Well tis, the Christmas Season. True it starts earlier every year. When I was a kid, school started the day after Labor Day. I would anticipate that the Christmas Season will soon start at that time. That would have some practical advantages. For example, you could have all your cards out by Halloween which would definitely mean you could have a gift for your hard to buy for Aunt by the week before Black Friday. She probably still would not like it, but at least you would not have to worry about getting her something right up to the day before Christmas.
Christmas is obviously a very commercial time. That is probably the main reason that people realized that there is a Santa Claus. We all know from our lives as youngsters that Santa is a jolly old elf which means that he has been around for a long long time. It is well known that elves live essentially forever!
However, it has only been in the last few hundred years that people realized that there was a Santa. There might have been some people in Lapland who knew about him as that is undoubtedly where he secured his reindeer, but the general public had never heard of him.
That being the case, haven’t you ever wondered what Santa did when people did not know that he was around? He obviously wasn’t carrying presents to good little boys and girls or we would have heard about it. Heck, Shakespeare would probably have written a comedy (perhaps a tragic) play about him if he had known about him. Even Homer does not mention that Ulysses knew that Santa was around. Certainly when the Trojan, Aeneas founder Rome there is no mention of him. However, since we all know that he was alive, he must have been doing something.
The question is what. There is a rumor that a German scribe back in the 600’s named Wolfgang von Schmidl swore that he had seen a bearded Valkyrie flying around in a sled. However, his area was known for its especially strong beer so no one paid any attention. Besides everyone knew that Valkyries were women so if the person piloting the sled had a beard then Wolfgang must have really been pickled. However, if you have enough time and can review a lot of obscure books you can put together a good argument that Santa was around even though he wasn’t delivering toys.
For example, did you ever wonder how Hannibal got all those elephants across the Alps so that he could attack Rome? There is a little known book written by a little known author from a little known country who read an ancient book that is no longer in existence which gave an answer to this question. It was said that Hannibal made friends with a bearded gentleman who had a magic sled that could fly. The bearded one flew above the Alps and told Hannibal where the good passes were. History is full of these hints about Santa. Some people think King Arthur was really Santa – who else could have pulled the sword from the stone?
However, sightings do not explain what he did with his many lives before he became the Santa we all know and love. Personally, I think he led a life that would have put James Bond to shame, but now he is a loveable gent who has retired to do good deeds and make amends for any past misdeeds. Therefore, since he is what he is, I just need him to give me a good suggestion for a gift for The Blonde in the house!
If he does, I will take care of delivery!
Barry Evans writes about Life in The Villages for Villages-News.com