Names for the Gift-bringers

Throughout history there have been many names given for the being representing the spirit of giving. We commonly refer to many of them as Old World Santas. I have made a list of some of those names with a brief description to help identify them.

1.      Aschenklas is a secular replacement for St. Nicholas. Often appears somewhat frightening or stern.

2.      Baboushka (Russian female similar to the Italian La Befana)

3.      Belsnickle is a secular replacement for St. Nicholas. Often appears somewhat frightening or stern.

4.      Božiček (Christmas Man),

5.      Christkindl (The Christ child) is a female gift-bringer, she is an angelic figure dresses all in white.

6.      Dedek Mraz or Ded Moroz (Grandfather Frost, Russian), is usually seen very ornately dressed in blue trimmed with white fur and carrying an ornate staff.

7.      Father Christmas, English

8.      Julnisse & Jultomten (Elves or gnomes)

9.      Knecht Ruprecht (Servant Rupert), 17^th century in 1668 as one of the dark helpers of Christkindl. Frightening looking dressed all in furs.

10. La Befana (female, the good Christmas witch, Italian), delivers gifts on the evening of January 5^th. She is seen riding through the air on a broomstick wearing a black shawl and carrying a hamper of gifts.  She is often seen covered in soot as she enters the houses through the chimney.

11.  Odin the wander

12.  Pelznickel (Nicholas in furs) is another dark helper of Christkindl, looks similar to Knecht Ruprecht.

13.  Père Noel, French, rides a donkey and uses a staff. Donkey is named Mistletoe.

14.  Ruklaas (Rough Nicholas) is a secular replacement for St. Nicholas. Often appears somewhat frightening.

15.  Santa Claus, American derived from the Dutch, Sinterklaas

16.  Sinterklaas, assisted by Zwarte Piet (Black Peter)

17.  St. Nicolaus (Mikulás), The original gift-bringer

18.  Weinachtsmann (Christmas Man) German

 This is by no means a complete list of the names just the most commonly known. I've also discovered one group of gift-bringers that only those of you who have been following this blog have been introduced to and that would be the Nossie.

Here are some photos of some of the gift-bringers as I envision them.

Ded Moroz with his granddaughter the Snow Maiden and Baboushka

Many a Santa is dressed in red and can be seen carrying trees.

Others may be seen delivering wreaths.

Some come carrying a bag of gifts for the good boys and girls

and then there is the Belsnickle with switches for the naughty children.

This Santa is a familiar figure in his red suit trimmed with white fur and his shinny black boots.

The Santa that most children hope for a visit from is the one with the bag full of toys.

Last but not least is one of the Nossie who delivers his gifts to the children of Not Quite Middle Earth.

I know that there's more to Christmas than gifts and decorations but since this blog is about Santa and the Mrs. I hope you'll understand.

I imagine that you are as busy as I am so I won't take up any more of your time. I just wanted to say

~Merry Christmas to all~

As always thanks for stopping by.

Bellamine & Wendy and The Bear's Room

Hi Everybear,

Bellamine & Wendy here and we're going to show you our room and some of the North Pole bear clan. Our friend Prudence thinks if we're persistent we can wear Mom down and she'll give in and let us have a blog of our own. Until that happens, and we know it will cause we are persistent, Mom is going to let us do a post on her blog from time to time to get the feel of blogging.      Do you feel anything yet, Wendy?

Our Mom likes quilts and she especially likes Christmas quilts. We have the prettiest one on our bed. It's got shams to match. Right now it's covered with bears too. They're watching a Christmas movie. We spent the morning helping Mom make cookies and we're all tired.

Our puppy Vinnie is watching the movie with us. He's a real sweetie and doesn't chew our toys and books and stuff like some dogs do. He's a lot like us. Here we are, just hanging out in our room on a Sunday afternoon. This is for you Mom. We're being good and know that you'll tell Santa. You will tell him won't you?  She will tell him won't she Wendy?

We told Mom to take a close-up so you can see some little girl bear's new Christmas dress. It's got a really full skirt and when a certain little bear spins around it goes way out and up. Makes a little bear feel as pretty as a flower, and a little bit dizzy.

They don't even know that I got down off the bed. The movie is so good that nobeary's paying any attention so I'm going to have Mom take a picture of me and our Christmas tree.

We even got some pressies under it. When we wake up on Christmas morning there's going to be more. There will  be a gazillion of pressies. Right Mom? Maybe even more than a gazillion. You think there will be more than a gazillion, Wendy? What comes after a gazillion?

We wanted to take pictures of Santa's work shop but it's not allowed because it's supposed to be a secret. Yeh, right! Like there's anybody who doesn't know about the workshop. Mom said it's cause she had to sign a confidentiality agreement and in it there's a clause that states  cameras are not allowed. Besides, the workshop is off limits to all non workers right now due to this being the final week before Christmas. There's a big ol' count down clock and everyone is rushing to get the orders completed.

We have to go now. We have to vote on which movie to watch next. Since this is one little bear's first Christmas her big sister is helping her choose. Thanks for visiting and we all wish everyone a

              Merry Christmas

Hugs,
Bellamine & Wendy

How did we do Mom? We did pretty good, right?

Decorating a Christmas Tree on a Budget

As you can see from the title of this post, I'm going to show you how to decorate a Christmas tree spending very little money.

When I first started showing you the ornaments I was making, did you guess I was doing an experiment? Probably not as I didn't mention why I wanted to make the decorations for my tree. It isn't like I haven't amassed a gazillion ornaments by now. For heaven sakes, I've been decorating trees for decades. 

The object of my experiment was to see how inexpensively I could decorate a 7 1/2 foot tree. I wanted to see if there was a way of making ornaments by using the materials that I and many of us who do crafts or sewing have on hand. I also looked in other areas of the house, namely the pantry for inspiration. Although the majority of the ornaments were made using materials that comply with the above criteria I still ended up making one type of ornament that I had none of the supplies on hand because I really like the way they look.

Since I have a rather large stash of fabric finding a way to use some to make ornaments seemed like a good idea. Thus the little fabric heart shaped cushions got put on my list. I had the buttons and the fiberfill  in my supply cupboard. The "ribbon loops" are torn muslin. Cost with using what was at hand? $0.  If I had not had the fabric, buttons, lace and fiberfill on hand I might not have made these. 

Most of the photos I'm going to show you are repeats but are being shown now so you can see the ornament along with the cost of making it.

Appearing here with the hearts are the clothes peg Santa ornaments which were the most expensive part of my ornament making since the only thing I had on hand for these were the paints. Cost of making thirty ornaments was $5.98. That was for the clothes pegs and for the bells so this is still a very inexpensive ornament coming in at less than 20 cents apiece.

Next, using supplies from the pantry I mixed up a couple of batches of salt dough and using my cookie cutters cut out several different shapes. Since I've never used salt dough before I wasn't sure what to expect and wasn't altogether pleased with the results. Maybe someone with more experience with this stuff would have had better results.

Besides the gingerbread men with the torn fabric scarves and the "Stuffy" gingerbread men, there are puffed stars and little puffed trees and angels, Santas and snowmen made from the salt dough. In all I think there were 7 or 8 dozen ornaments that turned out nice enough to be given as gifts and end up on my tree. The cost for these ornaments was about 50 cents for salt, I already had the flour.

Then, me being me, I had to have some paper mache ornaments somewhere on the tree so I designed the Santa and elf ornaments. They were made from less than one batch of paper mache clay and the cost for 24 ornaments was less than $4.00 I know that not everyone is into making paper mache but since it's my "thing" I had to include it.

At the last minute I made these little angels and they were the least expensive ornaments of the lot. Each is made with 3 basket style coffee filters, a cotton ball, a bit of white cotton string and some Tacky glue. Cost was mere pennies.

This little experiment was fun and I wanted to see for myself what could be done with very little money to make a uniquely decorated Christmas tree.  Who would believe you could decorate a tree this size for just over $10.00? I may go back to using my other ornaments next year but this was a challenge and I'm pleased with the outcome.

I'm keeping busy baking and making candy and working on finishing up some gifts. I am however not working so hard that I'm not enjoying some free time here and there. Today I'm making candles. The supplies were purchased last year but I never got around to them and nearly forgot that I had all of the materials. I wonder what else I can make if I look inside some more boxes.

This is the time of year for watching all of my favorite movies. Watching a Christmas movie puts me into the spirit of Christmas like nothing else can. We have a huge collection of movies to chose from. I honestly don't have a favorite but there's a joke around here that my favorite Christmas movie is, "A Long Kiss Goodnight." If you're familiar with the movie which stars Geena Davis and Samuel L. Jackson you may not think of it as a Christmas movie but since it takes place at Christmas the movie is stored in the drawer with the more Orthodox selections.

Do you have a favorite Christmas movie? There seems to be new ones coming out every year but some of the older ones will always be up there among my favorites. I could watch, "It's a Good Life" every year and not get tired of it.

Warm wishes for good cheer and happy memories to all of you this holiday season.

As always, thanks for stopping by.