Hypnogoria: THE OLDTIME YULETIDE ADVENT CALENDAR

Welcome dear friends back to the Hypnogoria Old-time Yuletide Advent Calendar! We have reached Door 15, and with it, N for North Pole!

Now it is often said that Santa Claus has his home at the North Pole. There, hidden from mortal eyes, lies the jolly old fellow's home where aided by elves, all the toys are made, the sleigh is prepared and the reindeer stabled. But is this really Santa's home? For I'm sure many of you may have also heard, he lives in Iceland, Lapland or Greenland. So then, let’s investigate!

In the Netherlands we have perhaps the oldest incarnation of Santa, Sinterklas. Now he arrives in the country by steamship in mid-November, on the first Saturday after November 11th. Now according to Dutch lore, Sinterklas and his steamship sail in from Spain! So is this where he lives?

Well, possibly not! For the earliest reference to Sinterklas and Spain comes from a poem printed in 1810 in New York. It was penned by a fellow called John Pintard, who was an influential patriot and antiquarian, founded the New York Historical Society and promoted St. Nicholas as patron saint of both the society and the city. Anyhow the relevant lines in the verse are as follows -

Saint Nicholas, good holy man!

Put on the Tabard, best you can,

Go, therewith, to Amsterdam,

From Amsterdam to Spain,

Where apples bright of Orange,

And likewise those granate surnam'd,

Roll through the streets, all free unclaim'd

So then, Pintard never says he lives in Spain - just goes there to collect the oranges which were a traditional Christmas gift.

Moving on a few decades, another poem entitled Wonders of Santa Claus gives us a more familiar home base for Santa. The verse printed in Harper’s Magazine on 26th December, 1857, doesn’t name the jolly old man’s home, but alludes to it being somewhere cold and frosty with mountains. Plus it is in this poem that we have the first mention of Santa’s helpers, the elves. However while the actual country is never named, the illustrations very clearly somewhere wreathed in snow and ice, suggesting some sort of arctic location.

A few years later, again in the pages of Harper’s Magazine, in the February issue for 1866, a story appeared by Julia F Snow. Entitled Christmas Guests, this tale reveals the location of Santa’s home base - it is claimed that he lives in a vast complex beneath Mount Hecla in Iceland, and what’s more, he has harnessed the geothermal power of the volcano to provide heat and hot water for his home. Clever Santa!

However somewhat confusingly Harper’s Magazine would contradict this revelation mere months later in the December issue for 1866. This featured a now iconic illustration by the great Thomas Nast, called Santa and his Works. This lavish drawing comprises of several scenes showing Santa, his work and his world, but among them, a little label gives us the address - “Santa-Clausville, N. P.”. And Santa experts have suggested that N. P. stands for North Pole.

And this theory was given weight, when in 1869, yet again in Harper’s Magazine, they published a poem by George Webster, entitled Santa and His Works, and featuring illustrations by Nast. Here the jolly old elf’s location is made clear, in the following verse - .

With his dog standing near him, and spy-glass in hand,

He looks for good children all over the land.

His home through the long summer months, you must know,

Is near the North Pole, in the ice and the snow.

However, just when it looked like the matter was settled, new information emerged.

In the 1920s a popular Finnish radio personality, known as Uncle Marcus, revealed that Santa, or Joulupukki as he is known in Finland, had his home Korvatunturi in northern Finland, in the region known as Lapland.

Furthermore in 1985, Santa’s official residence was changed, moving from Korvatunturi to Lapland’s capital Rovaniemi, where the Santa Claus Village was built. Here visitors from all over the world come to experience the magic of Santa in the Arctic Circle.

However once again, no sooner do you think the matter is settled, some new evidence turns up! For it appears that Santa has a postbox in Greenland. Originally located at Nuuk, but later moved to Ilulissat, and more recently to Uummannaq in further North Greenland, this gigantic red mailbox is where letters to Santa can be mailed. Now in Denmark it has long been thought that Santa lives in Greenland, and indeed in 1989, popular Danish TV series “The Secret Santa Gang” revealed that Santa lives at Spragle Bay, Uummanaq.

However their neighbours, the Norwegians have other ideas! In Norway it said that Santa lives in the town of Drøbak, east of Oslo, where one can find the popular festive attraction, the Julehuset - or Christmas House - where seemingly Santa has a base. And again, it is to the post office next to the Julehuset that many letters to Santa are delivered. However much like Lapland’s Santa Village, the Julehuset was only relatively recently established, opening first in 1988.

So then, the truth seems to be that Santa has not one, but several homes. Or at least several different bases of operations! And indeed as he must get around the world, having multiple homes does make sense. Of course we only know of the ones he has chosen to make public, and doubtless there are many we don't even know about, still hidden to help him on his global round on Christmas Eve!