Skull Santa dabbing Merry Christmas shirt
I think that it depends per country. In my country we have a Skull Santa dabbing Merry Christmas shirt of Saint Nicolas. His day on the ecclesiastical calendar is the 6th of December. But the Saintly Bishop arrives in our country around the 15th of November. That is also the moment that the High Streets get their decorating lights. Days are short it gets dark shortly after four o’clock. The decorations in the shops are focused on Saint Nicholas. Special sweets and presents for children. There are special children shows on television. When I was a child we were invited to come to the head office of my father’s employer, Unilever, for a special afternoon with a magician and of course a visit by the saint Nicholas himself, with his assistants Zwarte Piet. (Black Peter) At the end we were given a nice small present, chosen of course by our parents (but of course we did not know). After the 6th of December when Saint Nicholas had returned to Spain or Heaven, the shops turn on to Christmas decorations. Some times we see some imported Fathers Christmas but we do not have narratives about father Christmas.

Skull Santa dabbing Merry Christmas shirt
For me, A Christmas Story is popular because it recalls an era that I can remember, or at least the era I can remember had not changed that much from the Skull Santa dabbing Merry Christmas shirt of the movie. For me, that was the late 1950s, though the movie was the late 1940s. I remember the toys that were featured in the movie, such as specifically the train and the BB guns. The movie really captured the magic of Christmas back then for me without becoming sappy about it. Most other Christmas movies don’t have that connection, so I can’t really relate to them, and they don’t really do that much for me. I think that’s what makes it so popular, at least for people of my generation born from about the mid-1940s until the mid-1950s. I was born in 1952. I remember pining for some big Christmas present every year. Santa usually brought the really good stuff. The biggest Santa gift I ever received was a Lionel HO Texas Special train set about 1958 or 1959.

