Santa of sorts

HONG KONG / REYKJAVIK: While Santas in Hong Kong care to post letters to children, those in Iceland try to scare them.

Hong Kong is one of the few places in Asia where children who send letters to Santa get a response. Every year, the Hong Kong Post puts a rotating team of about 10 letter sorters on the task, penning personalised replies from Old Saint Nick to the 4,000-odd letters received in English and Chinese.

“Of course, we put mail processing as a priority, but after (letter sorters) are finished with regular work, they try to find time to write letters to kids,” spokeswoman Mary Chung said.

“Most kids tell Santa about their toy wish list, which puts Hong Kong’s postal agency in a key position to figure out what gifts are a big hit in any particular year,” Chung said.

“So if dinosaurs are really popular, then our staff will draw a dinosaur on the card,” she added. But Santa’s ghost writers in the teeming city of seven million don’t make any guarantees, especially since some wish lists call for a cornucopia of toys.

“We only write one or two lines. We say we hope your wish comes true, but we don’t make any promises,” Chung said.

Hong Kong Post designs its own cards for the annual campaign, while letters addressed to Santa in other parts of the world are passed along to postal agencies in those countries.

But the Santas in Iceland are different. They don’t wear red, and they’re certainly not jolly: the 13 Santas who usher in Christmas in Iceland are “descendants” of trolls and ogres who revel in terrifying young children. Tradition holds they visit homes in succession, on the 13 days before December 25 and deposit either sweets or a toy or — the worst case scenario for bad behaviour — a potato in shoes children have left by a window.

“The Santas are trolls and come from Icelandic folklore; it is in their nature to be evil,” explained folklorist Steinunn Gudmundardottir.

Known as Yule Lads, they can strike fear in the hearts of youngsters, as witnessed when Stekkjastaur, the first-born of these 13 troll “brothers”, made an appearance at Iceland’s National Museum 13 days before Christmas.

Over the centuries the Yule Lads “Slowly evolved into being kinder, although they occasionally tease and maybe steal,” Gudmundardottir said.

She said the change probably dates back to a 1746 law which banned parents from scaring their children with the likes of evil trolls and Santas.

While the 13 brother Santas have gone through a mellowing process, their mythical parents Gryla and Leppaludi are known as the most hideous and mean-spirited ogres ever known in Iceland.

However, in his museum appearance Stekkjastaur insisted that his mother too has improved over time.

“It now only happens on rare occasions that Gryla stuffs misbehaving children into her pot. We try to keep her in check,” the first Yule Lad said.

The US-style Santa Claus, whom popular legend now holds is a supposed cousin of the Icelandic Yule Lads.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 25^th, 2010.