Iceland has 13 Santa Clauses or Yule Lads, and the Christmas season starts when the first Yule Lad comes to town, 13 days before Christmas Eve. One by one, each of the 13 Yule Lads comes to town every night before Christmas, leaving children gifts in the shoes they left on their windowsills.
What's more, Icelandic children don't just get presents from Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. On the 13 nights leading up to Christmas, Icelandic homes are visited by the 13 Yule Lads ("Jólasveinar") – creatures from festive Nordic folklore. Starting on 12 December, they descend one by one from the mountains.
The 12 Days of Christmas in the English carol are about gifts received after Christmas. In Iceland, they are about trolls or half-trolls. We have thirteen brothers, also known as the Yule Lads or jólasveinarnir, who visit children, one at a time, every night from the 12th to the 24th of December.
Yule Lads, or as we like to call them in Icelandic, Jólasveinar! And not only are there 13 of them, but there is also Grýla (their mum), Leppalúði (their dad), and the Christmas cat!
In Icelandic folklore, 13 merry but mischievous brothers known as the Yule Lads take turns visiting children on the 13 nights leading up to Christmas Day. On each of these nights, youngsters place their shoes on a windowsill in hopes of finding a treat the following morning.
There's no clear right time to tell children that there is no Santa Claus. The average age for children to separate from the Santa myth is 8.4 years of age.
Interestingly, Gryla wasn't just invented by the writers of the screenplay, she has a long and infamous history as a mythological character from Icelandic folklore. Gryla, or, to refer to her correctly, Grýla, was a humongous witchy giant who lived in the icy wilderness.
Writing a letter to Santa isn't an easy task for the Slovenian children. After all, at one point they may find themselves writing a letter, not to one good man that would bring them presents, not two good men, but three mythical old men that all drop by in December!
The Santa Clause is a media franchise that consists of three American holiday family-comedy theatrical feature films starring Tim Allen, and one television series for Disney+.
Christmas Day is the First Day. The Twelve Days are 25 December to 5 January, counting first and last. The Octave, or Eighth Day, is New Year's Day and the Feast of the Circumcision, the day Jesus was circumcised in accordance with the Jewish faith.
In post-communist Romania, Christmas started being celebrated again more festively. The Christmas and holiday season starts officially on December 6, on Saint Nicholas's day and ends on January 7, with the celebration of Saint John.
Countries in which Christmas is not a formal public holiday include Afghanistan, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bhutan, Cambodia, China (excepting Hong Kong and Macau), the Comoros, Iran, Israel, Japan, Kuwait, Laos, Libya, the Maldives, Mauritania, Mongolia, Morocco, North Korea, Oman, Qatar, the Sahrawi Republic, ...
The Yule Cat is a huge and vicious cat who lurks about the snowy countryside during Christmas time (Yule) and eats people who have not received any new clothes to wear before Christmas Eve.
Depictions of Gryla often vary, but on the whole she is painted to be a monstrous female. Sometimes she is an 'ogress', sometimes she appears with hooves and a horned tail.
Krampus is a mythical creature who punished badly behaved children, according to myth. Every December, Santa Claus comes out and gives presents to good children around the world, according to popular culture.
Fred Claus. Fred Claus, Santa's bitter older brother, is forced to move to the North Pole to help Santa and the elves prepare for Christmas in exchange for cash. Fred Claus, Santa's bitter older brother, is forced to move to the North Pole to help Santa and the elves prepare for Christmas in exchange for cash.
She carries knives and a sack, and is often said to slice out children's stomachs before stuffing them in her sack and carrying them off to her cave. And if that wasn't gnarly enough – when she gets her victims home, she boils them alive to make a savory stew.
"There is no such thing as being too old to believe in Santa, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy," Kelman tells Yahoo Life. "Letting kids figure it out on their own is preferable to parents breaking the news to them.
Santa Claus' origins date back to about 280 A.D. when St. Nicholas was born, the History Channel reports. This would make Santa approximately 1,744 years old today.
Santa Claus was born in 270 AD. He is over 1,000 years old. The belief that many children hold to this day keep the magic of Christmas and Santa Claus alive and going strong.
So, historically, Santa visits the South Pacific first, then New Zealand and Australia. After that, he shoots up to Japan, over to Asia, across to Africa, then onto Western Europe, Canada, the United States, Mexico and Central and South America.
English-speaking countries such as the USA, Canada, Australia and the UK all commonly use this name, alongside the more traditional Father Christmas. Other countries using Santa Claus include: El Salvador – Santa. Cuba – Santa Cló
