Santa Claus rituals
Santa Claus with two children sitting on his lap and four children gathered around him for a photo in a room in Chicago in 1929. DN-0090223, Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago Historical Society.
Several rituals have developed around the Santa Claus figure that are normally performed by children hoping to receive gifts from him.
In the United States and Canada, the tradition is to leave Santa a glass of milk and cookies; in Britain and Australia, he is sometimes given sherry and mince pies instead.
British, Australian and American children also leave out a carrot for Santa's reindeer, and were traditionally told that if they are not good all year round, that they will receive a lump of coal in their stockings, although this practice is now considered archaic. Children following the Dutch custom for sinterklaas will "put out their shoe" — that is, leave hay and a carrot for his horse in a shoe before going to bed — sometimes weeks before the sinterklaas avond. The next morning they will find the hay and carrot replaced by a gift; often, this is a marzipan figurine. Naughty children were once told that they would be left a roe (a bundle of sticks) instead of sweets, but this practice has been discontinued.
This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.
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