Santa’s Sleigh with Reindeer
Released: 2018
RRP: £11.99
Rating: ★★★★★
Santa Claus as you and I know him is a mash-up of several different cultural ideas. That’s why he’s celebrated in alternative ways in different European countries. His origins lie with the fourth-century bishop Nicholas of Myra (in modern-day Turkey), whose shrine can be found in Bari (in Italy). His remains were moved in the eleventh century by merchants, ostensibly to get them out of territory that had recently been captured by Muslims. Relic housing, though, is a profitable business, so it’s fair to assume there was an ulterior motive.
Nicholas was reputed to have performed many miracles during his lifetime and this resulted in his posthumous canonisation. There are no miracles, however, in the most famous story of the bishop. Nicholas saved three sisters from destitution (and prostitution) by slipping three purses full of gold coins in through their window. Their father was able to use the money as dowries to arrange respectable marriages for each of his girls. He caught Nicholas the third time he performed the trick – and that’s how we know about Saint Nick’s secret and humble acts of generosity.
Nicholas’ saints day is 6 December and was memorialised through gift-giving as well as carnival. This included rituals of social inversion such as appointing a ‘boy bishop’. As veneration of the saint grew across western Europe, the practice developed for children to leave out their shoes on St Nicholas’ Eve in expectation of receiving a coin or small present from the saint.
Nicholas was not, however, a figure that could be found in the Bible. None of the stories of him compiled in texts such as the medieval Golden Legend of the Saints were historically verifiable, and they inevitably came under the suspicions of sixteenth-century reformers. Martin Luther made a particular effort to relocate the traditional gift-giving to the actions of the Christ Child (‘Christkind‘ in German, being the root of the English ‘christingle’) at the feast of the Nativity, in other words Christmas.
This turned out to be a problematic move, however, because Christmas represented one element of the mapping of the liturgy onto the seasonal year. Pagan celebrations such as the Roman Natalis Solis Invicti and the Norse Yule coexisted with and informed the Christian festival. Although many anti-religionists like to go on about these overlaps, it’s really no surprise that the religions of agrarian communities shape their festivals to the seasonal year in the same way: the winter months were miserable and unproductive and needed some cheer.
By the fifteenth century, the resulting syncretism produced merrymaking personifications such as ‘King Christmas’. With the Reformation shift of St Nicholas’ Eve traditions, those personifications now began to absorb the old legends of ‘Sinterklass’ too. In the end, the ‘hotter sort of Protestants’ (to borrow Patrick Collinson’s phrase) tried abolishing Christmas altogether as an unbiblical Catholic innovation. The festival remained popular in folk custom, however. By then, the Dutch had taken Sinterklass to the New World. This set the stall for his development into Santa Claus, the saint of consumerism, and his reimportation back into Europe in the nineteenth century.
Playmobil first produced a Santa klicky in 1996 (#3852). This first version is discernible through his having a split beard. This was the Santa that came with the precursors to this set, Santa’s Magic Sleigh (#3604/3366) in 2001 and Santa’s Sleigh (#5977) in 2014. The earlier of these sets had four reindeer, while the later came with only two. I presume this was a cost-managing exercise to keep the set affordable.
The downsizing went further in #5590, which came out around the same time as #5977. It featured just one reindeer and only two gift-wrapped boxes where it’s predecessors had come with an accompanying child angel and a suite of unwrapped gifts – a ball, a teddy, a toy car, a bugle and some books – as well as three brightly decorated parcels.
In this context, #9496 is a step back up in scale, for while it retains the smaller sleigh of #5590 it does add back another reindeer. I have considered whether it is possible to chain more reindeer together, but the drawbar you’d need (p/n 30219870) is no longer available from direct service and doesn’t appear to fit the smaller sleigh.
This set also adds some variety to the gifts: a box decorated in lively Christmas colours and Santa’s sack (p/n 30088522), which is gold in colour, and contains a puppet and what I take to be three letters. In truth, these are a bit strange, adorned as they are with a dinosaur, an elephant, and what appears to be a duckling talking to a washing machine.
The sleigh is white with a gold base. It is held together by a pin, concealed under the ‘seat covers’. The carriage is decorated by four large decals, green with a starry motif, and will carry two children. It has a lantern on its left-hand side, held by a green arm, and decorated with white stars. The base has a footrest at the back for Santa to stand on and two, small hook eyes with no discernible purpose.
The reindeer are identical, tan brown with ivory antlers. They’re an improvement on the old grey and white colour scheme in my view, though there’s no reason why they couldn’t have been mixed up. The harness for the reindeer (p/n 30219880) is shown sitting on the shoulder in promotional images for both this set and #5590. It is, however, positioned on the back in #3604/3366, and also in #5977 but fitted in the reverse direction. I guess you pays your money and you takes your choice.
Santa himself cuts a splendid figure, a ‘fat’ klicky, all in red and white of course, with a black belt with gold buckle, and black boots with white fur turndowns. His white hair is long and wavy and his beard is full enough to be the envy of our pirates.
His shirt buttons are large and white, while those on his jacket are a sort of purply colour (presumably a gentle touch of black on the red). His jacket has printed pockets lined with white fur trim. He wears white gloves with fur cuffs.
One insightful criticism from A. revolves around the rotation possible where the drawbar attaches to the sleigh, allowing the reindeer to pitch 90°up or down while the sleigh remains still. For the sleigh to ‘fly’ (or indeed just to move the set about), you therefore have to hold both reindeer and sleigh. This got her thinking about the real thing and why, when it’s the reindeer that can fly and not the sleigh, the latter doesn’t just tip back on take off: I’ve had to suggest that the drawbar on Santa’s actual sleigh has a fixed coupling that doesn’t allow for rotation. Something, then, for the designers at Zirndorf to consider in the future.
We think this is a terrific set, although I can see what we’re missing when I look at those first precursors. A bigger sleigh, more gifts and greater variety, and more reindeer, make for an impressive toy. Then again, do you really want all eight reindeer from the poem? This is probably the best compromise between size, playability and cost. Ours now has his own tradition, coming to Playmobil town from the start of Advent through to Twelfth Night. Here he makes sure everyone is being nice before handing out toys to the children and, inevitably, coals to the pirates on Christmas Day.
EMPM
EarlyModernPlaymobil 