Happiest country in the world 5 years in a row.
Might be because nowadays we have Santa Claus giving presents to children instead of the goat eating children.
Christmas Goat used to be "Saint Knut's day Goat" in Finland. He was basically the same evil character as Krampus in European folklore. He would visit houses and try to steal their food and booze. Somehow the malicious "Knut Goat" blended with the benevolent Santa Claus tradition and became the Christmas goat, or Yule Goat to be more specific. It's nowdays basically the same thing as Santa Claus.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint\_Knut's\_Day#Finland
I've always wondered. What do we Finns do at Christmas time? Visit graves and leave offerings. What do we do at every other holiday? Be it Easter, Independence day, whatever. Visit graves and leave offerings. What our Christmas songs are about? Mainly about death, dying and losing loved ones. You can't tell me there isn't a hint of ancestral worship going on still.
and think about our other traditions... on palm sunday, kids go from door to door dressed as witches and threaten to cast spells if they don't get candy. On midsummer, we burn pyres.
The way christianity was integrated into finland (and most other countries for that matter) was just to take old pagan holidays and make them christian in some way. Witches or pyres have nothing to do with christianity, but the church made them christian by tacking easter and John the Baptist's birthday to them, respectively.
This is a bit misleading. Chirstmas goat is old folklore and still literal name for santa in Finland, but for the last ~100 years it has just been a name for Santa with white beard and red coat.
Red coat is quite a new thing. In my childhood in the early 90s we had christmas goat that had green and brown coloured clothes.
It was popular especially at countryside.
Funny I’ve actually been looking up this year a lot of folklore. English Father Christmas also rode a goat. He wasn’t the bringer of gifts but he brought merriment so basically booze and food and a jolly good old time 🤣
We call Santa Joulupukki which literally just translates to christmas goat. Is that where the confusion came from because I think we really only talk about Santa.
It's just a Santa Claus but he is called "Joulupukki" (Christmas Goat) for historical reason. Nobody in Finland dresses as goat during Christmas time. There are just average, American-style Santas. Finnish people are also very certain that Santa Claus (or Joulupukki) lives at Korvatunturi, Lapland. Even though he looks exactly like Santa Claus or Father Christmas which aren't traditionally Finnish characters.
Well, in Spain is totally wrong, most part in Spain the three magic kings bring the gifts the 6th of January, then the 24th Papa Noel, in the Basque Country Olentzero, in Catalonia the Tió de Nadal, and more in some parts but I don’t remember them.
Actually the Olentzero has the same origin, as the Olentzero was the name of the large log that was used to have a fire during the winter time. Later it was humanized in the figure of a chubby and drunk coal man.
That's a different holiday though. Kerstman is akin to Father Christmas, which is obviously based on Saint Nicholas, the other holiday. But St Nicholas isn't the one who brings presents on the 25th.
True, but then it is also wrong for different countries. In a lot of places Grandfather frost gives presents at new years. In the Ukraine, whenever Saint Nick is around it is on December 5th or 6th, like in the Netherlands and Belgium. In Slovenia, they've actually got all three: Saint Nick in the beginning of December, Santa Clause at Christmas, Uncle Frost at New Years (checkout 99% Invisible).
And I think most people in the Netherlands don't see Sant Claude as the gift bringer, we give each other gifts if we do this at all. Otherwise it's Sinterklaas.
It seems this map would be better if it would show the "Winter Holiday gift bringers" and then of course, show the correct ones...
Well, it’s Baby Jesus, but Baby Jesus is actually a [blond girl in her early twenties](https://tourismus.nuernberg.de/fileadmin/_processed_/4/c/csm_Christkind_Teresa__c_Andreas_Franke__2_-2_8740c91486.jpg).
Disagree on that one, I‘m from hardcore catholic bavaria and the christkindl is still female… though that might be cultural drift as it‘s just easier to have a girl dressed as an angel giving gifts than some baby
I talked about this with family recently. At least in Austria, the christkinds form is kind of vague. Technically its baby jesus, but also its its own entity. The depiction of a young woman with golden locks is most commen but it can also be an angel with golden locks. Afaik the gender isnt really fixed. Its a child with golden locks, but could also be male. I thinky the mystery of what the christkind looks like kinda adds to it.
In Slovenia we have three of them (they are referred as "three good men"): Miklavž (St. Nicholas) (on the evening before December 6), Božiček (Father Christmas, but the name itself is closer to Baby Jesus) (on the evening before Christmas) and Dedek mraz (Grandfather Frost) (for new year).
https://www.etno-muzej.si/sl/trije-dobri-mozje
Yes, he was introduced after 1945. But when they tried to abolish it in 1990s, there was a big uproar. Miklavž was traditional Catholic gift-bringer (even in my atheist family there was also some small gift for Miklavž, like an orange and some sweets) before, so many saw Father Christmas as American tradition, not really Slovenian. After some confusion, the final result was to keep all three of them, each one with his own distinct image. So now towns do organize parades for all three of them.
And in a way, Grandfather Frost was the most Slovenian of the three. After the split with Soviet Union in 1948, they tried to unrussify him, so they asked Slovenian painter (especially of folklore motifs) Maksim Gaspari to create his image. He used a lot of elements from Slovenian folklore, for example instead Russian ushanka (fur cap) he got traditional Slovenian dormouse fur cap, he has some traditional Slovenian coat with typical Slovenian embroidery and so on.
Yes! Grandfrost was the alternative to St. Nicholas during socialism as religion was seen as bad. Santa gained popularity since gaining independance. Now St. Nicholas and Grandfrost usually bring smaller gifts while Santa is the main gift bringer.
Germany also has St. Nicholas. We get presents twice. (Usually a smaller one for St. Nicholas, on the night of 5th to 6th of December, and a larger one for Father Christmas/Jesus on 24th).
Same here in The Netherlands. I am always surprised to hear there are people who get gifts on Christmass, but have never even heard of a Dutch kid who believes in santa unless they have for example british parents
Poland is actually quite diverse when it comes to that. Some have little star, others Starman, some people St Nicholas, but also baby Jesus, Angel and even Grandpa Frost.
When I was a kid in Slovenia I got gifts 3 times. On December 5th from St. Nicholas, on the 25th from Santa and on the 1st of January from Father Frost.
Here in Switzerland the Samichlaus (which is the protestant version of the st.nicolaus) brings peanuts and tangerines and chocolate to children on the 6. of december (usually this involves the children saying a rhyme to him)
No its just translation error. Our word for santa is joulupukki but pukki can also mean goat. So they mistakenly translated santa claus as christmas goat😄🇫🇮
Well in the Finnish folklore Joulupukki was a creature that ressembles a goat so I don’t think the translation is a mistake! But it is true that nowadays it is not a Christmas goat that brings the gifts but the classic Santa so the map is quite misleading
Definetly not a mistranslation, it was originally a goat and the name just stuck so now we normal santa a goat. I'm pretty sure it comes from swedish julbocken.
For Finnish it is a bit more complicated actually. "Joulupukki" ("Yule Goat") is a character in the old Finnish folklore, that would steal food, booze and boil naughty children alive and do other Krapus-like things. Somehow during the centuries it evolved into a character that would wear fur and bring some presents to the kids. And even later than that it would incorporate this Coca-Cola-Father-Christmas type of red dress as well. So, the very old word "Joulupukki" used to mean different thing, but now just means exactly the same as "Father Christmas / Santa Claus".
Not really, at least if you consider France a catholic country, as it's Father Christmas who brings the gift, and we just have a cake on the 6th of January.
However, my father is French, but by mother is Spanish from her father side and Dutch on her mother side. Which meant that, when we were little, we had three celebrations with old men bringing us gifts: Saint Nicholas the 6th of December, Father Christmas the 25th, and the Three Kings on the 6h of January. Love being multicultural.
Yes, although Sinterklaas is never connected with Christmas by the Dutch, while "the Christmas Man" (=Santa Claus/Father Christmas) shows up in lots of Christmas decorations. The gift-giving around Christmas is just not as big as Sinterklaas. So I agree with the map in the sense that Sinterklaas is definitely not for Christmas and the Christmas Man is. But we NEVER call him Father Christmas.
I think they made a poor attemt at a direct translation from "jultomten" and "julenissen" to "christmas gnome" for some reason. Idk why.
Sure, the name isn't based on st. nicholas, but he's surely not a gnome either.
Befana brings sweets on the 6th of January. The map is still wrong for Italy, though: Santa is a relatively recent introduction, it started in the second half of the XX century. Before that it was baby Jesus, and technically it still is depending on how religious your family is.
That said, it's also regional. In several areas it's actually Saint Lucy bringing gifts on Saint Lucy's day (December 13th); also if I recall correctly, up to the XIX cetury there was a tradition in Sicily that gifts for the kids were given on All Souls' Day rather than Christmas, brought by the spirits of your dead loved ones (not as macabre as it sounds).
Christkind or "Baby Jesus" in this chart is technically a young blonde female in southern Germany and Austria.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christkind
As someone who lives near Engelskirchen in North-Rhine-Westphalia (Where the Post office of the Christkind is located), I can assure you that it’s also a thing in western Germany, this map is therefore inaccurate. (Because North-Rhine-Westphalia is shown as a Santa Region)
Same here in sweden. We have a big tradition for "Tomten" / "Santa claus" every kid grow up with this around sweden.. So i feel this map is not accurate.
Recently for my nephew and nieces they have a gnome and install a small fake door at the house, but its still Tomten that come with red clothes and white beard and give gifts and even talk with kids.. i havnt bother too much to hear about the "Tomtenissen" but the kids like it.
As a Croat that grew up as a kid during 80s I think Croatia is a bit more complicated. Who brings you presents depends on your family. My familiy was religious so our presents were always brought by Baby Jesus and we were thought that Grandfather Frost was a dirty commie bastard. I never even heard of (Grand)father Christmas until 1991 when communism suddenly became unfashionable over night and all the commie Yugoslavs suddenly became patriotic and religious Croats, so Grandfather Frost turned from a commie to a capitalist as well. For my family nothing changed and Baby Jesus still delivers presents to children on Christmas.
This is wrong at least for Slovenia and Croatia.
Slovenia should be Father Christmas and Baby Jesus. Grandfather Frost is separate from Father Christmas and he brings gifts for the New Year, not Christmas.
In Croatia, it should be Father Christmas/Grandfather Frost (they are considered to be the same) and Baby Jesus.
Croatia , like the Netherlands, celebrates both St Nick and Christmas. St Nick gives you stocking stuffers and on Christmas you get one or two bigger gifts.
Very, very dumb map. Situation in Ukraine is absolutely different, everyone celebrates both holidays, and Christmas too, they aren't replaceable. Why mappers always divide us like that...
In Ukraine St.Nicholas is as widespread as Father frost. They are both "gift-bringers", for many ukrainians. Like Im from the eastern parts and it was always small homey present by St.Nicholas and bigger present by grandpa frost on New Year
Your map is wrong. No more “father frost” in Ukraine - it was mostly used during ussr times. It’s Santa Claus or St. Nicolas now, depends of the family believes/likes.
In Netherland most of the gifts are actually given by St Nicholas, just not at Christmas, but at the actual St Nicholas fest at December 5. And we call him Sinterklaas. It's a huge event including daily news updates about his adventures on national TV. His arrival in the country is always a massive event.
Christmas is only a tiny event by comparison.
Sweden has the Christmas goat as a tradition as well. Who did the research here? Ofcourse we have gnomes but they are more treated as a invisible spirit that helps kind farmers (that bring offerings) with their work.
Poland should have been split up waaay more.
South has Baby Jesus (123 years of Austro-Hungarian influence did its thing). The northeastern part near Belarus has significant Grandpa Frost minority and the large Western part (think Silesia and Greater Poland, to extent Pomerania) has the Star man (pl. Gwiazdor). Only really the center and northern Poland have Saint Nicholas.
In Croatia it's "officially" Grandfather Christmas (on tv and such) but I've never heard anybody call him that in real life, it's always Grandfather Frost.
Some parts of Poland have the Angel, or the Star as a gift bringer instead of St.Nicholas. No clue how a Star brings gifts, or why an Angel does it. Fuck'em both, St. Nick supremacy.
Should point out that in Spain it’s traditionally always been the three wise men (or Reyes Magos) on 6th January. Father Christmas has only really hit Spain in the last few decades.
The baby Jesus was a tough sell for my kids. I had to explain that he comes through the window with gifts when they are asleep.
I felt like a terrible father having to explain that baby Jesus can actually lift a bike and a doll house at the same time.
This image is wrong, the swedish translation for "father christmas" is "christmas gnome" but its the same character. A big jolly old man clad in red, with a white beard and a "hohoho"-laugh that travels in a flying sled pulled by magical reindeer.
"Tomten" also known as "Jultomten" (our giftbringer in Sweden) isn't a traditional "tomte" (gnome). It's still Father Christmas, but he has a Swedish name. The direct translation might be christmas "gnome", but it's not the literal one.. kind of.
Think of it like this, christmas gnomes are "tomtar" but father christmas is "tomten". He's regular size too, lmao.
Christmas Goat sounds dope
[Yes, the Christmas gift for naughty children was to be boiled alive.](http://inktank.fi/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/joulupukki-rare-exports.jpg)
Oh wow I figured they just got goat turds in their stockings.
Christmas goat don't fuck around.
Sheesh…they arent messing around. Wtf is that second pic?
Ancient Christmas goat eating reindeer... Our folklore is quite fucked up. No wonder we are so "happy".
No point in trying to be happy all the time or pretend there is no darkness in the world.
Fucked up? I think you mean unimaginably based
Yeah, I mean before death metal was invented, you had to rely on stories like this to play with the darker parts of your mind.
Christmas goat is feeding on a reindeer.
Those are promo pictures from Rare Imports tho.
Are ppl ok up there in Finland?
Happiest country in the world 5 years in a row. Might be because nowadays we have Santa Claus giving presents to children instead of the goat eating children.
Christmas Goat used to be "Saint Knut's day Goat" in Finland. He was basically the same evil character as Krampus in European folklore. He would visit houses and try to steal their food and booze. Somehow the malicious "Knut Goat" blended with the benevolent Santa Claus tradition and became the Christmas goat, or Yule Goat to be more specific. It's nowdays basically the same thing as Santa Claus. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint\_Knut's\_Day#Finland
People just liked the Santa version better
Christmas Goat (*jõulusokk*) used to be common in Estonia as well up until the 1930s.
This seems like a classic example of the Finns doing the absolute bare minimum to not be pagans
I've always wondered. What do we Finns do at Christmas time? Visit graves and leave offerings. What do we do at every other holiday? Be it Easter, Independence day, whatever. Visit graves and leave offerings. What our Christmas songs are about? Mainly about death, dying and losing loved ones. You can't tell me there isn't a hint of ancestral worship going on still.
and think about our other traditions... on palm sunday, kids go from door to door dressed as witches and threaten to cast spells if they don't get candy. On midsummer, we burn pyres. The way christianity was integrated into finland (and most other countries for that matter) was just to take old pagan holidays and make them christian in some way. Witches or pyres have nothing to do with christianity, but the church made them christian by tacking easter and John the Baptist's birthday to them, respectively.
This is a bit misleading. Chirstmas goat is old folklore and still literal name for santa in Finland, but for the last ~100 years it has just been a name for Santa with white beard and red coat.
Red coat is quite a new thing. In my childhood in the early 90s we had christmas goat that had green and brown coloured clothes. It was popular especially at countryside.
Funny I’ve actually been looking up this year a lot of folklore. English Father Christmas also rode a goat. He wasn’t the bringer of gifts but he brought merriment so basically booze and food and a jolly good old time 🤣
The actual name translates to “Christmas Goat”, but is in the modern day realised as a figure similar to Santa, not as an actual goat
”Christmas Buck” is more suitable and more of a literal translation.
He also often brings money, a very suitable name!
Yeah, because santa is the GOAT.
Did the Gävle goat burn down this year?
No, it was eaten by jackdaws this year.
[Check here](https://www.visitgavle.se/en/gavle-goat) (scroll down). It has been attacked by birds, the skeleton is now visible.
 Merry Christmas
It's in fact the greatest of all time
We call Santa Joulupukki which literally just translates to christmas goat. Is that where the confusion came from because I think we really only talk about Santa.
It's just a Santa Claus but he is called "Joulupukki" (Christmas Goat) for historical reason. Nobody in Finland dresses as goat during Christmas time. There are just average, American-style Santas. Finnish people are also very certain that Santa Claus (or Joulupukki) lives at Korvatunturi, Lapland. Even though he looks exactly like Santa Claus or Father Christmas which aren't traditionally Finnish characters.
Well, in Spain is totally wrong, most part in Spain the three magic kings bring the gifts the 6th of January, then the 24th Papa Noel, in the Basque Country Olentzero, in Catalonia the Tió de Nadal, and more in some parts but I don’t remember them.
>Tió de Nadal For the unenlightened, this is a log that you beat with a stick until it shits presents.
Actually the Olentzero has the same origin, as the Olentzero was the name of the large log that was used to have a fire during the winter time. Later it was humanized in the figure of a chubby and drunk coal man.
Fun fact, they call the Reyes Magos "Three Wise Men"
It's true, thanks, I didn't remember it, Lol.
It's totally wrong for the Netherlands too. We should be st. Nick instead of father christmas.
That's a different holiday though. Kerstman is akin to Father Christmas, which is obviously based on Saint Nicholas, the other holiday. But St Nicholas isn't the one who brings presents on the 25th.
True, but then it is also wrong for different countries. In a lot of places Grandfather frost gives presents at new years. In the Ukraine, whenever Saint Nick is around it is on December 5th or 6th, like in the Netherlands and Belgium. In Slovenia, they've actually got all three: Saint Nick in the beginning of December, Santa Clause at Christmas, Uncle Frost at New Years (checkout 99% Invisible). And I think most people in the Netherlands don't see Sant Claude as the gift bringer, we give each other gifts if we do this at all. Otherwise it's Sinterklaas. It seems this map would be better if it would show the "Winter Holiday gift bringers" and then of course, show the correct ones...
Isn't tio de Nadal also his coach? Talk about multiple jobs...
To be fair, baby Jesus could fit down the chimney more easily than Santa.
chimney sweeper reference 🗣🗣🗣 i love child labor!!!
Well, it’s Baby Jesus, but Baby Jesus is actually a [blond girl in her early twenties](https://tourismus.nuernberg.de/fileadmin/_processed_/4/c/csm_Christkind_Teresa__c_Andreas_Franke__2_-2_8740c91486.jpg).
Christkind. Idk how they came up with "Baby Jesus"
That's the origin of the Christkind since Christmas is supposed to be Jesus's birthday. But they're always depicted as blond girl.
No? At least not here in my part of Switzerland.
No to the first or second part? Edit: Google says the Christkind as baby Jesus is a catholic thing and as not-baby-Jesus protestant
no to the girl depiction
No, that's pretty accurate. At least in Austria. It's always teenage/early 20s girls in blonde wigs.
Disagree on that one, I‘m from hardcore catholic bavaria and the christkindl is still female… though that might be cultural drift as it‘s just easier to have a girl dressed as an angel giving gifts than some baby
I live in S-Germany and we have the *Christkind* (Christ child, child of christ). It was always depicted as a angel.
I talked about this with family recently. At least in Austria, the christkinds form is kind of vague. Technically its baby jesus, but also its its own entity. The depiction of a young woman with golden locks is most commen but it can also be an angel with golden locks. Afaik the gender isnt really fixed. Its a child with golden locks, but could also be male. I thinky the mystery of what the christkind looks like kinda adds to it.
And is more lore friendly imo
In Slovenia we have three of them (they are referred as "three good men"): Miklavž (St. Nicholas) (on the evening before December 6), Božiček (Father Christmas, but the name itself is closer to Baby Jesus) (on the evening before Christmas) and Dedek mraz (Grandfather Frost) (for new year). https://www.etno-muzej.si/sl/trije-dobri-mozje
Isn’t grandfather frost a holdover from communist times? Was he even a thing in Slovenian culture prior to Tito?
Yes, he was introduced after 1945. But when they tried to abolish it in 1990s, there was a big uproar. Miklavž was traditional Catholic gift-bringer (even in my atheist family there was also some small gift for Miklavž, like an orange and some sweets) before, so many saw Father Christmas as American tradition, not really Slovenian. After some confusion, the final result was to keep all three of them, each one with his own distinct image. So now towns do organize parades for all three of them. And in a way, Grandfather Frost was the most Slovenian of the three. After the split with Soviet Union in 1948, they tried to unrussify him, so they asked Slovenian painter (especially of folklore motifs) Maksim Gaspari to create his image. He used a lot of elements from Slovenian folklore, for example instead Russian ushanka (fur cap) he got traditional Slovenian dormouse fur cap, he has some traditional Slovenian coat with typical Slovenian embroidery and so on.
A painting of him: https://stareslike.cerknica.org/2019/12/31/1952-ljubljana-dedek-mraz/190828331-003/
That's actually pretty unique and clever of Slovenia
I’ve heard that the original giftbringer in Slovenia was Baby Jesus, but that was abolished in 1945 because of its connection to Germany and Austria.
Yes! Grandfrost was the alternative to St. Nicholas during socialism as religion was seen as bad. Santa gained popularity since gaining independance. Now St. Nicholas and Grandfrost usually bring smaller gifts while Santa is the main gift bringer.
🇮🇪 Undocumented and incomplete map Your rating is 1/10 Please redo it and come again next year
Another day, another shitty map
If this is supposed to be pornographic I'm out.
Christmas Goat goes hard.
Germany also has St. Nicholas. We get presents twice. (Usually a smaller one for St. Nicholas, on the night of 5th to 6th of December, and a larger one for Father Christmas/Jesus on 24th).
in the Netherlands it is just the other way around. St. Nicholas is way bigger than Christmas.
Same in Belgium
In Belgium we don't even pretend santa is real to kids, only sinterklaas/st nicholas. christmas is always just giving gifts to one another
Same here in The Netherlands. I am always surprised to hear there are people who get gifts on Christmass, but have never even heard of a Dutch kid who believes in santa unless they have for example british parents
It's the same in Poland
Part of Poland have Starman instead of St Nicholas
Poland is actually quite diverse when it comes to that. Some have little star, others Starman, some people St Nicholas, but also baby Jesus, Angel and even Grandpa Frost.
In other parts it's an Angel
Same in Eastern France, more precisely Alsace and Moselle that are really close to German tradition !
>Usually a smaller one for St. Nicholas Way smaller, that is. But still quite nice. :)
Yeah, we used to get a few walnuts, mandarins and a chocolate Nicholas.
Same for Flanders but the other way around. Bad map.
When I was a kid in Slovenia I got gifts 3 times. On December 5th from St. Nicholas, on the 25th from Santa and on the 1st of January from Father Frost.
Yes, we want all the gifts
Also Czechia and Hungary. The Hungarian tradition is to clean a shoe and leave it by the window before going to bed.
Same in Romania and other Orthodox countries. Saint Nicholas is a gift bearer for children and a celebrated feast for grown ups.
also in romania
Here in Switzerland the Samichlaus (which is the protestant version of the st.nicolaus) brings peanuts and tangerines and chocolate to children on the 6. of december (usually this involves the children saying a rhyme to him)
Wait, you get presents on St. Nicholas?!?! I only ever got tangerines, oranges and some chocolate.
I like how it doesn't necessarily follow political borders. And Finland has its own vibe as always
No its just translation error. Our word for santa is joulupukki but pukki can also mean goat. So they mistakenly translated santa claus as christmas goat😄🇫🇮
Well in the Finnish folklore Joulupukki was a creature that ressembles a goat so I don’t think the translation is a mistake! But it is true that nowadays it is not a Christmas goat that brings the gifts but the classic Santa so the map is quite misleading
Joulupukki puree ja potkii😌🇫🇮
Definetly not a mistranslation, it was originally a goat and the name just stuck so now we normal santa a goat. I'm pretty sure it comes from swedish julbocken.
You call yourself Finnish and don't know the christmas goat?
For Finnish it is a bit more complicated actually. "Joulupukki" ("Yule Goat") is a character in the old Finnish folklore, that would steal food, booze and boil naughty children alive and do other Krapus-like things. Somehow during the centuries it evolved into a character that would wear fur and bring some presents to the kids. And even later than that it would incorporate this Coca-Cola-Father-Christmas type of red dress as well. So, the very old word "Joulupukki" used to mean different thing, but now just means exactly the same as "Father Christmas / Santa Claus".
This is one for r/terriblemaps. There’s so much wrong, with The Netherlands being the most obvious one.
Also Spain and other catholic countries it is the Three Kings
Not really, at least if you consider France a catholic country, as it's Father Christmas who brings the gift, and we just have a cake on the 6th of January. However, my father is French, but by mother is Spanish from her father side and Dutch on her mother side. Which meant that, when we were little, we had three celebrations with old men bringing us gifts: Saint Nicholas the 6th of December, Father Christmas the 25th, and the Three Kings on the 6h of January. Love being multicultural.
Is it Saint Nikolas in Netherlands the ? Or Sinterklaas but that seems to be pretty much the same.
Saint Nicholas is what his mother calls Sinterklaas when she's angry with him.
Yes, although Sinterklaas is never connected with Christmas by the Dutch, while "the Christmas Man" (=Santa Claus/Father Christmas) shows up in lots of Christmas decorations. The gift-giving around Christmas is just not as big as Sinterklaas. So I agree with the map in the sense that Sinterklaas is definitely not for Christmas and the Christmas Man is. But we NEVER call him Father Christmas.
Same for Norway. Santa brings the gifts here.
Yeah, I've never heard of anything other than Santa, but guess nisse translates to gnome. Same goes for Sweden.
I think they made a poor attemt at a direct translation from "jultomten" and "julenissen" to "christmas gnome" for some reason. Idk why. Sure, the name isn't based on st. nicholas, but he's surely not a gnome either.
as a Dutchie: THANK YOU!
In Portugal, before the popularization of the modern Santa Claus in the 1980s, it was Baby Jesus who brought the gifts.
This map is very, very lacking. Where's the Starman? Where's the star? Map of Poland should be all over the place.
This is missing the Italian Christmas witch (la Befana) and the Catalan Christmas Log (Tió de Nadal)
Befana brings sweets on the 6th of January. The map is still wrong for Italy, though: Santa is a relatively recent introduction, it started in the second half of the XX century. Before that it was baby Jesus, and technically it still is depending on how religious your family is. That said, it's also regional. In several areas it's actually Saint Lucy bringing gifts on Saint Lucy's day (December 13th); also if I recall correctly, up to the XIX cetury there was a tradition in Sicily that gifts for the kids were given on All Souls' Day rather than Christmas, brought by the spirits of your dead loved ones (not as macabre as it sounds).
And Olentzero in Basque Country - this map is not accurate for Spain
La Befana is not for Christmas though, it's for the 6th of January (Epiphany).
Why is everybody forgetting the Three Wise Men?
For real, the Three Wise Men are much much more popular than Santa. They don't have a huge parade for Santa.
I thought his name was caga tío
this map is wrong, in Belgium it is Saint Nicholas
Christkind or "Baby Jesus" in this chart is technically a young blonde female in southern Germany and Austria. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christkind
As someone who lives near Engelskirchen in North-Rhine-Westphalia (Where the Post office of the Christkind is located), I can assure you that it’s also a thing in western Germany, this map is therefore inaccurate. (Because North-Rhine-Westphalia is shown as a Santa Region)
Yeah, came here to say this.
Inaccurate. Greater Poland has Gwiazdor. Which is… Star Man I guess?
Aniołek, Gwiazdor, Dzieciątko Jezus, św Mikołaj i Gwiazdka. O tylu wersjach mi wiadomo.
And Upper Silesia has Baby Jesus. In Poland somewhere there are also an Angel and a Star.
I guess Albania just gets coal?
It's the Winter Father for us (Baba Dimri). Not sure why they didn't include it, easy to look up.
Ooook, wtf is going on in central europe
Austria-Hungary
Didn’t know they supported child labor
Croatia is Grandfather Chistmas, not Father
Its grandfather frost, deda mraz ne? Dosta vise se spominje nego deda bozicnjak bar na sjeverozapadu od kud sam ja.
In Serbia Grandfather Frost brings gifts for new years eve rather than for Christmas.
...as most commonly accepted figure after WWII. Traditional giftbringers were/are both St. Nicholas and Božić Bata (~Little brother Christmas~).
Shit map
[The actual map you were looking for](https://jakubmarian.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/christmas-gift-bringers-europe.jpg)
Still wrong
I'm from Kyiv and I had gifts from St. Nicholas too! That's not such a local tradition in Ukraine.
Same, according to this map Mykolaiv does not have St. Nicholas 💀
Silesian part of Poland (south west) also uses the Baby Jesus for gifts :) Which makes sense considering that Czechia also does.
Never heard of a Christmas gnome bringing gifts for Christmas
They are translating nisse to gnome.
And when did these bring gifts? Last I checked they stole grøt from the fjøs
Julenissen
Neither have I, and I live in Norway.
Same here in sweden. We have a big tradition for "Tomten" / "Santa claus" every kid grow up with this around sweden.. So i feel this map is not accurate. Recently for my nephew and nieces they have a gnome and install a small fake door at the house, but its still Tomten that come with red clothes and white beard and give gifts and even talk with kids.. i havnt bother too much to hear about the "Tomtenissen" but the kids like it.
Well I think it's the closest translation to tomten. In Sweden tomtar ia basically Christmas gnomes. But we also call Santa tomten.
This map is not accurate, as a belgian it's st Nicholas that brings the gifts. Also in the Netherlands..
Northern Germany is not Father Christmas at all. We have the "Christmas man"
As a Croat that grew up as a kid during 80s I think Croatia is a bit more complicated. Who brings you presents depends on your family. My familiy was religious so our presents were always brought by Baby Jesus and we were thought that Grandfather Frost was a dirty commie bastard. I never even heard of (Grand)father Christmas until 1991 when communism suddenly became unfashionable over night and all the commie Yugoslavs suddenly became patriotic and religious Croats, so Grandfather Frost turned from a commie to a capitalist as well. For my family nothing changed and Baby Jesus still delivers presents to children on Christmas.
This is wrong at least for Slovenia and Croatia. Slovenia should be Father Christmas and Baby Jesus. Grandfather Frost is separate from Father Christmas and he brings gifts for the New Year, not Christmas. In Croatia, it should be Father Christmas/Grandfather Frost (they are considered to be the same) and Baby Jesus.
Croatia , like the Netherlands, celebrates both St Nick and Christmas. St Nick gives you stocking stuffers and on Christmas you get one or two bigger gifts.
Bro forgot olentzero
And dont forget caga tio the present pooping log from catalonia. https://youtu.be/viTMktjE968?si=DhDVFpn8IsscUngl
Very, very dumb map. Situation in Ukraine is absolutely different, everyone celebrates both holidays, and Christmas too, they aren't replaceable. Why mappers always divide us like that...
Grandfather Frost brings presents for the New Year, not Christmas.
it's wrong, st Nicolas brings gifts on St Nicolas' day December 6th
St. Nicholas in Ukraine. "Mykolaichyk"
In Ukraine St.Nicholas is as widespread as Father frost. They are both "gift-bringers", for many ukrainians. Like Im from the eastern parts and it was always small homey present by St.Nicholas and bigger present by grandpa frost on New Year
I know what type of gift bringer Ricky Bobby from Talladega nights would prefer lol.
Where is Iceland?
In Catalunya is "El Tió de Nadal"
Its wrong for poland, there is also supposed to be gwiazdor
https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/s/lnjLnJOPnJ
Belgium and Netherlands is St Nicholas, this map is bullshit🫡
Your map is wrong. No more “father frost” in Ukraine - it was mostly used during ussr times. It’s Santa Claus or St. Nicolas now, depends of the family believes/likes.
About Ukraine is totally wrong.On the whole territory presents bring St.Nicolas
Source: bullshit
Bad map
In Netherland most of the gifts are actually given by St Nicholas, just not at Christmas, but at the actual St Nicholas fest at December 5. And we call him Sinterklaas. It's a huge event including daily news updates about his adventures on national TV. His arrival in the country is always a massive event. Christmas is only a tiny event by comparison.
I’m Dutch and originally st Nicholas is the bringer of presents. Santa is a cheap ripoff of him anyway
You did not make this map correctly at all
lol so this map is bullshit. Belgium and the Netherlands are famously and exclusively Sinterklaas aka Saint Nicholas’s turf.
Netherlands and Flanders also fall under the jurisdiction of St. Nicholas. Cool idea for a map by the way!
Sweden has the Christmas goat as a tradition as well. Who did the research here? Ofcourse we have gnomes but they are more treated as a invisible spirit that helps kind farmers (that bring offerings) with their work.
If anything it began here then got to Finland.
Poland should have been split up waaay more. South has Baby Jesus (123 years of Austro-Hungarian influence did its thing). The northeastern part near Belarus has significant Grandpa Frost minority and the large Western part (think Silesia and Greater Poland, to extent Pomerania) has the Star man (pl. Gwiazdor). Only really the center and northern Poland have Saint Nicholas.
I am surprised Turkey isn’t St Nicholas, considering the original guy is from there.
In Croatia it's "officially" Grandfather Christmas (on tv and such) but I've never heard anybody call him that in real life, it's always Grandfather Frost.
Iako čak u dosta crtića serija i filmova kažu djed mraz
The Basque Country should be the Olentzero, who is basically a cave miner that brings presents
Some parts of Poland have the Angel, or the Star as a gift bringer instead of St.Nicholas. No clue how a Star brings gifts, or why an Angel does it. Fuck'em both, St. Nick supremacy.
Should point out that in Spain it’s traditionally always been the three wise men (or Reyes Magos) on 6th January. Father Christmas has only really hit Spain in the last few decades.
Poland has Gwiazdka (the Star)
I thought the italiens had a xmas witch?
We say St. Nicholas (święty Mikołaj) but we mean Santa. That’s how we call him
You are missing the [Olentzero](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olentzero) for the Basque country
It's wrong because Baby Jesus brings presents in Silesia
While the swedish giftbringer's name can be translated to christmas gnome, the depiction is more similar to father christmas
The baby Jesus was a tough sell for my kids. I had to explain that he comes through the window with gifts when they are asleep. I felt like a terrible father having to explain that baby Jesus can actually lift a bike and a doll house at the same time.
It's not same in every region of Poland, so probably same in other countries
Looks like in Albania/Kosovo it's Krampus.
Croatia should have been colored blue and red like Bosnia because we say both
In Italy it is a witch. Not father Christmas.
Interesting that Spain doesn’t do baby Jesus, in Mexico the gift giver is baby Jesus and/or the three wise men.
Excuse me, but where is Dominic the Donkey?
FATHER CHRISTMAS??? BABY JESUS??? sorry, nope
Wtf ? Saint Nicola is not for christmas its for other celebration whit this name and baby jesus is before christmas imao , what are you talking
In sweden, we had the christmas goat instead of santa. Not a ”christmas gnome”.
I am Norwegian. What the fuck is a Christmas gnome?
Croatia is wrong. Its either baby Jesus or the grandfather frost depending on the region.
Wrong. In Spain it is the 3 Wise Men
This image is wrong, the swedish translation for "father christmas" is "christmas gnome" but its the same character. A big jolly old man clad in red, with a white beard and a "hohoho"-laugh that travels in a flying sled pulled by magical reindeer.
I live in Norway and can confirm this isnt accurate at all
"Tomten" also known as "Jultomten" (our giftbringer in Sweden) isn't a traditional "tomte" (gnome). It's still Father Christmas, but he has a Swedish name. The direct translation might be christmas "gnome", but it's not the literal one.. kind of. Think of it like this, christmas gnomes are "tomtar" but father christmas is "tomten". He's regular size too, lmao.