HOW SANTA GOT HIS NAME.
The name Santa Claus is from the Dutch for St. Nicholas, tho patron saint of children. The custom of hanging up stockings just before Christmas originated in Germany, Holland and Flanders, where Santa Claus was supposed to bring gifts as a reward for good children. Ihe feast of St.. Nicholas is on December 6.
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZH19291228.2.130.43.6
HOW WE GOT OUR CHRISTMAS TREE
It is said that St. Nicholas, the saint who loved children, was originally responsible for the idea, of decorating Christmas trees.
The story goes that St. Nicholas used to visit the homes of children, bringing presents for them. These be used to put into the children's stockings, but should it so happen that he came to a homo where there was a Christmas tree St. Nicholas used to hang his presents from the branches.
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZH19341222.2.184.21.8
What is the story that our picture tells? Its name is "Saint Nicholas" Day," and it is a copy of a painting made in Holland three hundred yearn ago. Saint Nicholas' Day in Holland is like Christmas Day in our country. Now \vo can sco a little hit of tho picture's meaning. Tlio little girl in tho middle of tlie picture lias a doll in her arms, and a bucket with some queer toys in it. Saint Nicholas must havo brought lier those, just as Santa Claus brings us presents. Her little brother has a golfclub in his hand, and there is a golf-ball on the floor. They must have been the presents he wanted most of all, for in those days children played golf. What about the shoe lying on the floor? The little girl had put that shoe by the stove the night before, with some hay in it. The hay was to feed the white horse that Saint Nicholas came riding on. He rode over the roofs with his .... boy, who carried a huge bag of presents. Some of them were dropped down the chimney for the children in this house. Although it is Saint Nicholas' Day, there is someone in the picture who is not happy. There he is at the left, crying sadly, while his sister and little brother laugh at him. The sister is holding up the shoe he left for Saint Nicholas. Alas! there are no presents or sweets in it, but a bundle of switches with which he is to be spanked. Poor Hans has been a naughty boy, and Saint Nicholas must punish him. _ _ On the right of the picture wo see the eldest boy with his baby sister in his arms. She is holding her toy, too, and her brother is telling her how it came down tho black chimney for her. The little boy beside them is singing up the chimney. " Thank you, Saint Nicholas," is his song. We did not think, did we, 'that our picture had so much to tell us? And, if wo look closely, we may be able to add still more to its story.
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZH19301220.2.183.43.11
Wishing you all the very best for Christmas fellow Community Centre members and followers.
This is one of my favourite photgraphs I've taken at Cornwall Park, Auckland, New Zealand
HOLLY aS MEDICINE.
Prone to over-eating at Christmas time, our ancestors had a remedy very near to hand. As they drove, or walked, back from their good old-fashioned parties in the glistening snow, the head of the family plucked a good branch of the wayside, and
next morning those suffering from the various maladies resulting from a mixture of rich, foods—for they could eat in those days—were dosed with the holly berries. Ten berries before breakfast were the prescribed medicine, and as they are stated to be "violently emetic," there is little doubt that the country folk found them a far healthier and less expensive medicine than many present-day anidotes. It is probably due to their medicinal effects that hollyberries are disliked by birds. The feathered tribe only peck at the holly-berry when they are very pressed for food during a particularly severe winter.
The mistle-thrush is the one exception, - he rather quite likes it.
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/THD19191220.2.57
Taken from the NZ Graphic, 18 April 1903, p1075 'Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, NZG-19030418-1075-1 '
Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, AWNS-19071226-12-3
'Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, AWNS-19091223-7-1
Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, AWNS-19091223-5-1
Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, AWNS-19101222-14-3
Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, AWNS-19161228-38-5
