What tartan does Santa Claus wear

[Piper]

All the suggestions sound good. Here's a shot from last year's Alexandria's Scottish Christmas Walk. The tartan is Irish American.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...11/ccard01.jpg
I've also worn a great kilt in the "Rob Roy MacGregor" tartan, which worked well.

[heartofglass]

Maybe something with HO HO HO on it?

[beloitpiper]

Oh, how I beg to differ. be it Maple Leaf as off season Santa resides in Canada. Bracebridge to be exact.

I think my neighbors to the south would disagree, seeing as how Santa lives in East Dundee, Illinois.

Therefore, the Illinois tartan.

[cessna152towser]

As a Cunningham you wouldn't go wrong with Cunningham tartan, red for Santa's suit, black for the chimney's soot and white for Santa's beard. I sometimes wear my Cunningham kilt out to dinner around Christmas time and people have commented that it looks festive.

[cacunn]

As a Cunningham you wouldn't go wrong with Cunningham tartan, red for Santa's suit, black for the chimney's soot and white for Santa's beard. I sometimes wear my Cunningham kilt out to dinner around Christmas time and people have commented that it looks festive.

I fully agree that Cunningham would be the best. I even think that berserkbishop would agree. I just want to see what misconceptions other people had.

[Mark]

Santa Claus comes, as stated before, from the Dutch "Sinterklaas".
However, Sinterklaas isn't himself Dutch. He is in fact Turkish, the bishop of Myra.
To make things even more difficult: according to Dutch tradition, Sinterklaas lives in Spain for the majority of the year.
What tartan to use? I have no idea

[ccga3359]

Santa Claus comes, as stated before, from the Dutch "Sinterklaas".

Dutch? Then leather as our Robert of RKilts is Dutch!

[Livingston]

"The Night Before Christmas" was written by Clement C. Moore, was originally titled "A Visit from St. Nicholas". Moore based his story on the Dutch Tales found in Washington Irving's "Knickerbocker Tales" of New York. (Before it was New York, New Netherland was a Dutch colony) So, while the modern Santa doesn't have a lot in common with St. Nicholas/Sinter Klaus, you simply cannot dismiss the Dutch origins of the "jolly old elf", since most scholars credit Irving and the Dutch tales of Old New York with inspiring Moore.

The man who really gave us our modern image of Santa, btw, was the famous cartoonist, German immigrant Thomas Nast, so I would agree with your suggestion that one of the German tartans would also be appropriate, as well as the fact that, as you mentioned, many of our traditions are German in origin.

The Arctic tartan would also do, since Santa/St. Nicholas is reported to live above the Arctic Circle in Finnish Lapland:

http://www.santaclausvillage.info/eng/main.htm

Regards,

Todd

Todd, this is probably the only subject on which I disagree with you. Clement Moore actually stole that from Henry Livingston who had written it for his family years before. Currently there is a lot of research going on that will, eventually, prove that it was written by Henry Livingston and not Clement Moore. So, I would say that Santa wears the Livingston tartan.

[Prester John]

Robertson Red, with its red, green and blue makes a perfect Christmas tartan for St. Nick.

Though, he, being a greek man, might prefer a Gordon tartan (since George Gordan, Lord Byron died fighting the Turks for Greek freedom!)

I'll still go with the Robertson Red.

[Prester John]

Though Myra is in Turkey, St. Nick was, in fact, a greek man.