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What do you leave out for Father Christmas?
My partner and I were talking about how buzzed Santa must get from his light-speed jaunt around the world, drinking up everyone's booze, but it didn't occur to me that maybe leaving him alcohol is not a typical tradition outside of the UK!
If you celebrate Christmas, and leave (or have left) a drink and/or snack for Father Christmas, where are you from, and what do you leave?
This year, at the behest of our 8-year-old, Father Christmas (who confirmed his love of it in a letter to her) will be getting cheese, alongside a bit of wine and a cookie. What a lucky fellow! We're in the UK.
Dairy farmers want you to know that’s a good strategy
POW! Straight in the nostalgia! I forgot about that ad.
When I was a kid, it was a glass of milk, a few cookies (of whatever variety we baked that year), and some carrots for the reindeer. (I'm in Canada)
This but in the US Midwest.
We did usually leave the carrots outside.
He might have gotten whiskey when we were older... Conveniently my dad drank whiskey so it was easy to leave some out for Santa.
It definitely isn't traditional in the States! Milk (along with cookies, of course) is definitely traditional here, and references to leaving him alcohol instead would be interpreted as a joke at Dad's expense (since it's assumed leaving out booze instead of milk was a suggestion he made to fit his preferences on which to drink once the kids are asleep).
I wonder if this difference has anything to do with the differences in alcohol consumption between the US and UK though, as adults in the UK drink considerably more than their US counterparts. The percentage of Americans who drink alcohol is at a record low of 54%, and in Gallup's polls on the matter since the 1940s, the record highs are 68% to 71% (which all occur between 1974 and 1981). Meanwhile, in the most recent UK statistics I could find, only 22% of adults in England and Northern Ireland were reported non-drinkers, and those numbers shrank to 20% in Scotland and 17% in Wales. Among those who do drink, it also seems that a larger percentage of Americans drink quite infrequently compared to the UK stats (though the statistics I could find used different buckets, so they aren't directly comparable). While drinking is at a record low in the UK as well, the average UK adult consumes 10.2 drinks a week and total abstention is not on the rise, whereas in the US the average weekly consumption among those who do drink (that is, omitting non-drinkers from calculating the mean) is 2.8 drinks and the rate of non-drinkers appears to be consistently rising. The record high in the US since Gallup started asking about weekly consumption was 5.1 drinks per week in 2003, about half Britain's current record low.
On both sides of the pond, young people (and women) are less likely to drink, though. I wonder if the tradition of setting alcohol out for Santa will change with the generations in the UK?
You do have a point, and based on what you wrote I'd also say there's at least some degree of correlation here. And there's also certainly more to it, like the cultural aspect - there are differences on how we view alcohol, how we drink alcohol, what cultural standards/associations/etc we have for it, what's our regional history with it, and so on. Just how the US and Germany treat the above aspects differently.
It's definitely true that there are such cultural differences between any two countries that celebrate Christmas, but I do think the otherwise much stronger degree of similarity in Christmas traditions between countries in the Anglosphere makes it particularly interesting when they do differ in ways like this.
I'm from Germany and I don't think we have that tradition here.
Brazil too. I had never heard of leaving food out for Santa until I moved to the US.
US: a cup of milk and some snickerdoodle cookies. And always a little corn feed outside for the reindeer!
My spouse lived in Austria as a child, so we’re part of a privileged elite that gets visited by Santa early, on St. Nicholas Day, December 6. The kids leave their boots on the doorstep overnight, and wake to find them filled with goodies in the morning. Thankfully we don’t get visited by Krampus — but occasionally a switch or two will end up in a boot alongside the chocolate coins and oranges.
Unfortunately Santa skips right over our house on Christmas Eve, leaving the responsibility for those presents up to us. And nobody ever sets snacks out for it. Kinda feels like a raw deal if you ask me.
:D yay fellow Dec 6 St Nicholas days celebrants! At our Church someone puts on the Bishop's hat and vestments when they're St Nicholas, when normally one shouldn't put on vestments one hadn't been ordained for.
New rule, your household Santa rep now demands cookies and beer.
Now that’s a tradition I can get behind! Prost!
Ha in Brazil we have a tradition where kids would put their shoes and footwear by the door for Santa to put the gift on (not in). But we usually do it on December 24th/25th rather than early. Funny how these traditions get passed and adapted from one region to another.
You should write a letter to him to complain, haha.
I'm from regional Victoria, Australia. We'd usually leave Santa a beer and a cheese platter, he ate like a king at ours!
Also have to leave a few carrots for the reindeer, and some fresh green grass. Hunting for the green grass was a great way to keep the kids busy, as there's not a lot around in summer!
Oh that's great fun! I always forget to leave something for the reindeer, but the kids have just reminded me that they're leaving sugar lumps this year.
UK as well, but as a child we'd leave out a mince pie and some sherry.
Here in the tropics leaving food out means attracting cockroaches, rodents and sometimes other creatures. So that would be an uncomfortable tradition to have!
That would work though.
There might be critters that enjoy alcohol? Also, cookies in packages maybe ;)
Nothing. My dude always comes and hangs gifts to the children in person around here. In fact I thought that "leaving things out" was just a hollywood thing.
"If you're naughty, you're next"
UK: Mince Pie, sherry and a carrot.
I had to nibble the carrot around the edges, and leave a white whisker in a pile of mince pie crumbs.
And have the sherry, of course.
The traditional thing would be a bowl of rice porridge, although it's not a tradition my family observes. (Scandinavia)
...stateside we left milk + cookies on an endtable near our fireplace christmas eve, plus in puerto rico we'd leave a box of grass under our bed for three kings' day...
(we'd also leave a case of beer at the curb for garbage men the week between, because apparently they'd dump trash on your lawn if you didn't)
What, no myrrh for the kings? (Herp-derp)
Like, cut grass!? Or a square of live turf? Why do the kings want grass? That sounds really fun, my geese would love grass but they're certainly not three, wise, nor men
I guessed it was for their camels like the reindeer carrots, but idk if camels eat grass... Does it depend on the camel?
Now I wanna know
What do camels eat :/ I know they work in the desert but do they actually live in deserts? What do they like to eat when available?
Wikipedia has no info on their diet, but they do in fact live in the desert. Nearly all are domesticated but a wild endangered population exists in the desert. This site says they eat all kinds of thorny dried up vegetation and fungi in the desert. ZeFrank lists a bunch of crazy adaptations they have -- they're extemophiles.
So yes I think they could really love soft, lush, moist grass as a treat, but maybe a juicy cactus leaf pad might be more familiar
...fodder for their donkey-camels, like cut grass or hay...
We used to leave out marzipan and whiskey. Because apparently "He gets milk and cookies everywhere, why not give him something else?"
Ireland, my parents always left out a can of Guinness for Santa and a carrot for Rudolph. My unfortunate mother was the one stuck taking a bite of the carrot every year and serving as our type case for what reindeer teeth look like.
My own kid is 1, so it'll be another year or two before we institute our own tradition. I'd rather try climb down the chimney myself than drink a Guinness, so I'll probably go with the more wholesome glass of milk (or cider, if my commitment to healthy eating falters).
Funny enough, I found out that my husband left a protein shake out. I guess Santa’s gonna be jacked.
:D quick refuel on a long night of sleigh driving. No mess, quickly consumable. Solid choice.
The Dutch celebrate Sinterklaas, obviously of the same origin but unrelated to Christmas, on December 5th instead. In this particular tradition, he's riding a horse over rooftops rather than fly around with reindeer. We tend to leave out drawings for Sinterklaas and a carrot for the horse.