackmail on his history of breaking and entering homes and the "Christmas Magic" he uses to get in and out unseen and I can just seen Thanatos to get him. He is truly not immortal, The "Santa" figure has just been a long legacy of the children and decedents of Hermes . See you in 50 to 60 years Sincerely, Lord Hades, King and God of the Underworld, God of Riches, Eldest son of Kronos and Rhea, The unseen one, wielder of the Helm of Invisibility and Bident, holder of Cerberus, Consort to Persephone. P.S. This is just a joke to all who read this comment
Total agreement with pointing out the silliness of slapping an "Identity" on the idea of Santa. The only "tradition" my family had was that we gifted what was needed or something that was used commonly. Being in an interracial family, for the Christmas meal, we would have dishes common to America and Korea. The same went for Thanksgiving and the New Year. You might see a Turkey, but you can guarantee there would be rice, kimchi, and some other ban-chan included.
I remember the first time I had my parents over for Thanksgiving dinner. They had just moved back to America from China. My step mom is from Xi’an China. My father met and married my step-mom Jing, when he was teaching English to young school children. Jing had never had Turkey before. When they are not visiting family for the holidays they will go out to dinner for Thanksgiving or Hanukkah and have duck. I’m half Jewish & half Catholic so…yeah, I celebrate both holiday.
I'm not Asian, at least that I know of cause I know nothing about my bio dad's side of the family, but I love kimchi. I was sick one day in high school watching a rerun of a show called mash, heard them talking about it and decided I was gonna try some and it was amazing lol.
I remember when I was little I got a lot of gifts for Christmas and then my mom would cook me a amazing breakfast of pancakes and waffles with cheese eggs and sausage
Jon, I just wanted to share this story with you. About 25 years ago, celebrating xmas at my Pops house with my sister and her daughter. My step mother had a pretty authentic Santa suit and we arranged it for me to wear it complete with a big red bag full of gifts. I entered through the front door, and when I saw my niece watching me, I put my finger to my lips making a shhhhhhh gesture. As a result of that night, my niece believed until she was 16. She would tell her friends she knows he’s real because she saw him first hand putting presents under the tree.
I love what you said about santas identity. People rely too much on labeling eachother based on the outside when really it should come down to one basic question "what kind of person are you?". Drives me insane!
The weirdest part to me is that as far back as I can remember (I'm 34 for what that's worth) there's always been Santa Clause decorations depicting him as various different ethnicities so I feel like people suddenly getting upset at the idea are at least a good three and a half decades late to start crying about "Christmas going woke" or whatever
@@Enixon869 I'm 33 and I remember those same decorations. In fact I can recall one Christmas as a little kid we were in a store (I think it might have been a Khols?) that sold Santa Claus's of different ethnicity, Black, White, Chinese and I think another one was Hispanic. Their suits was traditionally red but was designed to depict the culture each Santa came from.
Dude, Jon Solo you have hit the nail in the head. Your perspective on the Santa identity potential crisis, is absolutely spot on and amazingly correct. Just thank you. I've been following you for a few years now, but this one touched home like no other.. just thank you bro
Honestly one of the stories I've heard that connected Odin to Santa was how he would visit mortals during the winter months disguised as a homeless old man as a test of heart. If you let him stay for the night, a bounty of gold(or other divine blessings) would greet you in the light. If you turned him away, curses would be fall you and your family that day. And if he was Odin... diversity would be easy to fix, Odin's a shapeshifter and can take any form.
Father Christmas / vater jol was odin, and the tradition with the chistmas stockings is for giving treats to sleipnir, you give sleipnir a treat, and odin gives you a gift as a thanks
Many norse gods was shapeshifters, used many times for both strange and sometimes fun situations.. Read up on the story how sleipner was created and you will love norse mythology :) Its so strange so its fun.
I liked what you said about Santa not having an identity. I like the idea that Santa's defining features are generosity and spreading joy and then different families and cultures can portray Santa's other features however they want to. It reminds me of the film Arthur Christmas which seems to have a similar message.
I personally believe that Santa shows up in whatever form we picture him in. For example, he probably wouldn’t show up as a Hawaiian guy in West Africa, because I doubt many West African children have ever seen a Hawaiian person, in order to imagine one. I also think the image we feel comfortable with is important too. Santa may not show up as a man to a little girl that has only had bad experiences with and is scared of men. Santa is magic so he can do anything.
Is that why conservative Christians are burning every book that tells the history of any minority in America? Seems like their agenda to dumb down their supporters is working lol
Cultural appropriation is Racist and Santa mythos is European and it is Racist and Supremacist to say it shouldn't be respected. Yes Santa in the myth loves all, but you can't change his complexion, European heritage, gender, or sexuality etc.
I am so glad that I got introduced to your channel. I have really enjoyed it very much. I am a 66 year old Granny who has always loved Christmas and not one of those who take away the magic of it from children these days. Thank you for an awesome year and looking forward to the next one. Love you bunches.
Beautiful message at the end. Yes, everyone can be Santa. I had a teacher who wore a Santa necklace at the holidays when I was in high school and it was black because she was black. A few students made an issue about it and she said her Santa was black as were her kids. I'm white but I loved that so much that when I moved out on my own I bought a black Santa to top my tree the only year I decorated for the holeday. When I got looks at buying I just said, "My Santa was black." She was one of a few teachers who really stood up for me in school so it was a way of keeping a happy memory from that time.
@@JonSolo Thank you. I plan on sharing this video on Christmas day in the Trans support group I mod in. I try to have little events for those whose families reject them for their gender identity. Try to give them some bright spots on an otherwise hard day. You're message at the end, including trans Santas will mean more than you know.
However, there is another pov , no one likes to have their culture heritage appropriated. Think about how some people have been offended by other cultures getting treated as costumes on Halloween and have rightly complained. The mythos of Santa/Father's Christmas/ Grandfather Frost is European in origin and that should be respected without appropriation. Appropriation can be Racist in itself.
I think some parts of the world forget how diverse Christmas is around the world. I mean, where I live Santa lives in Lapland (the traditional region for the Sami culture), which is why he has reinderrs. We have no such things as stockings, he will come to our homes on Christmas Eve, usually when families are gathered, hand out presents (and for some strange reason, dad always just HAS to head out to buy a newspaper right before he arrives). And shortly after he leaves, dad returns, it is so strange. And before Santa,by tradition, we had a goat who did a similar job. There is also the theory that the farmland guardiants, known as tomte, also migrated to Lapland and now helps him, but you can still find them in some places and they appreciate a bowl of porridge on Christmas Eve. And before you ask, I live in Sweden, which has nothing to do with the origin of the story, but we kind of have our version of Christmas here. though if you want to get really wacky, try to find an person from Iceland to tell you, they have 13 Santas and one cat from hell.
I was raised Greek Orthodox so the church I was raised in put a lot more empasis on Saint Nicholas and December 6th than on the holiday of Christmas itself. I love the idea that Santa can look like anyone or be anything they want to be. Bringing up my daughter, we always told her what my parents told me: mall Santas work for the big guy and going to see them is like talking to him personally. That way, if we ran into a less than traditional looking Santa, it was still okay. I love the idea of someone who gives selflessly to everyone. It's a great message and I think more folks should try to immulate that idea of Santa, not just at Christmas, but all year.
Same here in Slovenia while we do celebrate Christmas on December 25th it's kinda big deal here, we do give more emphasis on December 6th and Sinterklaas day(Miklavž- St. Nick)
We also told our daughter that all the Santas in malls and such were the Big Guy’s helpers, b/c he was naturally quite busy up at HQ overseeing all the toy-making and reindeer care…. Our daughter always has had a keen eye and a healthy dose of skepticism, and started asking questions about how different they all looked, etc., at a pretty early age, but this explanation made sense to her. The Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny were on the chopping block much sooner, though, for being much less believable lol
I wanted to share a nice Christmas Eve story as a kid. I couldn't sleep so both my dad and grandpa pretended to be Santa on the roof top and happily ran to tell my family what I heard.
I absolutely love what you said about the identiy of Santa. It was so well said and I agree 100%. Let Santa represent love, hope and joy. That's what Santa is meant to be.
Folklore and mythology are both very important subjects to me. I am a former English teacher, and I am very glad to have found your channel recently on TH-cam. I really appreciate that you produce videos on these topics because they are incredibly important to educating people about the history and background of the stories we were told and in turn tell our children through the generations. And it’s crucial that we keep up with the history of how they came about because if we don’t, it would be lost forever. So I am grateful for the work that you do. Your work along with the people who focus on storytelling are preserving the things that truly matter in our world culture that is so focused on progress that we are in danger of forgetting about our history which is crucial to our future. Thank you.
I always learn something new from you. 😊 When I was small, "Santa" put up the tree and decorated it as well as delivering the presents. It was magical waking up on Christmas morning and seeing the lighted tree and all the presents. As we got older, my parents did more of the tree to "help Santa" since he was so busy.
Came here for the great info as usual and stayed for the awesome stance you took at the end. May we all, regardless of background find joy and unity during the holidays. A fantastic one to you and yours Mr. Solo!
This is by far your best video yet! I love your take on Santa! My parents would give us three presents ever year, and they were labeled as "Gold," "Frankincense," and "Myrrh." Frankincense was something you need, myrrh was something spiritual, and gold was something fun. We would also go to my grandparents' house on Christmas Eve to eat Christmas foods like ham, sing Christmas carols, and then read the story of Christ's birth in Luke 2. Clearly "The Reason for the Season" was EXTREMELY important to my family. Now my brothers and I are all heathens, but my mom asked us if we still want to do the gold, frankincense, and myrrh thing and we all agreed because tradition, and the grandkids are all old enough that we don't go to my grandparents' house for Christmas Eve anymore.
Sounds a little like a poem that's a guideline for parents giving gifts to their kids: "Something they want/Something they need/Something to wear/Something to read." In my case, it's "Something to read/Something to read/Something to read/Something to read." (I'd add in "something to listen to" or "something to watch", but I haven't been asking for DVDs or Broadway CDs as much since you can find so many movies streaming and so much music on TH-cam.)
I know a family who did that with their kids and I thought it was a neat idea. Their gifts were always meaningful and it gave them a framework to avoid going overboard.
Happy holidays Jon! Here in the Philippines, particularly in our family, we grew up hanging socks/stockings in our window (since we don't have chimneys here 😅) and when we wake up at 12midnight our socks will be filled with chocolates, apple and money. Now that I'm older, I give back by giving gifts especially to the children in the family.. now I'm busy making crocheted gifts for the family 🥰
18:45-18:48 'If you want to spread positivity, go ahead and be Santa Claus. Just don't vape while you are in the suit.' Man this quote got me LAUGHING 🤣🤣🤣
This is by far one of the best episodes you’ve ever made Jon and I got to say I love that last part that you threw in there it’s about time that somebody spoke to those haters because they will look for every excuse in the book to hate! Merry Christmas!
My new fav holiday tradition is leaving a box of snacks outside our door for the all the delivery drivers. Thanks for the Christmas content. Merry Christmas!🎄🎅🏼
I can't believe I let this amazing video slip under my radar. The storytelling was on point, and the information was top-notch, as always. Your content is just a perfect mix of funny and smart, and I genuinely appreciate the effort you put into it, Thank you!
Every year, my cousin and her husband celebrates Christmas at her house. It's always love when we all arrive. No one is angry, no one is fighting, and no matter how our year was, we always seem to find our way there. Thank you for making this episode, and Happy Holidays
I'm actually surprised you just now made this video lol. Also, the way you talked about breaking Santa's leg was too hilarious since you had such a straight face saying it.
Hey Jon, Sinterklaas doesn't come on december 6. He comes the second weekend of november and stays in the country visiting schools and malls for weeks. The evening of 5 december is pakjesavond and then the big presents are delivered. This is because the story says that december 5th is his birthday. That night he also travels back home to Spain.
This is appearantly region dependent. As far as I understand, the Netherlands open the gifts at the 5th of December and here in Belgium it is the 6th of December. Not very sure about the reason for the difference.
As far as I know 6th of December Sinterklaas travels back to spain,the night before he leaves the gifts for the children. Thats why 5th December night or 6th December morning would be the time for presents. I don't know how it is done in Belgium on the 6th.
Yes indeed, in the Netherlands a bag of gifts is delivered on the 5th, and between his arrival in NL and the 5th, children can place their shoe near the chimney (or other heater), sing sinterklaas songs, and find a small present in their shoe the next morning. Usually this is not allowed every evening; this would give him and his helpers too much work, and that would be selfish. Also at some shops and schools children can leave a (paper folded) shoe and get a small present.
December 6th is his birthday, that's why he delivers presents the night before and then leaves to celebrate his birthday the next day. That's the legend told to kids. However, it seems that December 6th is actually the day that the bishop of Myra died and nobody knows when he was born. That's why that date has been picked to celebrate, it's the only date we're sure of. Or so it seems. Btw, yes Sinterklaas is indeed the bishop of Myra. At least, that's what I've read about him. And not just on the internet 😅
Omg, we love you Jon Solo! Can't believe something said in earnest made me tear up and bring back.... At least some faith in humanity. Happy holidays to you and yours Mr. Shot First!
I really love the idea that Santa can be any gender, color, or sexual orientation. You don't have to be a straight white man to share kindness, generosity, and love with the world and the world certainly needs more of all three. If it makes someone's heart happy to dress up as Santa and spread some positivity around, then it makes my heart happy to support them. Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, all the Merrys Jon!!
Love, love, love your comments!! And I totally agree!! If only more people thought this way, we could possibly be a more accepting and loving society instead of trying to separate ourselves!!! Thank you for getting that message out there!! Love you and your videos!! I think you, your wife, and pug children are so cute!! Merry Christmas to you all!!
We say Santa is a spirit and everybody gets the spirit of Santa in them... That way the kids don't get confused when they see multiple Santa clauses running around
My honorary grandfather used to tell me about his one grandmother. On Christmas eve she'd go out with a stick and draw the imprints of sleigh runners in the snow. And when I was a kid, we made "reindeer snacks" by mixing oatmeal and carrot sticks with some glitter (so it would reflect and could be found) and scattered it around the front yard. Santa also got a thank you note with his cookies, and would leave a note behind.
My family's Christmas tradition is to stay in our Christmas PJs all day, them when it gets dark, we sit by the fire place with some hot chocolate and watch Christmas movies from sundown to sunrise.
I don’t like when legends are changed. It kind of bugs me when a legend has been so cemented in people’s minds that they basically feel the legend is correct. Then someone comes along and changes minor details.
On Christmas eve we get together exchange books and drink tea or hot chocolate while tracking Santa. It's a great way to wind the kids down to go to bed.
Awesome speech man. This is why Jonsolo is my favorite informative channel. As for my family traditions, we watch the live action Grinch every year and my mom, even with us as adults, makes us get into holiday pajamas and reads us Twas the Night Before Christmas
Santa, to me, will always be a pipe-smokin', cookie-eating, Coke-drinking, obese, barrel-bellied bundle of joy! 🎅 ❤️ **My family's special tradition is our Festivus Pole 😃
For some reason this doesn't surprise me, because despite being the holy representation of the holidays you can't expect everything about the origins of jolly old Saint Nicholas to be all mistletoe and candy canes. but i enjoyed the folklore you shared with us in this vid as always Jon, thank you so much and Merry Christmas to you!!!
As someone who's just moved to Germany, im trying to figure out the various traditional Santa-esque figures they have here, and how they somehow all operate at the same time. Only a few were mentioned in this video. So far ive come across the Christkindl, Sinterklaas, Sankt Nikolaus, Krampus, Belsnickel, Pelzmärtel/Pelznickel, Weihnachtsmann (Santa) and Knecht Ruprecht. Some of them appear with the gift-giver to punish bad kids (via kidnapping, beating, or a bad gift), while others are religion based (Protestant vs Catholic) and are therefore interchangeable depending on your chosen faith. Whats blowing my mind is that a significant portion of them exist at the same time with no overlap (One gives candy to good kids while the other gives presents etc, or one appears in hordes while the other appears alone). Ive also been told that the various regions of the country celebrate different figures and/or have different overall traditions in this regard. You can bet im going to start asking freinds and neighbours to make sense of it all for me, but id love to see a video about the various versions of well known figures in different cultures, as well as how they co-exist in the same holiday. Anyway, love your videos, keep doing what you do!
I was saying we don’t have a tradition in my family and than I remembered dads side is Greek Orthodox so we technically celebrate Christmas twice. First on the 25th Of December on the Gregorian calendar (that’s the one most people use) with moms side and again on the 25th of December on the Julian calendar (7th of January Gregorian) with dads. One advantage is there’s no fights over holidays among the in-laws
The people Who disliked this video about santa are pretty much getting coal for Christmas. Love your videos and keep making them. Santa in my opinion was always a guy who can change his form to whatever house hold he enters cause Santa ain’t no racist or religious phobic, he’s a person who loves to give cheer to all boys and girls who are good. Happy holidays!
Watched to the end and am giving you a very BIG THANK YOU for saying that Father Christmas, Santa Claus, Kris Kringle or whatever anyone wishes to call the big red suited man who gives gifts on the 24th/25th December no matter what their colour, religion, sexual orientation, etc. So many choices to a simple gift giving tradition created by a far more simplistic human race than there is today in our seemingly "have to categorise society" that seems so evident today! MAY YOU HAVE A WONDERFUL JOYFUL CHRISTMAS EVENT!
You're awesome! Thank you for your content, my family listens to it all the time. Happy holidays and here is hoping for a lot more of your content in the coming year!
Dude I just wanna say how much I absolutely adore what you said about Santa being not specifically gendered or having a precise skin tone etc. You're my hero ❤️
To me growing up Santa never had a color or genda but was just about rewarding children. In the Caribbean there's no snow so we don't worry about that,my family love baking bread and ham Christmas Eve night, after gifts are packed away. Merry Christmas to all, happy Hanukkah and Kwanzaa too
That was a lovely message at the end, totally agree that Santa is about being Santa, not what he (or she, or they) looks like. Some really interesting info in this video, I did not know about that mix-up with St Nick! 😂🤦♀ Hope you have a wonderful Christmas.
I've watched a few Santa doc's over the years (I'm 57) and you didn't disappoint - I learnt something new. I also love your description of what Santa should be at the end. Have a happy Xmas ⭐🎉
In The Year without a Santa movie, Mrs Claus sings a song about how anyone can be Santa after she puts on the suit. I thought of that near the end while talking about the overall identity of Santa. Seemed fitting for the topic. 🎅 🤶 I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday season.
My family Christmas tradition before my parents split was that we would always go driving all around my town and look at all the Christmas lights that people have put up which is really sweet. Since I've moved out of home and shared a household with my boyfriend and his best friend, we have decided to now go Christmas lights looking and listen to Christmas music and sing together in the car while driving around which has become a very cute tradition for me and hopefully I can share my Christmas cheer with others. 😎
Rankin and Bass for the win! Those were the best parts of the Christmas holiday, in my opinion. It always made me eager to celebrate. We baked/cooked/and created pastries and desserts Christmas Eve then the rest of the holiday feast early on Christmas Day. Christmas Eve dinner eventually became a buffet-style setup of catered food, such as veggies/dip, olives/pickles, pumpernickel bread bowl with dip inside and bread chunks put around the outside, shrimps with cocktail sauce, and the best part was the nachos loaded with ground beef, shredded cheese, salsa, and sour cream. 😋 Or was that New Year's Eve? 🤔 I don't know. It's been years. 😂 But the Christmas dinner was very traditional, ham, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes/yams, etc. My favorite was my late grandmother's Blueberry Delight. I barely remember, but it was Graham crackers crumpled and layered over the bottom of a glass casserole dish, a layer of canned blueberries in...that blueberry syrup stuff, then on the top was the butter cream (I think). It was really good! I miss those times. 😢 Thank you for clarifying the red suit and Cocoa Cola conspiracy theory. That one drives me up the wall. And also thank you for being real when it comes to all these biases. All the winter holidays are about celebration and gift-giving (that I know of). Humans are humans, no matter what they look like, no matter their gender, no matter their sexual orientation, etc. Let's celebrate that with no harm to anyone. Thank you, Jon, for this great video!
One thing I think is interesting concerning the folklore around Santa is that every family can come up with its own and it could be just as plausible as the one that has been unanimously accepted. For example, I remember when I was 5 or 6, starting to retain the knowledge about Santa Claus, and getting upset. The canon is that Santa enters your house through the chimney. But what if your house doesn't have a chimney? My mom explained that Santa had a special cane that he carries with him that can open any door. My 5-or-6-year-old mind took it to mean a candy cane, like the large, fat kind or the plastic ones filled with M&Ms or Reese's Cups. My parents accepted my headcanon and began leaving one hanging on the door every Christmas since then. In the movie "Ernest Saves Christmas", the power and magic of Santa Claus is transferable from one person to another. The current (in the movie) Santa Claus is looking to retire, and he'd already picked out a replacement, a host of a children's TV show. The host is reluctant at first, but soon accepts. There's one scene involving Ernest and Santa's sleigh, along with a couple of his elves. They have all of the reindeer hitched up to the sleigh, and Ernest is trying to get them to take off. He says a few varying commands, until the elves start reciting the lines from the poem, and each reindeer's name lights up like the dashboard of a 1970s Oldsmobile Cutlass. Ernest finishes it off, but he can never remember the last reindeer, Blitzen, until the elves shout it out. Santa's sack in the film didn't have actual toys, just a bunch of glowing orbs filled with children's laughter, and when touched, it would turn into a toy. A teenage runaway was turning some of the orbs into various toys, but becoming disappointed when they weren't cool things, like a stereo or new pair of shoes.
Absolutely loved your comment on the “identity” of Santa! It’s really nice to think about Santa as this magical being who spreads joy and hope to the world rather than what his ethnicity or sexual orientation is. We don’t always have to put a label on every single thing we come across, and it’s nice. Now I’m going to check out the Krampus video because, why not?
Actually yes! My family had two unique traditons regarding Christmas. One is on Christmas eve after the Candlelight service (My dad was a pastor so we attended church on Christmas eve to celebrate the Christ in Christmas) we would eat Chinese food and our Santa story was a bit different. Like I said as Christians we believe the reason for the season is Christ's birth so for my mom Santa was an angel who was Jesus's helper and gave gifts to the nice children.
Thank you for your positive message at the end of the video. I agree that people tend to define themselves with too many labels that don;t really matter and that we should all accept everyone regardless of who they are. I find it funny and ironic that those parents who complained about Santa smoking are the same ones who kept up the pretense to their kids that Santa Claus is even a real person and then later psychologically scar their kids by revealing that he isn't real at all. I was kind of expecting you to cover some of the other more darker versions of Santa's character, such as Krampus for example, but maybe that might be better for a different video. I no longer celebrate the holiday myself, but I was always fascinated by the Santa Claus character.
Maybe next year's Christmas episode you can talk about the different rewards and punishments that Santa 🎅 and/or other characters do during the holidays.
One family tradition we do for Christmas is read 📖 about the story in the Book of Mormon about the Lamanite prophet Samuel, tells the Nephites to prepare for the birth of Jesus. Some wicked Nephites are about to murder the other Nephites who believe in Christ if a sign of His birth doesn't happen. When the sun ☀ goes down on the night that the wicked Nephites plan to slaughter the good Nephites, the sky doesn't go dark. It's like its still daytime without the sun in the sky for one full night, which was the sign that Christ was born. The Bad Guys run away, the good guys celebrate, and we learn that it good to stand by your belief in God.
Sinterklaas gives a bundle of sticks for the parents to spank their kids with. And if you’re even worse, he just takes you with him to Spain in a bag so you can work for him
Apparently the Christmas pickle is something that’s not super common- but this is one of out family traditions. I’ve read that it comes from German tradition so that makes sense, my family is German
My step-mother’s family has always done the pickle (in the form of an ornament), but I hadn’t ever heard of it until I saw one on the tree at my dad’s 20-ish years ago.
My family does this, but with a pickle ornament tucked in the tree instead of an actual pickle. My mom's ancestors were Prussian, so we do some German things.
OMG YES! yes yes yes I completely agree with your stance on how Santa should just be Santa. you put that so well and I appreciate that I'm not the only one in the world who thinks all this segregating and "acceptance" is doing more harm then good. If all are really equal then why are we still hating on each other for being different. I don't care what color gender or orientation you are if you are a good person you are my kind of person.
As a Dutchie with Indonesian roots, you did a pretty good job about the origins of Santa Clause. Although I disagree about the part that Black Pete is "racially insensitive." There is a legend where St Nicholas of Myra saved a black Ethiopian boy (from the Aksumite Empire) from slavery by buying him from its enslavers, let him work for him and then release him when the boy became an adult. The former slave wanted to stay with St Nicholas by choice, not because he was forced into it. Therefor, Black Pete is NOT a slave, which a lot of activists or anthropologists claim to be. The character also exists to protect the identity of the "actors" who portray said character (which may be offensive to Americans, Canadians, Australians New Zealanders and even the British. Culture shock, I guess) So in summary: The character was NEVER created with the intention to offend or to create a stereotype, but as a sort of father-and-son collaboration to spread joy despite the many diffrences between the bishop and the former slave. Black Pete also stands as a symbol AGAINST opression, slavery and (yes, I am not joking) racism. I don't think that the English speaking part of the world (US, Canada, UK, etc.) should judge a tradition they don't understand or like, 'cause you can't use the same measures to decide what is "socially acceptle" or not. It's all very subjective by now and it's not up to them to decide how we want to celebrate Sinterklaas
Powerful message Jon. Love it 👏 good points too I'll never forget what one of my patients said once before. I worked at a behavioral facility. A therapist asked them were they expecting a gift from Santa and my patient replied: "How the hell's he gonna get in here? We do t have a damn chimney." No lie. Kids aren't dumb so please stop giving Santa credit for what we parents do 😂
Most modern houses don't have chimneys but it doesn't seem to dent the childhood faith in Santa! He's magic, he can come through windows or just unlock the door if he wants! ;) Kids aren't dumb, but yet it's part of the human condition to believe (or to want to believe) in the supernatural. So we have Santa, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, ghosts, aliens... and general religion!
My parents had me watch the Santa Claus movie and in that movie it shows that Santa Claus just magically creates chimneys where there aren't any which was very helpful for me
@@Fledhyris Friend got mad at me for my opinion on gift wrapping. I said it's a waste of time to wrap every gift, before I could finish my sentence,she went of a religious rant immediately. I told her I'd hate to hear what she would tell a Muslim or Buddhist just so she could understand the weight of some of the things she was saying and how Christmas does not mean the same thing to everyone and in other countries. Anyway, I finally told I was going to say some gifts are better placed in bags. Then she was like "Oh." So I don't think general religion has much to do with it.
Jon, have you read Hogfather, by Terry Pratchett? It discusses the origins and evolution of the Hogfather (the Discworld's version of Santa Clause), while telling an engrossing story.
A tradition I took from my foster home was the role of Secret Santa. When we got old enough and started to lose faith in Santa, one of the older kids or my mom would take us aside and talk to us about why we no longer believe. At the end of the talk they reminded us that spreading kindness is Santa's goal. Not just giving people gifts. And that he entrusts nice children to spread a helping hand and kindness to those in need. They would give us a sheriff badge that was made to look like tree topper and ask us if we want to be take on Santa's greatest task and become a secret Santa. I loved it growing up. Still sticks with me today. I plan to do the same with my daughter when she comes of age.
Yes! Totally agree with your stance! A tradition for me and my family is we watch Terry Pratchett's Hogfather. It's a three hour movie about this other world, called the Discworld, where the grim reaper himself has to become the Hogfather(Santa) in order to keep people believing in him. That's a very brief overview and the ending definitely has a much more meaningful message. I definitely recommend it to any and everyone!
In Romania, we celebrate both Saint Nicholas, on December 5th, and Santa Claus, on December 24th. In our folklore, it is tradition that on St. Nicholas, you put your boots at the front door, and if you were nice that year, he would bring you presents and sweets. However, if you were naughty, you would get a wooden rod. Also, we had a legend about how St. Nick saved three children from being eaten by a butcher, who then became Krampus. Also, Santa’s sleigh is pulled by 12 white bunny rabbits.
I really hope you listened to David Sedaris read his Christmas classic "Six to Eight Black Men" in preparing for this. It's all about him discovering European interpretations of Santa.
Hey, Jon. I first off wanted to say that I agree with your final comment one hundred percent. It doesn’t matter the color or sexuality of Santa. It’s what he symbolizes and what he means to everyone that matters most. With that note aside my family has gone through a few traditions concerning Christmas Eve. The original one was pretty standard where she’d read “Twas The Night Before Christmas” to me and my sisters. And after that my mom got into a scuffle with extended family on my Dad’s side. So that’s when we started watching “The Nativity Story” from 2005. But most recent my mom has started reading a countdown to Christmas book. That stars a little reindeer and has flaps to open and items to count. And that is my family’s Christmas traditions and I wouldn’t have it any other way. ^^
I like the idea of Santa is in entity not an identity. If you want your kid to see different types of Santa and you're worried that they'll question why there's a "white Santa" in one place and a "black Santa" in another, you can just say, "Sometimes Santa likes to check on kids in person, so he has to blend in with everyone else. If he looked the same everytime, then it'd be easy for bad children to pretend to be good when they see him."
Thanks for going through all this history and sharing. I love knowing where the concept of Santa Claus comes from. And Yes!!!!!! I completely agree that people can do whatever they want in their home and anyone can dress up as Santa no matter what their gender or skin tone is and they shouldn't put labels in front of it like "Black Santa," just say Santa. While he is traditionally portrayed as an old Caucasian man the concept of this character who goes around the world giving every Christmas is what matters. Christmas is about giving and spreading happiness. Your stance is very nuance and I completely agree with it!!!!!
Klaus is one of the best addition to my Christmas-time must watch movies. Idk how much it adds to the methodology of Santa but I just love the story and it's style.
My family always makes homemade Christmas cutout cookies for the holidays. And as to what you said at the end, to me, Santa will always be a kind grandfatherly figure who inspires people to be kind and always do the right thing. But with today's society, Santa's ideals will eventually be lost to time as everyone wants their ideal version of Santa without focusing on his message
My family is Pagan and while my faith has only recently solidified as Norse Pagan in the past I've been both Christian and Aethiest I even explored a few other faiths but as of this moment I am confident in my faith as a Pagan so we celebrate Yule & Litha and given that Yule is at Winter Time no matter what side of the earth you live on, as me and my family live in Australia we don't celebrate Yule in December instead it's on the 21st & 22nd of June and Litha is what we celebrate in December. But we do wish everyone who does celebrate Christmas in December a merry Christmas and happy holidays.
I found out Santa wasn't actually breaking into my home when, on Christmas Eve (when I was 10 I might add), I went downstairs for a drink of water and caught my mum setting up all of the presents for me and my siblings. She then tried to explain that Santa had come to Scotland early this year and that she had to stay up so she could pay him for his efforts. Suuuuuuure mum, I believe you
I just finished reading The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by Baum and really enjoyed it!! Rankin and Bass also did a heavily abridged version of the story as a Christmas special.
Happy holidays Solo Fam! (☞ﾟヮﾟ)☞ I'm FOREVER GRATEFUL that you stopped by to learn some crazy new history with me! Your views, likes, comments, and subs all help the channel grow and allow the Messed Up Origins™ team continue looking into the _messed up origins_ of your favorite myths and folklore!
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You mean Merry Christmas
Who ever said Santa was smoking tobacco? xD
@Jon Solo
Sorry to inform you, but Santa has already given all the Lego Medieval Blacksmith sets because I have the good physical blackmail on his history of breaking and entering homes and the "Christmas Magic" he uses to get in and out unseen and I can just seen Thanatos to get him. He is truly not immortal, The "Santa" figure has just been a long legacy of the children and decedents of Hermes .
See you in 50 to 60 years
Sincerely,
Lord Hades, King and God of the Underworld, God of Riches, Eldest son of Kronos and Rhea, The unseen one, wielder of the Helm of Invisibility and Bident, holder of Cerberus, Consort to Persephone.
P.S. This is just a joke to all who read this comment
I got the Lego Medieval Blacksmith set because my threat to push him of the roof
Frank Baum(The Wizard of Oz) actually wrote a book called The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus
Total agreement with pointing out the silliness of slapping an "Identity" on the idea of Santa. The only "tradition" my family had was that we gifted what was needed or something that was used commonly. Being in an interracial family, for the Christmas meal, we would have dishes common to America and Korea. The same went for Thanksgiving and the New Year. You might see a Turkey, but you can guarantee there would be rice, kimchi, and some other ban-chan included.
I remember the first time I had my parents over for Thanksgiving dinner. They had just moved back to America from China. My step mom is from Xi’an China. My father met and married my step-mom Jing, when he was teaching English to young school children. Jing had never had Turkey before. When they are not visiting family for the holidays they will go out to dinner for Thanksgiving or Hanukkah and have duck. I’m half Jewish & half Catholic so…yeah, I celebrate both holiday.
I'm not Asian, at least that I know of cause I know nothing about my bio dad's side of the family, but I love kimchi. I was sick one day in high school watching a rerun of a show called mash, heard them talking about it and decided I was gonna try some and it was amazing lol.
Same here people get too out of hand doing things like that.
@@crobot4445 EXACTLY
I remember when I was little I got a lot of gifts for Christmas and then my mom would cook me a amazing breakfast of pancakes and waffles with cheese eggs and sausage
Jon, I just wanted to share this story with you. About 25 years ago, celebrating xmas at my Pops house with my sister and her daughter. My step mother had a pretty authentic Santa suit and we arranged it for me to wear it complete with a big red bag full of gifts. I entered through the front door, and when I saw my niece watching me, I put my finger to my lips making a shhhhhhh gesture. As a result of that night, my niece believed until she was 16. She would tell her friends she knows he’s real because she saw him first hand putting presents under the tree.
I love what you said about santas identity. People rely too much on labeling eachother based on the outside when really it should come down to one basic question "what kind of person are you?". Drives me insane!
Preaching to the choir, my friend!!
Thank you, I couldn't agree more! People have been WAY too focused on our differences, and not nearly enough on how we're the same.
The weirdest part to me is that as far back as I can remember (I'm 34 for what that's worth) there's always been Santa Clause decorations depicting him as various different ethnicities so I feel like people suddenly getting upset at the idea are at least a good three and a half decades late to start crying about "Christmas going woke" or whatever
finaly, i see someone saying what i keep saying everytime people start talking about things like that. so glad im no the only one thinking like that
@@Enixon869 I'm 33 and I remember those same decorations. In fact I can recall one Christmas as a little kid we were in a store (I think it might have been a Khols?) that sold Santa Claus's of different ethnicity, Black, White, Chinese and I think another one was Hispanic. Their suits was traditionally red but was designed to depict the culture each Santa came from.
Dude, Jon Solo you have hit the nail in the head. Your perspective on the Santa identity potential crisis, is absolutely spot on and amazingly correct. Just thank you. I've been following you for a few years now, but this one touched home like no other.. just thank you bro
Honestly one of the stories I've heard that connected Odin to Santa was how he would visit mortals during the winter months disguised as a homeless old man as a test of heart. If you let him stay for the night, a bounty of gold(or other divine blessings) would greet you in the light. If you turned him away, curses would be fall you and your family that day.
And if he was Odin... diversity would be easy to fix, Odin's a shapeshifter and can take any form.
Father Christmas / vater jol was odin, and the tradition with the chistmas stockings is for giving treats to sleipnir, you give sleipnir a treat, and odin gives you a gift as a thanks
Many norse gods was shapeshifters, used many times for both strange and sometimes fun situations.. Read up on the story how sleipner was created and you will love norse mythology :) Its so strange so its fun.
@@lokelaufeyson9931 AbsoLUTEly! And user name checks out
@@TitularHeroine thanks :) i dont like how they changed from user name to the @ thingy and number but its how it is
@@lokelaufeyson9931 ikr? It subtracts from the tidiness of messages I think
I liked what you said about Santa not having an identity. I like the idea that Santa's defining features are generosity and spreading joy and then different families and cultures can portray Santa's other features however they want to. It reminds me of the film Arthur Christmas which seems to have a similar message.
I personally believe that Santa shows up in whatever form we picture him in. For example, he probably wouldn’t show up as a Hawaiian guy in West Africa, because I doubt many West African children have ever seen a Hawaiian person, in order to imagine one. I also think the image we feel comfortable with is important too. Santa may not show up as a man to a little girl that has only had bad experiences with and is scared of men. Santa is magic so he can do anything.
@@findingbeautyinthepain8965 Beautifully said 🤗
Hear, hear!
Love the final statement at the end. People nowadays always talk about equality, but all they see is their differences. Santa is for all
European Jesus agrees...
@@loki2240 nah Black Jesus
Is that why conservative Christians are burning every book that tells the history of any minority in America? Seems like their agenda to dumb down their supporters is working lol
I love that!
Cultural appropriation is Racist and Santa mythos is European and it is Racist and Supremacist to say it shouldn't be respected. Yes Santa in the myth loves all, but you can't change his complexion, European heritage, gender, or sexuality etc.
I am so glad that I got introduced to your channel. I have really enjoyed it very much. I am a 66 year old Granny who has always loved Christmas and not one of those who take away the magic of it from children these days. Thank you for an awesome year and looking forward to the next one. Love you bunches.
This comment made my day! Thanks for watching Janet :) Hope you and your family have a merry Christmas!
@@JonSolo play with the letters and the words and you shall see that santa = satan.
Beautiful message at the end. Yes, everyone can be Santa. I had a teacher who wore a Santa necklace at the holidays when I was in high school and it was black because she was black. A few students made an issue about it and she said her Santa was black as were her kids. I'm white but I loved that so much that when I moved out on my own I bought a black Santa to top my tree the only year I decorated for the holeday. When I got looks at buying I just said, "My Santa was black." She was one of a few teachers who really stood up for me in school so it was a way of keeping a happy memory from that time.
that's a great story! I love that you continued her tradition in your own way. ☺
@@JonSolo Thank you. I plan on sharing this video on Christmas day in the Trans support group I mod in. I try to have little events for those whose families reject them for their gender identity. Try to give them some bright spots on an otherwise hard day. You're message at the end, including trans Santas will mean more than you know.
@@JonSoloevery Christmas Eve me and my sister Kate usually open one gift on Christmas Eve before we go to bed.
However, there is another pov , no one likes to have their culture heritage appropriated.
Think about how some people have been offended by other cultures getting treated as costumes on Halloween and have rightly complained.
The mythos of Santa/Father's Christmas/ Grandfather Frost is European in origin and that should be respected without appropriation. Appropriation can be Racist in itself.
So I guess MLK and Malcom X can be white too. Ok got it.
I think some parts of the world forget how diverse Christmas is around the world.
I mean, where I live Santa lives in Lapland (the traditional region for the Sami culture), which is why he has reinderrs. We have no such things as stockings, he will come to our homes on Christmas Eve, usually when families are gathered, hand out presents (and for some strange reason, dad always just HAS to head out to buy a newspaper right before he arrives). And shortly after he leaves, dad returns, it is so strange.
And before Santa,by tradition, we had a goat who did a similar job. There is also the theory that the farmland guardiants, known as tomte, also migrated to Lapland and now helps him, but you can still find them in some places and they appreciate a bowl of porridge on Christmas Eve.
And before you ask, I live in Sweden, which has nothing to do with the origin of the story, but we kind of have our version of Christmas here.
though if you want to get really wacky, try to find an person from Iceland to tell you, they have 13 Santas and one cat from hell.
I was raised Greek Orthodox so the church I was raised in put a lot more empasis on Saint Nicholas and December 6th than on the holiday of Christmas itself. I love the idea that Santa can look like anyone or be anything they want to be. Bringing up my daughter, we always told her what my parents told me: mall Santas work for the big guy and going to see them is like talking to him personally. That way, if we ran into a less than traditional looking Santa, it was still okay. I love the idea of someone who gives selflessly to everyone. It's a great message and I think more folks should try to immulate that idea of Santa, not just at Christmas, but all year.
I agree. & According to a documentary, that was the type of person St. Nickolaus was
Same here in Slovenia while we do celebrate Christmas on December 25th it's kinda big deal here, we do give more emphasis on December 6th and Sinterklaas day(Miklavž- St. Nick)
We also told our daughter that all the Santas in malls and such were the Big Guy’s helpers, b/c he was naturally quite busy up at HQ overseeing all the toy-making and reindeer care…. Our daughter always has had a keen eye and a healthy dose of skepticism, and started asking questions about how different they all looked, etc., at a pretty early age, but this explanation made sense to her. The Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny were on the chopping block much sooner, though, for being much less believable lol
I wanted to share a nice Christmas Eve story as a kid. I couldn't sleep so both my dad and grandpa pretended to be Santa on the roof top and happily ran to tell my family what I heard.
I really appreciate your stance on the "identity" part of Santa. I agree with you on it.
I absolutely love what you said about the identiy of Santa. It was so well said and I agree 100%. Let Santa represent love, hope and joy. That's what Santa is meant to be.
The one history channel I watch without getting bored
Hahaha glad I can keep you awake! 😂
Providing false information like claiming St. Nikolas was a Turkish bishop 🙄
Folklore and mythology are both very important subjects to me. I am a former English teacher, and I am very glad to have found your channel recently on TH-cam. I really appreciate that you produce videos on these topics because they are incredibly important to educating people about the history and background of the stories we were told and in turn tell our children through the generations. And it’s crucial that we keep up with the history of how they came about because if we don’t, it would be lost forever. So I am grateful for the work that you do. Your work along with the people who focus on storytelling are preserving the things that truly matter in our world culture that is so focused on progress that we are in danger of forgetting about our history which is crucial to our future. Thank you.
I always learn something new from you. 😊 When I was small, "Santa" put up the tree and decorated it as well as delivering the presents. It was magical waking up on Christmas morning and seeing the lighted tree and all the presents. As we got older, my parents did more of the tree to "help Santa" since he was so busy.
that's so clever!
Came here for the great info as usual and stayed for the awesome stance you took at the end. May we all, regardless of background find joy and unity during the holidays. A fantastic one to you and yours Mr. Solo!
This is by far your best video yet! I love your take on Santa! My parents would give us three presents ever year, and they were labeled as "Gold," "Frankincense," and "Myrrh." Frankincense was something you need, myrrh was something spiritual, and gold was something fun. We would also go to my grandparents' house on Christmas Eve to eat Christmas foods like ham, sing Christmas carols, and then read the story of Christ's birth in Luke 2. Clearly "The Reason for the Season" was EXTREMELY important to my family.
Now my brothers and I are all heathens, but my mom asked us if we still want to do the gold, frankincense, and myrrh thing and we all agreed because tradition, and the grandkids are all old enough that we don't go to my grandparents' house for Christmas Eve anymore.
The gold, frankincense and myrrh presents is such a beautiful tradition 🥺 thanks for sharing
@@jaybirdie1428 That’s facts
Sounds a little like a poem that's a guideline for parents giving gifts to their kids: "Something they want/Something they need/Something to wear/Something to read." In my case, it's "Something to read/Something to read/Something to read/Something to read." (I'd add in "something to listen to" or "something to watch", but I haven't been asking for DVDs or Broadway CDs as much since you can find so many movies streaming and so much music on TH-cam.)
I know a family who did that with their kids and I thought it was a neat idea. Their gifts were always meaningful and it gave them a framework to avoid going overboard.
Happy Holidays to you too John and your loved ones. Hitting the nail on the head with the Santa identity thing. Could not have said it better myself.
Happy holidays Jon! Here in the Philippines, particularly in our family, we grew up hanging socks/stockings in our window (since we don't have chimneys here 😅) and when we wake up at 12midnight our socks will be filled with chocolates, apple and money.
Now that I'm older, I give back by giving gifts especially to the children in the family.. now I'm busy making crocheted gifts for the family 🥰
18:45-18:48 'If you want to spread positivity, go ahead and be Santa Claus. Just don't vape while you are in the suit.'
Man this quote got me LAUGHING
🤣🤣🤣
One of my favorite traditions is to go driving around the neighborhood in the evening to see everybody's outdoor decorations!
This is by far one of the best episodes you’ve ever made Jon and I got to say I love that last part that you threw in there it’s about time that somebody spoke to those haters because they will look for every excuse in the book to hate! Merry Christmas!
Amen to that and Merry Christmas
What book of hate?
My new fav holiday tradition is leaving a box of snacks outside our door for the all the delivery drivers. Thanks for the Christmas content. Merry Christmas!🎄🎅🏼
His Santa opinion is great. People have totally focused on who they are on the outside and left behind who they are on the inside.
I can't believe I let this amazing video slip under my radar. The storytelling was on point, and the information was top-notch, as always. Your content is just a perfect mix of funny and smart, and I genuinely appreciate the effort you put into it, Thank you!
Every year, my cousin and her husband celebrates Christmas at her house. It's always love when we all arrive. No one is angry, no one is fighting, and no matter how our year was, we always seem to find our way there. Thank you for making this episode, and Happy Holidays
I'm actually surprised you just now made this video lol. Also, the way you talked about breaking Santa's leg was too hilarious since you had such a straight face saying it.
Hey Jon, Sinterklaas doesn't come on december 6. He comes the second weekend of november and stays in the country visiting schools and malls for weeks. The evening of 5 december is pakjesavond and then the big presents are delivered. This is because the story says that december 5th is his birthday. That night he also travels back home to Spain.
This is appearantly region dependent. As far as I understand, the Netherlands open the gifts at the 5th of December and here in Belgium it is the 6th of December. Not very sure about the reason for the difference.
As far as I know 6th of December Sinterklaas travels back to spain,the night before he leaves the gifts for the children. Thats why 5th December night or 6th December morning would be the time for presents. I don't know how it is done in Belgium on the 6th.
Thanks for the info! So he does deliver the presents on those dates he's just in town for longer than that? Glad to hear that I wasn't too far off.
Yes indeed, in the Netherlands a bag of gifts is delivered on the 5th, and between his arrival in NL and the 5th, children can place their shoe near the chimney (or other heater), sing sinterklaas songs, and find a small present in their shoe the next morning. Usually this is not allowed every evening; this would give him and his helpers too much work, and that would be selfish. Also at some shops and schools children can leave a (paper folded) shoe and get a small present.
December 6th is his birthday, that's why he delivers presents the night before and then leaves to celebrate his birthday the next day. That's the legend told to kids. However, it seems that December 6th is actually the day that the bishop of Myra died and nobody knows when he was born. That's why that date has been picked to celebrate, it's the only date we're sure of. Or so it seems. Btw, yes Sinterklaas is indeed the bishop of Myra. At least, that's what I've read about him. And not just on the internet 😅
Omg, we love you Jon Solo! Can't believe something said in earnest made me tear up and bring back.... At least some faith in humanity. Happy holidays to you and yours Mr. Shot First!
I really love the idea that Santa can be any gender, color, or sexual orientation. You don't have to be a straight white man to share kindness, generosity, and love with the world and the world certainly needs more of all three. If it makes someone's heart happy to dress up as Santa and spread some positivity around, then it makes my heart happy to support them. Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, all the Merrys Jon!!
Love, love, love your comments!! And I totally agree!! If only more people thought this way, we could possibly be a more accepting and loving society instead of trying to separate ourselves!!! Thank you for getting that message out there!! Love you and your videos!! I think you, your wife, and pug children are so cute!! Merry Christmas to you all!!
We say Santa is a spirit and everybody gets the spirit of Santa in them... That way the kids don't get confused when they see multiple Santa clauses running around
I agree Jon, Santa is the spirit of Christmas to me and I love you too! Much love for the podcast too!!!
My honorary grandfather used to tell me about his one grandmother. On Christmas eve she'd go out with a stick and draw the imprints of sleigh runners in the snow.
And when I was a kid, we made "reindeer snacks" by mixing oatmeal and carrot sticks with some glitter (so it would reflect and could be found) and scattered it around the front yard. Santa also got a thank you note with his cookies, and would leave a note behind.
My family's Christmas tradition is to stay in our Christmas PJs all day, them when it gets dark, we sit by the fire place with some hot chocolate and watch Christmas movies from sundown to sunrise.
I don’t like when legends are changed. It kind of bugs me when a legend has been so cemented in people’s minds that they basically feel the legend is correct. Then someone comes along and changes minor details.
Love the statement at the end and my family Christmas tradition every year is Christmas fondue on Christmas eve night before we all fall asleep
On Christmas eve we get together exchange books and drink tea or hot chocolate while tracking Santa. It's a great way to wind the kids down to go to bed.
Awesome speech man. This is why Jonsolo is my favorite informative channel. As for my family traditions, we watch the live action Grinch every year and my mom, even with us as adults, makes us get into holiday pajamas and reads us Twas the Night Before Christmas
Santa, to me, will always be a pipe-smokin', cookie-eating, Coke-drinking, obese, barrel-bellied bundle of joy! 🎅 ❤️ **My family's special tradition is our Festivus Pole 😃
Amazing message at the end! Definitely agree with you and hope you have a Merry Christmas! 🎄
For some reason this doesn't surprise me, because despite being the holy representation of the holidays you can't expect everything about the origins of jolly old Saint Nicholas to be all mistletoe and candy canes. but i enjoyed the folklore you shared with us in this vid as always Jon, thank you so much and Merry Christmas to you!!!
As someone who's just moved to Germany, im trying to figure out the various traditional Santa-esque figures they have here, and how they somehow all operate at the same time. Only a few were mentioned in this video. So far ive come across the Christkindl, Sinterklaas, Sankt Nikolaus, Krampus, Belsnickel, Pelzmärtel/Pelznickel, Weihnachtsmann (Santa) and Knecht Ruprecht. Some of them appear with the gift-giver to punish bad kids (via kidnapping, beating, or a bad gift), while others are religion based (Protestant vs Catholic) and are therefore interchangeable depending on your chosen faith. Whats blowing my mind is that a significant portion of them exist at the same time with no overlap (One gives candy to good kids while the other gives presents etc, or one appears in hordes while the other appears alone). Ive also been told that the various regions of the country celebrate different figures and/or have different overall traditions in this regard. You can bet im going to start asking freinds and neighbours to make sense of it all for me, but id love to see a video about the various versions of well known figures in different cultures, as well as how they co-exist in the same holiday. Anyway, love your videos, keep doing what you do!
Check out Mind Unveiled's deep dive on Christmas.
I was saying we don’t have a tradition in my family and than I remembered dads side is Greek Orthodox so we technically celebrate Christmas twice. First on the 25th Of December on the Gregorian calendar (that’s the one most people use) with moms side and again on the 25th of December on the Julian calendar (7th of January Gregorian) with dads. One advantage is there’s no fights over holidays among the in-laws
The people
Who disliked this video about santa are pretty much getting coal for Christmas. Love your videos and keep making them. Santa in my opinion was always a guy who can change his form to whatever house hold he enters cause Santa ain’t no racist or religious phobic, he’s a person who loves to give cheer to all boys and girls who are good.
Happy holidays!
Watched to the end and am giving you a very BIG THANK YOU for saying that Father Christmas, Santa Claus, Kris Kringle or whatever anyone wishes to call the big red suited man who gives gifts on the 24th/25th December no matter what their colour, religion, sexual orientation, etc.
So many choices to a simple gift giving tradition created by a far more simplistic human race than there is today in our seemingly "have to categorise society" that seems so evident today! MAY YOU HAVE A WONDERFUL JOYFUL CHRISTMAS EVENT!
You're awesome! Thank you for your content, my family listens to it all the time. Happy holidays and here is hoping for a lot more of your content in the coming year!
YAAAY! Santa is messed up 🎅 .
What you said about Santa gave me chills and brought tears to my eyes! God bless you Jon. Have a great new year
God bless you Jon Solo, I love your work. Merry Christmas.
Dude I just wanna say how much I absolutely adore what you said about Santa being not specifically gendered or having a precise skin tone etc. You're my hero ❤️
My dad would play Christmas songs on the piano, then later when i learned, I'd be the piano player. Grandma always loved listening to us.
To me growing up Santa never had a color or genda but was just about rewarding children. In the Caribbean there's no snow so we don't worry about that,my family love baking bread and ham Christmas Eve night, after gifts are packed away. Merry Christmas to all, happy Hanukkah and Kwanzaa too
Feels weird that we never got this yet but I’m glad we do now.
Also please do Santa’s wife!
Great video Jon.
"Also please do Santa's wife!"
That will be sure to get Jon on the Naughty List... 😆
@@loki2240 XD
Phrasing!
That was a lovely message at the end, totally agree that Santa is about being Santa, not what he (or she, or they) looks like. Some really interesting info in this video, I did not know about that mix-up with St Nick! 😂🤦♀ Hope you have a wonderful Christmas.
I've watched a few Santa doc's over the years (I'm 57) and you didn't disappoint - I learnt something new. I also love your description of what Santa should be at the end. Have a happy Xmas ⭐🎉
And by the way I laughed way too hard when you said "unless he wants broken legs for Christmas" you're a G🤣🤣🤣
In The Year without a Santa movie, Mrs Claus sings a song about how anyone can be Santa after she puts on the suit. I thought of that near the end while talking about the overall identity of Santa. Seemed fitting for the topic. 🎅 🤶 I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday season.
I know it's a common practice, but I love Secret Santa and White Elephant events. They're super fun and everyone is often having a great time
Absolutely 💯. Santa Clause is the "Spiritual Embodiment " of how everyone should be selfless & caring.
My family Christmas tradition before my parents split was that we would always go driving all around my town and look at all the Christmas lights that people have put up which is really sweet. Since I've moved out of home and shared a household with my boyfriend and his best friend, we have decided to now go Christmas lights looking and listen to Christmas music and sing together in the car while driving around which has become a very cute tradition for me and hopefully I can share my Christmas cheer with others. 😎
Rankin and Bass for the win! Those were the best parts of the Christmas holiday, in my opinion. It always made me eager to celebrate. We baked/cooked/and created pastries and desserts Christmas Eve then the rest of the holiday feast early on Christmas Day. Christmas Eve dinner eventually became a buffet-style setup of catered food, such as veggies/dip, olives/pickles, pumpernickel bread bowl with dip inside and bread chunks put around the outside, shrimps with cocktail sauce, and the best part was the nachos loaded with ground beef, shredded cheese, salsa, and sour cream. 😋 Or was that New Year's Eve? 🤔 I don't know. It's been years. 😂 But the Christmas dinner was very traditional, ham, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes/yams, etc. My favorite was my late grandmother's Blueberry Delight. I barely remember, but it was Graham crackers crumpled and layered over the bottom of a glass casserole dish, a layer of canned blueberries in...that blueberry syrup stuff, then on the top was the butter cream (I think). It was really good! I miss those times. 😢
Thank you for clarifying the red suit and Cocoa Cola conspiracy theory. That one drives me up the wall. And also thank you for being real when it comes to all these biases. All the winter holidays are about celebration and gift-giving (that I know of). Humans are humans, no matter what they look like, no matter their gender, no matter their sexual orientation, etc. Let's celebrate that with no harm to anyone. Thank you, Jon, for this great video!
Agreed with you on the identity thing. Great show, as always. I hope you and yours have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!
One thing I think is interesting concerning the folklore around Santa is that every family can come up with its own and it could be just as plausible as the one that has been unanimously accepted.
For example, I remember when I was 5 or 6, starting to retain the knowledge about Santa Claus, and getting upset. The canon is that Santa enters your house through the chimney. But what if your house doesn't have a chimney? My mom explained that Santa had a special cane that he carries with him that can open any door. My 5-or-6-year-old mind took it to mean a candy cane, like the large, fat kind or the plastic ones filled with M&Ms or Reese's Cups. My parents accepted my headcanon and began leaving one hanging on the door every Christmas since then.
In the movie "Ernest Saves Christmas", the power and magic of Santa Claus is transferable from one person to another. The current (in the movie) Santa Claus is looking to retire, and he'd already picked out a replacement, a host of a children's TV show. The host is reluctant at first, but soon accepts. There's one scene involving Ernest and Santa's sleigh, along with a couple of his elves. They have all of the reindeer hitched up to the sleigh, and Ernest is trying to get them to take off. He says a few varying commands, until the elves start reciting the lines from the poem, and each reindeer's name lights up like the dashboard of a 1970s Oldsmobile Cutlass. Ernest finishes it off, but he can never remember the last reindeer, Blitzen, until the elves shout it out. Santa's sack in the film didn't have actual toys, just a bunch of glowing orbs filled with children's laughter, and when touched, it would turn into a toy. A teenage runaway was turning some of the orbs into various toys, but becoming disappointed when they weren't cool things, like a stereo or new pair of shoes.
Absolutely loved your comment on the “identity” of Santa! It’s really nice to think about Santa as this magical being who spreads joy and hope to the world rather than what his ethnicity or sexual orientation is. We don’t always have to put a label on every single thing we come across, and it’s nice.
Now I’m going to check out the Krampus video because, why not?
Actually yes! My family had two unique traditons regarding Christmas. One is on Christmas eve after the Candlelight service (My dad was a pastor so we attended church on Christmas eve to celebrate the Christ in Christmas) we would eat Chinese food and our Santa story was a bit different. Like I said as Christians we believe the reason for the season is Christ's birth so for my mom Santa was an angel who was Jesus's helper and gave gifts to the nice children.
Thank you for your positive message at the end of the video. I agree that people tend to define themselves with too many labels that don;t really matter and that we should all accept everyone regardless of who they are. I find it funny and ironic that those parents who complained about Santa smoking are the same ones who kept up the pretense to their kids that Santa Claus is even a real person and then later psychologically scar their kids by revealing that he isn't real at all. I was kind of expecting you to cover some of the other more darker versions of Santa's character, such as Krampus for example, but maybe that might be better for a different video. I no longer celebrate the holiday myself, but I was always fascinated by the Santa Claus character.
Best Christmas movie for me is Santa Claus the Movie from 1985 and it wasn't even mentioned! It's a must watch for my family ❤️
I like your Final take on Santa and it realy goes along with the idea that Santa Clause is the Spirit of giving or the Christmas Spirit.
Maybe next year's Christmas episode you can talk about the different rewards and punishments that Santa 🎅 and/or other characters do during the holidays.
One family tradition we do for Christmas is read 📖 about the story in the Book of Mormon about the Lamanite prophet Samuel, tells the Nephites to prepare for the birth of Jesus. Some wicked Nephites are about to murder the other Nephites who believe in Christ if a sign of His birth doesn't happen. When the sun ☀ goes down on the night that the wicked Nephites plan to slaughter the good Nephites, the sky doesn't go dark. It's like its still daytime without the sun in the sky for one full night, which was the sign that Christ was born. The Bad Guys run away, the good guys celebrate, and we learn that it good to stand by your belief in God.
Sinterklaas gives a bundle of sticks for the parents to spank their kids with. And if you’re even worse, he just takes you with him to Spain in a bag so you can work for him
Too good Jon. Thanks
Apparently the Christmas pickle is something that’s not super common- but this is one of out family traditions. I’ve read that it comes from German tradition so that makes sense, my family is German
My step-mother’s family has always done the pickle (in the form of an ornament), but I hadn’t ever heard of it until I saw one on the tree at my dad’s 20-ish years ago.
I just heard about the Christmas pickle from a German lady on a show called Blown Away. She's a glass blower and depicted this tradition in all glass.
i didn't realize this wasn't a common thing.. my family is just southern lol idk where we got that
My family does this, but with a pickle ornament tucked in the tree instead of an actual pickle. My mom's ancestors were Prussian, so we do some German things.
We have a Christmas pickle! We live in the southern United States, but my nana lived in Germany as a child when her father was in the military!
That final thing that you said at the end made me warm
OMG YES! yes yes yes I completely agree with your stance on how Santa should just be Santa. you put that so well and I appreciate that I'm not the only one in the world who thinks all this segregating and "acceptance" is doing more harm then good. If all are really equal then why are we still hating on each other for being different. I don't care what color gender or orientation you are if you are a good person you are my kind of person.
As a Dutchie with Indonesian roots, you did a pretty good job about the origins of Santa Clause. Although I disagree about the part that Black Pete is "racially insensitive."
There is a legend where St Nicholas of Myra saved a black Ethiopian boy (from the Aksumite Empire) from slavery by buying him from its enslavers, let him work for him and then release him when the boy became an adult. The former slave wanted to stay with St Nicholas by choice, not because he was forced into it. Therefor, Black Pete is NOT a slave, which a lot of activists or anthropologists claim to be.
The character also exists to protect the identity of the "actors" who portray said character (which may be offensive to Americans, Canadians, Australians New Zealanders and even the British. Culture shock, I guess)
So in summary: The character was NEVER created with the intention to offend or to create a stereotype, but as a sort of father-and-son collaboration to spread joy despite the many diffrences between the bishop and the former slave. Black Pete also stands as a symbol AGAINST opression, slavery and (yes, I am not joking) racism.
I don't think that the English speaking part of the world (US, Canada, UK, etc.) should judge a tradition they don't understand or like, 'cause you can't use the same measures to decide what is "socially acceptle" or not. It's all very subjective by now and it's not up to them to decide how we want to celebrate Sinterklaas
Powerful message Jon. Love it 👏 good points too
I'll never forget what one of my patients said once before. I worked at a behavioral facility.
A therapist asked them were they expecting a gift from Santa and my patient replied:
"How the hell's he gonna get in here? We do t have a damn chimney."
No lie. Kids aren't dumb so please stop giving Santa credit for what we parents do 😂
We've been designating the big gifts from the parents and some smaller gifts from Santa in big Santa mailbags.
Most modern houses don't have chimneys but it doesn't seem to dent the childhood faith in Santa! He's magic, he can come through windows or just unlock the door if he wants! ;) Kids aren't dumb, but yet it's part of the human condition to believe (or to want to believe) in the supernatural. So we have Santa, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, ghosts, aliens... and general religion!
My parents had me watch the Santa Claus movie and in that movie it shows that Santa Claus just magically creates chimneys where there aren't any which was very helpful for me
@@kevin4gwen 🤣 I love the Santa Clause movies. I love Tim Allen anyway.
@@Fledhyris Friend got mad at me for my opinion on gift wrapping. I said it's a waste of time to wrap every gift, before I could finish my sentence,she went of a religious rant immediately. I told her I'd hate to hear what she would tell a Muslim or Buddhist just so she could understand the weight of some of the things she was saying and how Christmas does not mean the same thing to everyone and in other countries. Anyway, I finally told I was going to say some gifts are better placed in bags. Then she was like "Oh." So I don't think general religion has much to do with it.
This was really great, Jon. Thanks for making it!
Jon, have you read Hogfather, by Terry Pratchett? It discusses the origins and evolution of the Hogfather (the Discworld's version of Santa Clause), while telling an engrossing story.
Merry Christmas Jon. And I agree with you on Santa's Identity.
A tradition I took from my foster home was the role of Secret Santa. When we got old enough and started to lose faith in Santa, one of the older kids or my mom would take us aside and talk to us about why we no longer believe. At the end of the talk they reminded us that spreading kindness is Santa's goal. Not just giving people gifts. And that he entrusts nice children to spread a helping hand and kindness to those in need. They would give us a sheriff badge that was made to look like tree topper and ask us if we want to be take on Santa's greatest task and become a secret Santa. I loved it growing up. Still sticks with me today. I plan to do the same with my daughter when she comes of age.
Woo! Had to watch it again this year, Merry Christmas and Happy holidays everyone
Yes! Totally agree with your stance! A tradition for me and my family is we watch Terry Pratchett's Hogfather. It's a three hour movie about this other world, called the Discworld, where the grim reaper himself has to become the Hogfather(Santa) in order to keep people believing in him. That's a very brief overview and the ending definitely has a much more meaningful message. I definitely recommend it to any and everyone!
In Romania, we celebrate both Saint Nicholas, on December 5th, and Santa Claus, on December 24th. In our folklore, it is tradition that on St. Nicholas, you put your boots at the front door, and if you were nice that year, he would bring you presents and sweets. However, if you were naughty, you would get a wooden rod. Also, we had a legend about how St. Nick saved three children from being eaten by a butcher, who then became Krampus. Also, Santa’s sleigh is pulled by 12 white bunny rabbits.
I really hope you listened to David Sedaris read his Christmas classic "Six to Eight Black Men" in preparing for this. It's all about him discovering European interpretations of Santa.
Hey, Jon. I first off wanted to say that I agree with your final comment one hundred percent. It doesn’t matter the color or sexuality of Santa. It’s what he symbolizes and what he means to everyone that matters most.
With that note aside my family has gone through a few traditions concerning Christmas Eve. The original one was pretty standard where she’d read “Twas The Night Before Christmas” to me and my sisters. And after that my mom got into a scuffle with extended family on my Dad’s side. So that’s when we started watching “The Nativity Story” from 2005.
But most recent my mom has started reading a countdown to Christmas book. That stars a little reindeer and has flaps to open and items to count. And that is my family’s Christmas traditions and I wouldn’t have it any other way. ^^
I like the idea of Santa is in entity not an identity. If you want your kid to see different types of Santa and you're worried that they'll question why there's a "white Santa" in one place and a "black Santa" in another, you can just say, "Sometimes Santa likes to check on kids in person, so he has to blend in with everyone else. If he looked the same everytime, then it'd be easy for bad children to pretend to be good when they see him."
Loved this and the accuracy. Been seeing lots of misinformation circulating on social media about his origins, so this was refreshing to watch.
Awesome. Folklore, and history are both so interesting.
I really enjoy your channel Jon. That last message about identity was the cherry on top. Im not big on Christmas but you may be changing my mind
Thanks for going through all this history and sharing. I love knowing where the concept of Santa Claus comes from.
And Yes!!!!!! I completely agree that people can do whatever they want in their home and anyone can dress up as Santa no matter what their gender or skin tone is and they shouldn't put labels in front of it like "Black Santa," just say Santa. While he is traditionally portrayed as an old Caucasian man the concept of this character who goes around the world giving every Christmas is what matters. Christmas is about giving and spreading happiness. Your stance is very nuance and I completely agree with it!!!!!
✨️🙋🏽♂️ hi Bri
Klaus is one of the best addition to my Christmas-time must watch movies. Idk how much it adds to the methodology of Santa but I just love the story and it's style.
I'll join in with ya on that threat if he don't get me one too!
My family always makes homemade Christmas cutout cookies for the holidays.
And as to what you said at the end, to me, Santa will always be a kind grandfatherly figure who inspires people to be kind and always do the right thing. But with today's society, Santa's ideals will eventually be lost to time as everyone wants their ideal version of Santa without focusing on his message
YAAAAY!!!! Thank you for being a bad ass truth seeker!! Keep preaching the good word of research and normalization for all!!
My family is Pagan and while my faith has only recently solidified as Norse Pagan in the past I've been both Christian and Aethiest I even explored a few other faiths but as of this moment I am confident in my faith as a Pagan so we celebrate Yule & Litha and given that Yule is at Winter Time no matter what side of the earth you live on, as me and my family live in Australia we don't celebrate Yule in December instead it's on the 21st & 22nd of June and Litha is what we celebrate in December.
But we do wish everyone who does celebrate Christmas in December a merry Christmas and happy holidays.
I found out Santa wasn't actually breaking into my home when, on Christmas Eve (when I was 10 I might add), I went downstairs for a drink of water and caught my mum setting up all of the presents for me and my siblings. She then tried to explain that Santa had come to Scotland early this year and that she had to stay up so she could pay him for his efforts. Suuuuuuure mum, I believe you
At least you didn't wake up on the middle of the night thinking Santa was actually there, just to realise it was just your cat 🤣
I just finished reading The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by Baum and really enjoyed it!! Rankin and Bass also did a heavily abridged version of the story as a Christmas special.