Yesterday was my first day off in a month or so (this being by far my busiest time) and for some reason I spent it listening to documentaries about Christmas traditions from other countries.
Really fascinating stuff - Father Christmas / Santa Claus (though always 'Santy' to Irish kids) is so baked into our culture that we forget there are very different, and equally popular, gift-bringers and child-punishers only a few countries away. Most of us know about the Krampus and the possibly-racist Black Peter, but I hadn't realised just how important La Befana the witch was to Italian kids, each of whom get a piece of rock-candy coal with their other presents because nobody's perfect.
Catalan kids can't fail to believe in the arrival of the Three Magi with their presents, because they watch it happen in a big parade. The kings' pages put ladders against balconies and climb into people's homes with presents.
The German Christkind (a winged woman for some reason) seems a bit dull to me (introduced by Reformation types because Santa was technically a saint), but by far my favourite gift-bringers are Iceland's Yule Lads, 13 mad trolls who each have weird idiosyncrasies (one steals candles to eat the tallow, for example) and have to be rewarded for their gift-bringing or they'll fecking kill you and eat you.
I always loved the Santa Claus myth and its evolution from Odin, St Nicholas, Father Christmas etc, but now I feel deprived because a witch or thirteen mountain trolls never visited me when I was wee.
