The Dark History of Santa Claus and Christmas
It’s kind of weird that the Finnish name for Santa Claus refers to a goat. Why? Here’s some Nordic history and folklore about Christmas and Santa Claus that I found out while preparing for my elf girl and yule buck painting. Let’s start with the origin and meaning of the name. The Finnish name of Santa Claus is “joulupukki” and there is a Swedish term with the same meaning, “julbocken”, although it’s not as commonly used now as “jultomten”. The word “joulu” comes the old English word for christmas, yule, which refers to a winter celebration. Some version of the word yule is used to describe Christmas in all Nordic countries. In Finnish it also appears in the name of the month December, “joulukuu”. The second word, “pukki” or “bocken”, refers to a buck or a billy goat. A goat is still a pretty common Christmas decoration, too. You can see it as a gingerbread cookie cutter or as a Christmas tree straw ornament. But what’s the connection between Santa Claus and goats? Yule buc...