Comments on: 9 Holiday Characters From Around the World

By: E

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 20:25:05 +0000

Sinterklaas isn’t the Dutch/Belgian Santa, he’s a whole other person! We celebrate Christmas with Santa as well as far as I know :)

By: CJ

CJ — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 21:19:12 +0000

In Germany Santa Klaus day is dec 6. He brings the smaller gifts ON the 25th the christmas princess brings the big gifts. And if you havent been to Germany during December…GO!!

By: Alessandro

Alessandro — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 16:11:14 +0000

Why does everyone still insist that we have no santa clause in Italy? We have Babbo Natale (Father Christmas) AND La Befana…

Unlike the 3 magi, she missed baby jesus’s birth, and now she’s giving gifts to all children in desperate search for the god incarnate.

Also we burn her effigy every year which is awesome.

By: PK

PK — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 22:15:55 +0000

I thought the Dutch Santa was accompanied by “Six To Eight Black Men” a la David Sedaris.

By: Brian

Brian — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 18:32:11 +0000

Not long ago I saw a collection of vintage Christmas cards from the 19th and early 20th century, mostly from Germany. many featured Krampus, often shown being dragged in chains by St. Nick (supposedly representing the triumph of good over evil). But some showed Krampus beating children (one even showed a boy being beaten on his bare bottom!!), chasing them with switches, and even pushing them off cliffs! The cards were pretty creepy and disturbing, more appropriate for Halloween than Christmas. If you received a card like those today, you’d surely question the state of the sender’s mental health…

By: eee

eee — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 17:25:20 +0000

No mention of the feast of the circumcism that takes place on JAN 1st?

By: Martillo196

Martillo196 — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 09:51:39 +0000

Some details: the Olentzero doesn´t cut the throat of the bad children, He only gives them coal, in fact He is a manufacturer of vegetal Coal. He lives all the year in the mountains, always drinking and working with the coal, and when a robin bird anounces him the christmas time then he comes down with gifts and coal. So, a fat and drunk old guy that sneaks into the children´s room in the night….

By: Rafael Prieto

Rafael Prieto — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 22:06:41 +0000

Don’t know if it has been mentioned already, but in most if not all of Latin America, we have The Three Kings (or The Three Wise Men) who deliver their gifts at the end of the 12th day of Christmas, January 6.

By: Bicycle Bill

Bicycle Bill — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 21:43:17 +0000

Caga tio — the ‘pooping’ log.

Well, I now think I know where Trey Parker and Matt Stone got the idea for “Mr. Hankey”.

-”BB”-

By: Megan

Megan — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 20:22:04 +0000

Where is Gryla from? The article doesn’t say.