it’s a (black and) white christmas

To all of you!!

a Merry Christmas – I’d Miilad said oua sana saida – Kung His Hsin Nien bing Chu Shen Tan – Sretan Bozic – Glædelig Jul – Vrolijk Kerstfeest – Maligayang Pasko – Hyvaa joulua – Joyeux Noël – Fröhliche Weihnachten – Kala Christouyenna – Selamat Hari Natal – Nollaig Shona Dhuit – Buon Natale – Shinnen omedeto – Sung Tan Chuk Ha – Natale hilare et Annum Faustum – Feliz Natal – Pozdravlyenie s Rozjdyestvom i s Novym Godom – God Jul – La Maunia Le Kilisimasi Ma Le Tausaga Fou – Feliz Navidad – Naya Saal Mubarak Ho – Chuc Mung Giang Sinh – Nadolig Llawen – …

SPECS: 48mm, 1/640 @ f/2.8 (ISO400)

SPECS: 24mm, 1/400 @ f/2.8 (ISO200)

SPECS: 70mm, 1/250 @ f/2.8 (ISO200)

SPECS: 70mm, 1/60 @ f/2.8 (ISO640)

..Did you know?

In the third century, a monk named St. Nicholas lived near what is now Turkey. He is said to have devoted his life to giving away money, food, and other items so others could live and survive. He was the saint of children and sailors. A feast in St. Nicholas’ honor was held on December 6th, the day he died. Apparently his legend and honor traveled all over the known world. Holland, for some reason, embraced him the most.

The Dutch name for St. Nicholas was a shortened version known as Sinter Klass. Some Dutch in America gathered on December 6th to honor the death of St. Nicholas in 1773. The name Santa Claus was just a natural evolution of Sinter Klass. It was Washington Irving in the early 1800′s that wrote about Sinter Klass and even called him the patron saint of New York. This really set off the Santa explosion.

Santa Claus had all sorts of different images as to what he looked like. Gift giving took off as well in the 1800′s and many stores had advertisements with Santa Claus, or their version. It was not until Clement Moore wrote ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, or as it was originally called, A Visit From St. Nicholas, that our current image was born. Thomas Nast in 1881 used this writing to draw his version of what Santa Claus looked like. His artwork appeared in Harper’s Weekly. It showed Santa as a fat, jolly man, with a white beard, red suit, white fur, bag of toys, etc. Nast tossed in some elves, the workshop, North Pole, and Mrs Claus for good measure!

~Squidoo.com