"Old Santeclaus with Much Delight" is an anonymous illustrated children's poem published in New York in 1821, predating by two years the first publication...

of frost, ice, snow, sleet, winter, and freezing cold. He is a variant of Old Man Winter who is held responsible for frosty weather, nipping the fingers...

reference to Santa's sleigh being pulled by a reindeer appears in "Old Santeclaus with Much Delight", an 1821 illustrated children's poem published in New York...

(schauriglustig) antics appeared in medieval church plays. A large literature, much of it by European folklorists, bears on these subjects. ... Austrians in...

a "Fool Plough", a plough decked with ribands brought into the barn by a dozen mummers together with a grotesque "Old Bessie" (played by a man), and a...

Francis Pharcellus Church. Written in response to a letter by eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon asking whether Santa Claus was real, the editorial was...

preserves or suckets.[page needed] A cookbook from 1609, Delights for Ladies, describes boiling fruits with sugar as "the most kindly way to preserve plums."...

published in New York. It contained "Old Santeclaus with Much Delight", an anonymous poem describing Santeclaus on a reindeer sleigh, bringing rewards...

elephants are considered to be highly valuable and sacred in Thai culture, so much that any white elephant that is found must immediately be brought to the...

sing in every key imaginable as delighted parade participants join in the cacophony. Sometimes, the Befanas dance with paradegoers and dust down the willing...

the goodies upon the floor, and then the scramble would begin by the delighted children, and the other hand would ply the switch upon the backs of the...

They were often given as gifts, and at some point they became associated with Christmas season. They grew in popularity around the 19th century and spread...

custom of chalking the door has a biblical precedent as the Israelites in the Old Testament marked their doors in order to be saved from death; likewise, the...

squeeze of fresh lime juice, which is shaken with the advocaat before pouring into a glass and topping up with lemonade. In the United Kingdom, it is often...

Pacific-facing slopes. One population in the Mexican state of Guerrero is much further inland, however, and is thought to be the ancestor of most cultivated...

the earliest unambiguous references to Grýla's gender and her association with Christmas date only from the seventeenth century. In seventeenth-century...

28 years old (Greek original: "15 years of age"). There he faithfully farmed the taxes of that region for the Roman Senate, and he met with success in...

of straw or roughly-hewn wood could also be called the Yule goat, and in older Scandinavian society a popular Christmas prank was to place this Yule goat...

accords with the political circumstances as we know them." The story was much elaborated in the infancy gospels of the New Testament apocrypha with, for...

preached a sermon against the Feast of Calends ("this foolish and harmful delight") that describes the role of the mock king in Late Antiquity. The New Year's...

first cured with salt to extract water; then the salt is removed and the herring is brined in a vinegar, salt, and sugar solution, often with peppercorn...

topped with browned meringue. The dish is made of ice cream placed in a pie dish, lined with slices of sponge cake or Christmas pudding, and topped with meringue...

it is the only species native to the British Isles and much of Europe. A related species with red fruits, rather than white, Viscum cruciatum, occurs...

observed in New Orleans due to the city's strong French-Creole heritage, with a number of the city's restaurants offering special réveillon menus on Christmas...

realises that he will never love her as much as he loves money. Finally, they visit a now-married Belle with her large, happy family on the Christmas...

Samuel Pepys' diary entry for 19 December 1663. This custom is linked to an older British tradition in which the servants of the wealthy were allowed the...

1821, A New-Year’s Present, contained an illustrated poem Old Santeclaus with Much Delight in which a Santa Claus figure on a reindeer sleigh brings presents...

with horses. These merry rides along village streets were seen in contrast to the silent and pious mood of the preceding Christmas days. Another old tradition...

begins with eating soups, traditionally mushroom soup or barszcz. The ritual for Catholics and Orthodox Christians in Ukraine is to start with kutia....

divinely chosen. The Golden Legend, which derives its account from the much older Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, tells a similar story, although it notes that...