Raindeer, gifts to all children of the world, red suit and ho-ho-ho - check. But as I already established Santa lives in Greenland - NOT on the North Pole... At least that's what we say. Apart from that little variation we have one other strange tradition concerning Santa Claus:

Sitting on Santa's lap in a mall is not really a thing in Denmark. On the other hand a lot of families (the ones with small children) have one of the older family members dress up like santa on Christmas eve. Just before we all dance around the tree and sing songs (more about that later...) the kids gather by the garden door to yell Santa Claus's name into the darkness (In Danish he is "Julemand" meaning Christmas-man). Only when the kids scream loud enough he will appear from the back of the garden carrying a gift for each of the kids and joining the family for the first dance around the tree. Don't ask me how that fits with the whole traveling-around-the-globe-on-a-sleigh thing.

It didn't take many years before I realized why my granddad had a habit of "having a headache", "going to the bathroom" or "getting more beer in the shed" whenever Santa would come to visit. But it was, and still is, fun. I just got two little cousins so I hope we'll pick the tradition back up although most of the kids in my family are older now...

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