Celebrations - Christmas (East Auckland) Traditional Cache

During an eventful camping trip over the New Year’s period of 2015 into 2016, the S.E.A.C (South East Auckland Crew) made a New Year’s resolution that each member of the team would place a cache in 11 out of the 12 months of 2016. This is the eleventh cache in a series the we (LiverKiwi and lordcacher08) will place throughout the year for this particular challenge. Each cache will give some information about the day and the reason for the celebration chosen for that month. We hope you like it and will learn something from it.

Christmas as we all know is a celebration of the coming into the world of Jesus Christ, so this cache will not focus on that part of Christmas, instead we will look at some of the other things that make Christmas Christmas.

Most of the traditions that we have around the Christmas period come from the U.S.A. and the poem originally entitled 'A Visit frmom Saint Nicholas' which was later changed to the title 'The Night Before Christmas'. Before this poem was published, there were many different ideas about what St. Nicholas did and how he did it. This poem soon became a beloved verse and a consolidation influence on the traditions of Christmas that we know today. For example, the depiction of St. Nicholas as a jolly old man with a portly tummy came from this poem, as did the idea of a sleigh being pulled by eight flying reindeer, stockings hanging on the mantel place and St. Nicholas Disappearing up the chimney magically.

So, who is St. Nicholas and how did he become Santa Clause? St. Nicholas was a monk who lived sometime around 280AD in Parata which is located in modern day Turkey. There are many stories about St. Nicholas including stopping three daughters being sold into slavery or prostitution by their father because he could not supply a dowry, St. Nicholas donated sufficient money for this not to be a problem. Over the centuries St. Nicholas became one of the most famous saints in the world. As for his transition to being Santa Clause, the Dutch have a nickname for St. Nicholas, which is Sinter Klaas. The way in which this is said makes it sound like Santa Clause, hence the change.

The jolly old man that we know as Santa Clause had a spruce up by the Coke Cola Company in 1931. Using the poem 'The Night Before Christmas' as it's base, they invented the Santa Clause that we know today. His red outfit is a stunning shade of Coke Cola red and the white beard and trimmings also reflect the company's logo. Before this, St. Nicholas was portrayed in many various guises ranging from a short spooky looking elf to a tall gaunt man wearing a bishop's robe and miter, often in white or a light brown.

This cache has been placed on a small reserve that runs down the back of people houses. At either end is a culvert where the Pakuranga Stream flows underground. These are fenced off, but still be careful as we don't want any injuries.

• Bring your own writing implement of choice.
• Co-ordinates obtained with a phone under tree cover, so may be ±5m.
• Lid is attached, so unscrew from lid to access the log.