Santa Claus' Competition

As a child, the most enchanting moment on Christmas Eve was unwrapping the presents brought by Santa Claus. It always happened after the big Christmas dinner lovingly prepared by my grandparents. Every year, I would impatiently wait for my family to finish eating, wishing that they would stop chatting and concentrate on emptying their plates faster.  Now that I’ve grown, Christmas is still a time of warmth, love, and of spiritual rebirth for me, but the unwrapping of presents has ceased to be, in my eyes, the most exciting part of it.

I’m still grateful for the heartfelt gifts that I receive and am always happy to find presents for the people I love, but there are other moments of the Christmas celebrations that I value more. The reason for this is that it was never really about the presents themselves. When I was little, I really loved the idea that the gifts had been chosen specifically for me by a magical person. It made my life feel extraordinary. What made me even happier was the fact that, when I traveled from Rome, my hometown, to Bergamo, in order to visit my mum’s side family, I would find other gifts that had been left for me on the night between 12 and 13 December by Saint Lucy, another astonishing, mysterious figure. Indeed, in Italy and in many other countries, the tradition of Santa Claus’ gift giving has not completely replaced other, parallel, customs.

Saint Lucy brings children gifts in the North of Italy and in Siracusa, the city where she was born. The tradition began because of the many miracles attributed to the saint. According to a folktale in Siracusa, in the seventeenth century, during a famine, the city’s population prayed to Saint Lucy, and was, as a result, saved by her. She helped them by sending legumes and wheat. In Brescia, a city in Northern Italy, it is recounted that, in a time of famine and crisis, the Saint left the citizens bags of grain at the entrance of the town. In Verona, the tradition started in the 1200s, when a disastrous epidemic caused many children to almost lose their eyesight. Their parents set off in a procession to the tomb of Saint Agatha, which Lucy had visited when she was only five years old to save her sick mother. Before leaving Verona, the adults promised their children that they would come back with sweets and gifts. They kept their word.

Another Saint who brings children gifts in certain parts of the world is Nicholas of Myra. The Saint died on 6 December, 343 AD. On that same day, every year, it is traditional for him to bring small gifts to children in Southern Germany, in Austria and in the Netherlands. The kids leave him carrots, so that he can feed his horse. This custom is explained by the fact that, during his life, Nicholas dedicated himself to gifting money and food to people in need. It is also traditional (though less and less common), for gift giving on 24 December to be attributed to baby Jesus. This custom is usually attributed to Martin Luther, who opposed the veneration of saints and, consequently, of St Nicholas. For this reason, he encouraged the idea that the gifts were actually distributed to children by “Holy Christ”.

Though a large part of the world is united by Santa Claus’ gift giving, it is beautiful to know that there remain corners of the earth in which unique traditions are treasured and kept alive. What all these customs have in common is on one hand the value they attribute to generosity, on the other the fact that they tell us a lot about the places in which they are still alive. They are founded on myths that can fundamentally serve as mini history lessons. They tell us about famines, epidemics, and religious beliefs. It is important not to forget them.

Image from Wikimedia Commons