CHRISTMAS, all of it ..

[realgrimm]

[realgrimm]

[realgrimm]

[realgrimm]

[realgrimm]

[realgrimm]

[realgrimm]

[realgrimm]

[realgrimm]

[Anonymous]

Not the songs I heard carolers singing when we went to candy cane lane.

[realgrimm]

[realgrimm]

Not the songs I heard carolers singing when we went to candy cane lane.

yeah that would probably be the "all of it" part



what did you listen to?

[Anonymous]

[realgrimm]

Sinterklaas looks an awful lot like a thin Santa Claus. He's a jolly old man with a white beard and a red gown. Sure, he has a bishop's hat and staff and there's no Mrs. Sinterklaas, but he doesn't seem that different. But it's not just that he doesn't have a wife—Sinterklaas is celibate.That's not just a minor detail about Sinterklaas. There are holiday carols entirely about the fact that Sinterklaas is a virgin. Like the classic carol "Sinterklaas kapoentje" ("Sinterklaas, you castrated rooster!").This isn't some minor song. It's a huge part of the holiday. Remember that scene in Miracle on 34th Street where the little Dutch girl sings a Sinterklaas song to Santa? Well, that's the song she's singing—a beautiful melody about Sinterklaas being a castrated farm animal.The song's so old that nobody's completely sure why they're calling him a rooster, but it's almost certainly about his vow of chastity. Most people just try to avoid talking about it, and so the English version usually changes it to "Sinterklaas, little rascal." But that's not what it really means.For all we know, the song just might be literal. It just might be a glimpse into an old tradition lost in time. Maybe, instead of singing carols in a deep, jolly, tenor voice full of cheer, Sinterklaas just might sing castrato.

[realgrimm]

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[size=150]Sinterklaas doesn't visit the children alone. He has helpers. His helpers, though, aren't a group of merry, pointy-eared elves. They're African slaves, all called Black Pete.Officially, Black Pete is supposed to be a Moor from Spain, but it's pretty rare that an actual Moor plays him. Instead, Black Pete's usually played by some white Dutch person in blackface, complete with cartoonish red lips and a wig of natty black hair. And he doesn't talk like a Moor. He speaks with the accent of an African slave in the Dutch colony of Suriname. Black Pete is Sinterklaas's dim-witted rapscallion helper—and he's a bit terrifying. He's in charge of breaking into people's homes and beating bad kids with a broom handle.He's changing a bit. These days, some Dutch people have tried to rebrand him any way they can, but it doesn't always work. The strangest and most popular idea is to say that Pete's not really black, he's just a very dirty white person in desperate need of a shower—which somehow feels worse.