While you probably know a lot about Santa, such as his fondness for cookies, there are a number of things you may not know.
Santa is one of a long line of mid-winter gift bringers and in other times and in other cultures he has been joined by (and in some
cases related to) Saint Nicholas, Father Christmas, Grandfather Frost, Pere Noel, La Befina, Sinter Klaas and many, many more.
The
idea of exchanging gifts during the coldest, darkest time of year as a symbol of hope of better times to come is a very, very old
one (thousands of years old). Santa traces his roots and history to these celebrations.
Santa is the chief toy-maker at the North Pole and in addition to overseeing all toy production, he specializes in painting dollies'
faces, carving toy trains, making fire engines, and many other skills. He IS quite jolly, and has been known to hum and even
sing while working-- although there are rumors he has a little trouble carrying a tune, and sometimes gets the words wrong.
However,
he is quite an accomplished dancer as he and his lovely wife, Maggie, demonstrate when they hit the floor at the Grand Elf Hall on
Saturday night. Santa would like to play an instrument, but as a musician (and singer) he makes a good storyteller!
In
fact, Santa is a GREAT storyteller, and he loves to gather audiences around and tell stories about life at the North Pole, his Christmas
Eve adventures, or just good folk and fairy tales from around the world. With the North Pole being full of fairies, elves, gnomes,
and other magical creatures (get him to tell you the story about Jeremy, the grumpy dragon sometime) there is no shortage of material.
Like Maggie, Santa loves to go for long hikes in the beautiful countryside of the North Pole. He loves being by the water and
there is a rumor he may be a Pisces, which would explain why he is such a good gift giver. But don't let him near a computer--
Maggie is the techno-wiz of the North Pole.
While Santa certainly does some wonderous, magical things, he'll be the first to
tell you he knows what to do, but not how it works. He claims that Grandfather Elf and the other elf elders have taught him
how to get the reindeer to fly around the world in one night, and travel up and down the chimneys by laying a finger beside his nose,
but that he doesn't know why it works. "It's just magic, and one quality of magic is that it is unknowable," says Santa.
