Saint Nicolas: from stern father figure to group therapist

As a child, I never really thought about it, but one fine day when I was all grown up it suddenly dawned on me that Saint Nicolas and Santa Claus are basically the same, namely a bishop that lived in Turkey in 3^rd century A.D.. In the Netherlands, Luxembourg and various other countries, he has his own day (the 6^th of December, or sometimes the 5^th). In many other countries, he has been lumped unceremoniously together with two very different celebrations, namely the winter solistice and the birth of Christ. My own personal theory is that someone, a long time ago, mixed Saint Nicolas up with the Three Kings, possibly because they all bring presents.

Which brings me to the past.

When I was young, we learned - by way of songs and stories – that Sinterklaas (like his copycat Santa Claus) kept track of how each child’s behaviour throughout the year, and would reward or punish the children on the night of December 5. Good children would get presents, roughly in proportion to how good they had been, and often accompanied by little poems in which Sinterklaas would comment on the recipient’s character or behaviour (both the good and the bad). Bad children would either not get any presents, or would be swatted by the wicker, or both. And really, really bad children would be stuck in a bag by one of Saint Nicolas’ assistants and dragged off to Spain. (What actually happened to these children was left to our own imagination, but if it were to happen today, I suppose we might think in terms of discpline training in a quasi-military survival camp.)

Over the course of the last forty years, the threat of punishment has almost completely disappeared from the celebration. The idea of dragging children off in bags has become so scary to parents that it is hardly ever mentioned, and corporal punishment is – ironically? – now punishable by law. Some parents apparently do still try to get their children to behave by threatening to tell Saint Nicolas not to bring any presents, but that only works in the short term. Shortly after receiving their presents and/or as soon as they lose interest in them, these same children revert to the horrible spoilt brats they are the rest of the year. Both most people just give the presents, without any real threat of punishment.

In the Netherlands, on the whole, the only vestige of punishment left is in the little poems accompanying the presents. Even adults exchanging presents on St. Nicolas day continue to respect this tradition. And to me, this still seems useful. In a sense (and this may be part of its appeal to Dutch people) these poems are like free therapy. You get to say out loud what bugs you about someone, and the other person is not allowed to get mad.

In fact, I think it is such a good idea I think we should introduce this tradition at the office. I already have some ideas of poems I could write about some of my colleagues …