The Mongolian Christian group in Manchester organise a Children’s Christmas party annually and this year they asked Mark if he would be The Winter Grandad. “The what” I hear you say, well if you’re not Mongolian you have probably never heard of him so let me explain to you. Santa is a pretty modern concept for most Mongols, for those Mongolian children born and schooled here in England (and no doubt other countries) they probably only know all about Santa but most of their parents and grandparents grew up knowing “The Winter Grandad”. Before the Mongolian Revolution in 1921 Mongolia followed the Lunar calendar then1947 Mongolia started to copy the Soviet’s in both celebrating the “Western New Year” and Grandfather Frost (Ded Moroz) they gave him a slight makeover from the Soviet traditional blue outfit to a white Mongolian deel (similar to that of the pe-Buddhist deity Tsagaan Ubugen The elder White" or "White Old Man") with a blue cape a red “pointy hat” and the traditional Mongolian boots with turned up toes and called him “The Winter Grandad”, Unlike Santa who uses reindeer and a sledge to arrive and is accompanied by elf’s The Winter Grandad arrives on a magnificent white flying horse and is accompanied by several snow girls and same times by children dressed in the costume and masks of the 12 animals from the Buddhist New Year. Also, unlike Santa who calls on Christmas Eve, The Winter Grandad like his Soviet counterpart calls on 31st December. Mark’s role was simple and straight forward, instead of having to recite long poem full of blessing’s and good wishes he said a quick “Merry Christmas everyone” and then sat down on a chair. The children’s names were called by one of the organisers to receive their gifts and Mark handed them the gift and then a quick pose for a photo. In reality it wasn’t anything new for Mark in fact he first dressed up as the Winter Grandad over 20 years ago for our little cousin and her friend and then almost every Christmas since then as Santa up to 3 years ago when he got his very own Winter Grandad outfit from Mongolia, so every year on Christmas day he would dress up and hand out gifts to our “little visitors” even though most of them know it is him he still dresses up telling them “don’t spoil it for the adults they don’t know”. As Christmas fast approached both of us where very busy at work, Mark delivering the mail and parcels and me working in Tesco’s, then 2 weeks before Christmas Mark got the dreaded virus that was going around if that wasn’t bad enough, he successfully managed to infected me and a couple of his work colleagues making him very unpopular both at home and work. I could tell Mark was feeling worse for wear so to encourage him I declared “the show must go on” and quoting the famous phrase “you can’t commit the ultimate Christmas crime and let those little kids down”. These words must have encouraged him to carry on as he said “your right”. We both knew that a Winter Grandad wearing a face mask wouldn’t look cool and with the days fast counting down we thankfully seemed to get over the worst of it. On the day of the party we arrived in good time and found out when Mark was to make his appearance, we went off and I helped Mark into his outfit and was ready for his big entrance. He had asked me if I could take some photo’s as although most parents take a photo of their own child with him, we noticed that over the last few years very few share them on Facebook or with the organisers, in fact, Mark had on several occasions taken the photos for them. So, with Mark’s iPhone in hand I found what I thought would be the best spot and got ready what could possibly go wrong, well when it comes to technology, I’m a walking disaster in fact if you give the camera to a 2-year-old child you would be better off. At the moment on TV there is an advert for Audiobook with an orang-utan listening through headphones, I joked with Mark saying you would be better giving that orang-utan your camera and sadly I was right the first few photos were ok but them for some reason the rest were all out of focus, so sadly I was unable to share my photos with those parents who asked. The party is an all-round community involvement with Munkhtuya and the other Mongolian Christians and their helpers working hard to find a place big enough to hold everyone to setting up the entertainment and games, sorting out costumes, rehearsing the songs and play as well as putting on a buffet lunch. Thankfully those Mongolian’s who run local business help by donating money towards the cost and with over 80 goody bags handed out this year alone that is no small thing. The Mongolian Winter Grandad doesn’t eat minced pie so isn’t fat like Santa and his white horse probably doesn’t eat carrots so Mark’s new year resolution was not to get any bigger this year which is a good job really since everybody needs to get fit and healthy and if he is called upon next year, he needs to be able to fit into his costume. So, until next year we put away the costume wig and beard…
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