Off the Mark by Mark Parisi for December 07, 2017

It’s just a matter of finding the right tribe.

They don’t play fair.

Did you know there is one of Santa’s reindeer you never hear mentioned.

His name is Randolph the brown nosed reindeer.

He is named that because he can’t stop as quickly as all the another reindeer and usually ends up getting a brown nose from rear end collisions.

Run, run, Rudolph!

Now that Santa moved to the Antarctica in 1904, he was up on AGW, he doesn’t have that problem anymore. Just the secret Nazi base that move in in 1936 is a problem.

Belsnickel, another West Germanic figure associated with the midwinter periodPerchta, a female figure in West Germanic folklore whose procession (Perchtenlauf) occurs during the midwinter periodPre-Christian Alpine traditionsGermanic paganismYule Goat, a goat associated with the midwinter period among the North Germanic peoplesNamahageKoliada, an ancient pre-Christian Slavic festival where participants wear masks and costumes and run around.Sinterklaas, celebrated in the Low Countries on 4 or 5 December. He has a companion called Zwarte Piet (Black Piet), who used to punish bad children with a “roe”, and

kidnap them in bags to Spain. But nowadays they are just as friendly as Sinterklaas (“de Sint”), and give presents to all children.

What a great sport, leading the Polar Bear Club’s charge toward a dip in the icy sea!