Why Santa Claus already wore suspenders – a Christmas story

Have you ever wondered how suspenders came about? Of course you can look it up on Wikipedia, but you won't find the truth there. The real story of suspenders is a completely different one, which happened much earlier...

Once upon a time at the North Pole…

...behind a sea of ​​ice floes, hidden in the endless expanse of the snowy landscape and barely visible to the human eye due to the raging snowflakes, there was a huge igloo. There was a lot of activity in this igloo. A group of elves were whispering excitedly. "He definitely won't fit through the chimney anymore!", "We had to sew three children's tents together to make a pair of trousers. The poor people won't get anything this year!", "Oh, my dear reindeer!". The confusion of voices was great, but it was still clear who they were talking about: Santa Claus.

He had eaten so many cookies in recent years (and not just on Christmas Eve, as he claimed) that his elves were worried he wouldn't be able to fit into his pants this year. Since they had to use a lot of fabric, they were worried that Santa would lose his oversized pants when he went down the chimney. Of course, that couldn't happen! The only problem was that time was running out. Not all the presents had been produced yet, but if something wasn't done immediately, Santa wouldn't be able to deliver them.

The elves thought back and forth. Enlarging the chimneys was impossible. Entering all the houses through the door was too risky. Something had to be done about Santa Claus. Putting him on a diet at such short notice would neither be effective nor would it put him in the Christmas spirit. The elves racked their brains about how Santa Claus could deliver all the presents on time. But nobody knew how. If only they had known what suspenders were back then...

An elf gets inventive – the first suspenders

One of the elves, the particularly resourceful Hein, had an idea: the change had to be made to Santa's costume! Something had to be invented that would allow Santa to go up and down the chimney without losing his trousers. Hein tinkered and tinkered until he came to the conclusion that it would have to be some kind of elastic band and set to work.

After spending the entire night in the toy factory, Hein woke up with his head on the table. He jumped up with a start. It was no dream after all: in front of him lay a pair of elastic bands in the same bright red as Santa Claus's suit. The ends were decorated with fine black leather and shiny silver clips.

“Ohhh, what is that beautiful thing?” Hein turned around. It was Sanne, his colleague from the toy factory. With wide eyes she inspected the unknown object and tried to figure out what it was for. “I made them for Santa Claus so that he can go up and down the chimney without losing his trousers. You have to attach them to your trousers, that's what the clips are for.” “You're an elf! Really creative!” Sanne marveled. “So what do you call the thing then?” Hein thought about it. “Well, since they are attached to your trousers, definitely something with trousers.

Suddenly they looked at each other: “SUSPENDERS!!!!”

And so the first suspenders saw the light of day. But no, our story about the origins of suspenders does not end here. After all, there must be a reason why everyone still wears suspenders today!

suspenders under the Christmas tree

Santa Claus frowned - what is he doing with those suspenders? He and Hein were standing on a roof in Amsterdam. Neither of them was sure whether their plan would work, but they had to try anyway. Although Santa Claus was initially angry about the suspenders, he realized that they were the last chance to deliver all the presents as quickly as possible.

Hein took a deep breath and attached the suspenders to Santa's wide red trousers. He crossed the suspenders behind his back to form an X (still a very popular way of wearing suspenders today), held them firmly and let Santa jump into the chimney. Santa was barely able to abseil down the (in his eyes) narrow chimney. Then he placed all the presents, grabbed a cookie and called Hein, who pulled him back up with the help of the reindeer.

This procedure went well for a while, until the suspenders suddenly broke. Santa Claus had to flee in panic (and a cookie on the way out). Hein rushed to the front door with the reindeer, grabbed Santa Claus and they rushed out into the night. The suspenders were left behind.

“Daddy! Daddy! Look! Santa Claus was here! He brought me a... THING! And a teddy bear.” The father picked up the red braces from the floor and looked at them questioningly. At first glance he noticed the beautiful workmanship and the shiny silver clip. What could that be?

The Suspender Miracle of Amsterdam

One year later in Amsterdam. In a small shop, a young man stands in the middle of a crowd of people, trying to please each and every visitor. In his hand he holds a bright red ribbon with silver clips - a brace. The father, who once found the mysterious ribbon on the floor on Christmas Eve, could not find peace and has been restlessly searching for its secret ever since. Finally, he discovered that the clip was used to attach trousers, refined his idea and finally invented what all men of the world were missing: the perfect brace was born! The young man's business has flourished ever since. The "bracelets place", as it was called back then, is still a popular meeting place for men with taste and perhaps also sagging trousers.

End.

All curious people who want to know how the Santa Claus's suspenders looked like, will find what you are looking for at the suspender place.