All My Children

A few gifts can actually be more satisfying than an overabundance— that is, if the commercialization of Christmas and the ubiquity of television advertisements have not aroused a child’s expectations beyond all reason. The giving of a few presents eliminates the ambivalence a child may feel about giving and receiving (discussed earlier). This issue is recognized by a children’s holiday which is celebrated in many European countries including Holland, from where it was brought to New Amsterdam and thus the New World: Saint Nicholas’s Day. On this day, December 6, children are given a very few inexpensive things so that even the poorest parent can afford to participate in the holiday spirit and celebration, and no child needs to feel guilty about receiving, even if he believes he was bad and undeserving.

While this holiday is not now celebrated in the United States, a discussion of it here may aid the understanding of the figure of Santa Claus, and what he subconsciously means to children. Santa speaks to some of our most important emotions, and it is through this figure that we can best gain access to the fullness of meaning which Christmas has today for children.

For a very long period, much longer than our present form of celebrating Christmas has been in existence, Saint Nicholas was the most venerated and celebrated, the most popular saint within both the Western and the Eastern churches. During the many centuries when Christmas was strictly a religious holiday, Saint Nicholas’s Day was probably the most popular secular holiday.

As far as the saint himself is concerned, records indicate that there may have been two holy bishops of this name in Myra, an ancient city in Lycia in Asia Minor. The first supposedly lived in the third or fourth century; many miracles are ascribed to him but nothing concrete is known about him, not even whether he actually existed. The evidence suggests more strongly that another bishop of Myra named Nicholas lived in the sixth century, but about him, too, very little is known for certain. The two became merged into one, Saint Nicholas of Myra, and many and various miracles are ascribed to him. This saint became so venerated that as early as the eleventh century expeditions were sent to Myra—which by then had been destroyed—to secure his relics. A church in Bari, Italy, was founded in 1087 to receive some of these relics; its importance is indicated by the fact that it became one of the four Palatine churches of Apulia. Since that time many great and small churches all over Europe have been dedicated to this saint, and his feast day has been amply and widely celebrated ever since.

Some of the numerous miraculous deeds attributed to Saint Nicholas are pertinent to our discussion. He rescued many children out of mortal danger and revived others, and thus became the patron saint of children. Having inherited great wealth, he gave it away freely, in one instance to three virtuous maidens who could not marry for want of dowries. The legend goes that he dropped three bags of gold, one for each of the maidens, at their sides while they slept, so that they would not know the origin of these gifts. This element of the saint’s story—that he chose to remain anonymous by depositing his gifts in the middle of the night when everyone was asleep— has become an important element of Santa’s role.

Saint Nicholas was the patron saint not only of children, whom he protected and rescued, but also of parenthood and human fertility. This aspect probably goes back to much older pagan fertility cults, some features of which accrued to the saint. As the patron of the family and of fecundity, Saint Nicholas was invoked by married couples who desired to have children, particularly by women who wished for them. Similarly, virgins who needed dowries prayed to him. His propensity for assisting a woman to become pregnant was so well known that in Alpine countries, saying that a woman had prayed to Saint Nicholas was tantamount to saying that she was with child. When it was said that Sant Klos—which is Saint Nicholas’s name in certain dialects and may well have been the origin of his being known as Santa Claus—had come to a family, this meant that a child had been born to it.

In parts of Switzerland it was not the stork which was said to bring children but Smichlaus, another dialect name for Saint Nicholas. In Brittany, women who wished for children went to a chapel dedicated to the saint, in which a figure of him was suspended from the ceiling by a rope. Supposedly, when they rubbed this statuette over their bodies and prayed to Saint Nicholas, they would get pregnant; this is one example of how pagan fertility customs entered rituals centering on this saint. So from as early as the eleventh century, the cult of Saint Nicholas was intimately related to pregnancy and fertility, to the bringing of children and also of presents in the middle of the night. In some districts it was said that on his name day, the saint rode in the middle of the night on his white (or dapple-gray) horse over the rooftops and dropped down, as the case may be, either newborn infants or presents for children. Here is an origin of the legend of Santa Claus driving his sled and reindeers over the rooftops. During the pageants celebrating Saint Nicholas’s Day, the person representing him might wear the garb of a bishop, since he was one, or on occasion the attire of a cardinal; this may possibly have been the origin of Santa’s red costume.

What are the features of Santa Claus which may appeal to a child’s unconscious mind, particularly in connection with other events or features of the celebration of Christmas? Many elements evoke subconscious responses in their combination and totality, as much as in their individual aspects. For example, every child wonders about what his arrival meant to his parents, and many worry whether or not they were welcome. Therefore any celebration feting the arrival of a child is reassuring, and it is this event which Christmas obviously celebrates. The joy with which the Christ child was received into this world, not only by his parents but also by the shepherds and the three holy kings, is taken by the child as a sign that his birth was an equally joyous event for his parents and even for the wider community, since everybody celebrates Christmas.

The period before Christmas is a time of happy anticipation, as is that before a child is born. Everybody waits for the happy moment to come. In preparation for a birth the house is rearranged, as it usually is before Christmas. The coming of Santa in the middle of the night is mysterious enough, and so is the birth of a child, most of whom are born at night. Santa comes down the chimney and enters the home through the fireplace, which provides the home with life-giving warmth, and Santa’s big belly is like that of a highly pregnant woman. As the infant on his birth descends through a narrow and dark channel and from there emerges into the light of the world, so does Santa. A legend of long standing is that the stork brings newborn infants and drops them down the chimney—another parallel between Santa and the Saint Nicholas of legend. Last but not least, parents know the true story of conception and birth, but children are not supposed to know and are told a different story; in the same way, parents know the truth about Santa but tell their children something different. Finally, both Saint Nicholas’s Day and Christmas, each in its own way, celebrate the rebirth of the year and fertilization. Even though Saint Nicholas’s Day is not actively celebrated in the United States, it would be a very insensitive child who did not respond, at least to some degree subconsciously, to all these parallels between the coming of Santa and the birth of children. In their combination these symbolic meanings make Christmas probably the most important happy event in the child’s life.

When I was a child in Austria, Saint Nicholas’s Day was celebrated, there as in many other countries, in much the same way it had been over the centuries, and as it is still celebrated now. On this day, two male adults visit the homes of children. One is dressed up as a bishop, playing the role of Saint Nicholas; the other is either his helper and servant, or his counterpart—a figure variously dressed and named, depending on local custom. He is often called Ruprecht when he is merely a servant carrying a bag of presents, but more frequently he is called Black Peter, Krampus, or Grampus, in which case his face is blackened and he represents the devil. Then he wears a mask with horns, a tail, and even hooves; he is dressed in black and carries a sack or some other receptacle. Black Peter’s sack, however, does not contain gifts—it is there to carry away bad children. Nearly always he carries chains and rattles them, threatening to chain bad children. But while this evil figure looks and acts ferocious, he is in the power of the good bishop Saint Nicholas, who always soon stops him and—as in the legend—rescues the children.

On Saint Nicholas’s Day these two, who are neighbors appropriately dressed up, go from door to door, asking the parents (who have expected them) whether their children have been good or bad. In most cases the answer is “mostly good, though not always.” At this the devil steps forth and tries to grab the child to give him a few strokes with his switch, but the child nearly always manages to escape with great shrieking. In any case, after a perfunctory effort on the part of the devil to punish the child, the good saint comes to the rescue and puts the devil in his place, making it clear that he will protect all children. Then Saint Nicholas admonishes the child to be good and gives him small presents, usually some pieces of fruit and candy. But one of his more traditional gifts is particularly meaningful: branches like those which were made into Krampus’s switches, but Saint Nicholas’s are covered with gold or silver glitter, and from their branches hang small fruits or candies. Saint Nicholas’s branches are turned into a token candy tree; they are a close parody of the instrument with which children are occasionally punished, a transfiguration of the instrument of punishment into one giving pleasure that is much appreciated by the children.

Thus, on Saint Nicholas’s Day, through a little drama much enjoyed by all, first the negative side of parental ambivalence and children’s guilt about their bad behavior (if not also bad thoughts) are satisfied by the threats or token punishment meted out by the devilish figure, and then the positive side of this ambivalence wins out, and the gifts are given which are much more immediate and real than was the symbolic punishment. (For the sake of completeness I might add that at the end, when the children are fully occupied with enjoying what they have received, the parents surreptitiously give the visitors some money to compensate them for their expenses and usually add a gratuity in recognition of their efforts.)

The two characters of Saint Nicholas’s Day always appear as a pair, reflecting the two sides of our personalities in a way that everyone understands. They symbolize that in the child as also in adults, neither the good in us nor the bad exists in isolation. The parents‘ answer to their query shows they know that their child is neither all good nor all bad, and thus the child can enjoy his small presents to the fullest without guilt. Of course, the impressive bishop’s costume with his miter and staff and the flamboyant and ingenious getup of Black Peter (Ruprecht or Krampus) add a great deal to the fun, as does the red costume of Santa Claus at Christmas. Since adults dress and act this way for children with full parental cooperation, they thus give body and reality to the child’s fantasies, both the fearful and the wish- fulfilling ones, according them obvious adult approval.

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)
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