The ABC on Santa Claus

The ABC on Santa Claus is a booklet written for the marketing purposes of tourism related to the Christmas season.

The ABC on Santa Claus is a booklet written for the marketing purposes of tourism related to the Christmas season. Some central items connected to the habitus and operating environment of Santa Claus have been collected into this ABC in the form of entries in alphabetical order. Different basic versions of a Santa tale for various purposes can be created by combining, selecting and modifying the entries.

Santa Claus is a fairy-tale creature, and there is no unequivocal definition on him but just a number of differing stories and views. From these various stories and ideas, which are often even conflicting, things related to the job description of a "professional" Santa Claus and applicable to touristic purposes have been compiled into the ABC. The objective has not been to write a story-book directly for the consumer, nor has the theme been intentionally dealt with in terms of culture, ideology or charity, although these values may be reflected in the text.

The ABC on Santa Claus can be used in the training of men appearing as Santa Clauses in various contexts, as well as in different kinds of marketing events and projects as a practical guidebook. While writing the report, domestic and foreign experts in tourism marketing have been widely consulted. From the opinions received, the most supported interpretations were picked up. In international marketing, however, cultural differences must be taken into account, so that the reader of the ABC is also to note the special needs of his or her own operating environment.
The report has been drafted under the management of the Ministry’s Single Market Division.

I Definitions related to Santa Claus

Advent
Finnish Christmas begins with the first Advent weekend by the opening of the Christmas streets and various proclamations of the start of the Christmas season. On the First Advent Sunday, many children get an Advent calendar whose windows are opened each day during the Advent season until Christmas Eve. Advent is the beginning of the real wait for Christmas.


Age
Santa Claus is so old that even he himself cannot remember his own age anymore. But it does not matter, since this kind of oldish but ageless and friendly Santa Claus is a messenger of the Christmas spirit, who is accepted and loved by all even without an ID card.

Airport
The Airport of Rovaniemi, the capital of Lapland, is the Official Airport of Santa Claus.

Appearance of Santa Claus
Santa Claus can have very different outward appearances depending on the situations in which he moves and is seen or in what connections he shows himself. Nevertheless, Santa Claus is always Santa Claus, no matter whether his beard is longer or shorter or whether he wears shoepacks or woollen socks.

Arctic Circle
In 1950 Finland worked hard after the Second World War to reappear on the world map. At the Arctic Circle, in 66°33’07’’ northern latitude and in 25°50’51’’ northern longitude, there was at that time a small lodge built to celebrate a visit to Finnish Lapland by Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of the American president. This is how Mrs. Roosevelt became the godmother of the entire Pajakylä Village, and the lodge is still there in Pajakylä in remembrance of this important visit.
In early summer, the sun shines 24 hours a day at the Arctic Circle. During the Yuletide season, the sun is hibernating and does not show itself at all. But the colours of the sky are bright and magnificent.
Santa Claus can be met only in Finland on any day of the year without any charge.

Are there any well-behaved children in this household?
The Finnish Santa Claus does not exclaim at his entry "Ho!Ho!Ho!" but asks "Are there any well-behaved children in this household?". The "Ho" exclamations belong to the United States, which has provided the world with many Christmas themes in the form of world-famous songs, films, red Santa Clauses, etc. But the Finnish Santa Claus respects Finnish traditions and the set of values connected with the Christmas season. Before Christmas, the elves move about everywhere and see if children behave well.

Beard and moustache
The beard of Santa Claus must be long and white, well kept and beautifully rolled. The moustache should be such as to leave space between the moustache and beard so that Santa’s mouth remains visible. There is much more sense in speaking with Santa when you can see the movements of his lips.

Christmas carols
One of the most loved Finnish Christmas carols of all times is the "Joulupukki, joulupukki, valkoparta vanha ukki" composed and written by P.J. Hannikainen for over a hundred years ago. In Finland, many Christmas carols are sung during the Yuletide season both at church and in other surroundings. One of the most beautiful songs is "Maa on niin kaunis". It is a German folk tune from the 19th century, the lyrics by B.S. Ingemann being translated into Finnish by Hilja Haahti. Another heartfelt Christmas song that is loved by all Finns is "En etsi valtaa loistoa" composed by Jean Sibelius and written by Sakari Topelius.
The world’s most famous Christmas carol is "White Christmas", recorded by Bing Crosby in 1942.
Santa Claus had better know many Finnish Christmas songs, too, and teach them to his visitors.

Christmas decorations
Throughout the times, straws, silk papers, cotton and linen have been the material favoured by the Finns for Christmas decorations. Stars, elves and bullfinches are made of them. Real candles are burned daily in Finnish homes from the Advent until Saint Canute’s Day (13 January). In offices and shops real candles are replaced by electric ones.

Christmas tree
A German 19th century artist painted a picture of Luther sitting with his family around a Christmas tree. However, this is not a historical truth, because Luther lived in the 16th century, when no trees were used in homes. The picture left, however, a longing for a tree in people’s hearts. One of the countries of origin of the Christmas tree is Germany, where decorated trees have provedly been appearing from the 17th century. The first mention of a Christmas tree dates back to at least 1830, and when the elementary schools began to have Christmas tree parties, the tree became a well-known proclaimer of the Yuletide season with a star appearing on its crown. The tree is decorated with candles, garlands of flags and angels. Santa Claus often delivers his presents in advance under the Christmas tree, ready to wait for the distribution of the presents.

Clothing of Santa Claus
No national, "official clothing" has been designed for Santa Claus, but some people have had “a uniform of the professional Santa Claus” made. This uniform is described as one possible example of an outfit in the following:
Santa Claus is not one of the Sámi people, but after having lived for so long in Lapland, his dressing has been influenced by the Sámi, too. But for instance, the model for the waistcoat of Santa Claus has been taken from the folk costume of the Rovaniemi region. The outfit of Santa Claus presented here is designed by Ms. Anu Nikkilä, who has the copyright on it. The Rovaniemi Marketing Cooperative has full rights of use and possession to the clothing of Santa Claus.
It is recommended that the cloths must be of natural materials: wool, linen, cotton, and no modern college knit or stretch velvet are accepted. A linen shirt can very well be wrinkled, because it is a typical feature of linen.
The redness of Christmas should be kept as a characteristic of Christmas, because the children of our time would no more recognise Santa Claus dressed in a wolf’s fur. The red has been tinted to a slightly brownish shade, and the shirts and false fur are of a natural light colour. The trousers, trimmings and the stripes of the woollen socks are dark spruce green.
The traditional thigh-high coat with its furs and a wide black belt was rejected as being too American. The home outfit of Santa Claus is composed of a linen shirt, woollen socks, felt slippers, a red waistcoat and a mitred cap. The overcoat is of a kind of a red colour tinted brownish, the sleeve ends and the collar are made of fur, and a wide belt goes around Santa’s broad belly. The festive coat reaches to the ground and has trimmings in the hemline and sleeve ends.
The alternative to the winter home outfit includes a flowery shirt and shorts. The waistcoat and cap still belong to this summer outfit, too, and of course Santa wears his woollen socks even in summertime. This co-ordinated outfit must be well taken care of, as the clothes are not easy "wash and wear" garments, but they need ironing, cleaning and airing.
Other conventional outfits that go with the “style” of Santa Claus also suit the professional Santa Claus.

The history of Finland’s own Santa Claus is related to the world’s most widely known story about Saint Nicholas, the benefactor of all children and poor people.

In St. Nicholas’day, the mighty empire of Rome was under Constantine the Great (c. 274 – 337 BC), who established Christianity. But Constantine was also, typically of his own time, a cruel sovereign: he who did not obey him was thrown for beasts of prey to be clawed to death.

At that time, Bishop Wulfila of the Visigoths (c. 311 – 383 AD) was sent to convert the Goths to the Christian faith. The Goths were Germans who are told to have moved to the territory of today’s Germany from southern Sweden. As early as in the years 300 – 600, the Eketorp Fortress on the Island of Öland had permanent settlement.

In St. Nicholas’ time, furs were exported from Finland to the freezing people of the South, and from there, from the Roman Empire, glassware and bronze objects were imported here. Young Bishop Wulfila and Emperor Constantine contacted Bishop Nicholas in secret and asked him to make a reconnaissance expedition, in support of converting and under the pretext of trading, to the northern corners of Europe, where heathens lived. It must be kept in mind that the converting proper of the Northern peoples started, however, not until the 12th century, although Christianity had become the only faith allowed in the Roman Empire as early as in the year 380. The Bishop and the Emperor hoped that it would be possible to make the Northern people wiser, as they were known to be very odd.

St. Nicholas was a skilled sailor, and he now dressed in the disguise of a merchant and headed on his sailboat towards the North. After several months of sail, he arrived in what is now the Turku region, which used to be very small at that time. In the valley of the River Aura, there are known to have been dwelling places as early as six thousand years ago, but when St. Nicholas arrived there, only a few hovels were scattered along the riverside, and most of today’s land area was covered with water. But nevertheless, people wore beautiful golden and silver jewellery.

At his arrival in Turku, St. Nicholas was a bit puzzled, as he did not understand a word of the language that was spoken there. Luckily he met by accident an old man who had lived in Rome and who agreed to act as his interpreter. The language that the man knew was naturally Latin.

The interpreter told the bishop, or the merchant, that he was now in a country that was split into two parts: into the southernmost country and a country called the Arctic Circle. Nearly all the contemporary inhabitants lived in the southernmost country. Not much was known about the Arctic Circle besides that in winter there were huge banks of snow and always freezing cold. That was why no one really dared to go there. The interpreter also wanted St. Nicholas to meet the wisest man living in the southernmost country.

This wise man was the nowadays well-known Gnome of the Turku Castle, who administered Turku together with his elfin brothers, although the Castle had not yet been built by that time. The Gnome was appointed to his office when the construction work of the Castle was begun, i.e. in the 13th century. The Bishop revealed to the Gnome that he was not really a merchant but a bishop who had come to the country on a wholly different kind of errand.

The men became friends, and as both of them had the gift to work miracles, they decided to do one for the benefit of all children in the world, since St. Nicholas had already done secret and good deeds in his own country. It so happened that St. Nicholas forgot his proper function, and he decided once again to help people. However, it was not until after hundreds of years that these new miracles became known to the wide public. They were to wait for this long, as it was not until then that it became evident that at last there were hundreds, or thousands, or even millions of well-behaved children in the world.

It appeared that the Gnome of the Turku Castle had a good friend called Old Man Christmas. He lived, then already, at the Arctic Circle, and he was one of the few who could live there, since he, too, possessed skills that enabled him to do mysterious things. Old Man Christmas told St. Nicholas that the word "Christmas" meant an old mid-winter feast, because Old Man Christmas had then arrived in the world and got his name after this feast. The word "Christmas" received afterwards a whole new meaning in Rome in the 350 century AD, which marked the time when Christmas was first celebrated as the anniversary of the birth of Christ.

The Gnome told St. Nicholas that his name came from an old popular belief prevailing in Finland and in Scandinavia, according to which an elf or a fairy is to see to the happiness and welfare of a household, and that the Gnome had already done this kind of work for many years in Turku, and is still continuing this work at this very moment - just like the famous Finnish writer Sakari Topelius has told us in his beautiful story.

Old Man Christmas moved then back to the Arctic Circle and changed his name later to Santa Claus. And he took permanent residence in Korvatunturi, from where he occasionally travels with his flying reindeer to Turku to meet his old pal, the Gnome of the Turku Castle. Nicholas returned to his own empire and made the future Santa Claus take an oath to bring the message of peace, goodwill, harmonious co-existence, joy and happiness to all people on the Earth. And that is what Santa Claus has done all his life. This also provides us with an explanation for why the Yuletide peace is proclaimed in Turku of all places.

In English:

The Story of Santa Claus, Teresa Chris, New Burlington Books 1992

The Night Before Christmas (world’s most famous Christmas tale), Clement Clarke Moore, Philomel Books, first edition USA 1870

Father Christmas THE TRUTH, Gregoire Solotareff, Macmillan 1996

Father Christmas Letters, J.R. Tolkien, Harper Collings Publishers, London, several editions

Santa’s Holiday Travels, Sinikka Salokorpi (text), Bruno Maximus (pictures), Otava 1999

In Finnish:

Tonttu, Marjut Hjelt and Jaana Aalto, SKS (Finnish Literature Society) 1997

Joulu, joulu, armas aika, Ritva Lehmusoksa, Gummerus 1994

Korvatunturin salaisuus, Annikki Marjala, Heli Karjalainen, Marjaliisa Pitkäranta, Polarlehdet Oy

Joulu joutui, Juha Nirkko and Urpo Vento ed., SKS (no exact publishing year known, about 1996)

Joulun tarina, Raija Oranen and Riikka Juvonen, Gummerus 1998

Joulupukin taruja, Jorma Piirainen, Kuhmolainen (a newspaper)

Joulukirja by Rudolf Koivu, WSOY 1990

Joulupukin tarina, Sinikka Salokorpi, Otava 1996

Joulun aikaan, Sinikka Salokorpi and Ritva Lehmusoksa, Otava 1998

Yuletide Finland, Otava 1998

Salaperäinen tunneli, Aiju von Schöneman, Cultura 1998

Joulupukin lomamatkat, Sinikka Salokorpi (teksti), Bruno Maximus (kuvat), Otava 1999

In Swedish:

Den svenska Julboken, Jan-Öjvind Swahn, Wiken 1993