{"id":272,"date":"2010-12-24T15:19:00","date_gmt":"2010-12-24T15:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2010\/12\/they-might-stuff-you-in-a-sack-and-take-you-to-spain\/"},"modified":"2012-09-07T20:06:20","modified_gmt":"2012-09-08T00:06:20","slug":"they-might-stuff-you-in-a-sack-and-take-you-to-spain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2010\/12\/they-might-stuff-you-in-a-sack-and-take-you-to-spain.html","title":{"rendered":"“They might stuff you in a sack and take you to Spain”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

My family\u2019s other Christmas Eve tradition is a reading of David Sedaris\u2019s The Santaland Diaries<\/a>. \u00a0 Sedaris is now a well-known comic essayist, but before he was published, he supported himself through a variety of odd jobs, including working as an elf in Macy\u2019s Santaland. \u00a0The story is a series of funny vignettes from his term of employment. \u00a0Some of them made their debut in 1992 on NPR. \u00a0You can still listen to the \u00a0original broadcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When we go through it as a family, we take turns reading aloud, passing the book on when we get tired or when we are laughing too hard to see.<\/p>\n

Sedaris has one other short story that is particularly seasonal. \u00a0\u201cSix to Eight Black Men<\/a>\u201d is available online and the title refers to a common Danish belief about Santa Claus:<\/p>\n

The words silly and unrealistic were redefined when I learned that Saint Nicholas travels with what was consistently described as \u201csix to eight black men.\u201d I asked several Dutch people to narrow it down, but none of them could give me an exact number. It was always \u201csix to eight,\u201d which seems strange, seeing as they\u2019ve had hundreds of years to get a decent count.<\/p>\n

The six to eight black men were characterized as personal slaves until the mid-fifties, when the political climate changed and it was decided that instead of being slaves they were just good friends. I think history has proven that something usually comes between slavery and friendship, a period of time marked not by cookies and quiet times beside the fire but by bloodshed and mutual hostility. They have such violence in Holland, but rather than duking it out among themselves, Santa and his former slaves decided to take it out on the public. In the early years, if a child was naughty, Saint Nicholas and the six to eight black men would beat him with what Oscar described as \u201cthe small branch of a tree.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Merry Christmas!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My family\u2019s other Christmas Eve tradition is a reading of David Sedaris\u2019s The Santaland Diaries. \u00a0 Sedaris is now a well-known comic essayist, but before he was published, he supported himself through a variety of odd jobs, including working as an elf in Macy\u2019s Santaland. \u00a0The story is a series of funny vignettes from his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[129],"class_list":["post-272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-christmas"],"yoast_head":"\n"They might stuff you in a sack and take you to Spain"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"My family's other Christmas Eve tradition is a reading of David Sedaris's The Santaland Diaries. \u00a0 Sedaris is now a well-known comic essayist, but before\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2010\/12\/they-might-stuff-you-in-a-sack-and-take-you-to-spain.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""They might stuff you in a sack and take you to Spain"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"My family's other Christmas Eve tradition is a reading of David Sedaris's The Santaland Diaries. \u00a0 Sedaris is now a well-known comic essayist, but before\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2010\/12\/they-might-stuff-you-in-a-sack-and-take-you-to-spain.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Unequally Yoked\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-12-24T15:19:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-09-08T00:06:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/4256452356987023523-9223049786684971257?l=www.unequally-yoked.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Leah Libresco\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Leah Libresco\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2010\/12\/they-might-stuff-you-in-a-sack-and-take-you-to-spain.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2010\/12\/they-might-stuff-you-in-a-sack-and-take-you-to-spain.html\",\"name\":\"\\\"They might stuff you in a sack and take you to Spain\\\"\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-12-24T15:19:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-09-08T00:06:20+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#\/schema\/person\/17ee17592b35b40040d5f5f7ea5ab464\"},\"description\":\"My family's other Christmas Eve tradition is a reading of David Sedaris's The Santaland Diaries. \u00a0 Sedaris is now a well-known comic essayist, but before\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2010\/12\/they-might-stuff-you-in-a-sack-and-take-you-to-spain.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2010\/12\/they-might-stuff-you-in-a-sack-and-take-you-to-spain.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2010\/12\/they-might-stuff-you-in-a-sack-and-take-you-to-spain.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"“They might stuff you in a sack and take you to Spain”\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/\",\"name\":\"Unequally Yoked\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#\/schema\/person\/17ee17592b35b40040d5f5f7ea5ab464\",\"name\":\"Leah Libresco\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/20e1e6a3a94c4e7928687804a41d888d?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/20e1e6a3a94c4e7928687804a41d888d?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"caption\":\"Leah Libresco\"},\"description\":\"Leah is the author of Arriving at Amen and Building the Benedict Option. Her further writing can be found at leahlibresco.com.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/author\/leahlibresco\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\"They might stuff you in a sack and take you to Spain\"","description":"My family's other Christmas Eve tradition is a reading of David Sedaris's The Santaland Diaries. \u00a0 Sedaris is now a well-known comic essayist, but before","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2010\/12\/they-might-stuff-you-in-a-sack-and-take-you-to-spain.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\"They might stuff you in a sack and take you to Spain\"","og_description":"My family's other Christmas Eve tradition is a reading of David Sedaris's The Santaland Diaries. \u00a0 Sedaris is now a well-known comic essayist, but before","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2010\/12\/they-might-stuff-you-in-a-sack-and-take-you-to-spain.html","og_site_name":"Unequally Yoked","article_published_time":"2010-12-24T15:19:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-09-08T00:06:20+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/4256452356987023523-9223049786684971257?l=www.unequally-yoked.com"}],"author":"Leah Libresco","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Leah Libresco","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2010\/12\/they-might-stuff-you-in-a-sack-and-take-you-to-spain.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2010\/12\/they-might-stuff-you-in-a-sack-and-take-you-to-spain.html","name":"\"They might stuff you in a sack and take you to Spain\"","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-12-24T15:19:00+00:00","dateModified":"2012-09-08T00:06:20+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#\/schema\/person\/17ee17592b35b40040d5f5f7ea5ab464"},"description":"My family's other Christmas Eve tradition is a reading of David Sedaris's The Santaland Diaries. \u00a0 Sedaris is now a well-known comic essayist, but before","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2010\/12\/they-might-stuff-you-in-a-sack-and-take-you-to-spain.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2010\/12\/they-might-stuff-you-in-a-sack-and-take-you-to-spain.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2010\/12\/they-might-stuff-you-in-a-sack-and-take-you-to-spain.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"“They might stuff you in a sack and take you to Spain”"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/","name":"Unequally Yoked","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#\/schema\/person\/17ee17592b35b40040d5f5f7ea5ab464","name":"Leah Libresco","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/20e1e6a3a94c4e7928687804a41d888d?s=96&d=mm&r=r","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/20e1e6a3a94c4e7928687804a41d888d?s=96&d=mm&r=r","caption":"Leah Libresco"},"description":"Leah is the author of Arriving at Amen and Building the Benedict Option. Her further writing can be found at leahlibresco.com.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/author\/leahlibresco"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}