Christmas Scandal: Santa has a brother!

Scandal will rock the North Pole when Santa finds out about his long lost European brother, Sinter Klaas. Yep, last night in the Tannerstein home, the truth finally came out, after god only knows how many years. Little (almost) 4 year-old Luca discovered the truth when he saw the resemblance between the two in a Santa advent calendar. He immediately made the connection: Santa had the same long white beard and red clothes as the Sint. They had to be brothers!

What a shame, I'm sure Santa has no idea that he has a brother and that this brother (who is considered a "saint") is delivering presents to Dutch boys and girls on 5 December. Not to mention he ALSO keeps a list of good boys and girls. This giving thing must be genetic...

But these two brothers couldn't be more different: Santa lives in the frigid North Pole and Sinter Klaas lives in sunny Spain most of the year, except for the 3 weeks he is visiting Holland. Santa has "little people" as his helpers and the Sint has hundreds of helpers dressed in clown costumes all named Pete. Santa is a world traveler and pilots the worlds only sleigh pulled by flying reindeer. The Sint hitches a ride on a steam boat to Holland and brings his white horse, Americo with him to get around while visiting. But I think the Sint is a more generous giver. His "Petes" fill the children's shoes with presents every night they set them out by the fireplace in the 3 weeks he visits. Santa only fills kid's stockings the one night he travels the world.

All this, of course, doesn't matter to Luca. The only thing that matters is that Santa is American and thats where his GranGran lives. So Luca has now claimed the North Pole as part of America.

So this works for now...Santa and Sint are brothers and both are keeping a list of who is naughty and nice...I love this multicultural thing...two months of threats that the Sint or Santa are watching!!