Last Christmas many people in Austria, including me, were wondering about Santa Claus, who is obviously becoming more and more popular in Europe. It is not just the Christkindl, that probably has to withdraw in a strange struggle for adoration, but also Great Britain’s Father Christmas. Santa Claus is going to get into young people’s hearts all over the world.

When I was a child, my brother and me were waiting impatiently for the Christkindl already a few days before Christmas Eve. The Christkindl, a metaphoric figure representing Baby Jesus in the cradle, was to be bringing peace and also gifts to the people throughout the world. What has been an undisputed tradition in Europe for generations is now challenged by the global spread of Santa Claus.
The origins of Santa Claus are in Europe, and we still know Saint Nikolaus bringing presents to the children here. He is accompanied by the horrible Krampus (so-called in Austria) or even more of them, who have to convince the children to behave better. But nowadays we already find less children disguising themselves as Nikolaus and Krampus. They also celebrate the Halloween Day, which has definitively no tradition in Austria or Central Europe at all. While our children are greedily absorbing American traditions by all those US-movies and TV series, original Austrian traditions are getting lost. This is a shame.

Santa Claus has been a local phenomenon for so many years. It was not until the thirties, when „Coca Cola“ started to release some commercials which made the amiable , bright-faced person with the long white beard very popular. Since then there hasn’t been any Christmas without Santa Claus in the United States, and because globalisation is bringing the whole world together, he is known by much more children than ever before.

In Germany, Santa Claus is called the „Weihnachtsmann“, and so he also is in Austria and in Burgenland. Each year we have more stores, malls and supermarkets to place Santa Claus figures near the doors, at the chimney or anywhere else. There are also adult people strolling through Christmas fairs with the typical Santa cap on their head. And sometimes lights on these caps twinkle decreasing the seriosity of Christmas.

In Spitzzicken near Oberwart, last year each single house was enlightened by thousands of lights and bulbs during pre-Christmas time. We haven’t known this in Burgenland before; some people say, that Spitzzicken reminded them of Las Vegas somehow.
In fact, many people including me, don’t want these old local traditions of Burgenland and Austria, which have been outlasting generations in many decades, to get lost today. We are not against Halloween and these typical American customs, but it would be bad if ours were totally replaced by them.

So let us see what we will sing in some years in Austria preparing our kids for Christmas:
„Santa Claus is coming to town“ and „Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer“ or maybe still the old
„Ihr Kinderlein kommet“ and „Freue dich, ‘s Christkind kommt bald“...

Walter Dujmovits, jr.