songs. Each county would have its own carols, known as ‘curls’, which would be learnt by heart and handed down from generation to generation.
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Children Eagerly Await Father Christmas
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On Christmas Eve, 24th December, all children hang their stocking at the end of their bed and leave a drink and mince pie out for Father Christmas. Eventually, despite the excitement, they settle down to sleep in eager anticipation of a visit from Father Christmas to deliver all the toys and presents they have wished for. During the night Father Christmas makes his way around the world on his sleigh, pulled by his magical reindeers, entering the houses down the chimney to leave the surprises for the good children. Many a child claims to have heard Santa’s’ sleigh bells or sneaked a look at him, but most wake in the morning to find that the refreshments they left out the night before have been eaten by Santa and his reindeers and a collection of wonderful gifts have been left at the end of the bed.
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Origins of Father Christmas
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Father Christmas probably has his origins deep in Hungarian or German folk-lore. In his German form ‘Der Weihnachtsmann (the Christmas Man) he has existed for several centuries, but it took a New York department store towards the end of the last century to popularise him with the creation of his modern imagery including the reindeer, sleigh and his ‘homeland’ - Lapland. In Northern Europe St. Nicholas has long been associated with Christmas and there are stories of him giving dowries to poor young girls on the celebration of Christ’s birth, although the Dutch relate to Santa Claus giving presents to little boys. The European immigrants to the USA carried their traditions to their new home country and many were absorbed or adapted to create the modern myth which we recognise today in its full commercial form.
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Snow Expected on Christmas Day
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Whilst we all have nostalgic memories of snow covered streets at Christmas, this has actually been a rare occurrence, happening only seven times this century. This image of Christmas can be said to have been created by Charles Dickens with his novel ‘A Christmas Carol’ which was published in 1843. Drawing on his own idealised childhood memories when nearly every Christmas had a snowfall, ‘A Christmas Carol’ and his four subsequent Christmas books did much to establish many of the modern Christmas traditions. Various aspects of the story were drawn from his own experience, including the Cratchit house based on the small terraced house in Bayham Street, where the family lived after moving to London. The creation of Scrooge came at a time when Dickens was struggling financially and facing demands for support from a number of relatives. The book took six weeks to write. It was released at the beginning of December complete with four full colour etchings and four black-and-white woodcuts. Six thousand copies were sold by Christmas Eve at five shillings a time. Dickens himself was particularly pleased with the book’s reception as it was the first novel he had been able to complete without the need to publish in serial form. Unfortunately, the book was not the immediate financial success he had hoped for. Having expected to profit by around one thousand pounds, Dickens was extremely disappointed when production costs reduced the profit to just over 130 pounds.
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