Writer's Block: Traditional Pursuits aka They Keep Killing Santa

[wytchcroft]

[Error: unknown template qotd] Ah the old traditions - (insert spontaneous Topol dancing) well they come and go... and it's always sad to lose a favourite. In the UK there are many traditions that are swept away by the years - progress - fashions - whim - politics or just expense. One such tradition was the annual 'Let's shoot the sh!t out of Santa' that for many years kept Manchester a-giggle.

The Santa in question - a large inflatable chap - suffered years of indignity until being replaced by what can only be described as a Japanese Giant Killer Robot. A killer, if only in the sense that the current needed to power the thing means draining the supply from several other small European cities - that's Mancuians for you, put one down a manhole and you can have free power for a year, if you don't mind never seeing Naupland again.

Personally i miss the first Santa - clinging to the spires of the town hall for dear life like an unhappy King Kong- and quite often to be heard farting air noisily through various bullet holes. Eventually Santa v.01 burst from its hold completely and like a Pink Floyd pig was last scene flying at speed out of the North of England. 

Santa v.02 was friendly looking - but it didn't stop him from getting the same gleeful treatment as his predecessor. 

Santa v.03 - though it's fun to watch Christmas revellers, hit by the strobe effects, fall into epileptic spasms and psychosis - lacks, oh - i don't know... charm perhaps.


  
santa no.2                                 santa clausv.03 

Here is a link to the 'official' euphemistic version of the story - note, even the newspaper can barely keep a straight face.

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/229/229138_town_hall_santas_last_christmas.html
 

Comments

[preyforhuntress.livejournal.com]

I miss Christmas caroling. I used to do that in high school when I lived in Vegas.

[wytchcroft.livejournal.com]

That i would've liked to have seen :)

[preyforhuntress.livejournal.com]

I was in choir, and my friends and I would go out every year. Funny part was after being in choir we knew the big stuff - like the Messiah - better than the traditional carols.

[wytchcroft.livejournal.com]

That's impressive!:))) But the big stuff is the most magical too. I love the Messiah.

[stoshagownozad.livejournal.com]

Funny customs! Shiny Santas!
Shooting Santa... and getting seizures due to strobo killer!!!!
we here are much more moderate. we just installing rockets in the middle of the front yard and: bah! bah! babah!

[wytchcroft.livejournal.com]

Xa Xa XA!!!! :D

that is something else i'd like to see!

[stoshagownozad.livejournal.com]

well, small rockets of course... moderate, I'd say.
but I think astronauts still could see our little town from the Space at the time of New Year HELLO!:)))

[wytchcroft.livejournal.com]

I shall call you Soyuzhagownozad from now on!!!! :D

[stoshagownozad.livejournal.com]

How do you spell this???

WOW!
:))))))

How do you spell this???

[wytchcroft.livejournal.com]

not very easily!! ha ha ha!
But i could call you SoYUz for short?? I used to like Salyut 6 but that would make you sound like a robot! Yes, all the Russian rocket names i know are from many many years ago.. pardon my cobb-webs and wrinkles ;))

Re: How do you spell this???

[stoshagownozad.livejournal.com]

:)))
СоЮз sounds nice :)

Re: How do you spell this???

[wytchcroft.livejournal.com]

i like it! Ok:) СоЮз it is:)

i may even have a poster somewhere...

and now i AM nostalgic...

[wytchcroft.livejournal.com]

Cosmopark... dream dream dream. ;D

Re: and now i AM nostalgic...

[stoshagownozad.livejournal.com]

:)))

I was used to keep a list of all space crews visiting poor Salut 6 and then Mir Station...

I am nostalgic too

Re: and now i AM nostalgic...

[wytchcroft.livejournal.com]

*GRIN*

[stoshagownozad.livejournal.com]

potato latkes?

this is an Yddish word and Yddish meal:) comes from Belorussia actually! How did it became a Christmas custom?

[wytchcroft.livejournal.com]

Different festival - same time of year-ish.
Same holiday period.

[stoshagownozad.livejournal.com]

trying to recall what it might be...
usually main holidays are either before, either after
but you should be right
I'll ask my Dad. he should know:)

Hanukkah

[wytchcroft.livejournal.com]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanukkah

:)

Re: Hanukkah

[stoshagownozad.livejournal.com]

Exactly! but it fluctuates, and so last year I was on Hanukkah singer show rather in November :) The guy was absolutely crazy, he was literally dancing and signing with the God :)))
good nice holiday, however ;) a lot of fun and a lot of lights

[charlie-bz.livejournal.com]

You've just burst my anglophile bubble! Huge inflatable Santa next to Big Ben? Somehow I thought you Brits weren't into the inflatable Santa thing. :)

Also, we're putting an inflatable Santa in our front yard. It's embarassing but the things we do for our children is downright scary.

[wytchcroft.livejournal.com]

That aint Big Ben, it's wee Ben, Manchester.
And why'd you think we used try and kill Santa Balloon so bad -
coz it was bloody 'orrible! :D

[charlie-bz.livejournal.com]

Wee Ben? I love that!

Husband and I were in the Birmingham area last summer. Very nice city. Who knew there were canals all over England? Well, you probably did but this Yank was surprised.

And we drove to Flash to see the pub from An American Werewolf in London. Not sure if it was the actual one but I think it was the inspiration? It was closed so we roamed through the graveyard and gawked at the moors.

[wytchcroft.livejournal.com]

canals - yes, the one's near my house are completely frozen right now, it's beautiful - and dangerous! :)

ah the Moors, (or as me and the dad say, in our Cornish voices, the moooooooooooors - beware of the moooooooooors )
i wish I could be jealous of you being so close to The Slaughtered Lamb... but somehow i'm not! ;))

[irishunchik.livejournal.com]

we dont have santa claus (this fat man in red smth=))
instead we have our Father Frost =) and we like to recite rhymes standıng on the stool ın the mıddle of the room.
and Father Frost sonra gives surprises from his magic sack=)))

[wytchcroft.livejournal.com]

*GRIN*

[wytchcroft.livejournal.com]

and here in the west we have 'Jack Frost' who s a sort of goblin / sprite.