For example, in Iceland, instead of Santa Claus, "there's the 'Christmas Men,' also known as the Yule lads. As the stories have told it, the mystic men – with names like 'Window Peeper,' 'Sausage Swiper,' 'Bowl Licker' and 'Meat Hook' — come one by one down from the mountains by your community, play pranks and steal things from homes. (To be fair to them, they'll also leave presents in windows for children.) On top of that, they have an ogress mother, Grýla, who eats misbehaving children 'like sushi for Christmas'...."
December 25, 2025
"All these kinds of winter traditions are tied very intricately into small communities. You develop between yourselves a folklore about this winter time and this period of darkness."
Said Nordic studies professor Maren Johnson, quoted in "How cozy Yuletide traditions got their start with raging parties and animal sacrifice" (NPR).
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Three cheers for the USA’s awesome handling of the Christmas holiday. The vast majority of Americans celebrate in a mostly secular way publicly, Santa and trees and gifts and elves, commercials featuring same as well as kids of all kinds anticipating the largest gift exchange ever in history, every year. Then there’s the Christian traditions, the various ethnic traditions mixed in (Feast of seven fishes), the Jewish observance of Hanukkah and the ever-expanding cast of mythical do gooders and special critters, nutcracker soldiers, whole neighborhoods that compete to light creative displays.
There’s something for everyone and a welcoming aspect to every public celebration. There’s even iconic figures who have a “bah humbug” attitude so that the antisocial are represented. But the most important and wonderful annual Christmas miracle is the expressions of Joy and declaration of Peace on Earth that inspire others to feel festive.
May this day bring Peace and Joy to all of us and may your joy be contagious. Merry Christmas!🎄
Merry Christmas to all!
'Window Peeper,' 'Sausage Swiper,' 'Bowl Licker' and 'Meat Hook' —
I started to have some fun with this, but then thought it inappropriate on Christmas morning.
Reason 2,439 why I no longer listen to NPR.
Cutting off funding to NPR was one of Trump’s greatest accomplishments.
Merry Christmas to the entire Althouse community. You cognoscenti who know that Christmas is about the birth of Jesus Christ.
One of the biggest emotional challenges of a newlywed couple is combining (and leaving behind) some of their parents' holiday traditions, to create new ones for their new family.
I think she meant to say interwoven instead of tied but there's nothing intricate about it.
An image search for Maren Johnson tells me she might be good with children.
Eaten? Perpetual naughty list I was on doesn’t sound so bad…
@Mike Wolf ... 2025 will long be remembered as the year our church found out about 'The Christmas Dinosaur'.
Merry Christmas one and all!
Merry Christmas to all you animals!
Jeg kjenner de norske tradisjonene best fordi jeg er ganske komfortabel med språket. Juletreet vårt er fullt av pynt av halm, tinn og rosemal. Vi legger igjen noe til julnissen og husker også skogstomtene. I dag er det mye syltet sild, lefse og bakverk.
Jeg er slett ikke norsk, men jeg liker kulturen og dens mange tradisjoner. God jul til deg.
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I know the Norwegian traditions best because I'm quite comfortable in the language. Our tree is full with ornaments of straw, pewter, and rosemal. We leave something for the jul nisse and also remember the forest tomtes. Lots of pickled herring today, lefse, and pastries.
I am not at all Norwegian, but I like the culture and its many traditions. Happy Christmas to you.
The only problem is that at 39°N, the days are much too long, compared to my years at 61°N.
Merry christmas all yes hold the amateur sociology for one,
Over a few decades the UK has transitioned from Father Christmas to Santa Claus.
Gryla and Krampus made it into that terrible Red One film (i wont elaborate)
And for a while the New Dr who found ways to terrify children
https://open.substack.com/pub/donsurber/p/monroe-crossing-the-delaware?
Merry Christmas.
Krampus features this year in some mildly amusing Ocean Spray commercials. He steals people's cranberries. CC, JSM
Npr is like some alien organism trying to understand humanity
Happy Hogswatch!
A human community with common principles sharing similar traditions celebrating the conception and birth of Christ. Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas!
The Nordic Studies field is brand new. They just started it after Trump expressed an interest in Greenland.
Merry Christmas to the Althousians… 🥂
Bart Hall (Kansas, USA) said...
"The only problem is that at 39°N, the days are much too long, compared to my years at 61°N."
As fellow 39°Ners, my wife and I are happy that the days are finally starting to get longer again. Looking forward to sunlight until 9:30pm. (We are on the western edge of the EST time zone).
Talked to my girlfriend last night about Christmas traditions in Poland. They don’t eat meat on Christmas Eve, so she made beet soup with homemade wild mushroom pierogis, and pickled herring.
They also do twelve dishes at Christmas dinner, one for each apostle. And the main dish for the evening is carp, which they keep alive in the bath tub until just before frying it. I’ll pass on that one, but I’m all about pierogi…
Yeah im not keen on carp
Said Nordic studies professor Maren Johnson, quoted in "How cozy Yuletide traditions got their start with raging parties and animal sacrifice" (NPR).
This is NPR pushing their secular war on the United States. Their goal is the destruction of the country.
Our free high trust society only exists as a protestant Christian nation.
There is no other societal belief that will create a country like the United States. None. Not Islam. Not Catholicism. Not Secularism. Not Global Warmism. Not Buddhism. Not Hinduism.
Japan exists because they did not have to form a warrior ethos or their own legal structure. It was imposed on them by protestant Christians. But under that structure they do well. Ditto South Korea.
Secularists are worse to import to your society than Muslims are. At least Muslims are honest about trying to tear your country apart.
Even without aid funding they persist
We should eat beets before any major holiday to make us grateful for not having to eat beets at any other time.
Paganism is said to be making a comeback in the Eastern Baltic countries. They were Christianized rather late and Communism held them back from fully embracing Western consumerism, so there is still a hunger for something to believe in.
No we should rejoice on that dat
Is that more npr sociology?
Like the bbc they are contemptuos of their own people
Achilles: "Japan exists because they did not have to form a warrior ethos or their own legal structure. It was imposed on them by protestant Christians. "
Yes, we wilfully ignore the Shinto Reformation we forced on them, just as we wilfully ignore the carpet bombing.
OTOH, there probably would have been more, higher-quality peace had we just let Japan have the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, and done the Marshall Plan six years early to compensate the Euros for loss of their empires.
BTW, Shinto Reformation would be a great name for a rock band. CC, JSM
Lotta pervs in Iceland.
YouTube: The story behind the 1914 Christmas Truce, a series of unofficial ceasefires that occurred along the Western Front of World War I .
"The Nordic Studies field is brand new."
Nordic studies have been around for a long while at some US Universities (10-15 according to Grok). I've worked with some of them in the travel business and have done Nordic themed tours for the National Nordic Musuem.
What's new is reverting back to the correct use of the word "Nordic" in the US. Due to the stigma associated with the word after WWII, Iceland and Finland were often put under the "Scandinavia" umbrella for both academic and tourism usage even though Scandinavia should only be Norway, Sweden and Denmark. This stigma has faded and "Nordic" is now generally a positive term for many.
Its all those hot springs
Merry Christmas! From Grok:
David Sedaris, the American humorist, has written several essays touching on holidays abroad, often drawing from his experiences living in France or observing customs in other countries.
His most famous piece directly about Christmas in a foreign country is "Six to Eight Black Men", included in collections like Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim (2004) and later editions of Holidays on Ice. In this essay, Sedaris humorously contrasts American Santa Claus traditions with those in the Netherlands. He recounts learning about the Dutch figure Sinterklaas (Saint Nicholas), who arrives on December 5 accompanied by "six to eight black men" — his helpers known as Zwarte Piet (Black Pete). These assistants, traditionally depicted in blackface, are described in the story as former slaves turned "good friends" who help reward good children but punish naughty ones by beating them or stuffing them into sacks to take to Spain. Sedaris plays up the absurdity for comedic effect, noting how this seems far more bizarre than America's eight flying reindeer, while poking fun at cultural differences and historical sensitivities.
Another related essay is "Jesus Shaves" from Me Talk Pretty One Day (2000), set in a French language class in France. While primarily about explaining Easter to a Moroccan classmate, the international students hilariously mangle descriptions of holiday symbols — including Christmas ones, like a "magic dustpan" pulled by "eight flying cinder blocks" or Easter bells flying in from Rome (a French tradition where church bells, not a bunny, deliver chocolate eggs). This highlights the confusion of cross-cultural holiday explanations, with Sedaris's deadpan narration amplifying the ridiculousness.
Merry Christmas to all. What a present to have come into existence on the planet Earth (the actual "heaven") and in particular, to be a citizen of the United States of America. We've already won the biggest lottery prize in life.
There was an Omaha restaurant called Joe Tess’s Place that served carp. It was called Famous Fish on the menu.
Well thats just sloppy translation, sleigh would be a difficult one even morocco was once Christian
Merry Christmas to all of Althousiana.
@narc - I told her that in addition to being one of the finest bass lakes on the planet, Guntersville is also renowned for carp. Mainly bow fishing at night on air boats, including major tournaments. I guess I need to buy some flashlights… lol
Its kind of a small fry though i imagine
Every NPR/NYT story about Christmas, when they can actually get themselves to say the word, is negative in some way. Its all part of the "The war on Christmas" thats been won by the Left. The word Christmas has been scrubbed from the public space, its "Holiday". And schools don't take a Christmas break - its "Winter break".
Getting back to the Saturday Night Live theme. I've been going through the old shows on Peacock and the net, courtesy of my wife who paid for the subscription. Almost every christmas sketch starting in 1975, mocks or satirizes the Holiday in some way. It starts in a rather mild way in 75, but before long its attacking nativity plays, christmas lights, dysfunctional families, etc. etc. And finally Chistianity and Jesus Christ himself.
Its all Leftwing. Like SNL constant promotion/normalization of drug use which they were hitting hard in the 70s/80s.
@Cappy, if you saw the women of Iceland you’d probably turn Pervy yourself.
We learned about "Zwarte Piet (Black Pete)" who came from Spain from our Dutch foreign exchange student we hosted in '02-03 school year. Something about leaving your shoes by the door where he would leave presents. Also, about the huge bonfires they would have. Fun stuff.
"The only problem is that at 39°N, the days are much too long, compared to my years at 61°N."
The only problem with the long nights of 61-N is that the constellations are boring compared to their southern counterparts.
Merry Christmas, everyone!
Their take on 'its a wonderful life' was amusing
Damn, I remember when Eve Online (run by an Icelandic development studio) did a whole bit about the Yule Lads.
Here's another cool Icelandic Christmas tradition:
The Icelandic Christmas Eve tradition of Jólabókaflóð, or "Christmas Book Flood," is a unique and cherished cultural practice in Iceland, deeply rooted in the nation's love for literature and storytelling. In Iceland, ‘book flood’ is celebrated on Christmas Eve and revolves around giving and receiving new books, often accompanied by delicious treats like hot cocoa, Icelandic chocolates, or even a special beer. The night is spent in the company of loved ones, reading and sharing stories, creating memories that last a lifetime.
Nordic studies have been around for a long while...
That was a joke.
john mosby said...
Yes, we wilfully ignore the Shinto Reformation we forced on them, just as we wilfully ignore the carpet bombing.
And the nuclear detonations.
OTOH, there probably would have been more, higher-quality peace had we just let Japan have the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, and done the Marshall Plan six years early to compensate the Euros for loss of their empires.
If you look back at WWII with open eyes I am not altogether sure what we got for saving the rest of Europe from Germany or China from Japan.
South Korea and Japan worked out. They worked out because they held on to their own culture and national identity minus the army we planted there.
Maybe culture and national identity mean something.
’…the constellations are boring compared to their southern counterparts.’
Merry stargazing Christmas, Original Mike!
Ocean: I do love the original cast, plus Candice Bergen, doing "Winter Wonderland" un-ironically, led by Garrett Morris's more than serviceable pipes. They all look so young, and some of them are gone now. CC, JSM
Charlie Currie: "We learned about "Zwarte Piet (Black Pete)" "
Speaking of SNL: one of the best Weekend Update one-liners was when Seth Myers discussed the then-current Dutch kerfluffle over this character and then advised the audience not to do what he did and Google for Black Peter....CC, JSM
Big Mike said...
"@Cappy, if you saw the women of Iceland you’d probably turn Pervy yourself."
I dunno. Bjork is kinda cute.
Nordic studies have been around for a long while...
I would guess it has been a short enough time that most of its scholarship consists of tendentiously shitting all over the indigenous people of Northern Europe for their unbearable whiteness of being.
Beasts of England said..."Merry stargazing Christmas, Original Mike!"
And to you, mate!
Re the famous fish of omaha:
In the 80s & 90s there was a high end steakhouse that advertised orange roughly as their signature seafood entree. It sounded so good I always wanted to try it.
Until I found out that it was really a "slime head" trash fish that some marketing genius had renamed and promoted
John Henry
So like mr burns three eyed fish
My mother was born in Iceland brought here by my father as a war bride in 1945, along with their first born son Ingolfur Patrick. I can trace my lineage straight back to 854AD. How many here can say that? At the same time, my mother only found out about her half siblings when she was in her late 70s. How’s that for a dichotomy. There’s a whole lot more to this story, but I’ll spare everyone here even if it is very interesting.
oh and yes, merry merry Christmas to all especially those whom I secretly love.
Orange Roughy are ocean fish that taste absolutely delicious. Nothing wrong with them. Also, they live to be about 200 years old, which presumably doesn't affect the taste, but it makes them pretty awesome.
Okay, for Yule, he's got a point. And because of the cultural dominance of northern Europeans in the colonies, there was a fair bit of Yule and Germanic paganism in Christmas. But is he suggesting that Sicilian Christmas is about huddling together in the cold? African? Mexican?
When people are post-Christian, trying to expose myths of the believers becomes a blood sport. Their own myths, such as thinking that anyone in American cared about the Solstice or Kwanzaa until the recent renewed fashionability of paganism and giving everyone a participation medal, they are entirely oblivious to.
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