Ho, ho, ho! Father Christmas is coming from Landau.

We all know him, the man in the red coat and the sack on his back. There are so many stories about him and actually the St Nicholas wear a light-coloured coat and a mitre. Our St Nicholas has been wearing a red coat with white fur for over 100 years! Do you know why? And who reinvented this figure? A man from Landau! And because one of our company headquarters is in Landau, we are naturally also a little proud of it.

None other than US President Abraham Lincoln asked the emigrated Landauer Thomas Nast to draw a special Christmas picture to bring joy to the nation that was suffering at the time. Thomas Nast talked to his sister Bertha, who remembered his childhood years in Landau, and she gave him the idea of drawing a combination of the two - Thomas Nast worked all night and presented his drawing for the newspaper "Harper's Weekly" the next morning.

Father Christmas, who comes on St Nicholas' Day, was born. He distributes gifts to the soldiers - nobody knows exactly why the magazine was published on 3 January 1863 - but it was the birth of Father Christmas in the red coat. Thomas Nast was just 23 years old at the time and it was also the start of a great career - read more here.

There are an incredible number of stories about St Nicholas, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries. He was secularised in the middle of the 19th century, when he lost his crosier and mitre. In 1822, Clement Clarke Moore described him as a small, chubby elf with glittering eyes and rosy cheeks. He appeared in Heinrich Hoffmann's children's book Struwelpeter as a slender, serious-looking St Nicholas and then Thomas Nast gave him his new appearance, which is still more or less the same today.

The city of Landau has its St Nicholas market named after Thomas Nast, which takes place this year from 24.11. to 21.12.2023 and offers many artisan treasures for sale. The people of Landau look forward to your visit. 

It's nice that these stories still exist today. It's great that you and we can celebrate St Nicholas' Day today. We hope your plates and boots were full to bursting and that you can enjoy the sweets during the Advent season. This year, as in previous years, we sent our gifts in the form of Donations to local youth and sports clubs because these voluntary organisations do a great deal of important work in the area of integration and health promotion at local level.

We would like to take St Nicholas' Day as an opportunity to thank you for the good cooperation and look forward to continuing it in the coming year. Enjoy the Advent and Christmas period with your families and friends and perhaps you can take a short break between the years. Have a good start to the new year!