Skip to main content

Christmas Countdown Characters #19


No prizes for guessing that today's S celebrities include the jolly man himself,  but wait, there's more... 
 S is for Santa Claus  and Suzy Snowflake 
What do these two have in common - nothing much except a  tentative Christmas link, a reference to the same era, and  I think they look good  in a snowy scene together. 
I am sure I do not need to add  much to the profile of Santa Claus  because many of you are most likely experts on the subject. However,  in Australia, I often see images of Santa in beach board shorts or even wearing a bush hat with hanging corks to keep away the summer flies and I wonder how it came about that red flannel and white fur are still the preferred attire for Santa. 
 Did you know that red and white became a tradition after Santa appeared in a Coca Cola advertisement in 1931?  Coca Cola Company deny that they "invented" Santa Claus as we know him - plump, jolly, friendly and definitely lovably human. In the past Santa Claus had been depicted as a thin man or a spooky elf. I think Cocoa Cola had a lot to do with "shaping" the image of Santa Claus with their famous Christmas advertisements from 1931 -1964 by Sundblom. Perhaps Cocoa Cola  didn't  create the image of a 'modern" Santa Claus, but they certainly popularised it.
 (://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/santa/cocacola.asp)


Now as we are going back in time in popular Christmas culture, the personified snowflake, called Suzy got her break when, in 1951,  Rosemary Clooney recorded Suzy Snowflake as a Christmas song, with instant appeal to those who love Winter.  Suzy Snowflake is thought to be a young happy character who dances her way through a Winter Wonderland. Although Rosemary Clooney's version remains the most popular  "record" , I have included a dancing video version of this catchy Christmas song about Suzy Snowflake... just for all the tap dancers in my family. 


Since hearing this song recently, it does appear to be strange that a snowflake , even with a name like Suzy, could take on human attributes, and it doesn't really make sense - such an impossibility here in mid summer. 
But if you believe in Christmas, anything is possible.  





Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Thanks for reading my blog and please share your thoughts about my blog post by leaving a comment.Your comment won't appear immediately as comments are verified before publication in an effort to reduce the amount of spam appearing. Anonymous comments will not be published.

Popular posts from this blog

How does your garden grow with stitch?

"How does your garden grow with stitch?" is an update on a post I published way back in 2015, when I stitched my first "impressionist garden" for a course I was studying at the Embroiderers' Guild.  Gardens are my constant inspiration for my artwork, and I create gardens in cloth  and stitch repetitively, using many different techniques. I am particularly fond of this heavily stitched embroidered "impressionist" garden.  In 2016, I stitched two small gardens in this style for an exhibition and they included photos of  my husband's grandmother and her brother and sister as children. Although the collector who bought these two works did not know our family, the children reminded him of his own family from England of about the same era. These two 'gardens'   have become my "stitch" reference and images which best showcase the technique although I don't have the originals any more.   Since then,  quite a few other gardens have gro...
Post a Comment
Read more

Fish and Sticks : Art Dolls

This week I've been working on fish and sticks ....  The sticks are the message stick art dolls which were very popular, attracting some attention and a few orders at the Wise Women exhibition. Each of the message stick dolls are from the Wise Women series, each with her own personality and  message of wisdom, handwritten on a handmade timber tag. I gather the sticks during my walks around my neighbourhood and the tags are made from special bits of timber, some collected by me or  my husband or from off cuts gifted to us  from another doll making friend whose husband makes bagpipes. These dolls start off very simply with a wrap around a stick, in the general shape of a body. 'Naked" message stick dolls - strips of wadding wrapped around found sticks.   Then I usually wrap other layers of fabric, wool, and/or fibres, over which I do some simple embroidery. I sculpt  or mould small face masks for these dolls. I really like using "sari ribbon" as w...
3 comments
Read more

Countdown to Christmas 20 - Fruitcake song!

There are many songs about fruit cakes  - not all of them referring to the Christmas cake we know and love.It is really surprising to learn via Google that there are 89 listed songs with references to Christmas cake or fruit cake - not all of them complimentary.   Probably one of the most famous folk songs about Christmas cake is Miss Fogarty's  Christmas Cake (a favourite sung by The Irish Rovers).  This first recorded comical Christmas song was written by C Frank Horn in 1883 in Pennsylania, as a variation of an Irish folk song, 'Miss Mulligan's Christmas Cake' . The chorus might give you the hint that Miss Fogarty's cake was not for the faint hearted or those who suffered from a weak stomach.    Chorus : There were plums and prunes and cherries, There were citrons and raisins and cinnamon, too There was nutmeg, cloves and berries And a crust that was nailed on with glue There were caraway seeds in abundance Such that...
Post a Comment
Read more