VIENNA, Austria — A ban on St. Nicholas at Vienna’s kindergartens is taking some of the ho-ho-ho out of the holidays for tens of thousands of tots this year.
And it’s creating a political ruckus, with opposition parties accusing City Hall of kowtowing to a growing Muslim population by showing Europe’s Santa the kindergarten door.
Municipal officials insist their decision is prompted more by psychology than political correctness.
Instead of joy, the sight of a strange bearded figure at the door evokes fear in most children, they argue. They point out that the policy on St. Nicholas is more than a decade old, though they concede it is being enforced more rigorously than in the past.
Although Santa rules in the far north, the jolly elf has little tradition in Austria and surrounding countries. As in past years, some booths at Vienna’s main Christmas market are plastered with stickers depicting Santa with a diagonal red bar across his fluffy white beard — the work of a group in Austria, Switzerland and Germany that sees Santa as a symbol of the commercialization of Christmas and a threat to local traditions.
Children traditionally grow up with Dec. 6 visits from St. Nicholas or Nikolo — a bearded, mitered figure in bishop’s garb dating back to the fourth century who hands out sweets to good girls and boys. Christmas is reserved for the “Christkind” or Christ Child, who sneaks into homes and deposits presents under the tree and sometimes brings the tree itself.
As for naughty children, there is St. Nick’s sidekick, who in Austria goes under the name of “Krampus” — a hairy, horned figure who gives them lumps of coal and threatens them with a swipe of his switch unless they mend their ways.
But suggesting St. Nick is as scary as Krampus is just plain dumb, argue opponents of the “No to St. Nick” policy.
For child psychiatrist Max Friedrich, the ban is “total nonsense.” In comments yesterday to the daily Oesterreich, he described St. Nicholas as a “positive figure who encourages and rewards children.”
In the United States, battles over Christmas focus on religious symbols in public schools and on government property, not on Santa Claus.
Grete Laska, the council member who holds Vienna’s youth portfolio, says both Krampus and St. Nick “create fear [and] have no place” in city kindergartens, particularly when parents and schools encourage children not to accept gifts from strangers. The kindergartens can hold Christmas parties, but without St. Nick.
Such arguments don’t hold with Anna Seiler, who has two grandchildren in kindergarten.
“One of them was all sad recently, saying that Santa won’t be visiting this year,” she said. “I think the parents should get together and complain.”
A pediatric nurse, Mrs. Seiler dismisses arguments that children fear St. Nick. A surgeon dressed as St. Nick “comes every year to the kids on our ward,” she said. “They love it.”
“I think it’s for ethnic and cultural reasons,” said Mrs. Seiler, suggesting it was in deference to Vienna’s Muslim population, 400,000 and growing.
Mouddar Khouja of the Official Religious Islamic Community in Austria said his group has no problems with St. Nick in kindergartens or anywhere else in Austria.
“We accept the Christian orientation of this country,” he said. “We don’t want to ban Nikolo.”
Most schools in Vienna do not celebrate Muslim holidays, although those with large Muslim student populations may opt to observe them.
Markus Kroiher, head of the youth wing of the centrist People’s Party, declared that his party “would not allow the dismantling of Christian traditions out of a falsely interpreted ’political correctness.’ ”
Heinz-Christian Strache, whose far-right anti-foreign Freedom Party showed strongly in Oct. 1 elections, called the assertion that St. Nick frightens children a “cover … bordering on absurdity.”
“Whoever comes to Austria must realize it’s a Christian country. Christian traditions are part of the equation,” said Strache aide Hans-Joerg Jenewein.
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