This Christmas, I'd like to share a little Christmas history. It's well known that Jesus was Jewish. Santa however, is not. But before there was Santa Claus, there was another Jewish man, and his name was Saul Clausman.
Saul was a tailor in a humble European village. By humble, I mean poor. He had many clients who celebrated Christmas, though most could not afford presents for their children beyond practical things such as clothing. Even these were often hand-me-downs from older siblings that were sent to Saul to be repaired. The families often had lots of children, so to keep the clothes from being mixed up under a Christmas tree, Saul wrapped each child's clothes separately and wrote the child's name on the package. The wrapping was simple, often just newspaper, but effective, and it made the children feel special. These were the first wrapped Christmas presents.
The poorest of his clients frequently could only afford darned socks--that's darned as in repaired, not cursed; these folks were poor, not cruel. Saul felt for the children who got used socks for Christmas. For them, he did something even more special; he slipped a piece of candy inside the socks before wrapping them. The children loved this so much, they started asking their parents for socks for Christmas. From this, we have the tradition of hanging socks with small gifts by the fireplace. We also have the tradition of giving socks as a present. You win some, you lose some.
To honor Saul Clausman, and in solidarity with my gentile friends, I present this Christmas tree made from light beers. It's not born of tradition, but after the Festival of Lights stunt from last week, I'm lousy with light beer, so here we are.