It's a Swedish Christmas!

For this year's Christmas, I decided to get my family Swedish items in celebration of Bruce's heritage and do a little Swedish-themed blog post. Previously, I posted on Dutch traditions, including Chocolate letters, as my family is mostly Dutch.

In my research, I came across the Christmas Goat, or Julbock, who is ridden by the Swedish version of Santa Claus. Tomten is a gnome that lives under floor boards and rides a goat to deliver presents. Julbock ornaments and decorations are traditionally made out of straw, symbolizing good luck.

Since 1966, the town of Gävle in Sweden has erected a large Julbock in the center of town, only to have it burned down 38% of the time. In 1971, another group joined in the making and now Gävle has two straw goats. This newer goat has a higher survival rate of 47%. (Wikipedia even has a chart both of the goats' demise and survival.) You can see a live webcam of this year's sad burnt goat here and read about the news here. This reminds me of MIT's pranks and pranksters, although I wish this one didn't involve destruction. Thus, the tradition even has a tradition.

This strange phenomenon does not surprise me given that I just learned of the Swedes tradition of watching a 1958 Donald Duck cartoon every Christmas eve at 3pm. Read more about this fascinating cultural custom here.

As they say in Sweden, God jul!

ABOVE IMAGE: screen capture by David in Delta from webcam, Dec. 13th, 10 days before the Julbock was burned

Chocolate letters for all and to all a good night

Every year my Aunt gets our whole family chocolate letters for Christmas. Since the closing of the Dutch shop in Rochester, they have been harder and harder to find.

Chocolate letters are a Dutch tradition (my mom's maiden name is Van Hooydonk and my great grandparents came over from Holland) and are associated with Sinterklaas. Pictured is an an example of a contemporary chocolate letter from Droste as well as a depiction in a 17th century still-life painting.

Below is the definition from wikipedia, but you can read much more at the Saint Nicolas Center or if you know Dutch, at chocolateletter.net. Apparently, I ought to look to www.chocolatelettershop.com next year to stock up!

Happy holidays all!

Celebrants of the Sinterklaas celebration are traditionally given their initials (or occasionally the neutral letter S (for Sinterklaas) or P (for Zwarte Piet) made out of chocolate. Various sizes, types and flavours are available.

In order to use the same amount of chocolate for each letter the manufacturer varies the thickness or the depth of the grooves in the letter. This way one letter is not favoured over another, for example the W, or the M over the I or the J. An often used typeface is Egyptienne.

Flickr image above from here
Painting above is from here. Still life with Letter Pastries, Peter Binoit, ca. 1615, Museum Amstelkring on loan from the Groninger Museum Photo: C Myers (click for a close up)

Santa Photo Op Gone Awry

I came across a fantastic article - "Santas can freak out screaming toddlers" - on cnn.com today. The piece has an interview with the authors of Scared of Santa: Scenes of Terror in Toyland, a book which I now covet.

Inspired by a call for entries by the Chicago Tribune, the perfect stocking stuffer sports spiffy chapter titles such as "Titans of Tears," "Santa has Feelings Too," and "Want a Smile, It'll Cost Ya."

Of course, this led me to surf the internet for more scary Santas and crying babies. I just know I have a pic of me tearing up on Santa's lap somewhere. Until I find it, I share with you the following skewed Santa photo galleries. Enjoy!

• Sfgate's aptly titled baby blog, "The Poop," features a crying baby Santa gallery
• "Crying Santa" search on flickr
• The original Chicago Tribune "Scared of Santa" gallery