Other Christmas Characters

Hans Trapp, a kind of ogre, accompanied the Christkindel on his rounds. It was the Christkindel, however, who handed out gifts; Hans Trapp was the one who carried off naughty children in his sack.

At one time Père Fouettard, an invention of XVIIIth century pedagogues, accompanied either the Christkindel or Saint Nicholas. As for Tante Arie, her character developed in Franche Comté. She is represented as an old woman, half fairy, half witch, who comes down from a mountain on Christmas Eve, riding a donkey. She brings gifts for good children but birch rods or dunce caps for the naughty ones.

The Yule Goat customary in Swedish homes in Canada at this time of year, is part of a story with similar meaning. This figure of braided straw and wheat is the traditional gift-giver in that northern country with its extraordinary winter light. And what Swede doesn't remember, at least in the depth of his or her own heart, that this goat is the steed of that ancient god Thor, a fierce contender for power in the life of human beings. War, pillage, the exercise of will, are his daily occupation.

But during this season celebrating the Prince of Peace, Thor's Goat marks the transformation we occasionally glimpse in human life. In human culture gods depict (perhaps along with other things) what men, women, and children hold as ultimate and precious. Having our own way, making war, and dominating the situation (what Thor was best at) are certainly not foreign to us. Yet here, at this time of year, stands the Goat, transformed from the companion of the wilful god into the "Yule Goat," giver of good gifts to those who still have innocence to see.